Uso said:Broadcast to known goverments and into the depth of space...
“Attention all ships, the area one light-year around Nepleslia, Nepleslia Prime, Rok’Veru, and New Kohana has been declared a Free Fire Zone. All ships seeking passage to Nepleslia should do so through the Delsauria gate due to the recent security concerns.”
Or at least that is what it was called in the messages broadcast by Nepleslia to those whom it may concern as well as by automated beacons placed on the outskirts of the area in question. The last of the new border monitoring stations had been put in place around the worlds they were intended to protect along with Nova Corp transit hubs for each world, linking them all with wormholes produced by the massive circular stations.
Meanwhile Unity Base, high above Delsauria, had become a flurry of activity as it finished gearing up to become the major transit hub of the Nepleslian Empire. Below the massive star fortress was the Novacorp transit hub, a ring of wormholes that were engaging and linking up with other similar structures within the Empire, massive bursts of light accompanying the formation of the wormholes. These were protected by a variety of shield generators and the new transportation control center recently added to Unity Base’s command facilities.
The 1st Assault Fleet stationed at Unity base began to fully deploy, its ships undocking from the port facilities. The destroyer squadrons formed a defensive ring around the station while the 6th and 7th squadrons of stealth gunships, the Shankers and the Weirdos, went into a holding pattern high up around the planet itself, the cloud of ships dispersing into the void of space as their colorful hull markings of a hastily constructed prison shank and a clown disappeared as the ships activated their stealth systems and dispersed into space. At the same time the 8th and 9th gunship squadrons of the 1st assault fleet left Delsauria entirely; they clustered together into four groups of 10 and hid in the Delsauria system.
Kokuten said:The Red Hammer gun platforms slowly skittered across Kennewes orbit. Every one of the fifty guns would be placed at predesignated points across the planet. Their distance was close enough to allow the guns to reach a point of view to the other side of the planet quickly. Yet, each point was set at a distance in where it would allow the fleets moving behind them to move freely and easily.
The nine groups of ships of which made up the bulk of the 1st Defense fleet orbited the planet in a slow patrol. Each one moving around to ensure that at least one side of Kennewes would have some sort of ship defense. Two other smaller ship groups, primarily consisting of Belly Stabbers, scooted above and across the planet. These two groups would attach and detach themselves to the different ship groups, constantly changing their direction and movement.
Situations planet side consisted of people attempting find safety from the space battle that would take place overhead. For days now, the people of Kennewes have been in wide-spread panic to find safety. The Ground forces of Kennewes were currently busy at preparing their defenses in case a ship or a group of Power Armors broke through. The Red Faction around Kennewes held their breath for the moment, and waited.
Uso said:“ALRIGHT MEN, TO YOUR STATIONS! AVENGERS, MOUNT UP IN YOUR ARMORS AND BE ON STANDBY FOR LAUNCH.” Came the order over the PA systems of the entire 1st Destroyer squadron as its ships broke away from orbit and formed up in a double wedge formation of five ships each. Marines in each ship scrambled from their beds, pausing only to make them again, before leaving to join other marines who were either on eating, or work shifts on the ship. In short order the entire marine compliment of the 1st squadron was lined up in the power armor bay, suiting up and then checking each other over in pairs as to leave no detail to chance. They would soon be standing in place inside of the ship’s launch tubes.
Meanwhile outside of the ship, the commodore’s for each wing were busy coordinating their efforts with the rear-admirals bringing the larger LHA class ships over the heads of the Avengers. The shadow of the ships blocked out the light reflecting off the destroyer’s yellow ribbon insignia only for a moment as both the NSS Thunder Child and the NSS Warrior took station inside of one of the 5 ship wedges.
The formation was soon joined by the 20 ships of the 6th gunship squadron. Two of which took station at less than two meters from a DD4, activating various stealth systems to blend in with the ships that were near them.
It would take less than a minute for the entire formation to form up and use their FTL systems to put .3 AU between each wedge of ships before making a simultaneous point to point jump toward Kennewes. The projected exit point was a 30AU away from Kennewes’s star, far enough out to avoid any interdiction devices, in theory. Upon exiting both formations of ships would activate their interdiction and dampener fields.
Kokuten said:The 1st Defense fleet atop Kennewes still kept it's orbit across the planet, one group, however, were stationary above the planet. The "Last Line" group, which was consisting of the NSS Vidermok. The ship itself lay quiet, most of the crew awaiting at stations, many seeming very nervous on the upcoming attack.
A young Communication's officer sat her position on the bridge. She looked intently at her instrutments. The girl rubbed her eyes as it had been a few hours since everyone began to become anxious and ready. Suddenly, the ships that had fallen into the distance, ten AU from the planet, appeared on her screens. Her head popped up as she stared at the screen for a moment, her heart almost skipping a beat.
"Sir! I've picked up ships warping in off in the distance." piped the Vidermok's communication's officer. The fleet's admiral had been napping in his captain's chair, and had recently woken up. He was a tad groggy, but got the message all the same.
"What do we have?" Jeffery asked the officer.
"Twenty Hrays, ten DD4s, and two of those brand-new LHA-Class ships." The officer said, looking at his information.
"Hrm..." The old admiral grunted. Most of the bridge crew had turned to face the gruff Nepleslian.
"Well damn, I thought they weren't coming for second." He chuckled, most of the bridge crew giving him an odd face. "Though, let's not waste time, first..." He began.
The second and third Byakko groups began to turn into the direction of the raiding party. The two groups took to warp and in a moment were 1 AU outside of the .5 AU interdiction fields. They were careful to take positions away from the path of the conquest's fire. The group began to spread out and speed towards their invaders, both Byakkos moving their shielded, forward facing turrets to the bow.
Uso said:A few seconds after the Red ships arrived the Green fleet unleashed a volley of energy wave projection cannon fire toward the upper atmosphere of Kennewes. The ships floated upwards as they started shooting, generating a grid of invisible beams from the two wedges of ships.
The NSS thunder Child and the NSS Warrior opened up their forward missile tubes. Each fired a cruse missile aimed at the same Oberon Escort. The missiles accelerated to FTL while projecting a directed interdiction beam toward the targeted ship to prevent it from warping out.
At that point the rear admiral in charge of the operation ordered another FTL jump. Their interdiction fields disappeared along with their ships only to reappear closer to Kennewes, this time 2.3 AU from the planet. The LHA class ships, equipped with directional interdiction devices of their own, aimed a pair of beams at the Byakko carriers they had just warped away from, intending to keep them stuck in place away from the planet while the DD4’s began taking closer range scans of Kennewes, supplementing their hyperwave scans with various electromagnetic, gravity, and zero-point field scans to build a more accurate picture of the Kennewes defense system. Although the weapons fire would take more than an hour to reach Kennewes and a few minutes to reach the group of ships that were sent to attack them, the gravity beams would only take moments to reach their target.
Kokuten said:The two missiles tore through the escort, destroying like a rock destroys a fine china set. In a rapid turn, the fleet attempted turn around quickly, and warp out of the sector. Though they were stopped by the oncoming interdiction beams that halted their lead ships. So at the moment the Jokers and the Loyalists were stuck in position.
Back at the planet however, the entire defense fleet took movement to avoid the amount of fire coming to their direction, all them putting shields up in defense of it. Even the cannons moved from their defensive positions to avoid it. Though while avoiding, the cannons moved forward in an effort to get range of the green fleet, 5 cannons, closest to the green fleet original were almost at a 2 AU range.
The Vidermok brought her forward, port, and starboard Ace Cards to bear on the enemy fleet, at least 10 guns aiming at each ship. With that it let loose an abominable amount fire from it's standard position, the Conquest battleships at it's side also letting loose fire from it's position with it's turrets.
The First Byakko group, the Bouncers, were just arriving at the Green facing side of the planet. Though, orders from Jeffery had them to wait at the Planets surface and activate their 1 AU interdiction field.
The First Conquest Group, the "Hurricane", the Second Norris Group, the "Bootleggers", and the third Norris group, the "Psychos", preformed a spacial flanking maneuver to the port side of the invading fleet. They warped right outside the .5 AU interdiction field. The Vampire-Class Patrol crafts had received the message about the FTL Missiles that the LHA's had fired, and activated their own interdiction fields. The three assaulting groups began to close in on the invading groups, already choosing targets, waiting to come in range.
Uso said:There was no time for celebration on board the NSS Thunder Child, who’s missile got credited for the kill. The entire Green formation had little time to keep track of such things as they were out numbered, out gunned, and deep inside of enemy territory.
Techs on board the ships prepared for another point to point jump while the LHA’s aimed directed interdiction beams at the Conquest and Norris class ships in the three groups that were trying to box them in and an additional beam at the Vidermok to prevent it from warping out.
At the same time the formation re-arranged itself into a vertical wedge, taking only moments to complete this action and aim their turrets toward the Vidermok. The DD4s and LHAs patterned their shots into a grid like shape, creating an expanding shot gun cone of energy blasts.
It was at that point the Green formation made another point to point move. This time moving to a location 1.1 au outside of Kennewes, off towards the side of the planet. So they no longer would have the red ships at their back. Almost immediately the LHA ships re-focused their directed interdiction beams on the flagships of the three groups behind them as well as the Vidermok.
The NSS Thunder Child sent a quick communication over the subspace radio towards Nepleslia while the DD4s fired another volley, patterned in a similar grid shape towards the Vidermok. The LHA’s then opened up their launch tubes again, each unloading another cruse missile aimed for the equator of Kennewes. The missiles would instantly travel .1au, at which point they would hit the Interdiction field put up by the reds and be slowed down to STL speeds.
Kokuten said:The Vidermok was stuck in a position in which the needed to move quickly. It kept it's Comostron Pulse Shields up strong as it, and the ships around it maneuvered around the trajectories. In frustration, the Conquest and the Norris ships began to slowly move in on the Greens from their long distance away, readying to jump when the interdiction beam left them.
While this was happening, one of the support groups, the "Deliverymen" a group of 50 Bellystabbers scooted over the planet and moved over to intercept the cruise missile. With their Disruptor cannons, they would destroy the missile before it would have chance to enter the atmosphere.
However, the entire Red fleet wasn't on the defensive or trying to catch up, just a part of it. Now freed from the grasp of the direction interdiction fields, the Jokers and the Loyalists were ready to give the Greens hell. In just a moment, the two Byakko groups were outside the Raider's Interdiction field of .5 AU. At the moment after their jump, they activated their own 1 AU interdiction field, trapping the Greens inside it. With the Greens on hold in their field, the two groups moved in for an assault.
Being in 1.1 AU of the Planet, this put the Green Raiding fleet in range of at least twenty-five of the Red-Hammer Orbital Gun Platforms. The cannons turned and aimed into the Green fleet, taking advantage of their jumpless state and began a barrage of relentless fire.
Wes said:With the anti-FTL fields now down, selected Red ships began a stealthy and hurried evacuation, just in case. These ships carried some of the Red bosses, colonization supplies, and a huge number of civilian families.
Uso said:“The Pre-Programmed attack is over, remind all captains that their ships are switching over to their control and to remain in formation.” The Green’s rear admiral said as he stood up from his chair on the bridge to observe the 3d display of the engagement from a standing position, “Take us directly towards the Byakkos and hold fire on the main guns until we are within 50% range of scoring a hit, Use the main batteries to fire at the edges of the Byakko’s escorts to start boxing them and the directed gravity beams to keep their cap ships off our backs. Don’t let them retreat and spread the word to start targeting their interdiction systems as soon as we are within range.” The green admiral then leaned over the navigation officer’s shoulder to look at his screen, “Accelerate to full speed and find us a safe spot from these” He pointed at the icon indicating the main weapon fire from the defensive platforms around the planet, “I don’t want to loose a ship to a shot from that range.’ By this point the timer on the icon was rapidly counting down from 1:47 as the time till impact decreased.
Outside of the command room the tight double wedge formation was maintained and pointed towards the Byakko group. The Energy Wave Projection guns were started a barrage of fire towards the edges of the Byakko group to limit their motion while they accelerated to full speed towards the enemy. There would be less than a minute before the Green and the Red formation were on top of each other.
Just to be sure the Byakkos did not leave, the LHA’s aimed additional interdiction beams toward the Byakko group.
Just as the ‘attack’ began the control systems on board the Green ships registered new signals. “Transports…” The rear admiral thought out loud as the DEIMOS began displaying data to him, “Put an interdiction beam on them and keep them near the planet.”
Kokuten said:The Bootleggers(Norris), Psychos(Norris), and Hurricane(Conquest) groups still kept a steady speed approaching from behind the Byakkos and towards the Green Fleet.
The Vidermok(Ultima) had set it's position above the planet and began to start its own hail of fire from it's Ace Card turrets.
The Jokers(Byakko) and Loyalists(Byakko) kept their pace, but suddenly began to pull in reverse, trying to keep outside and away of the the LHA's .5 AU interdiction field. While they were retreating away, the Rude Awakening(Norris), Typhoon(Conquest), and Runners(Bellystabber) groups warped to the area behind the Byakkos, in between the Bootleggers(Norris), Psychos(Norris), and Hurricane(Conquest), right outside the LHA's .5 Interediction field.
While the rest of the ships were moving in on the Raider's group, the Delivery Men(Bellystabbers) went to the aid of the transports. With special order of the Grand Admiral himself, three Vampire-Patrol craft, the NSS Mortvolde, the NSS Jujubik, the NSS Teabagger broke off from the command group and warped to the transports position. The Mortvolde(Vampire), the Jujubik(Vampire), and the Teabagger(Vampire), activated the secondary function on their interdiction field, releasing the transports from the grip of the LHA's.
Uso said:“Alright, this is the best range we are going to get. Start laying down a pattern of fire against the Byakko’s escorts and put down some QD blasts in their path to slow them down.” Meanwhile the time to impact counters started reaching 0, ace card fire and Hammer platform beams began to lace the area with weapons fire. At this range the majority of the weapons fire would miss, as there had been plenty of time to get out of the way, leaving only one hammer platform beam to strike its target, one of the DD4s.
The Electrostatic fields protecting the DD4 withstood the blast for a few seconds before giving way, allowing the tail end of the beam to burn off armor on its left side while it continued to move towards the Byakkos.
The NSS Thunder Child began to project anti-gravity beams to counter the effects of the interdiction fields, sweeping a few beams across the Byakko groups. In the process the DD4s began to fire their main weapons, dropping 5, 150 cubic mile spheres of death in front of the Byakko’s retreating path as well as another 5 on the Vampire Escorts.
The Hary’s began their firing as well, projecting 20 aether shock beams towards the edges of the Byakko formation. Unlike the QDs on the DD4s, these weapons weren’t instant and would still require time to reach the target.
Joining these, were two Vogel shearing effects projected towards the Byakko’s bridges. By encapsulating the shearing FTL bubbles inside an anti-gravity beam they could cut right through the interdiction fields.
Upon completing the sweep with the anti-interdiction beams the anti-gravity beams re-focused on eight of the Vampire Escorts, following which the LHA’s released the last of their long range missiles, each one going into the anti-gravity beam and accelerating to FTL speeds to strike towards the Red Ships.
Meanwhile the red ships continued at full speed toward the Byakkos.
Kokuten said:Five Vampire were wiped out as their shields faltered against the blazing cannons. All five coming from the Jokers(Byakko), once again, losing ships. Luckily, the Rude Awakening(Norris), Typhoon(Conquest), and Runners(Bellystabber) warped in away far enough to avoid the blasts striking inbetween them. Which only slowed them down for a moment. With that they charge full speed, behind the Byakkos. The three Conquest ships in the Typhoon(Conquest) group began unloading their turrets at the Raiders.
The Bootlegers(Norris), Psychos(Norris), and Hurricane(Conquest) were still moving forward at full-speed to the Raiders. The Hurricane(Conquest) group of 3 Conquest, began unloading fire from their own turrets at the Raiders.
The Jokers(Byakko) and the Loyalists(Byakko) began to move forward with the support of their allies, putting all their turrets into the bow.
Back at the planet, the Red-Hammer Cannons had already led and fired at least 3 shots before the first one hit the DD4. By this time, 10 more gun platforms had joined in range, and had opened fire.
In the Last Line(Ultima) group, the Vidermok held it's fire for the moment as it's generators began a different kind of hum, and the energy from around the ship began to sift into one point. Even the atmosphere of the planet seemed to shift at such a movement of energy.
Uso said:Weapons fire from Kennewes began passing through the Green formation. “Have the Harpy’s activate their ECMs at full power along with their anti-interdiction fields.” The Green rear admiral yelled to his tactical officer while moving over to his communications officer, “Signal a withdraw, we’ve tested their defenses and if we stay here any longer we are going to get exploded.”
Almost as soon as he said that the NSS Retribution was struck by an energy beam from Kennewes. The blast pressed against the ship’s shields for a few moments before it cut through and washed over the hull, vaporizing mass as the energy flowed over the ship. Though the interior would remain unharmed the weapon systems on the exterior of the ship were scorched off, leaving the hull a cratered and worn block. It was at this time the DD4’s began their withdraw, which would soon be followed by the LHAs and finally the Harpy Gunships.
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?