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Captain Gagarian had not been having a good day. It was bad enough that his ship was in the middle of nowhere. It was bad enough that the United Terran Federation had been facing what appeared to be a utterly alien threat of countless... things! It was definitely bad enough that they had run out of his favorite blend of coffee! But this? This was just ridiculous.

The Main engines taking out with his beautiful ship the Olympus forced to crash land on the nearest habitable planet, with no doubt more on it's way. Countless Crew Members dead with plenty of them veritable pilots. All this against... some thing!

Gagarian was displeased, immensely, to say the least.

He began to broadcast on all frequencies with the translator running on full, "Mayday! Mayday! We need backup! We are under attack by unknown forces! Help! I am Captain Simonov Gagarian of the UTF Olympus! We need backup and are accepting any kind of help!"

And now, the pilots can begin.

edited 17th May '16 5:06:24 PM by EchoingSilence

The Melpomene was also being chased by these creatures, and swerved through them easily. It was trying to get away from these monstrosities before they surrounded the ship. They had no weapons systems that could combat this threat, they were only suitable for boarding enemy vessels.

Short post for now.

The coralskipper dropped out of hyperspace, quite a feat considering that coralskippers were not ordinarily hyper-capable. Even more unusually, it was attached to a battered, dented hyperspace ring with a lot of boxes, containers, compartments, and assorted loose objects tied on with wire and vine. One of those boxes extended a stalk, swiveled, and beeped apologetically.

Rather alarmingly, the hyperspace ring was trailing a long stream of blue sparks.

"I knew this was a bad idea," grumbled the pilot of the craft. His accent was rough and harsh, but the words were recognizably Galactic standard basic. "That mechanic at Epsilon Starbase said the ring needed metal-repair. You really should not have ignored him, Sparky."

From the box came a stream of derisory noises—somewhat robotic, somewhat biological—to the effect that the mechanic could not tell a lightsaber from an ligament, and how was it to know that this was the one time he wasn't drunk and had actually checked his work? Besides, Dom was in no position to talk, either, considering that a) it was on its advice that he took all the vital life-support gear that could keep himself and his starfighter alive on a barren asteroid for years if needed, and b) if he really knew what he was doing, he shouldn't've listened to it, so there.

"I take the gear with me each time we fly ferry, especially with untested equipment. Besides, you machines are supposed to be good at calculations like this. Have you yet found where in the galaxy we are?"

More noises, ones that Dom did not recognize, but which sounded obscene. He took that as a no.

"Of course not. Well, can you at least awaken the sublight engines and put us into orbit around that planet?"

More noises.

"What do you mean the sublight engines are blown? They were new!"

Rather evasive-sounding noises from the box this time.

Dom heaved a sigh and put on the cogitator hood, the neural connections to the starfighter's brain, and felt the familiar rush as his consciousness expanded: he was in his seat in the coralskipper's cockpit, and at the same time he was the fighter, seeing through its senses at the endless sky surrounding, feeling the irritating inertia of the hyperspace around it like an ill-fitting collar...

...sensing the gravitic signatures of rushing fighter-sized vessels and now the unmistakable electromagnetic flare of weapons fire...

"Sparky!" he bellowed. "Detach the machine and send it to the planet's surface on antigravity! There is a fight in progress!"

He heard the acknowledgement through the comlink and felt the pop as clamps came loose. A moment later, a surge of intent rushed through the coralfighter's spidery nervous system into the growth directly behind the pilot's capsule, the semi-independent dovin basal that generated the gravity singularity that would send the fighter through the dark at astonishing rates.

It did so now; the singularity burst into life, a light-warping shadow without a source materializing in front of the coralcraft, and the fighter broke away from the hyperspace ring on a long, accelerating loop.

Unkown Sector

"Sergey, I'm picking up an SOS signal, the UTF Olympus was attacked, should we respond?" Sergey looked up "UTF?" "United Terran Federation... not associated with... the militia." He nodded, having gotten information he needed "Good, powering up the jumpdrive..."

... Another Unknown sector it seems

The Katyusha dropped out of the jump "Like everytime, you got my back. Sergey Smirnov in MSJ-06II-C Katyusha - Moving out!" Sergey had a smile on his face as he was able to say the old line again. The HUD highlighted the countless enemies and some other ships that presumably were also here to help "How about you announce us?" Alyesha smirked "Aye, Sir." She set the radio on broadband "This is Alyesha Lagunova, speaking from the Katyusha, were going to give you fire support." She nodded. As Sergey was powering up the weapons "They seem pretty clustered, loading APHEC-C... FIRE!" The whole ship rocked as Sergey fired the cannon from maximal range. The shot broke into multiple projectiles soon after and exploded as a cluster.

Mars-Earth Space Station, Outskirts

Kegan Flori flicked a few switches in his Maverick-S..

"This is Head Mechanic Kegan Flori, requesting permission for FTL jump, priority 4. Do you hear me, Station Control?"

A voice droned over his radio.

"Roger that. You are granted permission to engage FTL engine."

He was too used to being routinely sent out on patrols to bother thanking the robotic controller.

"Engaging FTL drive...now."

Unknown Sector

Suddenly appearing of of lightspace, Kegan instinctively rolled out of the way at the sight of combat.

"What the heck?!"

He heard the broadcast.

"Uh..."

Guess I need to use military lingo.

He cleared his throat, speaking into the radio.

"This is Kegan Flori of the United Earth-Martian Military, pilot of the Maverick-S, X105. I copy your request for assistance, but my Scout frame is poorly armed. Requesting permission to land and change to a frame better suited for combat. If not, then I shall assist as best I can in my current craft."

He started firing the Hermes lasers at any enemy craft, not expecting them to do much damage.

edited 18th May '16 9:34:18 AM by UndyingPhoenix

Echobot awoke on a grass covered planet, his systems booting up one by one. Groggy, well if you could consider a robot groggy, he stood up, "Where the hell am I?" the bot pondered.

First thing he noticed, there was a spaceship in front of him... and he knew how to pilot it. Second thing, his head was ringing with cries for help, Echobot groaned, this was a awful morning so far.

And unfortunately for him, it was only going to get worse as green portals opened, and out of them walked what appeared to be 10 foot tall mechanical beings.

"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawd..." Echobot whined as he gripped onto his sword, "Really?!"

The Olympus was doing a bit better, AA turrets began to gun down their attackers. Unfortunately for them, more portals opened and more of the black and green mechanical beasts began to fly out.

"Damnit!" Gagarian cried, "We really need some back up now! Nearest ship?" "4 systems over sir!" "Christ!"

A few more of the mechanical monsters were gunned down, Gagarian looked out in surprise and laughed pleased. "Attention foreign pilots, your help is welcomed! We are onto a 3rd wave, just hold out!"

edited 18th May '16 9:37:11 AM by EchoingSilence

Andat Sector

Two TIE Interceptors screamed through space as they followed their patrol route, each bearing the familiar red stripes of the 181st. For the last month the group had been conducting sweeps of the sector, hoping to catch remnants of the Rebel fleet after it had fled from Hoth.

"Nothing but dust and echoes on my scope. How do you read, Blackstar Two-Eight?"

Xanthe perked up a little. She'd slightly zoned out and had mostly been running on autopilot.

"Blackstar Two-Eight copies. Nothing out there but space junk."

Then one of her instruments started beeping.

"Hold up... Looks like we've got an ion storm approaching. Bearing 327 degrees, distance 200 kilometres." She paused. "Coming right towards us."

"Suggest diverting course to avoid it?"

"Agreed." Xanthe keyed her radio back to the fleet channel. "Control, be advised Blackstar Two-Eight and Two-Twelve diverting from patrol course due to ion storm activity. Please acknowledge."

Static.

"Long range comms are down. Probably residual from the storm. It'll be on the recorder if the brass want it though when we get back. Turn to heading 198."

However, before the two fighters could adjust course, the storm hit them. Almost immediately, a bolt lanced out and smashed into Two-Twelve, vaporising the fighter almost instantly. Xanthe pulled her Interceptor up into a climbing turn, when suddenly everything went white.

Unknown Space

When the white void faded, Xanthe found herself in orbit around a planet she did not recognise. And there was a battle going on.

Cranking the throttle back open, she pulled her fighter up over a barrage of incoming fire as her radio perked up.

"Captain Gagarian, you are broadcasting on a restricted Imperial Military channel. State your origin and intentions, or you will be fired upon."

Cromwell System - Silesian Confederacy

The LAC's cramped excuse for a bridge stunk of unwashed bodies crammed together for far too long; despite operating purely in a system defense role LAC-1664 had never been assigned to a system that actually had sufficient capability to clean out the dumpy little gunboats. So the smell stayed. It didn't help that the aging ship's environmental system tended to overheat the vessel, worsening the problem.

Sub-Lieutenant Czeslawa Szymanska had long hence stopped paying attention to such minor problems, adopting the standard SCN solution and stripped down to as little clothing as could be worn while preserving her dignity as the CO. Drumming her fingers on the command chair's arm rest she sighed as the com tech repeated the same phrase over in broken Andermani for the dozenth time; 'Andermani Merchant vessel, this is Silesian Navy customs inspection. Please be coming to rest relative to primary and stand to for inspection.'

"Once more, Walter, then we'll give them something to jolt them out of their bunks," she grumbles. Damn all merchie skippers, fat and happy in their bunks without a care in the world. The tiny, worn-out vessel had no warning of what befell it, no anomaly, nothing. One second the ship's cramped holo-tank display showed the Cromwell system, the next it was blank.

Unknown Space
Loud cursing ensued from the senor chief as he smacked the console with a ham-like fist. It slowly returned to something approaching a usable resolution displaying a fast moving space battle. The coms rating jerked back from his seat, "Armator! We are receiving a distress call from an unknown vessel. They are under assault by hostile aliens."

"Aliens?" she leans in, squinting at the narrow display, "I'd say anything is possible, Spacer, since we appear to have lost Cromwell.... XO? Bring up sidewalls and have Chief Gdansk make sure we're not going to lose a grav generator if we fire the bow laser. Guns, give me a firing solution, two boxes, on whatever doesn't look human."

edited 18th May '16 8:04:34 PM by hotelkilo

Riestvor shook his head in wonder. He had never seen most of the craft in action in the planet's skies, and for a pilot who had flown freelance for over a decade around the edges of the civilized galaxy and come into contact with more starship types than he could easily count, this was a genuinely new and unsettling experience. Thus far nobody appeared to be targeting him; he kept the gravity singularity close to his ship, ready to whip around.

Here in orbit he hung suspended above Gagarian's life-or-death struggle on the surface; the call for help notwithstanding, he was not going to take his coralcraft into the atmosphere, where its dovin basal would be too busy counteracting the planet's natural gravity to protect or to maneuver him—in fact, he would much rather fight with an arm and a leg tied behind his back than to get into an atmospheric match. One eye stayed on his crippled hyperspace ring as it descended on repulsor power, surrounded by a cherry-red corona as the weak heatshields absorbed the energy of reentry, barely. (Sparky was complaining on its commlink channel, as always, but that was a good sign, since it wasn't melting.)

Then three things caught his attention.

One, a surge of gravitic energy, focused into knife-sharp wedges, that came from the direction of a boxy craft not too far away in orbit. That was usually a sure indicator of another Yuuzhan Vong craft, but whatever else the ship was, it was mechanical, and the gravitic wedges were much more powerful than any Vong craft that size could've generated.

Two, the distinct knife-like fins of a TIE Interceptor well below him in the atmosphere, the first and only other spacecraft he could recognize here—and as it moved he caught a glimpse of red stripes along its flank.

181st Fighter Wing, then, or someone who wanted to piggyback off their reputation. Either way, it was a familiar touchstone in this strange world, though he reflexively prepared to swing the shield should it begin an attack run: Jagged Fel's boys and girls were very good indeed, and if the distant TIE were really a member of that elite wing he would need all his skills to survive.

And three: faraway tiny dots in the atmosphere moved toward his descending hyperspace ring. Judging by their posture and the way they had attacked the grounded starship they did not seem friendly, and while Sparky was a pain in the ass, it was his pain in the ass, not to mention that all his supplies were on that ring, vulnerable and slow—

The coralcraft dropped like a rock, singularity forward to displace the air in the way and to eliminate air friction; far from slowing as he hit the atmosphere, he was accelerating. "You!" he bellowed into the comlink, a general broadcast as he plummeted, quickly gaining on his hyperspace ring. "Stay away from the ring! It is my property!"

(Draw them up to the edge of space, where he had a chance to maneuver them. Otherwise, he'd have to get creative...)

Deep space, Zoltan-occupied Sector 2-4-B

Emily Cerenkov clenched her jaw and heaved at the controls of her ship, turning it wildly to the left. Unfortunately, the pirate ship she was currently combating - or trying to, anyway - had fired off its missile launcher, causing at least three new holes in the Noether's hull that the ship's AI informed her of calmly. She gave a decidedly animalistic growl of annoyance (and a bit of fear). "Gahhh! These pirates just don't know when to quit! I swear, if I had any weapon but this damned pike beam I'd be able to-" A small "ding" interrupted her tirade. She glanced down at the weapons readout. "Oh! Speaking of, the pike beam's back online. Now I can just swing around aaaand shhhhit." Her face fell as she noticed the barrage of missiles coming her way once again. Her heart just had time to lurch as she realized that she was, in fact, imminently dead.

BLAM!

The Noether and her crew were no more.

...Sort of.

Above an Unknown Planet, Unknown Sector

There was no sudden "coming-to" for Emily. First, she was staring hot, rocket-propelled death in the face, and then she was in the middle of space, above a strange planet, with not a scratch on her or her ship, and no sign of those blasted pirates. She blinked a few times, still adjusting to the feeling of having been blown to smithereens for a few seconds. Her first course of action, after having re-gathered her wits, was to open up shipwide comms and call for all crew members to report. Neither of her crewmates did.

She was about to try again when a barrage of lasers streaked by her cockpit, coming close to killing her once again. Moving almost on autopilot, she moved to turn the Noether around to face the planet, rather than the tract of empty space she had been viewing. What she saw was a massive firefight, with ships of all kinds zipping around and firing indiscriminately. She flipped her comms system into "general" mode, and was besieged with shouting in several languages the translator could make out and many it couldn't. Chief among them, though, was a plea for help, from one Captain Gagarian. Emily smiled, then spoke into the comms. "Well, I can't very well say no to a plea like that, can I? Captain Gagarian, you've got yourself some backup, however little it may be. What's your position, and who're your enemies?"

edited 19th May '16 3:33:54 PM by Tojin

Gagarian groaned at the threats from the Interceptor and some sort of Empire or Imperium, "Listen missy, I don't know where you think you are but you are in United Terran Federation Space here! And currently we are under attack by a enemy we don't fully comprehend, And chances are they won't like you very much!"

The others were doing well to assist in this dire situation. Gagarian turned to the comms towards Emily "Just keep a eye out for anything big, mechanical, and insectoid. The things have no pilots and are tenacious bastards!"

As if on cue, a portal opened up and out crame a large one, right near Emily. Only catch? Where the others were more beetles, this one was more of a centipede in design.

While as for Xanthe, a few of the beetles appeared in her view.

Echobot was having a bit of trouble, sure his sword cut through these... centurion looking machines no problem, but there were a lot of them, and with what more coming out of the portal, it wasn't looking too good.

"Everyone hold out! They will run out soon! Just survive this wave and we'll have the Olympus back in the skies soon enough!" Yuri called out over the comms.

Unknown setor

"Roger.!" Alyesha sighed "Just hold out down there." Sergey by that point had fed the computer with the IFF signals that were to be treated as friendly and now fired the first volley of 40 missiles into the group of enemies. Radar guided death was hailing onto them, though since he fired from max range some would maybe not reach their desired targets. All the while he fired shot after shot from the Katyusha's main weapon.

edited 19th May '16 3:55:12 AM by Sergey_Smirnov

Unit 1 - Main Characters

The ship dived from side to side in a manner so fast to evade the mechanical beasts that Lord Weldrick held onto his seatbelt as if it were a lifeline to keep himself from being thrown around his seat like a rag doll. While the Melpomene was indeed one of the most mobile ships in the entire galaxy, being able to execute a barrel roll in half a second, that also meant that a trip inside one of these devil dogs is like riding a rollercoaster to hell on drugs.

Knight Commander Kent was not doing well either since he had already barfed out the contents of his breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Space was tough for an old man, but to be a passenger in a vessel like this is would be equal to a death sentence. Fortunately, Kent is a man that has a spirit made out of steel, so even if he had died several times traveling within the Melpomene he simply refused to surrender to the afterlife and had to kick Death itself in the nuts to go free.

Brother Sain, a mystic that has been turned into a machine for his crime of worshiping technology did not feel the major disorientations that his human companions were suffering. Instead, uncharacteristic of a machine, he was rather enjoying the carnage that they were undergoing. He toyed with the ship's controls, accomplishing acrobatic maneuvers of high caliber. Once one of the monsters were nearly within reach, Sain merely twisted the ship out of harm's reach, inches away from certain death.

Lord Weldrick, noticing that this unnecessary foolishness was the cause of their agony, loudly shouted for Sain to quickly cease his stupidity or he will throw him out of the ship. Sain complied and the ship started to move in a somewhat stable pattern.

The Melpomene had just encountered the UTF Olympus when they were attacked by some strange creatures from hell. Ever since that happened, the Melpomene had managed to survive by engaging in whatever evasive maneuvers they came up with. Luckily, they made it this far to encounter other ships that came to their rescue.

"We should have installed gun ports so we could blast these critters to kingdom come," Kent said after regaining his ability to speak coherently. A surprisingly fast recovery for an elder, he still seemed to have the energy of several younger men put together. Yet in spite of this, he also suffered several heart attacks every now and then. Lord Weldrick only recruited Kent because the old man strongly insisted that he should come with them.

Kent wiped the puke away from the corner of his mouth and when he saw that the extent of his vomit was spread all over his entire body he put on a scowl and angrily cried a litany of vulgar insults at the source of this misfortune, Brother Sain, who was entirely silent throughout this verbal outburst, but if Sain still had lips, he surely would have smiled. Nothing pleased Sain more than watching mortals like these in a wretched state.

The only reason why Lord Weldrick and Kent tolerated this atrocious behavior is because Brother Sain is the one that kept them alive through their perilous adventures in no small thanks to his skills as a pilot.

The crewmembers of the Melpomene were still in danger of being overtaken by these monsters from hell, so Lord Weldrick decided to call the attention of the Good Samaritans who came to their aid, "This is Lord Weldrick of House Helmold, there are scores of these demons who are trailing us from behind, we request your assistance in this dangerous matter!"

Main Channel - Communications to the Melpomene's other units

Lord Helmold flicked open the communications channel to patch his other crewmembers through, hoping to see how well they were doing...

A deathly silence accompanied most of the other ship's units, they were either too scared to speak or they were just not bothered by the situation at all. Perhaps they were only quiet because they did not want to cloud the communications system. Lord Weldrick assumed that they were too busy shaking off the demons hot on their trail.

There was a piercing scream from Unit 4, probably from the ship's coward, Sir Ares...

From Unit 5, Sir Ollie was reciting poems of love enduring in the face of evil...

But in Unit 10, the paranoiac, Sir Aeschylus wanted to land on the UTS Olympus so that he could fight some of the mechanical monsters in melee combat. "If I'm going to die today," Sir Aeschylus declared proudly, "I might as well go with honor!"

"You can keep your honor," Lord Weldrick replied, "For now it is your duty to live!"

The other members of Unit 10, Sir Terminus and Meistress Scarlet urged Lord Weldrick to let them land on the UTS Olympus for the chance to fight there. Lord Weldrick finally relented and said what may be his last words to them, "I allow you to do this, but you are forbidden to die. If you fail to obey my order, I will show you that I am worse than hell."

A small pod (Unit 10) lands on UTS Olympus to engage the mechanical beasts that may lurk around the corridors of the ship. They are to help the crewmembers fight them off.

Hey, can I update my crewmember profile when it suits me? Each crewmember has a special power or two that is unique to them in combat. Most of them already have basic skills, but these special skills are here to supplement their fighting prowess. I will post the changes in the signups to inform you of these developments.

edited 19th May '16 8:00:21 AM by Victor_Skye

Unknown space

With a sigh, Xanthe throttled up and pulled her Interceptor up to face the incoming fighters. They didn't match up with anything she'd seen either the Alliance or indeed anyone else using.

But they were shooting at her. That made them her enemy.

In the Midst of Combat

Kegan sighed. He wasn't much of a pilot, having only basic training in the operation of a ship, compared to his near encyclopedic knowledge of the mechanics behind that operation.

"I copy. Kegan Flori, engaging unknown, unmanned craft."

I'm a mechanic, not a bloody fighter pilot.

He put the engine as high as it could go, just under the FTL function. The Maverick blurred as it reached top speed, pushing Kegan back in his seat, bracing against the force from the acceleration.

Things got armor thick as paper, so gotta clock up the speed.

He put his hands on the buttons for firing the blasters, and started firing away as fast as his thumbs could mash down on the triggers, hands sweaty.

Above an Unknown Planet, Unknown Sector

"Roger roger, Cap! Those mean metal buggers won't know what hit 'em!" Just as Emily said that, one of them oh-so-conveniently appeared before her, coming out of a portal of some kind. "Speaking of, here's one now!" She promptly fired off the Noether's twin ion cannons at the ship, aiming to disable its systems, so that her pike beam could carve the thing into tiny pieces.

edited 19th May '16 3:44:04 PM by Tojin

The Crew of the Olympus was slightly shocked to see Knights in armor enter into it's corridors and begin combat with the Centurions. But they weren't complaining, all the help was appreciated!

The Centipede twitched at the Ion cannon, part of it's glow diminishing, whatever weapons it had weren't going to work. However the thing proceeded to just lunge at Emily, it's many claws and legs not caring about anything such as disabling weapon systems.

It was becoming clear though, these things had no sense of strategy, tactics, or even combat outside of "destroy it" as Kegan and Sergey tore up more beetles.

The Beetles facing Xanthe however, instead of attempting to swarm here, drew what appeared to be guns and started to fire, green beams of energy at her ship, thankfully, they were kind of dumb, one making barely a glancing hit on the hull.

Echobot finished cleaving up another, "Damnit... why couldn't this be simple?!" he looked at the ship before him and his visor displayed "><" It was one of the only options at the moment and he needed to get moving.

Echobot let out a equivalent of a sigh and charged forward into the ship, booting it up. "Why do I know how to fly this thing?" he pondered.

Unknown Space

With their targeting parameters somewhat refined by the followup messages they've overheard, Czeslawa is leaning over the bow gunner's console adding a last minute refinement to the targeting solution. From orbit, hitting a ground target really should have been child's play. But with thirty year old third-rate gunnery computers, they had to waste time making sure none of their shots were going to vaporize the unit they were 'rescuing'.

"That last one, and that'll be our first pattern guns," she half mumbles to the sweaty rating, now fully sealed into her skinsuit like the rest of the crew, barring helmets for the moment. Once they'd determined the threat wasn't in orbit for now, her tension had ratcheted back some.... That still meant they had to deal with the swathes of undulating movement on the radar plot.

Chessie points at the coms spacer, "Hot mic Walt."

After waiting for his thumbs up and a brief supplication to the Madonna, she cuts into the signals, "Attention all ground and atmospheric units, this is the Silesian Light Attack Craft 1664. Stand by for orbital strike, danger close potential."

Unknown Sector

Sergey looked at the rader, pleased by the fact that these... err... these... things weren't commanded by the next Rommel or Sun Tzu... to put that lightly. He decided that the situation warranted him to fly a bit nearer to the combat zone, while the risk seemed small at this point it would allow him to hit more enemies, still he wanted to make sure. "Okay, we're getting a wee bit more personal now, don't know if these things want to return us the favor, but at least get ready for now." From behind him came an approving grunt. "Roger that, I'm switching to a defensive belt, APCS, APCS, APCI, APCS, APCS-T." As she said the belt she switched into was mainly filled with Shrapnell ammunition and some incendary rounds for good measure and to test out the enemies defenses should they attack.

edited 19th May '16 8:59:45 PM by Sergey_Smirnov

Dom was too focused to pay much attention to the commlink. His coralcraft was diving at hypersonic velocity, shedding altitude at an appalling rate, and the only thing keeping the shock of the still-thin atmosphere from tearing his fighter into shreds was the gravity singularity in front, held close to the fuselage to protect it from the heat of reentry—which meant he could not move it to decelerate his craft. Yet by minute adjustments he could change his velocity vector, slightly, turning a free fall into an long slow arc.

It was enough. Bit by bit his trajectory flattened out, so that in a minute Dom's coralskipper was flying nearly horizontally. Its coral body was already hot with air friction, but not unsustainably so. More worryingly, now that some degree of air resistance was a factor, it would not be long before he lost the velocity that he had built up in his fall from exoatmospheric height.

Still, he was moving very, very fast when his craft slammed into the formation of little fliers near his hyperspace ring—or, more precisely, when the miniature black hole, held mere meters in front of his coralskipper like the fist of an angry giant, slammed into them.

He didn't even feel the impact. The singularity was meant to swallow turbolaser blasts and proton torpedoes, and was overkill for dealing death by black hole to the insectlike things the size of missiles. Remnants flashed past in a blur and Dom gave vent to an atavistic roar of triumph as he regained altitude, trading away velocity for height.

"Today is a good day for someone else to die!"

Grinning under the mask of the cognitive hood, he reached out with the coralskipper's senses for more of the little fliers. There, in the skies above the grounded ship, lots of them, tangling with an incredible array of larger craft. Though it had all the disadvantages of atmospheric combat, so long as he could maintain the rhythm—dive, make a pass, climb away, repeat—he thought he could leave his mark on this fight.

A scan around: the patrol craft overhead; surely was the source of the orbital strike warning. Some manner of ground combat going on: unimportant. His hyperspace ring, regaining a controlled descent, unmolested for now.

And the distant wild confusing tangle of the dogfight far below. Dom focused on one of the few familiar sights, the TIE Interceptor turning to make a firing pass on its targets, scores of kilometers below, and the swarming beetles facing it that—he blinked and rechecked—seemed to be firing handheld guns.

Not even the Yuuzhan Vong shapers designed things that inefficiently.

He began his descent, slowly at first, pacing the TIE far below like a falcon, as he was struck by a question of etiquette. "Imperial TIE Interceptor, this is Riestvor Dom in the coralskipper at your twelve high," he murmured into the commlink as his fighter tipped over into a dive. "I will be your wing. You may take the first firing pass."

Unit 1 - Main Characters

"Lord Weldrick, I think it would be prudent to reinforce your position by boarding the UTS Olympus. From there we can assist the crew in fighting these beasts off and get this over with," Kent said, "On the other hand we could fly for hours on end doing nothing but getting motion sickness from this flight."

"Very well," Weldrick said, "I hereby order all units to board the UTS Olympus and fight off any of these monsters that you encounter."

Swiftly the other units of the Melpomene joined Unit 10 in the fight. Knights doused their swords in ceremonial oil and used a lighter to set it on fire, they would keep the monsters from coming too close. Mystics grabbed their machine guns and began firing at the monsters from a distance.

The Olympus began to rumble and over on the PA the sound of the Engineering deck was heard "We have motion again! Activating Inertial Drives! We're getting out of here!"

With the sound of the engines soon blasting the crew and anyone on the Olympus could feel it begin to move. Everyone was ready to get out of here.

Echobot figured out pretty quickly how to fly the ship, as if he had always known, and with that, he was busy trying to get the hell out of there from the increasing hordes. Plus the sound of orbital bombardment was not a pleasant idea he wanted to entertain. He darted straight for the Olympus and attempted to dock onto the ship. If they were getting out of here, he wanted to come with.

The ships in orbit above the unknown planet were making great headway, the beetles were being torn up, but regardless of this, they were still firing as many beam attacks as possible.

Slowly as the scrap metal began to pile, a black liquid became clear it was oozing from the beetles, it behaved... differently than oil.

UTS Olympus

The other separate units of the Melpomene docked on board the UTS Olympus, and after they landed roughly on the platform the crew was engaged in intense combat with the Centurions. The knights traded blows with these mechanical chimeras with their flaming swords while the mystics peppered them with machine gun fire from afar.

Lord Weldrick battled with one of the mechanical monsters, it swung its many appendages at him and every one of them was blocked or dodged by the lord. Still, the continuous strikes eventually wore Weldrick down, and he was struck down to the floor after receiving a blow to the chest.

Brother Sain saw this and he shifted his fire to the monster Weldrick was dealing with. Hundreds of bullets hit the monster until it was no more. Weldrick gave a nod of approval and they continued the fight.

The rest of the crew were busy fighting the other mechs.

edited 21st May '16 11:11:49 AM by Victor_Skye

LAC-1664

Chessie nods to her Gunner, and the woman's finger depresses the firing key. There's only one mount able to bear, but it cycles quickly, throwing great pulses of gravitically focused laser energy at the swirling masses of beetles as the crew scrambles back aboard the Olympus. For now, the shots are raining down clear of the smaller fighters darting about below and around.

In Orbit

"Seems we're making progress." "Yup, lets keep up then." As he said that he already was slightly correcting his aim to get the next shot out. Another Missile salvo left the ship.

edited 2nd Jun '16 6:28:18 AM by Sergey_Smirnov