Space Combat [Solar]

[ImmortalAer]

"Space... the Final Frontier, these are the voyages of the TSM Mayberry on it's biannual mission to cart designer goods from world to world, to seek out new contracts, and new cruel employers, and to meekly go, where so many have gone before!" The crudely riveted hull gave off clanks and hisses of steam, the steady purr of it's oversized, blocky, engines rumbling it's way thousands of miles per hour toward Titan, where it was to deliver a package of fresh water, before picking up 'delicate' science equipment that had to be carted back to Mars. Patty Westart, laughed feebly as his own mockery of that ancient speech. He could never remember where he had heard it.

A slick alien tradeship flitted by his viewport, looking like a manta ray of out water, before it suddenly rippled out of exsistance, appearing again as a speck of light in the distance. He had no idea why the little alien ship had fled in-system so quickly, and even if the motion detectors and collision warnings hadn't been burnt out for many a year, he still would never had had a chance to find out, as seconds later an arm-thick beam of energy vivisected his ship, rupturing the engine core and consuming metal and man in a flash of radioactive annihilation. The speckles of atomized ship lingered in a cloud, before the swept prow of the ship cut through it.

The proud livery of bright silver that made up that massive bow was blackened a few moments later by a hail of missle fire, sheets of ceramite popping off whole, and fragments spraying in a short arc, leaving a trail of fire where something ignited. Lasers anwsered the missles, and a rainstorm of solid slug shells was the reply. The two destroyers, dozens of times larger than the little Mayberry were suddenly cast in the shadow of a dreadnought, which easily lived up to the former part of it's name, vaporizing both of them in one blinding volley, before proceeding on to the real combat, where a hundred ships twirled and looped sending incredible amounts of power flickering back and forth.

****

It was the Russians and the British, according to the sensors of the stealthed Chinese sloop that carefully staying just within the shadow of a glistening asteroid the size of a assault cruiser. It watched as the English pressed thier advantage with the arrival of an American Dreadnought. The two 'western' factions had a hard pressed diplomacy at the best of times, but the occasional battlefield alliance was easily arranged between captains.

The captain on the little ship checked his emissions, practically zero, and continued to record the combat. He was so engrossed by the cumulation of the combat to a epic climax, that when his sensors blared a contact he jumped, dashing his head against the overhanging instruments in a painful fashion. He checked the silhouette, and did a quick double take. There was no ship matching that shape.

The radio on every human ship blasted static, and just in time the deathly sound of screeching metal, then the snap of ended communications. There was a lull, until the horrid shape of the Tel'Dar ship slowly materialized. Hooks, metal claws, and a fanged maw containing a massive notched barrel. It fired, a thick shell embedding itself into the side of the American ship. Conflict forgotten, the humans turned upon this intruder.

****

The First Invasion of 2306 by the Tel'Dar was humanities first contact with other space faring species, and with the web of politics having humanity snapping at it's own while this juggernaught of invasion crept closer it was a close cut thing to hold them off for the first ten years, millions of lives lost in razed colonies, dozens of ships crippled and wrecked. Thirty years into the war, humanity managed to unite under Amanda Cooks, Captain in the British Navy. Facing the full strength of human forces, and being lightyears from any true reinforcement, the Tel'Dar slowly conceeded thier conquered space, back to the fringes of the solar system.

With that conflict over, other extraterrestials began to frequent through, trading thier technology for 'quaint' human improvised machinery and supplies that are supposedly what thier engines are fuelled by. It was hardly five years later when Cooks was assassinated, beginning the conflict anew.

******

Current Politics, will be updated as the situation changes ingame.

• Americans : They are currently allied with the British, and on wary 'neutral' terms with Russia. Japan and America are in conflict over the ownership of Venus, and the massive fuel extractors, refineries, and deposits. Neutral with Mars, though they often skirmish 'unofficially.'

• Mars : Currently neutral with Britian, Japan, and America. In full conflict with Russia, who had annexed Mars at the start of the last war.

• Japan : Loosely allied with the British, neutral to Russia, and Mars. At war with America.

• Russia : On uneasy terms with America, neutral to Britian, trade alliance with Japan and at war with Mars.

• Britian : Neutral with all, though they are often involved in conflicts, and securing promises of territory for assistance.

• Nakadarh : Alien faction, paticularly friendly with Martian pilots, and seem to have some amenity to Americans.

• Letth : Alien faction, usually spotted raiding British supplies. At fair terms with human brigands and pirates.

****

American PCs : Your first mission is at Mercury, having waiting until Venus was in opposite position orbitwise, you are now attempting to secure the Japanese refit centers here, in order to take Venus by surprise. This must be completed before the solar flares die down, and a communique can be sent to Venus in warning.

Japanese/Asian Union PCs : American raider ships have been striking supply lines that go to the Callisto drydocks, you are to escort the next convoy which will contain five years worth of supplies and materials. It is imperative that as many frieghters as possible make it undamaged. Ensure that none are captured.

British PCs : The Letth have been intercepting friendly merchants that pass through the Asteroid field, seek and destroy.

Russia PCs : Mars has recently built a series of solar-orbitary resupply stations, and have been basing attacks from these semi-mobile bases for some time. Take them out.

Mars PCs : An SOS has been recieved from a group of Nakadarh ships, that have been forced to ground on Pluto, investigate the cause, and assist if possible.

Brigand/Unaligned PCs : There has been a rumor of an abandoned American outpost from the Tel'Darian War somewhere around Io. The ship parts, modules and technology that might be recovered will keep your ship functioning for years to come, it is vital that you recover them.

IT IS TURN ONE, BEGIN

The turn begins just as you reach the area outlined in the above, RP can begin up to 30 minutes before arrival.

[Jallorn]

"Captain, we're about ten minutes away from the belt."

"Thank you. Let me know when we get something on the sensors." Jallorn was settled into the captain's seat, manipulating the tactical readout in front of him to bring up a radar display. "Shields up, ready all weapons for contact." Jallorn turned to his second-in-command, the young Ciara. "Ready for your first taste of combat Ciara?"

"Yes sir." she answered, "Shields are fully energized and the weapons are armed and ready."

"Excellent, now, we wait for a target. But first," Jallorn turns tback to his display, bringing up the comm system. "This is Captain Drakath of the LE Cuchullain calling our English allies, we are ready for combat."

(So, whaddaya think?)

[Ganurath]

"Alright, Mk. II, we're approaching the communication blind zone. We'll be out of contact until about a half hour after you arrive at the Nakadarh coordinates. You give us the signal if it's a trap."

Dana Valles tapped her helmet commlink after a quick sigh. "No, Thor, I'll give you the signal if it's safe, or if it's trouble I can handle. If I say nothing, I want you kicking up dust. Repeat?"

"Play it safe, got it. Comm over and out in ten. Last words?"

"In case I go MIA? Privateers can suck dust." Dana could hear a laugh at the other end that faded into static. She had been conversing with the carrier's captain for a while, and had shared that the main reason that she became a pilot was because her homeschooling stopped her from being hired by private industries. A hiss before dying, she mused. Not that she planned on dying.


-=- -=- -=- -=- -=-

A while later, Dana hit the decel as she approached the ninth planet in the Sol system. As she was told, it was declared a planet again at the suggestion of the Nakadarh: Humanity figured that those that could travel across star systems knew better in this regard.

Flipping her comms to open frequency, she checked the scanners before letting out a hail. "This is FMNSF Mark II, answering Nakadarh call for aid. Please respond."

[Tackyhillbillu]

OOC: <> Words inside are in Russian.

The Sergey travelled through Space quickly, hopefully not leaving a ripple in the sensors of any of the scattered eyes. Space was empty, for the most part, but there were far seeing eyes searching every part of space these days. The Martian Facilities would be on watch particuraly. But the Sergey wouldn't appear on their scanners.

<Captain Egorov, no sign of detection. We are 30 minutes out from the Martian Orbital Facilities.>

Alexei nodded. Command claimed that the Martian's didn't know about the capabilities of the Sergey. The plan was for the Anarchic Vendetta, Command's Pet Pirate (Alexei dissapproved of them heavily), to begin the Assualt. It's armor was stronger then the Sergey's, and it's defense turrets more powerful. The Sergey was not designed to fight fair. It was possible that in the Chaos of the Battle, the Martian's would never even know they were there.

<Put the Crew to Battle Stations. Prime the Torpedo Launchers, and get me the Vendetta's Location. I'll need a beam transmission to them.>

---

15 minutes later, his crew had locked down the Vendetta's position. Beam Communications weren't as quick, or as reliable as simply coded open ones. But they were nearly indetectable. And for a ship like the Sergey, utterly necessary. Alexei's message was spoken in clear, if a little clipped English.

"Captain Stockton, this is Captain Alexei Egorov, CO of the Sergey Korolyov. We are approaching the Martian Facilities. We plan to move into position 10 minutes after this message, according to the Battle Plan. Do you concur?"

[RandomLunatic]

"Captain, we have an incoming message from the Sergey Korolyov."

That was the voice of Karriana Smith, who was in charge of the crew that monitored the Anarchic Vendetta's extensive sensor array, her ECM suite, and her communications. She was, in a sense, the ship's eyes and ears.

Captain Stockton, as always, cut an imposing figure in the ship's CIC. An impressive 194 centimeters tall, with youthful looks the belied his 47 years, and a fress-pressed uniform, reminiscent of his old US Navy uniform, but devoid of any rank insignia or decoration. He strode over to the communications monitor. "Put him through."

"Captain Stockton, this is Captain Alexei Egorov, CO of the Sergey Korolyov. We are approaching the Martian Facilities. We plan to move into position 10 minutes after this message, according to the Battle Plan. Do you concur?"

"We will attack as planned. The fireworks start in 10 minutes. Vendetta, out." The screen went dark again.

The plan-what a joke. Assuming-always unsafe-he were halfway competent, Alexi and the Sergey could have handled the task on their own. Bu the Russians had cut so many corners in their effort to build a swift, stealthy ship that they almost completely neglected its defenses. The solution the Russians had come up wiht was to place something big and expendable between the Sergey and the Martians. Enter the Anarchic Vendetta. Because God forbid that somebody shoot at a warship.

"Helm, bring us around to course zero-zero-niner mark 2, flank speed. Weps, open muzzle doors. Manuevering, how's number 2 holding up?" The number two engine was the whole reason he was here. Wallace O'Toole was perhaps the best engineer Stockton had ever seen, but even he could not work the miracle of restoring a failing containment bottle without a proper overhaul. Which the Russkies provided. For a price. "Good as new, sir. Better even." "Superb."

He walked across the room again, this time pausing before the tank that dominated the middle of the Center. At the moment, the Vendetta appeared in the middle, with the ghostly shape of her consort fading in and out, signifying the efforts of the Vendetta's sensors to pierce the Sergey's veil. He leaned on the rail that surrounded the tank, watching intently for the first traces of enemy contact, noting with displeasure the rate at which the Russian ship eluded his own sensors.

[WrathOfLife]

Captain Tameichi Hara sat in his command chair looking out at the main view port watching the frieghters assemble slightly below his view point.


"First-bot, do we know how many ships will be working with us on this if any?"

A human sized robot moved slightly into the light of the view point.
"No Captain, we do not." it states in a cold emotionless voice.

"Do we know how many raider's we will be facing?"

"No Captain, we do not."

"What do we know?"

"This is the correct meeting point for the convoy escort."

Tameichi hung his head in shame. This was typical of his interactions with the robots on board the Zuikaku.
"Well, I suppose we should wait, until the convoy is ready or our allied ships arrive. Take up position above the convoy until then."

"Yes Captain. Should we activate the cloak?"

Tameichi sighed.
"No, First-Bot, we want our allied to see us before we leave. Once the convoy begins moving we cloak."

Tameichi mutters under his breath "and would it kill you to tell a joke."

[Smiley_]

American PCs : Your first mission is at Mercury, having waiting until Venus was in opposite position orbitwise, you are now attempting to secure the Japanese refit centers here, in order to take Venus by surprise. This must be completed before the solar flares die down, and a communique can be sent to Venus in warning.

The cloaked american transport carrier blinked into space faroutside the murcury stations' sensor range. As the lower cargo bay doors opened the sleek, shimmering Marauder Mk. III was lowered with a claw-like restrainer and released.

This was the first real mission that the Marauder would see. Wasting small, under equipped and under-funded raiding parties was one thing, but attacking Japanese stations was something entirely different.

The mission was simple enough. zip in, Blast everything to shreds, or at least disable communications, intercept small craft, and move out. After the comm systems were destroyed, Johnathan would call for reinforcements, to assist with destroying the station. The primary concern was escaping ships and a fleet of battleships would certainy draw unwanted attention and ships would inevitably escape before the lumbering hulks got into firing range. The Marauder was the single fastest craft in the U.S. Navy and was the only one quick enough for a swift strike of this kind.

Johnathan Hull eased the acceleration forward, and the craft quickly and steadily zipped away from the now cloaked transport ship. The Marauder did not broadcast a U.S. signal for this mission. It was unnecessary, considering that it was the only ship being sent into the combat zone.

All's well, so far. We should get visual in under twenty minutes. Any last kernels of wisdom before we go out of com range, sir?

Just get as close as possible without alarming them. Time is of the essence here, and every second can mean the difference between success and faliure.

Shouldn't be a problem, sir, as long as Amy keeps that trigger finger of hers under controll...

He was, of course, refering to Amelia Horwitz, the ship's weapons officer. Johnathan had specifically requested her for this mission, and for good reason too. She was the best shot he had ever known in all his years with the U.S. Navy. She was prone to be slightly twitchy and nervous, however, and would sometimes fire the ship's weapons before ordered to do so. Many captains refused to have her on their ships for this reason. However, this was not an escort mission or a recon mission. This was a kill-everything-and-get-the-hell-out-alive mission, and Johnathan was confident that Amy knew how best to handle the ship's weapons.

[Ilena]

Sitting on the bridge of the heavy Dreadnought, Orion, first ship of her class, Admiral Destra looked over the most recent report on the area, merchant ships are being attacked in the area, and The Letth are reported to be the culprits. Placing the pad down on the arm rest, and sitting back in the chair, she thinks to herself, "This ship is a state of the art warship, ment for frontline battles ... what is command thinking sending us out into an astroid belt to hunt pirates ..." Looking up at the helmsmen, Markies,

"Helm, whats our ETA?"
"7 mins ma'am."
"Good, bring the ship up to yellow alert, and activate the point defence guns, i dont want to have any astroids impacting the hull."
"At once ma'am," was his quick reply, yellow lights appearing shortly after signalling yellow alert, with his voice coming over the intercom shipwide ordering crews to their stations.

With 7 mins remaining, the large British warship is placed on alert.


---------------

7 mins later ....

"Admiral, we are arriving at our destination now," Markies says in a quick and to the point manor, it took some getting used to when he was first assigned to the bridge.

"Good, scan the system, look for any ships in the area."

[Jallorn]

"Admiral Destra, this is Captain Drakath of the Irish ship Cuchullain, We are scanning for targets now. We'll let you know if we find anything. Propose a direct feed linkup to share sensor readouts. My First Mate Wickham should be able to combine the overlapped sections for a more accurate readout.

[ImmortalAer]

(Alright, alright. This was our first day, so you all get a bit of leeway. Waiting for our last players to make thier first post.)

[Miraqariftsky]

A skull-like visage with deeply shadowed orifices and grave lines looks over a flickering green hologram of the Callisto-bound convoy of Asian Union ships. A cybernetic node glints over a once-ruined-now-enhanced eye. Steam billows out of the scarred man's nostrils as he releases a sigh while clicking off projector and kneads his temples.

Walking over to the starboard seat in the bridge of the AUSS Kt-FH Karet, well within several layers of reinforced ceramite armour, he smooths his uniform of black weave and red trim before strapping himself in, acknowledging his comrades with a tense nod. He belatedly snaps a salute to a more youthful captain before growling, "I do not like this... sir. We're too... open"


"We're supposed to be open... comrade" The younger man replies, his eyes unreadable beneath the long locks of his black bangs, matching the sable hue of his gold-trimmed black coat. "...or have you forgotten our creed that the needs of the greater good come before all else? Would you rather leave these freighters defenseless on your zeal to hunt down these enemies of the People?"

Scowling, chagrined, the older man shakes his bald, scarred head and says in answer, "It is not that, sir. The Karet wasn't build to def..."

Gritting his teeth, the captain turns away from the grizzled veteran and replies without looking behind him, "Be at ease, comrade Kali. This won't be a Deimos Massacre, not under my watch. It's no longer 2326"

Sighing, he adds, "Yes, we'll hope for the best, prepare for the worst, as always"

Tapping into the Karet's comms system, he says confidently, "This is Captain dela Cruz to all hands... Battlestations"

The order does not send the crew scurrying to their assigned duties. Rather, it gives them a clarity of being, making their stances straighter, their eyes grimmer, their hands more ready to fulfill their responsibilities. They know why they are here and many of them were voidborn, with families in the extensive fleets of freighters and fighters that fly under the fiery flag of the Asian Union.

"We're in place, sir" comes the crisp, metallic voice of the helmswoman, Ensign Erica Encarnacion through her vocal synthesizer as she gently guides the Karet into its escort position opposite the Zuikaku with thought alone--- her mind, at the moment, merged with being of the ship itself. Her gleaming left arm is thrust into a node beneath the manual console while her brown eyes gaze into the cyberspace of the ship's propulsion systems.

"Laser net online, sir" says the comms officer, a wiry, bespectacled man in his forties with a pair of long stringy mustaches by the name of Ensign Li Kai.

"Weapons hot, sensors calibrated, cloaking field online in..." rasps the skull-faced Lieutenant Commander Kali. "...twenty seconds. Nineteen. Eighteen..."

Nodding once, Captain dela Cruz patches into the communications network linking the Union convoy. "This is Captain Wei Lucas dela Cruz of the Karetto all Union vessels. We are in position and good to go"

[ImmortalAer]

America
**

The docks and repair stations glitter golden in the collosus of fire, the sun. The searing heat can be almost felt through the thick armoured skin of your ships, and as you draw into position a thousand inquiry messages and warnings blare across communications channels, chattering in Mandrin, and a dozen other languages.

Small weapons sattelites spin on the spot, blinking lights indicating the targetting systems activating, locking on, firing. Thin beams of anemic lightning spit out, criss-crossing the space between you and the stations, where frieghters, and damaged destroyers being thier power cycles, even more chatter filling the civilian channels as they attempt to evacuate. Chaos ensues as a shuttle is cut down by a station borne railcannon, the shell spiralling out of control and into the abyss.

Your allied ships slow to engagement speed, a few dozen of Washingtons, and let loose with thier first volley, most spattering artifical fire through space, though most is drawn off target by the mighty pull of solar gravity.

**************

Asian Union
**

The convoy stretches hundreds of miles in either direction, three ships lined side by side, with allied destroyers flying immediate escort, "Welcome, honoured Captains. Please, take up positions as previously indicated." (Ie, whereever you want.) The ships wait for you to position yourselves before beginning thier trek, engines flaring as it builds up speed, leaving Saturn's rings and jetting toward thier destination, Callisto.

There is no immediate contacts, though a few rogue asteroids are diverted by your allied destroyers away from the transport ships.

**************

Russia
**

Even the massive mobile resupply bases were invisible for a moment, only little silvery spots in the depth of space, but soon thier true size is more than appearant, as advance scouts send back scans. These stations are more than five miles in diameter, with bulbous modules added all across thier surface, the central coloumn, normally reserved for living space, bristles with laser arrays.

The grids spread as the data for the scan is completed, bringing almost fifty destroyers into clarity, some in various states of repair, and others running patrol, the probe lasts a moment longer before the screen distorts and snaps to static.

**********

Mars
**

No radio signal immediately anwsers, only the soft hiss of solar background noise, before, with a sound like ancient dialtone, a series of reptilian hisses and barks are on the channel, quickly switching to a translated, choppy english. "Thank you, humanone of the Red Planet. There are the bugeyes, the Tttel'Dar. They did fire on us. Beware."

A few wasp-like armoured craft circle into sight, firing green lances down toward the planet's surface, sending shimmering geysers of ice spraying into space. Sensors make out the distorted manta-ray shapes of the Nakadarh ships jittering around these beams as if they were moving in slow motion, flying close to the glacier surface.

*********

British
**

The still glowing remains of a gutted merchant ship is slowly drifting in a tight circle, the sputtering engine still running despite the cloud of ionic plasma that has formed around it, spraying from cracked reactor lines. Other pieces of long dead ships are embedded in asteroids around the area, and upon your appearance, one of them shudders, releasing a trio of the tripronged Letth ships, looking like someone had welded three fishing hooks together at the base.

The light ships float freely as another pair join up with them, one trailing pieces of a shuttle from the bottommost spike. Without firing, two of them split off, attempting to disappear between the lumbering asteroids, the others open fire with stinging volleys of missles, most missing your ships entirely.

*********

Brigand/Unaligned
**

(Do we even have any?)

(I'm doing this now, as I likely won't have time later tonight. And I apologize in advance if I'm late for tomorrow.)

[Jallorn]

"Belay those orders, forget the sweep, we've got contacts. Two retreating, Ciara, we need to get after those two, quickly as we can without crashing into any asteroids."

(What size opponents, are they fighters? or bigger? Are we allowed any tactical info about them?)

[Smiley_]

Awright! This takes me back a ways!

Barely visible to the naked eye, the marauder streaked forwards, flipping sideways to maximise the effect of the ever so slight sideways strafe and weaving through the various flashes of light before it. Johnathan spoke into his communications pannel.

I've got the escaping freighters. You folks worry about the static defenses. They should be easy enough to hit, but they're just as dangerous as everything else. And try to make enough of a light show to give me cover.

As the Marauder, picked out a target... a damaged destroyer warming up its blink engine, Captain Hull yelled behind his back.

You got him, Amy?

Though he could not see her, her voice reached him through the main access terminal of the small and rather cramped ship.

You know it. Jus' get me close enough and we'll tear a hole right through that sucker.

The marauder swung around to face the ship and opened fire, the forward weapons blazing, bearing down on the already damaged craft.

[WrathOfLife]

The massive bulk of the Zuikaku ran almost totally silent, cloaked and with fighters prepped for take off and all weapon mounts armed and ready, the Zuikaku represented a world of unseen hurt.

Tameichi had being over-joyed at the sight of the Karet moving into system to provide escort for the convoy. Truth be told the Zuikaku was weak in this situation, slow and ungainly, the Zuikaku would never be able to make it to the battle before at least some ships were captured.

But the Karet, with its sleek design and fast engines would surely be able to engage first, giving the Zuikaku time to send its fighters to support it, while providing long range blink wire support.

Tameichi nodded. It was wise to have these two ships working together. Very wise.

The Zuikaku hadn't sent any messages when the Karet arrived nor did it now. The two cloaked ships moved along side by side.

Ready to Ambush the Ambushers.

Tameichi sat back in his command chair and pulled out a book to read while awaiting attack. "Might be awhile till the raiders come First-Bot, keep the sensors active and the fighters prepped. Oh and wake me if I fall asleep."

The small humanoid robot that was First-bot gave a small static sound the equivalent of a sigh.
"Yes Captain"

[Ganurath]

"Understood, intercepting bugeyes. More reinforcements arriving soon." Dana squeezed the barrel of her onboard rifle between her knees as she pushed down on the main engine's accelerator pedal, pushing her dual handles forward on the circular track to fire up the wing engines as well.

"AI, blink status." A transparent message appeared amid the highlighted silhouettes on her Holographic Unit Display confirming that all blink generators were primed and ready. She locked her eyes on two of the nearest enemy drones, one after the other, to give the visual locking system in her environment suit's visor targets for the missiles to lock on to.

Smirking, Dana pressed the larger frontal pair of buttons on each of her control sticks, firing Blink Multi-Warheads from all launchers. She would just barely be in range, but even if she was short a dozen detonations from that distance may scare the buggers off. As the missiles vanished into their respective blinks, Dana decided to open a hail to the "bugeyes." "I suppose introductions are in order. I'm a pilot for Free Mars, friends of the people you're shooting at. You must be out of your league."

[Miraqariftsky]

Suddenly, the crisp metallic voice of Ensign Encarnacion slices through the silence of the bridge of the Karet with the bridge officers held in a ready, tense trance. "Intruder alert! Last located on Gamma Deck, midships. Analysis... intru..."

And then comes a note of incredulity into the cyborg's voice, speaking in part for the ship itself, "I thought it was impossible... but... it has slipped out of my internal sensor grid. Scanning... Delta Deck, Sector Three-One. Be advised, the intruder exhibits an incredibly high energy signature. Err... AGH!"

FZAT!

Her cybernetic arm bolts free of the console node in a shower of sparks, sending the Karet listing at a crazy angle but she swiftly rallies, gritting her teeth against the pain, regaining control through conventional, manual means, her fingers flying desperately over the console.

"Ensign, are you alright? I take it is a dangerous entity? Commander Kali..." begins Captain dela Cruz before being cut off by he whom he addressed.

"Yes sir, a security team has already been dispatched" snarls the skull-faced veteran.

The ensign does not turn as she replies to her commanding officer in a voice that is once more devoid of emotion. "I am functional, sir. Just... need a few moments to cool the circuits off"

Leaning back into his command chair, Captain dela Cruz rests his face in steepled fingers, frowning in thought. He then flips on an internal holographic diagram of the ship and then sets up a schematic of the convoy and its fleet of escorts in the other half of the field of photons. "Very good, then. Keep a course parallel to the Zuikaku, with battleplan Shen Xi foremost. Keep me appraised on the situation with your troopers... Stand ready to evacuate that deck and depressurize it, if need be. Ensign Li, send a communique to Tameichi and the rest of the fleet, advise them that there might be more of these rogue robots around. Might be sabotage or worse."

[RandomLunatic]

Stockton replayed the feed from the probe several times. "Come right to course zero-one-six mark one. Weps, when we reacquire contact, I want tubes 25 and 26 to on Track 37's engines, and tube 27 on Track 38's." Tubes 25 through 27 were not actual launch tubes, but chambers buried deep in the ship's bowels where missiles were readied for launch before being wrenched out of their cocoons by the ship's Blink Generator and flung into the void. Tracks 37 and 38 denoted the pair of patrolling destroyers closest to the Anarchic Vendetta's attack vector. They would be the first to suffer.

"Radio." Of course, ship-to-ship communications had progressed far beyond mere radio waves, which suffered from being limited to the speed of light. But it had been discovered ealry in the days of space combat that calling the department "Communications" got it shortened to "Comms", which was too easy to confuse with "Conn". So it continued ot be called "Radio" out of tradition and in order to avoid confusion.

"When we first fire, I want a broadcast on all channels. Message as follows:


How are you gentlemen!! All your base are belong to us. You are on the way to destruction. You have no chance to survive make your time. Ha ha ha ha...

End message."

"Aye sir..." Karianna said with a certian degree of incredulity. "Am I the only one who gets it?" "No sir. You're the only one who thinks its funny." "Peter, I thought we had an agreement. You only snark when I cannot do it." "And you'd look very stupid snarking at your own expense, skip." "One of these days, ex. One of these days..."

[Meltemi]

La Fayette

The bridge of the La Fayette was dim in the red lighting that signified action stations. The air was dry but hot, and the air recirculators whirred audibly in the unnatural heat as they fought to keep temperatures low. The one major side effect of most stealth systems was that preventing heat from escaping to where it could be detected by enemies instead kept that heat bottled up within the inner ship itself. In that respect, the La Fayette was far better than most older stealth ships, capable of keeping main cabin temperatures down to only 40 degrees centigrade indefinitely while stealthed.

Captain Baudin leaned forward slightly as the American forces began the first phase of the engagement. "We have confirmation of enemy forces. American ships are confirmed engaged." Lieutenant Marie Tessier, the ship's weapons officer, watched the tactical plot repeater on her own console as the master plot continued to update, showing the interplay between the blue of the American ships and the red of the Asian Union. The La Fayette's icon blinked as it slowly entered the orange sphere surrounding the targeted station, a pale green well above the solar ecliptic where the main approach had taken place. "Sir, we have reached Position A. There is no sign they've detected us yet, or if they have, they are focusing on the main threat." She spoke dispassionately, completely detached from her surroundings as she focused on the situation on her monitors.

The comm and sensor officer, Lieutenant Edmond Delancey, was also watching his own repeater, identifying and flagging EM signatures. His uniform jacket was off, tossed over the back of his seat in a minor breach of regulations. "I have confirmed four enemy ships bringing up blink drives at present, but all are being actively engaged by American ships. I have also confirmed five distinct active sources for enemy transmissions. Highlighting now." Matching deed to words, several icons began blinking, each one corresponding to one of the major refit hubs. "They're trying to form their ships up into a proper formation, now that the shock's wearing off."

"I wish the Americans had let us actually enter with the main fleet." Commander Paul Deveaux, XO and pilot, looked irritated as he wiped his brow with his sleeve. "You'd almost think they don't trust us to keep up, that they just wanted us out of their way."

"Commander, you have already made your opinions of our orders abundantly clear. We all decided that as the only stealth ship in the task force, we should approach on a secondary vector to catch the enemy by surprise. They are our allies, and this is the most efficient use of our resources." Captain Baudin steadily met Commander Deveaux's glare. After only a couple seconds, he looked away, giving a Gallic shrug as he did. "Weapons free on all three tubes, Tessier. Take out their central communications before they can get themselves back in order. And make certain you compensate for solar gravity," she added as several more projected trajectories from missed shots appeared on the plot. "Show our allies how it's done."

[Tackyhillbillu]

"We will attack as planned. The fireworks start in 10 minutes. Vendetta, out."

Alexei nodded. Privateer or not, the Vendetta had a admirable record. Until the moment her Captain choose to betray them, she would serve his nation well.

Of course... just until...

<Captain, we are approaching the area. 50 Martian Destroyers, only some active. The Stations are as indicated, appearing to have mostly Laser Defenses.>

Alexei didn't know what elaborations the Vendetta had planned. If things went as planned, her reputation was going to vastly improve after this little endeavour. After all, hopefully no one would know that the Sergey was ever here.

<The moment after the Vendetta opens fire, launch all 5 Torpedo's. Fire each one at one of the Destroyers currently under repair. If we touch off one's reactor, hopefully we can take out something important. Then take a vector of 27, 35, 28, and engage full thrusters. If they come looking for us, we aren't going to be here.>

The Sergey's Captain smiled.

<Let us hope the Vendetta keeps their attention though.>

[WrathOfLife]

(So.... update? or are we waiting on something?)

[Ilena]

"Captain break off and engage those two retreating, your ship will be able to catch them far easier then we can, we will engage the remaining 3 and try to keep them off you tail." turning her chair, looking at the tactical officer, "Red Alert, battle stations, Justin, give those closing ships a full broad side, show them what the pride of the british fleet is made of."

[Jallorn]

"Roger that sire, my thoughts exactly, already on it. Cuchullain out." Jallorn switched off the com, then turned to Ciara, "You heard the Admiral, get after those ships, I want our Plasma Cannon charging, and fire some M7s. That should be good to start."

[ImmortalAer]

Russia
**
The pair of destroyers under the Vendetta's fire burst thier engine cowlings with bright light, attempting to slide under the missles as they rotate on thier z-axis. Despite the desperate manuever, the rightmost one take multiple hits down it's lateral, shattering the bulb of a laser turret, and spraying the cells' fuel in a tight icy blue arc. A pair of missles from both ships lance out, slightly wide before thier noses edge inward, taking on a long, thin, parabolic route.

The damaged destroyers continue to charge engines, forced to withstand the sudden missle burst, only one going suddenly dark. Screams echo on sevral frequencies, as the light flutters, and air vents through the new entryway in the hull.

Cluster missles anwser this attack, bursting into the space that the Sergey had just occupied, some of the shockwaves reaching it even as it fled from the starburst explosions.

More destroyers close on the Vendetta, though only a few fire missles, and others add quick brush strokes of laser fire that warms the hull.

**************

America
**

The damaged destroyer seemingly ripples under the Marauder's guns, armour pouring off like a melted rain before the natural freeze of space stops it in place, like a frozen waterfall of ceramite.

Lasers converge on the offending ship, buzzing light black lines across the hull in ashy stripes, before a heavier laser fills the space just next to it with a brightness that exceeds that of even the massive sun.

One of the massive satellite arrays on the main hub explodes, the thick ring of adamantium breaks off, grinding down the side of the station before connecting with a docked ship, ripping it's nose free of the clamps and tearing away the 'wharf' that it was connected too, soon both are sucked in to the gravity well and heat shields begin to flare.

Only a few shots anwser that salvo of missles, none paticularly well aimed as the American and Japanese ships begin to form great spheres in emulation of 20th century dog fighting, albeit with weapons that would have seemed godly during that time.

************

British
**

The majorty of the shots from the grand Orion pass by the spindly frames of the Letth ships, though one gets caught on the flanged engine cowls and sticks fast there, slowing the jerky movements of the little ship as it and it's brethern close incredibly quickly, circling the battleship and spraying it with a massive, irridescent, version of a flachette that punches little holes all over the hull.

The other two duck and weave through the asteroids with the Cuchullain in hot pursuit, hitting the rearmost one, that suddenly fails to swerv around a tumbling rock, and promply disperses into sparkling specks of metal and chunks of engine plasma.

***********

Japan/Eastern

**

The convoy continues moving along it's course, when the foremost ship suddenly stops, the engines explode in a shimmering violet fog, and the ships behind it attempt to spread out as not to run through the plasma mist, but instead bump and crush into one another. A quick check by a scout ship reveals an invisible barrier of Twan'Sar MK II mines.

As the convoy itself reels in a disorganized mess, trying to rearrange without running into the explosives or remains of thier fellow, a number of commando, special force Armerican ships blaze by, firing railguns past the defending ships, and targetting the outermost frieghters.

One of the smoothly designed American ships accidentally run down a fighter, but it's chassis manages to slide into the intake turbine, sending a deep crimson flare inside the ship, and it quickly spirals out of control.

***************

Mars

**

Missles blaze over the hull of the insectoid ship, obscuring it in boiling flames, seemingly consumed for a moment, before the light clears and unharmed it slides across space, the strange green-trailed autocannons now spraying heavy shells past the FMNSF in a multitude of ghostly lines.

It closes the distance quickly, as a second and third of it's waspish Yellowjacket allies move out from behind the planetoid, one remaining in orbit trying to pin the Manta's to the tundra, and the other joining it's sister ship in closing with the Mars pilot.

**************

(Sorry about the wait, all! I promise regular updates from now on.)

[Jallorn]

"Fire another M7, but keep that cannon charging. They've gotta have something bigger our here." Jallorn brings up the scanners again, searching for that 'something bigger.'

[Ilena]

Watching the status report, the little ships poking holes in her armored hull, "Get the repair bots out there, i want the armor repaired, bring the point defence guns to bear and fire missiles at the lead ships engines, try to knock them out of the fight,"

"Helm, full power to the engines, bow up 3 quarter and put her into a roll to port,"

"And for gods sakes keep firing the broadsides, if we hit with one of those its going to be limping ..."

[Ganurath]

"Time for the game of cat and mouse..." Dana adjusted course so as to try to arc around the main force to get in firing range of the Yellow Jacket that's still firing on the Nakadahr while keeping as much distance between her and the enemies targetting her as possible. As she gets a stable arcing pattern, she adjusts her facing with the manuevering thrusters to point toward the ship that had gotten shots on her, locking on with the blinks before letting fly a missile volley from all four tubes. "...Martians aren't mice, to clarify."

[Miraqariftsky]

"PUTANGINANG PUSANGKALYENG PASISTA!" the captain of the Karet sputters curses, his eyes burning with rage beneath the thin screen of black hair before issuing a steady stream of terse orders in the codified language of abbreviations that the crew had been trained to use and understand. "Tac, Beta Strike. Helm, Flying Daggers. Comms, Cover!"

"Toldye there'd be a trap" mutters Commander Kali beneath his breath before barking out, "Yessir!" And all this while, having anticipated the order, he has already been targeting two of the closest American vessels. With a hand that barely retains its flesh from a plasma leak several years ago, he presses both triggers on his control stick...

...right before the Karet's engines flare with fusion flame, sending it roaring at the raiders, its gleaming sickle-edged hull gleaming with the fires of vengeance as it emerges from its cloaking field in a flurry of firing missiles. Under the calm control of Ensign Encarnacion, her cybernetic arm gripping the joystick tightly, her right arm of flesh veritably leaning on the throttle, the Karet zooms in and past the two nearest American raiders, two torpedoes and one seeker missile slashing out of its sharp for'ard edge, targetting their engines. The crimson crescent then spins about and charges towards the next closest raiders...

...And all the while Ensign Li has been blaring into his headset, clicking to different channels as he goes, whiskers wagging, "This is Karet to the Zuikaku. Scramble your fighters, concentrate all fire on just two raiders at a time, take 'em apart quicker that way! We're going in, ye cover the rear! SHHKKT Allied destroyers, do you copy? Split into three--- clear the mines, cover the convoy and cover the carrier. SHHKKT Gunners, fire only if you're sure of the shot, NO COLLATERAL DAMAGE! SHHKKT Security team, what's the status in Delta Deck?"

But the valiant gunners in their turrets, dutiful soldiers clad in uniforms whose very fabric is of fire and blood that they are, barely needed the orders. They turn this way and that, waiting for their most opportune moments and letting loose with flaring fletchettes of crimson coherent light when they have the foul raiders squarely in their sights...

Controlling the Reaver's Wrath disruptor array himself, Captain dela Cruz waits for the right moment, biding his time as the ship flashes past yet another American raider in a blistering display of speed and then turns back. Trying to time it just right, targetting the engines of the raider, he fires the disruptor, its coruscating beam lancing out...

[RandomLunatic]

"Helm, hard to port, course two-seven-seven mark 1." The Martian destroyers were closing a ring around the Anarchic Vendetta, trying to box her in and overwhelm her with numbers. Stockton was having none of it.

The ship heeled and swung sharply to the left. Then a multiltude of small missiles fanned out from the "wings" on the forward hull and streaked out to intercept the missile coming in from ahead, with the flak turrets standing silent vigil to pick off any that made it past the screen of intrceptor missiles. No missiles went behind the ship-the missiles coming from behind were no threat. Fired from extreme range, their fuel would be exhausted before they overtake the swift raider. Likewise, the Martian's lasers were also useless. The beams were badly attenuated at this range, and the jukes and rolls the Vendetta's helmsman was throwing into the ship's course made it impossible for the weapons to focus long enough to do anyhting more than discolor the paint. Three missiles suddenly blinked into existance near one of the Martian ships, and immediatly attempted to slam themselves into the ship's engines, crippling yet another destroyer.

"Tubes one through six, assign target track zero-four-four. Tubes seven through 12, assign target track zero-three-five. Use spread pattern Golf." The destroyers designated in the Anarchic Vendetta's CIC as tracks 044 and 035 were the strongest point of the net trying to trap the pirate ship, and it was here that Stockton would break out of it, by simply steamrollering the smaller warships with his ship's crushing firepower.

"Aye sir." This was Ike Blocker, sitting at the CIC's fire-control station. A moment later came the report, "Tubes one through twelve ready in all respects." Stockton watched the holo-display closely, watching the range to the two enemy ships count down. He waited until his targets were already a couple thousand kilometers inside maximum range before issuing the order. "Tubes one through 12, match on generated bearings and SHOOT!" "Fire one through twelve. Aye."

A dozen missiles issued forth from the Anarchic Vendetta's bays, emerging one by one in ripple fire. The destroyers would need a miracle to survive-the salvo put most battleship's broadsides to shame. Very little under 40 kilotons survived such a display. "Conn, weps. All units running normally."

Now free from the trap, the Vendetta would need to swiftly hunt down and destroy or cripple all the active enemy ships before they could consolidate their numbers and gang up on her. "Helm, come right to three-one-two mark negative one. Tubes 25 through 27, assign target..."

[Smiley_]

The hell you will...

The Marauder was meant to be able to take a bit of stray fire, but not a direct hit from heavy weaponry. Captain Hull quickly pulled the ship over to another side of the destroyer, opposite of where the large beam appeared to come from, making sure to weave, strafe and suddenly change the direction of his ship's movements.

As the Marauder flew by, it would fire the weapons on one one side a few times, flip over in a fraction of a second, and do the same on the other.

If this was a glorified dogfight with oversized ships, then he would pull every trick he learned as a fighter pilot, exploiting the weaponry recharge times on larger craft, searching for areas of enemy ships with less cover from on-board guns, using the enemy craft as cover from its own and other ships' weapons and, of course, staying clear of the exhaust from the other ships. Getting to close to the engines could spell disaster for a smaller ship. It would not be difficult, because the Marauder could fly circles around even the most agile of conventional interceptors.

As he swung around once more, he fired the four Gatling cannons at the far larger target in hopes of quickly ending the very real threat that the Destroyer still posed.

Damn... The quicker we take this guy out of commission, that's one less ship firing at our side.

[WrathOfLife]

At the first mine exploding Tameichi leaps forward and with a sudden jolt lands on the floor.

"Huh? what? I'm awake! I'm awake! What happened?" It was then that he saw the American raiders tearing up his convoy, by the time he got to his feet the Karet had uncloaked and engaged.
"Americans?! Those greedy dogs! Fire the Seekers, target two ships that the Karet hasn't engaged yet. Shoot to kill. Scramble the fighters too, send 5 wings to engage the ships we do, 6 wings to cover the rear of the convoy, and keep 3 to guard us. We must keep pushing forward. When the mine field comes in range start targeting the mines with the Disruptor"

First bot slowly turns to face Tameichi "Yes... I've already done that, is there any thing else you wish to tell me what to do? Maybe keep the life support running?"

Tameichi glares at the robot. "Not answering back would be nice."

With orders given the massive bulk of the Zuikaku suddenly appears above the Convoy, two large Seeker missles flying out with deadly force and a massive swarm of fighters emerging from above and below its massive profile.

[Meltemi]

La Fayette

The characteristic thump of the ship's blink wires echoed through the bridge again and again as triplets of MDMs blinked into existence several thousand kilometres forward and began their approach to the enemy facilities. One of the highlighted indicators suddenly blinked out. "First array is down," Delancey called out, confirming. Tessier barely acknowledged it as she entered new commands for upload to the missiles still in flight, redirecting those missiles that still targeted the first array to the remaining threats. Not all of the missiles were in position to target another array effectively, she noted, and she redirected them into nearby targets of opportunity, three destroyers all actively engaged with American ships.

The ship shuddered slightly, almost unnoticably so if it hadn't been in the brief lull between missile launches. "Port wing, no damage," First Master Dumont reported from the bridge DCS repeater. "They barely grazed us." Damage Control Central was located forward and central in symmetry with the bridge's aft and central, serving both as hub for the damage control systems and as an auxiliary command centre should an unlucky strike take out the bridge. The repeater station served to give the bridge continuous updates on the ship's status and as an auxiliary DCS hub should DCC itself sustain an unlucky hit, though there also was a second small repeater among the other screens available on the captain's station. Captain Baudin called it up next to her small tactical plot, confirming the green "all-clear" print of the wing's integrity. The shot had come in at a bad angle, and simply skipped off against the heavy armour of the La Fayette. There were several more shots still inbound on the plot, but few looked like they would even come close, and point defence crews were already highlighting and acquiring the missiles in their number under the guidance of Delancey's watchful eye.

"Continue to move us in, Commander." Captain Baudin watched the plot, contemplative. They were mostly manoeuvring to keep the arrays clearly visible around the massive dogfights of the main force, as well as keeping the narrow forward aspect facing the enemy's main guns. The enemy had yet to direct significant fire in their direction, though that would change if they took down enough of the enemy communications network to threaten their chances of sending for reinforcements. At present, given the incoming weight of fire, it appeared like only a few of the enemy missiles were blink-equipped, so the La Fayette was free to continue according to plan, closing in to just outside effective conventional seeker missile range and targeting the MDMs so that they blinked into existence as close to the satellite arrays as possible.

[ImmortalAer]

British
**

One of the pronged ships takes a hard broadside to it's spindly frame, sending it spinning as another shot connects with it. The upper tip snaps off with a spray of pressurized atmosphere and little bodies that disappear into the void, though the lower two guns continue to spray the hissing hook, embedding them in a line down the side of the battleship, though it cannot maintain the tighter angled turn of it's fellow ship, and trails out wide, passing the prow.

The remaining fleeing ship stays ahead of the Irish, weaving between tumbling asteroids and blocks of perma-ice, letting the solar detritus take hits for it. For a moment it is gone entirely, off sensors and all scopes, just to appear a moment later as a paticularly bulky rock half the size of a moon smashes a number of small ones aside, revealing it and a bulbous mothership with a dozen more of the little ships twirling in concert about it.

**********

Russian
**


The Martian destroyers close on the Vendetta, more missles lancing toward it, even as armour sloughed off of thier allies in sheets, one flickering momentarily as it's damaged reactor went into stand-by with the strain of upkeep, leaving them dead in space with only back-ups to keep the life support running.

Lasers dragged along the surface of the Privateer ship, some scorching ashy line, others sent crackles of static across the sensor screens as they overpowered relays with bursts of coherent ions.

************

American
**

The larger destroyer shuddered under the impacts of shots, a few missles of friendly fire slamming into it as well as the chain shot. Gatling rounds pummel into the armour, some skipping inside and sycthing through crew members as it ricocheted down the hallway.

A frigate on the edge of the battle flickered from exsistance for a moment, blinking in and out of reality rapidly, then appear some thousands of kilometers distant, with the crew struggling to get the reactor charged as the momentum carried them on for the moment, fleeing the battlefield.

Missles crashing into the Japanese ships, shattering armour off one, while the others withstood the immediate firestorm.

************

Japan
**

Missles glance off the rears of the odd foil-frame of the American ships, though some plow fearsome troughs into the slick armour, they continue thier firing of the main railguns at the convoy, though many of thier secondary weapons change to firing on the fighters that swarm around them.

One of the commando ships moves to engage the Karet, but the Japanese ship sways around it, then turns abruptly and disentigrate the engines, it does dark for a moment, before plumes of green-blue flame burst from every pore, and the weaker viewscreen.

******************

Mars
**

One of the spear-like round puncture the Martian ship, tearing a hole clear through, though mainly causing superficial damage. They take missles in stride, powering forward to engage the smaller ship at short range, little emplacements shimmering as they charged.

The side of one ship abruptly dents inward, as if struck by a hammer. Then it buckles violently, and finally the entire ship bends at an angle, sending it cruising off course and away from the battle. Little Manta-like ships cruise past it, the third ship already twirling down and crashing into the icy planet.

[Ganurath]

"****!"

Profanity detected. Initiating damage report: Damage is superficial, leaks have been isolated. Continued combat is strongly advised.

"Let's give the doctor what he ordered, then." With a flick of her wrists, the secondary engines reversed thrust to backpedal away from the approaching ships, with Dana locking on to the vessel she had been focusing fire upon. Triggering the blink wires, she sent the missiles to where she estimated the undamaged ship would be, with targetting coordinates for the damaged ones. Two birds with one stone, if she was lucky.

She couldn't help but smile when she saw the Manta ships arrive, and she opened a hail. "Glad to see we aren't the only ones that responded to the signal! Shall we coordinate tactics?"

[Jallorn]

"Damnú!" Jallorn swore in the old gaelic tounge, "I want all cannons to open fire on that mothership, and I mean all. Even the Atom Scrambler. Fire a couple Mark 9s as well. Contact our allies, we'll need help."

(I guess now would be a good time to decide what warheads are in my Mark 9s. Well, the Mark 7s have basic explosives in them, not nuclear, although it's still alot. The Mark 9s have a deployment system whereby the first warheadis ejected before the other two. The first warhead releases a burst of Ion, hopefully disrupting the shields or other defenses. Then, the second warhead is released, an atomic warhead. The third and final warhead remains with the missile, simple explosives, resulting in a combined fiery-shrapnel blast.)

[Miraqariftsky]

The gunners, an officer's voice do hear
Through the comms, echoing near
Bidding them flee the turrets
Tend to engines' outlets

The pulse lasers move as one
Cannons united under the bridge's run
Scarlet scintillations scythe through space
Silent and sable, the void that screams now grace

Those of the freight-crew, whose last breath
Were by lungs that inhaled death
Oblivion's kiss and plasma's fury
The ship with them screamed
As it so explosively slipped
From life's bonds, free

The turrets track, the turrets fire
At one raider ship the Karet passes
Scorching the raider with Fuchida's fusion ire
Searingly slashing away the reactive tinfoil masses

Serpent-swift, the Karet does speed
Weaving through the raiders' ranks
On another star-spangled vessel it draws its bead
And three more missiles blast from tubed banks

Like lightning weaving
Spinning off to another foe
Through wreckage and plasma show
From the shadow of the drifting freighter, emerging

The capacitor whirs in protest
When its mated disruptor pulls away
Blasts yet another American vessel with her best
Afore the Karet slashes once more, thick to the fray

Fading into a wavering tachyon field
Of broken light, a shuddering shield

While within the bowels of the Sickle
The battle-tides are capricious and fickle
A shimmering shield blocks many a bullet and blast
Half a dozen Red Guards on the deck spasm fast
Struck by electric-'fused fletchettes
The spider of steel, stands steady, blazing best
Holding its ground, hacker's pincers
Snapping at a terminal with cybernetic curse...


Enacted the Flying Daggers Attack Pattern again, engaging at breakneck speeds, bluffing a ram attack, pulse lasers blazing and then spinning off at the last moment, deliberately blasting them with the engine's fusion flame as the Karet passed by. Jinking to throw off targetting, still moving at full throttle, it launches a flight of missiles at practically pointblank range with another American vessel before using its superior speed and armour to get out of the blast radii. It then comes 'round the drifting freighter and opens up with disruptive blast at another American vessel before fading into an oh-so-flimsy 66% cloak cover.

And within, the redshirts Red Guards are having a tough time of it, putting down the rogue robot in Delta Deck.

All shots aimed at engines. No mercy to the imperialist capitalist fascist scum.

[WrathOfLife]

As the Karet dances around the battlefield the Zuikaku moves on its same steady course calling out to all the freighters to form up on its bulk as it begins to slow push into the mine field its Disruptor blasting mines out of the way, and its 3 wings of fighters holding a close defensive patrol. Every now and then massive missiles are launched from the Zuikaku, seeking out american raiders.

The 5 Attacking wings of fighters form up and gang up on a single Raider, seeking to destroy it.

The 6 rear guard wings of fighters patrol in the back of the convoy looking for American ambush and aggressively preventing any Freighters from breaking ranks.

(OOC: I feel so up staged :()

[Ilena]

Receving a distress call from the irish ship, saying theres a mothership in the belt, " Helm, plot the clearest course through the belt as you can, forward gun batterys fire at anything that gets in our way, hopefully the rocks will cause a few more problems for the enemy then us, and get those damage control bots working at cutting those cables off!"

[RandomLunatic]

"Tubes 25 through 27, assign target track zero-four-one, targetthe engines." "Tubes 25 to 27, ready to fire." "Shoot!" Another destroyer suffered an attack of spontaeously-appearing missiles going after its engine.

Stockton watched the two destroyers ahead of the Vendetta deal with their missiles. One ceased emnations, signalling power loss, but track 044 incredibly still came, clinging to life. Time for a coup-de-grace. "Tubes one through three, match on generated bearings and SHOOT!" "Aye, aye sir! Launching! Units one through three running normally." "Tubes four to twelve, assign target track zero-four-zero, pattern Juliet. Shoot when you have a solution." "Solution ready! Units away clean, running normal." "Helm, all ahead full."

The Anarchic Vendetta slowed, still moving faster than her pursuers, but her evasive manuevers made up the difference, keeping the range steady at no closer than 37,000 kilometers. Outside of even theoretical range for the lasers, the Martians had only thier missiles, dutifully picked off time and time again by a combination of interceptor missiles and flak. Meanwhile, the raider flung a nine-missile salvo over her metaphorical shoulder back at one of them.

It was a cruel dilemma, and one which a ship slower than the Anarchic Vendetta really had no satisfactory solution to. The only choice they really got to make was how fast they died.

[Meltemi]

"Captain, we have a runner." The primary tactical plot flashed, highlighting the icon of a frigate that had successfully managed to activate its blink drive and was now drifting several thousand kilometres from the battlefield, still struggling to bring up its engines. It wasn't perfectly placed, but the La Fayette was the only ship left that could range the target. "Bring us about and open fire. Delancey, track the battlefield, identify other unengaged enemy ships bringing up their blink drives to escape, and relay the information to the American command ships."

The ship slowly spun in place, bringing the enemy ship into the conical area the blink wires could service. One, two, and then three waves blinked into existence before the La Fayette, timed to arrive simultaneously at the target.

[ImmortalAer]

Japan
**

Riding through the dark abyss
shells flicker, with nary a miss
engine cowl and captain's bowl
none are safe from the reaping toll

So does the American sink
an engine overloading brighter than pink
Missles patchwork the black space
smoky trails they leave in place
explosions light the eternal night
hitting armour quite contrite

The sycthing edge of the Karet's blade
does so many lives claim
the guns continue thier cascade.
Fighters scream about
the Commando's turning slow as krout

Some fighters are picked off
yet so this is battle
thier losses are hardly a cough
the deathly rattle
gone unheard.

**************

American

**

The Marauder takes a crippling blow, a pair of railshots ripping up her laterals and spilling core fluids into space, after blazing the crew around the engine down to the bone, leaving outlined shadows on the walls, it limps away, heading back toward allied space, hoping to make it to the nearest repair dock before life support fails.

The shieldless ship lasted only a moment, before splitting into fractions, the spikes of communications arrays splaying in all directions, and the hull cracking along the join between the pressurized quaters, and the underslung engine manifold.

The other American ships-of-the-line close with the Asian forces, driving them in closer to the stations, where the heavier weapons hold them from the final presuits. A few more ships break off from the primary fight, making thier way toward the sun on normal acceleration power.

*************

Russian

**

The Vendetta stays out of the effective range of the enemy destroyers, pummelling them with weaponry in a test of attrition. The Martians are ill-prepared for it, and turn tail on the ship heading back toward the protection of thier 'field' bases, though they leave a few behind, crippled in thier flight.

the Sergey's sensors ripple momentarily, but it soon subsists.

**************

British

**

The heavy mothership shuddered under the fire, but it turned with a dreadful purpose, flares of light blinking into exsistance all down it's sides, casting a glow across the recessed coils. A lance of power struck out, slashing an asteroid in half with a quick sweep.

The little darts of the smaller ships swarmed onto the Irish, stinging it with a hundred little bites, the sprays of flechettes having as little effect as the now-fleeing ones had on the Orion.

***************

Mars

**

A crackle of hissing clicks and chirps anwsered, replaying in Common human quickly. "Thank you. We do appreciated help. Bugeyes are finished now." The nose of the wasp-ship crumpled, and then the impacting missles consumed the 'head', and the command decks.

"Favour owe you. Repay later?"

[Jallorn]

"All batteries continue fire on that mothership. Now!!" Jallorn surveyed the damage report. Minimal, nothing to worry about. "Add a couple more Mark 9s to that salvo as well. I don't want that ship to get any hits in, I'm not sure we could survive that. Ciara, get in touch with those Brits, find out what's taking them so long."

[Ganurath]

"Repay favor later, finish bugeyes now." Dana smirks and punches her engines full forward, gunning toward the nearest of the surviving enemy ships, opening up with all guns. If collision becomes a risk, she'll reverse her acceleration while pulling in the direction opposite the manta ships.

[RandomLunatic]

The Martian destroyers finally caught on to the fact they were a bit outmatched and broke off pursuit. They turned around and ran smack into the backside of what USN destroyermen grimly called "Stockton's Dilemma".

Watching the Martian destroyers break off, Stockton orders, "All ahead one-third." When the enemy ships have mostly completed their turn, the Anarchic Vendetta suddenly heels around through a 180-degree turn faster than any battlecruiser-sized vessel has any right to.

Stockton's Dilemma. A tactical conundrum named for the source, not the sufferer. As long as you pursued the Vendetta, she would lead you on a chase up and down the entire length of the Orion Arm, hovering tantalizingly outside of direct-fire weapons range while dominating with her superior missile firepower. As soon as you gave up, she would swing around, latch onto your tail, and shred your now-exposed engines with most of your guns helpless to respond.

And no double-turns to sucker the Anarchic Vendetta into range-the cruel predator matched her prey move-for-move, keeping the range steady.

[WrathOfLife]

On board the almost entirely lifeless carrier ship Zuikaku. Action if not life began to take place. Hundreds of tiny robots began to make a new wing of fighters. The robots themselves, while not truly alive, could think, and while they worked, they thought hard. "This ship, I'm making, it will win this battle."

The robot's on the Zuikaku were built with some of the latest in near-human emotions and thoughts, the engineer's believing that if the robots feared death, they would fight harder for life. Such was the thinking of the scripting robot's who began the task of writing the new AI for the wing commander. A sudden short, caused a small fault in the programming, which when undetected. The fault gave itself a name. 01. Having a name was not unusual for the robots on board the Zuikaku, but what was unusual about 01 was the fact he had named himself. An action most robots consider to be rather scandalous.

As 01's ship was finished he was uploaded and ejected out into space with his wing. 01 Scanned the area, seeing the point where his wing were to form up with the attack group and destroy one of the attacking raiders.

Leading his wing forward, 01 suddenly sent out a message. All of the fighters were of course in communication, but the difference with 01's message, is that instead of being in static binary, he put his message through a voice.

"Die american pigs!"

On board the bridge of the Zuikaku, Tameichi was rather board, his orders given it was now merely a matter of time to see how successful his plan would be. In order to keep his massive intellect engaged Tameichi was currently attempting to see the battle from a different angle. Namely through doing a handstand on his command chair. However the sudden radio chatter from 01, caused him to lose his concentration and promptly fall flat on his face.

"Oooow! First bot did you hear that?"

First bot who had being doing his best to pretend that Tameichi didn't exist replied.
"Yes sir, it was a very primal cry, I'm sure you will attract a mate with it."

Tameichi stared at First bot with a mixture of disgust and confusion, and promptly forgot all about 01's little outburst.

Orders!

Orders are the same as last turn,

Rear fighters are basically boxing in the freighters, using there energy beams to encourage the idea that remaining in formation will keep them alive.

Forward fighters are engaging the raiders one at a time, moving in close and destroying them as fast as possible.

The Zuikaku continues to lumber forward blasting at mines as it detects them, and shooting its seeker missiles when ever it achieves a lock.

[Ilena]

Swinging her chair around from each station, "Helm, bring us in danger close, i want a full point blank broadside when we get there,"

"Tactical, fire all missles at the mothership when we get a clear shot, keep the guns firing on incoming rocks and keep the main guns loaded for when we arrive, i dont want them to have any time to react."

[Miraqariftsky]

Three more star-spangled raiders glow
In the sickle-ship's sensor-flow

Unseen but for
A tachyon eddy
And an unradiant core
Three missiles shoot free
From tubes unseen
Charging at a raider railing
That on a blasted wing does lean
Warheads weave towards engines failing

Speeding away from the scene of slaughter
It emerges from black, unforgiving space
Disgorged from ether, guns blazing
Forth it fares with deadly grace
Turrets with one mind turning
Four crimson cannons sing
Of scarlet spears, photonic laughter
That unto death mocks a raider shuddering
From strafing pass to strafing pass
Of the unnumbered drone mass

Whilst in the black ether
There whirs, hums, a charge storing
With subatomic disruption, waits the Reaver
For the right time, its marshaled fury full unleashing


Full spread of missiles on the a raider that's already taken damage
Concentrate pulse lasers on an already-damaged raider
Charge disruptor
Wheel about the battlefield,

[Miraqariftsky]

[Ahem. Please forgive the delay. I was scrabbling for stats and schedule... and I eventually decided to put off stattifying, get on with the story, and keep my conscience clean of distractions from my proper work. Ahem. Without further ado...]

MARTIAN

Two bugeyes turn at bay
With but brigand's tech
No longer able to get away
They do not bother,
Mars' charge to check
But meet, rather
Mars and Nakadarh headlong
With strife of space in song
Green fletchettes blazing
Autocannons, silent yet roaring

At the forefront, like a lioness bold
Valles tears through the second bugeye
Armour and internals do crumple and fold
Beneath a furious fusillade of missiles and shells
To all doubt, she gives the lie
As the foul pirates she sends to bloody hells
But from the fray, came not unscathed
This angel of death, in debris and blood bathed
Warped groans the right wing
Adamantium fragments cracking, sloughing
From victim's last blow
The charging disruptor, once-loathe to show

As the Mk II shoots past
Then circles back, death once more to cast
She comes upon a scene of slaughter
Of desperate deeds and mad clicking laughter
The last bugeye turns,
While a nacelle burns
Plasma leaking, for'ard hull smashed in
As one Nakadarh manta crumbles behind it
The crew gasping in soon-voiceless din
The sister ships circle, weapons blazing in vengeance
Many missiles, four at once
Blink in from freedom-upholding Valles
Right into the floundering fiend's heart
Four explosions ending the skirmish's art

BRITISH

The two warships of His Majesty's Navy
On the Letth raiders exact a deadly fee
Broadside on bold broadside roar
Shrieking shells and massive missiles pour

An asteroid shatters
Shards into ships slicing
Most bounce off the battlecruisers' stout plate
But some space splinters
Send redcoats to their fate
On stone, skewered or sliced
By bulkheads broken, diced
Or gasping for breath
Choking to death
As atmosphere into
The black void spew

The Letth mothership reels
As its shields buckle and fizzle
And its shimmering armour peels
Three prongs of its eight shafts broken
The five seemingly spasming... then...
It lunges like a massive space squid
Spindly prongs with the Orion grappling
One cracking the bridge's glass, forcing
The blast shields to close lest
Esteemed command crew fall to vacuum's best
The ship shudders under a storm of fire
Desperate fighters venting missiled ire
Only to be met by Imperial flak
Blunting the swarming attack
Outside, the Letth's central disruptor glows
With point-blank destructive prose
But the readied cannons fire first
The Orion's Hammer
And the Culhulchain's Atom Scrambler
The alien ship explodes in a blazing burst
Of hydrogen and helium
Matter vapourized, uncontrolled neutronium

Some fighters flee, solace seeking
In shadows of the million asteroids ever-swirling
Yet most for their doom do cry
And all guns blazing, all engines roaring
Towards the battered British fly
With all speed, and hatred in their hearts
All thought forgotten but of the killing arts
Naught remains but to do and die
Eight remain for this last grim task
Full five are shredded before they hit
One explodes on the Cuchulhain
Stripping off some starboard mask
Ere it glancing reels and blows
Off in the bow, in a fireball goes
Th'last falls upon one airburst turret in the port pit
Now rendered useless, molten to slag
Ammo blown, some deeper decks to frag
Yet still the Orion stands, now sees victory's dawn

There comes now only radio's silent ride
And then the comms crackle
An alien voice, the Imperials ears rankle
"S... KKKK... der...
W-iii-iii... fzzkk... der...
Zz-kkk... rrr...ender..."

RUSSIAN

Seeing their fate, some of the Martian destroyers stay
Turn with damned slowness, once more unto the fray
To try with their blood to buy
Their comrades' safety...
Three stay in the predator's path
Facing the Anarchic Vendetta's wrath
One of them tumbles away, its bow blown off
The other does shudder
Beneath the privateer's artificial thunder
With their sole response, a lone lance of light
That does no more than singe the prow with beam so bright

ASIAN

One raider is lanced, another hammered
With two torpedoes and a seeker, third
Two American vessels now venting plasma
Dead in void's water, spewing burning miasma
While flight on flight of furious fighters
Rip into three more with livid lasers
Flensing off the flimsy foiled armour
And on one exposing the glowing core
The drone 01 descends with righteous wrath
And leaves an inferno, that ragged reactor...

[Jallorn]

"Ciara, try and improve that signal. If that's a threat, I want to know, if it's a cry for help better still. Have Captain Connell help, he's good at that." Jallorn waved Connell over to Ciara as he spoke, bringing up a damage report on his monitor, dispatching droids if any are needed.

[RandomLunatic]

Valiant destroyer makes her final stand
From missile tubes issue forth fiery plumes
Raider's prow with lasers brand
Explosions mark Martian's doom.

To the survivors Vendetta gave chase
They fight for life, though sorely outmatched
One by one becoming cold and lifeless as space
The defending destroyers are now dispatched.

The drifting stations, glittering prize
Vendetta hovers beyond gun's reach
Missile spreads close in like a crushing vice
With tadem-charge warheads to hull breach.

So was the raider's taste for blood fed
With the legions of Martian dead.

[Ilena]

After having her ship rammed and grappled by the mothership, and having it explode right beside the Orion, her heavy armor holds, a few damaged bulkheads, sealed off from the rest of the ship and a blown out bridge, but otherwise ok,

"I want a damage report yesterday!"

"Maam, a transmition from the enemy, its broken but ..."

"Put it on speaker, hmmm sounds like they are calling surrender, i want that signal cleared up, gunnery hold you fire, put a safe distance between us and their ship, whats left of it ... i want sensors trained on their vessel for any sign of overloading the power core, i want to know if they have set a last ditch attempt at destroying us, orgainze rescue teams and prepare to board it, could be interesting to have a look around at it,"

[WrathOfLife]

The massive bulk that is the carrier Zuikaku, glides its way through the battlefield, its Disruptor lacing out to remove any mines in its way as it powers through, urging Freighters to follow close in its wake.

The fighters swarming in the front, and lazying in the rear, suffered a small sensation as 01 sudden called for All fighters, to engage and "Chase these dogs home with their tails between there legs Yaaaahoooo!", there was a sudden stillness to the movements of the fighters, when suddenly the rear guard raced forward, after burners on full, racing out to reach the battle field and get some kills.

[Miraqariftsky]

RUSSIAN

Exposed circuits sputter and spark while breached corridors and cabins spew their collective atmosphere in belching gasps into the vacuous void. Ammunition stores explode in brilliant fireballs that swiftly fade into silence of sight and sound, bereft of air to sustain their scintillating screams through space.

Debris of half-molten glass and steel stream through the black ether, tumbling chaotically, buffeted by wave on wave of explosive inertia from the blinked-in bombardment. A thruster bloc mostly intact drifts away in a corkscrew, fusion flames still flaring erratically.

A sea of shattered glass and photovoltaics reflects the sun's rays in a swath of sparkles and shimmers, greatly contrasting with the mangled mass of massacred Martians, their blood forming crimson globules in the void of space, their screams echoing voicelessly through eternity. Despite the utter slaughter of this now-defenseless Martian sector, the Anarchic Vendetta's sensors still detect some biosigns amongstthe chaos, while visuals indicate some salvageable components... although what they are precisely is still clouded by the overwhelming radiation from the bombardment of the stations.

ASIAN

The rear squadrons sweep in and fight alongside their frontline comrades, wing after wing, firing their lasers as one, laying waste to the remaining raiders. The Karet then appears in their midst, decloaking suddenly and scything through the already-whittled down armour.

One American vessel crumples under the flaming fusillade, its nose and much of its frontal fuselage molten away, but not before it looses one last volley, roaring railguns and blazing bullets bringing down two drones--- one cored outright and the other merely winged and sent careening off to collide against a comrade drone, crippling it.

The last American raider of this audacious commando team turns and flees for the Solar Rim, for the depths of open space, anywhere but here within the reach of the Dragon's Fury. The helm is unusually quick and cunning, jinking madly but still 01 and its comrades come. Their beams blast out but mostly only hit the wings.

And then the Karet's scarlet shadow looms over the remaining raider, one seeker missile detonating just outside the engines, dealing just enough damage to disrupt the plasma conduits and power vents, but not enough to destroy the core. The sickle-shaped ship transmits a demand of surrender to the raider and a warning of boarding to the last raider. A long moment of silence filled only with radio static passes and the larger ship coasts in front of the last raider when suddenly the Americans let loose with a last barrage of defiant fire, the gatling shells merely marring the finish, scarring the smooth steel whilst the railgun slug punches through the for'ard half of Delta Deck...

...to which the the sleek cruiser responds with a battering barrage of beams, eviscerating its opponent's guns and leaving swift-emptying rents in its hull, into which 01 and its comrades pour their flensing fire, consuming the treacherous blackguards in their own bloody folly.

While within... just as the Karet's contingent of Red Guard prepare heavier armament against their cybernetic invader, the entire deck shudders with the impact of weaponsfire. At that, the eight-legged robot stops its tinkering with the cybernetics node and suddenly blinks out of the corridor to places unknown...

And all this while the imperious Zuikaku has been gliding in stately manner through the chaos of the battlefield, its particle detectors pinging on mines with every sensor sweep, its onboard weapons blasting them out of existence.

BRITISH

Two electronic datasheets scroll up in the pads of the respective British starship captains, linked as they are through tight bandwidth laser net communications, holographic schematics of their ships as well as of the remains of the Letth carrier flaring up from their command seats.

SUMMARY OF DAMAGE TO HMS ORION


ARMOUR DOWN 23%, DAMAGE TOLERABLE
NET INTERNAL DAMAGE 14%, DAMAGE CONTAINED
DECKS 3-7 FOR'ARD, BREACHED, CONTAINED.
DECKS 14-25 FOR'ARD, BREACHED, CONTAINED.
DECKS 2-4 MIDSHIPS, BREACHED, CONTAINED.
DECKS 1-7 AFT, BREACHED, CONTAINED.
NOTABLE DAMAGE:
COMMAND DECK EXPOSED. EMERGENCY SEALS IN PLACE.
PD REDCOAT TURRET THREE, DESTROYED
FOR'ARD LIONHEART CANNON, MUZZLE DAMAGED
CREW CASUALTIES...
KIA
Ensign Harry Fenwick
Ensign Karl Varlengsson
Ensign Micheal McCloud
Ensign Valeria del Mundo
Lieutenant N'gannu Watabe
WOUNDED
...figure unknown

>>>END REPORT


SUMMARY OF DAMAGE TO LETTH CARRIER


ARMOUR DOWN 98% DAMAGE CRITICAL
NET INTERNAL DAMAGE 94% DAMAGE CRITICAL
>>>FURTHER SCANS INDICATE UNKNOWN ORGANIC
MATERIAL IN SHIP CONSTRUCTION. FURTHER DATA
UNAVAILABLE DUE TO RADIOACTIVE INTERFERENCE.
>>>COMMUNICATIONS ANALYSIS INDICATES
87 % LIKELIHOOD LETTH COMMUNIQUE INDICATES
LETTH SURRENDER.
>>>END REPORT

[Ilena]

Frowning at the report, "I want repair bots working on the hull breaches now! Find out all who we lost ... I want a boarding team preped to rescue the crew and salvage anything from that ship, lets see if we cant bring home something for our trouble ....."

[Jallorn]

"HMS Orion, this is Captain Drakath of the LE Cuchullain. You have seniority Admiral, what are your orders?"

[RandomLunatic]

"Conn, sensors, secondary explosions, track zero-zero-three." Karianna had been dutifully monitoring the Martians as they seccumbed to the Vendetta's bombardment. One of the warheads hod struck gold, finding something volatile and triggering a series of chain reactions that ravaged several layers of the base, then worked their way out docking arms and consuming several Ares-class destroyers where they were moored, flinging debris and men out into the inhospitable wastes of space.

"Reading major structural failure. Track zero-zero-three breaking up." The last of the Martian mobile stations came apart under the abuse. The Anarchic Vendetta was now alon in a graveyard of dead and dying ships. "Let me knwo when you can get a better read on the stations. Course 178 mark 3, flank speed."

The raider spun around and dashed off after the real treasure. Several Martian destroyers drifted almost untouched, save for blasted engines or missing weapon turrets. More advanced than most of the Red Navy's fleet, the prize money to be had for each one would be impressive indeed. To each of the repairable destroyers came the ultimatum: "This is Captain Bejamin Stockton of the Anarchic Vendetta. You are helpeless under my guns. Surrender your vessel to me, or have it blown out from under you." Those that surrendered had a prize crew put aboard. Those that resisted were annihilated.

[WrathOfLife]

Zuikaku sends out a sudden blast of Static, recalling its many fighter wings.

Then sends a quick message across to the Karet. "Good kills Captain. Have you taken much damage? The Zuikaku shall hold its present course and heading protecting the freighters, perhaps it would be advisable for a ship of your potential to scout ahead and see if there are more ambushes waiting for us?"

The Zuikaku's massive bulk makes it way slowly through the mine field its laser destroying mines as it goes.

[Ilena]

"Captain, we are prepairing to board the enemy ship, we suspect that the communication we received was their surrender, it couldnt hurt to have a look around, if you have any teams ready nows to get going."

[Jallorn]

"Alright Admiral, I'll dock and send a team in. We're going to disconnect afterwords just in case something shows up, so we'd be much obliged if in such a circumstance you could pick them up." As he speaks, e nods to Celia, who contacts Colonel Sam Duncan, a one time American who moved to Ireland in his late 30s.