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RP: Freespacers The Prince of Privateers

As the Oberons were suddenly engulfed in flames and radiation, losing quite a bit of tonnage in the process, the 2 Vampires appeared above the northernmost pole of Vedder. The two ships targeted the 'Spacer battlegroup, and once again opened fire with their Superconductor turrets, attempting to 'snipe' the OSC fighters with the high-speed rounds.
 
"Wing Three-Four, slingshot up-high and scare off those newbies," Hassan ordered.

"Alrighty. Nodemates, you heard the chief. Arm jump bombs and prepare to reduce mass multiplier." Three-Four piped in over the comm.

A douzen Phantasms suddenly broke off from the main pack and turned towards the Vampires. A split second later a small bomb went off on the rear of each vessel, which in turn sharply hurled them towards the enemy craft with turrets blazing. The remaining units took cover in the debris field and scattered under the firing of the Vampires' bombardment.
 
The Vampires took several glancing blows from the enemy turrets, but waited for the bombs to approach within an extremely close range before jumping away from the weapons... and about 20,000 miles away from the debris field through which the heavily damaged Oberons still lurked with the Vampires.

"Oberon escort vessels, if you are able, evac that debris field now."

Only two were able to comply, activating their hyperspace drives and launching into the depths of space before the two Vampires unleashed yet another assault with their Positron cannons.
 
"TacOps here!" The girl piped up once again over the communications channel. "Enemy vessels have buggered out, but not so far that we can't scramble any long-range comms they might attempt to call in help. I've also taken the liberty of deploying that defense satellite...but it's only good for a douzen shots or so. Want me to take care of those harassers?"

"Make it so. All units in the field, make best speed to this rally point here." Hassan uploaded the coordinates, which was towards the planet where the transports had fled. The Phantasms began to converge on that point using erratic flight paths so as to help avoid the incoming fire.

"We'll hook up with the cruise missiles which are shadowing the convoy, then disable the vessels. Anyone that takes too long will be left behind. The Prince, out."
 
Although the Oberons had been soundly defeated by the OSC forces, the numerous Reds left alive were still in no way content to let them simply push through them. As such, the still relatively far-off Conquest class and its Bellystabber escorts opened with every weapon they had from their point in front of the transport fleet, spreading substantially to cover more ground, and lessen chance of a single nuke leveling them all. Meanwhile, the Vampires maneuvered themselves behind the Phantasms, doing their best to fire on their erratic flight patterns.
 
From among the debris field came a searing beam which struck one of the Vampires, promptly destroying it. The defense satellite had come online and began firing away indiscriminately.

"Fire mission under way!" The girl squealed with delight. "Support artillery will provide covering fire until you can get close enough to their ships that they won't risk firing. I'm along going t-to--" she tried to fight down her laughter, "t-the missiles in a holding pattern near the convoy are being redirected-- Oh, this is so much fun! Hehe. Okay, sorry. TacOps out."
 
The surviving Vampire quickly jumped away from its fellow ships gutted hull, pulling out in the midst on the far side of the planet once more. Meanwhile, the Red comm units began to buzz with activity about the laser hit. As they did so, the Bellystabbers darted forward, their CCD drives accelerating them to just above C, putting them directly in the midst of the the Phantasms. The ships opened fire with their plasmatic cannons into the fighters before pulling a quick turn via gravimetric drive. They moved constantly, taking a page from the Phantasms.
 
The Phantasms' shields began straining under the combined fire of the enemy ships, and a handful even fell and became part of the debris field from whence the came.

"Those who lag will be losers." Hassan preached as he turned his own craft to narrowly dodge a plasma burst. "We have the speed advantage, so don't stop 'till it's over! And let their own brutality be their undoing!"

A rallying cry could be heard over the comm as they skimmed over the Bellystabbers. The Phantasms attempting to stay as close to the shields as possible, using their own gravitic drives to help prevent them from hyperspacing. This tactic also allowed the enemy's own missed shots to eat away at one another's shields, but those pilots that strayed too close usually ended up little more than a fried wreck after impacting those same forcefields.
 
The Bellystabbers, although they did try to avoid it, began to feel some strain on their shields as they accidentally hit each other. Thus, the captains of the vessels quickly made a switch to more hopefully more effective plasma torpedoes. The weapons flew from their respective vessels, engaged their thrusters, and quickly kicked it into high gear after their Freespacer targets.
 
Point defenses began spewing forth ammunition to fend off the torpedoes while the main turrets of the Phantasms continued to rake over the enemy's shielding. Unfortunately for their users, the plasma burst from the torpedoes that actually managed the Phantasms would detonate right beside the Bellystabber's shields.
 
With their shields beginning to fade, the Bellystabbers quickly pulled up out of the Phantasms, not looking to cause collisions, but not quite shying away from it, either. They formed themselves into an arch over the gunships, and fired several salvos of their plasma weapons into the OSC mercenaries before darting fowards, CCD engaged once more
 
"Follow them!" Hassan yelled over the channels as they prepared to jump similarly. "TacOps, did you get a bead on them?"

"Haha, hehe, hum hum!" The Tactical Officer giggled. "Don't worry. The hackers' probes are always watching. Now let me upload their projected vectors...aaannnd...Done! Go get them, boss! Oh, just so you know it'll take a minute or two to reposition the artillery satellite, so you'll be on your own for a bit. TacOps out."
 
Most of the Bellystabbers pulled onto different vectors as their CCD drives deactivated, and then quickly sent another wave of plasma torpedoes towards the group of Phantasms, set for a proximity charge of about 30 yards. However, one of the ships continued on its rather predictable course, only moving slightly.
 
The formation of Phantasms veered off to both avoid the plasma and chase their prey, but not fast enough. After the plasma display six Phantasms were destroyed, and three more belched smoke into the void of space.

The Prince quickly began issuing orders. "Nine Five, One Two, set vector to finish off that stray vessel. Keep at maximum distance threshold and prep for a trap. Wing leaders double up on targets and engage at maximum distance threshold."

"Sure thing, lead. Moving in to enage."

The pilots began to veer off after a number of the Bellystabbers.
 
The various Bellystabbers popped open the plasma cannons that lined their hulls. They all took aim and fired, the projectiles closing the relatively small distance between the Reds and Freespacers at just under the speed of light. The cannons fired quickly, half their weapons set to targeting carefully, and the others set towards simply filling space with massive amounts of plasma.

The vessels were careful to keep most of their flight paths erratic. They didn't want to get sniped like the Vampire before them.
 
The Phantasms quickly closed the distance to the Bellystabbers. Once in range they then proceeded to launch a simultaneous precision attack; the SI were working together to concentrate multiple turrets on a single point that reaped across their targets.

The Phantasms began circling in closer and closer, with a fixation more on causing damage than protecting against it. Their frail shields meant it was only a matter of time before they failed, so it was imperative to take down the Bellystabbers as quickly as possible.
 
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