We Do Not Come in Peace [Closed][IC]

[Apophan]

Endless Sorrow, Chri-irah Orbit

The colossal mothership and it's seven escorts appeared seemingly out of nowhere, assuming a loose formation around the planet. As soon as they appeared, the Endless Sorrow opened a channel to the numerous orbiting battle stations.

Salutations, Industrial Coalition Leadership.
I am Admiral Xaph'Vy of the Xaphaii Clan, representative of the Iron King of the Apophan race. We have come to assist you in the defence of your asset from hostile forces, and my fleet stands ready to act on your command.

However, I should note that whilst we excel at exoatmospheric combat, we are lacking in terrestrial forces and would perform poorly on the ground. I assure you that our services in orbit will be more than enough to defend your claim.

The titanic vessel's communications array picked up the latest communication from the imperial vessel, and realising that it almost certainly belonged to one of the groups that disagreed with the Coalition's presence, began targeting the Ashes of Eternity with it's weapons, with the rest of the Harvest Fleet quickly following the Mothership's example.

[The Second Brotherhood of Planets]

Those nations with advanced sensors might have noticed sensor ghosts several light-seconds away from the tense communications near the planet.

BPS Osiris, Bridge

Though his eyes seemed bloodshot from his hobbies, Commodore Reynolds stared intently at the viewscreen as the intercepted transmissions were displayed alongside the ships that appeared to broadcast them.

"I mean looks like Tinfect can handle this one. Do we really have to intervene?" Reynolds asked no one in particular.

The bridge crew looked at him expectantly.

"Um, er, if we decloak now it'll look really suspicious, right? And I'm sure people'll see us if we send a transmission now..."

The Communications Officer stared at Reynolds. "Whenever you're ready, sir." She quipped.

Reynolds groaned. "Fine, fine. I'll just have Yuan do it."

BPS Brightest Day. Bridge

Yuan and his bridge crew stood speechless when the transmission from the Osiris came in.

"They want us to do what?!" The Tactical Officer growled. "We'll be sitting ducks. The more observant among them will know we are here, and although we certainly don't want Tinfect to take fire we also don't want to become targets either!"

"We can always use diplomacy." Yuan spoke, standing from his captain's chair. "That is our way. There is no need to pick a fight, but we also need to make sure that the Brinn can have a comfortable existence in spite of their present circumstances."

"But is it our business, though?" The Science Officer muttered. "Do we have the right to tell Excidium Planetis what they should do with their territory? While they might have conquered this place, it is also true that this star is far away from our home stars and we have little reason to interfere other than..."

"Other than that which gives us purpose! Other than our principles! No, we will intervene, but we will not use threats of force. Let us discuss matters with the Coalition, like rational people. Deactivate our cloakers and hail both Tinfect and Excidium Planetis."

And sure enough, the Brightest Day came to a complete stop, decloaking at a range where several of her weapons systems would be too far to get an accurate lock. The Star Destroyer proceeded to hail both the flagship of Tinfect and the nearest Battlestation of Excidium Planetis.

Sent By: The Starship Brightest Day, of The Second Brotherhood of Planets
Addressed to: The starship of the Tinfect Imperium.

Greetings, fellow carbons of Tinfect. We find comfort in your presence.

This is the Brotherhood starship Brighest Day. We have been assigned to explore this sector and conduct a survey of this star system in the name of science and knowledge. However, you seem to be in a tense situation. Do you require assistance?

Sent By: The Starship Brightest Day, of The Second Brotherhood of Planets
Addressed to: The Starbase Identified as the property of the Excidium Planetis Civilization.

Greetings, fellow carbons! This is the Brotherhood starship Brightest Day. We have been assigned to explore this sector and conduct a survey of this star system in the name of science and knowledge. We picked up some of your transmissions inadvertently and we understand that this is your sovereign territory. May we have permission to continue exploring this area? As scientific findings are meant to be shared, we will be glad to provide you with some of our findings and additional data as compensation.

[Excidium Planetis]

Your unwarranted insults aside, the Imperium has every right to intervene in the unjustified and pathetic attempts to conquer a lesser civilization, especially seeing as how we received several transmissions from Birrin captured by your company, specifically requesting that forces intervene. Slavers such as yourself have no right to the higher ground here, regardless of your recent cessation of such action. It is the belief of the Imperium that your company intends to exploit the native population for ends as-of-yet unknown. And if you intend to contest that the Imperium has no jurisdiction here, allow me to remind you that the Excidian Government has, to this point, made no official claims to this territory, leaving it, for the majority, unclaimed.

The Imperium hereby claims all territory in this system not under the jurisdiction of existing States, as part of the Exterior Territories of the Imperium. Your company is now a foreign industry operating in the Imperial Territories, in direct violation of Imperial Law. As per Imperial Law, your company is required to surrender all illegally operated assets to the Imperium. This includes Firearms, Military Vessels, Orbital Constructs, Mining Equipment, as well as any and all assets owned by your Company that are within this system.

Further, you have militarized this territory, indicating that your company intends to lay a private claim to it, in effect, an act of war against the Imperium. Due to your Company being a private organization, and therefore, a non-state actor, operating in Imperial Territory, any attack by your forces against the Imperium allows your forces to be considered Terrorists under the World Assembly Definition of the term. Due to the Government of your state of origin allowing the operation of your company, this makes the Excidian Government responsible for the arrest, and subsequent criminal trials of all those under the employ of your company, as it would fall under the World Assembly definition of an International Terrorist organization, should you take any hostile action against the Imperium.

I repeat my request, now an order, backed by the Civil Oversight Division of the Imperium of Tinfect. Your forces are to withdraw from the Imperial Territory. Any assets you are capable of taking with you, are to be removed in this action. Anything that cannot be removed, is required to be turned over to the Imperium. Failure to comply... well, you should know the consequences by now.

Nguyen smiled at Saar's response, and though he could not see it her smile only grew wider as the pointless tirade continued.

"My dear, dear, Overseer. Not only is your referral to the Chriiran as being a 'lesser civilization' downright insulting to the very species you are attempting to aid, but also highly hypocritical. In the eyes of many nations, Excidium Planetis is a lesser nation, to yours perhaps, but most certainly to your allies, and yet you still come with an invasion force to attack Excidian holdings. And government reports seem to indicate a particular planet, inhabited by a sapient race, was attacked and conquered with our own ships as witnesses.

"But no matter, for you misunderstand our purpose. We're here on legitimate business, which up until recently was selling slaves, and now consists mostly of mining and real estate. We do have a right to be here, especially under General Assembly Resolution Number 68, National Economic Freedoms.

"And you may claim 'all territory in this system not under the jurisdiction of existing States'... Indeed, as a representative of the Excidium Planetis Council, I can say that we might even accept that claim. Unfortunately, your presumption that that puts us in the position of a foreign company operating in Imperium of Tinfect territory is tremendously fallacious. We are not operating in Tinfect space, we are here on authority of the current government of the nation of Tenzeni, who lays claim of jurisdiction to all space in a 600,000 kilometer radius of the surface of Chri-irah. If you have a dispute about the boundary of your Imperium's territory, feel free to take it up with the Tenzeni government in Port Victory. The records are quite clear.

"You can neither force us out of possessions or declare us terrorists, we have committed no crime in your territory. Fire on our ships, and you are attacking and killing merchants in the sovereign territory of Tenzeni, a breach of General Assembly Resolution Number One Twelve, which defines Execution 'as the lawfully sponsored and orchestrated death of an individual as their punishment for committing a crime;' and summary Execution 'as the execution of an individual without a trial as stipulated by this resolution.' In other words, you'd be executing us without a trial in violation of WA law."

Nguyen took a breath. "Now, are you going to stop threatening us and get on with your life, or do I need to petit-"

Nguyen was interrupted by a tap on her shoulder. She turned to see a comm technician pointing down at her console.

"Um. Please hold." A collection of peppy commercial jingles advertising the virtues of Tachyon robotic dogs and Intellomere Convenience Tablets began to play over the Tinfect line while Nguyen reviewed new data.

The Clan Xaphaii Fleet had finally arrived. Just in time too, as Tinfect might attack at any moment, and the more ships they had the better.

However, these strange beings who addressed themselves as the Brotherhood of Planets- Sounds like a cult Nguyen thought- they seemed to be quite out of place.

Nguyen typed a response.

To: Starship Brightest Day
From: Battlestation 1

Greetings.

We at Battlestation 1 are glad to help you in your quest for scientific knowledge. May we start by correcting you: This is not our sovereign territory. We are but merchants come to a planet who holds many nations which claim sovereignty over the space. Alas, there was once a civilization here that could lay unchallenged claim to the system's space, but it is gone.

For regards to current territorial claims, please the Imperium of Tinfect's Overseer Saar, and the Birrin nations of Kaybor, Kendi, Tenzeni, Dirid, Great Chey, Yidric, Hindiril, Ederib, and Rhido. Good luck getting them to sit down for talks.

You have clearance to explore the stars anywhere in the system.

Nguyen finished, and resumed the transmission to Saar. "Now, where was I? Eh, it is of little consequence. Cease your threats or risk war."

[Aeiouia]

From a location far from the Tinfect Fleet, almost on the opposite side of the planet, a transmission is sent to the Coalition forces. Clearly originating from a cloaked vessel, it contains the following message. Consisting of a synthesized and monotone robotic voice:

"Salutations, Coalition forces. This is Overseer 2418-B of the Aeiouian Collective, here on diplomatic and trade discussions.

Since there is a large conflict going on on this planet, we would like you to explain the full history of your interactions with the Birrin people. As well as the current political state of various faction on the world's surface. We know that due to WA law, you no longer enact slavery, which we commend. However, we would like you to shed some light on your other practices that might be causing concern in foreign nations.

Additionally, we are interested in purchasing land from you, since you have already stated that you deal in real estate. With the loss of Olber III, we are in need of some more arid environments, and parts of this world would do quite nicely."

Obviously, with Aeiouia sending someone other than their usual drunken psychopath for diplomatic discussion, something weird was clearly going on for this round of debate. At least compared to all of the previous ones that the Collective has gone through, at least.

[Tinfect]

"My dear, dear, Overseer. Not only is your referral to the Chriiran as being a 'lesser civilization' downright insulting to the very species you are attempting to aid, but also highly hypocritical. In the eyes of many nations, Excidium Planetis is a lesser nation, to yours perhaps, but most certainly to your allies, and yet you still come with an invasion force to attack Excidian holdings. And government reports seem to indicate a particular planet, inhabited by a sapient race, was attacked and conquered with our own ships as witnesses.

"But no matter, for you misunderstand our purpose. We're here on legitimate business, which up until recently was selling slaves, and now consists mostly of mining and real estate. We do have a right to be here, especially under General Assembly Resolution Number 68, National Economic Freedoms.

"And you may claim 'all territory in this system not under the jurisdiction of existing States'... Indeed, as a representative of the Excidium Planetis Council, I can say that we might even accept that claim. Unfortunately, your presumption that that puts us in the position of a foreign company operating in Imperium of Tinfect territory is tremendously fallacious. We are not operating in Tinfect space, we are here on authority of the current government of the nation of Tenzeni, who lays claim of jurisdiction to all space in a 600,000 kilometer radius of the surface of Chri-irah. If you have a dispute about the boundary of your Imperium's territory, feel free to take it up with the Tenzeni government in Port Victory. The records are quite clear.

"You can neither force us out of possessions or declare us terrorists, we have committed no crime in your territory. Fire on our ships, and you are attacking and killing merchants in the sovereign territory of Tenzeni, a breach of General Assembly Resolution Number One Twelve, which defines Execution 'as the lawfully sponsored and orchestrated death of an individual as their punishment for committing a crime;' and summary Execution 'as the execution of an individual without a trial as stipulated by this resolution.' In other words, you'd be executing us without a trial in violation of WA law."

Nguyen took a breath. "Now, are you going to stop threatening us and get on with your life, or do I need to petit-" "Um. Please hold." "Now, where was I? Eh, it is of little consequence. Cease your threats or risk war."

Not quite the expected response, but their claims of a possible World Assembly Violation on the part of the Imperium were no more reasonable than the Imperial ones, given the circumstances. He prepared yet another response, before being interrupted by the Communications Decurion,

"Overseer, we are receiving a transmission from Brotherhood Vessels in the system. Speculatores identifies them as cloaked."

Sent By: The Starship Brightest Day, of The Second Brotherhood of Planets
Addressed to: The starship of the Tinfect Imperium.

Greetings, fellow carbons of Tinfect. We find comfort in your presence.

This is the Brotherhood starship Brighest Day. We have been assigned to explore this sector and conduct a survey of this star system in the name of science and knowledge. However, you seem to be in a tense situation. Do you require assistance?

Entirely unexpected, but not at all unwelcome.

"This is the Tinfect Civil Oversight, Ashes of Eternity; I am the Civil Overseer of the Imperium, Andersen Saar. Excidian private industries have been waging war of conquest against the native of this world, and, until recently, enslaved a large number of their population. Any support your forces can provide will be welcome, but be aware that hostilities have not yet begun."

With that out of the way, he returned to matter at hand.

"Technologically Lesser. Do not presume I mean anything other than such. In any case, there are no Excidian holdings in this system. To my knowledge, the only forces present in this system are privately owned by your company, what we presume to be hirelings of yours, and an exploratory division of the Brotherhood of Planets. No Excidian national holdings. And I have no misunderstanding of your purpose, you are slavers, and no business, or government, with any claim to legitimacy has utilized the labour of slaves in its works. To pretend otherwise is a profound, and pathetic statement regarding your ideals.

While I will admit to my own failure in assuming your forces were not operating with the blessing of a, no doubt, puppet government on the surface, I will point out that if you are not in violation of Imperial Law, your deaths will not be executions, merely a result of warfare.

In any case, it is clear that your forces will not listen to any form of reason, and we will have no further deliberations except to accept the surrender of all forces under your employ."

With the message sent, he turned to the Fleet Command board, already prepared to transmit orders, with the Tactical officer standing ready.

"Decurion, please asses the field of battle."

The Decurion quickly brings up various sensor read-outs onto the screen,

"There are 20 Battlestations of Stormwrathian design in orbit of the planet, one of them, appears to be the station from which the Excidian Transmissions were sent. If the descriptions acquired from the AE-Celestia company are to be believed, the weapons have a 'maximum range' of some description. If this is the case, our forces are easily out of range of their attacks, and can safely bombard them if the Archailect plan is unsuccessful. In other locations, there are various Military vessels, the Archailect decoy detachment, and a significant number of vessels of unknown, but clearly advanced design. It is unlikely our forces will be able to easily destroy them without support."

This was not good news. It was expected that the Excidians would hire Mercenaries. They were not, however, prepared to fight from a position of technological weakness. The Troopships could be easily destroyed if they are caught in any crossfire, but separating them from the Fleet leaves them with only their escort for defense, which would be unlikely to hold off the more powerful vessels in the Mercenary fleets for any length of time.

"Order the arrival of the Archailect Decoys. It is likely best if we attempt to carry out their plan."

Two minutes until the decoys arrived. If all was well, the Mercenaries wouldn't start firing immediately. If it was not, the battle could be far more lethal than anticipated.

[Singaporean Transhumans]

---

UNKNOWN TIME
UNKNOWN LOCATION, THE KILN, CHRI-IRAH
Forward Squad Kumpas

---

"Well fuck! No responses! And it's just moved out of the friggin' transmission range...if it's brought bombers, or just any attack aircraft, we are done for." the AI lamented, the Birrin's inability to translate the message something quite...well, not surprising, but not within calculation either. Either way, the crew continued their gate building, while the AI continued sending transmissions hoping someone would pick it up, this time of course not in binary but rather in rough, broken Birrin language - better than what the so-called 'Imperial Translation Software Ver.G00GL3' from Tinfect could do - but still taking some time to sort out the grammar. More importantly, it did not include expressions unique to Birrin language, hindering the comprehension even more.

On the other hand, with an outer shell assembled and the inner parts, namely the power source and the portal projectors, being worked on at an astonishing pace, an early completion could be expected. The grey, dull structure erected upon the sand dunes became a new landmark and reference point, and soon its most enchanting feature can be expected to dawn...

[Vilkia]

Alpha Skirl Condor Wolfcunning looked at the Tinfect fleet before him. He had been listening to political squable between Excidium Planetis and the Tin can Empire. All "civilized" nations were way too nit picky about international law, except for the nation of Saint Brendania. If he had been in charge of the talks they would've already started fighting each other. Oh well, if they want to talk they can. He knew they were going to fight no matter what. No nation brings a fleet as big as Tin Can's unless you mean the business end of a rail cannon.
He noticed the sensors were picking up the Tin Cans voidcrafts' shield and weapons being charged. In a boisterous voice, Condor started giving commands to his communications warrior,"Tell the rest of the fleet to get their weapons and shields powered up. We are about to get ourselves in a very nice fight. Do it through wolf code, I don't want anybody to know what we're saying. Tell the Omega's to stay away unless they see a weak spot. This is going to be a full out void battle. Wolf ships, prepare to fight but await my orders for troop deployment. Remember lads attack in packs, never allow the enemy to engage one of you at the same time. May Frenris curse our enemies! Did you get all of that?" The commications warrior replied,"Aye skirl, every bit of it." Condor activated his intercom,"Listen up crew, we have ourselves a nice and fat battle coming up. So I want everybody to their battle stations now! Someone get my wolf's and my own exo suits. Gunners, aim on my target."
He then turned off the intercom. He adjusted his seat so that he stood up straighter. This was going to be fun.

[The Ctan]

This was the disposition of the Necrontyr Harvest Ship Meravaid as the conflicting sides drew near Chri’irah.

A single leviathan ship of about six to seven kilometres from bow to stern, it was made of a substance called living metal; this was not so much a form of nano or picotechnology as many enemies speculated, but rather a form of organized matter that was superconductive and housed within its substance an intelligence that could be called an AI, though comparison to simple binary or quantum computers, even the largest foreign Matrioshka Brains (which obviously exceeded its linear capacities) operated on wholly different operating functions, for the ‘computers’ of the Great Civilization, those built domestically at least, were alien and unfathomable, they were Non-Deterministic Turing Machines, in human parlance, and this was one of the least remarkable of their functions. It was home to a fully rated sapience.

It was not the biggest ship in the C’tani fleet, but it was the overall flagship, inasmuch as a single ship was needed for command and control functions. Instead it was an Arnstoan Rhien-pattern, Scythe-class harvest ship, equivalent to a heavy cruiser in most fleets, though given the scarcity of ships in the C’tani fleet, it was essentially a battleship by many measures.

Meravaid like all its siblings was powered by several independent sources of power. It could absorb solar energy passively, and linger in the chromosphere of a star to drink from it, but that was a last resort. Fusion plants sat nestled in its midsection, forests of columnar mini-generators that could tide it over in the absence of all other systems, while great spherical generators called annihilation plants, spheres of condensed ultra-dense degenerate matter and harvested energy from it, converting this enormous and largely “imaginary” (which in no way meant it did not exist) mass to energy, the density of material consumed by these engines allowed phenomenal rates of mass-energy conversion to be attained. The chief power source however, were power nodes, these took the form of crystals, many-sided and glowing with a lambent green energy from within. They were true marvels, within the lattice of crystalline material, largely decorative, were the mechanisms to sustain microscopic wormholes, capable only of transmitting energy.

Each power node was dozens of meters across, and surrounded by a forest of collection devices that harnessed the radiations emitted from it. No organic being could survive, even shielded with the best technologies, within the chamber, and constant repairs were necessary, necessitating the swarming forms of the biomimicing drones called wraiths, which phased in and out of the chamber; even these were damaged rapidly by the waste energies within the node chamber and had to be cycled out and repaired regularly, for the battery of nano-wormholes within the node were linked to collectors in the far deeps of the universe, to arrays of self-replicating collectors around an immensely distant quasar; essentially a galaxy in the final stages of consumption by a black hole, the Hawking Radiation and radiation from the accretion disk of this immense abomination was harvested and transmitted to the power node by the arrays that sat thousands of light years from its chief zone, generating collection-fields around themselves. Only a fraction of the quasar’s energy was ever used, and only a fraction of the energy could be used by the Meravaid, but the limits of the power node were not its capacity to generate energy, but the capacity of the ship to consume it.

A similar piece of engineering, the sink-node, routed the overwhelming majority of the ship’s waste heat through similar worm holes, to heat-sinks bored in the hearts of asteroids and comets, or dropped into gas giants, and other such things; were such a machine used on an inhabited world it could be a disaster, but the benefits of placing the remote heat-sinks that distributed the ship’s waste emissions many light years from it in objets, rather than in space, was to allow convection and conduction from the heat-sink, and the ship was currently operating a dispersed network of seventy three dispersal sites where its energy was dumped, maintained by automated drones. In principle, if one were to track down the dispersal sites, and destroy them, the ship would be crippled, as it began to melt itself if it tried to function at full power.

No system was perfectly efficient, of course, and other emissions were captured and transmitted by neutrino-radiators that emitted a distinctive slew of neutrinos whenever it operated at full power, such as acceleration, hyperspeed or weapons fire. Thermal radiation also escaped the ship, though primarily through ‘heat pits’ on its surface.

There was no such thing as stealth in space, but for a vessel as powerful as Meravaid, there had to be some strategies to reduce waste emissions around it, or it would be potentially giving cancers to the birrin on the planet below simply by being in orbit, and of course, melting itself.

While sitting in orbit, of course, the ship needed rather less energy than this, which begged the question of what it was doing that consumed so much energy that it required its power node. It did not require life support, for there was no crew of fragile organics on board the necron ship, nor did it need to move, for all forces operating on it were in balance, the downward force of the planet, and its inertia forward.

Therefore its power nodes idled for now, and its dispersal nodes likewise chuntered over inertly. They were not the only wormholes on board. Nestled in the bays where the vessel carried its strategic weapons, which had become a de-rigeur addition to its arsenal since the Allanean declaration of war. Among these were displacement engines, a strategic wormhole based munition, that could create and link an area to another over a considerable distance. Support ships and stations far away carried the twins of these weapons, and a short time was required to set them up, potentially allowing the ship to displace a city, a station or potentially far more, into the periphery of a black hole, or the heart of a gas giant.

These systems were not intended for this battle, however, and it was unlikely they would be used here. Instead, the weapons systems the ship possessed that would be used in the battle of Chri’irah, at least if things went according to plan, were energy weapons, it was capable of discharging a variety of forms of energy, most infamously the ‘lightning arc’ which served as a short range beam weapon, operating primarily in the one to two light second range, while the longer ranged gauss whip, could usually hit a target at a longer range, as it fired a broad arc that narrowed down to a lance-like beam, that flicked across a large area of space, allowing it to proactively score a hit on an evading ship at a longer range, the ship could fire considerable less such beams however, because they required considerably greater computational power and physical energy to generate. Positive hits against vessels had been accomplished in a three light second range, though this of course depended on the manoeuvring capability and skill of the target.

The ship did not carry missiles internally, as most did, instead it shepherded sub-craft in the envelope of its reactionless drive. Missile launchers required little power to operate, and while the munitions it fired were certainly missiles, they were functionally no different. The packages were a trio of lightly armoured drums hundreds of meters wide and long, that had targeting optics on one end and manoeuvring thrusters in belts around them to reposition them relative to their motherships. They spun fast, enough to create three gravities at their edges, and were nothing so much as a complex hopper for missiles, each of which was a single piece of metal the size of a skyscraper, its propulsion a deceptively simple fusion induction device, akin to a melta-gun. The result was a brutally simple rocket, with a duranium head and a capacity to develop extreme speeds as they crossed a star system.

These weapons didn’t need to be fancy, or cool to do their job, which was to intercept enemy kinetics fired at the fleet; the total velocity of incoming RKVs would be high enough to more than make up for the deficiency of these counter-missiles.

Other missile busses were tucked away closer to the ships, containing compacted missiles of slimmer design, they were ship-killers, using far more advanced propulsion systems than fusion rocketry.

Still, for now these counter missile drums were the important asset; their spin allowed them to deploy their munitions rapidly, stuttering them and ‘dropping’ them out in different directions like a seed pod, each one was coiled with hundreds of missiles within.

In its way, this was a change in tactics for the necrontyr; the Allaneans and Menelmacari had never seen the necrontyr use missiles in battle before, no doubt they would be confused by this change in tactics, the necrons who had previously eschewed the wasted mass of disposable missiles had rarely been caught on the defensive before, however, and had not fought since their new leader, Telissat, had ordered major military reforms.

All the necron ships carried other small craft nearby. The humblest of those around Meravaid were surely the jetbikes known as ‘tomb blades’ narrow and curved things that were little more than small curves of metal with one pilot and a gun on them. They were normally used in boarding actions and in the tight confines of the webway, rather than in open space, but the orbital space was cluttered enough that they would be of use here.

Atmosphere-aligned bombers and fighters had been deployed also, for ground attack and for deployment of troops by portal; the necrons did not use landing bays, instead internal volumes of the ship that acted as hangars were accessed by teleporters; there was a hangar, but no flight deck. Now and then the fighters would cut their engines and vanish from within the ship’s field envelope, or simply appear again.

The ship functioned with what was essentially part reactionless, part reaction drive; the ship functioned by manipulating spacetime to simulate gravity, as their technological rivals the Menelmacari did, and like them they retained a reaction drive simply because a reactionless drive’s limits related to the exchange of momentum, that could be overcome by combining both. Anything close enough, unless the living ship took action, which typically consisted of within a few kilometres of its hull, would be carried along with it as it moved, which was how it moved its missile busses, small craft and the hordes of interceptor scarabs that surrounded it like a cloud of flies hovering around a corpse.

It could well be said, then, that the Meravaid was an advanced ship by most, maybe all measures. But its mission today, was atavistic, crude and cruel.

It was not entirely uninhabitable. Some of the bays of its internal volume could be filled with atmosphere. On missions of mercy, the C’tan had ships such as this equipped as hospitals and more, but here, it had resumed its traditional function; the vessel was a harvest ship. Quarters that could be welcoming under other circumstances had had their entertainment suites removed, their pastel wall colourings re-textured to shining metallic sea green, and their doors altered to remove any means of opening them. Partitions had been inserted to make the quarters narrower, to cram more in, and the air circulation and hygiene systems had been re-set to remove the veneer of welcome and good fortune.

The mission was a Flower War. A term originating from some ancient terran culture who had fought wars for sacrifices. That the Exedium wished to pay monies was neither here nor there, the C’tani had little need of money; they had a monetary system, certainly, but their industrial systems were highly independent of other cultures and many parts of their economy required such things, therefore money had less value to them than it did to some others. Certainly the Great Civilization’s navy could not be bribed in currency, or land, or concessions of a mortal sort.

But it did need lives; blood upon the altar.

Not for religious reasons, but to feed some parts of its population. The few tens of thousands of dark eldar who had defected to their society down the generations often worked as privateers, and in other roles that allowed themselves to lawfully feed themselves; but not all had that inclination, nor should all be forced to.

The culture had become accustomed to having a large group of expendable people, criminals captured in occupation of slaver lands, and wars against the slavers during the interventionist crusade of Amistad mounted with Allanea, Menelmacar and others, but there was a shortage now, that needed to be addressed; here, the chance to harvest the enemy would be quite desirable.

Close to the base of the stepped pyramid that soared over the dorsal surface of the starship, Anatirakh of the Arvakh dynasty stood. There was no air, but she was unaffected by this, watching with crystal eyes that looked on the distant forms of the other harvest fleet with distaste. She was draped in a jade cloak that clinked and clattered with her every movement, and she walked on the hull in annoyance. Upon her high bladed staff was a chain, hung with the eyes of a race of giant androids that had opposed the necrontyr in previous conflicts, and with the progenoids of space marines who had opposed her in battle, frozen in amber and hung from the chain. She decorated her form with the fallen remnants of her foes, she walked upon their hides and made love, for modern necrons had secondary bodies that they used away from the battlefield, on their captured banners. To Anatirakh, life was simply triumph, and the quest for it. Her head was surmounted by an axe-like horizontal crest of rank, and her expressionless deathmask face observed the Apophic fleet.

“How dare they,” she muttered.

There was no sound, of course, her murmurs were carried by quantum entanglement comms inside her body to the network that linked the fleet. “They were here first,” Meravaid replied.

“It is not that they intrude on our harvest,” she said, “It is that they impersonate us. The effrontery they have,” the necron decreed, “to impersonate our perfection. To impersonate our forms without respect to our ancestors, without our suffering. How dare they,” she said. A necron was an uploaded, formerly-mortal being, mechanical, yes, but once of the living necrontyr race. “Our history is filled with pain and a thousand-thousand ancestors stand behind each of us as we triumph now, filled with pride in us,” she said, and gestured toward the Harvest fleet with her arm, “what are these that impersonate us? They are counterfeits, they mock our struggles by even existing,” she said.

“Nonetheless, they are our allies,” she said.

“Not for long,” she said, “the apex predator chases all others away from his carcass. They must learn humility. This harvest will teach them their place in the order of things.”

“It is of course, possible that their leader is a true necron.”

“If so, he or she is a renegade and should be brought to heel and any of our still-torpid kin serving him should be reclaimed.”

“Nonetheless, our attention should be on the battle we fight today,” the shipmind said.

“So be it. What news?”

“Our patrons and the first interventionist nation, of Tinfect, are debating the policies of the World Assembly and the legalities of their actions.”

“You jest,” Anatirakh said.

“I do not, perhaps they will resolve the situation without bloodshed.”

“Intolerable,” she said.

“I agree, but I believe it unlikely that they will avert combat. Neither side appears to be operating in good faith.”

“Good. We will reap today,” Anatirakh said.

So the ship waited, along with its fleet.

[The Second Brotherhood of Planets]

The Brightest Day broadcasted a short message of thanks to their new hosts, and slowly proceed to move in a circular fashion, as if going into high orbit over the planet. The trajectory appeared to be heading towards the source of the Aeiouian transmission.

The rest of the task force, however, remained cloaked. Although things were heating up on a certain ship's bridge:

BPS Osiris, Bridge

"Sir! While it is wise for us to remain under cloak, we should take advantage of their passivity to move towards the Tinfect fleet. If hostilities are declared, we can decloak near our Tinfect allies and protect their flanks." The Tactical Officer barked.

Reynolds began to sway back and forth. "I, um, er..."

And promptly fell unconscious.

"Captain Owens to the bridge!" The Communications Officer yelled into the intercom. "And get some medics up here right away. Commodore Reynolds may require a night in sickbay."

Although the Brightest Day continued to cruise towards the presumed location of friendly vessels, the rest of the Task Force gradually moved closer towards their Tinfect counterparts under cloak.

[Hobbiest Republic]

Rear Admiral Snugguluffikos was taken aback by the inadvertent or purposeful promotion of her status to the prestigious rank of Admiral The sound had a heady overtone to it that practically made her dizzy. A command of not one mission fleet, but five Expeditionary Fleets under her command? Such riches and lavish excesses that could be done with such a command. Briefly her ears laid back as she took in the rest of the missive from the Ctani.

" Should they choose to inspect.... HAVE HALF THE PEWS FROM THE CHAPEL COMPLEX BROUGHT TO THE BRIDGE IMMEDIATELY!" She started, quiet and thoughtful at first, but her fur standing on end and her tail rigid as she realized the possible affront yet to be committed and shouted at the top of her lungs to the couriers that were on standby should something go horribly wrong with the communications equipment.

" Rear Admiral, all of our crew might not yet have time to don their suits if we do not start the process presently..." Her First Officer, a human of dwarvish heritage name Quavarth said, having already attired himself in one of the numerous variations of void suits that the Republic had been having delivered in droves, the irony that he was wearing an import from one of the opposing nations was not lost on him as he picked at the 'Made in Menelmacar' tag that it had sewn onto it as per the import agreement.

"Very well, have all crew on standby and pilots get into the their hull mounted fighter and transport craft so that the moment something is amiss we will be ready. I still want those Pews up here inside of the hour! MAKE IT A PRIORITY!" Snugguffikos insisted, sauntering over to where her personal void suit, which linked with some of the Republic's newest powered armor, the L255, with the latest enhancements to deflection and kinetic shielding technology included, an expensive personal purchase that let her crew know that she was serious about the business of war. " Oh yes, and Quavarth, do so make sure that our 'sensor satellites are deployed, I would so hate to not use such handy little tools that R&D has so carefully worked on for us."

" As you say Rear Admiral, they will be deployed in our vicinity presently." Quavarth acquiesced.

[Excidium Planetis]

The Kiln

Far enough away from the PTFS construct to be out of sight, a large group of Tachyon Corporation workers labored on a special project.

Corporal Henderson was one of these employees, lifting camouflaged aluminium veams and connecting them together into what a Terran might recognize as a train track. Normally Excidian construction of Rail lines would involve nitrogen cooled high temperature superconductors, but such things were impractical in the Kiln, where the temperatures ruined the nitrogen cooling systems.

No, these Rail lines were for fusion powered electric trains. Less noticible than dropships and with a higher cargo capacity, the Military Rail line would easily move troops across the Kiln from Operations base Inferno to Kaybor or down to the Chey nations.

Henderson lined another Rail up, working feverishly with the threat of death by heatstroke constantly hanging over his cooled Exosuit. He glanced up at the other threat: A small blue dot in the sky, which his HUD magnified to reveal as an Irradalli R/O craft. Nicknamed "Gnats" by the Excidians, the pests constantly spied on the Kiln, buzzing off before interceptors could arrive to swat them out of the air. They bugged the officers, for sure.

"Keep watching, Gnat. Eyes in the sky won't stop your defeat." Henderson muttered to the distant speck. He went back to work.

Dirid, Southern Chey Confederation

A cluster of wheeled armored vehicles emerged from the dust of the Kiln. They took aim at the Chey border outposts, and fired some shells at the steel buildings. The defensive structures destroyed, the Tachyon Mobile cannons continued to roll forward. They were passed by several Sandrunner IFVs, which darted towards the Military camp which guarded this section of the border. Spewing flames at the Birrin soldiers who attempted to strike back, the IFVs unloaded several squads of Tachyon Security forces, who were armored in refrigerated suits for the Kiln. The soldiers fired energy blasts at any Birrin still alive and resisting, and took the camp.

The new Southern Military Rail would go through here. It would terminate in the capital city of the nation of Great Chey.

Battlestation 1

Nguyen silently ordered ten of the Battlestations to target the Eternity III ship with their main cannons. She once again addressed Civil Overseer Saar.

"Surrender? We are not at war, Mr. Saar. We cannot surrender to you unless we are in a state of war with your forces. However, we gladly cease any non-existent hostilities with the nation of Tinfect.

"It also seems you misunderstand the concept of property and personal ownership, not surprising given your nation's socialist policies. There are Excidian holdings. They are not national holdings, they are held by privately owned holdings... by Excidians. This station is an Excidian holding. Attacking or confiscating it might be a violation of WA law, I'm not quite up to date on Wartime Looting and Pillaging yet... I'll get back to you after I've consulted the List of Things Other Nations Have Made Illegal For Us.

"Anyways, I'd consider your citizens slaves... Albeit not in name, but in status only. Our Birrin slaves possessed more rights that any of your citizens ever had. Now, will you end your baseless accusations or are we going to sit here and kill brain cells all day?"

Nguyen switched the communications to silent again. She turned to address the Vilkian mercenaries over a secure beam.

"Your forces appear most suited to ground combat. We are launching an offensive in the Northern sector of the Chey Confederation. Deploy your troops to assist our advance forces at the given coordinates, where we have just captured an enemy outpost."

One of the Communication Officers interjected. "Hail from an Aeiouian unit, identifies as the voice of the Overseer 2418-B."

Nguyen grunted. "Yeah right, Aeiouians almost always communicate through proxy. I bet it's just a Procne. Patch me through...

"Greetings Overseer. Your presence is quite the honor. While I am quite happy to answer any questions you may have concerning recent events, surely you are familiar with the phrase 'Knowledge is Power'? I will give you any information you seek... For a price. Also, we have a lovely section of desert waste and dried up lakebed I think you might be interested in. In the former Northern Chey area, which is now part of the Kiln, we have Lake Bydyzan, complete with rusted cargo ships in the dry lake. 400 square kilometers for only twenty nine million En-Ess-Dee."

[Aeiouia]

Orbit

The Overseer seems to be rather in shock. Expecting the cost to be in the billions, if not more. Aeiouia had been expecting to deplete a good portion of its diplomatic bribing money pool from this exchange, but the low cost of the land most definitely came as a pleasant surprise.

A response comes swiftly from the cloaked location:

"Only twenty nine million? That is an utter steal at that price. You certainly have yourself a deal.

I am communicating to you through a cargo Procne unit located in high orbit of the planet. We have more than twenty nine million NSD prepared for you. Fifty million, in fact. We hope that that extra twenty one should be able to shed a bit of light on the other questions that we have.

We will wire these funds to you right now. Please accept them if you wish to complete this transaction."

[The Usea Federation]

The two Usean troop ships split up, with one beginning to enter the atmosphere, creating a dazzling display of re-entry effects on the large, oddly-shaped vessel. Its companion begins burning to set itself on an encounter with the Sigma Station.

After the frigate finally enters the atmosphere, it begins slowly decreasing its altitude. Heading directly towards Port Victory. As it does so, it transmits the following to the allied positions:

"This is the Usean troopship UFN Hellhound. We're requestin' clearance to land in the flat lands near the city so that we can deploy our reinforcements, over."

[Excidium Planetis]

Battlestation 1

Nguyen listened to the communications from the Aeiouian Procne. Nodding quietly, she contemplated whether or not that was an adequate price for the information.

"We have a deal. Please wire funds... Wait. Why do say 'wire' anyways? Wouldn't 'beam' or 'transmit' be a better verbage? Anyways, send the funds to Battlestation 5, which is in charge of our finances. One chunk of trackless desert waste and an info dumb coming right up...

"Now, 25 years ago, Advance Fleet scouts discovered this system. It was obviously inhabited, and so crossed of the list of potential resource harvest systems. But, after 20 years, the data became public, and it drew the attention of some eager explorers in Home Fleet. These explorers, mostly treasure hunters, archaeologists, biologists, and a few venturous miners, headed out to make First Contact. Chri-irah was catalogued, explored, mapped, et cetera. Communication was made with the Birrin people, and we began to collect histories, literature, Biological Data, and so on to be included in an official report.

"That's when Tachyon stepped in. Tachyon saw the planet as a potential for economic gain in the long term, and began to negotiate for rights to construct factories in the nation of Kaybor. Kaybor was probably the most important nation, being the largest and a major military power. Alien Skies followed suit, purchasing land and permission to mine in certain areas of space, to use the system as a long term source of mining profits. Nucleon saw it as a new source of Uranium, Thorium, and other radioactive elements. My own company saw it as a place to obtain new slaves for our business... Only one variety of slave wouldn't cut it.

"Slavery was illegal in Tenzeni, and a few Chey nations, plus a random assortment of nations which no longer exist. But Kaybor was willing to sell us slaves, and so was Great Chey and other southern nations, and other nations which no longer exist. Kendi has a caste system, the lowest caste could be sold. So we bought a few hundred. The other companies caught on. Alien Skies planned to do nearly all planetary mining with Birrin slaves as equipment operators and managers, as it would reduce the need to put human Excidians on the planet. After all, Birrin lack the understanding that planets are fragile, unsafe places to dwell.

"Tachyon was planning to use Birrin for its security teams. They could not be loaned out without having to pay the slaves, but they could work for Tachyon for free, and the lack of products produced meant no excise taxes due to slave labor. That was better than Alien Skies, who paid taxes on all minerals produced by Birrin slaves and then sold.

"Anyways, it all came crashing down. A protest turned riot in Tenzeni led to Tenzeni declaring war on our companies there, and we swiftly conquered the country. Kaybor decreed that Tachyon leave. Unfortunately, Nucleon never got the memo, and when they showed up they were shot at. Nucleon retaliated immediately. My own ships showed up escorted, and were attacked by Kaybor. Nucleon, Tachyon, and my own company teamed up for an invasion of Kaybor too, but resistance was high and Kendi joined in as Kaybor's ally.

"The Southern Chey Confederation formed out of the southern nations to attack and take back Tenzeni from us. They attacked first, so it is their fault. Really, as the most primitive of the major powers, they should have been wiped out quickly, but they entered the war late and so are being conquered late.

"Sometime then, Perelandran Armaments and Zeta-Farron decided to sponsor us, giving weapons and ships and people to aid our conquest in exchange for part of the spoils.

"In the confusion of a planet wide conflict between two types of lifeforms, Kaybor 'annexed' all the remaining Northern nations, claiming planet-wide crisis was justification to conquer nations for 'mutual defense'. It is almost ironic that being part of that defense has put those former nations at risk."

Nguyen took a deep breath. "Satisfactory?"

Tenzeni Interstellar Airport, Port Victory

Jim sat in air traffic control, doing nothing. No commercial flights flew anymore... There were no foreign countries to go to. The war had cancelled the air transport industry. Only the occasional dropship would request clearance.

So when the Usean ships came in to land, he noticed.

Jim phoned the Transportation Administration, which phoned Port Victory's Civil Offices. Zhu Li Moon answered, relayed instruction to the TA, which relayed it to Him.

"Negative, Hellhound you do NOT have clearance to land. Repeat, Negative, no clearance to land. This is a secure area, no foreign military vessels allowed. Please direct your landing to the designated coordinates."

The coordinates were at a spot on the Kiln/Chey border.

[Apophan]

Endless Sorrow

The Admiral was growing impatient. Never before had he been forced to deal with this pre-battle posturing, and was far more suited to the thrill of combat. However, the latest transmissions seemed to indicate that the talking was coming to close, and that they would soon come to blows with the Tinfect Fleet. He smiled in anticipation, relishing the thought of the many humans who would soon serve the Xaphaii. This was going toe a rich harvest indeed, one that would be forever remembered by the Xaphaii, and perhaps the Apophan as a whole.

"Lieutenant, I need you to plot out a Void Jump." He said, turning to his Chief Engineer. "Above the hostile flagship, so that when the fighting starts we can seize the initiative." He smiled, showing his fangs.

"It shall be as you say, my lord." Saluted the engineer before stepping into the elevator.

"Perfect... These fools won't know what hit them..."

[The Usea Federation]

Port Victory

The troopship immediately responds:

"Understood, air traffic control. Heading to the coordinates provided."

With the landing craft clearly lacking any real atmospheric control surfaces, its change in heading is marked by a sudden flare of activity from its reaction control thrusters. It swiftly turns, and begins heading in the direction of the the Kiln/Chey border.

Orbit

Meanwhile, the other troopship gets within a few hundred meters of Sigma Station. As it makes this close approach, it briefly burns its thrusters to slow itself relative to the construct. Before opening its landing hatches, spewing out a swarm of what appear to be soldiers in EVA suits.

The personnel in these advanced power armor systems are able to adjust their own velocity enough to reach the surface of the abandoned station quite easily. Landing on it, and connecting to the surface using what appears to be some kind of magnetic attachment system in their feet.

As the soldiers begin to stand up and look around, ten of the frigate's fighters move in to join them, before the ship itself begins decelerating into a de-orbit trajectory back to the planet.

The fighters and the personnel on the construct begin looking around, searching for some door or airlock.

[Aeiouia]

Orbit

"Thank you for the smooth transaction. We have wired a total of seventy million to Battlestation 5. And, we will be heading to the surface area that we just purchased immediately.

Now, to answer your question regarding our usage of words, it is simply due to how we translate our communications to a Terran language.

Our internal code is very, very different to spoken language, and a lot of things are often translated oddly, or in a strangely antiquated manner. For instance, a destroyed ship is often considered to be "Sunk" in a manner like a seagoing craft when we translate it. This is due to the fact that the first Terran-like species we ever came into contact with was the Jenei, who lived in pre-industrial societies at the time, and had a rather odd language that lacked words for many technologies.

As a result, our translation protocols can occasionally come up with antiquated or odd words in speech. Additionally, some of us, such as our leader, have modified algorithms that change the way that they speak entirely. We apologise for any inconveniences that this may cause.

But, I suppose that little of that is interesting to you. What you are probably wondering is why we wired seventy million instead of fifty. That is due to the fact that we have one more question.

What are your long-term goals for your ventures on this planet?"

From a cloaked location near this Procne, something begins moving towards the world below. It is a large object, but definitely still smaller than a capital ship, especially an Aeiouian one. This object, an Avatar Strike Craft carrying a Terra-Class Construction Vehicle (Which is quite amusingly larger than the aircraft towing it), begins heading to the land that the Collective had just purchased.

"... Oh, and before I forget, in this transaction, you have been given a voucher for a free Mia Utopia Action Playset from Lemurian Elemental Technologies, as par their advertising with foreign trade. This is an offer that I am sure you are very interested in."

Even with the synthetic voice of the Overseer, the sarcasm in their tone is extremely evident.

[The Second Brotherhood of Planets]

Endless Sorrow

-snip-

"Lieutenant, I need you to plot out a Void Jump." He said, turning to his Chief Engineer. "Above the hostile (Tinfect) flagship, so that when the fighting starts we can seize the initiative." He smiled, showing his fangs.

"It shall be as you say, my lord." Saluted the engineer before stepping into the elevator.

"Perfect... These fools won't know what hit them..."

BPS Osiris, Bridge, Still cloaked

"Sir, an unidentified starship that appeared to be part of Excidium Planetis' escorts is charging its FTL drive." The Tactical Officer spoke.

"Target that vessel. Get a lock. If it leaves the system, that would be wonderful, but if it suddenly jumps to a better firing position we should decloak and counter it immediately. As long as the targeting computer gets an imprint of this thing, we'll be able to react quickly." Captain Owens barked his orders.

"... Wouldn't that leave some of our automated guns unable to seek other targets for a few moments?" The Science Officer quipped.

"Aye, but you never know how these people might react. That ship has no reason to withdraw and Tinfect has been attracting their attention in an aggressive manner. If I were dealing with a hostile opponent I might do the same thing." The Captain replied.

-------

Meanwhile, the Brightest Day arrived near the source of the Aeiouian transmission, at a close enough distance that short-range transmissions would probably reach the Aeiouians with little issue, thus allowing for a bit more discrete dialogue. The Star Destroyer sent a whisper in the void.

-Low Power / Short Range Transmission-

Addressed to Fleet of Aeiouia
From: The starship Brightest Day of The Second Brotherhood of Planets

Greetings, friends of Aeiouia! We find comfort in your presence, although we do not know your exact location.

We originally came here as an exploratory group to conduct surveys of the region and gather data in the name of science and knowledge. Unfortunately, we noticed the commotion here and we are concerned for the welfare of all parties involved. Our mutual friends of Tinfect seem to be in a tense situation with the local powers arranged here, wouldn't you agree? Your great processing power brings you wisdom, and we'd like to consult you if possible.

[Vilkia]

Your forces appear most suited to ground combat. We are launching an offensive in the Northern sector of the Chey Confederation. Deploy your troops to assist our advance forces at the given coordinates, where we have just captured an enemy outpost."

The Alpha Skirl picked put on a headset and replied,"I glad you didn't forget about us lady. They'll be there in 4 hours." Switching to a general encoded message for the fleet,"All right lads, its time to earn you money. You are to dump the majority of your troops onto the northern part of the Chey Confederation. I will be sending the exact coordinates now. Keep some troops to act as boarders. Omegas Tigers Nail, Hawk's Gaze, Wolf Spite, and Weakling Bane you are to provide orbital support while the troops land. We aren't expecting any ground combat when you land but its better safe then sorry. All other Omegas, you are free to initiate Operation Submirged Wolf. Let's get it done lads." With that he ended the transmission.
He looked at the screen showing the surrounding space outside. 10 former space "debris" came to life as they were infact Omegas powered down. They activated their engines and darted toward the surface. In no time they had breached the atmosphere. Still going at their breakneck speed they hit the water and disappeared in ocean. They were not sunk. They were submerging down to there lowest point,10,000 meters. About a 17 more Omegas joined them in the general ocean area. The rest were either unloading troops or still hiding.

Sigma Station...
The lookout, Lerio Longeye, detected a power signature coming toward Sigma station. He switched to a camera mounted outside the station. Sure enough, it looked like a Usean dropship. It was getting really close to the station. He cursed under his breath. They're going to blunder in and forth them to reveal their location to them. He annoyingly said,"Skirl, we have a problem." Lerio pointed toward the video feed showing the ally dropship begin to deploy its troops. The skirl, Haergnim Wolfbite, cursed under his breath too. He yelled to a commications warrior,"Get me a rerouted encoded transmission to these Useans." Haergnim walked toward the communications warrior. The warrior handed him a headset."Useans in the dropship above Sigma Station, this is already inhabited by Vilkian forces. If you still wish to enter please wait for a Vilkian guide who will show you to an entry point. Don't cutt up the station, we just finished pressurizing some parts of it. I will be awaiting your reply.", he ended the transmission. Blasted Useans, they may have just ruined our spot. 12 other Omegas had already based themselves here. It could become a fine base to raid from. Oh well let's see what happens.

[Hobbiest Republic]

Addressed industrial Coalition Command Encryption 64 bit Standard
Given our primarily supply and support based mission here, We will be establishing a supply and emergency evacuation base in the desert of Chri-irah staffed by the onboard companies of Hobbiest Marines from Inevitable Contempt we have immediate troop dispersal capabilities of up to four-hundred in as many as twenty large dropships, as well as a variety of generic power cells for energy weapons, and assorted calibers of munitions for those who do still possess gunpowder based weaponry. Alpha and Charlie Companies will establish this base with Bravo in reserve. As such a temporary airfield and fueling station will be established for fuel cell, jet fuel, and fusion recharging stations for the various gunships, bombers, and fighters of Coalition forces. Initial estimates place the refueling and re-armament capabilities to Fifteen craft comparable to our own Meyli and Witch class space and atmospheric fighters, or DSPA Dropships. Or Three squadrons. Supplies at the base to be established in the following hours will be sufficient for the staff, and an additional Regiment's worth of personnel. That being said, a Hobbiest Regiment peaks out at around five-thousand sapient beings. I am suggesting that such a base in no-man's-land be referred to as Nipton Supply Depot.
-Rear Admiral Snugguluffikos

[Vilkia]

size=150]In orbit over the designated coordinates.[/size]
The Vilkian fleet massed above the planet like a bunch of vultures. They were literally circling around the drop point. Though not all of the Vilkian ships were there, it was still a sizable number. There didn't seem to be much activity going on. Then all of a sudden, hundreds of Valkeryie dropships, Snaer assualt pods, and a few Trannsjostr heavy dropships plummeted down to the admosphere. 5 Nótt dropships also were dispatched but no onlooker would have been able to notice. Once all their orbital craft were unloaded, all but 4 of the ships returned to their battle positions for the upcoming void battle. The Snaer assault pods were the first to enter the atmosphere. They glowed like red hot embers.

Down below on LZ.
The quiet float forest dominated the scene. Blight, vibrant buds adorned the trees. The myriad of birds sang there beautiful songs to the jungle. Ground animals scurried from cover to cover, fearful of their predaters. A murky green waterway flowed lazily through the float forest. A family of 4 Birrin were swimming in the water, unknowing of what was about to happen.

The happy scene was interupted by a strange sound. The sound sounded like a bomb dropping. Suddenly, 4 Snaer assualt pods landed on the ground with a huge *crack* as it flattened the trees underneath it. 10 Vilkian Raiders and 2 brown wolves emerged from each pod. Their graphene armor was painted green and brown to blend in with the forest. Their weapons were raised, expecting a fight. Their leader, Nergro Wolfsniff, ordered his men,"Move lads. Weapons ready, if you see a Birrin shoot it." Hundreds of more Snaer pods dropped down. The squad moved forward. The Raiders visually scanned their surroundings. The two wolves, Foot Nipper and Throut Ripper, bared their teeth and bounded off.

Throat Ripper ran through the forest. All the different scents in the air was a starc contrast to the stale voidcraft are he was used to. But one scent caught his interest. He had been taught to identify it by his masters before they dropped. It was the scent of Birrin. He was coming closer to the source. Both wolves slowed down to a stealthy crawl. The stopped at the edge of a clearing. 4 Birran were looking up with awe at the Vilkian drop forces. Throat Ripper circled behind the Birrin while Foot Nipper moved to their right. A cub Birrin seperated from the group. Throat Ripper started moving forward, but Foot Nipper beat him. Foot Nipper bounded across the clearing. Within seconds he reached the Birrin cub. The cub didn't even scream. Nipper bit the cub on the throat and pulled the cub off the clearing. The cub was dead by the time Foot Nipler reached the foliage. One of the adult Birrin looked back and and made an amused chirping nose. The larger adult made a steady chirping noise, similiar to laughing. The family started searching the area. The other cub was running in Throat Ripper's direction. Throat Ripper tensed up. The second adult was walking toward Foot Nipper. The larger Birran looked where the first cub was last. His body tensed up. He must've seen Nipper's tracks. He made a serious of loud, agitated chirps. The second cub stopped about 1 foot away from Throat Ripper. The second cub looked back, leaving his throat perfectly exposed. Ripper took his oppurtunity. He jumped up toward the perfectly exposed neck. His graphene plated teeth clasped around its neck. When the body dropped on the ground, Throat Ripper lived up to his name. The larger adult ran for some bags near the water. Foot Nipper jumped toward the smaller adult. The smaller adult chirped rapidly and fearfully. It put up its arms. But Foor Nipper went low and bit the one of the legs. He yanked to the side, pulling the smaller adult down. The larger adult pulled what looked like a pistol from the bags. Throat Ripper quickly darted back into the jungle as bullets hit were he once was. Just then his masters finally arrived. Nergro Wolfsniff yelled, through a translater,"Put down the weapon!" Another master told, in his native tongue, Foot Nipper to heal and come to him. Both wolves trotted to the master. The larger adult dropped its weapon, hate seething through its eyes. The master they went to, Deryer Wolftamer, scratched behind their ears and spoke in Vilkian,"Good job boys. Whose my stealthy killers? Whose my stealthy killers?" Both wolves howled and wagged their tails excitingly.

Nergro pointed his 245 Multi-Role Plasma Blaster at the larger adult. The rest of the squad swept the area. One Vilkian Raider started looking through the bags. Nergro spoke calmly, and slowly,"Birrin, is there anymore of you kind around here?" The larger adult only glared at him. Nergro mockingly started speaking,"You know predaters are always wild, no matter how much you train them. They can barely be controlled sometimes. They have been known to kill, or even eat alive, people. Its expecially painful when a loved one is the victim of such savagery." Deryer told Foot Nipler to play. The wolf immediately ran to the smaller adult and began biting it. The Birrin chirped loudly. The larger adult fearfully said,"Stop please! I'll tell you anything you want to hear. Just tell you animal to stop attacking my wife!" Deryer told Foot Nipper to heal, but not to return. Nergro began speaking again;
"Now that I have your attention. Are there anymore Birrin in this area?"
"No, me and my family were just taking a swim."
"There is a few miles from here, does it have any troops or communications?"
The father was silent for a moment. Nergro waved his hand. Deryer told Nipper to contine. Foot Nipper continued biting. The father desperately said,"There are no troops or communications." Nergro waited a few seconds, and signaled Dreryer to stop the wolf. Nipper stopped biting, but the wife was badly bleeding. Nergro continued,"You are making this very hard you know? Are their any militia? How many more Birran have weapons in that town?"
"Every adult has a rifle of some sort and all know how to use them. They're not trained for combat, they just know how to defend themselves and families. We don't have any communications, we had a radio but it broke a yesterday."
"See how easy it is when you just tell me what I want to know. 1 more question, how did you get here?"
"We used a boat to get here.
"Were is it parked?"
"Its on the other side of the bend."
"Good, good. You can go to your wife now."
Dreyer called Nipper back. The father ran to his wife and held her in his arms. While they were having a sappy moment, Nergro relayed his informatin to command via radio. When he was finished he looked back to the couple. The wife must've died because the husband was crying. Nergro walked up to the Birrin. He lifter his plasma blaster to the Birran's head, and pulled the trigger. The Birran's head disappeared into ashes. That Birran was going to be hell bent on revenge. So Nergro saved himself a lot of trouble.

The rest of landing force was already moving past the. Thor MBTs, Trannsgrisnir IFVs, and Sleipner APCs hovered above the waterways. Though they were capable of hovering above the tree line, but it would leave their bottom armor exposed to enemy fire. Odin heavy tanks hovered above the treeline. Their armor was so strong they didn't even need to worry about exposing their underside. Stag hover jeeps scouted ahead of the main force for any hostile Birran. Valkeryie dropships stayed at a high altitude, waiting to provide support and drop their troops.

Those Vilkians that had no tranport started setting the defenses at the LZ. Remote plasma blasters were set up around the perimeter. They could detect heat signatures and motion. Snaer assault pods armed with long range missile waited to be called upon to fire indirectly for the main force. fences of pure electricity made sure no one was easily getting through. A shield genetator was also set up. The Snaer assualt pods' star generaters were used to power the entire forward operating post. The Chey had for too long resisted there betters, and they were going to pay for their insubordination and the Vilkian Mercenaries.

[Excidium Planetis]

Battlestation 1

Tactical Officer Janson looked at the displays. The Vilkian dropships had apparently arrived at a float forest in Central Chey, rather than at the border outpost indicated by the coordinates.

"Vilkian forces, please respond. Station imaging indicates you've landed far south of the designated position, deep in hostile territory. What is your intended strategy? Be warned that Coalition forces may not be able to provide anything more than aerospace support in your current position."

Meanwhile, Valerie Nguyen was busy responding to the Aeiouian's most recent question. "Long term goals, huh? I like to play things by ear... That's an expression, it means just improvising as I go along. Discover someone selling piece of junk aircraft for billions on the international market, and I decided to try selling much higher tech junk for similar prices on the international market. Some strange business starts up a new international currency, I jumped on the bandwagon. That didn't work out well, but I didn't lose anything. One of my delivery teams discovered a mysterious crate? Bam, auctioned for trillions of credits. So when this whole war for Chri-irah thing starts going down, I hopped in on the chance to conquer a few nations, maybe influence some new governments, and get some prime real estate and/or business deals.

"Now, the other corporations might have different goals. Perelandran Armaments is after a 'war for profit' type thing. Now, they aren't making a lot of money on weapon sales, because they are putting their own equient out there to be destroyed, mostly on a lend-lease thing, and have even bought weapons from rival manufacturers. However, they see this as a great big R&D testing ground. You know, develop new weapons systems, improve old ones, throw out the worthless, and convince Excidium Planetis that they are the best in defense technologies. Of course, winning the war is not really a goal for them because they need the war in a way, but to prove they have the best stuff they have to win. Kind of a lose-lose, really.

"Alien Skies wants mining on a planet, and they want the labor for it too. Until now, slaves were the answer. Now they just want mining contracts. Not really sure what Tachyon wants. The others are here simply to sell stuff to the rest of us.

"Satisfied?"

Nguyen tapped a response to the communications from the Hobbiest forces.

Beamed Message, No Encryption
You have been granted clearnace to establish Nipton Supply Depot on the Kaybor/Kiln border just north of the Equatorial zone. This depot shall be connected to Operations Base Inferno by military rail, and form a connected supply line stretching from Kaybor through your supply base, across the Kiln, through Operations Base Inferno, and down to the Chey border, where the rail line will go on towards the Great Chey region.

You may commence construction immediately. Be warned, Kaybor and Kendi air forces may attempt to destroy your supply depot.

[Hobbiest Republic]

Alpha Company Captain Hold'em
Charlie Company Major Dysfunction
Supply Contingent Lieutenant Chuppy

Fighter Squadron Leaders
'snappy' Squadron Leader Stone 'Cold' Tofurky
'flappy' Squadron Leader Gemmy 'Gem' VanGarwalt (witches)
'trappy' Squadron Leader Lukas 'Lucky' Limnalty
'clappy' Squadron Leader Jimeny 'Crocker' Belfontaine

Dropship Squadron Leaders
Catherine's Couriers Squadron Leader Kate 'Kat' BlueWell
Frisky Fitzgerald's Outfit Squadron Leader Fitzgerald 'Fitty' John
Callous Mike's Teamsters Squadron Leader Mike 'Mickey' Merchantsson
Mother Mary's Miracle Marauders Squadron Leader Mary 'Em' Magdalene

Addressed to Fleet of Belligerent Disposition
Do we have any rail laying equipment? In any case, have snappy, flappy, and trappy squadrons on overwatch for the deployment of the supply depot. Catherine's Couriers, Frisky Fitzgerald's Outfit, and Callous Mike's Teamsters begin with deployment of the pre-fabs. Mother Mary's Miracle Marauders are to be responsible for deploying Alpha and Charlie Companies to the ground along with a Supply Contingent Lieutenant and his support platoon.

Addressed to Industrial Coalition Forces Leadership
We are unable to fulfill the rail line, we trust that you'll be capable of extending the line to the proposed site as we set down our pre-fabricated base materials. We will leave space for the military rail to pass through presuming you will provide the specifications for the clearance tolerances and train car width.

With the first missive sent, the afforementioned dropships and fighters separated from their host vessels to begin their rapid descent through the atmosphere with their shields on double front and bottom to help them weather cutting through like shooting stars. For good measure some forward thinking individual nudged a swathe of space debris down towards the planet to mask their descent with the tractor beam of the Star Destroyer.

Fourteen meyli class fighters with quad nose-mounted lasers cannons, and a pair of Mk I 'pepperbox' light missiles which upon reaching within 100 meters of the aircraft break into 3 pieces. Accompanying them, seven witch class fighters with dual plasma wingtip mounted pulse projectors. Each Witch sported a complement of four air to air Mk IV 'Pepperbox' missiles which once they reached within 50 meters of their targets would split into 6 separate missiles all targeting a different section of the aircraft.

A dozen of the sensor satellites tuned their optics to where the supply depot was to be, such that they would be able to see the area around the site and the site as well. For any imminent attacks and as such relay relevant data by 512bit encrypted packets to supplement the built-in sensor suites of their flight computers.

Aboard the first wave Captain James Hold'em of Alpha Company sat buckled into his flight recliner, watching the latest episode of 'The Librarians' as the ship descended, obvlivious to the scorching flames just outside his window, considerably insulated by his L150 powered armor, and the .75 Cal Gauss cannon sitting across his lap. It would be like the exercises, he had decided. Even if he were to die on the ride down, he was all too familiar with the Writ of Disproportionate Retribution that was framed in the Rear Admiral's Quarters. It was a daily reminder to any and all. We will avenge you.

[Menelmacar]

Chri'irah System
Two Days Ago

The first Menelmacari arrival to the Chri'irah system actually came before the battle. Several probes jumped into the system, arriving from multiple different trajectories, in positions and velocities that neatly dropped them into oblique, long elliptical orbits around the primary. They immediately unfolded their sensor arrays, went silent, and began to watch and listen. If anyone noticed them, which was unlikely, they would be assumed to be just a few more among the billions of tiny wandering rocks that accompanied any solar system.

MIV Nírnaeth Arnoediad
Docked at Eärendil Ring Station
Eärendil (Anor II), Menelmacar
Two Days Ago

The Menelmacari were, by many measures, an ancient people. To the C’tani, they were young. They did not, yet, have the ancient infrastructure of the like that had powered the War in Heaven, millions of years past. One might presume this made them the C’tani’s inferiors. One would be a fool.

The Menelmacari were a forward-looking and vibrant people, an audacious and ambitious people, a people who esteemed and strove for mastery of all things. Many years ago this world had been, despite its status as Arda’s near-twin in many respects, a hopelessly hostile place, plagued with a deep, dense atmosphere of sulfurous fumes and a painfully slow rotation that combined to create an environment hot enough to melt lead. Today Eärendil was in every respect as pleasant a place as Arda itself, though still warmer, being nearer to Anor, and while still spinning towards the west rather than the east (a detail that pleased the elves considerably), its rotation had been spun up by gravitics aboard the vast ring constructed in orbit for the purpose.

That purpose long fulfilled, Eärendil Ring Station was now a trading post and depot, storing unfathomable quantities of goods and materiel for both the military and private enterprise, even though it was, as yet, nowhere near capacity. Here, yet another wonder of Menelmacari artifice was preparing to go to war.

Nírnaeth Arnoediad, second of her class, was both a symbol of might, and death incarnate. Eight kilometers of blood-crimson, sun-gold, and fugilin blacker-than-black hull gleamed in the Eärendili sunlight, formed in an eight-pointed star, the foremost point longer than the rest. This provided, to all aspects, a dizzying killbox of intersecting firelanes while also emulating the daggerstar that was the Menelmacari emblem. Six neutronium-annihilation reactors each a kilometer in diameter ringed her core, good for tens of thousands of gravities of acceleration, energy output to rival a substantial nebula, and gravitic gradients to make black holes weep in envy. Vast internal spaces could carry modular pods for any mission profile, or cubic kilometers of cargo, and the hull, every panel and plate intricately, fractally detailed in the manner of a people for whom anything worth doing was worth doing beautifully, was lined with weapons of every possible description. The battleplate at war was carrier, starbase, factory, shipyard, and battleship, and all of it operated by a fully sapient intelligence more than capable of driving every last one of her billions of subsystems to absolute utmost efficiency and effectiveness. She was named for the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, and unnumbered tears would be shed by the enemies of Menelmacar when Nírnaeth Arnoediad went to war.

The landing bay, one of hundreds aboard the vast battleplate, was a hive of activity as small craft came and went. Troops and equipment were being brought aboard here, as they were across the fleet.

But Warmaster Ferinion nos Cirdan was interested in only one of these ships at the moment. He watched from his vantage point overlooking the bay as the cargo dropship arrived with the new weapons. Nírnaeth Arnoediad, along with many ships in the Menelmacari fleet, could fabricate missiles (among many other things) in the field, not so quickly as to have 'infinite' ammunition in a pitched battle, but certainly more than quickly enough to supply an ongoing siege, but these were a slightly upgraded version of weapons the Menelmacari had carried for many years, but had rarely had the occasion to deploy. Soon, such an occasion would come. The upgrades came in the form of improved yield, and the new patterns had not been pushed to the fabbers as yet.

"So, how do these... 'high distort' missiles work, anyway?" asked Sellan, Ferinion's aide, and lover.

"It's quite difficult to explain," he answered, "and I can't say I fully understand the technology myself."

"Fortunately," said another voice, "I do, my lord. May I?" The Shipmind of Nírnaeth Arnoediad, Nienna, appeared to his left. Her avatar was the image of the Vala of the same name, the Lady of Mourning, appropriate for a vessel named for the Battle of Tears Unnumbered, a tall elf-woman in grey-purple robes.

"You understand, I assume," she said, "that so-called gravitic technology sculpts spacetime in order to simulate gravitational effects, and that the steeper the gravitic gradient, the more deeply the fabric of spacetime is indented."

Sellan nodded. When she had met Ferinion (or rather, been taken prisoner by him) nearly a thousand years previously, her people had been at war with Menelmacar, a war they had provoked by their practice of slavery, and a war they really had no chance of winning. Since then, she had assimilated, and learned much.

Nienna continued, "The high-distort missile goes beyond even the effects of a black hole. It tilts spacetime until the transition between its gravitational field and normal spacetime shrinks to a discontinuity. In this state, for reasons that require a lot of math to outline, anything that is fired at the discontinuity -- light, matter, what have you -- will go around and continue out the other side."

"That doesn't make any sense," pouted Sellan.

"Nonetheless, it is so. Little about advanced physics is intuitive to most," Nienna answered. "The effect of this is that the missile is in its own tiny pocket universe, tangential to our own, whose position is marked by a mathematical point. It has effectively submerged 'below' reality."

"....like a submarine?" Sellan peered through the windows as robotic drones below unloaded pallets of missiles.

"Not really," Nienna answered, "but that's a useful analogy, for like a submarine it can bypass defenses. This mathematical point, infinitely small, has effectively no mass and is unassailable by the greater universe. It can accelerate arbitrarily, pass through shields, even through solid matter, and re-emerge at any point, at which point the missile inside detonates, things break, and people die."

Sellan grinned widely. "That's positively fiendish. Why don't we fire it at everything?" she asked, "It sounds like this would make you invincible."

"Because it's a dumb fire weapon, and flies blind," Nienna answered. "The same properties that let it pass through anything also prevent communicating with it, or prevent it from seeing the universe around it. It's a game of angles and timing, and must be programmed before launch. Therefore it is not useful against smaller targets that maneuver frequently. Against things that do not, however -- like space stations, or planets -- it is extremely effective."

"Stations like the ones in orbit around Chri'irah," Ferinion added. "Are they all aboard, Nienna?"

"Eight hundred, my lord," answered the AI. "As you requested."

Command Conference Room
MIV Nírnaeth Arnoediad
Forward Staging Area, System MEC-3848287, 6.1 LY from Chri'irah

The Warmaster hosted a conference as a final strategic preparation. He stood beside a large holo of Chri'irah and the space around it. As he pointed various things out, annotations appeared in the holo, or notable features would jump out and zoom in to give a better view. Present were himself, Nienna, Sellan and Caida, and Lady Carningortonis, the captain of Nírnaeth Arnoediad. The captains of the other ships, as well as Baroness Conde of the Allanean fleet, were patched in by holo and could watch and ask questions as needed.

"Baroness Conde, When we arrive," Lord Ferinion was saying, "I would like the Allanean fleet in a formation surrounding our own in a supportive formation. No ship is to be less than one-third of a light-second from any other, I will have no enfilades. Arrival will be on six separate vectors, to more or less englobe the planet, minimum range five light-seconds out. Nienna's Fleetmind, which your vessels are of course encouraged to join, those that have sapient intelligences of their own, will compute the optimal formation."

"The anchors of the defense of Chri'irah," he continued, "are twenty Mare-class orbital defense platforms of Stormwrath origin."

One of the stations leapt out of the holo, expanding to be visible in considerable detail.

"Details on them will be sent to all of your ships. These stations have limited armament and engagement envelope and so do not present a significant threat to this vessel or most of the fleet, but may be a concern for our smaller elements. However, we do want to ensure that the Excidians are not able to pull a Clarke." He referred, here, to the despotic president of Earth in an old holo, who, upon being cornered by the resistance fleet, attempted to turn Earth's defense network on the planet itself. "Further, other elements of the plan require proximity that their continued existence somewhat deters. Therefore they must be cleared away more or less immediately. To that end high-distort munitions will be deployed. Nienna, are they distributed as I ordered?”

“They are, my lord,” answered Nienna.

“Excellent. I want half fired immediately on arrival, twenty at each platform. The remainder will be reserved as a second wave in case the first is not fully effective."

The Mare platform condensed back into the larger holo, resuming its serene orbit around the projection of Chri'irah, and was replaced by another station, this one slightly smaller, and wheel-shaped.

"Next, Sigma Station. This station dates back at least to the very first survey of this system, two millennia ago, and is a relic of the original local civilization. It is not, as far as we can tell, operational, but it could be a tactical asset and the enemy should be denied it. Further, it would be of benefit to the Birrin if it is still there when they're ready to restore it. Baroness Conde, you will handle this aspect of the plan. Board the station in the manner that seems best to you, clear out any enemy troops, and secure it. Ensure any enemy landing craft are also destroyed. Please do not shoot the place up too much; I want it intact, or at least as intact as you find it."

"Next, Nienna, tell us about this ship." He pointed at a large, luxurious-looking vessel.

"This ship," said the shipmind, expanding the image of the ship, "is registered to Tachyon Corporation as Capital Investment. She's a luxury cruiser, and we believe she is primarily used for the enjoyment of company executives. However, she has prodigious transport capability, and has been used extensively to support Excidian operations on the planet surface in a transport and, we believe, command capacity. She is among the vessels that has visited Chri'irah most frequently since first contact between the Excidians and the Birrin was first detected several months ago, and it seems reasonable to presume there may be senior executives and leadership aboard."

"Indeed," said Ferinion. "I do not want Capital Investment destroyed, at least not at first." He glanced at the holos of the captains of his Finarfin-class assault transports and Craban-class dropship carriers. "I trust you all know what to do?"

"Yes, my lord," they each responded in turn.

"Excellent," said Ferinion. "Now, one final point. The Excidians have put out a call for mercenaries, and promised considerable returns. We do not entirely know who all has answered the call, so expect the unexpected. We do, however, know there is a C'tani harvest fleet. I have already briefed those of you who need to know, what to do. Those of you who haven't been briefed personally by myself on this, find other targets. There will be plenty. Consider it a secondary objective to ensure that any mercenaries lose money on this contract." He grinned. "But do not jeopardize primary objectives to do so. If they flee, let them. Orbital supremacy is our main goal. From there we will turn our attention to the planet, and we'll meet and discuss again at that time. Does anybody has any further questions?"

Baroness Conde spoke in a crisp, calm tone. If she disapproved of anything, it was betrayed, perhaps, only by a slight tinge of discomfort to her tone. Though she disapproved of being Ferinion’s subordinate, she realized of course that he has been a superior tactician.

“I understand the plan so far. I shall have a force prepared. Now, if I may ask, are there targets for my fleet’s guns that we should engage as a priority? Surely you didn’t bring a seventy-ship fleet here just to board a station.”

“A hundred and sixty one, with you, the freighters, and this battleplate included, of course,” Ferinion said, “And indeed not. I brought a hundred and sixty one ships because I am not a betting elf, because we don’t know the entirety of what we might face, and because the hopeless despair of my enemies is both tactically beneficial and personally enjoyable. In answer to your question, your priority target, beyond of course anything shooting at you, followed by anything shooting at us, is any Mare platforms that miraculously survive eight hundred high distort missiles. Remain outside their engagement envelope, which is just short of five light-seconds and you can pound them with impunity. When they are gone your priorities are enemy capital ships, particularly any guarding our boarding targets. Beyond that, prioritize Excidian vessels over mercenaries.”

He waited a moment in case anyone else had anything to ask, then nodded, “Excellent, we are adjourned. We jump in an hour.”

Command Center
MIV Nírnaeth Arnoediad
An Hour Later

“Warmaster on the bridge!”

Ferinion strode out onto the command deck of Nírnaeth Arnoediad to the salutes of Lady Carningortonis and her bridge crew. The bridge of the battleplate, like that of all other Menelmacari warships, was deep within the hull, near to its physical center in fact, but one might easily believe otherwise, for all around was the convincing illusion of being outside the hull, the bridge seeming to hang directly in space. The entire room was surrounded by holographic projectors that showed the view surrounding the ship, as would be seen from the bridge if there was no hull in the way. At a gesture or command the image could be zoomed, rotated, or otherwise manipulated for a better view, and data or other viewpoints could be superimposed and annotated over the larger image.

“All ships report ready, my lord,” Carningortonis noted, and Ferinion briefly reviewed the data; his own Dant’harthad, a Fëanor-class dreadnought, followed by the quartet of Valarauka battleships, then the Úrulokë cruisers and Úruvafalma missile cruisers, ten each, fifteen each of Egalmoth destroyers and Tinúviel frigates. There was a trio each of Daeron fleet carriers and Craban dropship carriers, both variants on the Valarauka hull, and four Nienna recovery cruisers, with five Finarfin assault transports rounding out the fleet. Below this came the Allanean vessels, likewise reporting ready.

“Fleetmind is assembled and ready,” Nienna likewise reported.

“Good. You are of course prepared for the translation, yes?” asked the Warmaster.

“That is ready too, of course, my lord,” said Nienna. One benefit that had arisen from the Argus Array’s observations of the Birrin was that decades of television and radio had been recorded and several of the most widely spoken Birrin languages had been translated. Menelmacar would not face the baffling language barrier the Singaporeans had.

“Good. Prepare for jump; we do this by the numbers. Put me on to the fleet,” Ferinion ordered, then began, “This is Warmaster Ferinion nos Cirdan to all ships. We embark once more on a mission of mercy, of liberty, and of justice. I have the utmost faith in each and every one of you that you will carry out your respective missions to your fullest, and no doubt extremely considerable capability. Some of you have done this before, all of you have drilled and trained and practiced for this day. The slaver will not stand, the shadow will be driven back from Chri’irah, and a proud people will stand free and reach for the stars once again.

“You’ve all been briefed, you all know what to do. The desire to crush the slaver runs hot in your veins; but orbital supremacy is our main objective. Keep the handle on the blade; if he flees, let him. We are eternal; there will be time uncounted to root him from the spaces between the stars. Now forward, to victory!

“Á haloitë!” he finished, with the order to jump, and flashes of golden light heralded the departure.

With the Fleetmind coordinating, the jump process began. First was a half-dozen Tinúviel frigates, one to each entry zone, which immediately kicked loose their Very Dangerous Arrays. Each Menelmacari ship carried at least a hundred, on the smallest, and up to thousands on larger, sensor drones that formed a Very Large Array, vastly enhancing the sensor resolution of the parent ship. Usefully, each drone was also a loitering missile, and could be expended at will against enemy targets -- hence the ‘Dangerous’.

The entry zones established as clear, the remainder of the frigates were next, along with their Allanean counterparts, and the newly arrived ships deployed their VDA’s as well. This continued up the line, destroyers next, then cruisers, then the battleships and dreadnought, with the battleships each anchoring an equatorial group, and Dant’harthad anchoring the south polar group. Last was Nírnaeth Arnoediad herself, anchoring the north polar group. The Allanean ships were arranged around the Menelmacari in a defensive posture, while the support vessels, like carriers, transports, and recovery ships, were deep at the center of each polar group’s formation, where they would be best protected, and behind each group’s respective flagship. The Vingilot freighters, ten each from Menelmacar and Allanea, remained in the staging system; while stoutly armed and defended to deter piracy, they were not truly combat vessels, and would not deploy until orbit was cleared.

Each ship deployed her VDA as she arrived, and the Menelmacari picture of the system, and the disposition of forces therein, got clearer and clearer. Targeting was automatically adjusted, as the location of enemy forces and defenses was compared against where they had been expected to be. Shooting solutions were computed, threat lists were compiled and prioritized. Finally the ships began to launch their Somë drones and Thoron fighters. All of this was a well-oiled machine, and when the last VDA was deployed and the fighters and drones began to launch, the time elapsed from Ferinion’s jump order was approximately two-point-seven seconds. The warmaster smiled as data began to flood in, and the holograms around the bridge continually updated accordingly.

“As expected, my lord,” Nienna noted, “the Mare platforms are distributed as the vertices of a dodecahedron, for full coverage around the planet. I’ve updated HDM targeting and am firing now.” And then, as much to herself as Ferinion, as she spotted the C’tani missile drums, “Oh, this is interesting. Hello, Meravaid, what are you up to?”

The first wave of high-distort missiles launched from various ships around the fleet. With twenty missiles per target, there was more than enough to allocate to reactors, life support systems, ammunition magazines, and other volatile components that would maximize damage. The enemy might detect no less than four hundred singularities, which would deepen, plunge towards the planet below, and then abruptly vanish.

Contrary to what one might expect, the Menelmacari did not fire at the nearest stations to each group. They instead fired at the farthest. The high-distort munitions fell fast, passing directly through the planet itself, to strike at each station from below rather than above. The purpose of this was two-fold. One, it would cause the bulk of the debris to blast outward, away from the planet. Two, it would give Ferinion time for what he was about to do next.

“Put me on. Wide-band broadcast, to the whole system. Translate as I go.”

“Greetings, Chri’irah system, Birrin and slaver alike. I am Warmaster Ferinion nos Cirdan, Fifth Battle Fleet, Eternal Noldorin Empire of Menelmacar. To the Birrin, in the name of Her Supremacy, Sirithil of the House Fëanor, Queen of the Stars, and the Artaoron and people of Menelmacar, we offer you greetings and friendship, as well as our support. Let it be known that the long night has ended, and dawn has come. We are here to remove that which has plagued your world for too long.”

He paused, and the translated chirping of the most commonly-spoken Birrin tongue followed, translating his introduction. He then continued:

“To the mercenaries supporting the Excidian slavers, now is your opportunity to see sense and withdraw. You were paid fifty billion up front; take it and run. If you do not, you will fall with them. We derive no satisfaction from the prospect of your unnecessary destruction, but it will happen nonetheless. Your blood will boil in empty space, nourishing nothing, revered by no one.”

He paused again for the Birrin translation.

“To the slaver, per the Amistad Declaration on Slavery and the Rights of Sapience, and also per Menelmacari policy of universal jurisdiction in the suppression of slavery, we name you hostis sapiens generis, the enemy of all sapientkind. You are outside all law, all protection. The only escape from your fate is surrender and manumission. Surrender and manumission bring forgiveness. Now, normally, I would recommend that you strike your colors and evacuate your battlestations, but…. I don’t think you have time.”

Another translation, and then the high-distort missiles, re-emerging into reality, detonated.

[Vilkia]

A few hours prior to Menelmacari arrival...

Vilkian Alpha Skirl Condor Wolfcunning just received the Excidium Planetis message. It basically said they deployed on the wrong coordinates. The technician had checked it out. There was a fried micro ship that had garbled part of the transmission. Its really funny that just one small micro chip can ruin an entire startegy. His forces were to far South for most support. But his troops didn't need any support. Considering the Birrins' inferior technology, the Vilkian force could practically wipe out any incoming Birrin forces. Guerilla's weren't that big of a deal. Vilkian's practically knew every guerilla tactic ever made because they used them. No Condor wasn't worried, just disturbed.

Talking to his communications warrior he said,"Since we now know what the problem is, set up an encoded transmission to Excidium Planetis."After clicking a few buttons, the watrior signaled Condor that he was patched in. Condor started talking,"To say sorry for this incident would be an understatement. As you know the majority of my forces were deployed on the wrong part of the planet. I assure you this was merely a commications accident. One of the decoding micro chips fried, thus slightly changing the decipher and giving us the wrong coordinates. Since my forces are already down there, they will destroy Birrin bases in the area. Do not worry about providing support for our forces. We can handle any Birrin we come across. We may need support if any of their more technologically advanced allies make planetfall. We also will take care of our own supplying. But I must ask you when are we going to attack these Tinfect tin cans?" He ended the transmission. This was one heck of a mistake.

He looked at the moniter. it was viewing a strange and large voidcraft. The voidcraft looked similiar to a species Saint Brendania had told them about. Necrons! That was it. He thought they were from a different galaxy. He wondered why they were here. They probaly got tired of fightning the forcess of the corpse emperor. Condor knew that they had some pretty bizarre and powerful weapons. He felt sorry for the poor s.o.b. who where on the other end of them.