RP: 188604 [Star Wasp] 7: The Hate Machine

Battle stations!


Pulling away from the drones, Alex latched onto the hull of the Lament and began aiming and firing at any missiles he could.

White Lament; Thinking With Portals

A loud smash was heard from the center of the mothership's vast hollow interior, half of a junk-tank falling to the floor as the portal rebooted for the current venture. Somehow, the leyline gate had already been open for twenty-six seconds preceding the severing of communications. Fortunately, a friendly junker was on scene to confirm nothing else had made it through, but it was still a close call. At least that explained the gravity disturbance.

Even as a chunk of the planet's surface was peeled away like the skin of some great root vegetable, another traumatic bubble of turbulence could be felt as the ship got closer to the tower. The control systems were going haywire due to unexpectedly trying to absorb another portal in progress. Whatever was going on, it must have overpowered the enemy system eventually, because the disturbance sparked out just as suddenly as it appeared...

Apparently, the enemy had gates too. A lot of them.

Surface Detail

Even with the ground exploding around them, the drones seemed to just erratically keep their position. Three main groups seemed to form around particular tunnels. One near the center of the gravity disturbances, one closer to those radioactive factory blocks, and another near the base of the tower.

None of them fired missiles just yet. AA fire continued ferociously, but there was still a feeling that they were primarily saving their best for a counter-attack, should the portal gambits fail.

Nothing new seemed to be happening in terms of ECM interference. That mindware signal was gone now, too. Was the enemy commander even still alive?...

White Lament

Vier's combat drones would end up having to get out of the way of the massive mothership as it tried to scoop up the tower, awkwardly positioning themselves right next to the ground while trying to shield the mothership as best they could from the incoming projectiles. Then Arccos gave the order to open fire, but there was plenty of work to do before that could happen.

Each drone was limited to using optical sensors for the time being, and luckily targets were all clustering up around things that seemed to be important. The route the laser would travel was readied in each drone.

Then Vier would send a signal to the White Lament, respectfully requesting they turn off their optical sensors for the next three seconds, and again for a length of 3 seconds every ten seconds.

Then Vier made the same adjustments to the ships she had access to, the Pumpkin Eater, the Necromancer, the other drones, even Alex's mecha and Uso's power armor, the optics were shut down or the blinds set to 100%.

Finally, the combat drones would open up with their massive banks of lasers, the beams heating the missiles flying through the sky until they turned into rapidly expanding clouds of vapor, the beams continuing to move forward, quickly sliding over tanks and hatches for just fractions of a second, long enough to melt the exterior and turn the metal into a glowing reddish liquid. Vier trying not to cause more damage than was necessary.

This turned the Freehold into the brightest object in the system.

That light also bounced off its targets, and then off everything nearby. Anyone with eyes open would feel like they were looking right into the sun from the reflection of the weapon strikes.

Necromancer

Hazel had been sitting in her fighter since the operation started, finally getting a twinge of excitement from the order to open fire (Or possible the White Lament's space/time shenanigans)

"Alright everyone, stay close and cover the White Lament. When it leaves you leave, don't expect that we'll be able to maintain communications out in that soup."

'Hound 1, launch!'

The two remaining members of Hound squadron would be close behind, the group trying to find a target to strike in all this ECM soup. Their optics had already been turned off by Vier, and trying to turn on the radar just resulted in their electronics nearly being fried by the amount of energy being put out by the facilities on the planet. They group was practically flying by dead-reckoning only.

Of course, there was one thing they could target, the intense gravitational shifts coming from the planet. The squadron would pull away from the Necromancer, and then nose down to fire their rail guns, launching high speed-anti-ship projectiles at what they could only hope was something very important.

White Lament, but inside this time

Uso checked the all hands channel again, "Yeah, we're not going out in that." She said, jamming the can of spay paint down in-between a support strut and some other piece of equipment so that it wouldn't roll around as the ship moved. "I think we're going to be pretty useless here... You know how to work these guns Corgi?" Uso asked, examining the spacer-gun that she had acquired.

The Pumpkin Eater - Hangar Bay

Tired of waiting for Akemi and his gang to get in the shuttle Ace decided to hop out of the shuttle with the rifle. "Aries start calculating for me."

Aries spoke. "You do know that if you hit anything it will be dangerously close to being out of range."
"I realize this." Ace said as he loaded "Best Wishes" rounds into the autoloader.

"All checks finished Ace fire when your ready." Aries spoke.

Ace grinned. "Roger that." He then fired a 4 volley of shots at four different targets grouped closely together.
"Can anyone get me hit confirmations? I need to know where these things hit."

The Death Pumpkin Eater

Aashi was blind for a moment before getting visuals back online.

"Confirm mission objective has been reached!" Aashi said as she could make out the White Lament not figuratively but very literally scooping up a part of the lighthouse. "Confirm," she yelled into comms after a few seconds' silence.

She noted the area that had troops moving in and avoided them as she threw the switch on the dual plasma arrays on and started zapping every inch of the planet that she could, going after tank after tank after tank.

"Are you guys staying or going?" she comm'd into the hangar bay. "I'd recommend staying as I'm getting out of here, and fast, if mission objective has been reached."

She comm'd Alex, "Let's go! Get back to the ship!"

"Knights of sidonia intro/opening"

Necromancer's Bridge:

Just as Necromancer was about to skim the planet on a recon run, everything changed...

"Abort run!" Werner yelled. "Tactical! Disable our missiles tracking and fire them like rockets. Get the big guns firing at all we can. We have to guard the retreat. Begin barrage of the surface with explosive shells and fire manually. Fire on my mark."

"Aye Sir!" The XO called as he went to work.

"Helm! Move us so that we can guard the smaller ships!" Werner called.

"Aye sir!" The helmsman said as the ship moved in to provide covering fire.

"Systems! I want all shields guarding our underside. That armor won't last on its own!" The Captain added.

"Aye Aye." The systems officer replied smoothly.

"Comms, inform everyone of the incoming fire." Werner said.

The comm officer opened a wide ban comm's link to all USO assets. "All USO units, The Necromancer is beginning bombardment of the surface. We will cover everyone, get out now."

"Sir weapons loaded. Awaiting orders." The XO said, looking back to Werner.

"Let's show these bastards what the Necromancer can do. ALL WEAPONS OPEN FIRE!!!" He yelled.

The ships cannons fired out a thunderous report, and the 'rocket barrage' slammed into the surface. The cannons fired continuously and the missile batteries fired as quickly as they could be loaded.

Werner stood from his spot. "Don't stop till everyone is out."

White Lament

Corgan let Uso spraypaint his Impulse. Probably not the best idea but he didn't care what she painted on it. Arccos hadn't actually said no to his date. He had expected a dismissal or outright shut down. Maybe he should have asked sooner. Although maybe he was getting in over his head trying to date a Spacer. They were probably into some strange stuff. Hopefully, he could handle it. The ship rocked and snapped him out of his thoughts. "What the hell was that?" He asked curiously. Uso yelled out before he could ask the same question. He picked up the Finagle and examined it.

The Nepleslian heard Uso ask if he could use the weapon. "Hell if I know. Never even saw a Freespacer until I joined Ragnarok. This is a big freaking gun. Looks like a single shot breach-loaded rifle. I see an autoloader with a 12-round belt." After a few seconds he found the trigger. "There it is." He lifted the rifle and held it under his arm awkwardly. "Like this I think." A display popped up in his helmet's HUD. "Not bad. Still I agree with your assessment, we shouldn't go out there right now. Especially not without a good plan."

The Pumpkin Eater

Ace continued to fire 4 round volleys at the surface with Aries assisting in targeting. Every volley kept him from hearing with how loud it was and he had to wait a few seconds between each shot due to the enormous flash. He knew that it was making him stick out like a sore thumb but he didn't care.

Answering Aashi between volleys Ace said. "Apparently we're staying on the ship since the only guy with power armor wants to stay, and I can't say this gun will be good if one of those things gets in close and I don't have back up."

The Pumpkin Eater

"Well I super want to stay until the Lament gets to safety," Akemi electronically said to Aashi, everyone on Pumpkin Eater and the rest of their ships if he could as he went to the hangar with his Impulse armor equipped. "If it were up to me I'd hit the surface with everything we've got since we're all so close they could easily hit us hard before we get away. We might as well try to wipe out the surface and suppress their fire in the process so they can't attack or attack successfully as much. What's the point of getting stuff if Arccos dies or loses her ship? Plus is this all we want to get?"

Since the ship had opened up allowing Ace to fire Akemi left for the Lament. "You guys just stay and relax," the Neko said to his two pals. "I'll try chatting with you while I'm gone. Ask Aashi or the ship how to use your radio."

"Y'know keeping the ship open just to fire probably isn't worth it when you're giving the enemy a chance to shoot inside," he felt compelled to point out to Ace.

"I'm going to the Lament to get better guns," Akemi sent to Pumpkin Eater as well as Arccos' ship.

Queen's Slave>

The Queen's slave was empty.... for the most part. Vier was sitting in the CIC,quietly pressing buttons on a handheld datapad and across from her was a sleeping Vekmen who she had been ignoring, as there had been no time to get him off the ship before launch.

Eventually, the Vekimen started to stir, rolling over onto his stomach in his BDU. He clutched his helmeted head and looked around. He started to speak in Vekimen, before noticing the robot sitting nearby. "Oh... Where are we?" He asked in a gruff, gutteral voice. Obviously he didn't take as much time as Zahen or URam to make his voice sound more like everyone else's.

"The Freehold Factory." Vier replied, "I appologise for not taking the time to remove you fromt he ship prior to launch, but Uso did not give me much time to prepare for the launch itself." She would set her datapad down, and turn on the CIC's display, as there didn't seem to be much point in keeping it off now for the Vek's sake. The table's display would seem to show a planet below them, along with an array of ships, tanks, and other craft slamming into one another.

The Vekimen stared at the screen, his eyes covered by the polarized visor. "Well... Where is the planet we are working on? Where are we right now?" He asked, looking aroud the ship. "How much sugar did I have last night..." He added, confused.

"We are about 200 light years from 188604, However, I will be able to return you to the planet as soon as the operation here is finished. I can also only speculate on your sugar intake, as I am not familiar with your physiology." Vier replied. The ship itself was empty except for the two of them and the mess that Uso had left behind in the CIC, a power armor halfway disassembled, weapons, equipment that hadn't been stowed correctly or just left under the seating.

The Vekimen gulped, hearing the distance. "That... That is far" He said slumping into a chair, his tail curling oddly as he sat on it. "I hope Khysze Zahen doesn't charge me for abandoning my post..." He grumbled, starting to fiddle with the helmet clasps.

"I can speak with Khysze Zahen if you are charged with that. As I stated, I did not have time to remove you from the ship before launch."

The ship would then rumble a bit.

"It is my understanding your people have not traveled far from their homeworld yet?"

The Vekimen shook his head. "Uhm... We are very far from what was our homeworld. We have been travelling for 1300 years or more. We only just found a planet we could colonize with the last of our kind, but it is no homeworld. If you were being metaphorical, then yes... You are correct. We currently do not have a large enough fleet to safely travel outside of Yamatai Space, and even then we are limited to the inner rings" He explained, pulling off the helmet. Unlike most Vekimen, who had rather clean appearances, He had a rather large scar along his face, mangling many of the black scales along his face.

"Well, I'm here. Would you like me to sit in a corner and be out of your way as you work?" He asked, focusing on the rumbling ship.

"You are fine where you are at. I do not actually need to be concentrating on my work with this body, the hardware on the ships are doing all of the important work. This just helps with recalling information from this body later on." She explained, perhaps somewhat needlessly to the lizard, "... 1300 years of travel, I take it you did not have access to effective faster than light drives?"

"Our FTL technology was designated to our warships. We had a very simple, hardy drive on the station, but it couldn't make jumps ear as fast as our Destroyers or the cruisers we once had Even our Destroyers are currently being disassembled to provide tech for the general population. Our hope is to learn of the technology available, and build a fleet up with the resources we find on our planet, or can buy once we establish our economy.

"I see, and that was part of the deal with Uso correct? Resource extraction in exchange for technology?" Vier asked."... I should also ask what your role is working with the Vekmen Task Force."

"I am a career soldier ma'am, and I don't stick my nose to far in the business of the rings. I was trained as a small fighter pilot. Given out lack of fighters though, I have no experience in anything but simulations" He explained.

"What sensor inputs do you use for flight? It was my understanding that your species has poor eyesight and spacial reasoning skills?" Vier asked, a steady thumping sound now coming from outside, as the ship started passing through the outer edges of the nukes being fired from the surface.

Outside
Despite Alex's best efforts, there were too many missiles. He had managed to mostly clear the sky in one area, but everywhere else the incoming fire seemed to him to be far too much for the fleet's point defense batteries to take out.

He wouldn't be able to take them out from where he was, his laser was far to short range for that. Dropping his craft into a position like someone preparing to jump, Alex tensed up before flying off of the hull of the White Lament.
Surveying the area around him, Alex picked the area with the densest population of missiles. and sent his craft spiraling through the missiles, pulling ridiculously dangerous maneuvers in an attempt to evade them.

Concentrating on flying, Alex let the onboard computer do its job, and it lashed out with beams of congealed light as fast as it could lock on and fire, sweeping the beam from target to target with cold efficiency. After finishing his flight through the cloud of missiles, Alex turned around to survey his handiwork.

Combined Bombardment
~♫~

Given that much of the sand on the banks surrounding the tank trails had been converted to glass during the bombardment a decade ago, the current application of high intensity lasers made the ground literally explode with secondary bursts of energy everywhere the drones had fired.

The worst hit were the enemy junk-tanks at the center of the gravity surge area, as the ground had barely even been broken up there. Half of the vehicles either had their treads melted into gelatinous masses, or simply exploded on the spot due to their reactor coolant violently expanding their power plants to pieces. About fifty were all that was left on the hill now, completely out of formation and either too blind or confused to reacquire enemy targets.

With the density of anti-air fire finally dying off and the hatch doors left completely exposed, hound squadron was given an utterly clear shot. Their payload made tattered shreds of the shoddy freight elevator, and more importantly, carried on straight down into the shaft below.

A streak of light, the purest azure blue, leaped up from the darkness, before rapidly disappearing just as quickly as it had came. The strange gravity signals went back to base standards, too. Whatever it was, they had stopped it doing whatever it did.

Next came the advance of the Necromancer. A group of nuclear missile launchers had emerged just moments before, probably waiting to line up a shot on Arccos' mothership itself, but were forced into action against the great battleship instead...

The missiles did not connect, detonating in a titanic cluster of white-hot miniature suns, as Alex's mecha darted between them and set off a cataclysmic chain reaction. All around, city blocks were flattered by a wall of hellish rays that atomized vast spheres of terrain instantaneously.

Because of Werner's position near Arccos and the mothership, most of the gun-toting metal crabs at the base of the tower were now the ones to feel the battleship's direct wrath. Even their primitive AI seemed to know it was a bad idea to face up against such a monster now that their missiles had failed, but were too slow to make it back into the tunnels before the entire area was completely flattened into a series of knobbly craters. Only the doors remained intact now, apparently reinforced and not focused upon by the titans above.

The ECM signal was getting jittery, but was still persistently there. Network must still have been active. The last third of the enemy junk-tanks, specifically the ones clustered around the radioactive factory area, were now slowly dissolving back into the tunnels. Were they making a last stand, or moving underground to desperately attempt supporting somewhere else?... The perfect chance to seize whatever it was they were protecting, perhaps, but who knew if there was anything on this dead world worth the added risk...

All obstacles cleared, the way was clear for the White Lament and it's great portal maw, seizing up a tench of dirt half a kilometer wide and rending it seemingly unto nothing.

World Peace Achieved:

"Primay target is secured for retrieval." Arccos' voice rang out over the comms, her voice strangely flat, as she observed her work through the ship's myriad eyes. "Ground is clear. Pumpkin eater is cleared for extraction from the battlefield."

Down in the makeshift armor bay in the White Lament where Corgan and Uso were busy suiting up, possibly with some help from Truffleclub; a bulkhead slid open revealing the automaton clad in white armor that had previously been sitting in the habitation domes. It had a lanky, almost spindly or spider-like look to it. But it wore a full suit of some sort of Freespacer power armor equivalent and had some sort of older model of plasma pistol strapped to its hip, along with some thick metallic cylinder tucked under its arm. It certainly looked combat ready.

"Infiltrator in manufacturing bay." It said, it's synthesized voice droned. "Enemy can open portals inside Mothership. Prepare to repel boarder."

Outside the ship, of course things were different. Now that the dimensional shear array had fed the object of this heist into its portal, the White Lament righted itself. Rising above the now once-again smouldering cityscape that was Freehold 03. Historic irony that the ones who would tear it apart again would be led by Freespacers.

Engines hummed with power forced back into the inertialess drives again, as the mothership rose up into orbit.

"Alright. I'm calling for a vote." Arccos chimed in again over the radio. "Two options: We can leave now and pick up the lighthouse at the exit point, and call it a day. Or we can go down to check out those tunnels. The Lighthouse can more or less hook our little sandball up to most known networks in the sector at range, but with the servers beneath it, we can probably rally more help for the I'ee from the Free State... Also this guy has probably the most advanced portal gear I've ever seen, which might be worth taking a look at."

The Mysterious Skills of Smithee:

Meanwhile, on the other ship, the two strange locals of 188604 had seemed to watch this battle in terror. Following Akemi along on the Pumpkin eater's decks, both Smithee and Olena seemed a bit unnerved by the sheer capacity for destruction being displayed outside the docking bay doors of the mass freighter. But.. It wasn't time for them to go down there just this moment.

As Akemi whisked off to see about getting more advanced weaponry, they just silently watched the smouldering cityscape beneath them. Nuclear fires burning in space, molten towers turning stone streets into rivers of liquid metal... The horror of it all seemed to strike them all at once.

At the prospect of being sent down there, Olena looked down to the plasma pistol which had been offered to her and clutched it nervously. Smithee on the other hand did the weirdest part: He quite expertly ejected the magazine to check his new star pistol for ammunition, before sliding it back in and chambering the first round before ensuring the safety was on, and holstering it at his side.

Quite a feat for a man who'd likely only ever worked with black powder revolvers in past.

Waiting Outside The Lament

"If I get a vote, I vote for whatever Arccos wants minus killing or hurting me," Akemi sent through his Impulse, "I'd like to go down there if she thinks it's worth it."

"Can I please come inside to grab some equipment?" he asked when he reached the Lament.

When Akemi saw what was going on below it impressed him too but he mainly saw it as a nice light show for his two native buddies. He just didn't really care how many had died below as they weren't his friends, he didn't fire a single shot, they had no other choice to assure their safety and this whole thing hadn't been his idea.

What bothered the Neko was the concern of how practical it would be to go down into all that destruction. Even in power armor he imagined given all the damage done there could always be more tremendous explosions waiting to happen that could wipe them out. Plus he figured any survivors they encountered might be suicidally vicious and willing to do anything to kill them.

Hangar Bay

Seeing that there wasn't anything shooting back any more Ace reloaded the Finagle one last time before resting it on his shoulder and turning around to see Olena and Smithee. He was about to say something when he saw Smithee check the guns clip. "Hey kid where you learn to do that?" Ace walked over to the two. "Looks like the fighting is over for now. At least for us people on the ships anyways. No need to be worried or nothin'."

White Lament

Uso would speak up over the all hands channel,

"Great, what and how many are we dealing with?" Uso asked, finally getting a round chambered in her spacer-gun before adding, "And how many of these white spacer-bots do we have to work with? Between whatever we've got on board this ship and the horde of tanks on the planet, I'm thinking we should just come back for the servers later. We aren't geared up for this kind of fight right now...

... Speaking of which, Ace, bring what you can from the Pumpkin Eater over to the White Lament and Alex, get back here with your bot. I don't want to deal with whatever is onboard alone."


Vier would also add in her opinion, "I would rather leave this factory intact rather than cause more damage trying to extract more."

White Lament; Unknown Alloys

The giant automata stayed pretty serene about the whole affair, simply helping the other two with their power armor. After figuring out how to operate the tiny spray can effectively, they angled it against Corgan's shoulder, and drew a perfectly formed blank green square. Well, it was a start. Dealing with the shifting gravity was managed in a similarly dull but acknowledging fashion, even placing a hand on Uso's shoulder to brace her when the weird turbulence from the portal system began.

"New?... Who is this one?..." Truffleclub regarded the lightfooted movements of the approaching white-shelled automata rather differently. It was a peculiar sight to see them take such an interest in another person, normally a more timid and disguised affair, and their speech tone was completely garbled as a result. After taking just a step forward, they just looked the thing up and down, a half-and-half mixture of suspicion and intrigue. "When is... You are... New for us?... You are friend? Then what is... being name, is?..."

Arccos' voice over the communications system split their attention a little, but the side eyes were still keeping a look on this stranger, even the front eyes were pulled elsewhere.

"Odd thing. I am showing you to internal fabrication..." Grasping a Finagle's Revenge in one hand, the rifle was like a toy compared to the giant. The free hand wafted towards a hatch, apparently unconcerned with how much this new machine might have been programmed to already know. Truffleclub knew the best ways. Taking care was all about knowing the best ways. "Odd thing. You are being close, is?"

Smithee is Thirty Two Years Old:

On being referred to as a 'kid', Smithee stopped and looked at Ace. Then his shoulders started to shake a little. And then he almost doubled over with laughter, wrapping one arm around Olena's shoulder for support and gasping for air. One glove raised to his visor before he stopped and took a deep breath.

"Oh my, I can't wipe my eyes in this." He said, catching air back into his lungs, "I would dare to say from the look of your eyes and brow that I'm at least a decade your senior, good sir. But I shall take it as a compliment that you consider me so blessed with youth still."

Another short bray of laughter.

"Many of your sheriffs use this sort of weapon, and most of them spend their pay at my tavern. A lot of them liked to show off their new toys, but I wouldn't say it's so impressive that I know how to operate such base machinery considering what we've seen outside." Smithee indicated the now smouldering cityscape below. "Flattery is, of course: Much appreciated."

Force Multiplication:

Arccos' voice crackled again over the comms to answer Uso:

"We have two hundred junkers armed with anti-tank rounds, a few dozen inactive Largegear units like Truffleclub, and just the one Codespeaker for now. Codespeaker's there to operate some buzzpack software to work drone soldiers at close range, under my command."

Almost as a response to being explained in a particularly Freespacer sort of way; the lanky machine in white armor plating clipped the metal cylinder to a hook at its waist, and gave a curt nod. Its face an unreadable faceplate dotted with a few sensors. It quickly fell in behind Truffleclub without speaking another word.

Outside, a small access hatch atop the Lament would pop open with a little hiss of atmosphere being voided, giving a good route inwards for Akemi to board. But the tight, wired control Arccos had on the Ship meant that the only pathways open for the Neko would lead to the same area as Uso and the others. Every other path through the ship was shut tight with heavy bulkheads which wouldn't be shifted.

"By the look of things we got a good chunk of their forces on the surface taken out." Arccos spoke, "My own vote is for digging them out of there, and reclaiming the old servers with about half of the Freespacers' knowledge of engineering and technology, as well as details of a lot of lost facilities we couldn't keep in touch with during the Genocide. If we leave them behind, we're going to be seeing them rebuild in pretty short order. While us not going down there leaves the factories functional, as Vier suggests? They'll be under control of this little tank guy who's just shooting anyone in the area because they consider this their turf."

"And while it's not up to vote right now: If we do hold a vote on the matter I would love to have Akemi killed."

White Lament

Once Akemi had been led as far as he could go and joined the others he started looking for the biggest, most powerful weapons he could take assuming there were any. He also looked to see if he could find something even better for Smithee. Getting him and Olena each an NSP when he brought his first ship down sounded like a good idea. "Oh come on buddy," he answered back on all comms too, "just because I'm doing this to increase my chances of diddling you once doesn't mean I don't also genuinely want to help. I'd love to help you turn our planet into another easily habitable home for Freespacers. Well part of it at least so the rest of us don't die. Just give me a bunch of ways I can assist your version of the Spacer cause that don't involve me expiring or being bankrupted."

Arccos' Saltiness:

"Akemi, I want nothing to do with you, and I especially don't want your help with my plans." Arccos responded over the all hands channel with a perfectly calm and level voice, not really caring how public this spat happened to be. Although maybe it was quite telling that Arccos' automaton controller unit slowly pulled its six-fingered hand towards the pistol it wielded.

"I don't trust you to not endanger my people on a whim. I don't trust you to keep to a plan, or to follow through with anything you start. I don't trust you to not sell us out. Expending effort trying to work with you is wasting resources on a bad gamble, unless you step up your game and keep it in your pants. Any assistance you render as of right this moment is going to be considered you helping Uso, not me. I will bill her for any of my supplies you expend, and for any amount of time I'm forced to endure your presence."