Forums » Sci-Fi Roleplay » I.W: War March Unto Darkness (Open to All)

Hello again! Welcome to Interstellar Wayfarers: War March Unto Darkness, a sort of sequel to Interstellar Wayfarers.

The rules are the same as last, but for those that don't know here you go.

If you need further examples of how this will proceed here are two links:

Example 1

Example 2

If you wish to follow along in the discussion and get a summary of what's happened thus far, you may go here and join along: IW Discussion

Remember anyone can join, but most importantly, lets have some good ole text based fun!

OOC:
Gauntlet-class Battleship


Sparrowhawk-class Frigate


Sabre-class Destroyer


Caeser MKII-class Battlecarrier

---

Standard Terran Date: May 21th, 2001...

Cries echoed out into space only to be heard by one ship, the Coalition Alliance Defense Vessel Valhalla.

Under the command of Captain Alexei Nikoli, she responded to one of the most horrific scenes to ever be placed in the history of humanity.

Men, women, child...slaughtered for no given reason.

And soon afterward, burned for their act of defiance.

The Valhalla and it crew became embroiled in a journey, none of them wanted to take; filled with mystery and wonder, intrigue and deception, and a price, they didn't want to take.

War was declared. Again humanity found itself an unwilling participate in a battle for vengeance.

To get their eye for an eye.

But humanity, the Coalition Alliance, isn't the only one's caught in this web.

And now it seems, that those interstellar wayfarers that met, now prepare their war marches unto the darkness...

* * *

Several Months Later...

Captain Alexei Nikoli, Commanding officer of the Coalition battleship Valhalla, sat in his office reading over a few reports.

Several months had passed, since the Calypso incident, and about a month since they left the repair yards. When Chief Engineer Robert Dext finally got back on the ship, after the entire incident, he was livid, broken at just how bad his ship was torn apart. Since then, he has constantly remained aboard, making sure nothing of the sort happened again.

Former Commander Cigol Nikephoros, was given a posthumous hero's burial back at Fleet War Grounds on Terra. Many of the Valhalla's crew went to pay their silent respects, but knew what it ultimately meant, to have him buried there. Despite that, the never forgot him, and in remembrance, his office, hasn't been occupied since.

Captain Nikoli dropped down the report and rubbed his eyes thinking back on everything thus far.

When they did get back, everything seemed to have been super accelerated. He was properly reprimanded, for his actions, but praised for them. Ascrith, managed to stay alive, albeit in a vegetative state, due to the serious after effects of the Ursan nanites and his own, fighting for control of his body. He was transferred to as specialized research facility, and deemed unfit to stand for war crimes. Captain Braesk however, was immediately turned over to the government, and promptly declared an enemy of the state. He was charged with a long list of crimes, and ultimately conceded his guilt to them all. Soon after that, the Coalition made the formal declaration of war against the HRA Empire, and Braesk soon disappeared. Inquires into his and Ascrith's whereabouts, often lead to a run around and Nikoli knew something was sour about the affair, but there was other matters.

The survivors, left on Calypso, were still around, and attempts to contact their homeworld failed. Since then, the Valhalla, after its refit and repair, was tasked with staying in the area, and watch over them on the planet, until a suitable outpost could be established.

It was a long time, but finally word was the outpost station was finished, and that soon enough, a taskforce would be placed here, not leaving the Valhalla and the station by themselves.

There was an alert, jolting the Captain from his chair, and Navigator Liala, the ship's recently appointed Executive Officer spoke.

"Captain, we're nearing Calypso soon. The Sabre and Banshee send their greetings."

"I'm coming," stated Nikoli.

Captain Nikoli rose from his chair, and thanked the ship designers that his office was on the same deck as the CIC and the NavBridge. He approached his chair and sat down, eye on the viewscreen, displaying the new military outpost and the two destroyers parked nearby.

"Send them back a greeting," Captain Nikoli ordered as he reviewed the data. "Any news?"

"None Captain," stated Commander Liala. "They say those guys from the HRA Empire have actually been well behaved."

"Surprising," Nikoli said dryly. "Contact with their government?"

"Not yet. Though they did assure that their gunship was to report back now," the Navigator responded.

"Yeah, well they should hurry it up. They are technically POWs," Nikoli quipped.

There was a rhythmic alert, and Intelligence Officer, Lt. Commander Briten reviewed his screens.

"Captain...I'm picking up unknown FTL signatures...."

((



Name: Hellraiser
Service Date: ?
Class: Dreadnought
Role: Flagship
Height: 2 kilometers
Width: 2.5 kilometers
Length: 10 kilometers

Offensive: 1 Nova Cannon, 24 Hellraiser Cannons, 30 20 footers, 5 ISBM launchers, 1000 Valkarie Missile Launchers, Long Range Jammers, Signal Disrupters, 100 Torpedo Bays, 12 OB Batteries, 20 800mm Batteries, 15 Lance Batteries, 15 Plasma Batteries
Defensive: 1000 CAS turrets, 200 152mm FLaK, 300 100mm FLaK, Anti Missile/Torpedo Missiles

Small Craft: 300 Torpedo Bombers/Gunships, 400 Lightning Fighters
Large Craft: 1000 Drop Pods

Crew: 25,000 Space Marines, The Emperor, 20 Master Generals, 250,000 Imperial Guard, 1000 Dreadnoughts, 20,000 Crew Members, 10,000 Engineers.))

IC: It was the first ship out there, a small scout ship, only around 500 meters long, and minimal weaponry. It only carried perhaps two Hellraiser Cannons, and maybe, just maybe, four 20 Footers, as they called it. There was around 100 of these ships, small patrol boats, that went out ahead of the main fleet. Why? Scouting, as usual.

They made the jump out of Warp, arriving not too far from Calypso, and probably within long range weapons of the Valhalla, though they didn't see it. The ship immediately began scanning for any signs of life on the planet below, and found something, and began printing it out, presenting it to the captain.

The last name of the captain usually was the name of the ship that he was in charge of, simply because everything below Battleships (and very famous ships) were just too numerous. In this case, the ship was named Smith, after Captain John Smith. Very normal name, rather average, and a cliche. The captain was always on the bridge, as there wasn't very much else to do there.

"So, this is the planet. Send a message to the Flagship that we've found the Bismarck... Or... What's left of her," Smith said, staring at the read outs. It was very interesting to him, though. How the crew, and many debris from the ship, were on the land, but just them. They knew that Calypso was a prosperous garden world, but... Why did it look like this? "Anything else?"

"We've picked up the last transmission of the Super Computers Yorktown and Bismarck. Data being processed now. Ahh, here it is," The 1st Lieutenant said, pressing a few buttons. Soon, the data rolled across the screen, and Smith read it.

"My god... Exterminatus? Ascrith ordered Exterminatus?" Smith said in disbelief. Where was Ascrith now? He wasn't on the planet's surface, he could verify that by the lack of a powerful Psychic presence. And there was the Yorktown, lying in ruins. By The Emperor, they would pay for this. "Send everything to the Flagship, Lieutenant. The Emperor must know of this. I believe we have just begun a war that not too many people will live through,"

****

"If you expect me to fold, sweetheart, you're pretty damn mistaken," Matthew Andrews, the Emperor joked to the men in the bridge. They were playing five card draw, and all very good friends, despite rank. There was the 1st Lieutenant, as always, sitting across Matt, chomping on a cigarette. His name was Duke, and so loved to joke about it.

"I am the Duke of New York, baby. I expect a lot of things," Duke chuckled, laying down his cards. Three Aces. He took out his cigarette, and puffed out some smoke, putting it back in, and readjusting his cap. He wore the standard SS officer garb, a short sleeved black shirt with a bullet proof vest on, the SS symbol and his rank on the epaulets, and the black beret with SS on it.

"Didn't the Duke die, brother? And why are you dating my sister?" Charlie Clash said. He was the captain of the ship, a very noble position for a man to occupy. He wore the black trench coat that Captains wore, with the officers cap on top. It was like Duke's suit, but longsleeve, and with many medals on it, and the golden lining. He put down his cards, flush. Duke snapped his fingers.

"Because she loves him, why else?" Private Max said, chuckling with his cards laid out on the ground. Full house, Aces and Eights. (It was Five Card Wild Card) That was dead mans hand. He wore the Imperial Guardsmen clothing of the Death Korps, brown with the armor pads with the white SS symbol. He had a few medals on him.

"We still talking about me?" Matt laughed, laying down his cards. Straight flush, one of the harder cards to get. He wore a brown leather bomber jacket with his name, old rank, and squadron on it. It was faded around the edges, matching his hair almost perfectly. "Eat it,"

"Yeah, lil sis, we're talking about you," Charlie chuckled, slapping his knee, then swearing. Damn good hand that the Emperor got.

"No, you eat mine, baby," Duke said, falling over with laughter. He knew that what he said was really dumb, but everyone fell over laughing. "Hey Red, you still haven't played your cards!"

"Just did, love. You cheating on me?" Vladimir said, laying down his cards. Royal flush. Everyone fell over laughing, and Matt put his hand on his face. Vladimir was Russian, and wore a General's trench coat, with gold, red, and black on it.

"Shit, Red! I didn't know you couldn't cheat!" Matt said, and fell over laughing. God, they were a buch of immature adults, all messed up.

"Incoming Message from Patrol Boat Smith" The Super Computer said, blaring over the PA system of the Hellraiser. Matt got up, as with everyone else, leaving the card game on the floor.

"Pact it through, Duke," Matt ordered, sitting down in his chair. Charlie got into his chair, as did everyone else. Soon, Smith came up on the screen. "Good Morning, Captain,"

"Not for us, Sir. I just found the planet that the men were dropped off on, including the wreckage of the ships,"

Name: Tia'Ren's Light
Service Date: 2281 AD-? [10281 9A 3E-?]
Role: Titan Battleship
Length: 5.3 km
Height: 2.6 km
Width: 2.4 km
Class: Oberoth-class
Decks: 52
Crew Complement: 12,000 Organics [420 Air-wing, 6180 Enlisted, 4000 Marines, 1400 Officers] and three Artificial Intelligences

Available Small Craft Squadrons:
120x Type V Fang Class Interceptors (Ten squadrons of twelve craft)
60x Sshat class Escort Gunship (Ten squadrons of six craft)
120x Aetherhawk Class Heavy Bombers (Ten squadrons of twelve)
700x AI-controlled Drone Fighters

Auxiliary Craft:
85x Shuttles

Defensive Capabilities:
1550x Automated Point-Defence Turret Clusters (Even mixture of ballistic and energy weaponry per cluster)
Mark VIII Adaptive Shield Matrix
Mark VII Emergency Plasma Shield
Mark VIII Ablative Armour

Offensive Capabilities:
15x Twin Plasma Projectile Cannons
25x Railgun Turrets
20x Dark Energy Projectors
30x High Density Torpedo/Missile Launchers

Power Planet:
17x Cold Fusion Reactors
14x Type VI Mana Crystal Cores

Propulsion:
50x Sublight Ion Engines
300x Manoeuvring Thrusters
4x Aetheric FTL Jump Drive

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Flagship of the Grand Fleet of the Kingdom and the personal vessel of Lord Admiral Jikan Kiera, leader of the Knights of Aera Fleet that defends the Terelain home-system as well as the personal flagship of the incumbent Terelain monarch in times of war, the Tia'Ren's Light is named in honour of the Queen of the Younger Gods of Aerin, the Goddess of the Stars and Heavens, Tia'Ren, Third Judge of the Dead. The current vessel is the fourth vessel to bear the name and is a direct descendant of the Terelain flagship during the Second Great War. She boasts some of the most powerful offensive and defensive technologies in the fleet and is the third largest vessel in the entire fleet.

IC

The Royal Flagship Tia'Ren's Light emerged out of Aether-space along with her small escort fleet of two Isaia-class Carriers and a Der'Morlain-class Dreadnought, along with a screen of smaller frigates and cruisers. These vessels were going on ahead of the rest of the small Terelain fleet that had been slowly making its way through the Deep Frontier over the past few months. It was the intention of this small collection of vessels to return to the area where the Hand of Terel had been destroyed, and hopefully get into contact with the Coalition Alliance to ascertain their present disposition. Since they knew that the Alliance was also now at war with the HRA Empire it was assumed that they would be amenable to some form of alliance, if only something temporary.

"Hold position here, sensors I want a long-range sweep of this entire volume, I want the first name of every dust cloud in this region of space." Lord Admiral Jikan Kiera ordered from his large seat situated at the rear of the bridge on a raised platfrm that jutted out into the lower areas where the rest of the bridge crew worked. With a simple gesture he could activate holographic displays from every workstation and get instant alerts on status and points of interest, such as nearby stars or enemy vessels.

"Detecting encrypted transmissions coming from a starsystem 1.4 light-years from our present position, sir. Tentative identifcation as system affiliated with the Coalition Alliance, location of planet Calypso." The sensor officer said.

"Plot a course for the star, send a long-range transmission, open channel so the humans can hear us." Jikan ordered.

"Channel open." His comms officer reported.

"This is Lord Admiral Jikan Kiera in command of the Royal Naval Vessel Tia'Ren's Light, representing the Terelain Star Kingdom, to any Coalition Alliance assets in the area. My vessel and her escorts are en-route to the planet designated Calypso. ETA fifteen minutes. I have been authorised to extend a formal greeting from His Majesty Aelrend IV the Just, and his good will towards the Coalition Alliance." The Lord Admiral paused and then smiled slightly to himself, "Militay men might say he's trying to stop me offending anyone else who feels like shooting up a Terelain starship in this region. End transmission."

"And they are gone," reported Intelligence Officer, Lt. Commander Joshua Briten, as he reviewed his board.

"I don't like this," mumbled Chief Tactical Officer, Lt. Commander De'nala Nai'ti. "It is was one of ours, they would drop out silent."

Captain Nikoli growled and nodded, in agreement.

"You're right Chief. And you know my motto. Get on the horn to the outpost commander, and make sure that he's been appraised of the local events in this area."

Communications Officer Breon Ty nodded and tended to his board, as the Captain took up his command seat.

"Briten," he called out. "Do we know if the system's sensor net is fully in place?"

"Last we were told, it was about partially finished Captain. Mostly covering the frequently traveled lanes from Coalition space to the planet, or where we hypothesize the Bismarck came from," he stated.

"Well, it's better then nothing. Link us in and light it up," the Captain ordered.

Briten nodded and began completing the task, when another alert came up on his display.

"Another FTL signature detected. Barely though, as it keeps phasing....dammit it, lost it. No wait...exit translation detected and it was huge. I think it was more then one ship Captain."

"Sound the alarm, Condition One, combat stations," Captain Nikoli ordered.

The battle klaxon rang and crewmen, went scrambling to their stations. Executive Officer, Commander Tonia Liala, appeared from the NavBridge, and took up a position at the holotable, aft of the Captain.

"Sir, Captain Linhider reports that she is appraised of the situation and that she too has sounded he alarm. She also notes, that due to seniority, you hold the ball in this court and she is standing by for what ever instructions you order," Ty reported.

Captain Nikoli nodded as he studied his tactical displays.

"Very well, have them get that sensor net up full stem and set for Condition One. The destroyers Sabre and Banshee, along with the frigates George Washington and Ulysses Grant will stay behind with the outpost. The frigates K'Tala and Ravios will join us in scouting the sensor contacts."

Ty nodded once again and was about to relay the orders, when an incoming message notification popped up on his screen.

"Incoming message...from a Terelian vessel."

Commander Liala, was by the Captain's side, arms folded, as he raised a brow.

"Pipe it through."

"This is Lord Admiral Jikan Kiera in command of the Royal Naval Vessel Tia'Ren's Light, representing the Terelain Star Kingdom, to any Coalition Alliance assets in the area. My vessel and her escorts are en-route to the planet designated Calypso. ETA fifteen minutes. I have been authorised to extend a formal greeting from His Majesty Aelrend IV the Just, and his good will towards the Coalition Alliance."

"Militay men might say he's trying to stop me offending anyone else who feels like shooting up a Terelain starship in this region."

"Of course they'd show up," Liala quipped with an eye roll.

"I know Liala, I know," the Captain said shaking his head. "We've enough heat from the politicians, saying the Terelians are using this as a grounds to establish a foothold in this region, I don't need the same attitude from you..."

"You wouldn't hear of such from me Skipper, but its still their own fault their ship blew up," Liala stated sternly before returning to the holotable.

"Ty, open a line," Captain Nikoli stated, before continuing. "To Lord Admiral Kiera of the incoming Terelain vessels, this is Flotilla Commander, Captain Nikoli of the Valhalla. We receive and acknowledge your vessels, but as that at this time, you position yourselves near the third orbiting planetary body and we will rendezvous with you. We thank you for you and your Majesty's greetings."

The channel was closed and the Captain turned toward Briten.

"Once they are in system, full tactical analysis. Let them see you scan them for all I care, but if there's one thing I know, we need to make sure we know what we are up against, when ever someone arrives," he ordered.

"Aye Sir," Briten responded. "And the first unknown FTL signature?"

"Keep on it. But that may be a fly we lost."

* * *

"Captain Linhider! I demand to know what is going on!"

Captain Jin Linhider, closed her eyes and counted to three, before turning and forcing herself not to punch the person, barraging toward her.

Linhider, was a junior Captain, and only recent made the grade after her stint as XO on the Scarab, and of course as luck would have it, she was given the slot for an outpost...in the middle of nowhere. Not only that, but she was now playing second string, to one of the most well known Captains in the Coalition Fleet, and had to deal with a Government Representative and Oversight Officer. Its not really as if she was forced to do it. Captain Nikoli has never inferred such, but considering his standing, it seemed as if it was the unspoken rule. And its sure he didn't want to deal with the Oversight Officer.

A civilian. A civilian politician.

She hated politicians.

"How can I help you Overseer Tanner?" she asked.

The thin, dark suited, man with dark rimmed glasses, almost reminiscent of the "G-Man" from Earth's more color history, came storming toward her. His face seemed etched from stone, and his glasses, hung on his long nose, as his mouth began to twitch open.

"Captain...Linhider, why am I not be updated on our current tactical situation?"

"Overseer," the Captain said, without trying to gag. "Overseer Tanner, I was just appraised of the situation myself. So, if you don't mind, I am required on the command deck."

"Fine then, I will be joining you," he said as he slithered alongside her. "I would hate for any more..."incidents" to occur, because of heavy-handed military commanders."

God this is going to be a long tour...

"To Lord Admiral Kiera of the incoming Terelain vessels, this is Flotilla Commander, Captain Nikoli of the Valhalla. We receive and acknowledge your vessels, but as that at this time, you position yourselves near the third orbiting planetary body and we will rendezvous with you. We thank you for you and your Majesty's greetings."

Lord Admiral Kiera smiled slightly, "Well, at least these humans are polite about it." He turned his head slightly, "Navigation, plot a course from our exit-point to the thid planet, put us in standard high orbit."

"Aye sir." The navigational officer said.

"Comms, signal the other ships. They're to take up defensive positions around the Tia'Ren's Light, the V'Talria is to shield the two carriers. The carriers themselves are to launch half their fighters and set them on defensive manouvres on the periphery. I'm pretty sure these humans don't want a two-fron war an they won't shoot us, but we don't know if the enemy are in the area or not... keep that in mind, sensos. I want you to shout as soon as you detect the slightest blip that's out of the ordinary."

"Yes, Lord Admiral." His sensor officer said.

The Titan Battleship and her escorts emerged from Aether-space on the edge of the system, the vessels travelled quite fast and reached the thid planet in only a few minutes, taking up a defensive position in orbit, though none of the vessels had their weapons active and the fighters didn't stray too far from th fleet. Admiral Jikan seemed to be the cautious type, at least when in unknown territory.

"Sir, our scans came in again. We got a... Lets just put it this way. They're trying to kill a fly with a flame thrower," The 1st Lieutenant said, looking up in horror. It was true, they had to get out of there. The ship couldn't last very long against these people, and with the fleet only a few hours away or so, they had to move back and rondevous.

"WHAT? I'm sorry, Emperor. We are requesting assistance. Enemy ships spotted over Calypso, and are closing in fast. We don't know if they see us yet, but we need the fleet to get here, and now," Smith said, looking desperate and scared. He looked back. "Retreat slowly, don't give off a signal!"

"Sir! Its the Valhalla!"

****

"What? What the hell? They have the Valhalla there?" Matthew said, staring at the screen. He saw it cut, and knew what he had to do. So this was Calypso. So this was what they decided to do. Well, they were going to get those men out of there, and eliminate that fleet. "Ready the Forge World! I want us in Warp in 10 minutes!"

There was a large blare of light as the Forge World activated, lifting off from it's landing spot, and getting into the air. Instantly, all the ships hit Warp, and the entire 1st fleet began making its way towards Calypso.

The C.A.D.V Valhalla, along with the frigates K'Tala and Ravios hung in orbit of the third planet, as they watched the Terelian fleet assumed orbit themselves.

"Detecting small craft being launched," announced Intelligence Officer Briten. "They are fighters Captain, taking up defensive positions around the launch crafts."

"Hmm. Tactical analysis?"

The Valhalla sensors went full bloom as they reached out and touched the alien ships, trying to scrap out as much information they could. Captain Nikoli and Commander Liala, made their way to Briten's station and watched over his shoulder, as the data came in.

"Oh my...those are some big ships," commented Lt. Commander Nai'ti as she reviewed, relevant data.

"They are huge Captain," Briten assured. "Im reading some that are just about as large as us, and a few larger by a factor of 2x."

Briten paused, squinting his eyes, as his fingers flew across his board as the data was processed and filtered.

"Think we've managed to pick up what appears to be their weapon points," he said. "Hmmm...hold on...yeah...I think we got them. They seem in line with our standard ship typing. Going by the weapons and the other data we receive thus far, I say there's two carrier class vessels out there, an a large number of cruisers, with an assortment of ships below destroyer class, and that ship there, is what appears to be a dreadnaught."

"A dreadnaught?!" Captain Nikoli exclaimed in surprise. "They make those things? That's a waste of a hull..."

"Seems like it. Just because we crapped the idea, doesn't mean others out in the Void, didn't."

The Captain nodded, "Very well."

"And what about their cyber-suite?" asked Commander Liala.

"Can't really tell," the Intelligence Officer said, as he shook his head. "I think we are picking up evidence that they have some powerful systems in communication with each other. Highly probable AI."

Nikoli nodded once again and patted Briten on the shoulder, "Good work Briten. Send an alert to the station, give them the all clear."



* * *

Captain Jin Linhider stood on the command deck of the, amply named "Calypso Outpost Station One." Next to her was Overseer Tanner, eyes darting back and forth, between the multiple screens of data, coming in from the partially completed sensor net.

"Message from the Valhalla, they give the All Clear. They say its a Terelian force."

Linhider, let out a sigh of relief and propped herself against a railing. "Alright ladies and gentlemen, stand down."

Overseer Tanner stepped up to the Captain. "A Terelian force? Here? I wish to speak to them Captain."

Once again Linhider closed her eyes, and counted to three.

"Overseer, I am sure you will be able to do so at the most earnest of conveniences. I am sure-"

"That earnest convenience is now!" Tanner cut in. "They are within our sphere of control and this is now a political matter. Open a channel Captain, that is an order."

Jesus Christ, they just had to send a representative -an asshole one- and with power over the military. Damn those suits.

Captain Linhider, exhaled slowly and turned to her communications officer. "Please open a channel to the Terelain forces."

* * *

"Alright Ty open up-"

"Captain," Communications Officer Ty cut in. "The station is opening a channel to the Terelian ships."

"Oh god...please don't let it be Tanner..." murmured Commander Liala.

The display erupted to life, and low and behold, there was Government Representative and Oversight Officer Marcus Tanner.

"Greetings Terelian vessels, from the Coalition Alliance," he sad, as his mouth twitched along on that stone face. "I am Government Representative and Oversight Officer Marcus Tanner, the political authority in this realm of space. I ask that your the highest level of military or political authority respond immediately. You will also recognize that, we have authority in this area, and should at any point, joint operations are commenced in the future, our forces hold seniority in command and that you will be subjected to the Regulations and Guidelines, under the Code of Joint Force Command. Hopefully, we can see to it that any future..."incidents" will be avoided like that of the Hand of Terel, in which you have my utmost condolences. One again, greetings Terelian vessels. Tanner out."

They was not a word on the deck.

"That has to be the single most idiotic person, Command could have assigned to us," Liala stated aloud. "He's going to get us killed!"

"Liala...please..." was all that Captain Nikoli could manage, as he tried to restrain himself from the fool's stupidity. "Ty make sure we're linked into the message. I want to make sure, I am able to stop him should the Overseer accidentally step on their toes."

Ty nodded.

There was a quick beep, and Intelligence Officer frowned curiously at the data coming in from the sensor net, but it disappeared. He turned toward the screen and his fingers clacked away at the keyboard. Something did appear on the sensors, but he couldn't be sure if it was just a sensor ghost.

* * *

One Calypso O.S One's Intelligence Officers sat along a row of terminals, just as his colleagues, tapping and clicking away at their boards. He just so happened to be on the shift, to manage a part of the overly power sensor suite, the outpost had been outfitted with. He was just about to turn away, when an alert, averted his eyes back tot he screen. The station's LRS were picking up energy fluctuations in the FTL. He checked over the data, to make sure there wasn't any problems and that the scanners were operating normally. Everything was fine, he did a double check and cross reference, finding that the fluctuations matched two probable causes, either Ursan...or HRA forces.

Immediately he sprinted up and went jogging to sound the alarm.

"Sir, sir! Fluctuating FTL signatures detected! It's large sir! I'm saying, multiple HRA forces detected. At least ten minutes out!"

The Chief Intelligence Officer wasted no time, and hit the alarm.

The enemy was on its way.

"Greetings Terelian vessels, from the Coalition Alliance," he sad, as his mouth twitched along on that stone face. "I am Government Representative and Oversight Officer Marcus Tanner, the political authority in this realm of space. I ask that your the highest level of military or political authority respond immediately. You will also recognize that, we have authority in this area, and should at any point, joint operations are commenced in the future, our forces hold seniority in command and that you will be subjected to the Regulations and Guidelines, under the Code of Joint Force Command. Hopefully, we can see to it that any future..."incidents" will be avoided like that of the Hand of Terel, in which you have my utmost condolences. One again, greetings Terelian vessels. Tanner out."

"They let civilians run their military?" The Lord Admiral said in surprise and then he shook his head with sigh, "Gods damn it... I'd hoped to have to deal with a nice sensible captain or admiral, not some... politician." He shook his head, "Comms, open a channel, visual and audio if they have the capability."

"Aye sir, channel open." His communications officer said.

The Lord Admiral stood up, hands clasped behind his back, "This Lord Admiral Jikan Kiera of the House of Kerah, vassal of the House Tynian, in command of the Royal Flagship Oberoth-class Titan Battleship Tia'Ren's Light, representing the Star Kingdom and King Aelrend IV. I am the one in command of the Knights of Aera Home Defence Fleet and the taskforce presently enroute to this region of space. I hereby formally recognise the sovereignty and authority of the Coalition Alliance to this stellar region and star-system, and her primacy in matters of the administration or defence of her claimed territories. However, I would request that you send me a copy of these... Guidelines of yours. I want to know exactly what laws you are going to be holding me to... also, be advised that whilst I respect the sovereignty and authority of the Coalition Alliance my first and foremost responsibility is the preservation of the ships and people under my command as well as the protection of the interests of my government, therefore I shall recognise Coalition Alliance authority over us in this region only so far as it does not affect the operational effectiveness and integrity of my command. I'm not jumping through hoops if it means letting any of my people get killed for it, or giving up a tactical or strategic advantage."

The Lord Admiral smiled slightly, "I also advise you that under Interstellar Senate Directive 0907472-A4 I reserve the right to tell you to go to hell in a hand basket if you try anything that endangers my people without some kind of acceptable military justification. I'm no politician, sir, just an admiral with a couple of centuries of military training and experience, so I might not be able to understand some of your no-doubt brilliant reasoning in some of your tactical decisions. Jikan out."

"Sir, I'm detecting some weird readings from the Cascade. Tentative ID as FTL signature, big one. Possibly an unknown fleet enroute to this system. Ten minutes out." The sensor officer said.

"The Cascade? Who's fool enough to use that realm as the basis for FTL travel? The whole things a chaotic malaise filled with hostile life forms. I thought FTL capability through the realm impossible." Jikan said, "No matter, signal the fleet. Launch all fighters and drones, activate weapons... keep us in a defensive posture until we know what we're dealing with.... someone warn the humans so they don't get twitchy."

"Aye sir." The comms officer said, "This is Tia'Ren's Light to all ships. Unknown FTL signature detected. Launch all fighters and drones, activate weapons systems. Retain present positions... to Coalition assets in this system; we are taking routine defensive precautions. Do not, I repeat do not, open fire on us."

The patrol boat sat there on the second planetary body, thinking over its decisions. They did have, on board, a very very powerful EMP, but activating that would destroy them. They didn't have much time, and the ships were getting closer and closer. Smith just looked at the others.

"Charge the EMP, Tank. We're blowing the Squiddies!" Smith shouted, and got into his chair. He looked out into the distant space, and thought for a moment. The planet probably had a shielding system on it, and most likely a space station for protection. Well, both would be gone with them. "Bring us near their Space Station. I want to be able to fire off maybe one or two rounds, and blow the EMP,"

They nodded, and the man he jokingly called Tank flipped a few switches, pumping a lever. He sat back down, and waited. The EMP was charging. "10 minutes to full power. By then, we'll be able to render the entire planet, and the orbiting bodies, devoid of electronics,"

"Good! Good! Bring us up, slowly. Use the planet's shielding as cover for our EMP signal. Load up the weapons, too. I want one Mustard Gas shell, and another HE shell loaded into the cannons. If they did what everyone said they did to Ascrith, then this will be considered fair play," Smith said, sitting down again, and looking up.

The ship began moving along the side of the planet, slowly inching its way back up to the northern tip. Their guns were fully loaded, and ready to fire. Then they saw it, the space station. It looked big, but they knew it would be defenseless soon. As would a large portion of the area around it.

"Space Station in sight, sir. Looks like it might have seen us. Orders?"

"Open fire. Tank, what's the EMP status?"

"4 minutes to full charge,"

If there was air in space, the loud explosions of cannon fire would be heard, one after another. They would've heard the whistling of 20 foot shells fly through the air, and the screech of a dozen Valkarie missiles. But they would've also heard the explosions that would come soon.

****

"Ten minutes out, sir. They've spotted our Warp signature. Damn, they're good," Duke said, clacking at the keyboards. He touched the screen a few times, zooming in on places, and examining their surroundings. "Multiple contacts detected within 5 minutes or so of impulse power around the entry point,"

"Interesting... So they know of the Warp, but they don't use it. Chuck, you thinking what I'm thinking?" Matthew asked, head on his hand, which was resting on the arm rest. Charlie raised an eyebrow, and asked what. "I'm thinking that if we wanted to, we could do a hit and run, and they wouldn't be able to trace single ships of any size, or follow them, around. We practically bought us a way to win this war easily,"

"Do you want me to call up the U Boats?" Charlie asked, a big grin on his face. He renamed the Stealth Destroyers Submarines, and in turn, they got the nickname U Boat, because of their deadly ability to get in, fire a massive torpedo that locked on, and get out without being noticed.

"Oh yes, yes. Split them off from this main strike force, going around the entry point. Tell them to flank the enemy, and then blast them from there. But on my command. If we play this right, we'll be able to crush these men without having to loose a lot,"

"Very well. Anything else?"

Matt thought for a moment, furrowing and creasing his brow in different ways, examining all possibilities. They were going in with the Hellraiser, ten U Boats, the battle barges Imperium, Führer, and Czar, the battleships Arrogence, Corinth, Garan, Rogers, and Chambron and their escorts, and, of course, the Super Carrier Vladimir and her escorts. All in all, that was around 50 very deadly ships that could cause a lot of destruction. And more were on their way.

"Lock the missiles onto their engines and prioritize their systems. In other words, if you see a radio, and a FLaK cannon, hit the radio. But act fast, I want this done before we get out of warp, so that when we do, we unleash a maelstrom of destruction,"

****

"Guys! Look up! I see flashes!" A private said, pointing up into the air. He was one of the boarding parties in the attacks, and as such, one of the 100 or so that survived. Truly, it was a sight to see. Flashes of light, and a trail from the ship lit up the sky. They could see all the other ships move around, too, but this was something they never thought to see up close. A small ship opening fire.

The 1st Lieutenant from the Bismarck just got up, and looked. But he knew what that was. It was only a patrol boat, nothing serious, and nothing that would help them. He knew what it was doing. "Activate your EMP protectors! Do it now!"

They only had maybe 6 minutes, max, before that thing would get to them. Lysander listened, and activated his EMP protector on his armor, looking up. So war did begin. Maybe they would get out of there. He looked around, seeing a small outpost on the ground. Soldiers just there to be there.

"When you see my face, hope it gives you hell, hope it gives you hell. When you walk my way hope it gives you hell, hope it gives you hell,"

Captain Linhider was off to the side, when she saw the look on her Chief Intelligence Officer's face. All he did was give a nod before, running back to his spooks.

There wasn't time, but they were prepared. Captain Nikoli made sure of that.

"...I'm not jumping through hoops if it means letting any of my people get killed for it, or giving up a tactical or strategic advantage."

Overeer Tanner was taken aback. How dare this overgrown cat speak to him in this matter! He was merely a pompous military officer. Another heavy handed, buffoon who shouldn't be in command. He was just about to respond, when Captain Linhider came running over.

"CODE DOWNFALL, CODE DOWNFALL! All hands immediately begin station evacuation. Abandon ship!"

The Overseer's mouth twitched shut. And soon the alarms rang.

* * *

"CODE DOWNFALL!"

Everyone on the Valhalla heard the phrase and the klaxons sounded. There was a dramatic ship in the air.

"This is Tia'Ren's Light to all ships. Unknown FTL signature detected. Launch all fighters and drones, activate weapons systems. Retain present positions... to Coalition assets in this system; we are taking routine defensive precautions. Do not, I repeat do not, open fire on us."

"Admiral, don't worry, seems we've other targets to fry," responded the Captain. "We are about to commence an emergency evac of the station and set up a tactical laser link, for secure communications, please standby for the relevant data."

Captain Nikoli turned his face toward Overseer Tanner.

"Overseer, please inform Captain Linhider to proceed with the evacuation and to take up the Flottila XO flag, aboard the Sabre. Activation of the Bear Trap is authorized."

The links closed and Captain Nikoli rose from his chair, and strode over to the holotable.

"Briten, give the report."

"There's a large force moving in. I think they have a small force in system too. I started to pick up sensor ghost in the net as if there were holes there," reported Briten.

"Stealth? Get every single ship and sensor relay to full bloom and find those ships," ordered the Captain."

* * *

Crewmen took what valuables they needed and went dashing toward the docking tubes and shuttlecraft, heading off to the ships currently anchored at the station.

Captain Jin Linhider was making her way toward the Sabre, with Tanner in tow, who was trying to keep up.

Damn Nikoli was smart...had the station run at a minimum crew levels, just in case we needed to evacuate.

She couldn't get over that, as she was informed of the evacuation, which was nearly 75% complete. They finally got to the docking tubes and she turned about on her heels, looking up slightly toward the ceiling. Oversee Tanner was confused. Why was she stopping and looking at the ceiling?

"DopLiala, activate. Authorization Code Doppelganger A324JKL9."

There was nothing, but silence for a moment then a familiar voice spoke.

"I am all set," said a copy of Navigator Liala, which seemed to horrify Tanner. "I've complete access to all systems. The computer is currently being scrubbed of all information that could be valuable, and I am ready to kick the ass of those who mess with me."

Captain Linhider smiled, she liked this girl. "Great job Dop- Calypso. Give them hell eh?"

"Will do," CalpysoLiala chuckled. "Now get on the ship. I want you to be far away, to see what I can do with this station."

Captain Linhider, nodded and gave a salute before heading onto the boarding tube.

* * *

"Evacuation, complete," reported Ty. "And Calypso, as Liala's doppelganger is calling herself is online and battle ready."

"Calypso, that's not a bad name. I'll have to be sure to get a backup of her, after all this is over," quipped Liala.

"Hmm, very well. Ty open channel," ordered Captain Nikoli. "All ships, this is the Valhalla, take up a defensive screen in lieu with the Terelian forces. Make sure you are screen this ship primarily, but also the flag ship of our..."allies." Calypso, keep looping us that data from the sensor net."

Acknowledgements came back and the Captain nodded.

"Alright, open up a general channel. To the hostiles."

Ty nodded once again and tended to his task. Captain Nikoli took back up his seat in the command chair.

"To HRA forces. You are currently in violation of Coalition Alliance space, and we are requesting your immediate withdrawal. Should you be here to recover the men and women of the former battle barge vessel known as Bismarck, you may do so through the proper channels with our Government Representative and Oversight Officer Marcus Tanner. You will comply within the next 30 seconds. Should you fail to do so, we will fire upon all the forces you currently have picketing the systems. Message end."

* * *

"Is Captain Nikoli insane!? He is going to destroy any possibility of peace with the HRA people!" Overseer Tanner exclaimed on the command deck of the destroyer Sabre.

Captain Linhider was seating in the command chair of the CIC, due to their being no proper flag deck on destroyer class vessels. A simple fix, Commander Jacke merely moved his position to the ship's NavBridge and tended to shipboard matters.

Linhider found herself once more, closing her eyes and counting to three.

"Overseer, it is obvious any attempts at peace with these animals will fall on deaf ears. Now please, if you do not have anything to add to this tactical and military matter, I will have you thrown off the deck. Clear?"

Tanner's thin mouth twerked with contempt. "I concede the matter to Captain Nikoli at this moment. I do ask that a direct link be given between him and myself."

She knew she couldn't deny the request, she was bound by the horrid political legalities of it all. Pointing to an open station, she sent Tanner over to it and had the ship's communication officer sent up a link.

"Receiving orders from the Valhalla. Ordered to take up a screening position around her."

"Very well, get with it," ordered Commander Jacke.

There wasn't much for Captain Linhider to do, except watch and wait.

* * *

Calypso state in her virtual chair, watching the flood of data coming in. The last evacuee had left and now it was just her and data. Her virtual mind reviewed the streams, and then she saw it. An anomaly in the sensor net and one that was close.

It wasn't long before the signals became clear and she saw what they were. Nearly a dozen missiles aimed and homing in on her. She gave a laugh, and damned them for starting the party early.

Alrighty then, lets play boys.

Her shields were at full strength, and though the outpost was equipped with about the equivalent of the firepower of a destroyer, she let pour out defensive fire herself. A smirk crept along her virtual face, as the devious mind that made the original such a threat began to work.

She dumped power into the station's thrusters.

And sent it lumbering toward the missiles, as she determined the origin point.

"Sir, detecting missiles heading right for the Coalition station in obit of Calypso. The station has returned fire and has engaged thrusters, Coalition forces are evacuating." The sensors officer warned.

"Hm? They have ships here already? Comms, signal the Arrow of The Huntress, tell her to send two fighter squadrons and a bomber squadron to assist the station, send three of our own fighter squadrons to help shield the evacuation craft." Admiral Jikan ordered, "Sensors, I want you to pinpoint the origin point of the missiles... tactical, as soon as we have origin coordinates see if we have any long-range weapons that can hit the ship."

"Aye sir." They replied.

"Aelya, tactical analysis?" Jikan asked.

The War-AI formerly housed aboard the Hand of Terel and now stationed aboard the fleet flagship, as she had been in the latter years of the Second Great War, materialised her avatar hologram to speak with the admiral. She was medium-sized and wore the clothing and jewellery that denoted her to be a veteran of the old wars, "Enemy may possess anti-shielding weaponry, they attempted to use such during their boarding attempts on the Hand. I'm already working on countermeasures. I assume the enemy plan to take out the station and possibly will attempt to disable or weaken our defensive systems in preparation for the arrival of their main fleet. Euthyra is monitoring for any attempts to compromise our systems, I will attempt to enact countermeasures if the enemy attempt to utilise the same EMP tactics as they did against the Hand."

"Good, keep on it. Let's not let these HRA get the jump on us." The Admiral said, "Keep an open connection with the rest of the fleet AIs, co-ordinate cyber defence and shield modulations as necessary. Your reactions are quicker than ours... I'm counting on the lot of you to head off any trickery."

"As you command, Lord Admiral." She said with a bow, "I will keep you appraised of the situation if anything untoward occurs."

((Aelya's been reassigned to the flagship, along with the AI that was stationed on the Aldareth. Euthyra means 'One Who Served' and he also fought in the Second Great War, being under her command during a cruiser raid on an enemy supply depot and again as the Tactical AI aboard the original Tia'Ren's Light. Euthyra is in control of the automated weapon systems, cyber-warfare and shields, whilst Aelya is in charge of the rest of the ship's systems, strategic analysis and overall command of the ship from an AI perspective. The third as yet unamed AI is in charge of the drones and strike craft.))

"Incoming fighters and bombers! All within range! Small craft trying to escape, but they won't be out of EMP range any time soon. Orders?" The 1st Lieutenant said, hand on the EMP charge. He had both of them primed, the Psychic one, and the other. Both were equally deadly.

"Well, we can't win by brute force, so lets just ruin their day! NOW!" Smith shouted, gun in hand. He was going to die, along with everyone else there. But he was going out with a bang. More or less literally. There was a big pulse, and two different colored things shooting out into the sky. It was deadly, it was there. Nothing would be able to escape.

They both hit the enemy at the same time, hitting the shields, and hopefully destroying them, and the electronics inside. This would be a deadly battle for everyone.

****

"EMP FIRED!!!" Duke shouted, smiling. "That's the signal!"

Matt smiled, and the ships got out of the Warp the same time as the U Boats. The U Boats fired their torpedoes and missiles, locking onto the biggest ships, and dissapearing into nothing. The Hellraiser open fired with all she had, picking targets that were presighted, and firing at them. Hundreds of projectiles from the task force split the dark sky, lighting it up with explosions.

The sensors detected the pulses several instants before they hit the Terelain fleet. It was long enough for Aelya to do the AI equivalent of stare in shock for a moment at the sensor readings, sh swore, "Countermeasures activate, NOW!"

"Shield harmonics realigning." Euthyra reported, "Synced with the rest of the fleet. we'll endure the Electro-Magnetic Pulse, but it make take our shields down momentarily."

"What about the second pulse?" She asked.

"Might be Psychic Energy. I've got no idea what the hell that'll do." He replied.

"Terenen shield us... here it comes. Brace your systems." She said.

The pulses washed over the Terelain fighters and bombers, it overloaded their shields entirely, for one or two of them it was so bad that the shield generatrs failed entirely and their shielding was offline permanently. The small craft lay drifting in space for about a minute before their systems began re-initialising. Terelain craft were pretty hard to destroy, since they did their best to reduce their losses in combat. For several of the craft, their weapons systems had also been damaged an they were forced to tun back to their carriers for repairs, but the others were till functional enough to carry on with their initial mission.

As for the fleet itself, the combined pulses took down the shields on the destroyers and the shields on the cruisers were gone for several minutes before they could be brought back online. It was the largest ships, the two Isaia class carriers, the Der'Morlain class Dreadnought and the Oberoth class Titan Battleship were things really got interesting. These ships had the most advanced shielding technologies available as well as hardened systems and multiple AIs to provide incredibly fast adjustments to these defences.

The shields of these behemoth vessels held, though they were severely depleted. What was interesting was that the Aetheric Energy that made up these shields reacted with the Psychic Energy pulse, spontaneously crystallising the energy matrix into an Aetheric Crystal lattice which began to collapse the rest of the shields.

"Mother Tara..." Admiral Jikan gasped as he saw the status alerts light up on his holo-display.

"Sir, shields matrix is destabilising, fleet reports wide-spread sheild disruption and de-activation." His tactical officer said.

"Sir, detecting enemy FTL signatures.... they're gone ag- Ancestors! Contacts in-bound, high-speed, heading right for us. Missiles I think." His sensor officer exclaimed.

"Are the point-defence clusters still operational? Open fire!" Jikan ordered, his voice was tense, but calm.

"They... they're still online, most of them. But we need to break through that Aetheric lattice." His tactical officer said.

"Leave that to me, Admiral." Aelya suddenly said, "I have an idea."

"Do it, whatever it is, do it." Jikan said.

"Aelya to V'Talria, Bow of The Huntress and Senura's Lantern I'm sending over a modulation to the resonance frequency for your Aetheric Crystal cores... utilise it and we might be able to harness the Aetheric Crystals that have spontaneously formed in our shields."

"You sure about this, ma'am? I don't even know if it's possible to fine-tune the Crystals that much." One of the other AIs said doubtfully.

"If you have any better ideas, spit it out. We've got missiles inbound." She said.

"No ma'am. Applying the new resonance now."

The four large vessels altered each of their Aethric Crystal power cores to the exact same resonance frequency at roughly the same time, this caused a kind of 'link' to be established between the crystals, allowing them to feed off of each other and amplify their power. It was dangerous; too much energy could cause a feedback cycle and cause them to explode. They also managed to link with the unstable crystals that had formed in their shield matrices, these smaller, less stable crystals shattered and dissolved back into Aetheric Energy to be absorbed by te crystal cores. An instant later they shifted back to their original frequency patterns.

By the time this was over, the enemy missiles had travelled three quarters of the way to the Terelain ships and their shields were still regenerating and verging on collapse. Every capital ship, and those cruisers and destroyers that had already recovered, opened a hail of point-defence fire on the incoming targets as the Terelains prayed desperately that their weakened shields would hold, or that their weapons would take out the torpedoes.

Calypso, analyzed all the data that was coming in and knew she was merely just bidding time.

However that's what she want, was time...time to gather, compile and send off the data.

The station's weapons kept on firing in a 180 degree arc, where the missiles came from. The defensive fire of the flak and laser clusters were making some work of the missiles, she now knew carried pretty heavy payloads, and she kept the station lumbering toward them.

There was an alert from her sensors and she a cascading wave, making its way toward her and she smiled.

Well, a fecking EMP.

She knew her shields would probably overload and send most the systems dying in a horrid blaze. It wouldn't be long until it hit and the small craft that she left hurrying out her bays on autopilot, were nearly in position. Calpyso gave a virtual shrug and summoned a comfy chair to sit in as she tapped a large green button.

Was nice knowing you all!

She watched as her final moments came to pass, and all the data she had was dumped and sent to the Valhalla, whilst being scrubbed from the computer at the same time. The virtual domain she resided in began to crumble, but she continued to watch as everything transpired. Her shields was hit by the EMP, sending a pulse smashing through all her sensors. In that moment, systems failed or died left and right, but she did nothing, but watch the screens of what was available.

The automated shuttles she had, suddenly spun around and sent their engines to overflank and their power cores to overload as they, homed in on the origin point of the attack. Calypso knew that their shielding probably wouldn't protect them from the EMP, but that was of little value; the bear trap had been set. And who ever messed with her, was now surrounded.

She gave a devilish grin, just as the rest of systems went silent and she too was shut off.

* * *

The Valhalla's running lights flickered on and off, as she was grazed by the wave. Systems fell silent, as their main channels went dead, and they began to switch over to the backups. The secondary independent systems, took a few minutes, but came online to fill the gap, as crew went about getting the ship back to full combat readiness.

"They took the bait Captain!" yelled out Intelligence Officer Briten, as the lights flickered. "An EMP type device was just fired off and we've been able to track the source. The station outpost along with its automated crafts have been disabled, but..."

Before Briten could finish, his screen and that the main viewscreen filled with the bright plumes of antimatter explosions. They saw what amounted to a ring of fire in space, that filled the area where the Calypso station once stood.

"Receiving a data packet, Calypso sent. She was able to activate the trap in time and she sent the loc of the ship that fired upon her," Briten reported. "There's interference, but I doubt they could've survived that Captain."

"We cant use doubt right now Lt. Commander," Captain Nikoli growled. "Nonetheless, next phase. Valhalla to all ships, initiating phase two of Downfall. Lord Admiral, we will be withdrawing from this system, and meeting at a rendezvous with our fleet. Once we get to the Lagrange Point, currently 15 minutes from out current position, the necessary jump coordinates will be updated on the fleet tactical laser link."

Captain Nikoli turned to Communication's Officer Ty, "Ty, message to Fleet High Command and the 4th Fleet, encryption level Black, non-direct. Message reads: Calypso fallen. Engaging HRA forces. Downfall Phase Two in effect. End."

Communications Officer Ty nodded and got to work on his task. However, there was an immediate alert from his alert. The face of Overseer Tanner appeared.

"Captain Nikoli! We can NOT concede this system! There are prisoners on that planet and our own men and women!"

Captain Nikoli tried to not show his annoyance. "One, there are none of our people planetside. To which...Liala, blow that dummy station down there, we dont need it anymore."

Liala nodded and took up station at the holodisplay working with a few other officers. Captain Nikoli returned his eyes back to the viewscreen.

"Two, they WERE prisoners Overseer, but they are now a liability and one I am not here to protect."

"We will lose out leverage in negotiation with them Captain!" Tanner blared. "You are to immediately reverse course and see to it our assets are secured!"

"What assets Overseer Tanner?" the Captain asked, genuinely. "All of our assets have been properly scuttled or destroyed. This system Overseer is useless and no longer a viable military point."

Overseer Marcus Tanner was flustered, his mouth twitching open and close like some cathartic fish. He just couldn't get any words out.

"The Parliament will hear of this Nikoli! How dare you simply give a system to the enemy! Thats...that's treason!"

Captain Nikoli was done. He gave Ty the signal to cut the link and with that Tanner disappeared from the screen.

"You know he'll be back in a while and he still has authority," quipped Liala, as she read some hardcopy data reports.

Nikoli growled, "Yeah, well right now he doesn't. This is a military situation and I can't nor will I allow, Overseer Tanner on my back. The station?"

"Hmmm," Liala shrugged. "I blew it up."

She returned to her report and that conversation was done. Suddenly alarms began to blare.

"Energy spike detected!"

"Enemy weapon's fire detected!"

"Can't get a target lock!"

The command deck went hustling to the increased tension.

"All ships Layered Sphere formation toward enemy fire! All batteries open fire. Heavy saturation of the area!" barked Captain Nikoli. "Nai'ti! Fire all tubes of defensive missiles! Liala, get one of your Dops to take care of the ECM/ECCM!"

Orders were acknowledged and completed as the hammer came down.

The Valhalla herself spit out some 240 varied missiles, in lieu of her own escorts, the total throw weight of the Coalition ships, 452 in bound missiles. With their Terelian forces backing them, they would surely hold out long enough until they make it to the jump point.

Captain Nikoli knew that much, but the thing that urked him, was the very fact that they couldn't get a lock on them. The feeling of everything was all too familiar, all too reminiscent of the attacks by the Ursans, and their ships that phased in and out of FTL.

Back then, they were mostly reactive, instead of active.

Nikoli wasn't about to let that happen again.

* * *

"That man is a fool! He can't just allow this system to be captured! Once this is over, I'll see to it he's relived. Bad enough, we have to deal with these pompous imperialist Terelians. I thought those damn Kitt'ane were bad!

Captain Linhider merely closed her eyes and tried drowning out the ramblings of Government Representative and Oversight Officer Marcus Tanner.

He's just panicking. He has no idea what a real combat situation is. Just let him cower behind what he knows bet.

The thought hit her and she knew exactly how to deal with the Overseer.

"Overseer Tanner," she called out, breaking him from his constant talking. "It would appear, we are in some sort of join operation or alliance with the Terelians. Do you not think it wise, we see to it all the legal paperwork is completed and sent out immediately so all parties are aware of the terms?"

Tanner was genuinely surprised and "almost" bashful about having let that slipped his mind.

"Uh yes...I shall get on that."

"Very good Overseer," Linhider replied, with a mental smile, whilst hoping they would make it out of the firestorm hurling toward them now.

Vessel: Times-Demise IV

Service Date: ?
Role: carrier
Length: 2530m
Height: 560m
Width: 3450m
Class: Straggler
Decks: 42
Crew Compliment: 2,300 [250 Officers, 1500 Enlisted, 250 Marines, 300 Airwing]
{EMERGENCY CREW COMPLIMENT}: 2,000

Available Small Craft Squadrons:
30x of 9x Interceptors
45x of 7x Assault Fighters
15x of 5x Bombers
10x of 7x Multi-role Fighter

Auxiliary Craft:
20x Troop Transport
14x Shuttles
25x Multirole Craft
10x Gunships
14x Scout Diablo Craft
25x Repair Drone

Defenses Capabilities:
Mark III Titan Turnover Shield Matrix (adaptable)
Mark II Shield Generator (emergency use)
10 Point Defense laser grid
5 Anti-Torpedo batteries

Offensive Capabilities:
5 Railguns
10 Turbolaser Batteries (2 cell)

Power Planet:
TR-25B fusion core plant with plasma ejection system

Propulsion:

Primary – Plasma ejection Core
Secondary – Stress core Drive
20x Revolver Thrusters
FTL Jump Drive

IC~ A hyperspace signature came into notice and with it came a heavily damaged carrier with holes in its side with sizes ranging from an elephant to a large blue whale. The carrier had a faint but active distress signal emitting from it. as it was floating there, no power, no signs of activity a single Repair drone came out of its side and began to repair the vessel. Although without all the necessary parts needed it could only attempt to restore power to some systems, and even then it was unlikely whoever was inside the ship survived the jump. The Distress signal continued

"Get the rest of the Strike force in there! I want those ships obliterated!" Matt shouted, and thats when the biggest problem for the enemy hit. The Hellraiser, and all of the ships in the Taskforce, had previously locked on to the enemy. Each missile launcher was presighted for the enemy, and the massive batteries were ready to open fire on the enemy.

The U Boats were seldom hit. Only one was actually damaged to the point that it couldn't make the jump, but they detonated themselves. A massive explosion ripped through space as it took on most of the enemy missiles. The other U Boats phased in and open fired again and again, sending deadly weaponry towards them.

Unfortunately for both enemies, the U Boat's torpedoes were new technology. They were unseen by anything. In the front was a double EMP, and a specialized charge. The EMP was a particle beam that would disrupt the shields to the point where they dissipated in front of them. Then, the Torpedo would go through. Before it hit the armor, it would fire the charge, with shot out a large piece of molten titanium, which would rip through the armor, and allow free passage for the rest of the weapon.

But that wasn't all. It got worse. It carried an EMP charge, too, which when it exploded, not only shot out a massive EMP charge, but also Mustard Gas. The explosive charge was partially nuclear, which meant that it could explode with a force to obliterate a patrol boat, and rip a cruiser in half. It also traveled near light speed, so it could easily be nearly undetectable, and could go through the defenses.

Each ship fired at least one before it had to reload. This wasn't the best thing for anyone but HRA.

Then the taskforce got out of the Warp. Each massive battleship, cruiser, Battle Barge, Carrier, patrol boat, you name it, open fired. Over 50 ships were present there, and they were armed to the teeth with men, shells, and ships. Nothing would enjoy this but them.

Hundreds of missiles flew through the air, reaching out with a deadly precision. Smaller Patrol Boats began moving towards the escaping small craft. Their goal: Destroy everything they could before they had to die. And that's just what they were going to do.

"Hostiles inbound! They're going for the evac craft!" One of the pilots in the Terelain squadrons heading to defend the evacuation ships from the station shouted into his comms, "Multiple targets inbound towards the fleet."

"Stick to the mission. Defend the ships. Pick your targets and engage. Break off from the station defence, there's not much we can do now." Came the reply from one of the squadron leaders, "Interceptors, shield the bombers. Let's show them what we can do."

Sixty Type VII Claw Interceptors and twelve Aetherhawk Heavy Bombers turned about to engage the HRA Patrol Boats heading towards the Coalition evac craft, they opened fire with streams of plasma, the bombers would release 'Nova-Burst' Anti-Matter self-guided bombs as soon as they got close enough to the HRA ships.

Meanwhile, the AIs on board the ships of the Terelain fleet had enacted emergency defensive protocols, "Fleet Command to all ships, priority one; shield the carriers and the flagship. Priority two; engage and destroy enemy vessels." Aelya commanded in less than an eye-blink to the other AIs, before activating the long-range communications array on the Tia'Ren's Light, "Enact Shield Protocol. We are engaged with HRA forces in Calypso system, disregard diplomatic protocols. Violation of Coalition territory acceptable. Contact with enemy munitions imminent."

With that message sent to the rest of the inbound Terelain Fleet, Aelya turned her attentions on the missiles streaking silently towards her ship. The shields were weakened, but she had some contingencies in place, "Deactivate the main engines, shunt all power to the shields, keep the manoeuvring thrusters online for now. Lay down suppressive fire on incoming targets." The advantages of having a fully-sapient advanced AI on board the ship was that such orders could be conceived of and carried out far faster than any organic, "Priority; survival of the ship. Input controls disabled. Ship fully ceded to AI control. Thyr confirm."

"Control confirmed." The tactical AI reported, "Targets acquired, opening fire."

The Tia'Ren's Light opened fire with every weapon at her disposal towards the HRA ships, as well as their munitions inbound towards her. Bursts of plasma and intense energy shot forth from the Titan Battleship, along with massive slugs of high-density matter hurled at near-relativistic speeds from the twenty five railgun emplacements whilst a large proportion of the fighters, bombers, drones and gunboats that had been patrolling the fleet's perimeter split away from their parent ships and began bearing down on their enemies, opening fire as soon as they were in range, predominantly with energy-based weaponry. The attendant carriers and the dreadnought all opened fire athe same time as the Titan, the carrier’s weapons were geared towards taking out the smaller vessels and incoming enemy missiles, whilst the Dreadnought was concentrating its fire on enemy capital ships.

It was at this point that the torpedoes from the HRA U-Boats reached the Terelain ships. The ones that impacted the capital ships and the Titan were not quite as effective as they would have been if the Terelains did not employ a dual-layered shielding technology. The upper layer was the Adaptive Aetheeric Shield, capable of altering its structure and concentrating its energies at the exact contact point with enemy beam weaponry. The Under layer was the less powerful Plasma Shield which acted as a last-line of defence before enemy weapons fire could reach the ablative armour of the hull beneath.

The instant the beam from the first torpedo bisected the shield vast quantities of data was collected on the make-up and intensity of the beam weapon, in the same instant the superior computational power of a high-level War-AI would come into play, the data being processed and analysed in nanoseconds and minute changes to the shield's energy structure made, with power being shunted to the exact point were the beam impacted the shield to increase the local intensity of the shield there. These modulations to the shield’s output were also sent to the AIs aboard the other vessels in the fleet, so that they too could adapt their shields to defend against the enemy’s weapons.

Such technologies did not work well under saturation-fire when multiple different weapons-types were being used across a large area of the shield, but since the torpedoes had outpaced the rest of the HRA's weaponry because they had been travelling so fast, it meant that at that point the shield's computers only had to deal with a relatively small amount of data.

Unfortunately for the Terelains, the shields had already been badly weakened by the HRA's opening moves and the upper shielding collapsed under the power of the torpedo's beam weapon, however this provided enough time for the under layer of the shield to be brought online and intensified in the same area, shielding the vessel from the anti-armour nuclear device.

Even when the plasma shield buckled under the strain of absorbing so much energy, the ablative armour beneath the shield absorbed the impact of the nuclear explosive itself, the armour boiling away into a cloud of reflective particles that dissipated the thermal energy from the explosion, whilst the kinetic impact of the shockwave was mostly absorbed by the underlying armour.

Still, the sheer power of the weapon managed to breach the hull and tear a hole in the side of the Tia'Ren's venting debris and atmosphereinto the void, though the hole was quickly patched by an emergency forcefield and the interior bulkheads sealed.

"Warning, hull breach Deck Seven, sections D-4 through F-3 compromised. Bulkheads sealed." Aelya warned the crew, "Fleet Comman to all ships, sensors indicate human fleet withdrawal. Initiate combat Aether-space entry as soon as possible. All small craft are to return to the nearest carrier. Cycle defences against known HRA weaponry." There was a pause as she evaluated some of her sensor data, "Priotity offensive target; assumed HRA dreadnought and command vessel."

"Shit."

"EMP burst detected!"

Captain Nikoli watched as Terelian ships caught the wrath of a stealth attack and began leaking atmosphere, as the Valhalla experienced more power functions and they took some heavy damage.

"Liala, plug in! Ty get me the Overseer!"

Liala nodded and hastily integrated herself into the ship's systems. She tried not to worry herself about allocating computing power to defenses, but instead waited for the Captain's order.

Overseer Tanner appeared on the viewscreen. "What is it you want now Captain Nikoli?"

"I need authorization for Clean Sweep," Captain Nikoli said.

Overseer Tanner quirked a brow, this time surprising Nikoli.

"Is that really necessary Captain? Microbiological warefare?"

Captain Nikoli nodded, "They aren't programmed to do that level of harm Overseer, just diruption and interference."

The ship shook as he waited for a reply. Overseer Tanner, pursed his lips and seemed to stare off into space. Then he nodded.

"You have authorization Captain."

Captain Nikoli wasted no time.

"Activate Phase Three, Code Downfall Echo-Sierra-Echo!"

Liala got the order and immediately she went to work. She sent out her doppelgangers, each assigned a certain task. She saw they had made it to the Lagrange point and activated the FTL Jumpdrive. It'd be a few minutes until they jumped, but they could hold out...hopefully.

One of Liala's doppelgangers, was transmitted to the main sensor net relay and begin to fiddle herself. The HRA Fleet, hadn't seem to notice the net, and mingled themselves somewhat with them. They'd make the job easier and she gave a virtual smile. The Liala copy activated a series of protocols, and send the self destruct order to all the sensor platforms in the system.

They exploded, but actually catching a ship in the fireball was secondary. Within some was a specially made cache, that flew out and opened up, releasing thousands of Ursan based nanites. Their programing came brought them online, and they went hurling to their main target: the large presence of psionic energy. Infiltrating the ships would be the hard part, but those that got in, would systematically infect those with psionic abilities, like a fly to butter. They would enter the body and disrupt their mind skills, all the while releasing alien enzymes to cause them hallucinations, delusions, or psychosis. The nanites weren't made to kill, but death could be a result if they had nanites of their own. In that cause, a microbial war could break out and things could get messy.

Commander Liala smiled, and knew that, that was accomplished.

She looked to see the status of her other copy and saw that she was nearing completion too. Her second copy had taken control of the small craft being used as decoys and sent them heading straight for the planet, were the prisoners were. There they would hover above the prisoner site and remain there. Any attempts to take them over, would cause them to immediately overload their cores and self destruct. If it was possible, her copy would send them zooming off kamikaze still toward any vessel that tried to rescue them.

Liala, knew she would never see that copy again and wished her luck and a sweet goodbye.

With that all out the way, she turned her attention toward piloting the Valhalla.

"Captain Linhider."

The brunette young female Captain appeared on the screen, her jaw tight as her on ship rocked.

"Captain, did any of the ships stationed here get the new missiles?" Nikoli asked.

"Which Captain? I thought most were on the drawing board still?" she replied as the Sabre was rattled.

"The Xray BPLs..."

Linhider took to her tactical display, instead of bothering the Sabre's commander.

"We didn't," the Captain said. "But it appears the Sabre already had a few for testing. Had something in mind Sir?"

"Always Captain. Have the Sabre's tactical officer link with ours," ordered Nikoli. "We're about to show the enemy a new trick."

Captain Linhider nodded and relayed the order to Commander Jacke.

Captain Nikoli turned to Nai'ti, "You're up."

Lt. Commander Nai'ti, the ship's tactical officer, got the message, and her hands flew across her console. She sincerely didn't like the idea of showing the enemy they had a new weapon, but with them bearing down like this, they had no choice.

Orders were sent out, and the Valhalla's tubes were filled with the rare missiles they had in their stores.

Soon the Valhalla spit out a wave of missiles, along side the Sabre, a complete total of sixty missiles spread out, heading toward enemy fire. These missiles happened to be one of the few rapidly manufactured variants that the military had insisted be placed on the battlefield. These new missiles were, x-ray bomb pump lasers. The whole concept behind them was to fill a missile with lasers, that when released and exploded, whole fill the entire area with a web of deadly x-ray lasers. Stabbing out into the darkness of space, they were indiscriminate, but they were one of the most deadly weapons they had and needed to deploy.

"Jump in 5...4...3...2...JUMP!"

The already weakened shields of all the Coalition ships vanished, and the fire they took intensified. The Valhalla, Sabre, Banshee, K'Tala and the Ulysses Grant were sucked into the FTL subspace corridor. One of the other frigates, the George Washington failed to make the jump, the weapons fire too much, blowing out their engines. The ship went spinning wildly, before breaking up and exploding. The Ravios, disengaged its FTL Jump Drive and went hurling itself into the path of multiple projectiles aimed at the Valhalla, exploding in a great plume of fusion fire.

The blue and white swirls of the subspace corridor flickered on the viewscreen and Captain Nikoli rose from his chair.

"ETA 2 hours, 12 minutes until we get to the rendezvous coordinates," Liala announced as she detached the cables from her forearm. "Don't see any of the hostiles following us."

Captain Nikoli nodded. "Damage report, ready in 30 minutes. After that, I want a conference with Overseer Tanner, Captain Linhider, and Lord Admiral Jikan and who ever else he deems is necessary. Briten and Nai'ti you'll be joining in. So are you Commander."

They all acknowledged and set to work.

The Damaged carrier took notice of the fleeing ship and within a few minutes followed in FTL jump at a safe distance the repair drone stuck to the side, still repairing what it could and eventually stopped attempting and just hung on the side of the carrier. The Distress signal deactivated as if it's own problem was resolved.