Kitsurugi Yui
GSA Fleet Admiral
Posts: 192
(10/20/03 9:59 pm)
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Act IV: Outbreak Scene 1: A Painful Learning Experience
The Beholder Marx XXX Command Station resembled a large hourglass in some respects, being some five kilometers in overall height, though the ends of the station were broadened while the centerpiece was something like 175 meters in diameter. While certainly massive, it looked rather benign in appearance, with the standard complement of defensive turrets mounted on its hull, but none of the ship-busting cannons of the vessels that were tasked to her defense. The station was equipped with the best command, control, and communications systems available to the Jaaq'tah Alliance, which gave the Great Crimson Fleet near unparalleled capability to coordinate its defenses when the Draconian Alliance's assault came.
Vaishan and Nerimian Central Intelligence spies estimated that the Beholder system was even more powerful than the NDI's awe-inspiring DEIMOS and DEUS systems, which were quite extensive in their capabilities. With the Jaaq'tah in possession of such a powerful C3i system, it would act as a force multiplier that the allies could not allow to be put in place.
So this is where the GSA comes in. Their advanced array of sensors would note some 350 vessels in relatively close proximity to the station (25,000 km or so), most of them of the Kranhkt destroyer classification (official NDI nomenclature is the Executioner). There were a few Sche-Ki (Black Death) missile frigates, and a couple of Durash dreadnoughts for good measure. With a healthy array of firepower at their disposal, a pitched battle with them wasn't in the GSA's best interest. This is why this was a raiding mission.
The 5th and 6th Fleets were cloaked and prepositioned at the edge of the system. As the operation commenced, the majority of the 1st Expeditionary Fleet Transuniversally teleported into Tau Ceti. The Fleet stayed cloaked as well. Yui's fleet was there to watch and make sure Wolf and her daughter didn't get into trouble. The Taisho sent a very short encoded subspace message to the Nerimians, "Have you ever heard the expression, ‘you get what you pay for?' This is the last time you pay poorly for good services." To her fleets, she sent another message. "Destroy station. Avoid prolonged combat. 1XF will distract if needed."
The Beholder Command Station suddenly detected multiple disturbances of the fabric of space-time as multiple ships transitioned into the systems. The system of remote early-warning sensors on the edge of the system relayed this information to the command station via high-speed tachyonic communications, which processed the data and put it in a form the station's commander could understand. With the early-warning sensors breached, other sensors equipped with hyperwave, subspace mass, and zero-point field arrays began to sweep the area in question, but could find little, if any trace of any foreign vessel. Nevertheless, the Jaaq'tah knew something was wrong. Forces throughout the systems went to their highest state of readiness, prepared to intercept an allied fleet moving to attack them.
"SAINT-6, probing station shields and armor." Chujo Kitsurugi Sharie of Phantom Regiment announced to Chujo Alexis Jaren, who was acting commander of Shadow Regiment. The RDD sensors locked on to a chunk of the station's hull from 5 Astronomical Units away. It was close enough for the latest Yui recon-Scout to see gluons. Ghost Regiment was assigned to watch the Jaaq'tah ships, and reported the movement. "Looks like mom got their attention." At 50 AU out, the 1st XF had some time to scoot out of the way while the enemy investigated. "Silent running."
"All Shadow-group ships cloaked and under silent running," reported the Shadow-00 Megami. Alexis sat at the Ops station, calming himself for the impending raid. He had convinced the computer to allow him to directly interface, much like the Seigi systems only wireless, and ran the data as an overlay on his normal vision field. "Alright, everyone to stations! We've got the signal to go." Everyone double-checked their stations. A pilot hooked herself up in the pit, and Alexis felt her presence emerge in the computer system as the connection was made, followed by nine other signals as the other Shadow-regiment pilots engaged their links. Everything was prepared.
Roving patrols of Executioner destroyers probed the emptiness of space with high-powered beams of hyperwave radar energy in an attempt to actively root out the invaders. This of course lit them up like a veritable beacon to the GSA vessels, but that's what they wanted in a sense of the word. Not only did it let the enemy know that they knew they were there.....somewhere, but if the enemy was foolish and decided to attack, it would allow the rest of the Great Crimson Fleet to move in and strike with overwhelming force. That was the beauty of space. One was relatively hidden until he did something to give himself and his position away.
The 1st XF sat dreadfully quiet, ships with shields off, stealth on, and emitting no distortions or energy. This was a time to lay low. The TTD systems of GSA starships were good at disappearing acts, but historically made a big show of energy when entering a universe. This time had been no exception. Yui paced the spacious bridge of the Yuumi-class battleship Empire, taking in all the holographic battle data that floated around the place. Meanwhile, her daughter's ships continued to scan the station to find out just how much the shields and armor could take.
"What d'we got?" Wolf had just stepped on to the bridge and going between bridge crew, hunting for information. "Get in touch with Alexis, tell him we need to get in position. Right now, working plan is GWB. Ask him how many he has." The communications officer sent the encoded short message : "Plan, grand white. How many can you lend?"
The station was heavily armored -- much like a capital ship would be. It could take quite a beating from the traditional array of anti-warship weaponry, but the simple shape of its construction would no doubt point out several structural weak points to the MEGAMI computers onboard the GSA vessels. Shielding systems were considerably more powerful than the systems on most Jaaq'tah and even Draconian League vessels. It would take several shots to break the shield integrity, in which case they would have roughly 25 seconds before the shields regenerated their strength.
"Ten" came the equally short reply.
"At 5 AU out, it will take a beam around 45 minutes to hit them. We've got to move in closer. The ships are being led way out looking for the XF. Other ship may be cloaked. I will ask SAINT-XF to scan for additional hostiles," Sharie replied via a transphased tight-beam laser transmission. It would not be good to be overheard.
Wolf's exact words this time: "We're moving in. Go in slow enough so that we could form anti-starship variables by the time we get there. Start forming them now, all move out. If they find us somehow, utilize TTD or whatever available to get in front of that damned thing and hit it with all you got for as long as you can. If you're damaged, move to the back. Keep scanning."
The problem with the hyperwave radar was that unless you knew a general direction of where your target was at, it was very hard to find him using the otherwise powerful sensor array. The search volumes were simply so big that it could literally take an Earth-standard day to find what you were looking for -- assuming it remained in that general area while you were looking for it. A ship could stay hidden in space even without a wide array of specialized cloaking systems simply by running silent (much like a submarine) and not giving out much EMR for other sensors to pick up.
"Wolf, can you take some of your ships and move in to ten million miles? That's about a minute of target time. Stations are easy targets." Yui asked, just as his ships began moving. "Thank you," she smiled, her eyes on the holographic icons of 5th Fleet. She switched over to contacting 6th Fleet again. "Sharie-chan, where is that sensor data? You have thirty Recon-Scouts at your disposal." the mother chided. Meanwhile, the Recon-Scout destroyers in Yui's fleet were using a wide-area RDD scan to search for cloaked vessels. Anything over 45,000 kilos within 500 billion miles was fair game.
There were a large contingent of vessels along the pathway to the station that were running in passive mode, using their passive sensors to try and pick up anything the GSA vessels gave off. RDD scans would pick up the ships laying dormant, almost as if their ships weren't even active. These ships, however, were waiting to spring into action once they got a bead on their targets.
"Too bad we don't have any active Ender-class Destroyers" Yui frowned. The Enders were valuable indirect fire ships--they used teleportation-based main guns, which could deliver a payload right on top of (if not inside) the target. Unfortunately, nearly all of them were destroyed in the last large battle with the Elysian Celestial Navy. Taisho Yui sent a quick transmission to Taisho Wolf, "Are you going to need some distraction?"
"Yeah, we'll take all we got and move in to ten million as quick as we can. Try and hit a ship or two, you know, draw them to you. We'll move in and hit them while they're going to you. They probably won't move so many ships toward you anyway but we can at least make it a bit easier to get close enough." The ships had been and still were going a bit slow, but they would pick up the pace when the weapons had formed and some of the enemy ships had moved out of the way. The variable weapons were a few minutes into forming...
Sharie quipped, "Three fleets is serious overkill. We've never used three entire fleets together before. We could take these forces with ease." Yui, listening, came back immediately. "At what cost? We won't waist our resources." The Sixth Fleet began charging their CDD drives and revving up. Sharie's Intel officer reported to her counterpart on the Kiyomizudera (Wolf's Ship). "Weak points transmitted to you. Center portion, hardpoint lines of the frame leading out from center. Armor composed of a new substance, not previously encountered. Analysis suggests it may be stronger than NDI heavy armor found on fourth and possibly fifth generation vessels."
Phased Pulse Sensors began to report back data to the Beholder command station, which then began to filter information rapidly back through the Jaaq'tah integrated combat network. The hyperwave radar transmissions suddenly began to cease and energy levels throughout the spectrum of Jaaq'tah vessels began to fade into the background of space as EMS was constantly downshifted to match the background radiation of space.
The intelligence officer of the Kiyomizudera came forward to Wolf. "Best point of attack is probably the center. New armor, nothing we've seen before. Could be more powerful than NDI vessels." She nodded and returned to her station. Wolf sent another message "We'll go in at .05 of light and position to hit the center of the station once you got them." A bridge officer spoke out, "We've lost them on all but RDD. They may know we're here." Wolf obviously didn't care. "So what, they disappeared? Coming in would've made them suspicious, don't worry about it."
Suddenly, a massive bright-white beam hit a Durash right in the command tower. A furious little explosion appeared where the five-foot-wide all-destructive beam had been, moving down into the ship itself as the beam went through its five-second firing cycle. The attacking Yui, Dragon Zero Four (GD-216) glided softly away as the beam spat out of its shield bubble, and disappeared again.
They would see the dreadnought become engulfed with the energy from the GWB, almost disappearing in the blast, but after the firing cycle was over, the dreadnought emerged from the blast largely unscathed, the repulsor shields keeping a great deal of the energy from the hull while the armor was able to weather the remainder of the energy bleed-off. The entire front of the Durash and its sister vessel suddenly began to glow with an orange-yellow light before the GSA vessels felt multiple pings from phased pulse sensors from remote drones scattered throughout space, illuminating their positions. Two mammoth phased particle blasts several hundred thousand kilometers in diameter tore through the fabric of space, trying to flood the area where Dragon Zero Four was with destructive energy.
Meanwhile over Nepleslia the GSS Seigi had just received a fresh compliment of Minion's from the Genesis. It took moments for the craft to finish attaching themselves to the outer hull. Wazu walked back onto the bridge and sat down in his command chair, letting Seigi attach herself to the data ports in his shoulders. He then asked the computer a single question out of curiosity, "Where did the 6th fleet go?"... A few minuets later the Seigi TTDed in several light years outside of the Tau Ceti system putting the conflict just on the edge of their sensors. It took only four seconds for an entire Samurai Squadron and all of the Minion's to launch and take up a defensive formation around the ship while additional fighter wings were launched and turrets deployed. Wazu didn't bother sending a
Message to the fleet knowing that they were clearly visible on any Yui class's sensors. Hopefully they would be kind enough to point out targets.
"Shock and Awe." Yui yelled out, drawing her sword. At nearly the opposite direction the initial attack had come from, the entirety of the 1st Expeditionary Fleet began pummeling the Jaaq'tah from behind for a full ten seconds. With a flash, they dispersed in a maelstrom of spatial distortion, using their CDD engines to carry them out of the way of the anticipated return fire.
Phantom Regiment took off, decloaking. At two thousand times the speed of light, it took a tiny fraction of a second before dozens and dozens of shield-penetrating Zero-Point torpedoes encountered the station. "AH!!" Sharie shrieked as the ships were flung wildly off-course by the tear in space that Wazu had opened. The first volley of torpedoes TOTALLY missed the space station.
The Kiyomizudera sent a message to the Kitamura, another Yui-class. "SDD, go above the station and when you get close hit the center with the GWB, get extremely close though, we need to know if it'll work on the station. After you pass, CDD towards the Sixth Fleet for cover, but watch for fire because after that stunt I wouldn't be surprised if they end up hitting you themselves." Wolf said to the comms, "Get in touch with him, ask him what the hell he's doing, please."
The Shadow Regiment followed Phantom's lead. "Firing torpedoes." The torpedoes were adjusted for the disturbance so most of the second volley was unaffected, and the vollies were arranged in a ring aimed toward the center of the station. ~The Seigi's here?~ thought Alexis as he suddenly picked up a large mass of fighters and a ISFB on sensors.
The Jaaq'tah war machine came alive with the first shots fired and the general alarm was sounded throughout the sector for all vessels to prepare for combat. Now the GSA would see the brilliance of the Jaaq'tah as in the path of the 1st Expeditionary Fleet came upon a wormhole opening in front of them revealing a literal wolfpack of Kranhkt destroyers volleying multiple particle blasts directly into their path. There was a two second delay between the time the 1st XF appeared and the wormhole was opened, but the Beholder command station was just warming up. It's reaction times next time would be much faster.
The Seigi was another issue as multiple Omino drones generated wormholes for more Jaaq'tah vessels to come into play. A multitude of Jaaq'tah vessels ranging from destroyers to cruisers descended upon the Seigi unleashing every weapon at their disposal upon the GSA vessel in an attempt to wipe it out in one grand, simultaneous instant. Secondary blasts streaked outward towards the Minion corvettes in an attempt to destroy the smaller vessels as well.
As torpedoes streaked towards the targeted Beholder command station, multiple rings of anti-matter explosions consumed the missiles in a spectacular manner, the resulting gamma ray burst creating a dramatic EMS spike. Sche-ki missile frigates moved into position around the station, launching multiple Hermes drones into the fray.
"What the hell is Chujo Wazu doing here?" Yui asked, watching her daughter end up a light-month away from the battle; fleets were tripping over each other. She sent out a message to the Seigi and all other GSA vessels "Use shield-penetrating weapons to attack. They use distortion shields similar to ours. Keep moving at high speeds to avoid fire. These opponents are probably not experienced in FTL warfare." The assumption was based on the fact that everyone in the NDI and their area preferred Hyperspace travel. At high enough speeds (and this was Sharie's idea), the Jaaq'tah could not track the GSA ships and fire on them because they were out of range too fast. Sixth Fleet turned around, and prepared for another torpedo dash at two thousand times light speed.
The Krankts, in showing up in front of the 1st Expeditionary Fleet, had done the worst thing they could possibly have done: putting themselves in front of the business end of two Yuumi-class battleships. The Legacy Cannons fired at the behest of the MEGAMI computer, strategically combined to destroy every single speck of matter in an area 80 miles wide, creating a rift in space that not only ripped apart the wormhole, but devolved into a colossal suction of gravity that was pulling on every ship with a time/space anchor within 200,000 miles. The 1st XF split into regiments and spread out in different directions.
Wazu had no intention of letting the Seigi be destroyed so quickly and simply TTDed the ship away, letting it simply disappear then reappear exactly one light-year directly behind where it was earlier then started to use its own CDD in a attempt to evade fire at high speeds long enough to recharge and fire again. The new Minion's with CDD's of their own started making runs on the worm hole openings slowing down for only a brief few seconds to fire their GWB's at the Omino drones and wormhole openings before moving off at full speed again. The nine slower Minion's had a much harder time, they stayed close to the tear in space, putting it between most of the Jaaq'tah and them while doing their best to evade incoming fire. Three of the small ships were vaporized in the first Jaaq'tah volley
Following the rest of the fleet, the Shadow Regiment began adjusting the variable weaponry. Under Alexis' direction, they split into two groups of five, positioning one behind and slightly above the other with weapons set to fire transphasic beams and act as cover fire as the other, including Shadow 00, reset to fire transplanar phase pulses. All ten ships fired GWBs into the incoming drone clouds with multiple-beam spreads, each a thin, piercing white lance of annihilation.
"Spread out. Approach from all directions and at different distances fire at the center with whatever you can." The Kitamura had seemed to go unnoticed, and at a healthy distance away fired it Grand White Beam cannon directly at the center of the Beholder station. Normally it could destroy anything, but this station could and most probably was just as strong as its protectors were. While firing the GWB, the lower hull variable weapons, 12 in total, also fired the transphasic beams formed a short while ago at the center. As it passed it increased it's already nice speed to the max in an attempt to get away as soon as possible but still unload.
The other Fifth Fleet ships started moving toward the station, firing their GWB's at different locations, but mostly close to the center. The smaller carriers and fighters formed what little of a defensive formation they could with the fleet spreading out.
The Beholder watched as the Yuumi battleships launched their Legacy Cannons and readjusted fleet resources to take care of those pertinent threats. As the destroyer squadron fired wildly to try and take out elements of the 1st XF, a series of subspace ripping detonations suddenly erupted around the Yuumi battleship, Empire, the detonations capable of blasting through the distortion fields of the battleship and dealing direct damage to the Impervium-based hull.
The detonations were the byproduct of multiple tandem-detonated Aether torpedoes launched to their positions by wormholes generated by Omino drones (which were scattered throughout the system by the hundreds of thousands) and Durash dreadnoughts. Secondary wormholes opened up seconds later as a Lochta cruiser squadron emerged surrounding the vessel and opening up with heavy particle beams.
The Jaaq'tah kept up their attrition of the Minion corvettes, sweeping down on each individual corvette by the dozens as they slowed down, meeting GWB fire with their own phased particle blasts. The GWBs were powerful in their own right, but there wasn't enough destructive power to go around in proportion to the firepower the Jaaq'tah held at their disposal.
Shadow Regiment was starting to become a problem, but multiple wormholes opened up as thousands upon thousands of Parasite drones began to flood out into space, accelerating to speeds approaching .775c, putting themselves at a time on target on the various vessels at just 1.25 seconds. The Parasites would try to penetrate the hulls of the Yui scout destroyers and lay seige to the electronic components of the vessels, eventually hoping to bring them under the control of the Parasite drones.
The Kitamura was besieged with volley after volley of particle cannon fire as it launched its attack against the Beholder command station. Lochta cruisers launched aether torpedoes at the vessel, which detonated long before impact, but the aetheric detonation would send a devastating shockwave through space and subspace that would rend through the distortion field of the vessel.
"KAMI," Yui addressed the Empire's computer system. "Why did your weapons array not intercept the torpedoes?" The male voice answered, "Unexpected delivery method. The problem has been addressed." Outside, the Empire was pummeled by the cruisers which surrounded it. The GSS Empire bumped into one as it attempted to get clear of them, using its speed advantage. The particle beams had minimal effect on the Impervium armor, but tore up everything that wasn't covered by it. Sensors, armor generators, shuttlebay doors, and exposed parts of the drive system took significant damage. The Empire's sister ship spiked the cruiser in front of it. As the battleship's awesomely powerful FDS shield extended, it punched in the Jaaq'tah ship's nose.
The shielding systems of the Beholder station rippled as the GWB fire struck it, but the station was still at one hundred percent integrity. If the GSA wanted to accomplish their mission, they would have to bring to bear the bulk of their firepower rather quickly, because the longer this lasted, the more it favored the Jaaq'tah.
Re-dividing into five two-ship pairs, each using the same cover-fire/attacker formation, the Shadow Regiment broke off from the rest of the 6th fleet and began firing on the Omino drones. Goal: Total extermination of the wormhole-making pests. "Remain in your pairs and take out those drones before they can bring in any more reinforcements," said Alexis. "But be careful, don't take any unnecessary risks, we need every ship operational to win this."
The craft moved in on their prey at high speed, all constantly moving to make hard targets.
The Omino drones began to shift their movement, moving like a rabid beehive. The combination of very small, very mobile targets would make the job of the Shadow Regiment very hard especially given that the regiment was under continual attrition by the Jaaq'tah's fast-moving, blitzkreiging navy. The Beholder station had now broken it down, using complex mathematical computations to anticipate where the targeted vessels would be at any given time. The GSA's speed advantage was slowly eroding with every second that past. Enemy vessels found themselves literally running into the path of aether torpedo explosions and mighty particle blasts as they maneuvered because of the extraordinary leading efforts of the Jaaq'tah vessels being commanded by the high-tech command station.
Phantom and Ghost Regiment were slathering heaps of shield penetrating-torpedoes and beam fire onto the station's weak spots. Abandoning the drive-by plan for something with faster results, the ships slowed down to a fraction of light speed and did strafing runs on the station. As the GSS Kikyô (the other Yuumi Battleship) turned lazily, bashing and smacking other ships with its huge shield array, its main guns came to bear on the station. The Empire, on the other hand, was busy pouring out turret fire onto its pursuers while the command ships (the Empire's escorts) wailed on the cruisers from behind. The beleaguered GSS Empire was also bringing its main gun to bear on the station. It was, perhaps, what should have been done in the first place.
"Empire to F...." "Taisho, communications are fried."
Wazu watched as two more Minion's were destroyed, ~Change tactics. Fire your GWB's while moving away from your target. ~ The Minions waited until they were pulling away from their targets at maximum speed before firing. This allowed them to retain their speed with only a small loss in accuracy. The ships all took their own target, half fired at the drones while the others targeted the wormhole openings by firing into them and while passing by laying anti-mater ribbons along the openings. The Seigi's gun was now fully charged. Kai quickly scanned the area for the most effective target, ~Seigi target that station.~ The much faster I. S. F. Battleship quickly set itself up on a attack run on the station, ~Fire when they do~ He thought into the machine, wanting to focus the firepower of the
Fleet
The station's defensive turrets were quick at work, orange beams of particle energy cutting torpedoes out of their flight trajectories before they reached their targets. Beam cannon fire had slowly, but surely began to degrade shield integrity, but the Hermes drones that had been spread into the fray had begun to move into optimal positions. As the Great White Beams lanced towards their targets, their entire discharge were suddenly absorbed by the drones, then re-emitted as multiple destructive blasts back into the GSA naval forces, which were moving much slower than before and making them easier targets.
The Yui-class scouts weathered the fire. What the shields didn't take, the Impervium hull did. If the drones didn't blow up under the barrage of GWBs and Transphasic pulses, they certainly were diverted or crushed by the Spike and shields of the pairs as they passed through the clouds. Shadow 7 was the first to loose shields, and lost their comm system soon after. But they continued, Shadow 8 covering their back while helping to keep the front cleared out. "Shadow 7, pull out and cover our backs, you'll take less damage there," sent Alexis as he noticed the accumulating damage.
The comm may have been down, but the Megami system hopefully was still up...
More wormholes began to open despite the loss of several dozen Omino PTP drones, putting more targets in front of the Shadow, Phantom, and Ghost regiment who were unleashing wave after wave of destructive ordnance into the enemy forces, hoping to overwhelm them with the sheer ferocity of the attack. Perhaps the assessment that this force would be 'easily defeated' was a large miscalculation. Whatever losses the Jaaq'tah had taken were insignificant given their horde-like numbers. The focus of the Beholder's efforts were the three battle ships Seigi, Empire, and Kikyô as more torpedoes were delivered by wormhole followed by spinal-mounted particle cannons from the larger ships of the Great Crimson Fleet.
"All main guns fire." Ordered Taisa Kessaku Anri, Yui's substitute, from the Intel ship GSS Philosophy. The 5 legacy cannons all let loose their full power on the station. It was overkill, but the GSA needed something decisive.
The lone Yui passing over the Beholder succeeded in bringing it's beam to bear for a few seconds before it was prematurely interrupted. The battered spaceship utilized CDD to get behind the bulk of the Fifth Fleet, but it still took significant damage. The Kitamura sent a short message to Wolf. "We can't do any more. The ship's in bad shape, most systems are ceasing function." Wolf shook his head as he watched the Sixth Fleet. They hadn't responded. What the hell was that fuck doing here? "Frontier class vessels, approach the station and wait for my mark to fire DFC. Other vessels guard the Frontiers or just move as fast as you can randomly, still fire. If the TFC's work, we can get outta here, but be ready to fire if we need something else."
The constant weapons fire had since crippled three Wakizashi and two Yui class. While moving to the back, one of each class was destroyed before they could retreat.
.
Shadow 7 remained where it was, but couldn't keep up and dropped back anyway. Once in the wake of the lead ships, it resumed firing. The extermination wasn't going as well as Alexis had hoped..."Alright, regroup and protect the First Fleet and the Seigi. Kill all enemy vessels if possible; the wormhole drones have priority. All pairs, spread out." Shadow 00 banked off to head back to the main fight, coming in on top of the conflict and mowing a path as it went with the rest of the regiment following. Once they were inside, all fighter pairs split off on their own random attack runs aimed at keeping the First Fleet as free of distractions as possible.
"If anyone from the NDI asks about this battle, tell them only one fleet was here," joked Kitsurugi Sharie, who was trying to keep spirits high in light of the current situation. Half of her ships were towing the flaming, charred hulls of the other half. Her first officer added, "I think we put a dent in the original 350 defensive ships." The Ghost Regiment wasn't in much better shape. Shadow regiment was more seasoned, and was faring better.
The entirety of the command station seemed to bend backwards then go back into its original shape before the center seemed to implode, drawing in the rest of the entire station in a brilliant detonation of energy caused by a variety of reactions that resulted from the command station's destruction. The light was even more blinding than the red light that emitted from the star Tau Ceti for about sixty seconds.
Once the main gun had fired Seigi started to put some distance between the majority of the conflict and itself to once again give it's main gun time to charge. The Minion's once again changed tactics. Instead of attacking the wormholes they now started to protect the big guns, focusing their efforts around the two battleships. They sprayed the area with turret and GWB fire trying to knock out as many incoming missiles and ships as possible on their strafing runs.
The Jaaq'tah fleet seemed to go into a rage as they continued the assault upon the GSA vessels. Now there really would be no escape as vessels blazed towards their targets relentlessly, the C3i duties suddenly dropping to the planetary command stations on Tau Ceti V and Tau Ceti VII, which didn't have near the amount of processing of the ill-fated station.
~heh and I was just having fun~ Wazu thought sarcastically as the Seigi began to pick up her fighters. The Minion's unleashed a massive GWB volley into the enemy fleet before moving in close to the Seigi for TTD travel out of the area.
"Shadows 3, 6 and 8 reporting damage to CCD engines, 4 and 7 have lost shields," reported the tactical officer. "We've lost three of our weapon pods." Alexis shook his head. "Everyone gets out, tow the cripple ones. Prepare to TTD back to Geshrin Space." As the Shadow Regiment regrouped over the First Fleet, the damage was evident by the burn marks and sparking engine drives on a third of the ships...but surviving at all was as good as getting out undamaged at that point. The Shadows gathered and all prepared to make the jump outta there as soon as the First was safely out of range...
"Memory has Ghost, Viking has Shadow, Dragon has Phantom. 6th Fleet ships meet with Strike Force Cruisers for TTD piggyback of inoperative towed vessels." The Watchful Eyes regiment disappeared, followed by the 1st XF's command regiment, to include the GSS Empire, which had the appearance of a charcoal nugget in a grill by now. Once the 6th Fleet ships had limped over, the rest of the ships departed. The process of gathering up made easy targets for the Jaaq'tah, and even more ships were taken out as they were pelted by the Jaaq'tah, who appeared to be swarming all around. Finally, the ships made it back to GSA space, where the Capital-Class Infantry Carrier ships were waiting to assist them.
Right now, the Jaaq'tah Fleet Command was using its Omino drones to begin to mark the surviving vessels as they began to cut and run while a large dark purple nebula-like field began to appear above Tau Ceti V. Meanwhile, smelling blood, a destroyer squadron descended upon the damaged Shadow vessels and began unloading every ounce of ordinance ranging from particle cannons to anti-matter gauss cannons into the damaged vessels. Their intent was to destroy as many as possible before they could escape. Those that did escape wouldn't escape from the prolonged wrath of the Jaaq'tah Alliance. This would not be forgotten.
The Seigi moved in on the Shadow fleet trying to get as many of them within its large TTD field before leaving. The various MInions in close formation did their best to provide cover fire. The Seigi's main gun had charged again and created a massive rip in space between the shadows and the Jaaq'tah that would protect most of the ships.
"All units disengage! Don't bother firing, nothing works. We'll regroup in GSA space. Assist those in need!" Wolf sent a message to the Kitamura, "Is your TTD operational?" "....yeah, I....think so...." "Good, get out." He sent a message to the Revenge II, "Is your TTD operational?" No response. Other ships had started moving out, one of the crippled Wakizashis requiring assistance which was being given. The Kiyomizudera seemed to be waiting.
Shadow 4 suddenly exploded as it was hit by the onslaught. Shadows 6, 7, 3, and 8 were underneath the other five in a towing position and were shielded...All vessels began vibrating as if ready to shake apart at the seams, Alexis fairly shouted the order. "GET US OUT OF HERE! NOW!" The TTD flashed and the Shadow regiment was gone.
The Seigi followed a few moments later pulling it's Minion's with it. ~Kai I want a report on battle statistics as soon as possible~ He thought through the Seigi's computer. The ship made sure not to immediately head to GSA space but instead took a detour in case they were followed.
The Revenge II never responded. The Kiyomizudera hadn't been totally in the thick of things, but had seen enough action to overlook the destruction of the Revenge II and the Wakizashi Kinkakuji. Wolf shook his head and gave the order as the other GSA ships disappeared. "Let's go."
The Shadows didn't go straight to Geshrintall either, despite Alexis' hasty order. The pilots were smart enough to lay in a course for a completely different universe, then rest up before making the jump to the GSA universe.
GSA no Taisho Kitsurugi Yui
Commander, GSS Wicked (GD-232)
Great Crimson Fleet
Member
Posts: 2
(10/21/03 7:46 pm)
Act IV, Scene 2: Breaking The Ice Ta'rak H'vei maintained a stone faced expression as their state-of-the-art command station was wiped out by a filthy band of raiders allied with the Draconian Alliance infidels. Their command and control station had been destroyed, which somewhat limited their ability to coordinate defensive efforts, but that would be dealt with soon enough.
"The Humans have begun their attacks, sir, multiple hyperspace fold distortions are being read by our early-warning stations near Tau Ceti XI. Multiple fold signatures are being detected -- primarily the Confederate inter-phased drive and the drives used by their Koqui allies. It seems the Draconians have sent the Humans in for the first wave of the attack. We've detected no wormhole distortions other than our own. Intel says that Vaishan, Altaran, and Hushain forces remain on standby," said Deash, the tactical operations officer onboard the Slaakanesh command vessel.
Admiral H'vei looked at the holographic screen and saw massive numbers of enemy vessels. "What is this? This is impossible....they don't have this many forces....something isn't right here.....engage."
The planetary defense regiments of Tau Ceti XI sprang into action, multiple PTP portals opening up as Omino drones provided a way for near instant force projection against enemy targets. Thousnads upon thousands of Jaaq'tah vessels, primarily Krahnkt destroyers and Loctha strike cruisers, began a high-speed raid against the enemy forces, but soon found that this was what Admiral H'Vei had suspected all along -- a ruse.
"We are detecting high levels of psi.......Human psi," said the commander of the planetary defense regiments of Tau Ceti XI. "..The Vaishan have taught them well, sir! They're attacking elsewhere!"
Admiral H'vei merely blinked in response to Admiral Korbin's burst transmission to his vessel. "This is the almighty Third Fleet which defeated our ancestors at the Gr'andal homeworld? Such.....unorthodox tactics......"
"Multiple missile launches detected....." said the Beholder command computer onboard the Slaakanesh vessel. "Mostly Starhammer class missiles and a few new classifications I have yet to classify. High probability that these are high-velocity, multiple warhead anti-matter and protonic fusion weapons."
"It is no matter," Admiral H'vei finally spoke, his strategic mind analysing what exactly what the Humans were doing. This newest incarnation of the Third Fleet fought....strangely, as if they were drawing his forces into some kind of trap. The ruse tactic was....interesting to say the least, but it didn't draw a significant amount of resources. It seemed that the first battle would be centered on the outermost planet of Tau Ceti XI. That planet's planetary defense regiments were exceptionally well-trained and would fare well against the Humans. "Crush them."
As the NDI's 13th Fleet leapt into action, making their way towards Tau Ceti XI, their radar screens would become flooded with tens of thousands of Jaaq'tah vessels as they moved to intercept their enemies. The Jaaq'tah Fleet formations began to shift rapidly as Omino transport drones began to open up wormholes to move large numbers of ships closer very quickly to the enemy forces. As the two fleet formations met, the Jaaq'tah unloaded with a massive alpha strike of interphased particle beam fire and positronic gauss turret fire, enough to simply maul the Confederate forces into submission. Entire twelve ship squadrons focused fire on a single vessel, hoping to maximize the destructive damage. But this was just the least of the Confederate's worries.
Loctha strike cruisers began volleying their aether torpedoes en masse, which blazed towards their targets at near relativistic speeds. The very nature of these weapons made them exceptionally dangerous to the Nerimians as even with the exceptional point-defense capabilities provided by the myriad of missiles, pulse cannons, and the infamous Lightning Field Generator, the aether torpedo was a heavily destructive weapon. Upon the weapon's detonation, it worked much like the feared Altaran weapon, The Quantum Detonator, except on a much smaller scale. The ubiquitious quintessent energy (referred to by Humans as zero-point energy) was suddenly released all at once in a solitary burst in a spherical area 10,000 kilometers in size, which had a myriad of effects. As the Confederates saw in Cryslon, the hyperspace taps overloaded the megafluxxer circuits attached to it and essentially blew out the power distribution system of the targeted vessel. Secondly, the resulting subspace tearing shockwave created by the sudden 100% release of quintessent energy basically tore a massive hole in enemy shielding of all types (even the recent Confederate 'hard shield' modification), which temporarily brought down enemy shields. Finally, the tremendous release of energy was enough in most cases to simply vaporize everything in the area of effect as it had energy potentials far in excess of the heat released by a medium class star.
Meanwhile, while the rest of the Human forces were launching their missiles en masse, Jaaq'tah point defenses made short work of most of the missiles fired, cutting them down quickly before they could pose a problem. The grav crystal warheads were effectively useless once shot down, since the gravitic flucuation was short-lived given that there was nothing there to sustain it once it went off. The warheads that did strike did moderate damage to the vessels they struck, but they weren't nearly as effective as the conventional warheads the Confederates traditionally used.
"Losses thus far?" asked Admiral H'vei calmly, watching the battle play itself out on the screen. The Humans didn't seem like they were being serious about this...
"1,298 vessels," replied the tactical operations officer. "The enemy is holding back, choosing to use its missiles to try and keep our point defenses occupied. I predict they'll try a massed assault with their transformable starfighters very soon."
"Good," said H'vei, giving a bit of a smile (as close to what a Dragon could give). "Prepare to launch Parasites."
"Sir, our warp nexus is undergoing a high degree of instability! It's hard to receive or send transmissions out of the system," replied the officer in charge of the phase transitory pulse systems onboard the Slaakanesh.
H'vei frowned. "I see what they're doing. They're cutting us off. Not like it will help them any."
Admiral Princeps Thraven
Member
Posts: 33
(10/25/03 11:26 am)
Act IV, Scene 3: Thunder In The Distance Defence Station Russ. In orbit around Ayenee Prime
The holographic display swelled, filling most of the Command of Defence Station Russ. The command crew kep cler of the projection, making their way around the outskirts of the room. Not that there were many moving. The few extraneous staff had been ordered elsewhere aboard the station, and those still here were either fixed on their own stations, or the huge projection. Those watching seemed unable to take their eyes away; those not, apeared fearful of looking.
Lord Admiral-Princeps Endoran Thraven was one who watched. He watched the hologram closely, his dark eyes taking in every detail.
"They're really doing it" said General Alex Coburn softly. He also watched, hands tucked into the pockets of his trousers "Damn Nerimians. They're actually gonna do it!"
Thraven Nodded silently. The projection before them showed the long distance sensor information recieved from the Tau Ceti system. Although the ADF dared not send vessels into the system at present, even as neutral observers, it had outposts and ships that could relay data from outside. The planets, and markings laid the system out in dark green wireframes, each planet with its estimated population and defence capabilities noted beside it.
As he watched, the last blips resolved themselves into Sakkran vessels, shown as yellow wedges, again with what little details could be gathered displayed beside them. The NDI and KIF vessels showed as deep blue wedges. The details beside them were more detailed, including numbers, and vessel types where known. The blue wedges had recently increased exponentially, as they had travelled into the system. For someone watching from the outside as Republic was, it seemed as though vessels had simply appeared from nowhere. A ruse of some kind. Either that, or the Nerimians had found a way to simply form ships from the vacuum.
"Multiple missile launches detected" The montone voice of Station Russ' computer spoke as thousands of tiny blue lines extended from each of the blue wedges. Beside each line was a number; The amount of missiles in that barrage.
As the Sakkran defences activated, almost all of those blue line ended abruptly, terminated well short of their intended targets. Thraven cast a glance around the command. Every eye watched the display now. Fear was visible on no few of the faces. Every man and woman here knew what this meant. The 'war' had become more than words and political posturing. It had now become a reality. A reality in which most of those people would rather have not found themselves. Thraven muttered a silent prayer to the Emperor. A prayer for aid, and blessing for those souls about to be loosed their mortal coil, and placed into his hands. He turned, adressing Coburn.
"General, I am calling an immediate session of the Hall. I can only hope that seeing this will change the minds of those Sitters who still propose we do nothing. You will be my Council, in Suriels absence" His voice seemed cold to his ears. As well it should. Coburn nodded.
"I'll be there" was all he said. He still grimaced though.
Z
Primary Research Manufactorium - Praxia
Techno-Magus Listeru gazed thoughtfully through the pane of thick glass which separated the observation room from the main test hangar. Around him, the bleeps and clicks of technicians and computers monitoring events made a melodious backing for him. He felt at home when surrounded by those noises, and right now, he was torn between needing to feel at home with familiarity, and the exitement that had every Tech-Priest aglow.
"My Lord" the monotone voice came from one of the monitor tech, her head and chest wired into the console she sat at "The test pilot is being loaded into the control booth". Listeru nodded, turning back to the window, and then turning his back to it, to adress the others gathered in the room. A further two Techno-Magi were there, as were three native Ayenians.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are ready to begin" he said. His Vox-caster made his voice sound harsh and metallic, but all here were used to it. He turned as they moved to join him at the large window. Listeru extended his right arm to a panel which ran beneath the window, and a small cable extended from the mechanical construct that had replaced his hand, connecting to a socket on the panel. The other two Magi followed suite, connecting themselves to the panel which would feed the test data direct into their minds. The Ayenians merely watched, and Listeru pitied them. He and his kin had long snce given up on trying to convince the Ayenians to have their own Mind-Links fitted. Some had, but most seemed repulsed at the idea.
Outside of the observation room, in the huge test hangar, Servitors and technicians finished their few last minute adjustments, and moved back to their own banks of computers and work-benches. Some watched eagerly, others pensively. To the left of the observation rooms window, one of the veteran fighter pilots that had been with the Macharias Light fleet when it arrived in this galaxy, sat in a comfortable looking padded seat. The seat wouldn't have looked too out of place in a sooped-up personal shuttle. It was in fact much more comfortable - and advanced - then it looked. Gravitic micro-compensators formed the padding perfectly to the contours of the pilots body, and would protect him from all but the most violent of motions when at full strength.
At the top of the seat, the headrest waited. The only thing to mark it as any different to the rest of the seat was the small metallic collar embedded in it. As the pilots head lowered back against the headrest, a Mind-Link jack extended, connecting smoothly with the Mind-Link socket set into the back of the pilots head. Mind-Link technology was not new to the Imperials, although the Ayenians seemed surprised by it. Imperial pilots had used it for millennia, as had the Princeps of Imperial Titans, such as Thraven himself. Navigators, Astropaths, Tech-Priests, Scribes, Technicians, even the less than human Servitors used Mind-Link technology to some degree or another. But this, this was something new, even to them.
Listeru spoke, channeling the signal from his Vox-caster through to the intercom system in the hangar. "Commander Kerrad, you will recieve your orders in moments. Carry them out via the Mind-Link" Listeru new he had told the pilot this several times already, but he wanted no mistakes "The Machine-God has smiled upon you commander. You take us forward". Kerrad smiled on the seat, seemingly at his ease. Of course, a veteran such as himself would hide what little fear he felt so well. His faith in the Emperor was unswerving.
With a thought, Listeru sent the transmission to begin the tests, and all eyes turned from the pilot to what he would be controlling. It stood 32 ft tall, its metallic body dull in its standard grey finish. The barrels of the Assault Cannons fitted on the inside of each of its forearms gleamed, the new metal untarnished by use as yet. Densely armoured legs, torso and arms were intended as finished - minus respray and markings - but the 'head' of the unit was opened, the seat that would usually be inside sitting across the hangar from it, connected by cables and direct uplinks. Listeru couldn't help but feel a flash of pride as he looked up at the glorious form of the AC-1 'Paladin' Mecha unit.
The AC-1 had been inspired in part by the NDI's VF fighters, and in part by Admiral-Princep Thravens own Titan. It had become clear that in most engagements likely, short of full scale war, the time taken to deploy the Titan, or anything of a similar size was far too long, based on the skirmish style fighting that had consisted most of Ayenees previous wars. However, it was clear from the VF's and Thravens Titan that war machines of that sort would be of considerable use. And so, Thraven had instigated the research and construction of the AC-1, sometime near the beginning of the Chaos War. Things had now reached this point - the turning point in the program.
Listeru was pulled from his reverie as the right arm of the AC-1 lifted out 90 degrees, and rotated. It lowered, and the left arm performed the same task. Then both arms simultaneously. The torso rotated, left to right, to the fullest extent of its servos. The arms settled at the Mechas side, and the body began tilting in every direction imaginable. Then the arms began moving again, then the head as well. The movement stopped, and the Mecha assumed a salute to the observation room. A few of the watchers smiled. Listeru watched intently. They had tested the movements of the torso before. The real test would come soon. The arms extended again, hands pulled back, and the Assault cannons rotated. Listeru knew that had the weapons been loaded, the observation room, and the entire far side of the hangar would have been ripped to shreds in moments. The weapons cycled down, and the arms lowered, stopping just short of its sides. It appeared the pilot was being careful.
Listeru felt the command sent to the pilot at the same instant as Kerrad did. The pilots face appeard to tighten as he set his jaw. This was the moment they had been waiting for. The right leg twitched, then took its first step forward, landing surprisingly softly on the floor. The left leg followed suite, then the right again. The Mecha settled into a comfortable walk, then turned. Arms began moving, the torso twisting, head rotating, weapons cycling as if firing. Listeru felt the smile grow on his face. The Mecha returned to the far side of the hangar, then set out a dead run towards the observation room, stopping no more than a few metres from the glass. It crouched on one knee, and then - and Listeru had to admit he was impressed - it bowed to the observers. Several others appluaded as the Mecha stood and returned to the far side of the hangar. Commander Kerrad looked over to the observation room, his self-control breaking long enough to allow him to smile. His voice was broadcast through the intercom direct through the Mind-Link.
"My lord, the Emperor has truly blessed us" he said. Listeru nodded, and sent his own reply.
"He has indeed" he smiled again "He has indeed"
***
Liberator Class Attack-Carrier 'Hyperion' - High orbit, Ayenee Prime
"We are increasing the intensity of the remaining pilots' training, and preparing the other units for their trial runs as we speak, my lords. Commander Kerrad extends his thanks to you Admiral for your help, and that of the rest of the 'Emperors Fist' crew" Said the holographic of Listeru. It stood full height in Thravens briefing room aboard the Hyperion, watched by Thraven, Baranus, Suriel and Coburn "Kerrad and Unit 1 are undergoing the zero gravity training in orbit at this very moment. We expect the others to follow in a matter of weeks"
Thraven and Baranus both nodded. The Paladin project had been pushed to the back of Thravens mind with events since the first arrival of the Chaos forces, but apparently Listeru had been as single minded as all Tech-Priests, and continued his work assidously "Well done Magus. Your efforts are appreciated, and will earn you the acclaim you deserve"
"Were we on Mars Listeru, you would be very well favoured indeed. May the Machine watch over you" said Baranus
"And you my lords" Listeru bowed, and the hologram faded. Thraven knew that the launch bays of the Hyperion had been designed with the Paladin units in mind, as would all of the larger carriers produced from now on. Another arrow in their quiver.
Edited by: Admiral Princeps Thraven at: 10/25/03 11:34 am
GSA Fleet Admiral
Posts: 192
(10/20/03 9:59 pm)
ezSupporter
Act IV: Outbreak Scene 1: A Painful Learning Experience
The Beholder Marx XXX Command Station resembled a large hourglass in some respects, being some five kilometers in overall height, though the ends of the station were broadened while the centerpiece was something like 175 meters in diameter. While certainly massive, it looked rather benign in appearance, with the standard complement of defensive turrets mounted on its hull, but none of the ship-busting cannons of the vessels that were tasked to her defense. The station was equipped with the best command, control, and communications systems available to the Jaaq'tah Alliance, which gave the Great Crimson Fleet near unparalleled capability to coordinate its defenses when the Draconian Alliance's assault came.
Vaishan and Nerimian Central Intelligence spies estimated that the Beholder system was even more powerful than the NDI's awe-inspiring DEIMOS and DEUS systems, which were quite extensive in their capabilities. With the Jaaq'tah in possession of such a powerful C3i system, it would act as a force multiplier that the allies could not allow to be put in place.
So this is where the GSA comes in. Their advanced array of sensors would note some 350 vessels in relatively close proximity to the station (25,000 km or so), most of them of the Kranhkt destroyer classification (official NDI nomenclature is the Executioner). There were a few Sche-Ki (Black Death) missile frigates, and a couple of Durash dreadnoughts for good measure. With a healthy array of firepower at their disposal, a pitched battle with them wasn't in the GSA's best interest. This is why this was a raiding mission.
The 5th and 6th Fleets were cloaked and prepositioned at the edge of the system. As the operation commenced, the majority of the 1st Expeditionary Fleet Transuniversally teleported into Tau Ceti. The Fleet stayed cloaked as well. Yui's fleet was there to watch and make sure Wolf and her daughter didn't get into trouble. The Taisho sent a very short encoded subspace message to the Nerimians, "Have you ever heard the expression, ‘you get what you pay for?' This is the last time you pay poorly for good services." To her fleets, she sent another message. "Destroy station. Avoid prolonged combat. 1XF will distract if needed."
The Beholder Command Station suddenly detected multiple disturbances of the fabric of space-time as multiple ships transitioned into the systems. The system of remote early-warning sensors on the edge of the system relayed this information to the command station via high-speed tachyonic communications, which processed the data and put it in a form the station's commander could understand. With the early-warning sensors breached, other sensors equipped with hyperwave, subspace mass, and zero-point field arrays began to sweep the area in question, but could find little, if any trace of any foreign vessel. Nevertheless, the Jaaq'tah knew something was wrong. Forces throughout the systems went to their highest state of readiness, prepared to intercept an allied fleet moving to attack them.
"SAINT-6, probing station shields and armor." Chujo Kitsurugi Sharie of Phantom Regiment announced to Chujo Alexis Jaren, who was acting commander of Shadow Regiment. The RDD sensors locked on to a chunk of the station's hull from 5 Astronomical Units away. It was close enough for the latest Yui recon-Scout to see gluons. Ghost Regiment was assigned to watch the Jaaq'tah ships, and reported the movement. "Looks like mom got their attention." At 50 AU out, the 1st XF had some time to scoot out of the way while the enemy investigated. "Silent running."
"All Shadow-group ships cloaked and under silent running," reported the Shadow-00 Megami. Alexis sat at the Ops station, calming himself for the impending raid. He had convinced the computer to allow him to directly interface, much like the Seigi systems only wireless, and ran the data as an overlay on his normal vision field. "Alright, everyone to stations! We've got the signal to go." Everyone double-checked their stations. A pilot hooked herself up in the pit, and Alexis felt her presence emerge in the computer system as the connection was made, followed by nine other signals as the other Shadow-regiment pilots engaged their links. Everything was prepared.
Roving patrols of Executioner destroyers probed the emptiness of space with high-powered beams of hyperwave radar energy in an attempt to actively root out the invaders. This of course lit them up like a veritable beacon to the GSA vessels, but that's what they wanted in a sense of the word. Not only did it let the enemy know that they knew they were there.....somewhere, but if the enemy was foolish and decided to attack, it would allow the rest of the Great Crimson Fleet to move in and strike with overwhelming force. That was the beauty of space. One was relatively hidden until he did something to give himself and his position away.
The 1st XF sat dreadfully quiet, ships with shields off, stealth on, and emitting no distortions or energy. This was a time to lay low. The TTD systems of GSA starships were good at disappearing acts, but historically made a big show of energy when entering a universe. This time had been no exception. Yui paced the spacious bridge of the Yuumi-class battleship Empire, taking in all the holographic battle data that floated around the place. Meanwhile, her daughter's ships continued to scan the station to find out just how much the shields and armor could take.
"What d'we got?" Wolf had just stepped on to the bridge and going between bridge crew, hunting for information. "Get in touch with Alexis, tell him we need to get in position. Right now, working plan is GWB. Ask him how many he has." The communications officer sent the encoded short message : "Plan, grand white. How many can you lend?"
The station was heavily armored -- much like a capital ship would be. It could take quite a beating from the traditional array of anti-warship weaponry, but the simple shape of its construction would no doubt point out several structural weak points to the MEGAMI computers onboard the GSA vessels. Shielding systems were considerably more powerful than the systems on most Jaaq'tah and even Draconian League vessels. It would take several shots to break the shield integrity, in which case they would have roughly 25 seconds before the shields regenerated their strength.
"Ten" came the equally short reply.
"At 5 AU out, it will take a beam around 45 minutes to hit them. We've got to move in closer. The ships are being led way out looking for the XF. Other ship may be cloaked. I will ask SAINT-XF to scan for additional hostiles," Sharie replied via a transphased tight-beam laser transmission. It would not be good to be overheard.
Wolf's exact words this time: "We're moving in. Go in slow enough so that we could form anti-starship variables by the time we get there. Start forming them now, all move out. If they find us somehow, utilize TTD or whatever available to get in front of that damned thing and hit it with all you got for as long as you can. If you're damaged, move to the back. Keep scanning."
The problem with the hyperwave radar was that unless you knew a general direction of where your target was at, it was very hard to find him using the otherwise powerful sensor array. The search volumes were simply so big that it could literally take an Earth-standard day to find what you were looking for -- assuming it remained in that general area while you were looking for it. A ship could stay hidden in space even without a wide array of specialized cloaking systems simply by running silent (much like a submarine) and not giving out much EMR for other sensors to pick up.
"Wolf, can you take some of your ships and move in to ten million miles? That's about a minute of target time. Stations are easy targets." Yui asked, just as his ships began moving. "Thank you," she smiled, her eyes on the holographic icons of 5th Fleet. She switched over to contacting 6th Fleet again. "Sharie-chan, where is that sensor data? You have thirty Recon-Scouts at your disposal." the mother chided. Meanwhile, the Recon-Scout destroyers in Yui's fleet were using a wide-area RDD scan to search for cloaked vessels. Anything over 45,000 kilos within 500 billion miles was fair game.
There were a large contingent of vessels along the pathway to the station that were running in passive mode, using their passive sensors to try and pick up anything the GSA vessels gave off. RDD scans would pick up the ships laying dormant, almost as if their ships weren't even active. These ships, however, were waiting to spring into action once they got a bead on their targets.
"Too bad we don't have any active Ender-class Destroyers" Yui frowned. The Enders were valuable indirect fire ships--they used teleportation-based main guns, which could deliver a payload right on top of (if not inside) the target. Unfortunately, nearly all of them were destroyed in the last large battle with the Elysian Celestial Navy. Taisho Yui sent a quick transmission to Taisho Wolf, "Are you going to need some distraction?"
"Yeah, we'll take all we got and move in to ten million as quick as we can. Try and hit a ship or two, you know, draw them to you. We'll move in and hit them while they're going to you. They probably won't move so many ships toward you anyway but we can at least make it a bit easier to get close enough." The ships had been and still were going a bit slow, but they would pick up the pace when the weapons had formed and some of the enemy ships had moved out of the way. The variable weapons were a few minutes into forming...
Sharie quipped, "Three fleets is serious overkill. We've never used three entire fleets together before. We could take these forces with ease." Yui, listening, came back immediately. "At what cost? We won't waist our resources." The Sixth Fleet began charging their CDD drives and revving up. Sharie's Intel officer reported to her counterpart on the Kiyomizudera (Wolf's Ship). "Weak points transmitted to you. Center portion, hardpoint lines of the frame leading out from center. Armor composed of a new substance, not previously encountered. Analysis suggests it may be stronger than NDI heavy armor found on fourth and possibly fifth generation vessels."
Phased Pulse Sensors began to report back data to the Beholder command station, which then began to filter information rapidly back through the Jaaq'tah integrated combat network. The hyperwave radar transmissions suddenly began to cease and energy levels throughout the spectrum of Jaaq'tah vessels began to fade into the background of space as EMS was constantly downshifted to match the background radiation of space.
The intelligence officer of the Kiyomizudera came forward to Wolf. "Best point of attack is probably the center. New armor, nothing we've seen before. Could be more powerful than NDI vessels." She nodded and returned to her station. Wolf sent another message "We'll go in at .05 of light and position to hit the center of the station once you got them." A bridge officer spoke out, "We've lost them on all but RDD. They may know we're here." Wolf obviously didn't care. "So what, they disappeared? Coming in would've made them suspicious, don't worry about it."
Suddenly, a massive bright-white beam hit a Durash right in the command tower. A furious little explosion appeared where the five-foot-wide all-destructive beam had been, moving down into the ship itself as the beam went through its five-second firing cycle. The attacking Yui, Dragon Zero Four (GD-216) glided softly away as the beam spat out of its shield bubble, and disappeared again.
They would see the dreadnought become engulfed with the energy from the GWB, almost disappearing in the blast, but after the firing cycle was over, the dreadnought emerged from the blast largely unscathed, the repulsor shields keeping a great deal of the energy from the hull while the armor was able to weather the remainder of the energy bleed-off. The entire front of the Durash and its sister vessel suddenly began to glow with an orange-yellow light before the GSA vessels felt multiple pings from phased pulse sensors from remote drones scattered throughout space, illuminating their positions. Two mammoth phased particle blasts several hundred thousand kilometers in diameter tore through the fabric of space, trying to flood the area where Dragon Zero Four was with destructive energy.
Meanwhile over Nepleslia the GSS Seigi had just received a fresh compliment of Minion's from the Genesis. It took moments for the craft to finish attaching themselves to the outer hull. Wazu walked back onto the bridge and sat down in his command chair, letting Seigi attach herself to the data ports in his shoulders. He then asked the computer a single question out of curiosity, "Where did the 6th fleet go?"... A few minuets later the Seigi TTDed in several light years outside of the Tau Ceti system putting the conflict just on the edge of their sensors. It took only four seconds for an entire Samurai Squadron and all of the Minion's to launch and take up a defensive formation around the ship while additional fighter wings were launched and turrets deployed. Wazu didn't bother sending a
Message to the fleet knowing that they were clearly visible on any Yui class's sensors. Hopefully they would be kind enough to point out targets.
"Shock and Awe." Yui yelled out, drawing her sword. At nearly the opposite direction the initial attack had come from, the entirety of the 1st Expeditionary Fleet began pummeling the Jaaq'tah from behind for a full ten seconds. With a flash, they dispersed in a maelstrom of spatial distortion, using their CDD engines to carry them out of the way of the anticipated return fire.
Phantom Regiment took off, decloaking. At two thousand times the speed of light, it took a tiny fraction of a second before dozens and dozens of shield-penetrating Zero-Point torpedoes encountered the station. "AH!!" Sharie shrieked as the ships were flung wildly off-course by the tear in space that Wazu had opened. The first volley of torpedoes TOTALLY missed the space station.
The Kiyomizudera sent a message to the Kitamura, another Yui-class. "SDD, go above the station and when you get close hit the center with the GWB, get extremely close though, we need to know if it'll work on the station. After you pass, CDD towards the Sixth Fleet for cover, but watch for fire because after that stunt I wouldn't be surprised if they end up hitting you themselves." Wolf said to the comms, "Get in touch with him, ask him what the hell he's doing, please."
The Shadow Regiment followed Phantom's lead. "Firing torpedoes." The torpedoes were adjusted for the disturbance so most of the second volley was unaffected, and the vollies were arranged in a ring aimed toward the center of the station. ~The Seigi's here?~ thought Alexis as he suddenly picked up a large mass of fighters and a ISFB on sensors.
The Jaaq'tah war machine came alive with the first shots fired and the general alarm was sounded throughout the sector for all vessels to prepare for combat. Now the GSA would see the brilliance of the Jaaq'tah as in the path of the 1st Expeditionary Fleet came upon a wormhole opening in front of them revealing a literal wolfpack of Kranhkt destroyers volleying multiple particle blasts directly into their path. There was a two second delay between the time the 1st XF appeared and the wormhole was opened, but the Beholder command station was just warming up. It's reaction times next time would be much faster.
The Seigi was another issue as multiple Omino drones generated wormholes for more Jaaq'tah vessels to come into play. A multitude of Jaaq'tah vessels ranging from destroyers to cruisers descended upon the Seigi unleashing every weapon at their disposal upon the GSA vessel in an attempt to wipe it out in one grand, simultaneous instant. Secondary blasts streaked outward towards the Minion corvettes in an attempt to destroy the smaller vessels as well.
As torpedoes streaked towards the targeted Beholder command station, multiple rings of anti-matter explosions consumed the missiles in a spectacular manner, the resulting gamma ray burst creating a dramatic EMS spike. Sche-ki missile frigates moved into position around the station, launching multiple Hermes drones into the fray.
"What the hell is Chujo Wazu doing here?" Yui asked, watching her daughter end up a light-month away from the battle; fleets were tripping over each other. She sent out a message to the Seigi and all other GSA vessels "Use shield-penetrating weapons to attack. They use distortion shields similar to ours. Keep moving at high speeds to avoid fire. These opponents are probably not experienced in FTL warfare." The assumption was based on the fact that everyone in the NDI and their area preferred Hyperspace travel. At high enough speeds (and this was Sharie's idea), the Jaaq'tah could not track the GSA ships and fire on them because they were out of range too fast. Sixth Fleet turned around, and prepared for another torpedo dash at two thousand times light speed.
The Krankts, in showing up in front of the 1st Expeditionary Fleet, had done the worst thing they could possibly have done: putting themselves in front of the business end of two Yuumi-class battleships. The Legacy Cannons fired at the behest of the MEGAMI computer, strategically combined to destroy every single speck of matter in an area 80 miles wide, creating a rift in space that not only ripped apart the wormhole, but devolved into a colossal suction of gravity that was pulling on every ship with a time/space anchor within 200,000 miles. The 1st XF split into regiments and spread out in different directions.
Wazu had no intention of letting the Seigi be destroyed so quickly and simply TTDed the ship away, letting it simply disappear then reappear exactly one light-year directly behind where it was earlier then started to use its own CDD in a attempt to evade fire at high speeds long enough to recharge and fire again. The new Minion's with CDD's of their own started making runs on the worm hole openings slowing down for only a brief few seconds to fire their GWB's at the Omino drones and wormhole openings before moving off at full speed again. The nine slower Minion's had a much harder time, they stayed close to the tear in space, putting it between most of the Jaaq'tah and them while doing their best to evade incoming fire. Three of the small ships were vaporized in the first Jaaq'tah volley
Following the rest of the fleet, the Shadow Regiment began adjusting the variable weaponry. Under Alexis' direction, they split into two groups of five, positioning one behind and slightly above the other with weapons set to fire transphasic beams and act as cover fire as the other, including Shadow 00, reset to fire transplanar phase pulses. All ten ships fired GWBs into the incoming drone clouds with multiple-beam spreads, each a thin, piercing white lance of annihilation.
"Spread out. Approach from all directions and at different distances fire at the center with whatever you can." The Kitamura had seemed to go unnoticed, and at a healthy distance away fired it Grand White Beam cannon directly at the center of the Beholder station. Normally it could destroy anything, but this station could and most probably was just as strong as its protectors were. While firing the GWB, the lower hull variable weapons, 12 in total, also fired the transphasic beams formed a short while ago at the center. As it passed it increased it's already nice speed to the max in an attempt to get away as soon as possible but still unload.
The other Fifth Fleet ships started moving toward the station, firing their GWB's at different locations, but mostly close to the center. The smaller carriers and fighters formed what little of a defensive formation they could with the fleet spreading out.
The Beholder watched as the Yuumi battleships launched their Legacy Cannons and readjusted fleet resources to take care of those pertinent threats. As the destroyer squadron fired wildly to try and take out elements of the 1st XF, a series of subspace ripping detonations suddenly erupted around the Yuumi battleship, Empire, the detonations capable of blasting through the distortion fields of the battleship and dealing direct damage to the Impervium-based hull.
The detonations were the byproduct of multiple tandem-detonated Aether torpedoes launched to their positions by wormholes generated by Omino drones (which were scattered throughout the system by the hundreds of thousands) and Durash dreadnoughts. Secondary wormholes opened up seconds later as a Lochta cruiser squadron emerged surrounding the vessel and opening up with heavy particle beams.
The Jaaq'tah kept up their attrition of the Minion corvettes, sweeping down on each individual corvette by the dozens as they slowed down, meeting GWB fire with their own phased particle blasts. The GWBs were powerful in their own right, but there wasn't enough destructive power to go around in proportion to the firepower the Jaaq'tah held at their disposal.
Shadow Regiment was starting to become a problem, but multiple wormholes opened up as thousands upon thousands of Parasite drones began to flood out into space, accelerating to speeds approaching .775c, putting themselves at a time on target on the various vessels at just 1.25 seconds. The Parasites would try to penetrate the hulls of the Yui scout destroyers and lay seige to the electronic components of the vessels, eventually hoping to bring them under the control of the Parasite drones.
The Kitamura was besieged with volley after volley of particle cannon fire as it launched its attack against the Beholder command station. Lochta cruisers launched aether torpedoes at the vessel, which detonated long before impact, but the aetheric detonation would send a devastating shockwave through space and subspace that would rend through the distortion field of the vessel.
"KAMI," Yui addressed the Empire's computer system. "Why did your weapons array not intercept the torpedoes?" The male voice answered, "Unexpected delivery method. The problem has been addressed." Outside, the Empire was pummeled by the cruisers which surrounded it. The GSS Empire bumped into one as it attempted to get clear of them, using its speed advantage. The particle beams had minimal effect on the Impervium armor, but tore up everything that wasn't covered by it. Sensors, armor generators, shuttlebay doors, and exposed parts of the drive system took significant damage. The Empire's sister ship spiked the cruiser in front of it. As the battleship's awesomely powerful FDS shield extended, it punched in the Jaaq'tah ship's nose.
The shielding systems of the Beholder station rippled as the GWB fire struck it, but the station was still at one hundred percent integrity. If the GSA wanted to accomplish their mission, they would have to bring to bear the bulk of their firepower rather quickly, because the longer this lasted, the more it favored the Jaaq'tah.
Re-dividing into five two-ship pairs, each using the same cover-fire/attacker formation, the Shadow Regiment broke off from the rest of the 6th fleet and began firing on the Omino drones. Goal: Total extermination of the wormhole-making pests. "Remain in your pairs and take out those drones before they can bring in any more reinforcements," said Alexis. "But be careful, don't take any unnecessary risks, we need every ship operational to win this."
The craft moved in on their prey at high speed, all constantly moving to make hard targets.
The Omino drones began to shift their movement, moving like a rabid beehive. The combination of very small, very mobile targets would make the job of the Shadow Regiment very hard especially given that the regiment was under continual attrition by the Jaaq'tah's fast-moving, blitzkreiging navy. The Beholder station had now broken it down, using complex mathematical computations to anticipate where the targeted vessels would be at any given time. The GSA's speed advantage was slowly eroding with every second that past. Enemy vessels found themselves literally running into the path of aether torpedo explosions and mighty particle blasts as they maneuvered because of the extraordinary leading efforts of the Jaaq'tah vessels being commanded by the high-tech command station.
Phantom and Ghost Regiment were slathering heaps of shield penetrating-torpedoes and beam fire onto the station's weak spots. Abandoning the drive-by plan for something with faster results, the ships slowed down to a fraction of light speed and did strafing runs on the station. As the GSS Kikyô (the other Yuumi Battleship) turned lazily, bashing and smacking other ships with its huge shield array, its main guns came to bear on the station. The Empire, on the other hand, was busy pouring out turret fire onto its pursuers while the command ships (the Empire's escorts) wailed on the cruisers from behind. The beleaguered GSS Empire was also bringing its main gun to bear on the station. It was, perhaps, what should have been done in the first place.
"Empire to F...." "Taisho, communications are fried."
Wazu watched as two more Minion's were destroyed, ~Change tactics. Fire your GWB's while moving away from your target. ~ The Minions waited until they were pulling away from their targets at maximum speed before firing. This allowed them to retain their speed with only a small loss in accuracy. The ships all took their own target, half fired at the drones while the others targeted the wormhole openings by firing into them and while passing by laying anti-mater ribbons along the openings. The Seigi's gun was now fully charged. Kai quickly scanned the area for the most effective target, ~Seigi target that station.~ The much faster I. S. F. Battleship quickly set itself up on a attack run on the station, ~Fire when they do~ He thought into the machine, wanting to focus the firepower of the
Fleet
The station's defensive turrets were quick at work, orange beams of particle energy cutting torpedoes out of their flight trajectories before they reached their targets. Beam cannon fire had slowly, but surely began to degrade shield integrity, but the Hermes drones that had been spread into the fray had begun to move into optimal positions. As the Great White Beams lanced towards their targets, their entire discharge were suddenly absorbed by the drones, then re-emitted as multiple destructive blasts back into the GSA naval forces, which were moving much slower than before and making them easier targets.
The Yui-class scouts weathered the fire. What the shields didn't take, the Impervium hull did. If the drones didn't blow up under the barrage of GWBs and Transphasic pulses, they certainly were diverted or crushed by the Spike and shields of the pairs as they passed through the clouds. Shadow 7 was the first to loose shields, and lost their comm system soon after. But they continued, Shadow 8 covering their back while helping to keep the front cleared out. "Shadow 7, pull out and cover our backs, you'll take less damage there," sent Alexis as he noticed the accumulating damage.
The comm may have been down, but the Megami system hopefully was still up...
More wormholes began to open despite the loss of several dozen Omino PTP drones, putting more targets in front of the Shadow, Phantom, and Ghost regiment who were unleashing wave after wave of destructive ordnance into the enemy forces, hoping to overwhelm them with the sheer ferocity of the attack. Perhaps the assessment that this force would be 'easily defeated' was a large miscalculation. Whatever losses the Jaaq'tah had taken were insignificant given their horde-like numbers. The focus of the Beholder's efforts were the three battle ships Seigi, Empire, and Kikyô as more torpedoes were delivered by wormhole followed by spinal-mounted particle cannons from the larger ships of the Great Crimson Fleet.
"All main guns fire." Ordered Taisa Kessaku Anri, Yui's substitute, from the Intel ship GSS Philosophy. The 5 legacy cannons all let loose their full power on the station. It was overkill, but the GSA needed something decisive.
The lone Yui passing over the Beholder succeeded in bringing it's beam to bear for a few seconds before it was prematurely interrupted. The battered spaceship utilized CDD to get behind the bulk of the Fifth Fleet, but it still took significant damage. The Kitamura sent a short message to Wolf. "We can't do any more. The ship's in bad shape, most systems are ceasing function." Wolf shook his head as he watched the Sixth Fleet. They hadn't responded. What the hell was that fuck doing here? "Frontier class vessels, approach the station and wait for my mark to fire DFC. Other vessels guard the Frontiers or just move as fast as you can randomly, still fire. If the TFC's work, we can get outta here, but be ready to fire if we need something else."
The constant weapons fire had since crippled three Wakizashi and two Yui class. While moving to the back, one of each class was destroyed before they could retreat.
.
Shadow 7 remained where it was, but couldn't keep up and dropped back anyway. Once in the wake of the lead ships, it resumed firing. The extermination wasn't going as well as Alexis had hoped..."Alright, regroup and protect the First Fleet and the Seigi. Kill all enemy vessels if possible; the wormhole drones have priority. All pairs, spread out." Shadow 00 banked off to head back to the main fight, coming in on top of the conflict and mowing a path as it went with the rest of the regiment following. Once they were inside, all fighter pairs split off on their own random attack runs aimed at keeping the First Fleet as free of distractions as possible.
"If anyone from the NDI asks about this battle, tell them only one fleet was here," joked Kitsurugi Sharie, who was trying to keep spirits high in light of the current situation. Half of her ships were towing the flaming, charred hulls of the other half. Her first officer added, "I think we put a dent in the original 350 defensive ships." The Ghost Regiment wasn't in much better shape. Shadow regiment was more seasoned, and was faring better.
The entirety of the command station seemed to bend backwards then go back into its original shape before the center seemed to implode, drawing in the rest of the entire station in a brilliant detonation of energy caused by a variety of reactions that resulted from the command station's destruction. The light was even more blinding than the red light that emitted from the star Tau Ceti for about sixty seconds.
Once the main gun had fired Seigi started to put some distance between the majority of the conflict and itself to once again give it's main gun time to charge. The Minion's once again changed tactics. Instead of attacking the wormholes they now started to protect the big guns, focusing their efforts around the two battleships. They sprayed the area with turret and GWB fire trying to knock out as many incoming missiles and ships as possible on their strafing runs.
The Jaaq'tah fleet seemed to go into a rage as they continued the assault upon the GSA vessels. Now there really would be no escape as vessels blazed towards their targets relentlessly, the C3i duties suddenly dropping to the planetary command stations on Tau Ceti V and Tau Ceti VII, which didn't have near the amount of processing of the ill-fated station.
~heh and I was just having fun~ Wazu thought sarcastically as the Seigi began to pick up her fighters. The Minion's unleashed a massive GWB volley into the enemy fleet before moving in close to the Seigi for TTD travel out of the area.
"Shadows 3, 6 and 8 reporting damage to CCD engines, 4 and 7 have lost shields," reported the tactical officer. "We've lost three of our weapon pods." Alexis shook his head. "Everyone gets out, tow the cripple ones. Prepare to TTD back to Geshrin Space." As the Shadow Regiment regrouped over the First Fleet, the damage was evident by the burn marks and sparking engine drives on a third of the ships...but surviving at all was as good as getting out undamaged at that point. The Shadows gathered and all prepared to make the jump outta there as soon as the First was safely out of range...
"Memory has Ghost, Viking has Shadow, Dragon has Phantom. 6th Fleet ships meet with Strike Force Cruisers for TTD piggyback of inoperative towed vessels." The Watchful Eyes regiment disappeared, followed by the 1st XF's command regiment, to include the GSS Empire, which had the appearance of a charcoal nugget in a grill by now. Once the 6th Fleet ships had limped over, the rest of the ships departed. The process of gathering up made easy targets for the Jaaq'tah, and even more ships were taken out as they were pelted by the Jaaq'tah, who appeared to be swarming all around. Finally, the ships made it back to GSA space, where the Capital-Class Infantry Carrier ships were waiting to assist them.
Right now, the Jaaq'tah Fleet Command was using its Omino drones to begin to mark the surviving vessels as they began to cut and run while a large dark purple nebula-like field began to appear above Tau Ceti V. Meanwhile, smelling blood, a destroyer squadron descended upon the damaged Shadow vessels and began unloading every ounce of ordinance ranging from particle cannons to anti-matter gauss cannons into the damaged vessels. Their intent was to destroy as many as possible before they could escape. Those that did escape wouldn't escape from the prolonged wrath of the Jaaq'tah Alliance. This would not be forgotten.
The Seigi moved in on the Shadow fleet trying to get as many of them within its large TTD field before leaving. The various MInions in close formation did their best to provide cover fire. The Seigi's main gun had charged again and created a massive rip in space between the shadows and the Jaaq'tah that would protect most of the ships.
"All units disengage! Don't bother firing, nothing works. We'll regroup in GSA space. Assist those in need!" Wolf sent a message to the Kitamura, "Is your TTD operational?" "....yeah, I....think so...." "Good, get out." He sent a message to the Revenge II, "Is your TTD operational?" No response. Other ships had started moving out, one of the crippled Wakizashis requiring assistance which was being given. The Kiyomizudera seemed to be waiting.
Shadow 4 suddenly exploded as it was hit by the onslaught. Shadows 6, 7, 3, and 8 were underneath the other five in a towing position and were shielded...All vessels began vibrating as if ready to shake apart at the seams, Alexis fairly shouted the order. "GET US OUT OF HERE! NOW!" The TTD flashed and the Shadow regiment was gone.
The Seigi followed a few moments later pulling it's Minion's with it. ~Kai I want a report on battle statistics as soon as possible~ He thought through the Seigi's computer. The ship made sure not to immediately head to GSA space but instead took a detour in case they were followed.
The Revenge II never responded. The Kiyomizudera hadn't been totally in the thick of things, but had seen enough action to overlook the destruction of the Revenge II and the Wakizashi Kinkakuji. Wolf shook his head and gave the order as the other GSA ships disappeared. "Let's go."
The Shadows didn't go straight to Geshrintall either, despite Alexis' hasty order. The pilots were smart enough to lay in a course for a completely different universe, then rest up before making the jump to the GSA universe.
GSA no Taisho Kitsurugi Yui
Commander, GSS Wicked (GD-232)
Great Crimson Fleet
Member
Posts: 2
(10/21/03 7:46 pm)
Act IV, Scene 2: Breaking The Ice Ta'rak H'vei maintained a stone faced expression as their state-of-the-art command station was wiped out by a filthy band of raiders allied with the Draconian Alliance infidels. Their command and control station had been destroyed, which somewhat limited their ability to coordinate defensive efforts, but that would be dealt with soon enough.
"The Humans have begun their attacks, sir, multiple hyperspace fold distortions are being read by our early-warning stations near Tau Ceti XI. Multiple fold signatures are being detected -- primarily the Confederate inter-phased drive and the drives used by their Koqui allies. It seems the Draconians have sent the Humans in for the first wave of the attack. We've detected no wormhole distortions other than our own. Intel says that Vaishan, Altaran, and Hushain forces remain on standby," said Deash, the tactical operations officer onboard the Slaakanesh command vessel.
Admiral H'vei looked at the holographic screen and saw massive numbers of enemy vessels. "What is this? This is impossible....they don't have this many forces....something isn't right here.....engage."
The planetary defense regiments of Tau Ceti XI sprang into action, multiple PTP portals opening up as Omino drones provided a way for near instant force projection against enemy targets. Thousnads upon thousands of Jaaq'tah vessels, primarily Krahnkt destroyers and Loctha strike cruisers, began a high-speed raid against the enemy forces, but soon found that this was what Admiral H'Vei had suspected all along -- a ruse.
"We are detecting high levels of psi.......Human psi," said the commander of the planetary defense regiments of Tau Ceti XI. "..The Vaishan have taught them well, sir! They're attacking elsewhere!"
Admiral H'vei merely blinked in response to Admiral Korbin's burst transmission to his vessel. "This is the almighty Third Fleet which defeated our ancestors at the Gr'andal homeworld? Such.....unorthodox tactics......"
"Multiple missile launches detected....." said the Beholder command computer onboard the Slaakanesh vessel. "Mostly Starhammer class missiles and a few new classifications I have yet to classify. High probability that these are high-velocity, multiple warhead anti-matter and protonic fusion weapons."
"It is no matter," Admiral H'vei finally spoke, his strategic mind analysing what exactly what the Humans were doing. This newest incarnation of the Third Fleet fought....strangely, as if they were drawing his forces into some kind of trap. The ruse tactic was....interesting to say the least, but it didn't draw a significant amount of resources. It seemed that the first battle would be centered on the outermost planet of Tau Ceti XI. That planet's planetary defense regiments were exceptionally well-trained and would fare well against the Humans. "Crush them."
As the NDI's 13th Fleet leapt into action, making their way towards Tau Ceti XI, their radar screens would become flooded with tens of thousands of Jaaq'tah vessels as they moved to intercept their enemies. The Jaaq'tah Fleet formations began to shift rapidly as Omino transport drones began to open up wormholes to move large numbers of ships closer very quickly to the enemy forces. As the two fleet formations met, the Jaaq'tah unloaded with a massive alpha strike of interphased particle beam fire and positronic gauss turret fire, enough to simply maul the Confederate forces into submission. Entire twelve ship squadrons focused fire on a single vessel, hoping to maximize the destructive damage. But this was just the least of the Confederate's worries.
Loctha strike cruisers began volleying their aether torpedoes en masse, which blazed towards their targets at near relativistic speeds. The very nature of these weapons made them exceptionally dangerous to the Nerimians as even with the exceptional point-defense capabilities provided by the myriad of missiles, pulse cannons, and the infamous Lightning Field Generator, the aether torpedo was a heavily destructive weapon. Upon the weapon's detonation, it worked much like the feared Altaran weapon, The Quantum Detonator, except on a much smaller scale. The ubiquitious quintessent energy (referred to by Humans as zero-point energy) was suddenly released all at once in a solitary burst in a spherical area 10,000 kilometers in size, which had a myriad of effects. As the Confederates saw in Cryslon, the hyperspace taps overloaded the megafluxxer circuits attached to it and essentially blew out the power distribution system of the targeted vessel. Secondly, the resulting subspace tearing shockwave created by the sudden 100% release of quintessent energy basically tore a massive hole in enemy shielding of all types (even the recent Confederate 'hard shield' modification), which temporarily brought down enemy shields. Finally, the tremendous release of energy was enough in most cases to simply vaporize everything in the area of effect as it had energy potentials far in excess of the heat released by a medium class star.
Meanwhile, while the rest of the Human forces were launching their missiles en masse, Jaaq'tah point defenses made short work of most of the missiles fired, cutting them down quickly before they could pose a problem. The grav crystal warheads were effectively useless once shot down, since the gravitic flucuation was short-lived given that there was nothing there to sustain it once it went off. The warheads that did strike did moderate damage to the vessels they struck, but they weren't nearly as effective as the conventional warheads the Confederates traditionally used.
"Losses thus far?" asked Admiral H'vei calmly, watching the battle play itself out on the screen. The Humans didn't seem like they were being serious about this...
"1,298 vessels," replied the tactical operations officer. "The enemy is holding back, choosing to use its missiles to try and keep our point defenses occupied. I predict they'll try a massed assault with their transformable starfighters very soon."
"Good," said H'vei, giving a bit of a smile (as close to what a Dragon could give). "Prepare to launch Parasites."
"Sir, our warp nexus is undergoing a high degree of instability! It's hard to receive or send transmissions out of the system," replied the officer in charge of the phase transitory pulse systems onboard the Slaakanesh.
H'vei frowned. "I see what they're doing. They're cutting us off. Not like it will help them any."
Admiral Princeps Thraven
Member
Posts: 33
(10/25/03 11:26 am)
Act IV, Scene 3: Thunder In The Distance Defence Station Russ. In orbit around Ayenee Prime
The holographic display swelled, filling most of the Command of Defence Station Russ. The command crew kep cler of the projection, making their way around the outskirts of the room. Not that there were many moving. The few extraneous staff had been ordered elsewhere aboard the station, and those still here were either fixed on their own stations, or the huge projection. Those watching seemed unable to take their eyes away; those not, apeared fearful of looking.
Lord Admiral-Princeps Endoran Thraven was one who watched. He watched the hologram closely, his dark eyes taking in every detail.
"They're really doing it" said General Alex Coburn softly. He also watched, hands tucked into the pockets of his trousers "Damn Nerimians. They're actually gonna do it!"
Thraven Nodded silently. The projection before them showed the long distance sensor information recieved from the Tau Ceti system. Although the ADF dared not send vessels into the system at present, even as neutral observers, it had outposts and ships that could relay data from outside. The planets, and markings laid the system out in dark green wireframes, each planet with its estimated population and defence capabilities noted beside it.
As he watched, the last blips resolved themselves into Sakkran vessels, shown as yellow wedges, again with what little details could be gathered displayed beside them. The NDI and KIF vessels showed as deep blue wedges. The details beside them were more detailed, including numbers, and vessel types where known. The blue wedges had recently increased exponentially, as they had travelled into the system. For someone watching from the outside as Republic was, it seemed as though vessels had simply appeared from nowhere. A ruse of some kind. Either that, or the Nerimians had found a way to simply form ships from the vacuum.
"Multiple missile launches detected" The montone voice of Station Russ' computer spoke as thousands of tiny blue lines extended from each of the blue wedges. Beside each line was a number; The amount of missiles in that barrage.
As the Sakkran defences activated, almost all of those blue line ended abruptly, terminated well short of their intended targets. Thraven cast a glance around the command. Every eye watched the display now. Fear was visible on no few of the faces. Every man and woman here knew what this meant. The 'war' had become more than words and political posturing. It had now become a reality. A reality in which most of those people would rather have not found themselves. Thraven muttered a silent prayer to the Emperor. A prayer for aid, and blessing for those souls about to be loosed their mortal coil, and placed into his hands. He turned, adressing Coburn.
"General, I am calling an immediate session of the Hall. I can only hope that seeing this will change the minds of those Sitters who still propose we do nothing. You will be my Council, in Suriels absence" His voice seemed cold to his ears. As well it should. Coburn nodded.
"I'll be there" was all he said. He still grimaced though.
Z
Primary Research Manufactorium - Praxia
Techno-Magus Listeru gazed thoughtfully through the pane of thick glass which separated the observation room from the main test hangar. Around him, the bleeps and clicks of technicians and computers monitoring events made a melodious backing for him. He felt at home when surrounded by those noises, and right now, he was torn between needing to feel at home with familiarity, and the exitement that had every Tech-Priest aglow.
"My Lord" the monotone voice came from one of the monitor tech, her head and chest wired into the console she sat at "The test pilot is being loaded into the control booth". Listeru nodded, turning back to the window, and then turning his back to it, to adress the others gathered in the room. A further two Techno-Magi were there, as were three native Ayenians.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are ready to begin" he said. His Vox-caster made his voice sound harsh and metallic, but all here were used to it. He turned as they moved to join him at the large window. Listeru extended his right arm to a panel which ran beneath the window, and a small cable extended from the mechanical construct that had replaced his hand, connecting to a socket on the panel. The other two Magi followed suite, connecting themselves to the panel which would feed the test data direct into their minds. The Ayenians merely watched, and Listeru pitied them. He and his kin had long snce given up on trying to convince the Ayenians to have their own Mind-Links fitted. Some had, but most seemed repulsed at the idea.
Outside of the observation room, in the huge test hangar, Servitors and technicians finished their few last minute adjustments, and moved back to their own banks of computers and work-benches. Some watched eagerly, others pensively. To the left of the observation rooms window, one of the veteran fighter pilots that had been with the Macharias Light fleet when it arrived in this galaxy, sat in a comfortable looking padded seat. The seat wouldn't have looked too out of place in a sooped-up personal shuttle. It was in fact much more comfortable - and advanced - then it looked. Gravitic micro-compensators formed the padding perfectly to the contours of the pilots body, and would protect him from all but the most violent of motions when at full strength.
At the top of the seat, the headrest waited. The only thing to mark it as any different to the rest of the seat was the small metallic collar embedded in it. As the pilots head lowered back against the headrest, a Mind-Link jack extended, connecting smoothly with the Mind-Link socket set into the back of the pilots head. Mind-Link technology was not new to the Imperials, although the Ayenians seemed surprised by it. Imperial pilots had used it for millennia, as had the Princeps of Imperial Titans, such as Thraven himself. Navigators, Astropaths, Tech-Priests, Scribes, Technicians, even the less than human Servitors used Mind-Link technology to some degree or another. But this, this was something new, even to them.
Listeru spoke, channeling the signal from his Vox-caster through to the intercom system in the hangar. "Commander Kerrad, you will recieve your orders in moments. Carry them out via the Mind-Link" Listeru new he had told the pilot this several times already, but he wanted no mistakes "The Machine-God has smiled upon you commander. You take us forward". Kerrad smiled on the seat, seemingly at his ease. Of course, a veteran such as himself would hide what little fear he felt so well. His faith in the Emperor was unswerving.
With a thought, Listeru sent the transmission to begin the tests, and all eyes turned from the pilot to what he would be controlling. It stood 32 ft tall, its metallic body dull in its standard grey finish. The barrels of the Assault Cannons fitted on the inside of each of its forearms gleamed, the new metal untarnished by use as yet. Densely armoured legs, torso and arms were intended as finished - minus respray and markings - but the 'head' of the unit was opened, the seat that would usually be inside sitting across the hangar from it, connected by cables and direct uplinks. Listeru couldn't help but feel a flash of pride as he looked up at the glorious form of the AC-1 'Paladin' Mecha unit.
The AC-1 had been inspired in part by the NDI's VF fighters, and in part by Admiral-Princep Thravens own Titan. It had become clear that in most engagements likely, short of full scale war, the time taken to deploy the Titan, or anything of a similar size was far too long, based on the skirmish style fighting that had consisted most of Ayenees previous wars. However, it was clear from the VF's and Thravens Titan that war machines of that sort would be of considerable use. And so, Thraven had instigated the research and construction of the AC-1, sometime near the beginning of the Chaos War. Things had now reached this point - the turning point in the program.
Listeru was pulled from his reverie as the right arm of the AC-1 lifted out 90 degrees, and rotated. It lowered, and the left arm performed the same task. Then both arms simultaneously. The torso rotated, left to right, to the fullest extent of its servos. The arms settled at the Mechas side, and the body began tilting in every direction imaginable. Then the arms began moving again, then the head as well. The movement stopped, and the Mecha assumed a salute to the observation room. A few of the watchers smiled. Listeru watched intently. They had tested the movements of the torso before. The real test would come soon. The arms extended again, hands pulled back, and the Assault cannons rotated. Listeru knew that had the weapons been loaded, the observation room, and the entire far side of the hangar would have been ripped to shreds in moments. The weapons cycled down, and the arms lowered, stopping just short of its sides. It appeared the pilot was being careful.
Listeru felt the command sent to the pilot at the same instant as Kerrad did. The pilots face appeard to tighten as he set his jaw. This was the moment they had been waiting for. The right leg twitched, then took its first step forward, landing surprisingly softly on the floor. The left leg followed suite, then the right again. The Mecha settled into a comfortable walk, then turned. Arms began moving, the torso twisting, head rotating, weapons cycling as if firing. Listeru felt the smile grow on his face. The Mecha returned to the far side of the hangar, then set out a dead run towards the observation room, stopping no more than a few metres from the glass. It crouched on one knee, and then - and Listeru had to admit he was impressed - it bowed to the observers. Several others appluaded as the Mecha stood and returned to the far side of the hangar. Commander Kerrad looked over to the observation room, his self-control breaking long enough to allow him to smile. His voice was broadcast through the intercom direct through the Mind-Link.
"My lord, the Emperor has truly blessed us" he said. Listeru nodded, and sent his own reply.
"He has indeed" he smiled again "He has indeed"
***
Liberator Class Attack-Carrier 'Hyperion' - High orbit, Ayenee Prime
"We are increasing the intensity of the remaining pilots' training, and preparing the other units for their trial runs as we speak, my lords. Commander Kerrad extends his thanks to you Admiral for your help, and that of the rest of the 'Emperors Fist' crew" Said the holographic of Listeru. It stood full height in Thravens briefing room aboard the Hyperion, watched by Thraven, Baranus, Suriel and Coburn "Kerrad and Unit 1 are undergoing the zero gravity training in orbit at this very moment. We expect the others to follow in a matter of weeks"
Thraven and Baranus both nodded. The Paladin project had been pushed to the back of Thravens mind with events since the first arrival of the Chaos forces, but apparently Listeru had been as single minded as all Tech-Priests, and continued his work assidously "Well done Magus. Your efforts are appreciated, and will earn you the acclaim you deserve"
"Were we on Mars Listeru, you would be very well favoured indeed. May the Machine watch over you" said Baranus
"And you my lords" Listeru bowed, and the hologram faded. Thraven knew that the launch bays of the Hyperion had been designed with the Paladin units in mind, as would all of the larger carriers produced from now on. Another arrow in their quiver.
Edited by: Admiral Princeps Thraven at: 10/25/03 11:34 am
