Previously on SDNW4 wrote:"Did you say we're in the Datton?", said Redav shakily.
"Erm, yes, Mr. Redav."
Redav slapped his mask, and screamed.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Stealth Fail 4.0: Live Free or Fail Hard
Or, alternatively...
Drats and Double Drattons!
By Force Lord, KlavoHunter, Simon_Jester, and Shroom Man 777
MEH Sol System
February 3401
The scramble after the shuttle carrying The Leader’s most precious cargo erupted in a mad dash as all assets were sent to interdict it. They could not afford to have her
specimen escape. She
wanted him so
badly. Moreover, if Kierger escaped, and word got out to the Centrality and the rest of the galaxy, they would certainly be doomed.
The tricky Centralite almost had them fooled into thinking that he had perished in the shuttle explosion, but an exhaustive, seconds-long Metahivemind-Singular Intellect review of the gun camera footage had shown that two forms had ejected from the shuttle a microsecond before the turboblaster destroyed the vessel. Their forms abruptly disappeared some distance from their point of origin - as though they were taken inside the bowels of a cloaked ship.
The MEHNET sensor grid and early detection network NORADE had detected traces of possible stealth incursions in MEH territory. They were elusive, nothing but sensor ghosts, and until then had not proven themselves hostile. They were a nuisance thus far ignored, as the MEHN was focused on anti-Ork patrols ever since the greenskin raiders started attacking civilian ships, so the stealthers were left unpersecuted.
Until now.
The MEHNET detection grid and NORADE were placed on high alert, Metahiveminds and Singular Intellects scoured through the data networks looking for anomalous signals, suspicious readings, anything that could be a cloaked vessel carrying the Leader’s
Kiergy. Anti-stealth warfare flotillas were sent to find them and kill them. A drift net was cast into the sea of space.
The entire Sol warfleet was thus tasked with hunting down Kierger.
RKS Jaffar
Naturally, such an event in one of the MEH’s systems, particularly their capital, would not go unnoticed. While it was utterly dangerous for a stealthship to draw so near to action this intense, Captain Iago Arrot decided the risk was worth it - had they not spent these past months dodging the ponderous, stupid fat MEHships with the ease of a Braavosi water dancer? Besides, this now was far more interesting than anything they’d seen in a long time. What was it they were chasing in such numbers and huffing, puffing fury?
“Helm, take us in slow.”
Unbeknown to them, the MEH had raised its alertness levels to
extreme levels. Potential stealth contacts previously left alone were now being prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The MEH’s law. The Goddess’ law. Sasha’s Law.
Sasha’s Law was like Sasha’s Love.
Hard and fast.
Command Room, CNS Datton
Forg couldn’t decide if he was lucky or he was fucked.
Here he had the President and Dictator on his ship, who promised promotions... until he learned he was on the Datton. And now his top boss was on the infirmary, fainted.
Yep, this day was just getting interesting. And not in a good way.
So what will it be? That promotion he promised, or an early discharge? Actually, both seem somewhat attractive results...
“Sir, long-range sensors are picking up major contacts!”
I thought too soon.
From all sides, the Datton found itself in trouble yet again, as the FAT FORCES of the MEH revealed themselves! A MEH force hypered in, but fortunately the Datton was still a ways off from them.
“Don’t panic! They may have not detected us yet!” shouted Forg.
“How can you know, sir!?” cried a scared crewman.
“I don’t!”
“Sir!” the sensor officer shrieked, repressed memories of Pendleton flooding back into his brain. “Those ships are getting too close to comfort!”
“Helmsman, get us out of here!” shouted Forg.
“With pleasure, sir!”
The Datton’s engines came alive, as the ship tried to do it’s best to gain time with distance.
“Sir, we’re detecting a transmission! From the flotilla!” shouted the communications technician.
“Is it for us?”, asked Forg.
“Not sure. Seems more like a general announcement.”
“Patch it through!”
The technician pushed a button, making the main screen turn on, and a heavy, bloated voiced filled the room.
“Stealth ship, we know you are here! Surrender the
‘Kiergy’ or be annihilated!”
“
‘Kiergy’? Who goes by that nickname?”, wondered Lieutenant Sorge.
“I think they’re talking about the Dic...” said Forg.
“You laserbrains!
The entire command room crew turned back to see a very pissed off Dirad Kierger, and the sight was enough to provoke some to hide behind or beneath their consoles.
“You shouldn’t have picked up that message! They could have figured out our position!”
“The risk was not high sir. We could afford it. It’s not if you could detect a ship that is patching in a transmission, especially if said transmission was more of a general one.”
“Only the captain of the
Datton would say that.”
“It’s not as if I don’t learn from experience. Just being consistent from what everyone expects from me, sir.”
“Oh, a comedian, eh? Well, laugh this off, wise guy! As soon as we go home, I’m gonna find out who had the
excellent idea of sending you buffoons to rescue me, when you couldn’t even save yourselves from the damn Anglians! I really don’t appreciate the joke!”
And with that, a fuming Kierger stormed off the command room in a huff.
Well, that went better than expected. He could have easily choked me to death any moment he wanted. With his ESP, of course, Forg thought. He decided not too think much about his recent luck, and returned to the task of trying to get out of the MEH alive.
“Hyperdrive status!”
The engine officer shouted, “We need a minute! Literally!”
“We don’t have a literal minute!”
“They’re opening fire!” E-meters went off the charts as the leading MEH ship unleashed a torrent of turboblaster fire. Everyone braced for impact, but the bolts went very far and very wide.
“They’re firing blindly, they haven’t seen through our cloak!” Forg said, hoping to all hopes what he said was actually true.
“The MEH ships are powering up their drives. They’re giving chase!”
“Kriff!”
The game was over. The MEH ships moved with incredible speeds for their incredible mass. Away from the
Datton.
“What?!” Forg sputtered, before realization sank into his brain. He straightened himself and tried to look as smug as he could. “Oh, yes! What? They couldn’t see through our cloak? Of course they couldn’t! Those blind fools! They never had a chance, hah!”
Kierger rolled his eyes, appearing again all of a sudden.
“Just get us outta here.”
“At once sir. Hyperdrive ready?”
“All ready, sirs!”, said a happy engine officer. Indeed, the mood of the entire crew seemed rather perky. The
Datton pulled through, for once.
“Jump!”, Forg ordered.
And so the
Datton went into space...
RKS Jaffar
“SURRENDER MY KIERGY OR BE ANNIHILATED!”
The voice that shrieked through the bridge was no longer a bloated fat-man’s voice. No, it was a high-pitched wailing of a woman. The Leader Sasha had patched into the leading MEH pursuit ship, the extreme megacorvette
Diverticulitis, and was screaming threats and profanities through subspace at the fleeing Klavostani stealth ship.
A spray of light turbolaser fire washed from the eight point defense mounts along the SWAT Megacorvette’s, a sheet of green that sprayed across the volume they believed their target to occupy. The LTL fire was far from dangerous at this range, even to such a soft target as
Jaffar, but fringe effects, blasts of particles and scatter-radiation, began raining off the stealther’s abused sensor-baffle fields. This had the effect of massive-aggressive sensor radiations, creating a signature that could not be ignored or denied, and permitting the ferocious corvette to localize its target. With a bellow of ECM-rage,
Divertculitis bore down upon poor, outmassed
Jaffar like a charging hippopotamus, firing its mighty disruptor cannon as it came- cannon which would not have been out of place on the Klavostani Navy’s own capital ships!
Jaffar fired her engines wildly, describing intricate three-dimensional curves, but it was to no avail. At this close range, she couldn’t keep up the dance for long. The megacorvette’s massive disruptors were guided by droid fire directors of great computing power, all under the control of their glorious leader, Fire Master Ossuarius! These motivated droids soon learned to predict their victim’s evasive maneuvers from subtle cues- the warming of thruster nozzles, surges of shield power as defensive energy was allocated to whichever side of the ship was expected to be most exposed to enemy fire, and the like. Fattowatts of power slammed into the stealth ship’s thin, underpowered shields.
![Image](http://www.stardestroyer.net/mrwong/wiki/images/thumb/f/ff/Turbolaser-dt1.jpg/300px-Turbolaser-dt1.jpg)
The Klavostani returned fire, spiraling about her base course to allow snap-shots from the forward gun/sensorbulb’s beamcannon. These were ignored; as littleton range weapons they were inconsequential compared to the bigaton (or at least mediton)-range firepower the corvette was designed to withstand! Despairing, Captain Iago ordered his command’s handful of antimatter minemissiles launched, weapons designed for stealthy, deniable attacks and interdiction of enemy orbital spaces.
The missiles were slow in mine mode, but difficult to detect. The MEH point defense suite, cheerfully adding their tiny increment of LTL fire to the heavy disruptor blasts coming off the megacorvette’s wing guns, neglected the first pair of mines...
But alas, even these weapons lacked the polyjoules to knock down the shields of a fully alert and operational megacorvette! With a jowled frown, the MEH captain simply shifted his turboblasters off the fleeing target, and concentrated his sensorbots’ efforts on detecting the incoming mines, destroying most and tanking the rest on
Diverticulitis’ cruiser-grade defensive ray-shields.
Jaffar’s captain bought himself some seconds of life in this way, by slightly reducing the volume of fire... but in the end, it made no difference.