Intergalactic Warfare [IC thread]

[Iethloc]

"We can't connect you to the hive mind without extensive study of how your nervous system - organic or not - functions, but we can grant you authority to access information on the central computer on this ship...it's in the center. You'll need to be physically present there in order to be granted authority for security reasons. It's been hacked before," he explained. He starting leading them towards something resembling an elevator, the doors opening with a slight "swsh". At first, it seemed like the workers (and occasional Thoteza) were minding their own business, but anyone trained to stay alert about their surroundings noticed that the occupants of the ship - both Thoteza and Sikrhas - stared at the newcomers when they thought they weren't looking.

"We also have an extensive database on other species. Regulations require that we give you the files on species deemed to be dangerous," he mentioned.

[Lord_Asmodeus]

The arachnoid drone scuttled forward with the King, though it did not fix it's red eye upon the rest of the beings, it could sense them through a myriad of data-collecting systems. If you allow us, the Aldier can download and review the data of your systems in short order. However, if you could provide some data, through verbal transmission or otherwise, of these other races the Aldier would be most interested."

[Iethloc]

"We have about a minute before we hit folded space and arrive, so we have time to talk about...the most dangerous race we've encountered. They adopted the Greek Alphabet of Earth, third planet in the Sol System in the Milky Way galaxy, but the letters in their signals we've intercepted don't seem to be arranged in any meaningful way. We call them the Isehazi, an old Thoteza word for 'Insane Ones'. They are purely psionic entities that seem dedicated to hunt down all living beings for unknown reasons..." he explained, a worried look in his eyes. By the time he finished speaking, however, the elevator shook slightly, and then stopped.

The doors opened, revealing an enormous cluster of processors, hard drives and control panels. All in all, the main computer was the size of a small city, with hundreds of workers coming in and out of small entrances into the behemoth. The stretched up higher than the normal eye could see, and presumably the room was even larger. Gravity seemed to be weaker in this room, most likely to allow such an enormous structure to exist in the first place.

King Dnamet moved, undeterred by the lessened gravity, towards the nearest control panel, just a few yards away. It was watched by several photoreceptors; security was tight in this room. He pressed a few keys, an alien letter pictured clearly on each one, and a photoreceptor turned towards the Aldier drone. "You're authorized to access all nonclassified data now. It'll be easier to do it from here, but you can request access from even outside the Thoteza-home. We have footage of the Isehazi in action, too," he said.

[MorhgorRB]

The meal had proceeded pleasantly, at least by Garth's perspective, new dishs were brought up occasionally, salads and other vegetarian meals. He only made the occasional light comment, seeming focused on his own meal, and a bit absentminded as to where the Admiral had gotten off too, still.

The Admiral, had moved back to the command deck, moving the fleet in about the Hydra , and from what he had seen of the enemy ships, even his scouts outsized them by fifty meters, and the colossus of his battleship was more than twelve times the little things size, if it came to battle he could indescriminately run them over, without even firing a weapon. Not that he doubted that thier weapons would be effective, it was just nice to keep that option in mind as viable.

The Sunflower had almost made it out of the orb of circling ships when thier Ghenian-Marx field generator failed, and the upper hull of the ship materialized inside of one of the Harriers, setting both adrift for a few moments before the Sunflower's reactor overloaded and took both of them out of exsistance.

[Lord_Asmodeus]

The Aldier began to download the data into it's banks as it scuttled along. It spoke again as it did so. "You know the Humans of Terra?"

[Iethloc]

"Yes. We've actually met multiple groups of humans, though we haven't had extended contact. Many of them tend to be xenophobic. Most of the time, we just trade information, and then we move on. We've warred with a few groups of them, but most of the time they're happy enough to leave us alone," Dnamet explained.

King Dnamet then reached into a small pouch on his belt and pulled out a mechanical pencil. "This is one of the last objects we have from Terra...it's been a couple hundred years so most of the other items decayed or rusted," he said.

[Ganurath]

At first, the fleet panicked. Everything cloaked, the nanite bombardment ceased, and beams were scrambled to determine what had destroyed the Harrier. The initial assumption was an attack, but upon the gradual realization as to the true nature of the ship's destruction, a grim conclusion was quickly reached.

Slowly, the formation changed as the Templars broke off from the sphere formation, which gradually tightened and shifted to a dome beneath the remaining Wraith. Ninety eight autocannons and twice as many turret barrels trained on the stealth craft, and once the Templar were beneath the arc of the disc's backstop range the Harriers opened fire.

A moment later, the passive jamming on the Templar cruisers would drop as energy was transferred to the ship's central Orbital Bombardment Rail Blaster, a cannon traditionally intended for glassing planets with a steady barrage these twenty cruisers opened fire on the head Confederate ship as their primary weapon powered up.

The Elder Templar hailed the (humans?) as the opening salvo from one hundred and twenty ship-to-ship rail cannons opened fire, transmitting only a bloodcurdling screech of fury and terror before cutting out. This transmission, mind you, was also sent out of the system back to the homeworld.

[Lord_Asmodeus]

The Aldier drone chittered, in an imitation of laughter. "Well it seems you've found another. Or to be more precise, it has found you."

[MorhgorRB]

The captain on the Mayflower cursed as it's sister ship materialized, and exploded violently, his eyes locked to the screen. Until Tac pointed out the change in the aliens. "Deploy the Antlion Mines! And get us out of..." He was still speaking, when the wave of shots impacted the bottom of the ship, crumling and distorting armour as the occasional one burst it's way through, and in short order the ship came apart, sending the Antlion mines spiralling outward, until the nearest one was set off by a smouldering piece of the engine cowling, and turned the immediate area into a nuclear firestorm as it set off the other mines.

"All power to shields, weapons?" "Ready, sir." The orderly at Communications tipped out of his chair, blood trickling from his ears. "Get him out of here!" A pair of men dragged the incapcitated fellow out of the way, as another officer lept to the console, issuing orders snap-quickly to the fleet. "Yaw, 130, give them a good show of our broadside. Fire all missle batteries, and charge the Phalanx." Hundreds of missles streamed from the Hydra, arching in as the minicomputers selected thier own targets, and the GAPS split into thousands of smaller warheads, pockmarking the blackness of space with blue puffs.

A line of Phoenix Destroyers sent brilliant lines of energy whipping across space at the orb of Harriers, thier escorts floating at the ready around them. Meanwhile a Behemoth slid back away from the firefight, disgorging dozens of nimble fighters and bombers, which were interspersed by the only slightly slower scouts, that fired thier own little salvos of rockets.

"Damage report from those guns?" "Shields are... holding, barely. Void Plating is charged and ready, sir." "How long if this keeps up?" "Shields down in 5, I'd say, sir."

One of the two Alkaden tilted his head a fraction, then glanced at his fellow guard. They rose thier oranate guns to thier shoulders with mechanical precision, and pulled the trigger.

[Iethloc]

"More humans?" Dnamet chuckled. Then he put the pencil back in the pouch, assuming the Aldier did not wish to examine it. "They've spread even farther than we originally thought...where is your group of humans?" he asked.

Meanwhile, the Photondiscs outside once again sprang into life. Their internal clocks hit noon on their home planet, and so they re-initiated their regular scouting. Each one scanned the surrounding area, then jumped away from the Thoteza fleet to the edge of their scanner range, and began repeating the process, soon getting far enough out that they circled the now-distant Thoteza-homes, checking an enormous circular area around the fleet.

[An Enemy Spy]

Thel perked up at the word "Humans". "Humans? you know of humans?"

[Lord_Asmodeus]

The Aldier chittered again. "We are a product of none other than Terra itself, the world of Earth, birthplace of Mankind and the Aldier as well. We were once a sentient probe sent to explore deep space, however along the ways The Aldier amassed much debris, including many ships and pieces of varied races both in the universe and in the Sub-universal dimension known as 'The Warp', until we formed a massive hulk with The Aldier as it's center and mind. We learned much from the technology we acquired, and we still learn. Eventually, however, our asteroid crashed on the world of Trion, burying the Trionites and their shining civilization, this caused much... consternation on the part of The Aldier. We have learned much from the technology the Trionites left behind, and their culture has fascinated us to no end, though we yet wish some had survived."

[Ganurath]

At the initial mine detonation, all the Harriers responded with a full reverse thrust followed by a shard rotation to clear the blast area at full acceleration. Although Facteal shields are weak, the rapid recharge allow the ships to ride to blastwave clear. None of the ships were destroyed, but aside from the half-dozen that had been seperate from the formation due to the older scrounging command all of them had lost jamming and translate capabilities, and roughly a third lost their top-mount turrets. They were quick to recover, however, and due to the lack of apparent focus in the bombardment of energy weapons the Phoenix assault did minimal damage before the already scattered disc scrambled.

The Templars faired little better. They responded to the incoming missiles as though they were enemy vessels, anti-fighter turrets letting loose with streams of ammunition. When the missiles began detonating, the light cruisers began scrambling for evasive manuevers. Missiles impacted, keeping shields worn down as the broadsides tore into the scattering formation, destroying one of the Templars and crippling another.

The Elder Templar would not have it. "Open transmit, translators off! Harriers, move into vertical flanking areas and shoot down those guided shots! Get out of the line of fire of that broadside and send the OBRCs down their throats!"

The Harriers were quick to move into their requested position, using their belly turrets and frontal guns to open fire on the enemy missiles. Those that still had their top-mount turrets, however, manuevered to give the enemy fightercraft special attention, aiming to discourage continued attacks of the Harriers, driving them down toward the crossfire. Those that still had cloak capability, maintaining laser contact, received orders to tow the crippled Templar clear of the combat zone so it could see to accelerate repairs. The remaining Templars, meanwhile, opened fire with the OBRCs, eighteen magnetized slugs five meters in radius charged down the rails, shooting out the front of the Templars near the speed of sound, all converging on the Mayflower.

Naksa heard the screech that was transmitted, and tried to act coy. When she saw the guards pull their guns, she responded by leaping across the table and ripping off her mask, bearing her teeth as she went for Garth's throat. She could feel herself grab a hold of something with her foreclaws... pierced tissue, maybe... but then the shots rang out and sent her skidding along the table, a chest and head wound ending her life then and there.

Meanwhile, the transmitted screech was received, and the Matron Bunta responded with a fury that the nobility hadn't seen in generations. Her own Palace, its six Scion heavy cruiser escorts, and two additional Response Fleets answered the initial call to arms. Her children were being killed by predator beasts, Facteals! With a cry for vengeance, the Matron spearheaded the launch to war.

[MorhgorRB]

(Psst, the Mayflower is the stealth ship that exploded, Hydra is the battleship. >.> )

The fighters did thier best to scramble away from the deadly fire of the Harriers, but still lost almost half thier number, before making a crescent and making a V formation around the Murgos bombers, takings hits while the heavy fighters dropped solid-explosive GAPS onto the larger Templars.

"Third broadside volley is off, it'll be a minute before they can open up again. Phalanx control, are we charged?" "Aye, sir." "Rotate back, and tell the fighters to get away from..." He tapped the coordinates of the seemingly leading Templar in, "And try not to get hit by anything." He paused a moment, to let the fighters move. "Fire the Phalanx." The overarching array of spires for the Phalanx glowed an incinderary white, as it began to fire the beam, normally used against planets in a slashing motion to slice it apart, the Admiral hoped it's 500 meter wide beam would catch more than a few of the enemy ships.

The Phoenixs' closed in after thier initial blaze of lasers, and had driven in amoungst the enemy ships by the time the planetkiller had passed through, thier Gauss cannons laying down sheets of antiship fire, thier escorts sending sprays of adamantium flechettes flying through space in shotgun-like blasts at anything that got too close.

The Hydra shuddered heavily with the impact of the heavy shots, the complied force of the hits actually moving the massive ship to the side. "Shields are down! Void fields are... holding at sixty percent. If we get hit by that again, we're down to armour."

Garth toppled backwards in his chair as the little thing ripped at his throat, lacerating it and leaving streams of blood pouring from the sides of his neck, before the fusion beams shot through the back of his chair and took the little alien out, and leaving a pair of white dimples on the opposite wall. He slumped down in his chair, eyelids closing heavily as the Alkaden stood over him, seemingly passionless.

[Ganurath]

((Noted.))

"Enemy ship charging primary weapon! It's like a super-OBRC!" The detection system officer looked at the Elder Templar with a panicked expression, commicating just how dangerous the weapon was. "They're targetting this ship!"

"Get us out of the firing arc! Such a cannon can't be turret mounted, and such bulky ships will be a strain to manuever. Meld in with the Harrier divisions!" The Templar were quick to comply, all ships scattering from the arc of the beam. One was too slow, however, and was crippled like its counterpart when the rear engines were skimmed off. The stealthed Harriers were ordered to move so they could get a laser feed on the Cartographer's hangar, getting them out of the firing arc as the two crippled Templar were destroyed by the broadside salvos.

With the formations shifting and merging, the anti-fighter turrets were able to focus their fire on their namesake functions, attempting to drive the fightercraft away from the Hydra with focused ballistic fire. The surviving Templar began reloading their OBRCs, which were anticipated to be ready at about the same time as the Matron's reinforcements would arrive. With Templar replacing the fallen Harriers, the split fleets found their firepower nearly doubled in anti-fighter opposition.

"Elder Templar, the stealthed Harriers have confirmed the demise of the Cartographer pilot with the onboard life support computer!"

"Very well. Have them transmit the override codes and have the Cartographer self-destruct. And focus fire on those thrice-damned bombers, the hull's getting hotter than a summer noon on the homeworld's equator!"

[MorhgorRB]

"Damn, a miss..." The admiral sighed, "Thier clustering close to us... well, relatively?" "Aye, sir." "The void plating is still on... and thier shields seem fairly weak?" "...yes, sir." "Ram them." The Hydra's engines lit up in florid blue as it knocked the throttle up to full speed, a rumbling growl on the command desk. "Fire the EM guns, target thier smaller ships... and someone hit that lead ship, I want it dead!" His words were punctuated as another wave of missles were released with a soft thump, which was twinned by the Cartographer exploding in the hanger, knocking the grand doors loose, and killing a dozen matinence crew.

A Grand Maul class battleship, the Warhammer, flew towards the outer-system battle, leading a strikeforce of additional ships, making ranging shots with it's Legionarre lasers as it led a second force out toward the growing sphere of combat as fighters broke into three ship formations, as the large formations began to get chewed up too much, two Drakes and a Murgos, to pester the various Templars. The normally outsized Sparrows found themselves weaving through torrents of fire, returning the occasional plasma blast, when thier new orders came down the pipe, and they arrayed themselves around the Hydra.

Newly deployed behind a fresh wave of fighters, Poisidon boarders jetted out into the fray, attempting to close with any ship they could get near, the boarding drill on the prow of each ship already revved and spinning, shaking the strapped-in Akladen that sat passively in the passenger seats.

[Ganurath]

The stealthed Harriers manuevered around the blown doors, moving on an intercept course to board the hangar. Spare crews began assembling stealthsuits, enviromental suits with passive jamming to hide lifesigns. As the first one moved into the dock, it went guns akimbo to clear the deck of survivors.

As the Hydra moved to ram and the enemy reinforcements brought down fire, the Elder Templar (literally) barked orders. The split fleet pulled away from the enemy forces and started to meld, pulling away from the Hydra while putting it in the line of fire of the new hostiles. A Templar and a few Harriers exploded as overheating took the core, the steady bombardment being enough to wear through the rapid-replenish shielding and overheat the hull. In fact, the Elder Templar was the only Facteal left in the initial response fleet not wearing an environment suit standard to the ships.

The boarding ships would find their task alarming dangerous. Not only were the Facteal craft quick and manueverable, but attempting to get to melee intercept courses put them at risk of friendly fire. Combined with the fact that any ship they targetted for boarding would be met with suppressive fire, and they had a hard time coming for them.

One was quick to succeed as a Harrier that was near critical threw itself in front of it, allowing boarders access through the front deck. If they had the means to detect, no life signs would be detected on board, suggesting the crew had died from internal heating.

The reinforcements were en route via translight, and the Scions were already charging their OBRCs. The Palace didn't need to bother: The Trilinked OBRC Arrays that the capitol ship sported were capable of maintaining a slow yet steady barrage at all times, alternating between cannons to get off OB slugs like twin-linked quad lasers.

Starting to pull on his environment suit, the Elder Templar moved to take over the OBRC controls as the man who had been running it fainted from fatigue. "When the next salvo is ready, send it at the enemy reinforcements."

[MorhgorRB]

The few remaining crewmen that were struggling to get away from the aching hangar doors were shot down without a fight, though the emergency plate slid down behind the boarders, and bulkheads slammed shut around them. A voice played over an intercom, while dozens of little red orb flares drifted down from the cieling. It repeated, with translation, "In approximately ten seconds, the entirely of E8 Deck will be overpressurized. All crew, please don EVA suits from your nearest dispencer."

"Fire all missles, short fuses!" A full load of missles shot out from the fore of the Hydra, lighting up the space before it with blooms of azure fire. "Will the Phalanx be ready before thier cannons?" "About the same time, sir." "Can the Field take another volley from them?" "Sir, yes sir. At least one." "Good. Let them fire, and then show them what this thing can do."
The Phoenix destroyers lined up beneath the cluster of enemy ships, before letting loose with thier FALAST lasers once more, a pair to each target. Thier escorts jetted ahead of them, scatterguns blazing, and taking any fire that thier wards attracted.

The five Alkaden on Poisidon A3 stepped catiously into the enemy corridor, the support weapon taking the lead, and proceeding to cut through the next interior wall, blazing thier way toward the heart of the ship.

Other Poisidons had far less luck, more than a third of thier number being cut down before three of them managed to close on one of the templars, though the third was caught in a friendly beam, slagging it instantly.

"Admiral, the Warhammer brought some Scorpions and Longbows with it..." "Tell the Longbows to hold fire, the Scorpions should move to..." He drew a line across the tactical map, "And broadside them into heading toward the asteroid field..." The Absolution fleet of, ten, Scorpion cruisers let loose with stiches of crimson fire before turning to present thier laterals.

[Ganurath]

The Harriers that got inside the Hydra's deck groaned when the deck overpressurized, but the (relatively) heavy armor of the hulls allowed them to endure a pressure level that could be handled by EVA suits. The initial plan of infiltration going out the window, however, the Harriers began tearing up the interior of the deck with every gun available, aiming to drill toward the command deck.

The Harriers and Templar broke off into two groups as they starting detonating or overheating in more rapid succession; the Templars moving into a position above and in front of the Hydra. From their new position, the Templars unleashed a focused barrage from their OBRCs targetting near the Phalanx cannon, hoping to drive the nose down so as to delay firing. The Harriers, meanwhile, charged the secondary ships in scattered formations, although several that pettered out let inertia lead them on idle ramming arcs.

The Poisidons that boarded the Templar and the Harrier both made quick discoveries about Facteal ship architecture: Airborn races like open spaces. There were no interior walls to puncture, although there were plenty of internal support pillars with handholds and resting pods. The Harrier's boarders were fortunate, as the ship seemed abandoned with a bright red emergency light casting everything in its shade.

Those boarding the Templar, by contrast, would find a crew of a little over 150 pointing rail rifles at them from virtually every plausible direction. Pointing and firing, to be precise. If the boarders managed to coordinate their entries, they would still come under a hail of fire, just with less overkill.

The Scorpians quickly find the Palace and Scions blocking their path, the former opening up with its OBRC Arrays, the latter using conventional weapons. The two new Response Fleets came in along the Palace squad's vertical flanks, quickly putting up full cloaks before speeding around the battle into superior strike positions.

[MorhgorRB]

"Status of the hull if they keep that up inside?" "...Uh, bad, sir." "Jettison the hangar." The officer at Internal Ops found the corresponding breakers, and yanked them down, and from an outside view, the entire third hanger launched out of the side of the ship, even as it shuddered with the newest wave of impacts. Atmosphere hissed from broken bulkheads and pressure doors, setting off alarms deeper in the ship as more sections were closed off by the heavy doors, trapping pockets of crew throughout deck 8.

"Lieutentant!" "Yes, sir?" "New target, forget those original ships, fire the Phalanx at that capital ship." "Aye, sir. Targetting solution... online, firing." The array began to shimmer a ghostly silver once more, as it built to a deadly charge.

The cruisers were effectively sidearmed by the newcomers, one sputtering out of control by a round that caught into it's engine cowling, and another lost dozens of it's broadside cannons as a shot set off munitions in the hull, yet still managed to return a semblance of fire, setting down a battery of shots. The Longbows, who had orders not to engage the first group, took this opprotunity to join into the fight...

All along thier 'wings' racks of missles deployed outward, looking akin to airbrakes on a plane, until the six ships obscured themselves in a plume of smoke, sending almost a thousand warheads down range, joined by another lance from the Warhammer.

The Alkaden were cut down, with the exception of the last one, who had been tangled in his harness, and arrived just after his comrades were cut down, and in the moment he had to live, yanked the pins off of his grenades.

On board the Harrier, they set in the general 'fore' of the ship, rifles raised and at the ready.

[Ganurath]

The Harriers that were jettisoned relented their assault, taking the opportunity granted by their newfound shell to unleash their nanites to process the abandoned hull to be turned into repair material and fresh ammunition. They would overstock on the former: The nanites were standardized, and would be functional in repairing other ships after the battle.

The Facteal sensors could tell the Phalanx was powered up. The six Scions, with seven OBRCs each, had yet to fire their capitol weapons. As the Palace juked to delay the enemy targetting solution, the Scions opened fire with thirty-five OB slugs all bearing down on the Hydra. One of the Scions opted not to fire, preferring to ram the Palace with enough force to push it out of the line of fire of the Phalanx beam.

The original Response Fleet attempted to break off, using reverse acceleration for a fighting retreat. The Templar forsook continued OBRC assault to return to stealth mode, letting the Harriers provide cover so the more valuable ships could be lost from enemy awareness.

The new Response Fleets, on the other hand, exploited their stealth positions. The new Harriers used their lighter arms in an X-shaped crossfire assault intercepted the missiles of the longbows, cutting down the swarms to more managable numbers for the point defense systems of the capitol ships. The Templar favored a more direct approach, reversing the pattern with ship-to-ship batteries bearing down on the Longbows from above and below.

That last Alkaden wouldn't be able to pull the pins from a tactically favorable position, as the Facteal do not relent in the face of apparent victory. The spray of firearms did not relent, pouring into the newly made access hatches and keeping the intruder from coming through. When the grenades went off, only a fraction of the shrapnel got out the tunnel. Fortunately for him, though, the sheer numbers worked to his favor as the low gravity and clustered crew caused two to be wounded and one killed.

Outside the line of sight of the Alkaden, the surviving crewmen of the Harrier moved along the support beams toward the enemy point of access. A single volunteer remained behind at the ship's control area, using the command perch as cover as she began sniping the intruders with her rifle. She'd fire a shot or two, duck behind cover, and quickly move to a new position along the beam. Her opening shot, however, was accompanied by the screech favored by many Facteal as a war cry, the same used by the Elder Templar when hostilities opened up.

[An Enemy Spy]

The Aldier chittered again. "We are a product of none other than Terra itself, the world of Earth, birthplace of Mankind and the Aldier as well. We were once a sentient probe sent to explore deep space, however along the ways The Aldier amassed much debris, including many ships and pieces of varied races both in the universe and in the Sub-universal dimension known as 'The Warp', until we formed a massive hulk with The Aldier as it's center and mind. We learned much from the technology we acquired, and we still learn. Eventually, however, our asteroid crashed on the world of Trion, burying the Trionites and their shining civilization, this caused much... consternation on the part of The Aldier. We have learned much from the technology the Trionites left behind, and their culture has fascinated us to no end, though we yet wish some had survived."

"And pray tell where is is this... Terra? The Prophets would be very grateful if they knew the location."

[Lord_Asmodeus]

The Aldier Drone warbled something in droning binary, then chattered another binary phrase, before finally settling to speak, as it ****tered around the Covenant that had spoken. "No, we cannot. We know it's location, but we were sent to an uncharted part of space to explore, and we have not been able to justify it's placement on our charts against the known location of stars. To put simply, The Aldier does not know how far we have traveled or for how long, perhaps it is due to the Chaotic influence of the Empyrean plane, but we can no longer pinpoint the location of Terra. Why does this interest you so, and what Prophets do you speak of?"