All around the Storm Wind and Liberty's bridges a cacophony of curses could be heard as the various crewbeings expressed their displeasure at the Devastator's arrival. The Storm Wind's was a bit more lively, both due the fact that she was shaken by that hit, and that her crew was far more diverse than the Liberty's (which was mostly composed from Mon Calamari and humans).
Liberty to Devastator: Get lost. We're not surrendering to you Imps and you know it, spat the Liberty's Comms Officer into his mike.
Storm Wind to Knight: We are willing to believe you for now. We won't be able to assist you, however, because we've got company: A large Chicken Coop just hyper'd into this system, sent Satsi.
Liberty to Knight: We're sending bombers to assist you, over.
As the comm announced, the B-Wings the were looping around the Storm Wind changed direction; now they were aimed directly below the Knight. They opened fire, and the space before them was lit up by a flurry of laser and blaster bolts.
The Liberty and the Storm Wind slowly turned around to face the Devastator; fighter craft - X-Wings and Z95 Headhunters - were streaming from the former's hangar bays and rushing toward the ISD; soon enough, the space between the Imperial craft and the Storm Wind was filled with laser and turbolaser bolts as the Assault Frigate fired all of its weapons at its enemy.
This is the Alliance to Restore the Republic Starfleet vessel Liberty calling the United Terran Astronomical Navy ship Linare and Spredronian Carrier SCS Independence. We require immediate assistance, for the Imperial Star Destroyer Devastator was pulled into this system as well and we are moving to engage it.
The subtext of that message was clear: Both the Spredronian carrier and the UTAN ship were being told to choose sides in the Imperials' and Rebels' conflict.
edited 16th Mar '12 6:09:35 PM by desdendelle
On empty crossroads, seek the eclipse -- for when Sol and Lua align, the lost shall find their way home.Captain Ramanathan sat in silence for a moment, considering his options.
"Alright, neutrality is no longer an option. If we want to survive, we have to make some allies, even if that means making some enemies," he said. "Launch epsilon wing as scouts to track down and TAG that cloaked ship. I want alpha, beta, and gamma wings launched to intercept enemy fightercraft. Prep delta wing for bombers if we need them."
In the fighterbays, the crews responded to his orders, outfitting the fighters with standard issue railguns, as well as dogfight-homing and assault missiles. Epsilon wing was also provided with TAG missiles
, that while do not track targets, will upon contact attach to an enemy ship's hull and relay exact targeting information to all other friendly ships, enabling direct lock.
On the bridge, the captain said, "set the Storm Wind, and Liberty as Friendly, and send: Liberty and Storm Wind, we are moving to assist. We are also launching fighters to track down the cloaked ship and destroy enemy fighters."
"Also, send to the Knight: We are sending fighters to help locate the cloaked ship as well."
The fighters launched into the system, as epsilon wing moved towards the possible location of the cloaked ship, looking for any disturbances to fire their missiles at. The other two wings of space superiority fighters, and the remaining wing of assault fighters, formed a defensive screen around the Linare. one wing = four fighters
"Set the Devastator to Hostile, turn us about, and fire at will," the captain said.
The Linare turned about surprisingly quickly to face the Devastator, and rapid-fired its eight forward heavy railguns, as well as five AAA beams at the Devastator.
OOC:The Heavy Anti-Capital-Ship Railguns can really only fire forward, with some correction (~30 degrees), and while lower-tech, still pack quite a punch. (The projectiles travel at around 5,000 m/s and fire rapidly.) The AAA Beams are high-power lasers on rotating turrets, two on the front, one on the back, and three on the sides (evenly spaced) so five can fire directly forward, but generally only two or maybe three to the sides or back. They're mostly good for frying fighters, so they wouldn't do much damage to armor, but can still take out turrets/subsystems on a good hit. Um, also, feel free to poke me if I'm overdoing it on the detail.
edited 16th Mar '12 7:28:39 PM by Sonzai
Josephine had to think about that one. There was already a cloaked ship in the system, and that Star Destroyer was much bigger than the Independence. If she had the contingent of Destroyers and Heavy Cruisers that her carrier was supposed to be escorted by she could consider engaging the Devastator, but as it stood the Independence wasn't equipped enough to engage for the moment.
The reply to the Storm Wind was swift. Storm Wind, this is Independence. That is a negative. The ship's too big and we don't have the capital ship escort cordon we need, not to mention we're already dealing with a cloaked hostile now. We may assist later.
"Seven is here too, dressed like the concept of choosing clothes that look nice together was an arcane secret far beyond their grasp."The arrival of the Devastator did upset things somewhat.
Unfortunately for the Normandy, its Javelin missiles went wide of the target, sailing off into empty space. The Klingon Bird of Prey sailed, still cloaked, off to the side.
Onboard the Knight, things were a little bit hectic.
“Where did that huge ship come from?” The Star Destroyer was completely unexpected and it caused more than a few concerns.
Sunder was still worried about the Bird of Prey, but his major concern was that this fight might draw the rest of the Klingon Fleet if it was here. The fleet had been estimated at a dozen vessels, mostly heavy cruisers. The Knight's mission had been to find them and then call for backup.
And a fight like this...like flies to honey was the old saying.
The Independence was not free from the fight ether. The Amber Glow of a Photon Torpedo suddenly appeared on a direct course for the vessel as the Bird of Prey swooped in.
“Independence this is Knight, move! You've got torpedoes in bound!”
If the man manning the sensors on the proximity satellites onboard Independence looked at his screen, he wouldn't just see the Bird of Prey.
He'd see a dozen other cloaked vessels approaching...
The screen came in quick. "We've got twelve cloaked vessels approaching the ship, weapons fire inbound!"
Josephine swore. "Move this ship to the side and get ready to run! Scramble all Attack Bombers! BRACE FOR IMPACT!"
The Independence sluggishly began to turn in such a way the photon torpedo would hit a heavily armored part, and deal the least damage. In the meanwhile, the first Proximity Sensor tumbled out of the ship, followed by the entire contingent of Thunderbolt-class Attack Bombers - seven. The bombers were waiting until the Prox Sensors could join up in a network. In the meanwhile, all of the strikecraft began to form a defensive perimeter, two more Multi-Gun Corvettes leaving the ship to join the small cordon of strikecraft.
The Independence sent out a message to the vessels in the area, sans the Devastator: Independence to all friendly vessels, sensors are detecting mass equal to that of twelve cloaked ships within the area. Repeat, twelve cloaked ships closing in. Please advise. Requesting any assistance renderable.
edited 17th Mar '12 1:13:05 PM by SpartyMcFly
"Seven is here too, dressed like the concept of choosing clothes that look nice together was an arcane secret far beyond their grasp."The Star Destroyer's bridge rocked slightly from the impacts, but judging from an update by a crew member the shields were still holding up well. More troubling, however, was the fact that the Devastator was outnumbered 3 to 1; no matter what advantage they had in quality, Nahdonnis knew that in such a situation it was a wise idea to end the battle quickly, preferably with a show of force to dissuade the unknown ship* from aiding the Rebels and to warn against any further transgressions. So be it, he thought to himself. "Fire all available batteries and launch fighters."
The crew set to work immediately and the response was as swift as it was calculating. Immediately all of the batteries that could target the Storm Wind, Liberty and UAN Linare opened fire, sending green bolts, ion cannon shots and other projectiles lancing through the void. Some of the tractor beam projectors mounted to the capital ship activated and attempted to hold the Storm Wind and the UAN Linare still so that they were unable to avoid the effects of the Devastator's fire.
A large cloud of TIEs dispersed from the various hangars, their matte black radiator panels and their grey hulls seeming to melt into one another as they darted toward the incoming fighters with unusual speed; TIE Interceptors and TIE fighters rushed to halt the Rebel starfighters, aiming to make their attack choke under sheer weight of numbers and superior agility, while a few flights of TIE Bombers slipped past their bretheren. Jinking and twisting through space, they attempted to align themselves so that they could hit the enemy ships with their payloads, relying on their escorts and the withering fire pouring forth from the Devastator to protect them from the predations of hostiles. If, however, approaching the vessels proved too dangerous, the bombers broke off their attack to regroup behind the defence offered by the fighters.
Vader could feel the ship shake slightly as something hit it, and he could hear various turbolasers opening fire far above him. The situation seemed to have degenerated, though the Sith Lord was not even sure what "the situation" was. He resolved to remedy that immediately. Striding forward, Darth Vader left the meditation room and prowled through the corridors, ignoring the alarmed and wary reactions of the Imperials in his wake.
edited 17th Mar '12 2:13:46 PM by Flanker66
Locking you up on radar since '09The Linare shook as it received the impact from the Devastator's guns.
"The shields dissipated a good amount of the energy, but I don't think we should stay under that kind of pulse cannon fire for too long, as it's already affecting our armor," the tactical officer said, "Our weapons appear to be weakening their shields, but no other damage so far. A large contingent of what appear to be fighters and bombers are approaching us in addition."
"Continue main railgun fire at the Devastator, and activate all AAA Batteries against the incoming bombers first, then fighters," the captain said, as the AAA Beams, Flak Cannons, and Missile Launchers targeted any bombers or fighters that approached close to the Linare. Its own force emitters also pushed away fighters preventing them from aiming or manuvering effectively. The fighter wings fought with remarkable effectiveness, but found it difficult to reverse the advantage of numbers the enemy had.
"We also seem to be caught in some sort of force field by the Devastator, sir," the navigational officer said, "it's limiting our maneuverability, but I doubt it would hold if we tried to jump out of here." OOC:The Linare can move and turn pretty quickly given its size, but it can't really dodge much of anything even without the tractor beams. However, its jump engine generates a temporary wormhole in front of the ship into subspace, which would allow it to jump to a different location in the system rather rapidly, but does take a while to re-charge.
"Is the jump drive functional?" the captain said.
"I think so, sir, but of course without a jump node, or knowing how we got here, we're not going very far," the chief engineer said.
"Alright, we'll save that option if we need to escape temporarily," the captain said, "but if their shields fall, target those emitters."
Then, they received the transmission from the Independence, that twelve other potentially hostile cloaked vessels were approaching the area.
Damn, thought Captain Ramanathan, even with allies, there's no way we have the combined firepower to fight off one battleship and twelve additional cloaked ships.
He sent, "Linare to other friendly vessels, given the circumstances that we appear to be quite outmatched, we would recommend a retreat, unless other options or reinforcements are available."
edited 17th Mar '12 7:07:00 PM by Sonzai
The Liberty's fighter pilots were used to the Imperials' tactic by now; they worked methodically, splitting the TIEs into smaller group where their superior firepower and shielding gave them an edge. They did not, however, focus on them; they primarily tried to go past them, to reach the Star Destroyer's hull where they could use it as cover as well as to fire their proton torpedoes on its sensitive points.
The Storm Wind was hit by a barrage of turbolaser blasts. Her shields held, for the Assault Frigate Mk. II was designed with such skirmishes in mind; as it was designed before the Rebellion could obtain their true capital ships, the Mon Calamari cruisers, powerful shields were implanted in order to even the odds against the Devastator and its class a bit.
"Ben-iblis, tell the gunners to try and hit the Devastator's tractor beam emitters; the Linare is right, we can't fight both the Imperials and those cloakeds," said Arsk.
"Aye aye, Captain."
The Storm Wind slowly began to turn; although she was hindered by the tractor beams, she was too big for them to stop her completely. She opened fire, and filled the space between her and the Devastator with turbolaser and laser bolts.
The Liberty manoeuvred itself so it won't hit its own fighters, and opened fire on the Devastator as well, sending turbolaser bolts and ion cannon shots toward the Imperial ship.
"UTAN Linare, this is Admiral Yamarus of the Librety. I think you are right; we cannot fight both those unknowns and the Empire. I advise sending your fighters after our X-Wings; flying close to the Star Destroyer's surface and using it for cover, they should try and hit the tractor beam emitters. We've found that that tactic works especially well against the Devastator's class."
The B-Wings of Green Squadron whirled around.
"SCS Independence, this is Green Leader," sent its leader through the Liberty's comms. "Please send us the sensory data for those cloakeds; we might be able to bombard them if we had an approximate location and vector." On empty crossroads, seek the eclipse -- for when Sol and Lua align, the lost shall find their way home.
Once the transmission was recieved, the reply was swift.
Green Leader, this is Independence. We only have mass data, we aren't sure where they are. We're constructing Proximity Sensors now to flush out their location. Once we know where they are, you can link up with the Sensors.
edited 18th Mar '12 8:30:54 AM by SpartyMcFly
"Seven is here too, dressed like the concept of choosing clothes that look nice together was an arcane secret far beyond their grasp.""Alright, launch delta wing bombers with disruptor torpedoes and volcano bombs," Captain Ramanathan said, "launch omicron wing to provide fighter cover for them, and tell alpha, beta, and gamma to carve a path through the enemy fighters, and assist if possible. Prioritize the tractor beam emitters and those pulse cannon* turrets - try to disarm that ship."
The fighterbay responded to his orders, as delta wing launched with both subsystem-destroying disruptor torpedoes, as well as general-purpose high-yield volcano bombs, while omicron wing guarded their approach on the devastator.
The captain then sent, "We're sending a wing of bombers and fighters to help your attack, and have fighters ready to hit those cloaked ships with tracking devices as soon as we know their location."
edited 18th Mar '12 11:39:07 AM by Sonzai
The torpedo slammed into the Independence with the force a meteor, and the anti-matter warhead detonated against its hull armor.
Unfortunately...while everyone was shooting at each other the Independence's communication about detecting the cloaked ships was heard by the cloaked ships.
The fighters sent with the Knight were warned off. They wouldn't do any good and would likely force the Starship to not risk running them over with maneuvers. Starfleet didn't use fighters for a reason.
“Sir! Klingon ships decloaking!” The dozen vessels promptly became visible as they dropped cloak and raised their shields, throwing power to their weapons as well.
Sunder almost swore. Two B'rel class Birds of Prey (Including the one who had been firing while cloaked), four K't'inga class cruisers, four Vor'cha class attack cruisers...and two Negh'Var class battleships.
Sunder could almost feel the blood draining out of his face. That was a lot more firepower than he had been led to believe. He had figured on the fleet mostly being frigates, good for raiding.
This fleet was meant to smash other fleets.
The Klingons came upon the rag tag group in a massive wave. The two B'rel Birds of Prey went after the Normandy, apparently pissed off by the torpedoes the ship had fired at one of them, the two smaller ships sliding around as they fired the twin Disrupter cannons they carried on their wingtips at the bow of the Normandy. The green energy bolts streaked through space.
Meanwhile, the four K't'inga class cruisers decided to gang up on the Storm Wind and the Liberty, the long necked ships streaking in and firing a salvo of Photon Torpedoes from their bow tubes.
The Knight, for her part, was dodging the disruptor fire of the first Negh'Var class battleship as it came at them. The Negh'Var so outgunned the Knight it was not funny. The four Vor'Cha class attack cruisers went after the largest vessel, the Devastator, coming in on an attack run on her forward hull and bridge.
The second Negh'Var went after the Linare, bearing down on its as its disruptor banks opened up in a punishing salvo.
Sunder, leaning as the Knight ducked behind a broken pile of Debris for cover, pointed at the view screen,
“Torpedoes and Phasers! Fire!” The Knight lashed out at the Negh'Var, the phasers impacting first and seemingly only pissing off the bigger ship. The four photon torpedoes it launched however did have some impact. The Negh'Var veered off for a moment, allowing the Knight to get some distance.
edited 18th Mar '12 6:42:07 PM by RevenVrake
Even with its toughest armor, the Independence was only half prepared. They were prepared for objects hitting them at the speed and with the force of a meteor - they were very much prepared for things worse than that.
What they were not prepared for, was an antimatter warhead.
The warhead caused a devastating flash so deadly the entire Independence was EMP'd for one second. When all was said and done, the small cruiser had a gaping hole all the way through its heavy kinetic armor, and one of the phased disassembler arrays had been completely fried. More importantly, fully half of the Independence's fighter stock was taken out when the warhead hit and critically damaged one of the hangar bays - which, coincidentally, said PDA was in.
But another troop bay, half the strikecraft, and the constructors, had survived. That was enough.
"Shit! Report!"
"We aren't getting any reports back from the areas affected. All hands in those areas are lost. We also lost the damage sensors in the entire right hangar bay - we're going to have to assume that's lost too, since we can't use it anyhow."
"How many jointops we got left?"
"Enough for a full compliment of strikecraft."
"Then fucking scramble them. Screw the Proximity Sensors, get Attack Bombers and Multi-Gun Corvettes into the air, now."
Following this, the full compliment of strikecraft came into place. Though there weren't much - just 25 strikecraft, half of which were Interceptors, half of which were Attack Bomber, and about ten Multi-Gun Corvettes - it was enough. And while the Independence had lost two of its mass drivers, it still had two left.
Their next transmission was to every ship in the area that wasn't the Klingon ships.
Independence to all ships in the area - we have taken heavy damage from one of their attacks. Requesting assistance.
In the meanwhile, the Independence decided to wait. Its two mass drivers remaining tracked the ships, waiting until the perfect time - the perfect moment - to fire their destructive payloads.
edited 18th Mar '12 6:44:44 PM by SpartyMcFly
"Seven is here too, dressed like the concept of choosing clothes that look nice together was an arcane secret far beyond their grasp."The Linare was struck hard by the fire of the Negh'Var, as the tactical officer said, "Port and forward shields are down to 40% from this and the Devastator's impacts, and armor is at 85%. We've also lost a flak cannon and a AAA beam - we can't survive under this kind of firepower for very long."
"The situation has gone from bad to worse," Captain Ramanathan said, "the good news, is that our enemies are stupid and aggressive. The bad news, is that not only are there two groups of them, but that this new group vastly outclasses our combined firepower. We need reinforcements."
"All we need are a couple Hxaon battleships," Vice Imperator P'jwakh said.
"Yes, well, unless you happen to have a few hiding in subspace, currently we're entirely cut off," the captain said.
"We need to turn the tide of this battle or all hope is lost," the captain said, "I rather doubt the enemy will neglect to chase us if we try to escape to another part of the system. Tell the fighters and bombers to cancel their approach on the Devastator and regroup at this point, and prepare the jump drive."
"Sir, we may not survive long enough to charge it again," the navigational officer said.
"I know," the captain said, "- jump now!"
The Linare moved forward, breaking out of the tractor field as space warped in front of it, a temporary wormhole appearing and sucking it into subspace, out of view, smashing an unlucky TIE fighter in the process.
A few moments later, the Linare emerged from another wormhole directly behind one of the K't'inga cruisers that was attacking the Liberty. "Open Fire!" the captain said, as the Linare fired its eight main railguns and four AAA beams directly at it.
The fighters and bombers also broke off their approach to concentrate their fire on the same ship, and maintain a protective screen around the Linare.
"Also, send a repair ship to the Independence if possible, we need every additional ally we can get at this moment," the captain said, as a repair ship (a little larger than a fighter) was sent to the Independence, temporarily covered by the Linare's fighters until it could reach the Independence's fighter screen. "In addition, If any of those cloakable ships' shields go down, tell epsilon wing to hit them with a TAG beacon, so we can track them if they try to cloak again," the captain said.
He then sent to all friendly ships, "We are concentrating our fire on this ship and we recommend others do the same, maybe we can even take out a few if we direct all fire at once. Hopefully, the Devastator will be too occupied for us."
He also sent to the Independence, "We are also sending a repair ship to help assist if possible."
edited 18th Mar '12 7:35:58 PM by Sonzai
Joker's eyes widened for a second as he saw the fleet of ships suddenly appear on sensors.
They widened even further as two of the vessels came rushing towards the Normandy. With deft hands, the ace pilot activated full burn. "EDI! Evasive manuevers!" The Normandy banked.
It was a testament of the skill between Joker and EDI that the Normandy escaped the barrage at all. A single laser round got through, boiling away the ablative armor which protected the ship at it's impact point. An electrical surge destroyed one of the external cameras. However, nothing critical was damaged, and the injury was superficial at best.
And now it was the Normandy's turned. The blue lady was wounded, but now she was pissed.
"Inertial Compensator deactivated. EDI, give me an Ivan."
The Normandy spun, it's nose pivoting in ways that would be impossible in atmosphere... and it's nose mounted gun fired twice as it did so. The Thannix Cannon fired a stream of molten metal at 0.013c, five second burst each time. It was a weapon which could oneshot a dreadnaught. A pair of cruisers would be no match.
edited 18th Mar '12 9:50:30 PM by MaskedAndDangerous
The Imperials had been busy fending off the attacks arrayed against them; their shields were starting to reach levels that warranted concern, and the fighters were doing their damndest to prevent the Rebels from using their usual tricks (the bombers had eventually broken off to harrass the Liberty and Storm Wind). If there was any way for it to get worse, Prahji couldn't imagine it.
Naturally, he had spoken too soon as a group of vessels decloaked, a gaggle of which broke off and decided to hammer away at the Devastator's shields. Predictably, their integrity began to plummet at an alarming rate, and the Commander knew that if he didn't do something fast his vessel would be all too vulnerable to the beams that were even now snaking their way across the hull, meeting a fading ethereal glow where they met the shields.
"Concentrate fire on those ships and recall the bombers," said Prahji tensely.
"But Commander - "
"Concentrate fire and recall the bombers." It was clear that there would be no arguing; the crew immediately set about carrying out his orders. A sizeable amount of the turrets shifted fire from the Liberty and Stormwind as well as the Linare to the new aggressors, while the tractor beam projectors shut down entirely so that their energy could be used to bolster the flagging deflector shields. This did not mean, naturally, that the Imperials had forgotten their other foes entirely; the TIEs near the Devastator began to change tactics and stubbornly refused to be split up by the Rebel fighters, ganging up on them wherever possible. One or two TIE bombers launched a proton torpedo or two at the Rebel ships and the Linare as a parting shot before the bombers tried to pursue and attack the Klingon ships.
Locking you up on radar since '09"Captain - multiple projectiles coming our way!" said Akran.
"Transfer all power to shields," ordered Arsk.
"Aye aye, Captain."
Suddenly, the Storm Wind's cannons' rate of fire dropped, and her a blow glow surrounded the ship as the Assault Frigate transferred energy from its weapon systems to its shields. Then the Photon Torpedoes hit her. The whole ship rocked, and the shields dropped.
"Shields at 60%," declared the Damage Control Officer. "Restoring 1% every five minutes."
The Liberty's fighters changed tactics, too: They concentrated into a single mass of fighters. Most of them focused on the TIEs, and one trio of X-Wings focused on getting through. Whether that trio succeeded in passing the TIEs or was destroyed, once it was clear which would happen the fighters wheeled around and charged the K't'inga class cruisers firing on the Liberty; the B-Wings joined them halfway.
The Liberty itself fired on the Klingon cruisers as well, counting on her strong shields to deflect the Photon Torpedoes. On empty crossroads, seek the eclipse -- for when Sol and Lua align, the lost shall find their way home.
The Linare's maneuver took the Klingons off guard for a moment, allowing her barrage to deplete their weaker read shields. But the K't'inga, renown for its maneuverability, corkscrewed away from the larger vessel, firing a pair of photon torpedoes out of her aft tube. The fighters that came after it were not as successful, as the K't'inga came around their fire hit the stronger side shields. The disruptors on the Klingon ship switching from the big ship to trying to swat the fighters chasing it.
The other three K't'ingas, for the moment, focused their fire on the Liberty. The turbolaser fire lashed out from the larger ship, knocking down the shields on the leader vessel, forcing it to drop behind the other two. The trio of ships came around and focused on the bridge of the much larger vessel, firing salvo after salvo to hit in the exact same spot on the Cruiser.
The Devastator was going to have problems as the Vor'Cha was a faster, more powerful vessel than the K't'ingas and they flew past the Devastator, seeking refuge behind the massive vessel. It was then that all four vessels essentially preformed power slides, bringing their bows around to point at the back of the Star Destroyer, mainly the nice huge glowing engines.
The Negh'Var that the Linare had left behind was coming on strong as it roared towards the vessel that had escaped it for the moment, its massive muzzles of the underside Disruptor cannons glowing hellish green.
The Normandy had the most luck. The Klingon pilots had seen the glow and one of them was a touch faster than the other. The Thannix Cannon round blew the port wing off one of the B'rels, sending it spinning away like so much junk. The other B'rel however actually barrel-rolled around the Thannix cannon round so it was 180 degrees the opposite of the Normandy, and fired its Disruptors again as it sailed over the longer ship, flying past it at a distance of less than ten meters. Then it pulled its own version of the Ivan maneuver EDI had done, coming about to the stern of the Normandy chasing after the it.
The Klingons, for the moment, ignored the Independence, writing it off as disabled from the one torpedo impact.
The Knight was taking a beating as it dodged fire from the Negh'Var still chasing it. It's forward shields had been depleted by the heavy fire, so now it was running from the much larger ship.
Sunder growled as his ship took a beating. Looking down at the display on his chair, he noted the Normandy's firepower and actions.
He looked to his navigator,
“Get us to the Normandy and pull this Negh'Var with us!”
“Yes sir!”
Turning to his communication's officer, Sunder said,
“Get me the Normandy and ask if its pilot knows about the Thatch Weave technique.”
Josephine noticed this.
"They're ignoring us for the moment. Try to get any repairs possible done. We'll limp away once we're ready."
The strikecraft, for the moment, stayed out of the line of fire - none of them were going to attack until given the order.
"Seven is here too, dressed like the concept of choosing clothes that look nice together was an arcane secret far beyond their grasp.""Bring us about. Lock forward Beam cannons on the nearest hostile and fire."
The Iliad banked around, and a pair of violet beams
◊ lanced out of the nose straight towards the closest Klingon vessel.
"Damn, these ships are maneuverable," Captain Ramanathan said as the K't'inga corkscrewed away from the Linare.
"Brace for impact!" was heard as the two photon torpedoes struck the Linare, rattling it significantly.
"Armor at 70%, Forward shields down to near zero, we've got a fracture in the forward bulkhead, and we've lost a railgun and another AAA beam," the Tactical officer said, "Whatever was in those, it was pretty nasty. Sensors indicate possibly antimatter."
"Antimatter? We can't take that kind of punishment. It also appears no one listened to our strategy," the captain said, "keep concentrating fire on the smaller vessel ahead (the K't'inga), direct maximum power to the shields, and keep charging the jump drive!"
The Linare was then struck by the disruptor fire from the Negh'Var behind it, as the tactical officer said, "Rear shields down to 60%, and minor engine damage."
"Captain, I do have some minor good news - first, the ship called the Normandy just managed to do serious damage to one of the smaller enemy ships. I have also found the unknown ship that I detected entering the system before, and it appears they're on our side," the navigational officer said, watching the Iliad fire on the Klingons as well.
In addition, the repair ship* arrived by the Independence, and sent, "UAN Repair Ship 4 to Independence, can we assist?"
edited 21st Mar '12 8:31:16 PM by Sonzai
"Death and damnation! They're headed to the bridge sir!" cursed the Liberty's Sensors officer.
"Very well. Divert all energy to shields," ordered Yamarus.
The Liberty, too, was engulfed in a blue glow as her energies were directed to her shields. True, her fire-rate dropped, but Yamarus figured that he could afford that, since now the X-Wings, B-Wings, and Z95 Headhunters were closing on the Kligon ships; the fighters opened fire, filling the space between them and the three K't'inga-classes with red laser cannon blasts. The Z95s also fired their concussion missiles at the K't'ingas.
The B-wings fired all of their rather diverse weapons toward the nearest K't'inga; ion cannon shots, laser and autoblaster bolts and proton torpedoes made their way toward the cruiser.
"Shields at 75% sir," announced the Liberty's damage control. "Restoration rate 3% per minute."
"Good - now, let's activate those tractor beams; if could hold one of those ships in place our fighters would tear it to shreds," said Yamarus.
"Aye aye."
The Liberty's tractor beams whirred into life, their operators trying to latch onto the K't'inga the Rebel snubfighters were attacking, trying to force it to stop in its tracks or at least slow down significantly.
"Shields at 70%," declared the Storm Wind's Damage control.
"What's our restoration rate without the boost?" asked Akran.
"About half, sir," replied Damage Control.
"All-right. Divert energy back to weapon systems and drive; those bogies seem to be ignoring us at the moment, so we might be able to surprise them."
"Aye aye."
The blue glow around the Storm Wind disappeared as its energy was channelled back to its weapon systems; its rate of fire increased back to normal, and it flew toward the Liberty and its foes, firing at the K't'ingas and focusing particularly on the one the Liberty's turbolasers hit before.
edited 22nd Mar '12 6:31:50 AM by desdendelle
On empty crossroads, seek the eclipse -- for when Sol and Lua align, the lost shall find their way home.One of our pursuers was disabled, Jeff. The other is still on out tail
Joker nodded, sweat dripping from his forehead. He didn't take his eye off his controls as he juked to avoid another disruptor round. "EDI, what's the status on GARDIAN?" Another round impacted on the Normandy, luckily on the loft, where armor was thickest. The Normandy retaliated with concentrated laser fire.
After our previous discharge, GARDIAN laser batteries at 63% power. I recommend cycling heat sinks.
Joker's eyes narrowed. GARDIAN became less powerful with every strike, as heat build up and lowered the amount of time the lasers could remain active without burning out the system. The solution was similar to that of a handheld weapon, cycling a massive heat sink in order to cool the weapon system. Of course, this took about a minute. Sixty seconds, which could be life saving or suicide.
"One last thing before we do. Apply reverse thrusters, and ready for a knife fight."
Suicidal? Possibly. Dangerous? Definately. Unexpected?
Hell yeah.
The Normandy's mass effect core spiked, lowering it's mass by a prestigious amount, just in time for it's thrusters to fire in reverse. The result was near instantaneous braking, followed by total reversal of direction. Relative to the ship pursuing it, it was moving backwards. Right past it. At the same time, the frigate presented it's armored top to the enemy beside it.
Then the Normandy fired all of it's laser batteries in the half second it flew past. EDI had calculated the maneuver's optimal firing position, and her direct control of the ship allowed her to calculate the precise time to fire, within a 0.000002 of a second.
Suddenly, the hunter had become the hunted. The Normandy was behind it's opponent, and it's numerous armaments hummed in bloody anticipation.
"Take this, you son of a bitch!"
Twin Javalin torpedoes launched in syncronisation with the blue particle weapon that made up the Normandy's main armament.
It was... beautiful.
EDI found a signal from one of the non-aggressive ships was targeting the Normandy. A request and a question. She forwarded the message to her co-pilot.
Joker looked over the message. Something was odd about it.
"Sorry, I don't know a maneuver of that name off the top of my head. I'm sure we could pull it off if you could send us a copy."
The transmission was tightbeamed to the Star Knight, to prevent compromising. EDI also provided a security encryption in case the return transmission was intercepted.
edited 22nd Mar '12 5:07:50 PM by MaskedAndDangerous
The Independence's reply was swift. It didn't sound like the usual transmissions, though.
"Negative at the moment. Return to your ship so you aren't destroyed. Automatic repair systems can handle enough of the damage to let us limp to a greater range. Once these hostiles are destroyed we can accept repairs, but until then, we aren't willing to sacrifice vital repair ships that aren't our own."
"Seven is here too, dressed like the concept of choosing clothes that look nice together was an arcane secret far beyond their grasp."

The Imperial-I class Star Destroyer Devastator was hurtling through the iridescent blue tunnel of hyperspace, though something was clearly wrong. Imperial engineers scurried to and from the room where the steel beast's hyperdrive lay, carrying various pieces of equipment and shouting to one another. Droids of all shapes and sizes joined them, their black carapaces emphasising their inhumanity and cold intellects. Alarms moaned mournfully through the ascetic corridors, all sharp blacks and stark whites, adding an eerie layer to proceedings.
Finally, the alarms were temporarily drowned out by an announcement over the PA system. "Attention all personnel, attention all personnel. The hyperdrive is experiencing irregular power surges and other discrepencies. We are attempting an emergency shut down. All non-essential crew are reminded to remain at least 250 metres from the hyperdrive bay and to be ready for immediate activation of blast doors; non-compliance will be punished severely as per Imperial military law. Stand by for further announcements as the situation develops."
On the bridge a black garbed Imperial officer grimaced as he heard the latest news from the engine rooms. His name was Nahdonnis Prahji, and he was the commander of this vessel. If they were lucky, this would turn out to be nothing more than something to tell fellow crews on shore leave; if they were unlucky... it did not bear thinking about.
"Status report," he snapped at an officer as he drew near. The lights dimmed for a moment, prompting all present to look up.
"Commander, the hyperdrive has become unresponsive to all inputs. We may have no choice but to - "
Everyone standing stumbled forwards as the Devastator was rudely tossed into realspace, the triangular, dagger-like capital ship arresting its' forward motion with surprising zeal. Its' white-grey paint stood out against the background of space and served to draw attention to its' bulk.
It did not take long for Prahji to recover as the first reports flooded in. It appeared they were in the middle of a debris field of some sort, and it was making it difficult to pick up anything on scanners. What they could detect, however, were several ships of unknown design and two ships of the Rebel Alliance. They all seemed occupied with something else, but the Imperials were never ones to waste an opportunity. The Commander did not even have to utter a single word as one of his more presently-minded subordinates hailed the Rebel vessels. "Devastator to Rebel ships. We demand that you surrender immediately. We have you under our guns - resist and you will be destroyed. This is your only warning."
It was tempting to have just open fire and vapourise the scum in one debilitating barrage, but perhaps the fools would listen to reason for once.
Darkness.
He could hear his laboured breath pass from his ruined lungs and past the vocoder grill as a burdened wheeze, as though he had a great weight crushing his chest. One ragged gasp and another passed in the still air like aeons following each other, and soon he felt strong enough to stand. Slowly, almost gingerly, he rose to his full height, mentally cursing his poor prosthetics as they snagged on the material of his life supporting armour.
His prison.
Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith, looked about himself. With a mental command, the lights in the room snapped on one after another, revealing his location.
He was in front of one of the many meditation chambers he had built to help alleviate the crushing lack of freedom he experienced much too often. But where? Casting about, he soon realised he was aboard a Star Destroyer. It took a minute or so as he mulled over the possibilities, but it soon clicked that he was on the Devastator. He could not summon up the will to investigate how, exactly, he had ended up on it when he had been on the Death Star II duelling his son scant moments before, at least for now, and so he decided to stand in silent repose, sucking in staggered breaths and sighing them out again.
It seemed the Force had not finished toying with him yet.
Locking you up on radar since '09