STGOD mk II Main Thread

[Crossroads Inc.]

-Taskforce Pemba outer Megasrl system, Kushawni space-

On the bridge of the lead BattleCruiser, Captain Theodore Moz bolted up in his chair.

“AHA! At leas we shall see some measure of action in these tedious patrols! Sensors! Give me a read on any potential targets out there! Let me know what we are dealing with and lets have at them!” He bellowed as his bridge lit up.

“Aye aye!” The sensor officers barked as their fingers flew across the controls, narrowing the band of their sensors search.

“Sir! Detecting dozen of smaller singles off to our port side! The Unknown must have lauched decoys!”
“Fish out the copies and home in on the one we want! You know what to look for Zonker!”
“Aye Captain Moz!”
“SIR massive amounts of Radiation off our port bow! It’s a huge cloud that wasn’t their a second ago!” Mort form the other sensor suite spoke out. “it’s playing havoc with our sensors!”
“Close ranks then! Send a single to all forces, have the BusterMachines fan out and…”
“Sir! The Busters are already-!”

A moment later, the position of the Busters was made readily apparent as all three zoomed past the bridge with only a few dozen meters between them…

“Thundering Tarnation! Those Hotroding Busters are supposed to be working with us these days!” Moz bellowed, pumping his fist angrily at the passing machines. A chuckeling could be heard suddenly… realizing it was the ships computer, Moz simply sighed. “Those two are always in cahoots with those Busters.”

Of course, what both the ship computers and the Busters knew, was they simply had no time to wait for the BattleCruisers… It would take the ships well over a minut to come about and begin to bare down on the target. Far too much time to allow for escape. The civilian military ships were fast, but none possessed scanners sensitive enough to know what to look for in the cloud of radiation.

The Busters knew where to look; they had been built for this… The trio moved blindingly fast as their CyberBrains communicated to one another in the lightspeed quick Machine Speech.

#(: Targets coming to bare, multiply vectors on all decors, scan and triangulate with current speculated models
#!%: Internal scanner effectiveness redacted by 43% through multiply levels of Radiation, internals suggest ship class is purging before jump, calculating likely escape vector with current simulations for probably trajectories.
#!!: Weapon systems 1b through 3d activating to 80% power, targeting all possible paths along decoy marks, Comm to primary, dictating faint spike along communications.
#!%: Encryption feed suggest primary system used in single, Target HUMAN repeat target HUMAN

The three busters smashed through the decoys before stopping suddenly, their sensors still looking wildly for the target as #9 grinned.
“So, it looks as if someone else has decided to poke around on the edge of space.”
“Shouldn’t we go after them as well?” #15 asked.
“No need for it… They spiked us, listened in to our chat. A small bit of return is well warranted.” He said as he internally played back the small snippet of communications he had recorded.
“More then enough to figure out what we are dealing with…”

[Tanasinn]

HNS Victor Aliyev
Third Mobile Unit
Dayab - Deep System

For an instant, the bridge crew of the Victor Aliyev looked at each other in wide-eyed surprise: this was the stuff of military vids, not the sort of thing that happened on the often-boring patrols of actual naval units.

And yet, here it was. Admiral Brookes lost no time in responding.

"Yoshiko Kawashima, your message is confirmed. Standby for incoming ships at your position and please prepare to receive a shuttlecraft. The attendance of your commander and the highest ranking officer of your vessel prior to siezing are requested," even as she gave this reply, Brookes was multitasking: through machine-speak, she ordered her comms officer to relay moving orders to the other fleet ships present and recall orders to those on maneauvers, while simultaneously ordering that a shuttle prepare for launch and that the Vic move to the coordinates provided by the curious foreign vessel. Even as she did this, she called up naval reports on Alpha Ceti and Theta Mira, and got what she expected: face-in-the-crowd Imperial agriworlds, a pair among many that had gone quiet during the Enclave War, the sort that the Union always tried to find funds and time to look into, but rarely got around to. If what the acting commander of the Yoshiko said was true, these worlds had managed to survive the fall of the Imperium, perhaps significantly worse for wear.

What slammed into realspace around the Yoshiko moments later to form a loose defensive formation was only a fraction of the Third Mobile Unit, though certainly nothing to be scoffed at: the Victor Aliyev was a 500-class battleship, its accompaniment two 202-class medium cruisers and their wards: a pair of fragile-but-flexible 150-class support cruisers. Wasting no time, a stubby box of a shuttle, painted the white of a diplomatic vessel and adorned with the hammer-in-fist of the Humanist Union, flitted from one of the flat-black Victor Aliyev's docking bays.

Admiral Brookes was considering the potential political ramifications of this encounter, not with a small amount of anticipation, when her comms officer informed her that the paired 150s had both detected and confirmed a quick comms signal from somewhere near the Yoshiko briefly after it had spoken up. Sensors confirmed that it wasn't from the Yoshiko: the signal was estimated to be from about 10 to 25 kilometers from the craft in origin.

Curtly, Brookes relayed an order to the 150s, interdictors both, to raise their fields: either yet another intruder craft was present, or else an unidentified - and foreign - comms beacon had just spoken. Part of her suspected it to be an allied observer of this "captured ship," but then, why would it place itself so close to its "bait," and why would it send out a message so soon after the big reveal? Ordering comms to open a wide-band channel, she spoke with the booming authority her subordinates knew her for, "Unidentified cloaked craft, you are within sovereign Humanist Union space. You are ordered to immediately to locate and identify yourselves. If you refuse to respond, your intent will be assumed to be espionage, and you will be considered hostile. You have two minutes to respond."

[Lancer]

-Prowler L7F0G-
<Commander, we've been detected and interdiction fields have been activated. The interdiction pattern has an Imperial signature sir.>

'The interdiction pattern has an Imperial signature sir.'

The implications were immediate. The orders to observe had immediately been superceeded, an Imperial remnant had definitely been discovered, possibly two. Beyond any fragment of a doubt, these Humanists were kin, it wouldn't take a staff of anaylists at FleetCom to determine that and order the formalization of relations.

<Drop stealth and unfurl our heraldry. Comm, give me live aud and vid channels.>
<Aye sir.>

The screens that veiled the Dawns Star prowler and prevented it from total outright detection dispersed, revealing a small black vessel with an ovoid body. On both sides, wings began to unfurl, sweeping up and out like an avian creature. Holoemitter banks along the hull also extended, typically used to assist in disguising the vessel, now displayed the heraldry of the far Imperial Southwestern fleet and garrison under the command of Lilandrin "Dawn" Breeker, now the heraldry for the entire Dawns Star Empire.

"Humanist Union, this is the vessel L7F0G of the Dawns Star Empire, known as the Imperial far Southwestern fleet and garrison prior to the Fall of Terra. By order of the Lady Dawns Navy, and decree of the Office of the Regent Lord, we had been ordered to determine whether your civilization was Imperial or Enclave in origin, and in case of the former, to reestablish relations with your people.

It is good to see that our kin have survived, though the plight of Alpha Ceti and Theta Mira mars the joy to be found in reunion and normalization of relations."

[Ohma]

-*former* DSFV Yoshiko Kawashima, outer Dayab system, Humanist Union space-

“Kel” it was Toph. “Someone else is contacting us.”

“Who?”

“No idea. It’s a tight beam broadcast, old Imperial standard format. I can’t find its origin.” Toph tapped at her console.

Please confirm. The Imperial colonies of Alpha Cephi and Theta Mira are currently under occupation by hostile forces?

There was something a bit unsettling about hearing her home referred to as an Imperial colony again. Still, whoever it was considered the Doms hostile, and that was all that was important at the moment.

“Yes, hostile forces. We’ve been fighting them ever since their invasion, but without outside help there isn’t much we can do.”

“Got another message from the Victor.” Toph again.

Yoshiko Kawashima, your message is confirmed. Standby for incoming ships at your position and please prepare to receive a shuttlecraft. The attendance of your commander and the highest ranking officer of your vessel prior to seizing are requested

“Understood, the former commander and I will be present. My communications officer Toph Ceylon will guide your shuttle to dock with us.” She switched to intercom. “Faram, I need the ‘commander’ brought to reception area 2, and-“ She was cut short by Dawn back at the sensor stations.

“Oh shit. I think the Sonya is incoming.”

“Are you sure?”

“They’re coming from the same area they gave on their last status report, fuck they’re going all out.”

“Damn it.” She switched back to speak with the HU ship. “Victor Aliyev, there is another ship like ours closing fast, I think they’re going to try to kill us.”

“Uh, it’s the Sonya alright; they just sent us a message.”

-----TRANSMISSION-----
***PRIORITY 1***
FROM: DSFV SONYA OLSCHANEZKY
TO: DSFV YOSHIKO KAWASHIMA
ENCODE: AA-BBB90

-DEATH TO TRAITORS-

[Lancer]

-Prowler L7F0G-
Comm: <Sir, confirmation recieved from the Resistance vessel, they are Imperial remnants as well. Still no response from the Humanists.>
Tactical <INCOMMING! Something our size is comming towards our position at full burn, I can't make out their exact trajectory, something onboard is messing with our sensor feeds, just like with the Resistance vessel. They're unscreened, it must be a missile or another stealth craft!>
Intel: <Looks like these 'Dominatricies' aren't too happy about the current turn of events.>
Command: <Send a general alert to the Humanist Fleet and Resistance vessel and take evasive action.>

For a vessel of its size, the prowler was exceptionally lightly built, with next to no armor, minimal defensive screens, and but a single disruptor cannon to defend it. However, it had a full sized reactor, and engines that could easily soak up every bit of power that wasn't being used to maintain the stealth screens. Ports shot open along the back end of the prower, and the rear portion of the ship promptly erupted with golden tongues of fire as the main drives flared into action, pushing the ship out of harms way with great alacrity.

They could only hope that the Humanists and Resistance would as quick to act.

[Tanasinn]

HNS Victor Aliyev
Third Mobile Unit
Dayab - System Edge

Admiral Brookes responded immediately to the Dawn's Star vessel, simultaneously ordering the interdictors to drop their fields. The game of border defense was a tricky one, and aggressive a woman as she was reputed to be, Brookes had no interest in causing a diplomatic incident where one could be avoided, "Confirmed, L7F0G," Brookes said, purposely taking a more genial tone, "you're not the first such vessel as of late. Welcome to the Union. Apologies for the rough words, but these are violent times."

About to continue, Brookes was cut off by several simultaneous occurances: her own vessel and the accompanying ships reported an incoming ship, burning hard for their location. At the same time, the Kawashima and L7F0G both sent warnings of their own to the Aliyev.

Opening a channel to both foreign vessels, the admiral spoke quickly, "advise you allow us to screen your ships; granting you both security clearance for deep Dayab; shorthop to planet of things go sour," with that done, she ordered the interdictors to raise fields again, and sent out a call across the ships for general quarters, "Let's give the incoming contacts a warm Union welcome," she quipped, the Victor Aliyev's tremendous armament warming to life.

[Ohma]

-*former* DSFV Yoshiko Kawashima, outer Dayab system, Humanist Union space-

Advise you allow us to screen your ships; granting you both security clearance for deep Dayab; shorthop to planet if things go sour.

“Understood, thank you Victor Aliyev we will comply.” Kelly shook her head.

“They could’ve just run.”

Kaze snorted. “And leave their ‘battlesisters’ at the mercy of the patriarchy?”

“Yeah, I guess that would be out of character.”

=====

The ship barreled towards it’s captured sister, riding a kilometer long tail of flame.

“The laser is at full power, missiles are loaded and armed.”

“How long until we’re within range?”

“About three minutes, commander. the Humanist Union fleet is maneuvering between us and the Kawashima!”

“Launch decoys as soon as we’re in range of them.” It was a long shot, not only were they traveling faster and putting out much more radiation than any of the decoys could, the the HU craft could very well out range both of the Sonya Olschanezky’s weapons systems. But they had to try, they couldn’t allow their sisters to fall into the hands of those…those…

“One minute!”

[Tanasinn]

HNS Victor Aliyev
Third Mobile Unit
Dayab - System Edge

"Ma'am," sensors came back, "new contact's coming in full burn, right at us. Estimate one minute until contact."

Admiral Brookes weighed her options briefly, "Comms, begin playing the standard warning message, and relay move orders to put everyone close to the foreigners. We're not letting anything get through," she skipped a beat, "also, inform both 202s to prepare to lead off immediately with their cruise missiles. Weapons, we'll do the same. Let's hit them for sure and let's do it hard."

A chorus of ayes followed, and the five ships maneauvered to form a tight "wall" around the foreign vessels, the medium cruisers and Aliyev preparing their smart-AI-led, heavy-payload cruise missiles even as standard launchers and turrets tracked to prepare. A message suddenly begins playing on wide-band communications with a flat, asexual voice.

++Foreign vessel, you are intruding in the sovereign state of the Humanist Union. You are ordered to power down weapons and drives immediately, identify, and prepare for boarding. Failure to comply will be considered an aggressive action against the state. Foreign vessel, you are intruding in the sovereign state of the Humanist Union...++

[Thirdfain]

Monarchs and Fascists Fear the Revolution
Flagship, Black Banner Fleet
Makay


Her hull was the color of iron and dried blood. Her flanks were scored with the bitter orifices of missile tubes, and sleek gun turrets rose from her proud citadels. She coursed forwards on a tail of fusion-fire, predatory, like a wolfhound lunging for an exposed throat.

As the enemy hove into range, her weapons set to their baleful task. VLS cells began to ripple-fire, hurling waves of sharklike missiles into the aether. Around her, the other armoured cruisers of the Syndicalist fleet released their payloads. In a moment, space was filled with a myriad of new stars, deadly and intent. Like living things, the shipkillers hurtled across the intervening kilomiles, imprinted weak AI brains intent on slamming their shaped nuclear warheads into the fragile metal bubbles which were the Chamarran warships.

At these ranges, direct-fire projectiles were useless. Only a few hits were scored by the Chamarran guns, and the main weapons on the Syndicalist battlewagons remained silent. Until distances were closed, self-guided projectiles would be the order of the day.

At some point midway between the two fleets, the volleys of long-range smart projectiles met. Among the Syndicalist volley were defense wasps, drones launched by the fleet's compliment of support carriers. complex, malicious little minds began to guide short-range masers and kinetic kill vehicles as the wasps tore Chamarran missiles from the aether.

Others hurtled towards the waiting enemy. Point-defense fire began to take it's toll- but the outnumbered Chamarrans could not hope to match the sheer throw-weight of the Syndicalist fleet. Among the picket-line of thrall warships, fear tinged the hideous, false loyalty which had been drilled into their raped minds. The numbers were too great. The point defenses would not hold. There would only be time to brace for impact.

In the last seconds, a terrible ballet unfolded around the thrall destroyers. missiles were swept from the sky, fooled into mindless suicide by decoys or blasted to vapour by defense beams. Coordinator drones swirled through the chaos, their superior minds and sensors guiding the warheads to their resting place, until they too met their ends as Chamarran ECCM tracked their frantic transmissions.

A missile hit, blasting a pillar of copper plasma and hard radiation into the shields of a thrall destroyer. Then another- and then another. Indicators winked from green to red and alarms blared in useless panic as hulls were torn open and bodies vomited into the depths of space.

Amidst the final moments of the volley's death-ride, the subspace torpedoes hit. Some fifty projectiles simply appeared, as if from nothing, amidst the thrall vanguard. Many missed, or simply misfired, their components damaged in their crash re-entries to cisreal space. Each survivor initiated immediately upon translation, erupting in a sudden burst of nuclear chaos.

Across the Chamarran fleet, interdiction alarms hummed their warning- mixed amongst the onrushing Syndicalist phalanx were interdictors, closing off the layers of transreal space necessary for FTL travel. The field was strong- only those ships with the very best FTL drives would be able to break it.

Already, fires burned on some of the warships- and the true carnage had not yet begun.

In moments, the Syndicalists would reach the edge of effective gun range.

Black Banner Fleet
6x "Triumph" CA (300 points)
2x “Chairman” BB (90 points)
6x “Punishment” BB (150 pts)
15x "Freedom" CA (300 points)
6x "Vigilant" CS (48 points)
4x "International" ACS (60 pts)
8x "Martyrs" ACS (80 pts)
12x "Inimical" IP (32 pts)
42x "Light" FP (84 pts)
20x "Cannon" DD (120 pts)
24x "Comrade" DD (120 pts)
18x Inestimable FF (72 pts)
Total: 1456 pts

[Dark Hellion]

Wrigley Plate, Section 124A

Jory sat back, safe at home, wearing the sacred blue of Da Cubs. The events of the meetings played back through his head. They had received an invitation to the Molochi Summit. The Angel Payton had warned the Great Sky Bears that one uses any opening that one can find, and so Da Cubs would petition the Molochi to end this stalemate, even if it meant some lose of freedom. However, their spies informed them that so did the devious Saux across Chicago. They could not afford to lose the system to those faithless mongrels. They would lose what they needed to the Molochi, or another Remnant to retain the system and the faith. Did the Sky Cub not teach that it is better to lose all the games one ever plays than to lose those that believed in you? Da Cubs believing in humanity. Humanity needed them.

[Lancer]

-Task Force Farstrider (Astercutter class Destroyer LDW Clad in Fire and Javelin class Frigate escorts Gaius Darrion and Maria Hood), Mekkelli Station, Sigartes System-
<Task Force Farstrider, this is Mekkelli Control, you are cleared for launch. Golden Lady be with you.>

On pillars of golden light, the trio of warships launched from one of the expansive docking berths etched into the icy surface of Baior. Built in the height of the Imperium, each berth had been capable of accommodating the massive ships of the time. Now, they served far lesser vessels, the greatest of which was still encompassed by the cavernous berths. It was a painful reminder of what had been lost.

The three ships continued their ascent into the sky, easily moving through the neglegible atmosphere of the planet. Once clear, their engines ignited, leaving brilliant golden plumes in their wake, to bring them out of range of Mikkelli station's interdiction well. The chosen representatives of the Dawns Star Empire had started on their way to the Molochi Summit.

[Thirdfain]

Cattle Transport M-23
Deep Space
Makay


Cattle Transport M-23 was one of the hundreds of thrall vessels employed by the Chamaran occupation in the course of it's grand task- the subjugation and exploitation of the decaying Terran Empire. Her hold was packed with mindless men and women, brains sequestrated by the powerful moral weapons in the hands of the powerful Chamarran aristocracy.

Four hours out of Godwin's Hope, the bulky cattle-car's FTL engines suddenly lost traction with transreal space. There was only one explanation- enemy interdictors.

M-23's sensors had no trouble detecting the incoming projectiles. It was a trap- the ship's commander knew immediately what the source must be:

Syndicalist privateers.

Though equipped only with civilian sensors, M-23 could clearly make out the five ships closing distance behind the smalll wave of projectiles- Cruisers, of Imperial make, flying Syndicalist flags.

The first impact occured only minutes later. M-23's engines could not break even the modest interdiction field rising from the onrushing Syndicalist raiding force. When the rounds started to initiate, the thrall commander was pleased to note that his life was not at an end. The impacts were not conventional Syndicalist shaped warheads. Rather, the vessel was bathed in the crackling lunacy of an EMP attack.

M-23 was immobile; wounded and slowed by the strike. There werte few options left, and the captain knew what sort of threat awaited his fellows across Makay- the Black Banner Fleet had played host to a swarm of convoy raiders, swift cruisers equipped to take as prizes thrall transports.

[Darkevilme]

Syndicalist incursion
Makay sector

Despite the hopeless odds the thrall ships do not waver. Despite the growing fear as they face their doom they’re not just unwilling but incapable of retreating, of disobeying their overlords and saving themselves. As death blossoms around them missiles teleporting and zooming into their formation, as one of their number dies and the others are battered by explosions, as their reserves of decoys are expended as fast as the launchers can reload to buy them precious time in the face of missiles beyond number, as a host of warships the likes of which has not been seen since the enclave war bears down on them like some colossal tide, they do not waver.

Laser links speaking between them amidst the deafening clamour of Syndicalist electronic warfare. As the enemy host closes to shorter and shorter range in their effort to rush by the thralls coordinate a fitting salute which may be their last.

Panels flipping open along their bows, lighting up in a second like Christmas as annihilation torches flare out by the hundred streaming towards the foe. The antimatter powered missiles achieving monstrous acceleration in their brief burntime, at longer ranges the minor course correction now available to them would have been scorned by enemy point defence and manouverability but at these ranges the story is far different. As at short range a hail of kinetic kill harpoons spread out from the thrall ships into the path of the enemy vessels already possessed of monstrous velocity themselves.

Though even now it's obvious that the thralls are failing to stop the enemy advance, not buying enough time. More assets pouring into the fray as from the bellies of the chamaran battleships swarms of drones issue forth. The conditioned minds of these tiny craft immediately setting to their objectives, first crossing through the hell of long range point defence and missile fire between the chamaran and syndicalist fleets then heedless of losses they begin their bombing runs. Cannonfire raking at lightly armoured sections targets and fusion bomb detonations blossoming across starships at the forefront of the syndicalist fleet, flashing armour plate to liquid and gas.

“Interloper warships coming into direct fire range battlemistress”
“Coordinate fire, all beams on the leadmost ship.”

As the range closes the chamaran heavy ships can finally start to lick out at the foe with their main guns, Fire crawling up the battleship arms before being unleashed as vicious fusion beams, spreading cones of destruction bathing the space around a single Syndicalist ship in thermonuclear fire. And as the range closes these fiery lances will only become more focused and lethal, as does the response of the enemy.

transport m-23
deep space
Makay sector

The technology of the thinking cattle suffered greatly as that emp pulse cascades through the hull. Drive systems going into shutdown as failsafes trigger, sensors and computers rebooting as the cascade subsides though starting the fusion drive will take far longer than the privateers will give them. The ship adrift in space in the meantime.

Though not everything on the ship was of human make, a small chamaran made beacon, hardened and of far more sophisticated manufacture starts to pulse out a distress signal from the crippled vessel.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Kushawni Unified Armada, just outside Makay space.

The immense armada of Kushawni starships tore through Hyperspace. Never before had so many of the Province ships been amassed at one time. Yet this is what they had been waiting for.

For the past few weeks, the CityMind had slowly moved ships to a staging point on the far northern border, each ship fresh from a special stop in one of the drydocks, each having been fitted with the specially designed Communications Broadcast Node, to aide in transmitting information from one ship to another in the diverse fleet.

For the past few weeks, they had been gathering, the CityMind justifying the amassing of forces, the general people fearful that the Xeno forces would invade, and thusly, they would have to be ready. But the truth was something different, something far more, covert. Few knew it, but the fleet had, all along been waiting for a single, a very specific single.

When long range FTL Sensors picked up a Syndiclist Armada passing by, the wait was over. Within moments a single was sent, and the fleet jumped.

Now, as it bore down on the edge of the Makay system, much was at last revealed. The lead Exelion Battleships, now the largest ship in the fleet after the loss of the Bentusilon had been refitted with a smaller “Avatar” computer mainframe, similar to the massive on from the Bentusilon, it too carried a copy of the CityMind. Immensely powerful, it had begun activating a secure network abroad every ship in the Armada.

On bored that lead ship, renamed now Fist of the CityMind The Fleet General, Everet Tosok activated shipwide communications.
He had the ear of the Armada at his call now, and he knew his next words would be historical.


Attnetion all ships! Very soon we shall drop out of Hyperspace, Very soon we shall enter into battle, Very soon, we shall change the coarse of history. Everything you have been waiting for, has led to his moment.

We know that for too long, chaos and disorder have reigned upon the Human Imperium, indeed it was the chaotic nature of the Old Imperium that brought about it’s eventual doom. But no more… Our hearts are opened, our minds are clear, We know now the new path, the right path, that path that shall Unify all of Humanity, that shall bring about a new age. It is a path that begins with a single step, this step, begins now, on the Doorstep of the Province of Makay, at the feet of it’s enemie!”

The bridge crew erupted in applause as similar cheers went along the vast outstretched Armada. Tosok stroad confidently to his seat, moments away from odering the fleet out of Hyperspace.

[Ohma]

-DSFV Virginia Hall, outer Megasrl system, Kushawni space-

Misato read through the brief snippet of comm. traffic that the Aaronsohn had caught.

Code: Select all

>#%%n-43-88888-90a
[***********]
*channel open*

#!%: I will say this, since the events at Makay, we have been more unified as fighting force. I’m not sure what it is, perhaps, ever since the installation of all those new communications towers, when the CityMind itself began daily broadcasts. There’s something… comforting about being able to hear him so directly now, everything seems a little more stable, a little more certain… The defeat at Godwins Hope, the loss of the Great Avatar… Such things pass, ships can be rebuilt, but the CityMind is forever.

So, something had happened in a place called Makay, and the Kushawni had lost a battle near somewhere named Godwin’s Hope. That would explain why their defenses were much more robust than the admittedly meager information that DIntDiv had would suggest. The only problem now was leaving the system and returning to base.

“Plot a course out of the system, have engineering make sure that nothing’s getting through the sink, and prep a decoy just in case.”

The tiny spec of light twisted back and began to speed quietly outwards toward the edge of the system, all but completely hidden to anyone without the delicate sensor equipment required to notice the slight bump that was the Virgina Hall against the constant background radiation of the universe.

-Outer Dayab system, Humanist Union space-

The small craft flies silently toward the fleet. Dozens of small missiles fire from it, trailing away in all directions. A small pod at its front swivels around in its mount and flashes spasmodically, several lights correspondingly flash off in the distance. Moments later the ship disappears in a bright cloud of superheated expanding gas.

[Tanasinn]

HNS Victor Aliyev
Third Mobile Unit
Dayab - System Edge

Silence reigned for a moment on the bridge of the Aliyev as visual sensors and targeting equipment confirmed the suicidal ship's destruction. Quick reports back from Def/Off and the Aliyev's accompanying ships confirmed no significant damage. It had been a futile attack on the destroyed vessel's part.

"And here I thought barbarians were zealots," Brookes said, half to herself. Then, "Launch a pair of shuttles to explore what's left of that wreck, see if they managed to launch pods or if any bodies can be recovered," her voice showed her skepticism, "have a full report on what's found for me," that said, she had the comms officer open a link back to the hijacked ship.

"Now, about that shuttle...it should be docking with your craft shortly. I will speak to you again once you're aboard. Aliyev out," closing the comms link and turning to her XO, she spoke again, "You have command. See to it that the other foreign ship gets the same treatment as that ship Lenaard found. No need to risk any further incidents."

With that, Brookes strode from the bridge towards the meeting room where the visitors would be guided. I have a feeling, she thought, straightening her plain uniform unconciously, That this is the first shot in something that is going to become much bigger.

[Crossroads Inc.]

-Taskforce Pemba outer Megasrl system, Kushawni space-

As the large Battlecruisers moved behind them, tradeship escorts fanning out, the trio of BusterMachines looked out ahead.

“They will make Hyperspace before the big guys have a chance to catch up to them, #11, do you still have their communication spiked?”
“Just barely 9, I can’t get any physical fix on their location, but I can read that they just sent a coded data pulse, most likely relaying what they got from us.”
15 smirked and nodded.

“Lets let them go home with one last piece of information… Don’t you agree?”
“Of course!”
“Aye aye!”

The three Busters once more linked their CyberBrains and entered into the fast machine speak… the single that had first entered their systems they could still feel out there, it was faint, weak, barely active, but it was enough.
Together, they narrowed a beam of information, and spiked a single datapacket back to the hidden unknown ship.

Code: Select all

[I]ATTENTION UNKNOWN VESSEL-WE KNOW YOU ARE HUMAN-WE KNOW YOU ARE NOT XENO-WHICH IS WHY YOU ARE STILL ALIVE-KNOW THAT THE KUSHAWNI DO NOT TAKE LIGHTLY TO THOSE THAT SKULK IN SHADOWS-IF YOU WISH TO KNOW US-YOU WILL MEET US FACE TO FACE[/I]

“Nice… Do you think it will get through?”
“It was a very weak single we hitched a ride on, might be heavily garbled… but they wil get enough” 15 smirked as the three flew back to report.

[Thirdfain]

Monarchs and Fascists Fear the Revolution
Flagship, Black Banner Fleet
Makay


The bravery displayed by the thrall picket-line would have been laudable, had they any choice in the matter, but the conflagration which reached out to engulf them was overwhelming. The Syndicalist van hove into view, courses set to pass the thrall formation on both sides. Twenty capital ships, including six large armoured cruisers and two battleships with full escort turned their short-range armaments on the handful of surviving light cruisers, even as their assorted defensive systems worked efficiently to clear aside the weak volleys returned. Explosions rippled against shields and sensor systems probed the angry night, looking for the telltales of kinetic "mines." No defense was perfect- the Isambard, a "Roaring Cannon"-class destroyer, failed to detect a field of kinetic penetrators in time to evade, and spun out of formation as a half-dozen imapacts overloaded her shields. Moments later, an antimatter shell hit her amidships, turning four hundred men and women into an expanding cloud of gas which would soon become indistinguishable from space's emptiness. Two fleet pickets suffered similar fates, and the Armoured Cruiser Monarchs and Fascists Fear the Revolution, at the van, briefly felt the comined firepower of the surviving thrall craft. However, there simply was not enough time- a major capital ship like the Fear the Revolution took considerable punishment to dispatch when under the guns of warships of a similar size, and the tattered and damaged thrall pickets did not fit the bill.

Great explosions lit the Fear the Revolution's shields, which flickered and failed. She took two major hits on her exposed hull before she was able to roll and present her undamaged flank. Secondary explosions marked the destruction of a number of her VLS cells and point defense weapons, but she was a formidable ship, built in the durable old Nordkaldic style and not one to succumb to a cursory bombardment.

In the time it took the weak thrall line to accomplish their task, a great butchery took place. Capital-scale particle beam turrets, armed to meet and defeat the defenses of other vessels of similar pedigree, punched into the thrall formation along with a vicious hail of short-range missiles packed with submunitions and shaped nuclear warheads.

What remained of the thrall line was little threat- even as the third Expeditionary, with the fleet's older battleships came into range of the thrall formation, the weapons on the Syndiclaist van turned to the fleeing enemy ships. Under normal conditions, it would be difficult to target individual warships at guided munition range, but the Syndicalist fleet enjoyed a significant advantage in ECM/ECCM capability compared to the surviving enemy, and the volleys of long-range missiles were all concentrated on a single target- one of the slower Dominion-class battleships. Even with their advantages in electronic warfare, many missiles would be spoofed or would be forced to retarget on different vessels, but the power of the Union Militias could not be denied.

Transport m-23
Deep Space
Makay Sector


The Syndicalist privateers operated under the so-called "Imperial" laws of war on the matter of convoy raiding. There had been examples in recent history of the sort of chaos and unnecessary loss of life which accompanied total war on the high spacelanes, and the largely genteel Nordkaldic officer class would not turn to more brutal methods without good reason. The life of spacers in the civilian merchant class was protected, and it was common knowledge that they could expect release or at worst imprisonment so long as they gave up without a fight.

<<MAKAYAN SHIP HEAVE TO AND PREPARE FOR BOARDING. YOUR VESSEL IS A PRIZE OF WAR UNDER ALL LAWS AND CUSTOMS. FAIL TO STAND DOWN FOR BOARDING WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE DESTRUCTION. YOUR CREW ARE AFFORDED THE FOLLOWING RIGHTS....>>

The message repeated, even as the Syndicalist raiding squadron launched an assault shuttle packed with marines and a small prize crew.

[Ohma]

-*former* DSFV Yoshiko Kawashima, outer Dayab system, Humanist Union space-

The spot on the command plate began to expand and fade, the smaller dots that had been the Sonya Olschanezky's sensor decoys disappearing one by one soon after. Kelly sighed and shook her head.

Toph "Kel, the shuttle is almost ready to dock."

"*sigh* Kaze, you're in charge while the 'commander' and I are away."

The small corridor that circled the Yoshiko Kawashima's heavily shielded reactor was empty from C&C to the Receiving Area. Xev stood in the middle of the room, her hands bound, Zeph holding a mag pistol at her back, Neri at the airlock. Xev's face was a tableau of quiet fury.

"Commander, I hope Zephhy hasn't been too rough bringing you here." Zeph smirked and shook her head.

Xev looked into Kelly's eyes. "How could you?" Her tone was honest.

"Xev, I don't expect you to understand. We're quite literally from different worlds. I just hope that when all this is over-"

The intercom sounded. "We've got hard seal." Neri opened the lock.

Zeph "Here we go commander."

The three women entered the umbilical between the Humanist shuttle and the Yoshiko Kawashima.

[Darkevilme]

Syndicalist incursion
Makay sector

As the syndicalist fleet passes their position there's little hope for the thrall vessels, all through the formation atmosphere venting hull ruptures and cascading system failures spell their end as fighting ships. Most now tumbling uselessly from the combined weapon impacts, their hulls scarred and glowing ruin and only a few are lit by the vain efforts of attitude jets or faltering drives in their efforts to limp away.

The chamaran drone weaponry with a single high powered signal from their fleeing masters turns on the incoming missile onslaught to form, for the time they'll last before human point defence cuts them down, a second point defence layer. But against this even the sophistication of chamaran technology is proving inadequate, the missiles still coming even after the myriad attempts to destroy them that scythe through their number. Missiles from the drones, hails of point defence fire, sensor ghosts projected as decoys from the chamaran ECM vessel causing them to explode uselessly apart from their targets, cones of fusion fire sweeping like flashlights through their formation from the Battleships and still the Syndicalist weapons come despite it all.

With their drives still winding up and their picket line destroyed true fear finally arises in the crew of Melusine's taskforce, for some will surely greet their ancestors before this day is out. The missiles hit, explosions burst within the chamaran formation as Syndicalist weapons do their work.

Ascendancy worst hit having taken far more than its share of the enemy onslaught, hit and hurt but by no means out of the fight the battleship continues to stream torpedoes back towards the enemy fleet. Damage control already going to work beneath the fresh cracks in the hull, only two of the Ascendancy's deadly fusion beam cannon now answering the call to fire. In open space ahead of the chamaran fleet spacetime is already twisting, a new star-like point of light shining within the system as energies bleed down from the high spectrums of U-space.

Makay transport M-23
Deep space
Makay sector

There's no response for some time but the steady pulse of the distress beacon within the freighter's boxy hull, the vessel seeming nothing more than a taller than it is wide stepped pyramid of metal ending in a base of oversized, now cold, drive motors for ground to orbit flights. Eventually as the assault shuttle matches velocity with the drifting freighter the communication gear aboard the vessel restarts and a response comes.

Understood, not much we can do about it anyway. Though may i ask your identity? And what you plan to do with a refugee ship?

Code: Select all

Casualties:
7 Makay cruisers destroyed
3 Makay cruisers crippled
Dominion class Chamaran battleship 'Ascendancy' damaged.

[Tanasinn]

Taxi-class Shuttlecraft
Third Mobile Unit
Dayab - System Edge

As the lock to the shuttle cycled open, two immense figures in body-concealing power armor snapped to attention. Despite the unreadable expression their sealed helmets gave them, each seemed to scan the trio of women, gazes resting briefly on Zeph before settling on Xev. Neither man, each holding a carbine, said a thing.

The third occupant of the shuttle, with his plain grey uniform, youthful features, and relaxed posture, seemed somewhat out of place, but if he himself noticed, he didn't show it.

"Ah, welcome aboard, then. I'm Lieutenant Erikson," he said briskly, giving the trio a sort of bowing nod by way of greeting and a brief grin at their returned greetings and given names.

"I apologize for the shuttle," he commented, gesturing around him to the almost-antiseptically clean passenger bay, seeming to watch the reaction of each woman to the bland craft, "normally we have dedicated craft for this sort of thing, but the Admiral prefers bay space be used on craft that can be useful in battle," at this, he sounds mildly bemused, and both armored guards seem to ever so slightly flick their gaze over him, "Nevertheless, it's had more comfortable seating installed, and that viewscreen, as well," at this last, he gestures to a flat display at the bay's front, "If you'd care to look, you should get a decent view of the Victor Aliyev as we come in for docking."

Indeed, having launched almost silently after the three women had stepped aboard, the Union battleship dominated the viewscreen with its flat-black bulk, the occasional weapons system the only apparent adornment. A sudden white light split the hull; a bay opening to re-admit the shuttle. Switching to hover-fields as it passed through the bay shield, the shuttle juked around the bay, giving its passengers a decent view of the crowding inside before picking out a likely spot and settling down with a heavy thud that made Lieutenant Erikson frown fleetingly.

"If you'll follow me, then," he said calmly, exiting the shuttle as the rear hatch opened and a ramp descended, "I'll take you to the meeting," the pair of guards in their power armor brought up the rear of the mismatched group and the crew of the docking bay went about their business without bothering to stop and stare, each uniformed in the same plain manner as Erikson. Nearby, the crew compartment of one of the runabouts sent to investigate the wrecked ships opened, a coffin-like affair. Its contents, a single man with a lead snaking up to his temple, sat up before disconnecting himself, yelling something to a bay crewman that made him bark out a laugh.

Erikson took in the looks of the three women and Xev in particular without any obvious emotion, "Most vehicle crew interface directly with the craft computer," he said conversationally, "It keeps numbers down, improves reaction times, and lets us cut out the space they need. Particulary important on battle taxis, where you want more space for them," at this, he gestures with his thumb to the armored guards. "Terrible if you're claustrophobic, though," at this last, the group had arrived at a lift. Calling it, the group waited in silence for a moment before a soft chime sounded and the doors slid open, revealing a large bay and only one other passenger: a gaunt, tall man with dead cyborg eyes.

Erikson ran a hand through his short-cropped red hair, "Lieutenant Vogel," he said briefly as he stepped aboard with the rest of the group.

"Lieutenant Erikson," the man returned, studying a datapad and giving a respectful nod to the trio of women.

"Lieutenant Vogel is a diplomatic specialist," Erikson said blandly as the lift rose, "He'll be one of the people sitting in at the meeting."

The lift stopped and the group filed out into a long, undecorated hallway, the two armored guards taking up the rear. After a brief, silent walk, Erikson stopped before a door no different from the others, and gave a brisk knock before pressing a button on an outside panel to admit the group and immediately snapping a quickly-returned salute to a red-haired uniformed woman.

"Ladies, this is Admiral Abigail Brookes," Erikson says, gesturing to the tall, sharp-featured woman to whom he had saluted, "These are acting Captain Kelly Ziao, Lieutenant Zeph, and former Captain Del Xev-Seigram."

The Admiral took each of them in turn with an intense gray gaze, smiling throughout, "Welcome aboard the HNS Victor Aliyev," she said. Then, gesturing to the round table in the room, "Please sit. I would be happy to provide refreshments, if you desire," taking her own advice, Brookes sat in a chair no different from the others at the table, though she seemed as if she wanted to spring to her feet and perhaps pace. Lieutenant Vogel picked one next to her and Erikson a seat seperated from her by another. The large room's other occupant, a young black-haired woman, took the other seat next to the Admiral.

"Now, ladies," Brookes said, "If you would tell me in full the situation?"

[Ohma]

-HMS Victor Aliyev, outer Dayab system, Humanist Union space-

Xev concentrated on remaining calm. She would not be so easily frightened by the patriarchy. She looked at the woman who had been introduced as Admiral Abagale Brookes. It was bizarre…how could they stand to work for them?

Kelly spoke “I guess I should start at the beginning. I’m sure that, by now, you all know everything there was to know about Alpha Cephi and Theta Mira before the war. Just like many other resource systems, those of us who weren’t lucky enough to be born into the nobility were just cheap labor. When the war began, we became free labor, and later, when things got more desperate, interchangeable parts.” She paused.

“When Terra fell, the nobles decided to keep us in the dark so they could use us however they wanted. They couldn’t keep the secret forever, eventually we found out, and after years of struggle, Alpha Cephi was free.” Zeph had a faraway look on her face.

“We had a little time to debate about what we should do to help Theta Mira, and to put some of the surviving aristos on trial, when the Dominatixiat invasion forces arrived. Zeph and I were both members of the Civil Space Patrol at the time, our orders if a foreign invasion force arrived, demanding our surrender were to comply. We didn’t have the firepower to take on anything better than raggedy old pirate ships. So when the invasion fleet demanded the surrender of the whole system, we went along with it. We didn’t realize who we were dealing with.” Another pause.

“A few hours after the general surrender, someone aboard one of the patrol ships that had been taken in by the invasion fleet sent a garbled transmission. They said ‘they’re killing us’. We were ordered back to defend Planet Bob-“ Xev scoffed at her use of the name, and gave Kelly a wry smile when she turned to ask “Do you have anything to add Xev?”

Kelly continued “We were outmatched in every way, most of the ships there surrendered outright. A couple squadrons of us tried to delay the troopships as long as possible…all but three of us were blown out of the sky. We jettisoned our escape pods and left our ships to burn up in the atmosphere.
Soon we found out what that transmission had been about. The Dominatrixiat troops had orders to find all the men…male humans on Bob, detain them for future exile from Dominatrixiat space, and kill them if there was any resistance.”

Kelly let that sink in. Xev thought it wonderfully dramatic of her.

[Tanasinn]

HNS Victor Aliyev
Third Mobile Unit
Dayab - System Edge

The reactions from the Aliyev's crew were mixed: the dark-haired woman seated next to the admiral looked to be somewhere between incredulous and shocked, while Lieutenant Erikson's earlier feeling of good humor seemed to have faded. Admiral Brookes, among the group, looked incensed, but then she had already seemed such. Only Lieutenant Vogel, with his expressionless artificial eyes, looked entirely unaffected: he simply studied the three women silently, thin lips pursed slightly, hands folded on the round table's gleaming surface.

The distant throb of the engines somewhere far off could be heard as the admiral took a moment to reply, shifting in her seat as she did, "To what end and extent was this course of action pursued? I assume you have some proof, perhaps aboard your starship's computer?"

[Ohma]

-HNS Victor Aliyev, outer Dayab system, Humanist Union space-

Xev decided to clarify. “That was what our forces were initially ordered to do. We changed our policies soon after our occupation began.”

Zeph glared at Xev. Kelly continued “But not before a few thousand men on Bob had been killed, and many more women were taken away to ‘counseling centers’ so they could be re-educated. They only stopped the killing because some of us continued fighting them. Staging protests outside spaceports to distract their patrols while we sabotaged their equipment, planting bombs in munitions plants, inciting riots.
They did change their orders. Under the new Dominatrixiat laws, men have three choices, exile, life imprisonment on a barely habitable moon, or forced sterilization, sex and gender reassignment, and life as a second class citizen.
Since then we’ve very slowly been losing the support of the general public. Most of the women who openly supported us have been arrested, and most who sympathize with us are generally too scared to do any more than say we have their support.”

“Kelly,” Xev began “I had no idea you and the others were so…so indoctrinated. Sera was always saying that I should recommend you to the Psych division…but I refused to believe that you had been hurt so much in your time under Them-”

“You shut the hell up!” Zeph stood.

“Zeph!” Kelly. Zeph paused, her expression pleading Kelly to let her unleash a torrent of verbal abuse on their former commander. She returned to her seat.

Kelly “We have some records aboard, the rest of us who’ve taken the ship can confirm this, and I’m sure you can get something from our prisoners as well…eventually.”

[Tanasinn]

HNS Victor Aliyev
Third Mobile Unit
Dayab - System Edge

At this last comment by Ziao, the ghost of a smirk quirked at the corner of Lieutenant Vogel's mouth before his face returned to complete impassivity. For their part, the crew members of the Victor Aliyev seemed unruffled by Xev's interjection and Zeph's outbursts both.

"Unless you want to transfer your records via hard copy, our ship can interface directly with yours and download the relevant files. I'll have done whichever you prefer," she paused for a second before continuing, "The nature of these accusations is serious. Mass murder, gender-based terrorism of the highest order; these are anti-human crimes that we take very seriously, particularly in these turbulent times." Her gray-eyed gaze flitted from Xev to Kelly, "To say nothing of espionage, illegal trespassing by foreign warships, and attacking a Union naval vessel despite explicit orders to the contrary."

Brookes' intense gaze zeroed in on Xev, "I would hear your side of this issue," her gaze flickered only briefly to Kelly, "That is, unless you have further to add, Captain Xiao."