Another Branch of Yggdrasill (CLOSED/FT)

[The Grand Network]

Silver Blade Research Station
Midgard's Orbit
Svellic Empire

"Nothing again," the scientist said, swinging her hair back out of face as she looked up at her superior.

"Move on to System C-1130," her superior said back to her, not stopping to pick her head up from her hand to look at the scientist.

The idea of failure was one that wasn't unfamiliar for the crew of the Silver Blade. This station dealt exclusively with the search for new civilizations in space, and so far the search was futile. Not a single inhabited system had been found, outside of the two that were already under the dominion of the Svell. They had found countless systems filled with resources-rich asteroids, freezing gas giants, and roasting moons, but not a single inhabitable planet. Such a task of scanning the stars may sounds exciting, but so far the crew could attest to how wrong that was.

The station itself would be relatively small compared to the hulks that most other stellar empires would have, but this wasn't unusual for Svellic ships. What would seem unusual was the fact that all of the scientists aboard her were women, which was due to that fact that Svellic culture saw such activities as 'start gazing' as unmanly. What was even more unusual was that this was a Svellic research station. Before the Svell killed and enslaved them all, the neighboring nations of the Svell characterized them as brutish savages and generally referred to Svellic society as a whole as vikings, or pirates.

Although not entirely correct to refer to an entire culture as pirates, the Svell weren't known for their interest in the sciences. Very few of these types of research stations existed and fewer still ever found anything worth noting. Most Svellic technology depended on what was left behind by the alien Alfar who had come to Midgard in search of untapped manpower to fuel their wars. The Svell were so effective that they not only helped conquer the Alfar's enemies, but the Alfar themselves as well as the other primitive nations on Midgard. Some people realized that if the Svell were to get anywhere, they needed to advance beyond what the Alfar had left them, but the word 'some' doesn't do justice to how few those people were.

Within a few hours of careful adjustment to the machines aboard the station, the scientist had begun scanning the system dubbed C-1130. Such advanced instruments scanning a system so far away took a lot of time to do their magic, but when they worked they could return stunning results, assuming you were scanning something worth scanning and for once, they were.

"I don't believe this," the scientist said awestruck as her supervisor and fellow scientists looked up at her, stopping their work, "I...I found something."

---

Ludinskip Holy Rune
Midgard's Orbit
Svellic Empire

Jarl Ludin stared out the huge windows of the bridge as the crew busily worked around him. Ludin was a fairly tall man with your average Nordic features; blond hair, blue eyes, pale skin, ect, although that description fit most of the men in the room. He had on your typical viking attire, mostly made of animal skins and linen accompanying the tattoos that rolled down his neck and hands under his clothes, leaving one to wonder how much more of his body was covered in the dark blue ink. Such a figure looked severely out of place among the high tech monitors and consoles dotting the bridge.

Ludin took a sip of ale and continued staring out into the stars when a man approached him.

"My Jarl, your hird is behind you. Shall I raise the leidangr?" the man asked.

Ludin let out a bellowing laugh before answering, "Throst, what do you think this is, an invasion? We're simply going to go on a little raid, see what our neighbors are made of."

"Ah well, it's not everyday you get a Jarl going on a 'little raid'. The last time I went into combat with a Jarl was during the Alfar Invasions," Throst replied, pouring himself some ale.

"It's been a long time, my friend. I want a little piece of the battle that has eluded me for so long."

"You and me both. Do you actually believe the eggheads that this planet is another of the Nine Worlds of Yggdrasill?"

"Yes, and hopefully they have a lot of gold to be plundered"

As the two old friends reminisced about their past conquests and future rewards, an officer from the bridge called out, "All ships are ready to jump, my Jarl."

"Then to glory or Valhalla!" Ludin yelled out as about 40 ships of varying size jumped for Ceylon.

[Kisia]

System Watch Outpost #7
Radar Pod
Ceylon System Outer Limits

Aiokhai sat eating a ration bar. Grey and tasteless, he downed it with some coffee. Aiokhai was looking forward to his rotation being over, he hated being on the outposts. They were small and dark, save for the red lights that provided a bare minimum of light. Even worse was that they managed to cram two other men in here with him. He picked up the telephone to call the radio section of the outpost.

"Daska, you radio the station to send a shuttle yet? I want to get off this thing." Aiokhai said.

"No, they wont respond anymore, since you called them four times earlier on the shift?" Daska retorted.

"I'm just in this till I get transferred over to the Armada. I'm tired of this, nothing ever happe-" Aiokhai started, but then a blip showed up on the radar. Then two, five, it kept going up. Aiokhai turned some knobs and adjusted switches, thinking the system was glitching out. It proved to be real when the alarm started to sound.

"Aiokhai? What was that?" Daska started over the phone.

"In the name of Lothrig...look at that..." Aiokhai stuttered out. After Daska screamed for him to snap back into reality, he finally told him about the unknown fleet, headed straight for Ceylon.

"I'll raise the station." Daska said. He turned a knob, setting the transmission to Priority One, which was used in cases of emergency.

"Isoda Station! Unknown fleet detected. Does not match TSAR, nor any known alien fleets." Daska said. There was some static, and a reply came back.

"Understood, we have them on radar now. We're alerting the System Wing, and contacting the Armada Sector Wing for reinforcements. Keep us informed if any other ships drop in." a radio operator replied.

"Sie, understood." Daska said, cutting off the transmission. He radioed Hemasa, who was in the weapons pod.

"Hemasa! Raise the shields, and have the lasers on standby!" Daska yelled to Hemasa.

"Already on it, the shields are up, and the lasers are cycling, about 3 minutes till their ready." Hemasa reported.

"Good." Daska then radioed Aiokhai. "Looks like you got your wish."

"Suppose I did..." Aiokhai said.

---

D.S.A. Redemption
Bridge

The Redemption was a U-675 Line Frigate, one of the most common ships produced by the Dominion. She was rather fast and packed enough firepower to be aggressive. Which she would do, but the grand majority of the System Patrol was under refit. Ceylon being a colonial world, it wasn't prioritized. Infact, every other patrol had been refitted, they just got the materials and supplies to undergo it. She was one of the fifteen ships that were combat ready, out of a fleet of forty-five.

Demihaio stood at the front of the bridge. Demihaio boasted all the aspects of a kisian gentleman. His stylized mustache and goatee were black, standard for most kisian males. Red eyes, and light brown skin. His dark blue service uniform was neatly pressed, his collar tab boasting the three white stars of a Captain. His cuffs boasted golden Austrian knots, and his right arm boasted four gold chevrons. His shoulder board had three stars arranged in a triangle. The double-breasted uniform boasted golden buttons, with a black belt with a golden buckle along his stomach. His pants were also dark blue, with a thin yellow stripe running along the side. The rather flashy uniform was completed with a peaked cap, with a stylized Armada Star in the center. His officers sword had a golden hilt, and was attached to him via his belt.

"Captain." An aide said. Compared to Demihaio, the aide wore nothing but a blue uniform with some golden buttons. "We are receiving orders from Isoda Station. Orders?" he asked.

"On-screen." Demihaio replied.

Bowing, he went over to a console and tapped several buttons. The main viewscreen came up, showing the Armada Star. Along the bottom flashed some symbols in Kiso. After which an image of the System Commander came up. He was dressed in a similar fashion to Demihaio, and boasted about the same facial features. He saluted.

"System Commander. We await orders." Demihaio stated.

"The Redemption shall guard her current position. We are gravely outnumbered, and with a good number of our heavier ships under repair, we cannot do much. The local Armada wing has been contacted, and are en route to reinforce. The rest of the fleet is moving around to your position, the repair stations must be guarded at all cost. The colony has its own anti-ship batteries, and will have to hold until we can move in to destroy the rest of the enemy fleet. Understood?"

"Yes, System Commander. The Redemption shall hold until further notice." He bowed.

"Good. Out." The connection cut, and the viewscreen went black.

[The Grand Network]

Ludinskip Holy Rune
Ceylon System
Kisian Solar Reich

The Ludinskip Holy Rune was, by Svellic classifications, a rather large ship, although compared to most other navies out there, she would more than likely be classified as a light to medium cruiser. Although she was smaller than most ships of her class out their, she carried just as much of a punch and was twice as agile. Svellic ships were made to be small and fast, dodging through hails of torpedoes and lasers, unloading onto the enemy, and doing it all over again. Of all of the ships in the fleet, the Holy Rune was the largest. Most of the other 40 ships could be placed somewhere between a corvette and a destroyer.

Being the flagship of the fleet meant the Holy Rune was the first to enter the system. Having never entered the system before, sensors went wild all over her bridge. Within a few moments, a three dimensional map of the system, including all of its planets, moons, and ships, was at Ludin's fingertips.

"What are sensors showing?" Ludin demanded.

"Looks like we've caught the chicken fuckers with their pants down! Most of their ships are docked, My Jarl," of the men at the monitors said back to him.

"Alright boys, it's gonna to be an easy raid today," Ludin yelled out. As the men of the bridge continued their work, Ludin turned to Throst, "Stallari, go ready the landing party. You'll be leading the assault below while I handle the naval side."

"Yes, My Jarl," Throst replied, bowing his head and exiting the bridge.

With Throst gone, Ludin turned his full to the holographic map of the system in front of him. After studying it for a few seconds, he'd made his plan. "We got some kinda outpost out here, maybe a probe. Light it up," He commanded sternly, staring into the hologram.

At his command, the guns of the Holy Rune swiveled off to the side a few degrees, aiming right at the radar pod. The ship didn't even bother stopping. Within seconds, a hail of slugs, torpedoes, and particle beams were shot off of various turrets and missile pods along the ship's hull, mercilessly flying through space towards Aiokhai and his crew with malicious intent.

"My Jarl, we're coming on approach to the primary planet," one of the bridgemen said.

"Good. Link my headset up to fleet's comms," Ludin asked as he picked a headset up off of one of the armrests of his command chair. He shoved the device into his hear as his comms officer turned and nodded to him from his station.

"This is Jarl Ludin speaking," he spoke into the headset, knowing full well that the 40 or so other bridges would be able to hear him."We're goin' in quick and clean on this one. Once within range of their defenses you can fire at will, breaking formation if needed. Lets keep the Valkyries busy on this one, boys."

[Kisia]

The outpost managed to take out one missile, before the other 2 slammed into it. One happened to detonate next to the outposts core, sending it critical, and exploding in a fiery burst of light. Aiokhai and his crew were flung into space, dying of suffocation in some minutes. The more heavily armed- and automated satellites began to open fire, responding to the raiders with a hail of laser and missile fire. The few other manned radar outposts also began to fire back, seeing as the facet of evacuation was now hopeless.

Meanwhile, the rest of the System Patrol had formed up on the Redemption, a ragtag fleet of ships that had been refitted, to those that had been decommissioned years ago, back when the Reich was still in power. Their weapons were inefficent at this range, but many of the under-repair cruisers that could, fired their guns in anger- much to the ire of some of the engineers that happened to be near them when they started to fire. Suddenly, at the edge of the system, more ships began to warp in. It was the Armada Wing, coming to give support.

Bridge, D.S.A. Redemption
"Captain! The Armada Wing has arrived, Line Captain Taio presiding on his flagship Himahasa. " the Communications Officer stated. There was a pause. "He is contacting us via message....receiving. Our ships are to form up along with his, they are going on the offensive.

"Good. Inform him we will comply at once." The comms officer nodded and began forming a reply. Demihaio went back to his chair and sat down. Tapping a button, he started to speak to the ships under his command.

"This is Captain Demihaio. We have been reinforced by the Armada Wing, under the command of Line Captain Taio. We are to move in and support his attack. I know that you shall all do your duties, and serve the Dominion and your Premier. Form up on me, we move!" He released the button.

"Helmsmaster! Ahead Full!" Demihaio said.

"Ahead Full, Aye!" the Helmsmaster said, pushing the telegraph forward. A bell rang on the bridge moments later, noting that the engineers had received the message. The Redemption and her flotilla of ships moved toward the enemy fleet, as they got closer, Demihaio ordered they be brought down to battle speed.

"Guns within range, sir!" An aide noted. Demihaio nodded, and keyed his radio again. This time, he spoke to his gunners.

"All turrets, open fire!" He yelled. The various Chief Gunners of their respective turrets acknowledged his order, and within moments, the Redemption's guns were ablaze, missiles and torpedoes streaking through space, responding to the aggressors with deadly intent. Demihaio noticed that the Himahasa was getting quite close to what appeared to be the flagship. She was firing upon the ship, but not with her full arsenal, he noted. What is Taio doing? He can easily take that thing out at range.... Demihaio thought to himself. His question was anwsered when the cruiser launched its boarding pods at the enemy vessel.

So thats what he's up to. Bastards gonna get himself killed. Demihaio thought, as he directed his ship during the fighting.

Onboard Boarding Pod #3
Captain Taio stood at attention at the front of the pod, as the rest of his men checked their equipment. Taio stood at a good 10 feet, thanks to his power armor. Painted in all black, the armor was just as flashy as the rest of the Central Armadas unifoms, sporting numerous golden trimmings, not to mention the gold pauldrons. It was made complete with the blood red half-cloak attached around him. His helmet in his left hand, the helm sporting a demonic Ozi faceplate. His chainsword was at rest on his side, and he held his Type 35 General Service Revolving Handgun in his right.

"Impact in 2 minutes, Line Captain!" one of the Armada Armsmen said. He was in a suit of armor similar to Taio's, lacking the golden trimming, pauldrons, and half-cloak however. Taio nodded and turned around.

"Men! We are to take this ship in the name of the Dominion. Let these inferiors know who is their better! For Honor and Glory!" Taio yelled.

"For Honor and Glory!" the Armsmen repeated. Taio donned his helmet, which sealed himself off from the outside environment. It made a brief beeping noise as the helmet ran though its automated checks. Soon after it finished, the pod's buzzer went off.

"Brace!" Taio yelled, grabbing a nearby pole to steady himself. There was a loud crash, and the sound of metal upon metal could be heard. The light above the door flashed green.

"Let none of them live! Banha!" Taio again screamed, as he kicked the pod door open, and jumped into the ship, followed by the Armsmen on his pod, and then by the forty on the other pods.