| Author |
"A New Way of Fighting" revisited please critque |
HaVoX
Fleet Admiral
Joined: September 07, 2003
Posts: 269
From: Florida whoo hoo
|  Posted: 2006-04-20 16:30
I have rewriten what looks to be Chapter 1 Infiltration.
I am hoping that you will read and crtique my work, I am hoping to publish the story and this is the first rough draft of the most likely first chapter though i may break it up some im not sure. I know there are lots of spelling and grammer errors right now and am mostly looking for flow and content comments.
Thanks HaVoX
Chapter 1
Infiltration
Andosia System
Somewhere over UGTO Occupied Hilg
23:00 June 19, 2295 Galactic Standard Time
Xantoo Trag X’thara, or xTx as he was known by the human pilots who frequently tagged the Kluth with human call signs, brought the Talon class scout ship out of jump space and into the Andosia System well over 8000 galactic units from the planet Hilg. He was a crack pilot belonging to the Kluth tribe Dar S’Obek, or as the humans tagged them, The Shadow Pirates. The Shadow Pirates were the first of the alien species known as the Kluth to encounter the human race so many years ago. Their penchant for appearing as if out of the shadows gained them their name and the fear that so many of the human fleets felt at its mention.
XTx’s Talon was specially equipped with the highest level of electronic counter measures, or ECM, available, so that its sudden appearance in the system would go undetected by the planets sophisticated sensor equipment. XTx wasn’t taking any chances he recovered quickly from the jump space transition and cloaked his ship immediately. Kluth were a hardier race then humans, with their four arms and thick chitinous skins, they resembled large bug like creatures, and took the rigors of jump space well. Frost from moisture picked up somehow during his long journey through jump space etched his Talons windows and coated the living ships organically armored hull with glittering ice. Like humans, the cold of space was deadly to Kluth they were warm blooded, not reptilian or insectile as many supposed them to be.
Once his ship had achieved full cloak, he disengaged the ECM, Kluth cloaks completely hid their ships from anything the humans had come up with to detect them so far. The ECM would just be a drain on a system that was going to be stressed to the limit traveling under cloak for as long as he was going to have to. With a little luck he would be in and out of Hilgs orbit without anyone being the wiser
He was in United Galactic Trade Organization held space, or the UGTO for short, they patrolled it heavily as they did all their border systems. The UGTO was one of two factions that formed the human empire. They were created by the differences in opinion between the outlying colony worlds and Earth that was followed by a civil war that gave birth to the ICC.
XTx not being used to the smaller scout ship, which was nothing like the cruisers he was used to piloting repeatedly checked his ships systems and status. All systems were green, which was relieving as the Talon was manned by a skeleton crew of him and only him, fun until you remember that it normally has a twelve man crew. Not to mention the fact that Andosia was patrolled by the UGTO Fleets GTN and CEC, both crewed with formidable officers and worthy of his respect, and caution.
XTx surveyed the planet and the ships patrolling it, after a few moments he sent a mental command to the NavCom, loading it with coordinates and plotting a course he thought would offer the best chance of not being detected. Kluth were psionic, they could speak mind to mind and enter data into specially equipped ships over short distances. Telepathic communication sounded cool to the humans when they first encountered it, which was until they learned that an open mind was just that, an open mind. XTx could no more lie to a human then he could one of his own people. He came from a race of people who could not hide the truth of their thoughts from one another. It was a concept that most humans couldn’t understand, the Kluth didn’t even have a word for “lie” in their spoken language.
After the course was laid in and xTx had rechecked it a few times, he sent the command to execute to the NavCom. Engines flared and increased gravities pressed him back in the pilot’s cocoon, which protected him from the harmful effects of heavy G forces. He wouldn’t be pulling many G’s for long, once he attained his relative speed the engines would kick off and he would began his long sloping journey into Hilgs orbit. As he drifted nearer the UGTO planet he uses passive scanners to locate a continent that fit the description outlined in his orders. He felt confident that he would find one and that nothing would keep him from completing his mission.
His Tribe and Fleet Commander, Zent Yip Ur’Gota, a warrior named Switchblade by the humans for his lighting fast fighting style had received orders from the leader of Clan Y’tomak’Atar. Y’tomak’Atar was one of the eight Clans that comprised the Kluth Empire, and the only clan to be in contact with the humans having been granted that sector of space to explore and conquer. The orders were simple and of the highest importance, two missions were to be completed one in UGTO territory and one in ICC. XTx did not know what Oba Keata K’Aarns mission in ICC held space was, just that his own involved the specially designed infantry pod under his ship. He knew only that he had to deliver his “cargo” safely into Hilgs orbit over a target continent that met the criteria contained in his orders. Once he found a remote, unpopulated portion of Hilg he was to drop the pod. XTx was thorough in his examination of the planet he was approaching; he had hours to complete his selection before he needed to make his first course adjustments. He was extremely proud to have been chosen for this mission in which he was further honored with, by receiving the orders from Switch personally. Something xTx was unlikely to forget and urged him to ever greater efforts to see the mission succeed.
XTx’s Talon drifted slowly closer to Hilg, he wasn’t going to hurry in, the cloak should cover him completely and speed was not worth risking detection over. There were bugs with the cloaks, occasionally a human pilot in the “know” could detect a cloaked vessels presence due to emissions, or spatial distortions. Not to mention speed drained energy which the cloak desperately needed. He was roughly half way to his destination when he located a match in Hilgs southernmost hemisphere. It was perfect, lots of jungle, inclement weather and very few signs of it having ever been pioneered. It made perfect sense, why bother with the hardest terrain when there were much more tractable pieces of land to colonize. Out here in the border systems you never knew how long something was going to last, one day its here the next it’s gone, especially a lone planet outside an established cluster like Andosia Prime.
XTx made his primary course adjustments and waited patiently as little bursts of compressed air corrected and guided his scout over the desired target. After hours which seemed to the hyped xTx as mere moments the NavCom beeped three times alerting him to the fact that they were in a geosynchronous orbit over Hilgs southern continent. Ever cautious xTx read the data from his scanners several times to insure that all was in readiness before he sent the mental command to system controlling the drop pod the landing coordinates for the site he had selected. Moments passed and the pod sent back a response that the course was plotted and verified, then requested permission to release. XTx paused checked for enemy ships and sent the affirmative, nothing happened. He was just beginning to worry when power levels spiked and rippling motion resembling the rings created by dropping a pebble in a pond spread throughout his cloak. That was followed by a clicking noise and his ship bobbed slightly as the pod detached. He froze, checked all systems and scanned traffic to see if he was spotted, everything looked good. He rolled the Talon to one side to get a better view of the departing pod but could see nothing. Frowning he checked his scanner again; it clearly showed a green blip moving slowly from him on course with the NAVpoint planet side. XTx chuckled, cloaked infantry pods, what would they come up with next.
Alarms went off in the cockpit, sensors were warning him that Hilg had just ramped up its defensive sensor array and were aggressively scanning the space near him with high powered ECCM or electronic counter-counter measures. He thought that given the ECCM, and the fact that several GTN Battle Cruisers and a Torpedo Cruiser were converging on his point was reason enough to get the hell out of there. He mentally entered the coordinates for his escape vector and kept a very close eye on those cruisers wishing he was in his Scale the entire way out of Hilgs sector. He chuckled again as the TC passed within a few hundred GU of him they would never see him or the cloaked infantry pod, he was going home.
.
Andosia System
Hilg
GTN Hilg Optical Observation Center, OOC
03:41 June 20, 2295 Galactic Standard Time
Alarms went off at the Hilg GTN, Optical Observation Center, the facilities only purpose in life is to monitor with the aid of thousands of satellites, the various visible and invisible wave lengths of light around Hilg. They hoped to find cloaked Kluth and ECM spoofed ICC ships attempting to avoid Hilgs various sensor arrays. Satellites would observe thousands of miles of space, recording six consecutive thirty second blocks of data on memory in the centers huge data bases. The seventh recording would replace the first in the six block count of each sector of space. In doing this the GTN techs hope to be able to capture data on a cloaked Kluth vessel. To date an actively cloaked vessel has never been detected outside of battle where the Kluth systems were stretched to their limits. Now and then though, an anomaly will occur that allows the Kluth vessels to be seen for a split second. It could have been due to them striking a piece of space debris or other type of matter, a power surge, anything. All we knew was when something out of the ordinary happens, the #?~*%$!& hits the fan, and today it was really flying.
Techs franticly pulled up displays, referenced data inputs, satellite nomenclatures and pulled files. On the big screen a seemingly empty piece of space, for a split second appeared to hold the ghostly shape of a Kluth Scout class ship, it was gone an instant later.
“Replay that last visual slow and hold it on the ship, now!” Master Chief Anderson, lead tech for the center shouted. “I really hope I seen what I thought I seen,” he muttered to himself.
The block was backed up and played at quarter speed; ever so slowly the ship came into view, a ghostly outline with little detail, but defiantly a Kluth scout ship.
“We got us one boy’s!” Anderson bawled, “Activate all ECCM on 3 second sweeps and ramp our active radar up to 150%!”
“But chief!” the sensor tech questioned, only to be cut off by a loud “DO IT!” The Master Chief knew that he was pushing the systems limits, he turned to his right.
“Who’s commanding the fleet fly boys up there these days?” he asked the COM tech. The COM tech referenced his console, pulled up the fleet data screen and answered.
“That would be GTN Fleet Admiral “Starfist” Wallace Chief, he has control of this system for the rest of this quarter, and he’s currently aboard the N.S.S Reliant.” The COM tech began to uplink with the Reliant and looked to the Chief.
‘Open up a uplink and get the Reliant on the horn.” Anderson directed, “copy the block, as well as a still of that ship and prep them for dispatch.”
“Uplink is open chief!” the COM tech reported, “Reliant is online.” A burst of static filled the room, followed by the beeps and whistles of encryption devices doing their job, then a woman’s voice.
“COM tech Lt Louise Helyer here, how can we help you Master Chief?”
The Master Chief looked to the Data Engineer, who nodded, and began.
“I’m sending you some data, this is level Two Kilo event, and I think you will want to get the Admiral in on this. Stand by to receive.”
Andosia System
Near Hilg
UGTO transport fleet from Sol System
Aboard USNC Agincourt Carrier, U.W.S Avenger
14:00 June 24, 2295 Galactic Standard Time
Vice Admiral Nathan “Divine~Wind” Davis Commanding
As the fleet exited the worm hole from Sol, Vice Admiral Nathan “Divine~Wind” Davis couldn’t help but wonder what the Transports he was escorting carried. He had been contacted by the United Nations Space Commands Strategic Fleet Commander a couple days ago and asked to take a fleet of tranys and escort them via worm hole to the Andosia System and ultimately Hilg. The UNSC had been around since the beginning of organized space exploration and had survived its now defunct name sake to become one of the larger UGTO fleets.
To this end he was given a fleet consisting of the Avenger, an Agincourt Carrier Dreadnaught, to be his capital ship four Torpedo Cruisers, two Missile Cruisers, six Picket Destroyers, two Long Range Scouts and two Heavy Supplies’. All this was rather a large fleet to be escorting six Transports through secure systems, but then he wasn’t paid to ask questions, but to get the job done and that was what he aimed to do. As soon as he cleared the worm holes energy field and his scanners and COM were up he was surprised to find the system in a high state of alert. Aggressive scanners, ECCM and radar alerts lit up his TAC officer’s consoles alerting them to the fact that they were being painted by all the planets within range as well as several anti-sensor scouts operating in his general area. Hell it looked like they had the entire system irradiated with scanners; GTN must have over half their operating here and CEC the other half.
“Alert Andosia Primes central command to our presence, current coordinates and send the appropriate security responses, our destination and request a flight plan please, Capt. Nelson.” The Vice Admiral commanded his aid, “Not like they don’t know right where the hell we are with all that out there.” He said waving his arm towards the tactical display dominating the far wall covered with green blips denoting the GTN and CEC ships scattered heavily throughout Ando.
“Yes sir!” Captain Nelson replied snapping to attention, she turned and crossed to the COM station. “Sir, there is a dispatch from Fleet Admiral “Starfist” Wallace aboard the N.S.S Reliant for you, it’s a encrypted and coded transmission, level 8 security for your eyes only.” She turned and looked at the VA, “shall I send it to your personal COM sir?” Divine turned and looked at Nelson, “level 8? Yes very good have it sent to my COM Nelson” He stepped up the platform that raised his command console above the rest of the bridge giving him a panoramic view of all the stations and keyed in his security clearance, donned the headset required for level 8 clearances and opened the file.
**********WARNING LEVEL 8 SECURITY CLEARANCE REQUIRED**********
**********UNAUTHORIZED VIEWING IS PUNISHABLE BY DEATH***********
Sent: 14:03 June 24, 2295 Galactic Standard Time
From:
GTN Andosia Fleet Command
Fleet Admiral Kevin “Starfist” Wallace, System Commander
To: Vice Admiral Nathan “Divine~Wind” Davis
11:35 June 24, 2295 Galactic Standard Time
Kevin, there’s no telling when I will be able to talk with you personally, a Kluth long range scout was spotted over Hilg, for some reason its cloak failed for less then a second and was spotted by the OOC. Normally this would not cause the stir its causing now, but coupled with a report from MI and a micro entry flare seen in the atmosphere over the southern hemisphere of Hilg has made us very suspicious. We think the Luth are up to something here in Ando, and I intend to find out what.
Enclosed in this transmission are two encoded packets, one contains your orders, the other orders to be passed to Capt. Bailey of the 11th ODM. See that he gets them. In a nutshell, I don’t know what he’s doing here, but I do know that your operating on a independent command and the GTN is ordered to support you in anyway we can.
I understand that you came here with a substantial fleet; under the circumstances I am unsure it will be enough in the event of a coordinated attack. Therefore I am dispatching a Battle Dread and an interdictor to you, they will fall under your command and I expect you to take good care of them. Admiral Daniel “Shigernafy” Pemberton has been briefed as well as Fleet Admiral Payton “Ospolos” Anderson on loan from the CSA, as all of GTNs interdictors are currently assigned, they will meet you in Hilg space on your arrival.
UNSC high command has the fullest confidence in your ability to handle this operation and has conveyed that confidence to the council, I may be old school, but I dislike having junior officers over ranking ones. To this end the council has authorized you to hold the rank of Acting Fleet Commander of this operation till its completion.
I know you will not let us down, good luck.
Starfist
GTN
Andosia, System Commander.
END………..
**********WARNING LEVEL 8 SECURITY CLEARANCE REQUIRED**********
**********UNAUTHORIZED VIEWING IS PUNISHABLE BY DEATH***********
Divine~Wind sat back and rubbed his eyes, “what the heck did I get myself into, all this to baby sit a bunch of ground pounders?” leaning forward he keyed his orders open and his eyes grew wide. “I’ll be damned,” he said to himself aloud.
“Sir?” Captain Nelson asked looking to him questioningly.
“Nothing Captain, do we have that flight solution yet?”
“Yes, sir they are locked and awaiting your order.” The Captain replied.
“Very good, bring us to orange alert and proceed as planed. Also make ready the COM, and security codes for the addition of a Battle Dread and interdictor to our fleet”
“Yes sir.” Captain Nelson responded as she moved to carry out her orders.
“And Captain,” Divine said turning to face the starboard view ports.
“Yes sir?” she stopped and looked at him expectantly.
“Have Captain Bailey meet me in my office in one hour please, have a bottle of my better scotch on had as well.”
“Yes sir.”
Divine~Wind turned and looked out a view port gazing into empty space and couldn’t help but wonder what the days to come would bring.
R33-8710 System
Near ICC Occupied Haven
16:00 June 20, 2295 Galactic Standard Time
Fleet Admiral Oba Keata K’Aarns, or HaVoX as he was named after his rash tactics and apparent love of bombs, commanded the Dar S’Obek Brood Vessel, Ki’ Soal EiTo SaAtar. Which translated roughly to, Brood vessel Bringer of the Light, in human entered the R33-8710 System with care. His mission was different then that of xTx. Switchblade wanted the operation on the UGTO front to be entirely covert, where as on the ICC front he wanted it to be covered by a feint to capture the system. So with this in mind HaVoX posisitioned the fleet, brought here by many long jumps and several hours of sub light travel. This would allow him to attack both the planet Haven and the Paul cluster. He believed this would allow them to deploy the weapon directly. With the weapon having been deployed both directly and covertly they could then analyze the best means of future deployment as well as whether its use was worth the effort of its creation, deployment and expenses. HaVoX was unsure even though Zeratu Tanj N’Kata, one of the S|P’s finest scientist and their Prime Engineer, assured them it was a flawless plan and that he had personally worked with the leader of the Y’tomak’Atar clans best scientists on the project. A rare honor that not even the most pessimistic or over cautious Kluth could deny, besides HaVoX trusted Zeratu, or Darkscorpion as he had come to be known amongst his human rivals. Trusted him a great deal, more then enough to belay his uneasiness with this sort of project and volunteer for the mission.
Sending a quick mental command to his command cocoon, HaVoX raised its height until it towered over the crews control cocoons. Elevated, he was able to see and be seen by all his subordinates; even though they were in constant contact psionicly it never hurt to demonstrate a physical presence of power and superiority. This helped curb any of the younger warrior’s ambitions about disposing of him and assuming his command. Such was the way of the Kluth, the weak fell the strong survived. So it was written in the Helyu Y’Rath’Atar, and the greatest strength came from the light and unity of the holy scripts as the foolishly divided humans would one day learn. Willing or unwilling they would come to appreciate and worship the Helyu, They would be one with the Kluth in the light of Y’Rath’Atar. Only then with the Kluth and Human’s bonded, would they be ready to face the eventual coming of the Kraddax. That was for another day, right now the humans still defied the Kluth and the righteousness of their holy crusade and many would have to die before they saw the light.
HaVoX surveyed his fleet, he had with him a total of four Mandibles, six Scales and two Piercers, a Ultimate Worker as well as a elite fleet of bombers from Ki’ Soal Ei SaAtar Roth To’Roth a tribe of Kluth also belonging to the Y’tomak’Atar clan named BUM by the humans for some unknown reason. The BUMS great takers and builders of planets held much respect amongst the many tribes of the Y’tomak’Atar. Their presence was welcome to HaVoX, the S|P was a powerful but small tribe and the extras ships would help greatly. The BUM’s had brought with them two Ganglia’s, four Clavates and two Advanced Workers. Together they presented if not an overwhelming fleet, then one not easily intimidated into retreat. With this in mind HaVoX sent his attack plans to the fleet, he would split his forces and invite defeat, forcing a false retreat only after the prime objective had been met on Haven.
R33-8710 System
Paul
Center City red light district
In a seedy unnamed bar catering to fleet and enlisted personnel
Knocking back another shot of Old Energy Entity whiskey and grimacing at its aftertaste Ryan the ex pilot once known as Goththug amongst the Fatal Squadron, spread his cards on the table with a smirk.
“Royal Flush baby!” he exulted as he reached for the stack of credsticks in the center of the table, “Read em and weep.”
He was sitting in a seedy little dive a few miles outside the base playing cards with some of his old FS buddies and some noobs they brought along to be fleeced of this weeks pay. It was typical behavior in this type of bar, one that attracted military or ex military in Ryan’s case, as well as a number of local lowlifes. It was Dark, dirty and fully capable of providing a number of amusements and vices to those whom it may be their last visit alive.
Fleet Admiral Timothy “Ants” Keller, the Commander of the Fatal Squadron leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head and said. “Your pretty lucky tonight Goth, what’s that your 7th hand tonight?”
“To damn lucky if ya ask me.” Grand Admiral Frank “Taxi” Peterson said leaning over the table and eyeing Goths growing stack of credsticks, “makes me wonder how much of it’s really luck.”
Goth pushed his chair back and half stood up when with a raised hand Ants interrupted with a chuckle.
“Sit back down Goth, no ones accusing you of anything; you know how Taxi likes to bait you.” He turned to Taxi and said, “You of all people should know how lucky he is, you’ve flown his wing a few times.”
“Yea, yea,” Taxi grumped sitting back down as well. “That doesn’t pay the bills though.”
Goth snickered as he sat back down “If you can’t afford to pay then you can’t afford to play.” He gave Taxi a serious look “if you need a loan to pay day, I can float you some creds till payday, at say 50% interest?”
Taxi’s snide and most likely offensive rebuttal died on his lips as ground shaking siren blasts began to split the night. As if on queue, all the military personnel in one practiced movement moved towards the door as civilians jumped to feet. Air raid sirens were howling and the sound of Fleet and Marine personnel’s recall pagers were going off all over the bar, something big was going down.
“Catch ya lata, Goth” Ants said as he and all the FS started bulling their way to door past panicked civilians and other military types trying to return to their posts.
“Yea,” Taxi shot as he moved towards the door “Its time for us pilots to get to work, catcha on the flipside.”
Goth watched their retreating backs with no small amount of envy; he watched as Melly swung the door open and called for Ants, he couldn’t help feel a little left out. It had been little over a year since he was decommissioned for knocking a smart mouthed Marine Colonel on his brain case. Who would have ever thought it would have gone that far, hell we were all drinking everyone had been drunk.
“Guess marines don’t like having their lunch handed to em by fleet.” Goth thought to himself “Bunch of babies.”
Shrugging Goth set back down at the table slouched into his seat and poured him another shot of the amber liquid.
“Can’t think of a better place to be if they nuke this rock,” he said to himself as he saluted the imagined bombs racing towards the city and tossed back the cheap whiskey.
Out on the street pandemonium ruled, the streets were filled noise and violence as the snarling bickering mass’s tried to go different ways at the same time. Fleet personnel were running for their bases, Marines and Infantry were attempting to return to their units as civilians looked for loved ones and bomb shelters. It was amazing Ants and Taxi ever found Vice Admiral Samantha “MellyMoo” Graves again, it was a task made easier by Melly’s standing on the hood of a FS Fleet ground transport with Admiral Jack “Epoch” Sanders behind the wheel. Melly stood on the hood sporting a rather nasty looking fully charged assault blaster cradled in her arm and was yelling his name and waving her free arm over her head wildly.
“Get your ass in gear lover” Melly yelled, “What do ya think this is a parade or something?” Melly teased as she swung off the side mirror and opened sliding door to let them in. She casually clubbed a frightened and stoned street punk wearing way to many gaudy colors in the brain pan when he tried to force his way in the tranny.
“Sorry no ticket no ride.” She quipped stepping over the overly pierced and tattooed youth as she entered the transport.
“Gun it bro,” she directed Epoch as she slammed the door shut on the screaming masses beseeching them for a ride. Thrusters roared and scattered light debris everywhere as Epoch slammed the throttle to the floor and whipped her up and over the crowded streets towards the base.
“What he heck is going on here,” Ants demanded as he grabbed the “oh #?~*%$!&” handles to steady himself in the suddenly violently rocking vehicle. “What are you doing here Mel, how did you find us?”
“Well you did say you were going to go out with Taxi, and I overheard one of the noobs mention Goths name. So I figured cards and alcohol, and that’s Goths favorite dive, so you weren’t all that hard to find dear” Melly answered coyly, “As for the rest, the bloody Kluth have just mounted a full scale assault on Benevolence. Of course when the bombs were detected our rapid response teams moved to intercept the bombs and bomber. They were ambushed by at least one Mandi and a couple of Scales; I don’t think they made it.”
“Damn it,” Ants swore venomously and punched the bulkhead of the tranny, then asked “and the bombs, did they hit?”
“They stopped the first wave but there were at least two Clavs sighted, the first one was to distract the defenders while the second one made its run. The sorry SOB’s rode em straight into the equator, they were using neutrons were estimating a 75% casualty rate so far, I’m sure its being invaded right now.”
Thrusters roared as Epoch yanked back on the trannys controls, everyone swore and grabbed what they could to secure themselves. Epoch growled as he forced the speeding vehicle to its limits and he soared over the bases walls all the while shouting insults, clearance codes and a sarcastic.
“Yes I know what roads look like, would you kindly point that damn cannon somewhere it might do some good.”
“When you done negotiating our return clearance to the base Epoch, do you think you can get more speed and less shake out of this beast and get us to the ship yards space elevator in one piece?” Epoch looked over his shoulder and shot Ants his best go to hell look and said “aye, aye sir, right away, sir,” in an annoyed voice.
“Good man, we have some Kluth to kill.” Ants growled, “And the sooner the better.”
R33-8710 System
Near ICC Occupied Haven
20:43 June 20, 2295 Galactic Standard Time
HaVoX smiled to himself, the assault on Benevolence was underway, now all that remained was to wait for the ICC to respond put up a good fight around the Paul cluster, and to launch the attack on Haven. After the weapon was securely deployed on Haven, he would be free to take a beating at the Paul cluster retreat in apparent disgrace, allowing the forces at Haven to be run off. All was going according to plan; little did the humans know that even as he suffered his humiliating defeat at the hands of the Fatal Squadron, he was in reality attaining a victory of the highest accord.
Screens lit up and sensors tracked several ICC ships bearing the Fatal Squadrons Friend or Foe tags erupting into space from their ship yard. The human COM channels were buzzing with encrypted data as well as their sensors scanning space for ships or bombs. The Paul cluster now looked rather like ChoJo’s nest when you stirred it up, and like its human counterpart the honey bee, you were going to get stung trying to reach the gold inside. The time for secrecy was over it was time to fight and allow his bombers to complete their objective at Haven.
Ants felt like he weighed a ton as the G forces from his launch pressed him into his acceleration couch, it coupled with anti G suits and the Meds that trickled into his bloodstream kept him conscious and alive as his Assault Cruiser roared away from Paul towards Benevolence under extreme acceleration. His arms felt like lead as he toggled his COM and ordered his NAV officer to prepare a jump solution for Benevolence then keyed his transmitter.
“This is Strike Team Alpha Leader,” he barked into his mike, “Alpha 1 and Alpha 2 form on my wing and prepare receive coordinates and jump on my mark.”
“Roger Alpha Leader, Alpha 1 standing by.” Epoch replied as he brought his AC onto Ants left wing position.
Ants glanced at the TACS and saw Melly designated Alpha 2 pulling her AC into position on his right wing as she signaled her readiness. With Epoch and Melly on his wings, Ants sent a readiness query to his systems officers, who promptly replied that all systems were green. His NAV officer sent him the solution with the clear to jump designator blinking on his console indicating all personnel and equipment were secured and ready.
“Prepare to jump on my mark!” Ants called out over Alpha teams COM link “3…2…1…Mark!”
Ants and his crew were slammed into their acceleration couches hard, they were pulling six G’s if they were pulling one by time their IE drives achieved combat speeds they were going in hot. The wings jump drives fire nearly simultaneously and in a matter of seconds they were thrown through jump space thousands of GU’s away. His vision swam and tunneled for several seconds, if not for the anti G drugs, the suits and couches he and his crew would be dead right now, crushed under the unrelenting pressure of acceleration. There was a brilliant flash of light and Alpha Team dropped into real space once again, Ants felt light as a feather as the engines kicked back and they assumed a constant speed. His vision cleared and he quickly oriented himself, first sending a status queries to his crew he then opened alpha team’s COM link.
“Alpha team, Report,” Ants requested as he tracked two scales engaging, a Heavy Cruiser and a Missile destroyer that was never intended for close combat. There were glowing fields of wreckage and what looked like a mandible cloaking off his 3 O’clock, to late for a positive ID but defiantly a Dread. His crew reported all green seconds before Alpha Team reported in.
“Alpha 1 good to go, alpha leader,” Epoch reported.
“Alpha 2 ready,” Melly reported a second later.
“Good Ants,” returned, “Alpha 2 and I will engage the scale nearest us, I believe that’s Shadow, Alpha 1 you hang back and cover our rear in case that Mandi decides to show up.” Ants slowed his burn and aligned his AC with Shadows scale, all weapons systems hot.
“Isn’t Shadow a rear admiral or something?” Epoch asked over the COM. “Did he get promoted?”
“If he did,” Melly chimed in, “let’s demote him!”
“Cut the chatter alpha!” Ants ordered, and then switched COM channels. “Bravo leader, where’s that heavy armor Taxi are you out there?”
“Alpha leader this is Bravo leader, we had a snafu in the ship yard, seems the port commander had a case of cranial rectal inversion and thought while the were Luth dropping bombs on his head it was a good idea to gripe about our flight plan being incomplete for launch. ETA is 7 to 10 minuets, the delay put us behind Reality’s orbit and we need to jump twice to reach you, over.” Ants slammed his fist on his acceleration couch’s armrest, “we’ll address that issue when this is over just get those Dreads over here I don’t know where that Mandi is and don’t want it decloaking on our ‘six’.” Switching channels again Ants addressed Alpha Team.
“Ok Alpha lets move, Melly keep to my right wing Epoch you watch our ‘six’” Ants mouth went dry like it always did when he ordered as his people into combat.
Admiral Eeto Tal G’Ogan or Shadow as he was know to the humans, lined his Scale up on the ‘six’ of the missile destroyer that was jinxing like mad trying to shake him, smoke and atmosphere vented from the rear of the ailing Dessies aft where it had taken most of its damage so far. It was desperately attempting to maneuver its damaged ‘six’ out of the range of Shadows fire as it worked to gain a safe jump solution.
Shadow could taste the Dessies Commanders fear across the void not this time Shadow thought to himself, this time you are ours. He sent a command to his crew.
“Bring us about and keep us on his rear I don’t want him to escape this time.”
Affirmatives came simultaneously from all his officers, and the Scale turned into a loop, locked with the MD attempting to escape them.
“Closer, closer,” Shadowed ordered urging his crew to lessen the distance between them and the enemy. They closed to within two hundred GU before Shadow shouted mentally.
“Fire psi cannons,” The Scale thumped as the high energy cannons struck the aft of the MD, 90% of the Scales assault impacted causing the rear shields of the stricken MD to collapse.
“Fire disrupters,” he ordered and lances of brilliant coherent energy leapt across space striking the damaged ICC vessel, with no shields armor boiled and vented vaporized metal and ceramics into space. The MD’s hull was bare and breached, they were defenseless from behind. Shadow smiled to himself and savored the moment the seconds before the kill were always the headiest to him, after a second that seemed like an hour he ordered the kill.
“Fire AM torpedoes,” the glowing antimatter torpedoes screamed out their tubes like wild beasts hungering for prey. As soon as they cleared the ship Shadow ordered the Scale to decelerate and turn hard a port to avoid the splash from their own torpedoes as they impacted the dying MD. Heavy G’s threatened to overcome him and his crew as they turned hard holding to the insane acceleration until the apex of the curve where they slammed it forward at full speed. The scale screamed past the failing dessie just before the torpedo’s erupted deep inside the ships hull turning it into a raging fireball.
Shadow celebrated their victory over the hapless ICC crew with a furious primal victory roar. Which lasted just as long as it took for both Ants and Melly’s torpedos’s to blind side him and blow him and his crew into a million flaming particles.
“Booyah!” Ants yelled joyfully, and keyed his mike, “nice shooting Melly! One down two to go.” Ants looked over his scanner, the other Scale was no where to be seen, the remaining HC was badly damaged and limping around the planet attempting to gain a flight solution for returning to Paul’s ship yard. It was venting atmosphere badly and seemed to have problems with one or more of its reactors. Checking the FF tag he seen it was Vice Admiral Jacob “Wing” Moore. Ants keyed his mike again,
“Wing, this is Ants, how are you doing? Going to make it back?” Static cracked across the com, when Wing answered back.
“Ay….ir, soo….I pic…up Dr…ons cr….dule…hey jet...d jus. …ore…ey ex…ded.” Wings transmission was badly broken, but Ants got the jist of it, most of Vice Admiral David “Dragonterro” Keats crew had survived and he was recovering their escape pods.
“Good job Wing see that…what the…” Ant’s eyes grew wide, “hard right Wing!” he yelled into the mike, as the Mandible finally made its presence known. Nak Da L’Kra or SyTHe as he was named for his reaper like attitude decloaked at near point blank range to the stricken HC. He paused, cruelly savoring the moment as he allowed the full impact of their eminent death sink into Wing and his crew before firing the massive Dreads weapons.
“Sir…” Wing said over the mike as the disruptor beams began to glow with bristling energy. There was a blinding flash of light, and the mandible fired all its close range weapons. Shield generators screamed with overloading circuits, armor bubble and disappeared vented into space as vapor. Wing blinked two times before he realized they were still among the living.
Epochs AC was listing to its port side its shields were flaring like a mini nova as his crew poured all their systems power into holding them. He and his crew had somehow pin point jumped from a stand still inserting his ship between Wings HC and SyTHes Mandi saving the HC from certain destruction.
“Wing! Get your ‘six’ out of there!” Ants roared, amazed the HC was still there “Now!”
“God I love you bro!” Wing shouted to Epoch as he gunned his ailing engines, praying Dragons crew pods stayed attached, “were outta here!”
Ants and Melly threw their AC’s into hard turns and accelerated punishing G forces warring with drugs, adrenalin and pure force of will, to put them into unconsciousness. Epoch’s crew gunned the AC forward as the Mandi charged weapons for a second salvo. Epoch knew in the pit of his stomach that they weren’t going to make it out of range in time. Ants and Melly desperately tried to find a firing solution that would allow them to save their friends life, after he so heroically saved Wing and Dragons. Blinding rings of light flared off the aft of the Mandible as an Assault Dreadnaught, flanked by two Combat Dreads jumped into position just over 400 GU away. The new comers were Taxi commanding the Assault Dreadnaught C.S.S Foe Hammer supported by Admiral Andrew “Crimson” Parker and Grand Admiral James “Banshee” Powell from the Raven Warriors Squadron command the Combat Dreads C.S.S Exathra and C.S.S Intrepid respectively.
SyTHe with out flinching retargeted all his available weapons on the AD and fired his full load then cloaked. He waited patiently as the torpedoes flew towards their targets counting the GU off as they closed.
“Detonate the torpedoes,” he ordered as soon as they were within a 100 GU of the lead Dread. As the torpedoes remote detonated they filled the intervening space between the Mandi and the approaching dreads with super hot clouds of antimatter fire. The antimatter clouds disrupted sensors and weapons lock just long enough to allow him to achieve full cloak.
Unable to arrive at a firing solution before the Mandies cloak engaged, the ICC defenders began firing beacons randomly around its last location hoping to tag and mark the Mandies but to no avail.
“The freaking bug got away!” a frustrated Taxi cursed to himself just as Ants broadcast over all channels.
“The enemy has withdrawn, the bombers don’t seem to have made another run, drop your infantry units on Benevolence and stand firm till the planets back under our control again.” Ants paused. “Don’t let your guard down ladies, were in for a long night, and they are still out there somewhere.”
HaVoX ordered his units near Paul to stand down with the arrival of the dreads and the death of Shadow. An unfortunate but necessary event as it lent an air of reality to the feint; HaVoX though was unwilling to sacrifice anymore lives to a sham. After the attack on Paul he was left with one Mandible, a Scale, a Gang and two Claves for combat near Paul. For combat at the rendezvous point he had his Brood, a Mandi, and two Scales leaving the remainder of the fleet in position over Haven.
After a few moments reflection he decided to have the units near Paul pull out cloaked and make a feint towards Tattoo and withdraw after drawing fire. The units with him would cover their supplies until the Haven attack force withdrew and returned to the fleet. HaVoX keyed his COM link and prepared to brief the fleet, starting with SyTHe.
“SyTHe, I want you to take your fleet and demonstrate near Tattoo, make a run and be convincing. We prepped them at Paul, now we need to fully direct their attention elsewhere and away from Haven.”
“It will be as you command Ir’Kiel’,” SyTHe replied. “We shall not fail, the humans will be distracted.” With that SyTHe transmitted his orders to his fleet and began to withdraw from Paul. With SyTHe on the move HaVoX turned his attention to the fleet around Haven.
“Top, begin your operation at 22:00 hrs, SyTHe should have distracted the humans by then.”
“If he has not done so do we wait or attack on time Ir’Kiel’?” Top questioned, he believed in little to no possibilities for errors.
“Attack at 22:00 regardless of Scythe’s status,” HaVoX replied “I want the attack underway no later then that.” Tops question was a good one HaVoX knew, but he also knew they had to be underway and out of system on schedule if they wanted to meet the worm hole home three long jumps from here.
“Affirmative Ir’Kiel’,” Top replied and he turned his attention to his fleet and their mission. HaVoX ordered the fleet with him at the rendezvous point to battle readiness and they waited.
Top brought his fleet to readiness, HaVoX given him two Mandibles and two Scales for combat all were waiting within easy striking distance to defend them. Tops orders were simple, he was to attack Haven at 22:00 hrs take enough fire to appear damaged and break off without using his cloak to escape. This was meant to draw whatever defenders showed up after him and away from the planet. Mad would then drop his bombs followed by the deployment of Shock Troopers and the weapon. He nodded to himself, liking the way the mission was planned. It would bring great honor to the BUMS he keyed his COM link and queried Mad.
“Are you ready brother?” he asked. “We have a green light for an attack window beginning at 22:00.”
“Ready as I will ever be,” Mad sent back he was a bit nervous about the entire weapons pod thing. What if planetary defense took it out, then again that’s why he was dropping three pods of Infantry first, to give the planet something to shoot at.
Sensing his comrade’s insecurity and hoping to calm his nerves Top replied in a cool and confidant voice.
“I know you will succeed Mad, you have never failed to perform well above expectation,” he paused then added. “Except for that time you ran into Price and…”
“Hey,” Mad cut in, his voice filled with indignation “that wasn’t my fault, intelligence was wrong and…” Top cut him off with a laugh.
“I know brother I was baiting you, this time the intelligence is correct and you will do fine. Not to mention the fact that I will have all the enemy’s defenses occupied and flying up my ‘six’.” Realizing what Top was doing Mad chuckled at him and sent back a rueful reply.
“Thanks bro I needed that.”
“Anytime Mad, I need to get in position see you at the rendezvous point.” With that Top gave the orders to his crew to bring the Clavate around and prepare for the bombing run. G forces climbed pushing the crew of the speeding bomber into their cocoons as the Clavate accelerated to bombing speed.
Taxi swore as blips appeared inbound for Tattoo, the Kluth were at it again and he was damned if they were going to get away with it this time.
“Navigation, get me a jump solution for Tattoo ASAP. I want us 400Gu behind that bomber; lay in a course for the Combat Dreads to be 500Gu behind the Foe Hammer. I want them to cover our ass when SyTHe brings his Mandi out to play.”
“Yes sir,” the NAV officer responded immediately as he hastened to comply with the order. His hands flew over his console entering their current coordinates along with their anticipated arrival point.
“We have a solution sir, transmitting to the data to the Exathra and Intrepid now sir” the NAV officer reported.
“Excellent communications open a link to the Exathra and Intrepid put them on the big screen please.” Taxi ordered he needed to bring them up to speed on his plans.
“Link Open sir,” his COM officer reported as the huge TACS split down the middle as Crimson and Banshee’s images appeared on each side their bridges visible behind them.
“Crim, Banshee you just received coordinates for a combined jump, prepare your crews and be ready to jump on my mark.” They tendered their responses and the TACS switched to a view of Tattoo. The red deltas indicating the bombers current position and their anticipated plan of attack was overlaid with the arrival coordinates of Bravo Team and their projected firing arcs. A timer was running down on the left of Taxis little green wedge, counting down the seconds till they jumped to intercept the bombers.
Ants groaned as he seen the Kluth Clavates appear on his TACS near Tattoo, they were obviously well into a coordinated bombing run on the hapless planet. Tattoo was too far out of the widely spread Arturion Cluster to expect any help from the other planets defense bases. It was up to them to defend them or watch them die; he monitored Taxis orders to Bravo Team and came to a decision. Keying up his COM link he addressed Alpha Team.
“Alpha Team, maintain your current speed and headings were going to let Bravo handle this one.”
“But sir,” the inevitable reply came from Epoch and Melly simultaneously. He overrode them with a Command Level Flash and put it out cold and hard.
“Bravo Team can take care of themselves, all they have to do is divert that bomber and the planet will see to itself. I don’t trust the Kluth one bit especially those damn Shadow Pirates, they never seem to be doing what they appear to be.”
“But Ants,” Melly started with “those bombers are BUMS all we’ve seen was a few Pirates in combat. The BUMS have always been straight in your face fighters or whoops we got caught lets go somewhere else kinda guys.”
“I know that Mell that’s what bothers me, did you see any BUM combat support? No I didn’t either, that tells me they are working with the S|P on this and that there could be one hell of a lot of Shadow Pirates out there if all they did was mobilize their combat ships.” Ants paused for a second, “I think it’s a trap or a diversion and I want us ready to handle which ever it is. You two got that?” Both Melly and Epoch double clicked their COM links as an affirmative, a silent way to signal their understanding of their orders and their displeasure with them. Ants just sighed and continued to monitor the system for any additional trouble wondering where the hook was going to come from.
Gota Ti L’Awek known as Smiling Jester to the humans was one of the few Kluth who picked their own human name, Aqu Lon D’Vinta known as Pharoh, Jesters wing mate for the attack on Tattoo was another. They had both chosen their names for the way it sounded in human as much as the meaning of the words themselves. They brazenly had the names painted along the nose of all their ships in letters as tall as they were. Even more infuriating to the humans were the large images of human ships painted under the names that kept a running total of all the human vessels they have destroyed.
Jester and Pharoh were flying the tightest formation he had ever flown in his life. Their Clavates were so close that one miscalculation would have the bow of Jesters Clav rammed firmly up the engine manifold of Pharohs Clav. Jester loved every minute of it; they were so close that they appeared on sensors as one ship. Taxi had the Scales flying in formation with them to heighten the humans alarm and hopefully bring them running. Pharoh had just finished dropping his bombs and had cloaked, now Jester was creeping up over him, laying his bombs down just behind Pharohs Bomber, stacking them up just out of the reach of the bombers exhaust trail.
Missiles began to reach out for him and the two uncloaked Scales as his Weapons officer was cycling the next to last set of racks into the bomb bays. He was eyeing the approaching missiles on the TACS when Scythes voice came over the COM link.
“Jester, Pharoh you two are looking good right now, keep that formation until the ICC show up. I am sure Taxi and his boys will be all over us soon, when they get here Jester you break and run. Toggle your cloak a few times to simulate system malfunctions and jump when clear of the dictor field. Pharoh you ride those bombs in cloaked, I want you to take the hits for them so they make it inside the planets Point Defense range, if you can drop infantry do it, but don’t risk your ship Tattoo is a distraction not an objective.”
Scythe waited for Jester and Pharoh to signal their understanding of the orders and turned his attention to the Scales once they had replied.
“Tak Jo Kl’Tain, Xin Lo F’Reta I want you two to cloak and stay with Jester, they know were here now and will be suspicious if you stay visible and continue to take hits from the planet. Besides I want your Scales in tip top shape for a fighting retreat if needed, in any event get a few good licks in on them before we run.”
“Affirmative,” replied Xin, who was one of the few Kluth whose tag was the same as his primary name.
“Orders acknowledged,” Tak Jo Kl’Tain also replied. He was known as Black Beard ever since he had been captured by the humans and named that after the deep black coloration of the chitin under his lower jaw. He had escaped later freeing several other Kluth and hijacking a UGTO Torpedo Cruiser which had brought him many honors in the tribe.
Both the Scales faded from view leaving Jester as the only target in Tattoos field of fire, which the planetary defense bases were happy to do their level best to destroy. SyTHe didn’t feel any concern for Jester or his crew’s safety; they were Kluth warriors and would die to serve their Tribe and the Empire if needed. All that mattered was that Top and his crew were able to deploy the weapon.
Jester’s ship rocked with explosions as missiles were shot down by his Clavates point defense systems or when they slipped by impacting with the chitinous armor covering their hull. He gritted his teeth as his Weapons officer loaded his last rack of bombs and lit the bomb systems indicators green. Jester checked his sights again, made sure they were still on target with all the buffeting the Clavate was taking and released his last round of bombs. The ammo indicator blinked red signaling him that the racks were empty. More and more missiles ripped away from Tattoo and the first telltale puffs of atmosphere and ice followed the wave of torpedoes bursting from the orbital defense bases over the planet and hurtled across the void towards them. As he watched the incoming ordinance he found himself in the odd position of hoping the enemy showed up soon.
“Activate jump drives,” Taxi ordered the second the timer were all zeros, he was slammed into the acceleration couch by a huge invisible fist as the C.S.S Foe Hammer jumped across the solar system and ripped out of jump space a mere 375Gu behind Jesters Clavate. Taxi fought with acceleration sickness and demanded a firing solution even while his head swam with the after effects of high G travel.
“Solution acquired sir,” the TAC officer shouted in a weak voice. “We can fire when ready.”
“Fire all forward rail guns,” Taxi ordered, he had barely began to focus on the TAC when the ship shuddered with the force of the magnetic coils hurling enormous steel rounds at the unwitting Clavate at super high velocities. Rail gun rounds impacted with the Clavates armor which shattered and scattered into space, Taxi looked closer as rounds that clearly missed impacted with something beneath the damaged Clav. Space seemed to ripple as armor fragments and atmosphere appeared out of empty space.
“Damn it,” he barked. “There’s a cloaked ship there, fire all forward weapons now, prime the ION cannon!” he fired his orders rapidly to crew who worked franticly to nail the Scale that was now pulling away from them.
“Hit that thing before they have a chance to separate,” he yelled as he pulled his accelerator couch into its sitting position. He leapt to his feet as if he could speed his weapons after the Kluth Clavate by will power alone, anticipation clearly written on his features. He was nearly thrown from his feet as the rail guns let loose another salvo nearly simultaneously with the missiles, torpedoes and ION cannon. In reality each system fired within a second or two of each other making it feel as if the Foe Hammer was in the throws of a great storm thundering and shaking the ship to its core. Glowing lethal energy, compressed ions, vapor trails and brilliant torpedoes all streaked from the AD on a collision course with the Clavate which was now desperately attempting to escape.
Jester nearly hit the ceiling of the bridge when Taxis AD appeared a few hundred GU behind him flanked by the Exathra and Intrepid.
“Evasive action,” he roared. “Maximum speed and roll to port,” he ordered as he slammed his manipulator hand down on the general quarter’s alarm switch which caused blaring alarms to sound through out the ship. Crew cocoons began sealing up, isolating the crew from the rest of the ship; the only ones outside their cocoons were the weapon loaders and engineers tending the weapons, engines and generators. The rest of the crew was now securely sealed in the cocoons which would also allow them to survive in deep space for several hours if they survived the destruction of the ship. In no way hampered by being sealed up, Jester and his crew worked to gain as much distance on the three ICC Dreads closing on him as they could, while at the same time separating as much as possible from Pharoh to limit his exposure to splash damage from the ICC weapons.
“SyTHe,” he called out over the COM link while he monitored the situation from his cocoons much smaller TACS. “What the hell is that combat doing? The only reason those Combat Dreads have torn me to pieces so far is their own AD is in the line of fire.”
“Patience is a virtue Jester,” SyTHe replied with a hard edge in his voice. “The enemy will be dealt with shortly, I assure you, hang in a bit longer.”
“I’m not sure how much longer we have SyTHe; if we die you had better make your shots count. It would be a shame if my family were to have to hunt down and kill such an able officer over such a poor reason to begin a blood feud.”
SyTHe gnashed his teeth at Jesters impertinent remark, if the disrespectful Krantz survived this he would find himself in a blood duel before the warriors of both their tribes.
“There will be no reason to blood feud over your death on account of my skill as a commander, more likely they will lament the lack of your skills to save your crew and yourself.” SyTHe returned, mandatory insults out of the way he sent orders to the Scales commanders.
“Xin, Black I want you both to hit the side port side of the AD at the same time, nail it with everything you got, drop boarding parties on it as your pass then cloak and get out. I will hit the CD nearest you with a full salvo and do the same, hopefully I will remain screened from the other CD until I can drop infantry and cloak as well. After this is done we all leave under cloak and make our way back to the rendezvous point.” He paused then added, “Jester you may cloak as soon as Xin and Black Beard engage.”
“Understood,” Xin replied followed by Black Beard and Jester.
“Very good,” SyTHe said, “Execute.” With that the three combat ships turned and closed with their targets, they had been hovering nearby the entire time waiting for the opportunity to strike; opportunity was knocking long and hard.
Xin watched his crew perform with all the efficient precision that he demanded of them as well as himself. They were fixing firing solutions, preparing the Shock Troopers for deployment and figuring an escape vector for when and if they survived. Xin wasn’t worried, he was a warrior through and through, if he gave his life today for the glory of Y’Rath’Atar he could imagine no better way to die. He watched the TACS intensely, Black Beards Scale was on a vector completely opposite of his, and they would intercept the Assault Dread at the point of a V and fire at the same time. It would take timing and guts, as soon as the Scales became visible there would be a few seconds where they were targets unable to fire back if SyTHe was unable to distract the port CD they were dead. Xin relished the thought of such a desperate battle; he ordered course corrections and prepared his crew to decloak.
Coming in the from the other side flanking the AD Black Beards Scale matched Xins with carefully timed precision, his crew were briefed and ready, cocoons began to seal as the general quarters siren blared and weapons charged. Black Beard counted the GU’s one at a time as they flew by like mile markers on the road to hell.
SyTHe had his Mandible running hard, acceleration pressed him and his crew into their sealed cocoons they would then decloak and fire hopefully timing it down to the last second. Their assault disrupters would fire for the maximum amount of time that they could hold the beams without overheating all the while pounding away with their psi cannons they had replace all the standard disrupter with. Half way to the point the assault disrupters would begin to over heat they would fire the torpedoes which should have an open hole through the hull then to the Combat Dreads vulnerable insides. As large and heavy as the CD was the attack was not likely to kill the massive ship, but with all the systems damage and confusion the infantry might just succeed in capturing the Dreadnaught. In any event SyTHe was sure that Haven would go unprotected, if this wasn’t one hell of a distraction he never seen one then.
Jester urged his crew to greater efforts as the first round of rail guns slammed into the rear of his Clavate spreading a trail of armor behind him. Rail guns weren’t the most devastating weapon the humans could employ but still hurt the lightly armored Clavate, Kluth were meant to hit and run, not duke it out with AD’s. He was also sure that Pharoh had taken damage as well from that salvo and began to rip off his orders to the crew.
“Deploy infantry,” he shouted into his COM link. “I want that AD boarded; infantry’s primary orders are to destroy as many systems as possible, secondary orders are to capture that ship.” He paused took in the scene on his TACS on more time, they were hard to port and his weapons on that side would soon be within a open firing arc, though two of his disrupters could fire to the rear.
“Fire rear disrupters at the AD, when the portside arc is clear fire all port weapons.”
“Aye, aye sir,” replied his weapons officer, which was followed immediately by another impact of Rail guns into his port and aft. He thanked Y’Rath’Atar that the port side armor had taken some of the damage though the aft armor was near to being completely destroyed and beginning to leave unprotected hull exposed. Red blips began to cover his TACS as missiles and torpedoes erupted from the AD followed close behind by the fighters leaving the launch bays of the Combat Dreads who didn’t dare fire anything else so close to the AD.
“ION cannon fire detected!” his TAC officer screamed over the COM as well as into the mind of every Kluth on the Clavate. “More missiles incoming from Haven as well torpedo impact from planet in 20 seconds and counting.”
“Keep your self under control Gratok!” Jester sent mentally to the TAC officer, “we cannot afford to panic at this stage.” Jester swore as the missiles and torpedoes from both the AD and planet ripped through space towards him followed by the slightly slower ION cannon. He ordered his weapon loaders and engineers into their cocoon and waited, manipulator hand hovering over the emergency evacuation button. Once the infantry pods were away from the Clavate he was going to eject his crew and blow the Clavate. Timing would have to be precise, he wanted his crew, infantry and Pharoh clear of the blast zone and the AD to be right in it, tricky indeed.
“Not good enough by far,” Taxi growled at the Clavate which had just unleashed a desperate disrupter attack on his AD, the fore shields absorbed the hellish energy without flickering. He watched as their own fire drew near the Clavate anticipating its impact, he wondered if the cloaked ship was near enough to be hit by the splash from them and hope that it was. Alarms went off as four pods of infantry suddenly leapt away from the Clavate trailing streamers of vapor as the self consuming rocket pods attached to them propelled them across the space between the two ships. He calmly gave his orders to the weapons officer.
“Engage point defense and burn those pods.” Without a reply the weapons officer deployed the heavy chemical lasers that Taxi had outfitted the AD with over the standard pulse lasers, preferring the punch of the heavy’s over the rapid but low powered fire of the pulses. Taxi watched calmly admiring the skill of his crew as they burned the incoming infantry pods. He nodded in satisfaction as they popped like soap bubbles into little clouds of vaporized armor and atmosphere. Turning his attention back to Clavate he noticed that they were just pulling into optimum beam range. As Taxi was preparing to give the order to fire the assault and heavy chemical lasers the Clavate released a large cloud of small orbs into space.
“Tactical what is that,” he asked. Before the TAC officer could reply the tiny spore like orbs sprouted flames and rocketed away from Tattoo and the AD.
“All engines full stop,” he ordered in a huge voice. “Hard to starboard 30 degrees,” He waited till the Dread was oriented then ordered.
“All engines full ahead.” Taxi suspected the Clavate would self-destruct and he had just witnessed a mass exodus of escape pods. If he was correct he knew the resulting explosion wouldn’t kill his AD or even seriously damage it, but he also knew it would drop his shields power considerably and he didn’t know where the Kluth combat ships that were sure be here were.
As if on cue the stricken Clavate exploded becoming a roaring mini supernova that caused the TACS to darken and Taxis shields to dip alarmingly.
“Shields at 56% on the port side but holding,” the TAC officer reported in a steady voice. “Fore shields at 89% all others are holding at 100% capacity.”
“Acknowledged,” Taxi responded his next statement words already formed on his lips fell silent as the TAC officer sounded off again on a flash channel.
“Two incoming Scales decloaking of our fore port and aft port sides” he cried in a loud voice, “ETA in 12 seconds!”
[ This Message was edited by: HaVoX (afk, writing) on 2006-04-21 08:37 ]
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Bobamelius
Grand Admiral
Galactic Navy
Joined: October 08, 2002
Posts: 2074
From: Ohio
| Posted: 2006-04-20 17:16
You could start by posting the rest of it. There is a post length limit you know. 
[ This Message was edited by: Bobamelius on 2006-04-20 17:16 ]
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HaVoX
Fleet Admiral
Joined: September 07, 2003
Posts: 269
From: Florida whoo hoo
| Posted: 2006-04-21 08:35
heres the rest i didnt realize was not posted, sorry all.
“Fire all port weapons fore and aft in accordance with the target locations,” Taxi ordered. “Get those port shields reinforced from the starboard generators.” Taxi held his breath with realizing he was doing it, his beam weapons drew blazing lines across the space between his ship and the incoming Scales burning armor off their bows. Torpedoes and Rail guns flew past the speeding Kluth cruisers as weapons techs struggled to lock on the heavily accelerating Scales, detonating torpedoes that missed remotely in hopes of hitting them with the splash.
“Not enough,” Taxi thought to himself, “it’s not going to stop them.” He keyed the COM link and broadcast ship wide.
“All hands prepare for impact!” he shouted over the COM just as the Scales having fully decloaked opened fire on his weakened port side. He grabbed a hold of the arms of the accelerator couch and braced himself while he keyed his COM to hail the Combat Dreads in formation with him. He let the COM go unused as the Mandible that he had known was out there somewhere decloaked off the port side of the C.S.S Exathra. Crimson was going to be too busy with his own fight and that the Intrepid could not fire on any of the Kluth with out hitting the Foe Hammer or Exathra.
Xin had slowed his approach allowing Black Beard to gain a full four seconds on him, then ramped their speed back up. He followed the attack plan to letter all but his four second lag. Xin knew that if Black could drop the shields and pulverize enough armor that he could unload all eight of his antimatter torpedoes into the interior of the Assault Dread. Gripping the sides of his cocoon with his pincer arms he relayed a steady stream of orders to his weapons officers and keyed up Black Beard on the COM.
“BB I’ve fell four seconds behind you, don’t release your infantry till you see me clear the AD, got it?” Black Beards response was quick.
“I have you covered, I figured out what you were up to as soon as I seen you modify your vector. I will try to crack that egg so you can scramble it, and ill hold my infantry till you clear the AD.” Black Beard smiled to himself at Xins plan, Xin rarely missed a chance to risk it all on gaining glory and victory for the Empire. He never however risked anything foolishly which was one of the major reasons he was still here, if Xin wanted to be in range for four seconds longer that was fine with him especially if it killed that AD. Black Beard waited till he was just seconds outside the optimum firing range for his weapons and gave his orders.
“Decloak and prepare for battle,” energy levels began to rise as the drain of the cloaking device was suddenly released, Black Beard wasn’t worried about energy as this wasn’t going to be a extended fight and he had replaced his ECM with Auxiliary Generators the same as Xin. The AD’s response was immediate; they began shunting energy to their drained port shields and opened fire on Xin and him. Most of the torpedoes were missing and detonating around the Scales pulverizing much smaller amounts of armor then the ones that impacted and blew huge divots out of the organic chitin. The real problem was the chemical lasers that were tracing paths from the Scale to the AD. They were boiling disturbingly large amount of the rocking Scales armor off into space in prismatic clouds of vapor.
“Fore armor is down to 48% and dropping, port and starboard armor is at 78% and the aft is at 88% due to torpedoes detonating to our rear.” The report came from the TAC officer who added, “All weapons locked ready to fire when the cloak drain is fully released, weapons free in two seconds.” Two of the longest seconds Black Beard had ever endured passed and he ordered the attack.
“Fire all weapons, I want a hole opened that Xin can fly through.” He paused and checked the status of the infantry in their drop pods, “infantry prepare to board enemy dread on my mark.” Psi cannons and disrupters erupted from the speeding Scale along with eight glowing antimatter torpedoes. Black Beard kept hammering, the original plan called for launching the torpedoes last and veering off to avoid the splash, things had changed. Blacks Scale fired full salvo after full salvo, his and Xins weapons dropped the AD’s shield like a bad habit and began to blow huge craters in the port side armor. Black Beard flew through explosions generated by their own antimatter torpedoes, armor ran like wax from the super heated fire as well as the enemy’s weapons. Disrupters that had over heated exploded outwards from his ship venting atmosphere and a couple hapless weapons techs who were now lost to the void. Fire and smoke filled the bridge as sparks rained down over the protective crew cocoons. Static filled the COM link as Black Beard raged his orders over the link, blood pounding through his veins in an adrenalin boosted rush.
“Where’s Xin?” He demanded, his TACS was flashing off and on and finally held just as he saw Xins Scale emerge from under the listing AD.
“Deploy infantry and cloak!” he ordered, “get us the hell out of here before that other Combat Dread gets a solution on us.”
“Cloak engaging sir,” the TAC officer cried out. “It’s responding slowly, energy levels are dangerously low due to the loss of our 2nd auxiliary generator. All fore and port armor is gone; we have hull breaches on decks 3, 4, 5, 7 and 9. Hull integrity is at 67% we are losing dangerous amounts of atmosphere and all weapons systems are down.” The TAC officer paused for a moment and Black Beard waited patiently.
“Cloak is attained, we lost approximately 17 % of our crew cocoons but the infantry pods impacted with the AD.”
“What’s Xins status,” Black Beard asked slamming his pincer hand down on the cocoons TACS that had just gone black again. “I lost my TAC.”
“Stand by as I scan and asses the situation,” The TAC officer replied, forcing Black Beard to wait yet again.
Xin a mere four seconds behind Black Beard fired all his weapons except the AM torpedoes, those he held for last as the psi cannons and disrupters hammered away at the AD’s already damaged by Black Beard port armor. His Scale expertly commanded and piloted by Xin and his crew rocketed towards the damaged but far from dead AD. Defensive fire from the lethal giant rained down on the much smaller cruiser ripping gouts of chitin and exposing the hull in several places as bereft on one of its targets it shifted its full attention to them.
“Fore armor gone, port and starboard armor at 23% 32% respectively and falling.” The TAC officer began his report with. “Psi cannons off line and disrupters threatening to over heat, Torpedo bays 1, 5, 6 and 8 are reported down due to a relay failure. Weapons control advises that they can fire manually on your mark if they survive. Hull integrity is at 79% with losses on decks 2, 3, 9, and 10.” In a voice totally devoid of emotion Xin addressed his crew.
“Hold the course steady and maintain disrupter fire. Fire torpedoes on my mark.” The crew encouraged by their commanders steady resolve fought with the Scales controls and kept it on target pride and force of will being their only motivation. Fear of death was not nearly as powerful to them as fear of failing their commander. Xin counted over the COM link calmly.
“3…2…1…Mark!” When he reached the end of his count the four manually launched torpedoes followed the ones fired by the Scales AI targeting system by a margin measuring less then a second.
“Hull breach on decks 5 and 6, we lost the entire weapons crew on deck 6 sir, our hull integrity is now 43% with 29% of our armor gone the most remaining in the aft sections.” The report came in as they flew under the AD at the same time the eight torpedoes exploded deep inside the AD which began to list to the starboard side. Static ruled the TAC screens of the crew blinding them to what was happening around them. Xin keyed the COM and shouted his orders hoping he was able to be heard over the din.
“Infantry commander, manually release your pods and self pilot them to the AD, we have lost telemetry control and are unable to assist.” He waited a few seconds wondering if they heard him before the reply came back.
“Infantry is away, we are piloting our pods to a starboard breach good shooting Admiral. LONG LIVE THE EMPIRE!” the infantry commander shouted as he and his pods burned their way towards the AD.
Xin muttered ‘God speed’ to himself wishing the infantry the best of luck then turned his attention back to his ship.
“I want full cloak as soon as we can get it, shut down any non essential systems and expose all breached or burning decks to space.”
“Cloak is off line the engineers are working on it, they estimate ten to twenty minutes before its operational, systems power is dropping rapidly do to core breaches on two engines and a total failure on all auxiliary generators. Even if we got the cloak up we couldn’t run it sir.” Xin leaned back in his cocoon.
“So this is it” he thought to himself as the stared at the black TACS, “it ends here and we can’t even see it coming.” Never one to give up he leaned forward and keyed the COM again as an idea came to him.
“Prepare for ejection,” he ordered on ship wide communications, manually pilot your cocoons for the rent in the AD’s starboard armor. If we lose our ship were going to take theirs or die trying.” Xins console lit up with affirmatives as the crew responded back excited by the chance to die fighting rather then be killed in a crippled ship unable to defend themselves. Once the crew reported back in as either ready or unable to comply due to damaged systems or breached cocoons Xin began to speak.
“Eject and attack, and may Y’Rath’Atar walk with you,” he ordered as he ejected his own cocoon and began the short flight to the AD and his destiny.
Pharoh couldn’t believe it, Jesters Clavate had just exploded. It had looked like the cocoons had ejected before it went up but he had no way of knowing if Jesters had been one of them. Pharoh kept a close watch on his TACS, Jesters exploding Clav had been far enough away to keep from detonating the Neutron Bombs he was riding in but that didn’t mean that they were safe from that ION cannons fire which could still impact with him if he weren’t careful. His ship would survive the hit but his bombs would not, it was a waiting game now there was no way to tell if it would hit with all the interference screwing with the scanners input. With close to 300Gu left to impact, all he could do was ride his bombs in and hope no one noticed them or they believed that the planet would take care of itself. He was nearly 275Gu from Tattoo when things changed dramatically; the AD in an attempt to avoid the fire ball that used to be Jester had turned hard to the starboard and was now on a collision course with him. If he stayed where he was he was toast, if he turned off he lost the bombs, with options dwindling by the second he decided to break off the run and began to leave the sector. There was no reason to risk another bomber when the real fight was going on over Haven right now.
Crimson had just ordered a firing solution on the nearest Scale to him when his TACS displayed the ghost like image of a Mandible decloaking off his port side.
“Belay that last solution,” he ordered his TAC officer. “We have a Mandible coming into view off the port side. I want weapons lock on that thing now.”
“Aye, aye sir” the TAC officer said as he canceled the last entry into the fire control computer “Calculating now sir.”
“Good, navigation I want flank speed, we need to put that Mandi side by side with us, trade a few blows and see how he likes it.” The ICC Combat Dread has most of it fire power stationed on its flanks rather then facing forward like the Mandible. Crimson wanted to use that to his advantage leaving the Mandible unable to bring the largest portion of its fore mounted offensive weapons into play. Heavy accelerations pressed Crimson and the crew in their couches as the massive Dreadnaught gradually gained speed and attempted to out maneuver the Mandible.
“Firing solution ready sir,” the TAC officer reported, “port weapons charged and ready.”
“Fire at will,” Crimson ordered, the Mandi was coming in fast and he wasn’t sure if they were going to get out of its forward weapons arc in time. “Navigation give it full ahead, I want us out of that forward arc if we can.”
“Yes sir, full ahead sir,” Huge city sized engines roared and pressed even more gravities onto the valiant crew who fought against its dizzying effects. Rail guns thumped, their ship shaking magnetic coils barely noticeable under the growing G forces. Crimson watched as Larvae, the Kluths single pilot fighter ships leapt away from the Mandi and towards them.
“Launch fighters and prepare point defense,” he ordered as he watched their IT missiles launch and streak towards the Mandible which had just began to open fire with its psi cannons. Crim griped his armrests as the Mandible corrected its course and continued to close on his port side. His fighters barreled across the void seeking the incoming Larvae attempting to keep them off the CD. As the Psi cannon fire rocked his Dread Crim watched the Disrupters begin to glow on the Mandi, six of which were assault class. If there was one thing he didn’t like when fighting the Kluth it was being T-boned by a Mandible, this was going to be a long day.
SyTHe ordered his Mandible to decloak; they had seconds until they reached beam range and he wanted to fire in the kill zone as long as possible. Firing solutions had already been calculated and were waiting for weapons free status and his orders.
“Fire at will the moment you have weapons free,” he ordered his weapons officer. “I want to put the maximum amount of fire we can on that CD I want it dead if it doesn’t jump.” Rail gun fire and missiles rocked the Mandible, SyTHe would not allow any of the assault Disrupters to be wasted on point defense and since he had no other disrupters he had to take the hits. His Tactical officer called off the ships status as the approached the looming CD. The Mandible rocked again as the Mandibles fore weapons cut loose, psi cannons, AM torpedoes and assault disrupters ripped across the intervening space to smash into the CD with stunning force.
“Keep up the fire until we pass under the CD,” SyTHe ordered, “then deploy the infantry and cloak.” He settled back into his cocoon to monitor his crew’s performance and make any necessary adjustments to the battle plan. It was going to be a glorious battle indeed.
“Reinforce those shields,” Crimson hollered over the COM as his port shields dropped to 10% almost instantly. Armor bubbled and drifted off into space as metallic vapor, and the torpedoes hadn’t even hit them yet, he needed those shields now.
“I don’t care if you have to drop the rest of them keep those shields hot!” Crimson could see what the Mandi was up to as soon as they opened fire; they planned on hammering him as hard as they could on his port side to open a hole for a follow through from another ship. Just like they were doing to the Foe Hammer, he had to admit it was a brilliant plan. They had effective negated the Intrepid’s ability to fire on them as well as the planetary defense bases by placing his and Taxis ship in harms way. He almost hated to take that victory from them, almost, he was going reinforce his port shield, correct his angle and chew that aft off that Dread after it passed under him.
“All engines full stop,” he ordered. “Bring her around 45% and charge all starboard weapons.” He smiled to himself, as the port shields began holding at 90% even under the AM torpedoes impact. The fore and aft shields were now depleted to 45% and the starboard ones to 25% and dropping as energy was being drained from them to the ones that mattered. He chuckled, when that Dread came out from under them she was going to get one hell of a surprise.
SyTHe couldn’t believe his eyes; the CD was taking minimal damage, and just offered them her flank wide open. He viewed the scanners readout on the CD and realized what it was doing. They had pumped everything into their port shields and were waiting on them to pass under to the other side. Mandibles had little to no weapons to the aft and were lightly armored as well. It took no more then a second or two to come to a decision; he keyed his COM and delivered the orders.
“Cease fire, enact emergency cloaking procedures at once.” He checked his TACS and finished the command. “After cloak is achieved bear to the starboard side 75% and travel at half speed unless beaconed.”
Pharoh had picked up the locator beacons signal from the cocoons off of Jesters Clavate. They were nearly 5000Gu away and still moving, they showed up as a large clump with a few scattered around the center but closing in slowly. The cocoons were programmed to cluster together grappling each other with claws that grew out of their skin; they also linked life support to optimize their life spans. Pharoh wasn’t about to leave any of his comrades floating in space no matter how many fleets may be hunting him, with that in mind he ordered his Navigation officer to plot a intercept course.
Smoke filled the Bridge as fires were brought under control; Taxi regained his couch after having been thrown to the deck when the last set of torpedoes had impacted deep in the Foe Hammers guts.
“Status!” He shouted over the COM link, he had to find out what was left of his ship before he could deal with those Scales which were sure to be coming back for the kill.
“Ship integrity is compromised, hull is at 85% port side armor is at 65% as well as the starboard side being at 73% sir. We have been holed from port to starboard, you could fly a sensor corvette through it.” The Tactical officer reported in a shaky voice.
“We can do with out the theatrics,” Taxi replied in a tired voice. “Just the facts if you please.”
“Aye sir,” the officer replied in a steadier voice. “We have damage to all decks, I am unable to give you’re a complete report at this time. Casualties are still coming in and all weapon systems are down. Engineering is reporting that all engines are off line and that life support is being power by back up and auxiliary generators. In effect sir, were dead in the water.” Taxi sat back in the accelerator couch and rubbed his forehead and wondered what else could go wrong. As if on queue, claxons sounded and a mechanical voice cried.
“Enemy Units Have Boarded!” over and over in a monotones drone. Taxi jumped to his feet and grabbed his energy pistol.
“All hands prepare to repel boarders, ensure your VAC suits are sealed.” He ordered over the ship wide COM, looks like he didn’t have to worry about the Scales after all the Kluth had just made it close and personal.
Banshee watched helplessly as the Foe Hammer and the Exathra came under fire from a surprise attack by the Kluth. He pounded the armrests of his accelerator couch in helpless frustration; he couldn’t assist them with out endangering them with his own fire.
“I want all our fighters launched to assist the Exathra in repelling those Larvae, once that’s done send them after those Scales.”
“Aye, Aye sir,” the Flight deck officer responded. Banshee leaned back in his couch and watched the battle, the first Scale came rocketing out from under the Foe Hammer and Banshee leapt to his feet.
“Track that Scale,” he ordered. “I want a solution for it as soon as it clears the Foe Hammer.” The Weapons officer tracked, locked and calculated the Scales progress and returned with.
“Solution locked and in place, waiting for orders to fire sir.” Banshee waited and watched the Scale as it flew away from the AD at an angle, still in between him and the Foe Hammer. Frustration gripped him again as the Scale grew first indistinct then vanished altogether.
“Damn their eyes,” he cursed, then ordered. “Give me a full spread of beacons on its last projected course maybe we will get lucky.” The crew scrambled to comply and soon barrages of beacons were bursting from the Intrepid, scattering on different vectors relative to the Scales last position.
Black Beard cursed as the far Combat Dread he was heading straight towards started firing beacons in an attempt to find them. So far none had hit but several were looking like good candidates for finding a home on them.
“Reduce speed by one half and load the coordinates for the rendezvous point,” he ordered. “If were beaconed were I want full speed and we run for it on a heading for the rendezvous point. Once we pass out of the interdictor field we will jump, its far enough out they wont be able to track us.” He paused then added, “don’t wait for the order if were beaconed just execute.” With that he set back in his cocoon and waited see what the battle would bring.
Banshee ordered a firing solution on the second Scale as it drifted out from under the Foe Hammer. It was obviously damaged and he could see infantry pods heading through the clearing debris now.
“Destroy that Scale once it’s clear of the Foe Hammer and send our infantry over there, they’ve been boarded and may be in no shape to repel.” His crew carried out his orders swiftly and moments later the Scale caught in Tattoos gravity drifted clear of the still badly listing AD. Banshee smiled as moment’s later missiles and torpedoes reduced the Scale to burning slag. None of their torpedoes or missiles went astray or threatened the besieged Foe Hammer.
“Good shooting,” he complimented his crew. “Now where is that infantry,” he asked urgently.
“Deploying now sir,” His Tactical officer replied, “you should be able to see them on the screen now.” True to his word Banshee could see six pods carrying a full company of infantry each streaking towards the AD.
“Good work lets keep those beacons up,” he ordered as he settled back into his couch. Things were looking better but they weren’t out of the woods yet.
Crimson cursed himself for not having beacons installed on the Exathra as the Mandible obviously reading his intent slowly vanished. He had always been a big believer in fire power over beacons and he had never regretted that decision until today. He had always trusted others in the fleet to carry the annoying little buggers and utilized his extra firepower to good effect after someone else had placed their beacons. Unable to track the vanished Dread he turned his attention to the last Scale which chose that moment to explode under fire from the Intrepid. With no more targets he turned back to the Foe Hammer, although he didn’t see it happen he knew what it meant when Banshee sent six infantry pods towards the AD. She had been boarded. He keyed his COM and sent a message to the infantry bay.
“I want the pods loaded and that infantry on its way to the Foe Hammer; she’s been boarded and may need assistance.”
“Roger that sir,” the response came from the Marine Command deck, “Were all over it.” Moments later six more pods were in route to the Foe Hammer, those Kluth boarders were in for a big surprise.
All the while this was going on no one noticed the bombs, barely missed by the drifting Foe Hammer silently streaking towards Tattoo. The planetary defense bases tracked them as they came in and oriented their pulse beams to repel. They didn’t request assistance as the cluster of bombs looked well within their ability to handle. What they couldn’t know was that due to the extreme skill of the pilots that laid them on their course as well as interference from the raging battle, there were three times the number of bombs then they showed inbound. For this reason no sirens were sounded, no sealing of key facilities was ordered. Twelve planet killing neutron bombs penetrated the defensive screen and exploded in the upper hemispheres of Tattoo spreading radiation and death across the globe in seconds. The population of Tattoo died in one communal sigh, which resulted in Tattoos defensive grid failing. While everything was left intact by the insidious Neutron Bombs, which just killed people not buildings, planetary defense ceased to function.
SyTHe cursed, despite the best efforts of his very capable crew, no less then three beacons had attached themselves to his hull and started transmitting high level ECCM waves. This gave the ICC a silhouette on their targeting computers with which they could very effectively target and engage him.
“Drop cloak and prepare for battle,” SyTHe ordered, his voice was calm but his thoughts betrayed him to the crew. No matter how they cut it the Mandible was in a bad position having flown clear of ICC the Dreads and directly into the line of fire of all three ships and the planet. Between the two Combat Dreads and the planet, SyTHe didn’t think the Assault Dread had any fight left in her, he didn’t see how they could escape the interdictor field in their already damaged Mandible. SyTHe gritted his teeth as both Combat Dread and the planet opened fire.
Banshee and Crimson both celebrated when the Mandible was suddenly appeared on their TAC screens outlined by a lucky beacon hit. Even though dark space separated them and they were both on their ships intercom they gave the order at nearly the same time.
“Fire at will,” Both officers ordered. TAC officers on both ships attained firing solutions and released the weapons to the Weapons officers who began to fire in earnest. Heavy thumping resounded through the hulls of both ships as first the rail guns began firing followed by their IT missiles and torpedoes. The crews of both Combat Dreads were high with the anticipation of an easy kill as the Mandible was running with its aft to them still cloaked and unable to return fire. The Mandible had began to turn and decloak, its bulk slowly beginning to blot out the stars behind it as it turned its aft to Tattoo and its starboard side to the much closer Dreads.
There was an immense flash of blinding light from Tattoo followed by an EMP wave and static ruled the COM for several moments. The ships in space had nothing to fear from the weakening EMP shielded from such things as they were. The reason behind its presence was what made the men and women serving the ICC fleet over Tattoo blood run cold, Tattoo had just died under a neutron attack.
“Ur’Keil the interdictor field had dropped,” the Navigation officer onboard SyTHes Mandible cried out over the COM. “I have a jump solution already in place to take us far from this place,” he added shortly afterward.
“Sound the Jump alarms and execute!” SyTHe shouted exhilarated at the prospect of escaping the ICC’s wrath over the death of Tattoo. He watched at the missiles from Tattoo bereft of their guidance system spiraled off into space, they may have lost guidance but the ones from the CD’s were still coming fast. It seemed if the ordinance from the ICC Dreads was going to reach him when the heavy handed fist of acceleration slammed him into his cocoon. His vision grew dim as he struggled against the heavy gravities which were doing their best to force him into unconsciousness he wanted to savor every second of their escape and the imagined rage of the ICC Commanders he had just left behind before submitting to the crushing G forces.
Black Beard was three quarters of the way out of the interdictor field when it dropped. He was tracking SyTHe and Pharoh movements wonder what he could do to assist them. Pharoh was ok he could slip up on the cocoons and load them while cloaked with no one the wiser it was SyTHe he was worried about. SyTHe had taken a beacon and was just being fired upon when Black Beard gave the order to come about and decloak, they were going to try to distract the Combat Dreads and give SyTHe a chance. He didn’t have a lot of faith in the tactic working if he were in one of the Dreads he would press the attack on the Mandible destroying it first then attack the cruiser. He was as surprised as the ICC when the bombs nailed Tattoo, without Pharoh to Shepard the bombs in he had no idea how they made it past the defensive screen. They must have laid down a hell of a lot more then he had anticipated.
“The interdictor field had dropped,” his Navigation officer reported. “We also received coordinates from SyTHes Navigator as well Ur’Keil,” He reported seconds later.
“Excellent,” he stated as he watched SyTHes Mandible disappear in a flash of light. “Notify Pharoh to take his time recovering Jesters crew and bring us about to rendezvous with SyTHe.” His orders were rapidly complied with and seconds after his cloak went down he was gone from the skies of Tattoo.
Banshee pounded his console in fury as first the Mandible jumped clear of their fire, then a Scale which had been lurking about cloaked followed suit. He keyed his COM link and demanded a status of the fleet Taxi was in no shape to pull things together with a Kluth boarding party rampaging through his deck so it was up to him. Reports began to come in on damage, casualties and combat readiness. There was also a report from a SRR shuttle on a reconnaissance mission of a Clavate decloaking over 7000Gu away from them and jumping apparently out of system. He switched over to Alpha teams channel to update Ants where he heard the battle raging there over the link.
Tops Clavate had reached bombing speed and they were a few hundred GU from being in range of Haven. The Clavates TACS was filled with a panoramic view of Haven covered with indicators denoting defensive, tactical and civilian infrastructures. He entered the targets he wished to be destroyed and logged them for the Weapons Officer who would enter them into the firing computer.
“Decloak, engage ECM and begin bombing,” Top ordered as they neared the extreme range of the neutron bombs. They were approaching on the dark side of the planet which would make the bombs that much easier to see as they neared the planet. That would give Mad who was on the dayside of the planet a chance to bomb and deploy the weapon unmolested when the defenders came after Top. His orders required him to make the run on Haven uncloaked even after his ECM was compromised by the planets sensors in hopes to draw any ICC defenders not having been gulled into rushing to defend Tattoo away from Mad and the weapon. Top watched the bombs fall out of the bays and stack up as Haven slept silently unaware that death was hurtling towards them under the wings of a Kluth Clavate.
Mad watched as Top began his bombing run, as soon as the planet discovered him he would begin his run on the dayside of the planet. Timing was everything so he ordered the Clavate to begin to gain bombing speed as soon as Top dropped his first racks. He was wound pretty tight and hoped that Top was going to be ok, taking the kind of fire he was going to be taking would have been better in a Ganglia. Top had decided that he would rather the bombing be done by Clavates then the huge Kluth Bomber Dreads and HaVoX didn’t disagree with him, the bombing was being done by the BUMS and it was their call.
Ants watched the TACS as Taxis fleet engaged the Kluth invaders over Tattoo he was torn between running to their aid and trusting his gut instinct that this was all part of some major ploy by the Kluth. He still couldn’t get past the feeling that something bigger was going on and that they would see it soon. He watched as Taxis Assault Dread came under a coordinated attack by two Scales and had nearly ordered Alpha Team to jump to their aid when Melly came over the COM link.
“Ants,” she began with excitement in her voice. “I was checking the system via the satellite video links just to see what I could find look at the dark side of Haven about 1300Gu out.” Ants connected with the NavSats video links and pulled back from Haven and searched the space for whatever Melly had seen. He was just about to ask her what he was looking for when he seen the Kluth Clavate running uncloaked. If it wasn’t for the fact that it was coming in from the dark side of the planet and reflecting R33’s light back towards Haven he wouldn’t have seen it or the shiny bombs under its wings.
“Good eye Mell,” he sent back to her, “be ready for some jump coordinates.” With that he keyed the ships intercom and requested a jump solution for Haven intercepting the Clavate.
“I have a solution sir,” the NAV Officer announced, and then he added. “I have sent the coordinated solution to Alpha Team sir we can jump on your command.”
“Affirmative, Thank you John,” He answered his NAV Officer then sent to Alpha Team. “Prepare to jump on my mark, 3…2…1, Mark!” he shouted and his Assault Cruiser leapt across space crushing them into the accelerator couches cruelly. Alpha Team struggled under the heavy G’s as their AC’s flew across the void nearly instantaneously. Ants blessed the suits, couches and drugs specially designed to keep them alive and awake under the heavy gravities as they burst into space 800Gu away from the Clavate. His mind took only seconds to recover from the jump and he began barking his orders.
Top had just passed the 1000Gu mark from Haven when the planets sensors compromised his ECM and long range missiles began to reach out from Haven towards him, eager to end the threat he posed to her population.
“Disengage ECM and engage point defense,” Top ordered now that the ECM was of no use to them. “Hold her steady and let’s get as many of these racks as we can out before wer…” He was interrupted by claxons sounding and three red deltas appeared on his TACS. He was astounded, how could they have gotten here so fast when he was just now visible to them.
“Turn Starboard side 75% and bring her to ahead thee quarters and begin evasive maneuvering,” he ordered quickly. “Were going to lead them on a merry chase and give Mad his chance.” They turned hard which thankfully caused some of Havens missiles to rocket past forcing them to turn and expend their limited fuel for a second pass. Others impacted the now accelerating Clavate spreading a trail of smoking armor behind them.
“Toggle shields on a thirty second cycle for two minuets we want them to think we can’t cloak.” Top ordered as the Assault Cruisers quickly oriented on them and accelerated to intercept. He watched them begin to close the gap and smiled, this was going to be an interesting game.
“Drop cloak and bring the ECM up, begin bombing at 1800Gu,” Mad ordered as soon as the first missile leapt away from Haven at Top. Shrill alarms sounded on the bridge as three of the Fatal Squadrons Assault Cruisers dropped out of jump space within 1000Gu or less of Top. Running silent Mad couldn’t warn Top about the AC’s and was relieved when he began evasive actions. Judging by his maneuvers Top was defiantly up for a game of cat and mouse. Not having the luxury of being able to watch Tops fight with the AC’s Mad turned his attention back to Haven and his bombs.
The bombs were dropping beautifully his Weapons Officer was like a maestro orchestrating an opera of doom for Haven whom would be totally unaware of his arrival focused on Top as they all were.
“Cease bombing at 1100Gu and cloak,” Mad ordered. “Keep the ECM running to cover the bombs, were going to ride these puppies right in.”
“Aye, aye Ur’Keil,” the bridge responded as they brought up the cloak and the Weapons Officer stood down at fire control.
Mad counted the GU off as they rushed towards Haven bombs nestled under his ship like chicks under a hen, all that mattered now was dropping his infantry pods and deploying the weapon.
Alpha One flying in a classic V formation closed with Top, as they passed the bombs speeding towards Haven Epoch triggered his pulse shield. The pulse shield sent a wave of kinetic force out from the center of his ship destroying the bombs in mid flight.
“Nicely done Epoch,” Ants congratulated him and turned his attention back to the fleeing Clavate.
“Navigation,” he started over his intercom. “See if you can plot a jump that will put us right behind that Clavate, and then pass it to the rest of Alpha Team.”
“I’ll try sir,” the NAV Officer responded in an unsure voice. “I’ll have to try a short jump a few hundred GU maybe more in front of him. Keep in mind if were off we will either be in front of him or a part of him.” Ants didn’t hesitate in replying John had pulled off this maneuver countless times before, he always had the same warning for Ants when they tried it.
“Noted,” Ants answered with a smile, “Just get us there in one piece and I’ll be happy.” John didn’t bother to reply as he worked up the solution.
“Solution locked and sent sir you may initiate the jump when you’re ready.” John sounded the jump alarm and the crew buckled down to jump yet again.
“Jump now!” Ants ordered not bothering to count down, he didn’t want that Clavate clearing the interdictor field before they got a piece of him. Gravities slammed them hard, but for a much shorter time the previous jump as Alpha Team suddenly found themselves less the 200Gu behind the Clavate.
“Fire all weapons!” Ants barked over his intercom as his ship lurched under the massive barrage of torpedoes they carried he watched Melly and Epoch on the TACS pound the Clavate with fire as well. Armor disappeared as the aft section of the Clavate seemed to disintegrate under the concentrated fire of the three Assault Cruisers.
Top was caught off guard, the AC’s had just jumped right behind him and unloaded without pausing.
“Hard to starboard,” he cried out over the intercom. “Full speed ahead and begin evasive maneuvers.” The Clavate shuddered and pitched violently as the aft section of the bomber cruiser was impacted repeatedly by enemy fire. Armor evaporated as Fusion torpedoes, assault chemical lasers and rail guns ripped through it and into the hull.
“Aft armor is gone and we have hull breaches on decks 4, 5, 6 and 7. Engineering reports engine one down and engine two is at half power, we also lost fire control and cloak. The hulls integrity is at 79% and falling.” Top winced at the bleak report and the sudden viciousness of the normally cautious humans. He keyed his COM link and requested assistance.
“Were in trouble over here, I have three AC’s tearing us apart,” he sent over the link. “Think we can get a little help over here?” If he could hold on for 600Gu more he would be clear of the dictor field and able to jump out, he prayed to Y’Rath’Atar that they got the chance.
Ants swore as two modified Scales dropped out of jump space behind them they carried a full load of psi cannons and torpedoes, not he kind of ship one wanted behind you in combat. Coming in fast the Scales rapidly began to chewing the aft shields and armor to pieces on Melly and Epochs Assault Cruisers which were a 120Gu behind him in formation. Left with no other option Ants keyed up his COM and transmitted his orders.
“Break formation and engage the Scales individually they are going to cut us up like this.” Double clicks confirmed the receipt of the orders. Melly and Epochs AC’s veered across each others paths in an effort to shake the Scales and offer each other an opportunity to target the Scales on the others ‘six’. As they crossed each other, Ants ordered his crew throw their AC into a diving circle to bring them up hopefully behind the two Scales who were still dogging Alpha 1 and 2. Melly and Epoch unable to shake the Scales yet were flying in criss cross pattern towards Haven hoping to lure the Kluth cruisers into range of the planets beams and torpedoes. Following the dive and turn Ants found himself trailing the enemy Scales.
“Get me lock on those two Scales and fire them up!” He yelled over the intercom. The Scales were missing a bit more now that the element of surprise was gone but shields still flared and armor was still trailing behind both the FS cruisers.
Badly damaged and still running without cloak Tops crew fought to escape the planets interdictor field and survive its relentless missile barrage. The AC’s had pulled off the attack with the arrival of the two Shadow Pirate Scales a fact Top was very grateful for but Haven still fired at him and he had just over 200Gu to go with systems fading fast.
“Engineering keep that jump drive up and charged if you do nothing else,” Top ordered his engineers. “Everyone else insure your cocoons are secure and be ready to jump in 200Gu and counting.” Top disengaged his COM and wished the Pirates battling to save his life the best and waited to see who would win, Haven or his valiant engineers.
Mad rode his bombs as they closed within first 250 then 200Gu of the planet timing was everything.
“At 150Gu I want all engines full reverse, rotate us to 42 degrees and ahead half speed.” He ordered to the crew. “Once we are at half speed decloak and prepare to deploy infantry pods and the weapon.”
“Aye, Aye” the crew responded by department, the last one to respond was punctuated by the ships sudden deceleration which was oddly enough as bad as acceleration was. The bombs covered by the Clavates ECM passed unmolested through Havens defensive screen entered the planets atmosphere where they sprouted wings and rocketed off to their various targets. Moments later brilliant flashes speckled the globe and massive amounts of radiation and EMP washed over the planet and out into space. It was over in seconds, one minute Haven was a health booming industrial center teaming with life. The next it was a graveyard, billions of lives snuffed in seconds as radiation spiked to levels thousands of times higher then what was needed to kill, reducing anyone not protected to ash or dried out husks. As fast as the radiation came it died away, levels became habitable in moments and would be undetectable with in hours. The neutron bomb widely employed by the Kluth was in fact ironically a stolen technology they had acquired from the humans who had taught them its effectiveness. I was designed entirely with the idea of killing everything on a planet and occupying what was left with minimal repair or cleaning up both insidious and effective.
“Infantry and weapon deployed Ur’Keil” The TAC Officer reported. “We are taking heavy fire and initiating cloak now and dropping ECM.” Assault chemical lasers and torpedoes slammed into the disappearing Clavate ripping armor to pieces and chewing their way into the hull. It became eerily quite with no sound at all except for the alarms and TAC officer reporting damage as the Clav achieved cloak and was no longer a viable target.
“port side armor is at 11% fore armor is at 27% and aft armor is at 9% our hull integrity is 59% all systems are up with some working below optimum level but with in operating ranges.”
“Thank you, what’s the status of Haven and our drop?” Mad asked as the Clavate raced away from Haven under cloak.
“All pods and the weapon deployed successfully with minimal loss, we killed nearly 70% of Havens population all priority military targets were buttoned down. As best as I can tell all the defending infantry died in their bunker, the planet should be captured quite easily by our Shock Troopers.”
“Excellent great job everyone,” Mad congratulated his crew. “Navigation plot us a course for the rendezvous point and execute.” Mad flushed with the joy of a perfectly executed mission sat back in his cocoon and wondered how Top made out.
Tops having cleared the interdictor field and seeing that Mad was well on his way out of the system had his crew lay in a course for the rendezvous point and prepare to jump, the only thing left to do was call off the Scales and stand down the Mandibles that were gaining a jump solution to assist the them. He keyed his COM and passed the news to the embattled Pirates over Haven.
Ants was furious, while they were engaged with the Scales another bomber had slipped in under cloak and ECM and neuted’ Haven, millions possibly billions had died on his watch and he was pissed.
“Bravo Team,” he called out over his COM link. “Any chance of us getting some help over here, we got a second bomber here and he nailed Haven and is dropping infantry.” Banshee’s voice carried over the intervening space by the COM link returned their answer.
“Were gaining a jump solution now, Taxis AD got taken out in the battle over Tattoo.” He paused then added, “Tattoo is a complete loss, 100% kill rate but no infantry were dropped were doing the best we can Ants.” Ants shook his head it wasn’t their fault they were up to their ass in alligators to same as us.
“No problem Banshee,” he sent back. “It’s not your fault, I’m just a little bent right now get over here when you can if you think it’s safe to leave Taxi.”
“Roger,” Banshees reply came as Ants watched as the Scales cloaked and disappear from their TACS.
“Look alive Alpha Team,” he transmitted. “They could be hiding for another surprise attack or leaving. In the mean time let’s drop some infantry on that rock they look like they could use some help down there.”
HaVoX watched as the survivors of the fleet returned, he congratulated each in turn as they arrive and honored the dead once they had all gathered at the rally point.
“Today,” he intoned, “we have won a great battle, we have triumphed over the enemy and he does not yet know he lost. You all have brought great honors to your tribes and your ancestors. Those who have perished gather as we speak in the light of Atar and receive the highest of honors guaranteeing themselves everlasting accolade in the halls of Y’Rath’Atar, blessed be their light.” With the ritual response of “all praise the light” the fleet decloaked and HaVoX led the first of many jumps into deep space to meet the worm hole to home.
Taxi crouched behind a bulkhead several levels below the bridge; they had lost the artificial gravity in the ship half an hour ago. Bodies of both Kluth and humans floated amongst debris and gore around him and the defenders attempting to push the squad of Kluth Shock Troopers further from the bridge. This level was exposed to vacuum and Taxis voice seemed loud to his ears in the helmet of the VAC suit as he gave orders.
“I want three of you to cover the rest of us as we try for the corridor off to our left. If we make it there we can pin those Kluth down while the rest take their position.” Acknowledgments came fast and Taxi pushed the floating body of a dead ensign killed either by decompression or enemy fire away from him. It was hard to tell when the VAC suit was all crumpled and sucked in like it was he just ignored the shocked look on the face he glimpsed through the clear face plate and prepared to run.
“Follow me!” He cried through his COM link as he charged out into the hall trying to dodge the enemy’s fire as barreled down the hall toward the adjacent corridor. He slammed into the wall and rolled out of the way of the crewmen following on his heels, oxygen burst into the corridor as the third man in their group took a glancing blow to his helmet. He screamed across the COM link as the violent decompression killing him sent him spinning down the hall propelled by his own dwindling oxygen. Taxi counted the crewman that had made it besides himself, four out of six not very good. He peered around the corner to evaluate their field of fire the three crewmen he had left back at the corner were till laying down fire trying to keep the Kluth pinned but lacked the angle to do it well. From their position they could roll into the hall and place a very devastating amount of fire directly into the Kluths unprotected flank.
“Ok boys lets give it to em, once we start firing you three back there rush their position.” Taxi rolled out into the hall they were hiding down and began firing his energy pistol the others rapidly followed suit. They used energy weapons onboard space vessels to insure that there were no accidental decompressions they may not puncture heavy armor but they made a mess of the Kluth in short order. Smoke from burnt flesh was vented with the oxygen from the Kluth Shock Troopers who when hit would bounce off the walls as their suits crumpled around their thrashing bodies or they would just collapsed killed instantly floating gently away. They turned their fire on Taxis men and tossed a round object down the hall at the charging crewmen. A crewman on Taxis left took a hit right in the face place and drifted backward as the helmet vented all his oxygen in one blast. Taxi couldn’t get over how eerie it was to see a man die and not hear a thing, it was worse in its own way then hearing them scream themselves to death over the COM. The grenade that the Kluth had lobbed at the charging crewmen went off with soundlessly with nothing to mark to its explosion but a sense of pressure and the mangled bodies and globs of blood floating down the hall towards them. The grenades were filled with lead hard enough to penetrate a VAC suit but soft enough to splatter harmlessly against steel hulls. With one threat down the remaining Kluth turned their attention to the four remaining humans laying in the hall now dreadfully exposed.
“Fall back,” Taxi ordered over the COM just as massive amounts of energy weapon fire shredded the Kluth from behind causing them to dance like marionettes and float off in random directions down the hall.
“Or not,” he said to himself then broadcast on all bands he sent a query down the hall. “Who’s there?” he asked. “This is Grand Admiral Frank Peterson please identify yourself.” He pulled himself back against his wall as he waited for a response.
“This is Gunnery Sergeant Malone 7th SDM from the C.S.S Intrepid, glad to meet you Admiral.” Taxi let out a huge sigh, Banshee had sent him Marines he must have figured correctly that his had been overwhelmed.
“And I am glad to make yours Gunny believe me,” Taxi said coming around the corner. “How is the battle going?” He asked the approaching Marines.
“Splendidly sir,” the Marine stated as he came to a stop in front of Taxi his magnetic combat boots making clicking sounds. “I’m told that elements from the Exathra have secured your bridge and are awaiting your arrival. I don’t mean to rush you sir but your crew has roughly thirty to forty minutes to get the Foe Hammer back under control before she pulled into Tattoo.” Taxi sighed again.
“Wonderful,” he said to the Marine. “If you and your men would be so kind as to escort us to the bridge I’ll see what we can do.” Taxi fell in line behind the Gunny and his men, shooting off orders and requesting reports trying to find out if there was anyway to save the Foe Hammer.
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GothThug {C?}
Fleet Admiral
Joined: June 29, 2005
Posts: 2932
| Posted: 2006-04-21 09:43
NICE! 
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Fluffy Bunny
Grand Admiral
Joined: April 02, 2005
Posts: 39
From: Denmark
| Posted: 2006-04-24 06:38
Well i know its fition etc, and what we do is similar, but apart from that would't kluth use bio bombs? (well you did ask for comment on flow) 
Sure we use neutrons too, its just well we do have bios, which ofcourse give a green skye instead and a red trail . not saying neutrons is wrong, just i feel you forgotten about it.
apart from that and probely missing space but a draft as you said very nice
[ This Message was edited by: Fluffy Bunny on 2006-04-24 06:40 ]
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HaVoX
Fleet Admiral
Joined: September 07, 2003
Posts: 269
From: Florida whoo hoo
| Posted: 2006-04-24 08:36
I thought about using bios but I had the Kluth use neutrons instead for two reasons. Acording to offical DS history the Kluth build every thing geneticly except a few items, AM torpedos, AMJ and AM engines. Those were stolen technolgys they very effectivly brought into thier arsenal, in my story neutrons are the same way. Way more effective then Bios as they can drop many more racks of them and are just the next in a contiueing line of hijacks.
Humans will be using Kluth tech in the story as well very shortly specificly the AM technology.
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$milingJ35te|2™{=21st=}[R33HG]
Fleet Admiral
Joined: September 10, 2002
Posts: 310
From: smilingjester
| Posted: 2006-04-25 02:58
(: *~ d- -b ~*
Awesome, keep it comming
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