Though Damned We Were, We Stand Now Upon Greatness -Finished

by **Free Terra** » Sun Apr 20, 2014 11:16 pm

RULES
1. I am OP, I am law
2. No godmodding with unstoppable fleets or ridiculous deployments
3. Try to give diplomacy a chance
4. Remember that this is a 3-system nation. Space tyrants or not, don't number wank about your supposed 50 systems and megafleets, as mentioned in rule 2. Because then I have to break the rules to stop you from breaking the rules, and nobody likes that.
5. This will be an exploration-style first contact event where we meet a nation with similar intent regarding a wormhole being investigated.
6. At this point, Free Terra has had 300 years to expand and consolidate, so it will be quite fortified and its navy, though inexperienced, will be large enough to deter most threats.
7. Let's try to keep this UNDER 5 members for now, TG me to get involved.

((And with no further ado, the story...))

X Years From Now
August 9.
The world is a hellish battleground, all nations have taken sides in a new World War, bearing many different names across the combatants, Free Terra simply calls it Obliteration. As It's alliances are falling, Free Terra makes a stunning technological breakthrough. They unlock the mysteries of the Warp Core. The President and his Government realize that they have few options, and the call is made.
August 10.
In a last ditch attempt, the nation builds as many colony ships as it can, using it's technological prowess to the fullest, forcing drones to fight on the front to keep human casualties at a minimum. All non-essential equipment is sent to allied nations to help the war effort.
May 13.
As the last Colony ship is completed, A single supply launch is made to the sole remaining Polaris Orbital platform.
May 23.
Free Terra is ready for the undertaking. On the president's birthday, the Colony ships launch, bearing nearly 450 million survivors of the hell that is Earth, but less than a 4th of the population just a few years prior. As a birthday gift that he shared with everyone, the President gave them a new start. Polaris fires a single shell once all ships are confirmed safe. It is not the standard warhead, instead, it carries antimatter to erase all that is Free Terra on Earth. After the shell hits the surface, Free Terra's existence on the world is wiped away.
May 24.
Polaris de-orbits on a course to thrust itself into the earth, where a proud capitol building used to stand. The crash site marks the gravestone of the old superpower known as Free Terra's legacy on the world.

Day 15 of voyage: President orders non essential personnel and civilians into stasis. Once all are 'asleep', the warp drives are activated, and co-ordinates are set to a place where those who seek the final demise of Free Terra would never follow.
Day 20: President implanted with Quantum neural implant, thinking power increased by innumerable scales. President put in stasis after he is confirmed healthy. Nanite injections into President's body begin.
Day 40
Destination Reached. Stable Wormhole to unknown regions of space. Warp deactivated, sub-luminal travel utilized for crossing. Chance of successful Flotilla crossing 100%.
Crossing successful.
Receiving end is confirmed to be a distant galaxy, Plasma Storms detected. Deep Scan of galaxy commenced... Safe system found, Warp Drives activated.

Year 10, Month 4, Day 7
Destination Reached. Orbiting. Stasis unlocked. Populace awake, Nanite injections of President Alexander confirmed complete. Beginning initiative 'Homecoming'.
Year 15 Month 5, Day 1
Seeding process complete, populace is safely on surface of planet designated "Terra Novus." Civilization under reconstruction...

200 Years Later - Golden Age
Humanity has found a home in this Planet, this place they call "Terra Novus". While it was hard, they used their technological genius to the fullest, and resumed where they left off in an astounding 150 Terran years, and have colonized 4 other planets in a span of 50. Magus Prime, Arcadia, Haven and Noctis Magna As well as spreading throughout it's 3 systems, named Sol Nova, Arteria Cranium, and Arteria Aorta. Attaining a rich infrastructure, and a powerful military to ensure it's continued survival. However, a mere 4 light-years away from Arteria Aorta's outermost Planet, a wormhole much like the one used to find their home is spotted by astronomers of Magus Prime. Word spreads quickly, and the Government advises the astronomers to watch and wait.

100 Years After Golden Age Begins
Free Terran Society has never been at a higher point. After so many years, the Government begins construction of a Gargantuan vessel, the Imperator Calamitatis. After it began construction, rumors suddenly sprouted of the long-thought-dead President Alexander being it's CO. At first, it was dismissed as childish lies, but somehow word got out about the President's Quantum Implantation and Nanite injections in stasis. Everyone began to wonder if he was really dead.
Scientists have constantly been reporting matter and energy shifts from the wormhole at Arteria Aorta. A few people think that they're just hungry for cash and attention, but the Govt. has finally decided to prepare an advanced probe ship to investigate, and to attempt to lay the scientists' weary heads to rest.

Magus Prime, Star-Base Orion
2200
Final launch checks on the Prototype Vessel completed, engine nominal, jump drive primed, system diagnostics show no hindrances, defensive system checks complete. Launch Scheduled for 0000.
2300
Captain Daniel Jäger (pilot) requests name for vessel, suggests "Sagittarius".
2301
Name approved by senior personnel.
2330
Science outpost on Arteria Aorta, Planet VI, Moon 4, reports odd radiation signatures from a system not too far from the wormhole. Govt. considers signatures to be negligible at this time.
0000
Sagittarius launch confirmed. Experimental jump drive initiated.
0001
Sagittarius arrives at wormhole. Probing process begins, unmanned probes launched to collect data. Probes cross. Sagittarius sits at 1 km from event horizon for unmanned probing.

by **Purge Fleet A-304956** » Mon Apr 21, 2014 4:59 pm

((NPC Nation to bump/get the ball rolling))

Wormhole 28563-H

The typical Seeker drone was not much to look at, long, spindly, minimal weaponry, and grotesque design. It was alien in every sense of the word. The small body was instructed to monitor the nearby wormhole until ordered otherwise by fleet command. The Drone moved in to investigate the disturbances in the wormhole's structure to find a long, sleek vessel directly before it, this vessel was considerably larger than most that were encountered by this particular model.

The drone quickly scanned and reported the disturbance to the nearest nest for backup should it be required.

Code: Select all: UNEXPECTED PARAMETERS... VERIFYING TARGET ABILITIES... TARGET VERIFIED. MINIMAL WEAPONRY. ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS. CONFIRMED TARGET POSSESSES ADVANCED EXPLORATION EQUIPMENT. TARGET AFFILIATION: UNKNOWN. RECOMMENDED ACTION: CONSUME, LEARN, DESTROY. COMMENCING ACTION... [INCIDENT LOGGED TO NEAREST NEST: HUB-809-06]

At this, the small body revealed itself and began charging its main weapons, particle blasters. Just as the attack began, the slender vessel retrieved the probes it had launched, and the drone could detect an enemy signature ping. It was fighting back.

Central AI

Code: Select all: INITIALIZING... DATA FOUND... CALCULATING... DONE. SEEKER DRONE 3546 DETECTED STRANGE ENTITY AT WORMHOLE DESIGNATION - 28563... VESSEL ENCOUNTERED DID NOT MATCH ANY KNOWN SIGNATURE... RECOMMENDED ACTION: PROBE NEARBY SYSTEMS TO FIND TARGET CIVILIZATION... FOLLOW UP: DESTROY TARGET CIVILIZATION ... LOGGED... [END]

by **Free Terra** » Mon Apr 21, 2014 11:20 pm

Wormhole

As Captain Jäger finished probing and scanning, a strange vessel appeared with an energy spike. He slammed the thrusters to 100% and took an orbit path to counter the strange craft's advance, greatly outmaneuvering he smaller vessel. While Sagittarius large, it certainly didn't lack any speed. The ship registered a lock had been acquired, but before Jäger was able to fire, he had to gain permission from command.
"This is Captain Jäger, an unidentified vessel has appeared and may be attempting to engage, I'm picking up large energy readings for the tube-like protrusions. I'm attempting to contact it with a stand-down message now."
At this, he pinged in binary for the craft to power down its weapons, which provoked twin particle blasts narrowly missing the Sagittarius.
"Vessel has opened fire, engaging!"
The Sagittarius unleashed 6 missiles from its launchers towards the contraption attacking it. Upon contact with said missiles, the craft erupted in a storm of smoldering metal and arcing electricity.
"Captain Jäger here, target destroyed, leaving combat area now. I've got the probes and combat scan of the craft. I'll tell the spooks about it AFTER I've gotten to safety."
The Jump Drive initiated, and the ship appeared once again near the familiar view of Starbase Orion.

Starbase Orion
"So that's all you have to report?" The intelligence official asked after Daniel had explained the incident
"Yes sir, that's my final report. May I please be uncuffed now?" Daniel asked, less than pleased about the arm and leg restraints being seen as required for him.
"Of course. The Great Federal Republic thanks you for your time." The suited man said, pressing a button on his wrist, releasing the cuffs and restraints.

He had made first contact, and the entire group represented may be placed in peril by whatever the hell he had just broken.

Osmium district, Terra Novus
A shining parliamentary room stood, thick with tension, as two opposing sides fought for the appeal of the rest of the governing body. The issue at hand: Who has jurisdiction over the developing situation near Arteria Aorta involving hostile contact.
"The alien vessel appeared and was destroyed very recently, and we're still in the process of investigating what happened, you can't possibly think that putting this under the jurisdiction of the military is a good idea." The Secretary of Foreign Affairs stated before the parliament. "What if they launch an invasion? We can't get complacent at a time like this. We need to act, the 4th Armada is on standby in Arteria Aorta, we can intervene and launch a counter attack at the drop of a hat. Just give the word." The Secretary of Defense pleaded. "Are you mad? An offensive strike would only aggravate the delicate situation. We can't throw away the possibility of peace so soon." The Secretary of Foreign Affairs rebutted. "What if they want payback? Maybe throwing a few battleships at it would send them far away! Then peace would be kept." The Secretary responded.

A hand rose from the man sitting quietly at the highest seat. The two stopped their arguing to hear what he had to say. "I suggest that the military be given command in the case of foreign aggression, but the science committee will still have direct control over the operation until any additional incidents occur. At such point, have the fleet engage threats accordingly." The two, wearing half-disappointed looks on their faces, simultaneously said: "Yes, Mr. President." Before returning to their seats. "I do believe this meeting is adjourned." The President said, causing the other parliamentary members to stand up, salute, and leave the room. A woman, the Vice President, was the only one aside from the President still in the room. "...David, are you sure this is the right thing to do?" She asked. "I have lived eons longer than any normal human is supposed to, I have seen countless atrocities come from innumerable mistakes... Yes, we must have faith in the idea of peace." He said to the Vice. "Very well then, let's get going." She said, escorting him out.

by **Purge Fleet A-304956** » Tue Apr 22, 2014 5:44 pm

Wormhole 28563-H

Through their slipspace drives, 50 Mk. 17 Assault Drones appeared alongside 20 Seeker Drones. The hunt for a new civilization to purge had begun. The Central AI had deemed the recorded data of the Unknown Craft as capable of destruction by a 70 unit fleet with a 5:2 Assault Drone ratio.

The Seekers activated their drives and headed to the 3 nearest systems in packs of 5s. From there, they had positioned at key points around the system to pinpoint activity. The scanning protocol had finished within 5 minutes, and there was impressive amounts of activity in each system. The Assault Drones were called to launch a raid on the nearest system to 28563-H as to begin the cleansing.

Central AI

Code: Select all: INITIALIZING... DATA FOUND!... LOG REPORT- 2645284592... OPENING... UNKNOWN CIVILIZATION FOUND... RECOMMENDED ACTION: PURGE... EXECUTING RECOMMENDED ACTION... FAILURE PARAMETERS: CIVILIZATION RESISTS ATTEMPTS AT PURGE... RECOMMENDED CONTINGENCY: REDOUBLE EFFORTS TO PURGE... FAILURE PARAMETERS OF CONTINGENCY: CIVILIZATION FURTHER RESISTS ATTEMPTS TO PURGE... RECOMMENDED DOUBLE CONTINGENCY: RETREAT FROM CIVILIZATION TO BEGIN DEFENSIVE WAR EFFORT... -[SUPPLEMENTARY INCIDENT REPORT FROM PREVIOUS ENGAGEMENT]- MESSAGE CONTAINED STRINGS OF 8-DIGIT POSITIVE AND NEUTRAL UNITS... BASIC GRASP OF COMPUTING LANGUAGE CONFIRMED... PROCESS HAS BEGUN OF DECIPHERING MESSAGE... TRANSLATION LANGUAGE REQUIRED... RECOMMENDED ACTION: ACQUIRE ALIEN LANGUAGE ALGORITHM... [END]

by **Free Terra** » Tue Apr 22, 2014 7:38 pm

Arteria Aorta

At the sight of 50 strange ships appearing on-scan near a military station at Planet VI, Moon XIV followed by emergency broadcasts and siege alerts, the science committee gave ownership of the situation to the military, quickly coordinating a defensive fleet movement to save the station.

Bridge of the FTN Brutus, Bulwark Class cruiser
30 Glistening bodies of other the other craft flew alongside the Brutus, they were to defend the station at all costs according to the orders. The proposition of fighting an external threat in a nation spanning 3 Star Systems spooked the crews. The all-clear was given from the rest of the fleet, and the Brutus gave the fleet orders to jump. Not 2 seconds later, the whole fleet entered the same warp bubble and the station soon came into view. Strange bodies were assaulting it and firing strange bolts of blue at it. The fleet began to take offensive orbits and pelt them from optimal ranges. One by one, the craft stopped assaulting the station, and turned to fight the fleet. The guns from one of the Megalith Class vessels tore a pair of the strange craft to bits. They opened fire on the Terran fleet, but the heavier designs were more than ready to absorb the plasma rounds caught from the invaders.

Primitive weapons, as it were. Free Terran energy shielding and alloyed armor could easily absorb the incoming rounds. The hostile fleet had dwindled to ten before they all simply retreated. The fleet was even able to pick off an additional two or three before they disappeared through strange dimensional phenomena. The combat data retrieved could prove useful in the future, and the Grand Admiral of the Navy was informed of what had happened.

Reports came in of alien craft on the outskirts of all Terran systems, but each one was annihilated by the systems' defensive fleets.
"Pitiful Aliens, really." Thought James Arnhem, Captain of the Brutus

Osmium District, Terra Novus

"I, as President of the Great Federal Republic of Free Terra, call this emergency meeting of the Admiralty Council to order." David said from atop his seat of power. "Yes, Mr. President. As you all know, a recent string of attacks came from the aliens met less than 24 hours ago. These attacks were using very feeble designs, and suggest that the enemy is probing us for information. In addition, the wrecks from the craft we destroyed has yielded no information as of yet, other than the design specifications of these vessels." The Grand Admiral of the Navy spoke before his brethren. "I'm open to suggestions on how to deal with the matter at hand." He opened the floor to the rest of the council. "I say we begin construction of the massive designs proposed by our design companies. Surely the enemy shall increase the ferocity of its attacks very soon, we need to stay ahead of it." A young High Admiral backed by Protectors of the Free voiced his biased opinion. "No, we must continue to drive out the attackers. If we find any hint of enemy home coordinates, we can deploy and send them packing. I propose a swift counter offensive." An older Grand Admiral suggested. "No, Mr. President, I propose that the topic of the Emperor Project be reconsidered." Another spoke, which drew the President's attention quickly.

"What do you mean? The Imperator is already under construction." Everybody waited for the Grand Admiral to respond. "Mr. President, I propose we allocate more funding and accelerate the project in order to have the Titan pre-built as to keep the enemy from returning each time we repel them." It was a strange proposal, but one by one, each Admiral came forward with support of the idea. Perhaps the political tool David held in the monster vessel wasn't needed as much to hold power as it was to allow for the union of the military's brainpower. "...Motion... Approved." David gave a response after weighing his decisions.

Public Address on the Matter of Extraterrestrial Contact and Subsequent Foreign Aggression

"Hello, brave citizens of the Great Federal Republic. We stand before you with grave news, 22 hours ago, we contacted an unknown and hostile entity near the Aorta Wormhole. This entity has aggressively and deliberately attacked us, launching a swift siege of Star-Base Sentinel in Arteria Aorta. Thankfully, the Free Terran 4th Armada has handled the situation beautifully, annihilating the threat at hand. We need not mourn, however, as there were no casualties taken by the attack, which dealt superficial damage to the station and three 4th Armada vessels. Citizens, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters of Free Terra, today, we go to war. Such violent actions shall not be tolerated, and the enemy will be eradicated swiftly and without mercy... My People, we must rise."

The Secretary of State gave the official announcement over the interstellar quantum link operated by the government. The whole nation now knew what must be done. All of the GFRFT's military was now devoted to destroying the hostile threat, whatever it may truly be.

by **Purge Fleet A-304956** » Wed Apr 23, 2014 12:40 am

Wormhole 28563-H

A large number of Mk. 17s appeared, 200 of the spindly drones phased into existence followed by countless smaller combat drones. The purge was finally about to get underway. The probing attack yielded a boon of combat data on the hostile structures and ships. Highly resilient compared to previous cleansings, with more advanced technology as a whole. Redundant, alloyed armored plating, reinforced shield systems and highly sophisticated weapons.

That was why Central AI decided that the group in question would be brought down using more extreme swarm tactics than normal, typically a 50 unit fleet would cause at least 20% casualty rates, but there wasn't any hostile losses in the probing attack. Within 30 minutes, the large battle group activated drives and began their assault once they landed.

Once again, they attacked a random base, but this one was substantially closer to the star, with a faster response time. The larger ships once again appeared, with greater numbers this time, and larger ships themselves. This fight would get results either way, 50 of these strange designs versus nearly 530 combat-proven drones.

by **Free Terra** » Wed Apr 23, 2014 8:24 pm

Star-base Guardian

As the large fleet appeared, the call for help was sent by the base. The self-defense drones were ejected, all 95 of the sentry drones were launched like missiles into position to attack the hostiles. After a moment, they opened fire on the hostile fleet. The station's shield and guns were raised to fend off the attackers. Once the Terran Fleet came in to defend the Star-base, the invading fleet switched their attention from the station to the large Cruisers and Battle-Cruisers assaulting them. Two Sentinel Classes bombarded the fleet from afar as a Butcher Class Battle-Cruiser soaked up shots. There were more enemies than previously thought, but the Terran ships were more than a match for the quality of what the enemy had brought.

The enemy escort vessels were dealt with by the fleet's drones as well as the Station's automated defenses. This made the fight as a whole much more manageable, as the fight was practically even when counting the near-350 drones on board the Free Terran vessels. The hostile fleet was once more on the losing side of the fight. This was another resounding victory waiting to happen, however, the Sentinel Class battle cruiser FTN Vengeance had lost its shields in the fight, and began to initiate emergency warp once the armored plating began to give. The ship had thankfully made it out, but would be out of commission for a few days to repair. The first loss of the war was averted just narrowly.

In under 20 minutes, the hostile fleet had been reduced to nearly half of what it was originally, and the Free Terrans had the advantage of numbers and firepower. Eventually, the Bulwark cruisers had to release nanite clouds to repair friendly ships' armored plates that had been worn down by the enemy. It was a tough fight, but everything was going well.

by **Vivoe** » Wed Apr 23, 2014 10:48 pm

Senatus in caelis - Homonus sector, three Astronomical Units from the Twin Sisters.

Spies were in place around the so called Free Terra, a nation that for so long had thought the Caelis to be dead and the plan for retribution had been something in progress for a decade, building, plotting, spying, warring. Using every means of proxy warfare including piracy, insurgency, terrorism, anything that could hinder Free Terra without raising suspicion that Cealis had rose again. This time however the people, tortured and abused in a history of bloodshed brought about hundreds of years ago, this time they were ready.

3AU outside the orbit of the Twins held in position six carriers, a dozen frigates and two supply ships held in formation, waiting for a single code from command. An hour they waited, and then across the FTL coupling link came two words "Rising Star". The ships jumped to warp, the frigates leading the charge by half a second ahead of the carriers, this way once they dropped out of warp the first ships to take enemy fire would be the more expendable frigates, ships with far less crew to sacrifice.

Bridge of the SICW Nightingale, flagship of the expeditionary fleet.

Admiral Red Ventus sat in his command chair of the most powerful ship in the fleet. Slightly modified compared to other carriers in the fleet, the flagship through tradition was always supposed to be more powerful than allied ships, even just slightly. The Nightingale held a bank of 1,350 drones over the standard 1,200 and half a dozen more turrets over the hull of its vast body. The ships was sleek and long, forming a thin diamond cross section from the front with the edges of the diamond forming long wings, more designed to absorb radar and sensor outputs than to be of any aesthetic meaning. Ventus warped in, the dozen frigates were already holding position, their own shape very similar with a dark thin and curved cross section that had little obtrusive pieces across the hull.

The rest of the fleet arrived just a couple seconds after Nightingale dropped out of warp, short range radar detected no threats within the first couple seconds of range. Space was big and the travel time of light had to be taken into account before you could be sure that an area really was clear of threats. The landing zone was clear, already checked out by a local "Courier" working as a spy but a battle fleet could not take the readings of a civilian ship as law. They held position, it took roughly 7 minutes for light to travel across 1AU and doctrine said that a fleet must always be in control of an area 1AU around them. It was quite a skill organizing a radar sweep in 3 dimensional space, especially when a warp drive ship could theoretically dodge an incoming radar sweep by travelling faster than light.

"Sir sweep has come back, numerous contacts throughout space but only one that has been confirmed military." Commander Luvrey said. Ventus brought the scan results up on his private screen, there was a large cluster of detected craft far off near a known station, probably military. The fleet was arrayed to defend the station, no doubt there were enemies combating them but they must have been too small for radar to effectively detect and identify at this range. The echo coming back 14 minutes after the first pulse was sent out was without a doubt Free Terran craft, after all, who else could it be? "Commander, we will be engaging immediately. Fire nuclear torpedoes 1 through 8, wide spread for a radiation shield."
"Sir." Luvrey said, carrying out the command by repeating the order across the bridge. It was a fairly standard operation, by this time the radar would have been detected and a jamming signal immediately directed towards the Caelis fleet. To counter this and cause more confusion nuclear weapons would be detonated to bombard enemy sensors with radiation and effectively jam any radar waves going either way through the area. The moment the radiation shield had detonated the fleet would go to warp, the shield would stop the enemy fleet from detecting the warp bubble and the wasted energy created when starting a warp bubble. In this way it would totally block out the enemy fleet from getting any further information with sensors and their going to warp would go unnoticed until their dropped out.

"Sir, radiation shield is working." Luvrey said.
"Warp in 0.3 AU behind the enemy fleet, send Hermes and Mars frigates to hit this side's flank. Warp speed in 20 on my mark... Mark!" Ventus said. The ships took to warp speed, the warp bubble separating them from conventional space and time rendering them invisible to incoming active radar but visible to passive radar that detects radiation emissions and while that did broadcast their position, the various spectrum of light radiation that the warp bubble created in its wake could only travel at light speed, a ship in warp could travel 20 times the speed of light. Ventus was following doctrine and timed it accordingly, they would drop out of warp at their required positions just thirty seconds before the radiation shield was detected by the enemy fleet causing at least some degree of chaos and saturate the enemy sensors with incoming signals across every bandwidth imaginable. It would hinder all radio transmissions but quantum coupling communication could not be effected by less than direct intervention with high explosives.

The ships dropped out of warp just 0.3 AU from the Free Terra fleet, guns at the ready and as soon as the frigates brought their spinal mounted guns to bear on the enemy they fired. Invisible as lasers were in the vacuum of light , the gunners and helmsmen used computer systems that plotted the course of lasers beams with coloured beams across the computer screens. The carriers began releasing clouds of drones, at the moment only 120 each from six carriers. Spread apart wide and using randomized flight patterns that jerked each probe about a metre or two in random directions about three times every second. These movements massively increased the chance of enemy weaponry missing its mark, unfortunately it was just not possible to put this technology onto a ship manned by humans despite many very messy attempts. The frigates began firing extremely high output spinal mounted lasers but at 0.3 au it would still take around 2.1 minutes to make impact with the enemy ships, roughly 50 seconds before the lasers made their target however, the Free Terra ships would detect their landing just behind them

I apologize for making this so boring, normally when I write I feel really into it but writing that felt more like a task and I'm sure it came through in the writing

hopefully next post will be better, more action, more characters, more booms

by **Free Terra** » Wed Apr 23, 2014 11:49 pm

Arteria Aorta, Star-base Sentinel

Just as the fight was entirely in the favor of the Free Terrans, the sensors systems became ridiculously saturated with activity. Obviously something was going on, an emergency quantum broadcast was sent to command to get reinforcements as well as a sit-rep of gravitational disturbances from an outside source. It was at that point that thermal readings spiked from a set of coordinates behind the fleet. The readings were consistent with beam attacks from weapons-grade lasers. The FTN Ira Domini, an Orion Class battlecruiser was dispatched alongside 3 Thresher Class destroyers to the target coordinates.

Within seconds, they came within optimal range of a small group. They appeared substantially different from the constructs that were just being dealt with. Nevertheless, a threat is a threat. The Terran detachment locked onto the attacking group and fired at them with malice.
Meanwhile, at the main fight, a large amount of fighter drones appeared on the field. Coupled with the required increase in shield output to counter the laser fire, the Terran drones had their priorities switched to the strange constructs that had presented themselves. Of course, the original entity was still a threat, but they seemed to have divvied up their firepower to fight the new arrivals. Perhaps these new threats would wipe out the original issue so there was less work to do.

Arteria Aorta, Star-base Providentia

The call came in for assistance near Sentinel, and the High Admiral of the 3rd Aorta Fleet gave the order to un-dock and move to assist as soon as possible. He personally left in his Vanguard Battleship, FTN Rex Tremendae Majestatis to lead the way.
"Fleet, we have reports of new entities on field near Sentinel. Large drone groups were detected and they appear to be unaffiliated with the original threat. Switch to anti-fighter configuration for all vessels below the size of battlecruiser. The host ships will likely require a good kicking if they can carry so many of the damned things. Captains of ship sizes battlecruiser and up, you're to accompany my flagship into optimal range of the original enemy fleet to attack them until we can pinpoint the host ships. Cruiser classes through frigate classes, you will directly engage the enemy drone units until ordered otherwise. Be prepared, we will be dropping into a hot situation. Warp on my mark... 3... 2... 1... MARK. Warp to designated positions now!"

He briefed before the reinforcement fleet entered two separate warp bubbles. Once the Admiral's group landed aligned to the star's north in relation to Sentinel. The Defense Fleet had already flown to a spread-out position below the 3rd. A Defense-Fleet dispatch had already engaged a small enemy strike group closer to the presumed enemy location. In this 3-way chaos, it was hard to tell, but the rest of the 3rd appeared directly behind the Defense force to begin screening the drones. 40 of the Base's automated sentries were destroyed or out of ammo, but what was left switched to blast the incoming drones instead of ripping the original group to bits.

The gravitational disturbances of the enemy motherships appeared on-scan, and the High Admiral's battlegroup prepared to engage.

((Forgive me if anything seemed godmoddy, but it's late here in the states and I will have to head off to bed for the night. TG if there's any problems I should fix when I wake up and I'll fix them before I leave in the morning.))

by **Vivoe** » Thu Apr 24, 2014 12:39 am

OOC: Well you're not telling me how many casualties I am receiving so it's not GMing. How many warships do you actually have in the field? I only have six carriers and 12 frigates, the frigates being very low tonnage and not nearly as powerful as a battleship or battle cruiser.

IC:

Main Battle Fleet, located 0.3 AU to the rear of the fleet defending Star-base Guardian

The ships of Free Terra responded quickly, a a decent amount faster than Ventus had hoped but no plan ever did survive contact with the enemy. "Mobilize 60% of all drones, radiation shield formation." Ventus said. This was a different type of shield against radar, instead of a nuclear reaction which creates massive amounts of radiation that jammed the radar detectors, the drone shield instead moved the thousands of drones into a massive array ahead of all Caelis combat ships. This acted much more like chaff of the jet fighters of old, set to a distant that was half the width of the incoming radar waves it effectively blocked out all radar in and out and instead returned an echo of something similar to a sold wall. To confuse radar operators on the other end even further the drones increased their movements meaning that each wave that echoed got a different distance and location reading dozens of times a second across a wall that masked the fleet almost entirely. It took just a few minutes to assemble with the on board computers cooperating to effectively form the shield. Combat at this range, even with lasers was mostly posturing and the light lag meant anything that wasn't a laser was almost meaningless and threats that were lasers could easily miss just from a ship changing course in the time between firing and impact.

Twin Frigate Detachment located 0.05 AU to the flank of the fleet defending Star-base Guardian

The two frigates dropped out of warp and immediately began firing procedures, it would take just thirty seconds for the radar to hit a target and then return back, at which point the super high out put spinal laser would fire on the closest ships available. Sure enough, 30 seconds passed and numerous ships appeared on radar, the two frigates were spoiled for choice but they didn't have time to slowly pick targets and instead locked up the closest target. The computer worked a firing solution, predicting the ships most likely path given current size, speed and direction. The pulsing noise of the laser banks could only be heard by the crew inside but it was a noise that felt like pure power in the form of a highly directed anti-ship laser. A moment later they fired, the invisible beams lancing out into space to hit a target so far that light lag was an actual problem. At 0.05AU the distance was still 7 479 893 kilometres, about 7 million kilometres too far for missiles since a launch could easily be detected and avoided with FTL warp.

Still, the frigates fired, moved, fired, moved, fire and then really moved. After three shots each at six targets the two frigates caught glancing blows, enemy laser fire from much less powerful turret mounted guns bounced off the shields, rendering only minor energy drains from the shield banks. The two frigates charged up their warp droves once more and dove into the FTL travel, moving with a speed that makes even lightning look slow. They dropped out just moments later, appearing above relative to the Terran fleet, much closer this time, only 0.02AU (just under 3 million Ks) away. Once there they began firing, not staying around long enough for radar echoes to tell them whether or not the laser shots ever actually hit their intended targets. Once three shots had been fired each they disappeared again into their warp bubbles, shooting away at immense speeds to avoid retaliation.

by **Vivoe** » Thu Apr 24, 2014 11:18 pm

OOC: I apologize for any errors in time lag and stuff, most of it is going off the fact that 1AU is the distance of earth to the sun and light takes about 7 minutes to move across that gap. So things aren't exactly precise and I'm doing most of it in my head so decimal points might be in the wrong place or whatever, seconds instead of minutes and vice versa. Math was never my strong point

by **Delmonte** » Fri Apr 25, 2014 12:58 am

OOC: I'm really not into FT, but this is interesting. You can bet I'll be following this and reading it as it develops. Good work, guys.

by **Vivoe** » Fri Apr 25, 2014 3:10 am

Delmonte wrote:OOC: I'm really not into FT, but this is interesting. You can bet I'll be following this and reading it as it develops. Good work, guys.

Yes, well this is effectively my first FT RP. I like the sort of "Hard" Sci-Fi where the speed of light and stuff like that effects combat, it just adds a lot more than simply point and shoot

by **Vivoe** » Fri Apr 25, 2014 9:36 pm

OOC: Don't stop posting please, I want to see this through because it's really cool!

by **Free Terra** » Sun Apr 27, 2014 12:07 am

((Yikes, the timing of my family doing stuff... Anyway, I have almost 100 ships in system. They were fighting off a huge amount of drones, you know?))

Arteria Aorta

Once the original hostile fleet was destroyed, most of the battlecruisers and heavier cruisers began warping out to predicted points in the enemy strike group. The detachment had been warping in an alternating pattern of the group they were chasing, in hopes to avoid being caught and having a good position to monitor their movements for any patterns. There was a hunt for the enemy motherships, as the Rex Tremendae Majestatis would likely be able to destroy them if caught. Probing devices with Tachyon detection equipment had been launched, and if the enemy warped anywhere, in a matter of seconds, the 3rd fleet would be on them.

In the meantime, an emergency broadcast was issued to the Government, and the Free Terran War Machine, after nearly 340 years of peace, had grinded into gear. Factories began putting countless ships together, mining colonies had received massive payouts and increased employee numbers. There were more and more applicants for the military. This was something that hadn't been seen since the War of Obliteration, and it was a humbling sight to bear witness to. There was a quick network of Tachyon detection devices scattered across the other systems to keep watch, and more support was given to the system of Arteria Aorta.

CLASSIFIED LOCATION NEAR SOL NOVA
A man who seemed too old for his body looked down from a balcony in a gargantuan ship foundry. There sat the skeleton and nervous system of a 15 kilometer long monster of a ship, plates just being added. "Imperator..." The man said, looking at the beast with awe. "Soon, we will make our maiden voyage." The titan had been constructed more as a political tool than anything, this ship had to be made out of a rogue moon that contained large amounts of an unknown metallic substance, this substance would make the frame and armored plating of the Imperator Calamitatis, or 'Emperor of Calamity'.

David knew that his sway in the political structure of Free Terra was waning, with his advisers and secretaries bickering over every little disagreement, and his Vice having her fair share of the work load too. This ship would secure his power in the military hierarchy and political system, only the most loyal of his connections in the primary and secondary councils of the government knew the ship's whereabouts and only a few groups with the capability could support this build project. The celestial body would be stripped clean, and from this egg, the Imperator would rise.

However, with news of an alien race, he expected that the ship would be unnecessary to maintain balance, that the government would unite and that all would be well. However, more people in the government supported the production of a colossal warship. Thanks to the added funding and bolstered workforce, his financial adviser believed that the work would be finished rather than in 5 months, in less than 3 weeks.

"...Soon, my friend... Soon, we will rise."

by **Vivoe** » Sun Apr 27, 2014 2:04 am

Main Battle Fleet, 0.3AU to the rear of the fleet defending Star-base Guardian

There was another advantage of forming the drone radiation shield and that was its own detection fields. The drones had radar and infrared detection systems of their own and so began spraying the entire spectrum with a cross between track-and-scan radar as well as general waste radiation to jam the detection spectrum that the enemy might be using. Their own receivers were then fine tuned to the specific radio frequency that their own sensors were using, effectively baring out their own jamming signals that might echo back to them. Twenty years of studying the armies of Free Terra gave them a massive edge as far as electronic warfare, especially since Free Terra had thought the Caelis completely eradicated hundreds of years ago. The computer systems of the Caelis ships were specifically designed to confuse foreign users and differed in every imaginable way for the simple purpose of forcing incompatibility between two communicating computers, binary code was reversed and then switched over to trimary code that took advantage of the specific spin of an electron to determine the third variable, radio frequencies were constantly scrambled in ways that differed between ships and the key to decipher could only be found on the specific ship. Every measure, every minute system was changed just for the sake of confusing Free Terran electronic warfare officers.

The pulsating radiation shield was doing its job, absorbing incoming radio waves, jamming the return and detecting enemy ships. All the while frigates were coordinating with the shield in order to fire high output laser shots through the wall. It meant that every ten or so seconds a sudden hole would appear in the shield, an invisible beam would pass through and then the shield would seal once more. The frigate would then move to a new position, acquire a new target and fire once more. These tactics meant a much smaller force could engage a larger force, at long range at least. Once the range closed and visual contact was made then the drones would switch over to a more active role in the combat.

Reinforcement Fleet, In warp to Main Battle Fleet

A dozen ships, four heavy freighters, two carriers and six frigates. Much need reinforcements for the main battle fleet that had stumbled into a hornets nest which had already been kicked. Unknown entities, hundreds, had struck the fleets of Free Terra and started a call to arms of the kind that had never been seen in the past. The original plan was to recon the area, take a station or two and secure a region in which reinforcements could safely ship in more carriers and eventually the weapons of mass destruction that the people of Caelis had been meaning to use on Free Terra. An eye for an eye. The freighters were not carrying the WMDs though, they instead held nearly six hundred drones each. Mostly just a hollowed out ovoid shape it look strange compared to the darker-than-black streamlined combat ships that the Caelis Vacuum Forces used. The freighters were just hollow shells for the most part, a very small crew unit for eight people at one tip and propulsion units at the other. Both the "top" and "bottom" of the ovoid could slide open revealing the hundreds of drones which could be released in just a few short moments. It would be just a few moments until warp dropped and the blacked out universe around them turned into normal space.

by **Free Terra** » Sun Apr 27, 2014 9:47 pm

((Again, if anything seems too godmoddy, just let me know and I'll rectify it at soonest convenience.))

Arteria Aorta, Star-base Guardian

The smaller destroyers and the fighters of the fleet themselves left to investigate the large signatures inhibiting standard sensory equipment, and the fleet's power was diverted toward shielding and avoiding incoming shots. The Orion battlegroup had nearly calculated the enemy detachment's movements, and began compensating for light lag in order to land more effective shots with their energy weapons. Had it come to a brawl, within artillery and railgun range, the Free Terran fleet would shine then. Energy weapons, due to their inefficiency in power projection, were limited in comparison to the massive railguns that could rip apart much larger objects. The only drawback of the latter is range and firing delay, should it hit, however, the effects are shattering.

The Tachyon buoys began picking up disturbances from the direction of a nearby star matching sizes of capital ships or other heavy assets. A fight would soon be brewing. The heavier ships of the fleet still on grid at Guardian turned in preparation to engage the new enemy. The second they left warp, the fleet would be upon them. This time, the buoys had been activated and they could trace it all the way to destination. The Rex Tremendae Majestatis broadcasted a simple, short-range message: "SINK THOSE BLASTED THINGS THE SECOND WE LAND ON FIELD, POP THEIR DAMNED ENGINES, JUST FINISH IT!"

It appeared that even the Admiral wanted a brawl at this point to end the long-range fight of harassment. As far as he was concerned, neither side was doing more than superficial damage to the other, and a point-blank engagement would decide it then and there. Finishing the fight and driving back whatever had been planned.

CLASSIFIED LOCATION NEAR SOL NOVA

"Is the weapon attached yet?" He asked the project overseer. "Yes sir, but I'm afraid we can't test it yet. There's still, um, a moon surrounding us. If you don't mind my asking, why?" The President smiled at this. "I simply want to know whether we can begin turning this from a defensive war into an offensive and victorious one soon." The overseer was taken a bit aback. "I thought you hated fighting, sir." This warranted a chuckle from the man in the great coat. "I do. I just hate losing more, especially when there's the entirety of 3 star systems at stake. How much longer at this accelerating rate will it take for this... Titan... To finish construction?" He asked. "...2 and a half more weeks, sir. That should be when it's ready for trials. We've already got the plans and the materials, we're just putting it all together." The President nodded with a smile and walked off. "Carry on then, overseer."

by **Vivoe** » Mon Apr 28, 2014 1:39 am

(Same goes for me in regards to GMing, I feel the number of drones might be too high but it's not like they have shields, much armour or any weapons aside from missiles so I guess it compensates)

Main Battle Fleet, 0.3AU to what used to be the rear of the fleet defending Star-base Guardian (we need a map)

The enemy fleet was pushing hard for a close in battle which might have been a valid tactic had they been brawling like it was 1805 on the sea of Trafalgar. The Caelis however believed in a doctrine of victory before the fight and so at the moment were simply playing with the enemy, they knew every spec of nearly every ship in the Free Terran arsenal, every infantry unit, every division, every commander, everything that was worth knowing was recorded, decades of gathering intelligence could do that. While Free Terra designed ships to essentially broadside an opponent, the Caelis designed ships for sniping. Ultra high output laser systems would target a ship using infrared sensors to remain invisible (Using radar would alert the ship) and blow a whole through the shields in one almighty shot. The Hemlock Class Frigates were essentially a big gun with a ship built around it rather than a ship with guns on it and the used this to their advantage. The Hemlock's main gun, a spinal laser, was wildly more powerful than any laser used on Free Terran ships and for good reason, lacking any other offensive armament aside from missile batteries it was a light weight in comparison to the battle cruisers Free Terra used so commonly.

So far shots fired by the Caelis had been at charges of exactly 25% total possible output. While still capable of doing sever hull damage should a ship be caught off guard and drain a chunk of a shield generator's energy bank the lowered output was part of a far grander strategy. At this range they had scored hits, probably a dozen or more hits across all different targets and done superficial damage to shield systems. The hits were dropping off now though, the enemy fleet taking evasive movements at random points in time to throw off movement-projection-tracking that calculates the future position of a ship to make up for light lag. By showing off the damage in which Caelis laser weapons could do the Terran forces would think their weapons superior and rush in expecting the total output of the enemy weapons to be what they were previously receiving. When the first close range engagements begin the Terran fleets will be taken by surprise when they are hit by laser systems that are dealing 4 times the damage they were previously receiving.

Reinforcement Fleet, 0.2AU to the current rear of the fleet defending Star-base Guardian assuming they turned to face the last fleet (we really need a map)

The fleet dropped out of warp, instantly detected by a nearby tachyon buoy which relayed the information straight back over the FTL coupling to the Terran fleet, while that was unavoidable further communications could be ceased. A few moments later, ultra high output lasers completely obliterated all drones within 0.3 AU of the fleet. The lasers tore apart molecular bonds before converting the atoms that made up the buoys into super heated plasma that quickly dissipated into the vacuum of space. Laser tech was incredibly powerful on matter, it was the energy shields that effectively countered lasers. Mass drivers could counter a shield easily enough through brute force but be defeated by thick enough armour or point defence systems. Lasers tended to bounce or be absorbed into a shield, draining power sure but not having the impact a mass driver did, while when targeted at a hull the laser was in its own league. It could easily eviscerate the very bonds on which a hull was made up of before converting the particles left over into super heated ionized gas. Regardless of weapons systems, the Tachyon grid was deactivated in a certain range around the fleet and gave them the advantage of fog of war.

Drones were dropped and the freighters fell back behind the frigates, while they were outfitted with military grade shielding systems they would not be able to stand up to a pounding with the thin hull and lack of offensive weapons outside a manually targeted point defence laser. Most of the drones were the same familiar darker-than-black combat drones with missile pods, stealth design and a erratic flight path designed to increase survivability in the face of enemy fighters and point defence. There were however fifty special drones, still outfitted in the same shell that the combat units were but they instead had installed super advanced electronic warfare systems.

The drones were accelerated to speed using a combination of native propulsion and magnetic acceleration rails onboard the carriers. The EW drones were impossible to tell apart from standard combat drones, in fact the only real difference was the lack of missiles in the weapons bay, instead they were replaced with the assorted high output relays and systems needed to confuse the enemy even further. As the EW drones spread out the operation was executed and the signal sent out the moment incoming radar signals were detected. To the Terran ships that sent the radar pulse out the tiny drone was all but invisible especially on a wide range scan like this. The EW drones all across the area released an echo at the precise timing needed to convince the enemy radar receivers that it was real, an echo which was identical to the signal that would be received had over eighty Caelis warships been in battle formation all across the region.

With the entire drone capacity of the freighters and carriers ejected across the entire area of space in uniform wings, buffer zones, killing fields and in general a very organized arrangement to increase available firepower. Moments later the carriers, frigates and freighters were a thousand AU away, in warp bubbles across to the buffer system and then into a second jump to the twin seconds. This twin jump system would hopefully throw off the scent if anyone was trying to track their jump, they would instead track them straight to empty space in the middle of nowhere. While the Terran fleet was receiving information on eighty capital ships warping into the system, when they did warp in to initiate a brutal close quarters battle they would be on the receiving end of thousands of nuclear, conventional and EW missiles.

What the Caelis lacked in warships they more than made up for in drones and what they lacked in close quarters brawling power they made up with an absolute saturation of enemy defences with high power missiles. There was always the issue with what had kicked off the Terrans before Caelis forces had ever arrived in system, while tiny spectres had appeared on radar they were either absolutely tiny or using potent stealth tech, either way it was concerning to say the least.

by **Free Terra** » Mon Apr 28, 2014 5:34 pm

((You're talking to someone with the art skills of a 3rd grader with hand tremors. If I could give a map, I would. But I'm a bit shoddy at any artistic thing. I wish more people would join, maybe we'd get someone willing to do it. ~~Also, with the Tachyon buoys, they detected the reinforcement fleet and moved to intercept THAT group after they landed.~~ <--- My badsies... ))

0.3 AU from Guardian

The Terrans landed on grid at a dangerously close 50 kilometers. The targets were locked onto and the massive railguns and artillery cannons began pounding. The enemy capital ships, being the largest, were targeted first with the massive firepower of Free Terra. A Quantum channel was established with Guardian informing them that the second they could lay down replacement buoys, they were to do so in order to get a solid detection network set up. In an amazing volley, the Terran fleet fired waves of death at the invading battlegroup. The GFRFT would not be trifled with.

In the meantime, however, there was a job to do. The Terrans kept a stable orbit around the enemy fleet that had just deployed its drones and began blasting them. The quicker they were gone, the better. More importantly, their warp-in point was determined and the source system was estimated and nigh-confirmed to be the near-by blue star. A system which had interested the GFRFT, but at the time was deemed unnecessary to terraform and colonize. The counterattack would begin soon enough.

Somewhere, hurtling off from the main fight

The Orion battle-group had just warped ahead of the enemy detachment, ready to make short work of them as soon as they landed. The pattern had been figured out, and the enemy was soon to appear. This would be a fight they would surely remember. The Orion Class battlecruiser turned its hulking railguns to face the enemy before they had arrived, and its destroyer escorts had also been ready to take out the enemy ships upon arrival, turning all of their guns to face the threats at hand.

Osmium District, Terra Novus

"Senior members of the Supplice corporation, I have a proposition for you, if you're interested." He spoke to the group of suited men on the screen before him. "Well, you are our largest benefactor, Mr. President. What do you wish of us?" The oldest one asked. "I wish to begin immediate production en masse of the designs previously presented, in addition, I also offer for your proposed designs of the Dreadnought and Carrier varieties to be constructed jointly with Protectors of the Free, consider it a friendly race to see who can spit out more ships over a time-frame that you two may agree on, the check we're giving you has a lot of zeros, so you may work with whatever is needed for the production of 5 Dreadnought class vessels, 2 carrier class vessels and a single supercarrier. I will now give you time to consider my-" The President was finishing, before being cut off. "We graciously accept your offer, kind sir." The older looking gentleman said in response. "...Excellent. Carry on, my friends. Let us win this war." He said before ending the transmission.

((P.S. more Capitol System filler because politics is important. As soon as this battle ends, I'll have another Purge Fleet post.))

by **Vivoe** » Mon Apr 28, 2014 6:51 pm

(I apologize if it seems like godmodding but I am just writing like a novel, remember that I'm not in this to have the Caelis "win". If you have a problem, as always, TG me and I will fix it up ASAP)

Main Battle Fleet, 0.3AU from Guardian

They were coming, they knew they were coming and they were ready for it. The drone radiation shield had so far been completely blocking all radar transmissions while echoes played back had been giving reports of anywhere between 1 giant asteroid shaped object to 200 capital ships, neither of which was true. Instead there were six Nightshade carriers, a dozen Hemlock frigates and two supply ships, well back from the main battle group which periodically warped in and out bringing in whatever was needed at any point in time.

They knew that they would come, they just didn't know when. The Terran ships dropped out of warp, a stupidly close distance away and almost instantly the battle was raging without a single order needing to be spoken. Rail guns fired, while space carried no noise the crews inside the Caelis frigates felt the sharp impacts as shields stressed to hold out the massive rods of armour piercing death.

Admiral Red Ventus was strapped into the command seat of the Nightingale, all drones were currently ejected across space and engaging in combat rather than forming the radiation shield. "Sir, thirty radar contacts, cruiser size and up!" the bridge sensor officer said.
"Bring all weapons to bear, engage the enemy." Ventus said as if that wasn't already happening. This wasn't what he wanted, the close in battles between capital ships greatly favored the Terrans however the thousands of drones that Caelis used were specifically designed to make up for this drawback in design and doctrine. At a range of 50km (AIM-54 Phoenix is an old missile that had a a range of 190 clicks) missiles were in their own league so far as turret based weapons went. The main counter for missiles was point defence but using randomized flight patterns that flick the missile in all different directions as it flies greatly increase the chance of hitting a target.

Missiles, hundreds, thousands even, spiraled through the void towards their targets. Nuclear, conventional and EW missiles were used, the first two were self evident while the third was a missile specifically designed to draw the fire of point defence systems by emitting radiation which could draw the attention of defences that are searching for missiles. Ventus looked across the panoramic screen that wrapped across the entire bridge, the walls, floor and roof were all one giant screen which gave a 3 dimensional view of space directly around them. overlays could be added and removed, at the moment enemy targets had red squares wrapped around them, dark blue squares showed friendly ships while light blue circles identified friendly missiles in flight. Blue dots identified drones but since so many were all across the field the overlay was deactivated to remove unneeded clutter. Carriers for the most part were kitted out with purely defensive weapons, point defence, short range missiles, turret lasers (turrets obviously aren't anywhere near the power of a spine laser) and most importantly, shields. The most important part of a carrier was the shields, if the ship went down then the drones lose 90% of their computational power.

Shells rained in, armour piercing slugs literally imploding as they impacted the shields of various Caelis ships. While they didn't penetrated straight away it was drawing power from the shield reserve and when a force with more energy than the shield has impacted, it would go straight through. The Ratridevi, a Hemlock class frigate was hit violently, two slugs impacting on almost the space spot at the same time and physically shoved the craft to the side, another shot plowed straight through the rear half of the vessel and cleaved the propulsion system. Two more frigates targeted the largest ship in their sights, a massive vessel that clearly stood as the pride of Free Terra. They fired one shot each, coordinated precisely by on board AI that took into account the precise distances and the travel time of the laser to make sure the shots hit at precisely the same time. The lasers charged to 100% output before firing and splitting a whole straight through the shields in a whole roughly 50cm across.

Ventus watched the scene unfold as the Nightingale took another hit which shook him in his chair, "Damn it, get the carriers more cover, if they fall the drones will lose effectiveness!" he yelled across the bridge. His demand was answered a moment later when the Terran ship directly below was hit by a nuclear missile directly and buckled some piece of its hull, snapping it out of shape and throwing a massive hunk of hull into a nearby Caelis carrier who's shields redirected the scrap elsewhere. This was going to be a brutal battle, a frigate was dead in the water already and two more were losing shields quickly. There was however one thing in their favor, the missiles were about to impact.

by **Free Terra** » Mon Apr 28, 2014 10:58 pm

((Obligatory GM advisory. But still, you know, any problems, TG, that shtick. I tried not to let myself get carried away with the loss dictation, like I told you, one or two tops. Side note, R.I.P. James Arnhem, named character and Brutus captain that I planned to do something with at some point who was killed in a nuclear blast.))

The Battle of Arteria Aorta

The FTN Brutus was obliterated by the nuke that slammed into it. The time to mourn was not now, Brutus had done its duty, shielding the rest of the fleet from the impact. Thankfully the rest of the fleet had taken away nearly a third of the missiles, but 5 cruisers fell almost simultaneously as they shielded the FTN Rex Tremendae Majestatis from the missile wave's other nuclear weapons. The blast heavily drained the shields of two nearby battlecruisers and the Rex held at a steady 40% shields. The kilometer-long monster informed the rest of the fleet to focus fire on the frigate vessels and set secondary priority on the carriers to make killing them easier once the main damage-dealers were gone.. Emergency assistance was called in from the last of the system's supply, only 2 destroyer craft could move in to assist at the moment, the rest were caught up with the drone swarms. They had to take it.

More and more missiles came in, Free Terran ships had taken a pounding by the nukes, but the explosive forces of conventional missiles were stabilized nicely. Unless more WMDs were fired by the enemy, the Free Terrans would gain the victory. At a heavy cost to themselves, but that goes without saying. The massive cannons and railguns continued to send shock-waves across their own ships as the huge shells leave their origins to break the interlopers once and for all. This would be a fight that none would soon forget.

The Rex Tremendae Majestatis quickly ripped through a frigate after its shields gave, cleaving it in two and taking with it a threat to Free Terra. The massive tungsten slugs taking themselves all the way through the enemy ship and bouncing off the shield of a carrier, continuing to drain the enemy shield levels below their warning thresholds. At this, the two remaining battlecruisers alongside the Rex Tremenedae Majestatistore into the shields of that carrier, taking the advantage of sheer force and blasting through the armored plating with it. All the way through the enemy ship, more of the Terran firepower came in to mulch the large capital ship. As more missiles came in and smashed into the Rex, the destroyers moved to screen them and soak up a few shots as the fleet doctrines of terrestrial times had demanded: "Protect the flagship at any and all costs."

Admiral Rodrigo Proteus watched in spite from his kilometer-long flagship as the battle unfolded. He had always wanted action in his career, and now that he got this wondrous sight, he worried not for his life, but for his fleet. Today would be a grand day to die. As another volley of missiles came in, he watched as the destroyers took down each missile they hit, but still, another series of booms through the ship as the shields absorbed the impact. The shields, thanks to the destroyers' assistance, had recovered to nearly 47%. The battle may be won just yet. If only a few more of the enemy ships fell in combat, the rest would likely be unable to resist the Terrans and would either be destroyed or be forced to warp out.

Engaging the Drone Swarms

As the drones continued hurtling through space, the 40-ship destroyer group and 75 experienced fighter pilots moved to fight off the massive screen of incoming drones. The "impact" bombs fell towards the enemy swarm and upon contact triggered an exotic-matter reaction to cause what is, for lack of better term, a nuke, without using a nuke. Releasing the same amounts of energy without horrifying sensory radiation effects, for only a small amount of time would sensors be affected, as the particles cooled rapidly and left less than a shadow of interference on sensory equipment less than 10 minutes after activation. The bombs were named not for their trigger, but for what it felt like to be hit by it. The shock-wave and shear energy it slams into a target is relate-able to being hit by the fighter that dropped it head-on.

The Destroyer craft began thumping away with their artillery to cause an effective screen of flak, for what that didn't catch, the burst missiles would catch those few threats. The burst missile was a brutal weapon that fired a warhead akin to a fuel-air bomb in terms of explosive power, however, the missile itself was filled with nearly 100 smaller warheads equal to an anti-air missile of terrestrial times in efficiency. The burst missiles left their tubes and flew lazily after achieving their cascading sensor lock with the hundred-supplementary weapons that they held. The sheath to these missiles ripped themselves off, and the avalanche of guided rockets shot out to meet any target they met, and with a 2-4 of these missiles for each of the 40 destroyers being launched towards the swarm, it did not bode well.

by **Vivoe** » Tue Apr 29, 2014 3:44 am

(With engaging the drone swarms, was that the drones dropped off a while back or the drones with the fleet currently in battle?)

"Sir, two frigates destroy, 1 dead in the water." the battle report officer said.
Damn, this wasn't supposed to happen. We were supposed to be prepared, Ventus thought to himself. "Move the drone reserve into action, deprive them of sensors completely, activate radiation shield, nuclear variant" at his command several drones fired nuclear missiles, they rocketed out at an ever increasing speed due to the lack of atmosphere and detonated just a kilometre short of impacting on the massive Terran ship that dwarfed even Nightingale which was only 323 metres long, ten more than the conventional carriers. With the nukes detonated the sensors on both sides were completely blinded and the automatic systems which went about acquiring locks before firing could not get past the first step . It was exactly what the Caelis fleet wanted, well what they really wanted was to be sitting out at 800 000 Ks firing lasers in on the Terrans.

The massive monolith of a ship was hidden behind a wall of polarizing radiation. A few seconds later Ventus gave a second order, "Frigates Ember, Intrepid, Majesty, Malevolence, fire at the position that the Terran flag ship was last seen, remove safety buffer, 120% output!" Ventus said over the command channel which was immediately redirected by the AI to the respective captains. The safety 120% was impossible while the safety buffer was in place, a protective mechanism to remove undue stress on the weapon which could only survive a dozen or so shots at true-max output before something broke. The cloud had bought them all of fifteen seconds before the firing computer of the blinded Terran fleet began firing again, albeit with far less accuracy and a much lower fire rate. Those fifteen seconds however managed to bring four frigates to bear on the pride of the Terran fleet and a moment later four of the most powerful laser systems humans have ever designed opened up at true-maximum output. There was no light lag to speak of and somewhere behind the cloud of radiation a very large ship had a matching hole in it the entire way though.

The moment of triumph was shattered as Nightingale lurched under yet another hit, the shields were strong on Nightshade carriers and especially so on the flag ship. "No... Sir, the Bastion is ramming A Terran battle cruiser!" the battle report officer said aghast.
"Ramming? What could possib-" Ventus was cut off as the entire floor-screen zoomed and panned to a single frigate accelerating at full speed while it fired its main gun at what the computer overlay said was true-maximum output. The frigate known as Bastion was torn to shreds, wholes and leaking gasses were everywhere leaving more hull floating in the void of space than there was connected to the ship. The frigate was roughly a third the size of the Terran battle cruiser and despite receiving five direct hits from three tungsten slugs it continued moving. A final burst from the laser at a range of less than 200 metres buckled the battle cruiser's shields and began turning the hull into plasma, another shot hit the Bastion the another until... it split. The entire spine snapped in two and smashed into the side of an already weakened battle cruiser, the sheer weight of twelve thousand tonnes of reinforced armour plate and weapons crushed the hull and tunneled deep into battle cruiser. the entire side of the terran ship simply caved in as a nuclear missile added to the chaos. The detonation simply annihilated the entire mess, temperatures close to the immediate point of impact rose to one hundred million degrees Celsius which turned the hardened hulls of both warships into super heated clouds of ionized gas. Ventus was shocked... just completely shocked until the battle report officer chimed in once again.

by **Free Terra** » Tue Apr 29, 2014 4:42 pm

Battle of Arteria Aorta

The FTN Mars was wracked by the incoming damage, the shields gave, and the massive damaging broke through the rolled-tungsten plating, giving the smaller ship a hole to exploit in the heavily armored ship. It tore in two and further broke a hole through the Mars. When they were just about to try warping away, a nuclear warhead smashed inside and detonated, leaving a horrifying mess of molten slag, though it absorbed most of the weapon's energy and kept the rest of the fleet shielded. Tungsten was an excellent ship material, and though the crew of the Mars was lost, they had done their duty well.

The Rex had suffered a few wounds from the focused laser fire, but thankfully, there was no critical system damage, and only a few bulkheads were broken through before the shields raised again. The massive warship had diverted more of its power to firing, moving, and keeping shields as full as possible. A capacitor injection had flooded the shields, putting their output into higher levels than the enemy would've expected, as the shields raised once more, the volleys continued, another Frigate cracked, and more damage was done to the carrier that was scarred from the previous volley. This time, the shots pierced deeper, having an increasing effect. It would be gone soon. More and more desperate tactics were used, the Terran ships instead of aiming at engines when shields fell, aimed for guns and the anti-drone groups had begun firing with a much higher rate of fire, the second round of burst missiles had been loaded into the pods, but more and more drones appeared as the enemy depleted their reserves.

One of the fighter craft dropped an impact-bomb right on top of the paralyzed frigate, unleashing the full force of the weapon upon the vessel with no shields or engines. It landed right inside the gaping hole in the ship's engines and ripped it apart from the inside-out. A blinding light erupted from the ships as their fleet tore into one of the destroyers, whose shields fell just before an incoming wave of missiles.

Bridge of the Rex Tremendae Majestatis

"I WANT ALL BATTERIES ON THAT CARRIER NOW! Designate target missiles for the support squadrons to intercept, and last time I checked, we had drones of our own! Have the cruisers focus fire on that frigate lagging behind a bit! Have Battlecruisers Orca and Malice lay into the frigate at 49.3 kilos distance, 78 degrees! Keep capacitor injection running until engineering gives the warning. Tell those damned Bulwark cruisers to use those repair nanites, we need to keep our ships from falling to more missiles here!" Admiral Proteus barked his commands as more fleet-wide actions are being executed. The thumping echo of the guns carrying throughout the massive warship. As soon as the frigates fall, the fleet needed to quickly mulch the rest of the carriers before they could escape. Already, the Rex had devoted its own firepower to taking one out, but they needed to crack the frigates before any real actions could be taken. They were still heavily disrupting the shields, and they needed to break. At this pace, the Rex would stand, but there would be 10 losses by the end of it. Neither side could get out of this without taking heavy losses. This was truly a rough fight, with only a Pyrrhic victory in sight for the GFRFT.

"Just come to your senses and get out of our homes, damn it. Stop this madness." He thought as another frigate's shields fell to the combined might of the cruiser battle-group.

by **Vivoe** » Tue Apr 29, 2014 9:31 pm

Ventus watched the battle report from his command chair, it wasn't going well but he had one card left to play. Aside from being slightly larger, having more powerful shields and more point defence systems, the Nightingale was equipped with Caelis Raiders. Somewhat equivalent to the Marines of old, Raiders' only job was to board an enemy ship, disrupt combat abilities on the vessel and get out ASAP... which usually wasn't possible. To be honest most Raiders knew that the mission was suicide for the most part but a fervent belief in their cause and some psychotic volunteers meant that the collective numbers of the Raider Corps was 221, 000.

The Nightingale's detachment of raiders was roughly eighteen hundred men and women that would be part of a do or die operation. Nightingale went to warp but only for a millisecond or less, just enough time to breach the 200km gap between the massive Free Terran ship and the Caelis battle fleet flag ship. Nightingale dropped out, appearing almost out of thin lack-of-air right next to the massive, brutally large Terran battle ship. Instantly the pods were released, accelerating rapidly at a speed that would normally kill a human had inertial dampeners not been a technology so widely implemented. This was a last ditch effort, if they could not pull this off then all remaining vessels would jump out of the system immediately. Nightingale had dropped out of warp barely five hundred metres off the starboard side of the Terran flag ship. There was a moment of around five seconds in which the capital ships weapons and point defence systems were all pointed towards where Nightingale had been just moments ago, this gap in fire allowed the pods to gain speed, begin their randomized flight path and engage the shield that separated them from their target.

The armoured pod held four soldiers each and a strange laser weapon that was not used on any other Caelis ship. This laser was a weapon designed to make a ship's shield reverberate and weaken. By matching the frequency precisely and changing just about everything that conventional lasers did the weapon was able to weaken the structure of the shield, forcing the particles apart from each other and effectively decreasing the metaphorical density of the shields. In this way, for just a few moments in a very space area of space at the cost of large amounts of energy the shield could be rendered nonexistent and allow the pods to fly through without smashing themselves against a high energy wall.

The pods fired their invisible beams and slowly but surely the shields of the Terran flagship gave way in small sections, just large enough for each of the hundreds of pods to make their way through before the shield reconstructed itself behind them. It was similar technology that the Caelis used to fire weapons through their own shields. Chosen Raider or CR Radley was hurtling through space with three other raiders, they were all clad in full suit body armour that made ample use of IFF transmitters, HUDs, night fighting technology, suit mounted weapons systems and the like. Among the individuals who made up the raider teams, they had two weapons which would cause tremendous damage if the enemy allowed their use. 400 drop ships were rocketing towards the massive ship when the point defence systems opened up. Missiles, mass drivers and lasers began lighting up with space around the ship with extreme prejudice, clipping and destroying two dozen or more pods before impact. Had the gap been measured in tens of kilometres rather than hundreds of metres then the raiders would all but be wiped out.

Radley's pod smashed into the hull and held for just a second before the next stage was activated by the computer. Nano dissemblers or Nano-D for short were released across the entire area that was in contact with the drop pod, a coating of it's own specially programmed nanobots was painted across the hull which stopped the Nano-D destroying the pod itself. With the hull slowly being removed atom by atom into a grey sludge the drop ship lurched downwards until a minute later the Nano-D made contact with the atmosphere inside and began swarming through the interior, devouring anything that it touched. The safety coating around the drop ship then sealed it in, making an air tight fit before releasing the door at the bottom of the drop ship.

Radley dropped down, the full body combat suit he wore was air tight to accommodate for the dangers of fighting inside a space ship but an atmosphere inside was always nice. There was also the nano-camouflage which replicated the lighting that the soldier was currently in, at the moment the Raiders' armour was a grey-white, similar to that of the metal corridors that made up the interior of the Terran ship. The suit comms opened up, "Go, go, go! We have an objective, time to move damn it!" it was his platoon's commander. The HUD gave a basic rundown of the interior of the ship as remembered from information gathered from previous months and years, it was hard to keep the pride of your entire armed forces a massive secret from an entire nation who's only goal was your demise. He kept moving, right arm outstretched towards where the enemy might emerge from. They were roughly a hundred and eighty metres between here and their target, a large computer system which took the brunt of targeting calculations. The four man team was quickly reinforced into a full platoon of 30 Raiders, most used the arm mounted weapons of a simple mass driver in the right arm and a direct-fire grenade launcher in the left arm. Some of the special weapons Raiders had external weapons such as rocket launchers, Nano-D emitters, laser support weapons and heavy fire weaponry which was essentially a squad automatic weapon on steroids. The platoon was equipped with one of each and two HFWs.

A Terran crewman ran through the large corridor on which their squad moved through, Radley simple pointed his arm, lined up a HUD mounted cross hair and pushed his thumb against his fist. The suit fired a burst of three depleted uranium slugs that tore straight through the unarmoured crewman, throwing him to the ground in a spray of blood. They kept moving ahead, one hundred metres, fifty, thirty... "Contact fro-" the alert was cut short by a burst of automatic gun fire as one of the men at the rank Chosen Raider was hit hard in the chest by three shots. Radley grabbed his arm, pulling him out of the doorway that the fire had come from, there was a trail of blood left behind and a few moments later the HUD pronounced the soldier dead, damn. The platoon began stacking up either side of the airlock, the door remained open due to a couple reasons. Firstly, one of the Raiders had the console jammed open with a computer hot wired into the controls, second, the doors they did find had been easily blasted open with shape charges and third, a closed door couldn't be fired through and at the moment the Terrans were the ones supplying suppressing fire.

Radley put his left arm around the door, squeezing his thumb against his fist and firing three grenades through the door. A moment later the room exploded and the fire went silent. Radley and the rest of the platoon began moving through the doorway, weapons at the ready to silence anyone who dared oppose them, instead it was a horrific sight that greeted them. Unarmoured bodies had been blown to thousands of pieces, torn to absolute shreds and sprayed across the walls. Bodies were missing limbs, limbs were missing bodies and blood spray was literally everywhere. "Keep moving, we're close!" the platoon commander yelled over the comms which forced Radley's legs into motion. The platoon kept moving, Radley on point this time after the last pointman was blown away in the last fire fight and eventually the Raiders reached their objective. It was a large bulkhead, maybe half a metre thick of tungsten steel and with the access console in complete lockdown there was no way to hot wire the doors. "Rando, Nano on the door now!" the platoon commander said and in a moment the Raider known as Rando was pulling something that looked like a flame thrower off his back and started spraying the door with the near invisible particles. The computer put an overlay on Radley's screen which allowed him to see the Nano-D in the air which normally would have been a translucent light grey cloud. The bulkhead was being eaten apart, torn atom from atom and reduced to a grey sludge.

The Bulkhead gave way under it's own weight, the massive metal structure collapsing into the pile of sludge and Nano-D leaving a gaping hole for the Raiders to walk through. They moved in to a massive room, full of quantum entanglement communicators, computers, fiber optic cables and every type of console, virtual reality system, screen and input device imaginable. This was essentially the computer targeting system which was usually left automated with the option for a human over ride. The Platoon stood in awe for a moment before the order came, "Scrap it." and so they did. Grenades, explosives, bullets, Nano-D, all of it turned the computer systems into a scrapyard. Radley was spraying down one of the consoles with autmatic fire when he heard it. A series of different shots, different in that they were faster firing, instead of the deep THUD THUD THUD that his arm mounted weapon made, these were faster firing and less impacting. A second burst came through and the Raider guarding the door was hit in the visor, blood and helmet went spraying through the air as he fell down dead. "Contact rear!" came the cry over the radio and they hooked into the fire fight. According to the HUD about half of the objectives across the two battalions of Raiders had been completed, no doubt crippling everything from life support, sensors, weapons and navigation. General slaughter of the crew was also a high priority, especially when without them the ship was dead in the water.

by **Free Terra** » Tue Apr 29, 2014 11:01 pm

On board the Rex Tremendae Majestatis

INTRUDER ALERT. INTRUDER ALERT. DEPLOY ALL DEFENSIVE PERSONNEL.

The call echoed through the ship as first-response security teams moved to choke-points along the Rex. The automated sentry guns at the posts also engaged, slowing down the hostile advances until the 3rd Battalion could drive out the intruders. Their LEGIONNAIRE armor glistened as they put it on. The suits increased their abilities greatly, and they knew all too well what their job was and were prepared to die for their ship. From their stations at the time, they could effectively move across to engage them in pocket and choke-points, but the Warp Core, Bridge, and Reactor systems took priority. The 3rd had to divvy up themselves and establish control over the ship again.

As Charlie Squad sprinted down the corridors to meet the enemy at Gunnery, faint gunfire and dead or writhing bodies met them. The wounded were being brought through the lines which marked the closing of blast doors, and many rooms were already sealed off. Strange effects followed the wake of the enemy pods, but this wasn't the time. They rounded a corner and fired countless rounds into the backs if the invaders. The flanking attack drew some fire, but what appeared to be the equivalent of a grenade launcher had smashed the primary targeting systems, meaning that the Rex's main batteries were useless. Only point defense and secondary defenses could defend the ship. There was already too much on the sensors systems to allocate any power to giving a firing solution to gunnery.

Similar issues were reported, such as life-support, specifically the ship's artificial atmosphere's respirator, was heavily damaged. Some long-range comms and emergency repair nanite controllers were also busted. The fight moved to killing them in their new choke-points before they could move on and paralyze the vessel. Many small groups were currently being engaged by autosentries and guardsmen, but only the marines could effectively combat them. There was heavy fighting in these localized areas.

The gunfire filled the room as X-Ray squad breached into an occupied recreational room. They moved in swiftly, gunning down the first targets that they could. A volley had pierced through Alice's skull plating, and Reeves had been shot through his lungs by the focused fire of the enemy squad. Eventually the killing stopped when the enemy troops were slain, but 5/7 of X-Ray squad was KIA from the firefight. Today was a hard one, but the time of mourning was not now, more work needed to be done. The KIAs were reported across the ship's network, as to keep track of the marines and who woulldn't be returning for their promotions after this fight was done.

Outside, where the rest of the fight is happening

More and more firepower was pumped into the frigates, after there were but 6 Terran vessels on grid, the enemy frigates had been dealt with and a carrier was destroyed. Another volley of nuclear death imploded the cruiser Beluga. The Rex Tremendae Majestatis had issued a prep for emergency warp to Providentia. Another carrier was being torn asunder as the fleet aligned to extract. The enemy could likely tell that something had gone in their favor when the Rex stopped firing. Though it was likely an unsaid feeling between the two fleets that enough was enough.

The Destroyers had depleted their reserves of burst-missiles and the fighter craft were engaging with their guns and coilguns. Most of them had warped off or moved to assist the Rex at this point. The fight was drawing to a close as the action toned down. The remaining ships were ready to start warp as soon as the command was given, but something was holding up the Rex. Just a few minutes longer, and hopefully things would be under control.

Though Damned We Were, We Stand Now Upon Greatness -Finished

Though Damned We Were, We Stand Now Upon Greatness -Finished

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