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

[Jovilor]

Jovilor attacks of 2105, Kiln Administration attacked us now we declare war on them.

[Jovilor]

Jovilor attacks of 2105, Kiln Administration attacked us now we declare war on them.

[Allanea]

“It is escaping.” - Priscilla says. “The cocksucking slaver cuntbag scumtards are fucking escaping what the fuck even is this shit,” she adds, and then closes off with some choice curses. She is speaking in Free Speech now - that dark Allanean tongue which is the unique function of the Freemen, her throat emitting literally dozens of curse words a second. Finally she issues an order. “Comms officer, relay an order to the fleet. Fire at the damaged enemy capship.”

“How many weapons should they fire, Marshal Conde?” - asks the officer.

“All of them.”

“Pardon me, ma’am?”

“I did not stutter, did I? Fire. All. Of. The weapons.”

The comms officer is silent for a mere fraction of a second, as the implants in his brain formulate the order into precise command-phrases, and sent it out, to every ship in the Allanean fleet.

Then, the Allanean battleships, cruisers, destroyers begin to move ever so slightly in space. They rotate, the prows of the massive ships, shaped like immense spear-tips, aimed in such a way as to bring as many weapons as possible to bear on the Piercing Descent.

The Queen of Allanea shakes with a deafening, pulsating, roar. The main gun - on this warship, a gigaton-scale Hellbore, its barrel several meters wide - fires, unleashing a single projectile, accelerated to high sublight velocity, carrying a load of hydrogen in a container that is designed to cause nuclear fusion upon its impact.

And then everything fire. Aboard the enormous vessel, part ship, part battle-station, eleven kilometers long, thousands of missile tubes are blown open, the ship enveloped in fire and smoke as all sorts of missiles streak towards the Piercing Descent - some armed with anti-ship warheads, others kinetic impactors, yet others carrying nuclear fusion warheads. They are designed, of course, to self-destruct if they miss.

But even as the ship is still enveloped in smoke, its guns begin to fire. Four of them are enormous, spinally mounted plasma guns, the hum of their systems charging and discharging echoing throughout the entire ships. The rest are multi-mode emitters, capable of pumping out beams from all over the spectrum - and right now they are firing a range of high-yield xasers.

The rest of the fleet is now firing too. The Allanean ships are enveloped in smoke, from hundreds of missile launchers aboard each ship discharging their contents. The Allanean battleships are armed with plasma guns, and these, too, are firing upon the Piercing Descent, glowing beams of plasma cutting through the black skies.

Aboard the Porcupine-class cruiser Scrape Some Paint Off Their Hull, Captain Terrence Riddle is laughing in exhilaration. He can feel the power flow through him - the power of the hundreds of weapons he wielded. He is not a human being, he had long transcended humanity. He was the pinnacle of creation. He is a weapon.

He is not the weak fifty-five kilogram lump of flesh and computronium held within the confines of an armored capsule.

He is a ship. He is hundreds of thousands of tons of reactors and ships and titanium and scrith, he is turret, he is sensor, he is death.

His heart is engine.

His eyes are sensors.

Within his body of Iron, passing through him, the Main Gun begins to rotate.

The Main Gun!

The dream of every Porcupine Pilot.

The Privilege for which dozens lay down their lives in ritual slaughter.

The Porcupine Main Cannon.

The six barrels rotate, each as broad as the mouth of an ancient battleship. Finally one of them fires, a single Hellbore round erupting from it. Were it to impact a modern city, the explosion would wipe out the city center, throwing skyscrapers down like cardboard toys. But the Main Gun continues firing, the barrels firing one after the other, like a Gatling gun of ancient times, the constant replacement of the barrels preventing them from overheating.

But Riddle is a complex being. He is no mere human, he is a Porcupine Pilot. His mind is capable of trackig more than one task at once - and this task is fairly easy. THe turrets on the Porcupine rotate, and begin to fire. Everything that can be brought to bear is firing now. He feels the ship vibrate under the strain, firing turrets and coaxials, unleashing kinetic kill shells, plasma bolts and laser bolts at the enemy.

Around him, in space, he sees the other Allanean ships - all firing, all ablaze, clouds after clouds of missiles crossing through space like waves of fowl. Even now, inside the ships, autoloaders feed new missiles into the tubes, and then they fire again, and again, before the first wave of missile even hits.

All of this firepower.

For one single carrier.

OOC:

Action summary:

The entire fleet is firing everything it has at the Piercing Descent.

[Excidium Planetis]

Piercing Descent

"That's a f***ing huge waste of ammunition." Piercing Descent's chief tactical officer remarked as the screens lit up with thousands of weapons firing at one carrier.

The carrier did everything it could. All point defense lasers with a target fired, all Bolts fired their own point defense lasers and even wing lasers as well at any missiles they could target. All the drone starfighters also fired off their torpedoes, a whole 320 nuclear warheads, while several drones scattered, seemingly to avoid destruction if the carrier was destroyed. The torpedoes fired appeared to spread out and target incoming enemy warheads, hoping to create a field of nuclear blasts that would wipe out enemy munitions, as well as create a very powerful EMP in the upper atmosphere of Chri-irah.

The xasers fried off chunks of plasma shield, before breaking through in a slightly weakened state and hitting the carrier's armor, which refracted some of the xaser beams before being absorbed by the carrier's metallic and ceramic armor.

There was nothing that could be done about the kinetic warheads, however, except shift course slightly and hope they missed. This was difficult given the atmospheric drag and the carrier's inability to turn. The drones attached to the warp ring did their best to shift the structure a few dozen meters down and to the left. Hopefully that was enough.*

A last ditch effort was made, there was no way that the single crew member outside the hull could make it to the manual warp controls before the carrier was destroyed. A desperate message was sent.

Aeiouian vessel:

3000 humans will die if you do not get us out of here.

These maniacs have already killed thousands of us, without prior warning, declaration of war, or offer of negotiation. We have not fired a single offensive shot at the enemy, nor threatened them or provoked in any way.

For the love of Terra, help.

Kaybor Gate

As the Cossacks begin their attack on the Birrin positions, Paquet's armored brigade rolls up to the Cossack lines.

Paquet waves at the Mercenaries, before spotting Gordon and Reznov out of the crowd. "You there, Commanders! We're ready to strike the blow! I've deployed my AA units in the surrounding area to prevent enemy interference: foreign nations have taken a liking to these Birrin barbarians and have succeeded in deploying atmospheric fighters. The rest of my units are ready for an assault. With your approval, my heavy cannons will begin shelling the top of that gate to clear out enemy air defenses, and dropship reinforcements will move in to take the city beyond. From there, we'll clear out the tunnel networks and secure the Gate for good."

The Coalition soldiers stared at the Mercenaries, riding armored horses into battle and using lances, of all things. It was truly remarkable how such "outdated" weapons and tactics were utilized with great efficiency thanks to superior technology.


OOC:
*I'll leave it up to Allanea to decide how many of those weapons actually make it past our last ditch efforts to survive.

[Aeiouia]

Orbit

The Avatar recieved the frantic message from the dying carrier. The pilot of the craft, 8712-C, was faced with a tough decision. The three thousand people aboard Piercing Descent were indeed valuable, but how many lives could be at risk if the ceasefire was broken? Countless Excidian personnel were floating in a completely defenseless EVA state outside of their vessels. And they would be obliterated if the truce was broken.

At the same time, the pilot had no love for the Excidians, and agreed with the attacking forces in every aspect except for their utilization of lethal force. 8712-C was once a slave themselves, being used as a targeting drone for training rookie pilots. An experience that was even traumatic for a nearly-emotionless cybernetic lifeform. They felt little pity for the Excidians, feeling as if the corporate forces were committing similar atrocities on the Birrin as were afflicted to themself many years ago.

But, it was at this same time that the AI brought up files from their experiences while being a slave. Most were videos from their drone's cameras and sensor arrays. Consisting of the AI desperately trying to avoid hundreds of missiles and other weapons from nugget pilots, all while being completely unable to fight back. Being nothing more than a target.

This experience was indeed quite comparable to what the crew of the Piercing Descent was going through at the current time. Additionally, the AI checked their records regarding the staffing of Excidian vessels, and remembered that since the civilization was nomadic, their ships were often the homes of civilians who likely had no affiliations with the corporate agendas.

This whole process took less than a second, with the sapient machine seeming to give a response to the Piercing Descent almost instantly:

"Fine. We were not expecting your craft to be under this much fire, and we thought that they would only take shots with the intention of disabling your FTL systems. I will try to save your lives. But, you will comply with the surrender terms laid out earlier afterwards. We will speak with the attacking forces, and tell them that they can stand down, since the battle in orbit is now over.

I cannot take you out of this system, however. Even if the ceasefire was not an issue, our FTL system works only for machines. You and your crew would die of old age before you reached the nearest star system using it."

As the Avatar transmits this message, it rapidly accelerates forwards. Tanking a few of the shots for the Carrier with its much more durable hull and shields as it does so. Once it gets within about a few kilometers of the craft, it activates its Void drives, in an attempt to take the Carrier away temporarily.

At the exact same time that it sends its message, another one, this time directed towards the Allanean and Menelmecari forces in a beamed transmission from another source is sent. The Aeiouians take great care in ensuring that the message only reaches the Menmelmecari and Allanean vessels:

"Howdy, partner. This-... Wait. This ere's ze dang wrong ol' voice. Just a moment...

...

Ahem. Salutations. Zis is Overseer Mia, leader of ze Aeiouian Collective. Ze slaver carrier, Piercing Descent, has begged us for mercy from their destruction. Our coding prevents us from denying such a plea, even from factions as deplorable as slave traders.

Our vessel, marked here, is going to jump ze carrier to the location that Menelmacar provided for us to take it to. I know zat we've been deceptive so far, but ve were conducting undercover operations against ze slavers when you arrived. To prove zat we are in no way double-crossing you, we vill be relaying all messages to and from ze vessel to you. Here is a log of our most recent communications:

DataROM - Piercing Descent Communications

Now, please understand zat we are not on ze side ze Excidiums. As I mentioned earlier, ve were conducting undercover operations against zem, it was our intention to free the Birrin people without any bloodshed... Zat's vhat zose "Usean" mercenary ships are for. Noticed how zeir weapons are literally having no effect on anything? Zat's because zey're faking combat. They're actually under our control, and were being used to collect data on ze Excidian treatment of ze Birrin.

If you need to scare ze slavers by blowing something up, feel fire to fire upon zem. All ze lifesigns you might be able to detect on-board zem are fake. You won't actually be killing anyvone, but zey won't know zat. Though I somehow doubt zat you need to prove your ability to blow shit up to them any more zan you already have.

Additionally, I'd like to note zat both ze fleetmind we have controlling ze ship saving ze Carrier, and I myself are former slaves. Obviously ve have no love for ze slavers. And ze Dummkopfs have already attacked us before for no reason other zan literally "Winning a bet". I vish zat I vas making zis shit up.

We are only saving zem because we must prevent as much loss of life as possible in all situations. Again, I repeat. We are only giving zem mercy. We are not on zeir side. I've taken a pretty big risk by exposing ze information on our undercover mission to you, but I hope zat it's enough proof zat we're being honest vith you.

Ze slaver carrier, or at least vhatever is left of it, should arrive at ze designated location next to ze Menelmacari vessel MIV Turambar as requested in approximately ten seconds.

Aeiouian Base

While the temperature decrease was supposed to be slow and gradual, apparently one of the construction AIs had entered the wrong number into the tower's settings, and the ambient temperature plummeted much faster than the Collective had intended.

Obviously, the Aeiouians were going to use the time that it would take for the area to cool down to construct more buildings, saving the shield generator for the very last project. But, seeing as the low temperatures were causing severe atmospheric disturbances, the Terra-class unit begins manufacturing a large number of small, turret-like constructs. These are then loaded onto a trailer being towed by the Holt unit.

The giant armored tractor begins driving to the perimeter of the cooled area, using its reactionless thrusters to keep itself rooted to the ground. As it does this, it places a number of the constructs in the ground. Securing them with similar thruster-like systems. Within a few minutes, they begin projecting a forcefield over the area of cooled air. Though, the entire dome is still far from being complete.

[Apophan]

The Far Side of Chri-Irah

The Raiders fanned out, forming a defensive perimeter around the landing sight. They were well aware the they were far more vulnerable on the ground than in the skies, and were wary of a potential ambush by Birrin forces. One of the Raiders, this one wearing a decidedly more sophisticated suit of bio-armour than the others, opened a small hatch on his Hunter, pulling out a small spherical object. The sphere activated, its bioluminescent lights glowing as it floated into the air. The Lieutenant turned back to the Raiders, gesturing for them to move out as the sphere zoomed away, presumably to scout out the surrounding terrain.

As the dropships descended on their position, they scattered, taking cover whilst aiming their weapons at the incoming craft. If anyone attempted to exit the vehicle, they would be swiftly incapacitated by the stun weapons wielded by the raiders.

Endless Sorrow

"Admiral Xaph'Vy, please accept my apologies. No commander wishes to be put in the position of leaving men behind, and I had no idea your fighters are so lacking in endurance as to be unable to escape a planetary atmosphere and coast half a light-second across open vacuum. You will be pleased to know that mine are not. In the spirit of good faith I will dispatch a pair of dropships immediately to retrieve your men from the surface - they have landed and abandoned their ships, as it happens - and repatriate them to you. When those dropships arrive I would request that you board, and join me here aboard Nírnaeth Arnoediad to discuss surrender terms face to face."

The Admiral smiled, perhaps there was a way out of this situation after all… Then again, there was the matter of upholding the Ancient Law, and exacting the proper vengeance upon the betrayers. That could complicate things, but he would cross that bridge when he reached it.

Understood, Warmaster. I shall meet with you face-to-face shortly.

4.2 Light Minutes from Chri-Irah

The cold, empty void of space was suddenly illuminated by a flare of light, as myriad energies erupted from five points in the darkness. Radiation, heat, light and even electricity bloomed, sending out a pulse that would be easily visible to anyone in orbit, and could likely be seen from the surface of the planet itself.

Five warships emerged from the points, and the energies dissipated into empty space. The Blade of Achaii initiated a scan of the orbiting vessels, gathering valuable information that would be put to use if battle were to commence. The ancient Warship's AI examined the craft, surprised to learn that it had not encountered such designs in the millennia it had served the Empire. No matter, all who opposed the Acheronis were to be taught the error of their ways, and would bow down to their gods or suffer the consequences.

The Blade of Achaii emitted a short data burst, a message to all nearby. It was standard protocol to send such a message to all within reach if conflict appeared to be imminent, warning the enemies of the Empire of their fatal error and encouraging their allies to fight on.

And those who are prideful, and refuse to bow down, shall be laid low, and made unto dust.

[Hobbiest Republic]

Fifteen Light Minutes from Chri-irah
A distortion in spacetime erupted opening several apertures from the realm of Slipspace. The Twin leaders of the Reinforcement Flotilla were two additional Marilquist Class Cruisers by the names Ululations of Perdition and Wrath of the Monarch. Behind them were the Destroyers, Carriers, and Frigates.

An encrypted light beam transmission was directed towards Inevitable Contempt in hopes that it would still have some of its communications arrays attuned away from the planet. Fortunately for them it did.

Rear Admiral Snugguluffikos,
This is Commodore Ranson and Captain Uppiffria respectively of the vessels Ululations of Perdition and Wrath of the Monarch Escorting a reinforcement fleet, when the news casters aboard the Refreshment ships recorded the nuclear detonations, we were called off of standby to reinforce the Fleet of Belligerent Disposition.

2 x Marilquist Class Cruisers
3 x Tenement Class Destroyer
5 x Mk I type Space Carriers (40 fighters, 10 dropships total)
5 x Mk I type support ships
10 x Requisite Class Frigates

Meanwhile back in the Hobbiest Republic
News agencies were covering the brutal massacre of five-hundred and five service personnel dedicated to the chain of logistics rather than front line duty. All in a remote backwater previously unheard of to the casual observer. As no recorders had survived on Chri'irah proper, the news outlets were replaying highly pixelated low resolution vids from the sensor satellites in orbit over the supply depot in the moments leading up to the attack, and the 72 ton detonation that proceeded to level the pre-fab complex.

[Chri-irah]

-Futile but noble effort to communicate-

PTFS Portal, Kiln

The Cloakmouth UAV is equipped to receive remote radio commands, and to send sensor readings back to Command. It is not equipped to broadcast radio signals, nor to receive them from anything other than the control stations. As such, the PTFS message falls on deaf ears, and the Cloakmouths continue their attack.

Cloakmouth #1 dives again for another round of machinegun fire, focusing on the workers setting up the laser defense grid, before pulling up. While the pilot back at the operations base in Kendi is confused by the seeming lack of return fire, he merely assumes the Offworlders are just stupid.

Cloakmouth #2 begins its dive, targeting an enemy vehicle and locking on to its heat signature with onboard targeting computers. The UAV fires off a single HEAT missile at the target, before sweeping around to fire its main gun on a group of enemy personnel.

Kaybor Gate
As the advancing Cossack force appears over the horizon, the Kaybor and Kendi soldiers open fire with the heavy artillery, directing 127.4 mm shells at the advancing enemy infantry battalions. For now, most of the Birrin weapons are out of range, and artillery fire is the best they can manage.

Then the Russian bombardment begins, tearing apart the Birrin troops in the trenches with micromissiles. Tiny projectiles of death rain down from exploding artillery shells, targeting the unprepared insectoid troops and leaving dead and dying soldiers in the first row of trenches. The surviving soldiers take shelter beneath camo netting, steel shelters, and small alcoves in the trenches in a attempt to escape the attack. A desperate Birrin commander radios the fortifications atop the Gate: "Offworlders' assault is devastating the troops of us in the trenches. Artillery of the enemy is of the rocket-bullets the infantry of the Offworlders use. Fire of SDACP against artillery of the enemy should be directed, before the artillery breaks!"

The radio trooper relays this message to the air defense commander inside the gate, who in turn issues orders. The SDACP (Birrin CIWS) guns atop the Gate target incoming Cossack artillery rounds, firing hundreds of rounds at the falling projectiles in an attempt to destroy them before they burst apart into micromissiles.

[Menelmacar]

MIV Nírnaeth Arnoediad

Ferinion smiled at the Aeiouian message, and responded, with a likewise tightbeamed communication:

Acknowledged, Aeieouian vessel. We await the transfer of the Excidian vessel, and will be ready. In answer to your previous question, the handshake protocols in question are simply an exchange of heavily-encrypted data, containing, among other things, a unique identifier and current course and speed. These are exchanged automatically and periodically between Menelmacari and allied ships in joint operation zones, and are used for authentication and to ensure everyone knows where everyone else is in order to minimize the chances of friendly fire. Between our own ships quantum entanglement is used, but directional communications such as this will also suffice. Nienna will enclose all specifics with this message.

He glanced to Nienna's avatar, "They will be moving the carrier momentarily, you are ready?"

"Always," she said with a smile, coordinating even as she spoke with Turin, Turambar's shipmind, to immediately seize Piercing Descent in gravitic tractors upon her reappearance, and to stage boarding assets for the sweep. Piercing Descent, because of her... intrangisence, would be the first ship cleared.

"VDA outriders detecting new contacts, my lord, five ships, unknown configuration," Nienna reported. "They appear to carry technologically similar, though not identical, systems to the Apophan vessels. They are likely to be uncooperative, per their message."

"Open a channel to respond," Ferinion answered.

"Welcome to the party, my dear friends, though you are late, and your position untenable. I recommend you follow your own advice. But while we're quoting old holos, let me say simply this:

"You. Are not. Prepared."

OOC:

Just a short post for now. Relevant notes:

Aeiouia - the handshake protocols don't actually need to be RPed, they're automagic things that happen off-camera once set up. It's an RL concept though the Menelmacari are adapting the notion here for military purposes. The effect is that we'd know where your ships are (and vice-versa) but they'd remain cloaked to everyone else.

Excidium - the plan here is to hold Piercing Descent in a gravity well she can't escape (no, before you ask, this won't crush the crew) while preparing to board her.

Apophan - I'll deal with your pilots in my next post, I'm still pondering what to do about the other 200-odd that fled into the atmosphere.

[The Ctan]

The Battle of Nipton

The machine gun was the bane of infantry. Shaketh was struck by one of the auto-cannons' 40mm bullet, which slammed into his chest and through it, blowing out of his back. Armour was defeated by the shot, and Shaketh stepped forward, propelled by the force of the exit 'wound' where armour fragments spalled from her back trailing the mechorgans that propelled his frame. But he did not fall, for he was not of mortal-kind, he was built to standards of engineering unmatched by other cultures, it ripped a line of his entrails from the back of his chest, but he did not fall, instead adjusting his aim to fire once more, even as he began to regenerate the damage.

Others were less fortunate, and of the two hundred and fifty necrons that had landed the four vehicles with their quad cannons reaped a considerable toll, fifty struck rapidly, and forty of those falling, but the necrons felt neither fear nor pain, and moved with languid certainty, placing their shots without flinching or panicking, their responses were as one might see humans on a range, they took cover where it was possible and advantageous, but they did not seem to be under any combat stress whatsoever.

Where the necrons were 'wounded' was with those who had legs shot off, they simply moved to take aim once more and continue firing, while allowing their self-repair units to work, summoning back torn and destroyed metal to re-link, the living metal seeming to liquefy at its edges and re-forge itself.

Still, the enemy possessed weapons that were steadily putting the immortals down, and those who could not regenerate disappeared entirely in moments, fading silently away, leaving nothing to salvage as they were teleport-snatched back to ships in orbit, even the tiniest microscopic fragments of destroyed necrons were returned to their lairs, where they would be re-forged anew.

But there were things that could be used against vehicles, even stubborn ones, and as the turret had him in its sights again, Shaketh auto-cycled a cylinder in a dispenser on his arm, loading a stasis grenade and firing it into the air, a ballistic arc showing a small egg-shape that hurtled toward one of the corporate vehicles, the detonation was silent, noiseless and invisible, it was a stasis grenade, a short-burst time-field generator that operated for a dialable zone up to about thirty meters wide, though half that in this case, slowing time itself; the energy cells within the grenade were not able to sustain the stasis field perpetually, but they could last for some minutes.

He turned, and fired at the enemy ground forces once more.

Still, the ground forces were fighting a losing battle from his perspective; but then, they did not need to defeat the Excedians, merely keep their anti-aircraft capacity busy.

Hard-light fire from above reaped another toll on the necrons, laying low another twenty of them, most beyond their capacity to regenerate.

The giant Necron who strode at the head of their band walked gaunt through the fray with his staff held under one arm, the tail end of it up under the shoulder joint, the bladed head pointed to the ground, it did not need to be pointed at an enemy to fire upon them, and so it projected its jacketed blasts of anti-matter in different directions. He spoke, and his augmitters boomed with a voice of thunder, not for him the limits of organic voices, nor for him the subtleties of human speech that many necrons emulated, instead he spoke in a titanic electronic register, a voice like an engine grinding. "SURRENDER AND THROW DOWN YOUR ARMS AND YOU WILL BE PERMITTED LIFE. FIGHT AND YOU WILL ALL DIE."

His confidence seemed misplaced, however, as more of the necrons fell, although many regenerated.

Kiln Skies

High above the C'tani aircraft wheeled away, one of the Ventus craft managed to pick a vector that hit not one but two of them in their dispersed formation, which was a remarkable if terminal feat of flying. Explosions boomed and rippled across the sky as the atomic missiles of the Excedian aircraft blossomed into the formation. The necrons were however, quite confident, there were but five of the Ventuses left in the combat.

The Thermobaric warheads were less effective than the atomics (no real surprise there, surely) on the monoliths, not only because they were inherently less potent, but they were firing against necrons and their machines, which had none of the weaknesses to pressure that organics had, and their constructs were intended to be enormously resilient. They had fought from the depths of oceans to airless void platforms, to mag-frames surrounding neutron stars and gem-diving platforms in depths of gas giants, therefore the long duration blast waves were not so effective. Nonetheless two more of the monoliths spiralled away while the others continued their descent… toward the train and the battle below.

Leaving the thirty or so remaining Night Scythes to take care of the five Excedian interceptors, the surviving Doom Scythes began to fire on the anti-air tanks, also. Most efforts are aimed at destroying combat ability or weapons, most of the necrons seem to be avoiding aiming for kill-shots on infantry, weapon crew, or anyone who's bailed out.

OOC: Significant casualties to ground forces and fighters, minimal to monoliths.

[Hobbiest Republic]

With the move of the enemy carrier Piercing Descent along with its evident seizure by the Warmaster's fleet. The Rear Admiral's scheming shifted. Perhaps, despite lacking a significant landing force, the crew of Inevitable Contempt would be able to carry out the policing action of Boarding and arresting the crew of the Carrier, or at least being part of the Boarding Action.

To Menelmacari AI in charge of organizing Boarding Action, Inevitable Contempt would like to volunteer Bravo Company of the compliment of Hobbiest Marines as well as a Regiment of Armsmen to contribute to the Boarding action.
-Sincerely Rear Admiral Snugguluffikos

Battle of Nipton
The surviving Hobbiests cheered, their ragged breaths feeling of uplifting and relief. Completely unaware that aid, if it was to come from the Fleet in orbit was hours away, the majority of the lift capacity having been downed in the detonation. The pilots of the downed dropships began grouping together, their suits set to minimal strength assist, and maximum shielding as they braved the hellish storm of munitions to approach the site of the Artillery Trains with naught but their large bore sidearms and small medical kits salvaged from the smoldering wrecks of their ships. To all it seemed, assumed that those remaining at the irradiated crater of the supply depot were written off as dead.

Even so, being the fanatically resilient folk that they were, those who still had two legs, clambered from the trenches and holes they'd rolled into. It was a grisly sight the damaged and half melted suits stumbling from the smoke and wreckage in the general direction of where the Trains had been. Most still had some sort of firearm, in some cases, force melted to the gauntlets of their power suits. They could be seen from a distance because of the ignition of their bayonets, extremely shortened plasma blades affixed to the barrels of the .75 caliber automatic rifles.

9 survivors from plodder's platoon are the cheerers
15 pilots and co-pilots converging on the site of Plodder's Platoon
34 wounded limping/staggering from the crater
3/4 remain too wounded to move, remaining one expires.

[Singaporean Transhumans]

---

UNKNOWN TIME
STATION LAZIC, THE KILN, CHRI-IRAH
Construction crew

---

The two aircraft did not pause in their salvo of machine gun rounds, and while the Singaporeans weren't much concerned about that itself in that they had their medical facilities fully prepared, they were quite disappointed at the continued failure to communicate. The soldier manning the communications system immediately moved over to setting up the laser grid.

The missile surging from the enemy aircraft, aimed at one of the Keshiks, was immediately targeted by an activated portion of the grid. The entire grid was not yet complete, however some lasers have already been connected to the power source and searching for targets. In the blink of an eye a blue ray pierced the projectile, cutting it open and ending it with an explosion in the air. Within another two seconds it would have hit the hovertank.

"Phew." the soldier working on the grid said to himself. If the Birrin thought the Singaporeans were dumb, they were definitely far-off from common sense; expect no bullets flying towards you, but expect no bullets you fire to fly.

The Keshiks retaliated with fire from their chainguns. These however were purposely aimed at areas where the hits would do little to no damage; while the pilot can take it that the Singaporeans were quite bad at their marksmanship, the shots would be far too accurate on the exact area where it would just ricochet off. The purpose of this was a more aggressive warning; with superb calculation in their composition, the AI in the guns were sure to not miss.

[Aeiouia]

Orbit

The Aeiouians respond to the Menmelmacari request:

"Okay. Ve haven't use Entanglement in quite some time, but it should verk for ze time being. I'll patch you in right now."

Suddenly, the Avatar craft and the Piercing Descent disappear instantly and without a trace. With the collective being obsessed with stealth almost as much as armor, the Void FTL system is engineered to cause as little visual fanfare as possible when activated.

The Aeiouian vessel uses its tractor beam to slowly and safely adjust the velocity of the Piercing Descent. As it does so, it sends a transmission to the vessel. Being in Aeiouia's home realm, it is impossible for any other craft to receive:

"Okay, you are safe. But, we must comply with the ceasefire terms. Doing otherwise would risk bringing both Aeiouia and Excidium into a war with the attacking factions, and would directly endanger the lives of all of your other comrades, who are relying on this peace to last.

To note, unless you are chronologically immortal, I could not bring you to safety, even disregarding the ceasefire terms. From our perspective, it would take at least a few hundred years to get out of the general combat area. And if you have heard reports from the Dawn Fleet in the Olber III incident, as well as the errors that your Warp Ring is probably spewing out right now, you will also know that no forms of FTL devices work in this awful ghost land of a realm.

Now, please. I ask you to comply with their demands. Again, by trying to escape you were endangering the lives of your comrades. Hopefully we can end this without any more bloodshed, okay?"

From the perspective of the Avatar and the Piercing Descent, it takes a few minutes to reach the destination. However, from the perspective of the other vessels, the two ships seem to re-appear at their destination immediately after they vanished from their starting point.

The Avatar transmits a message to the Menmelmacari vessels. This time in a way that can be heard by all units in the area:

"Okay, the vessel has been moved to your location as requested. If you wish to confiscate their weapons and send them to their home country, we can provide an unarmed shuttle if needed."

PTFS Portal

After detecting all of the commotion from the PTFS transmissions, a single Procne begins heading in the direction of the PTFS outpost. Unaware of the fact that the Dank Memers had already thrown their hat into the ring, it sped to the location with a great deal of curiosity.

Being an ace Procne, the craft remains cloaked as it reaches its destination, gaining visual confirmation of the Cloakmouth aircraft, as well as the single missile that was launched.

The Procne immediately fires its point defenses at the warhead, while staying cloaked and accelerating towards the two attacking drones. After doing this, it launches two warheads, which remain cloaked.

Upon reaching a few hundred meters of their location, it suddenly decloaks. Which is quite unusual for an ace Aeiouian strike craft, as experienced pilots are known for being able to keep their planes invisible at all times.

Rather idiotically, it is a military tradition for ace Aeiouian pilots to give their aircraft a unique color scheme (Despite the fact that the ace Procnes with these color schemes are always cloaked), and this Procne was no exception. Bearing a rather gaudy fire paint job, which was designed by its pilot.

The craft appears directly in front of the Cloakmouth units, and begins firing its point defenses at its own hull, of all things. It targets the back of its wings, heating them up in an effort to emulate the thermal effects of having conventional engines.

As it does this, the fighter also begins blaring ear-grating recordings through its loudspeaker, in an effort to try to further gain the attention of the drones and enact the common Aeiouian tactic of weaponizing obnoxiousness.

The fighter continues using its point defenses to heat its own hull, and flies in front of the two drones. Alternating between preforming aileron rolls and falling leaf maneuvers, while taking harmless shots at the more resilient sections of the drones with single point defense lasers. In an attempt to distract the drones from the PTFS forces long enough to establish peaceful first contact.

[OMGeverynameistaken]

(OOC: Only Reznov is present at Kaybor. Gordon is back at the ship coordinating things.)

The Kaybor Gate

Reznov gave a quick wave to the approaching armor of his employers, approaching the tank in his cuirassier-pattern armor, a massive twelve foot tall walking tank featuring an enormous armored slab at the front, through which protruded a few sensors. The forward face of the plate, which sloped off to both sides quite heavily, was gold gilt, displaying various icons and religious imagery, and besides that was heavily inlaid with jewels, a clear demonstration of the past success of the cossack band. Only a few others in the band could afford such top-of-the-line armor, the only downside to which, as the Cossacks saw it, was that even a power armored horse had difficulty bearing it.

"Good afternoon, sir! As you say, you may do! Your AA units, yes? They should talk to ours! Coordination, da! But shelling would be good!" Reznov's understanding of common galactic speech was somewhat imperfect, but he could get his points across, he waved at his cossacks and at the soldiers of Gordon's brigade, "Keep their heads down and we will show them how to die, da?" He waved at the broad expanse before them, "Good ground! I will see you on that gate, then! Plan is easy, these infantry fellows, attack the front. We cavalry go to the side, flank them, and kill them all! Join us, join them," Reznov waved at his mounted Cossacks, then back at the infantry, "either is fine with me. See you there!"

With that, he turned and bounded towards the body of cavalry with surprising agility for such a bulky piece of armor, just as the first enemy shells began to arrive.

Behind him, officers and sergeants were bellowing orders, assembling infantry in columns for the advance. Each was headed by a banner, generally quite colorful and depicting various battalion mottos, insignia and victories. These men were accompanied by a second, bearing a large backpack which produced the occasional gout of coolant, contributing to the general dust and fog which had already accumulated in the presence of the ATFC machinery. With the multitude assembled and in order, the command to advance was bellowed down the lines.

---

Some Distance South
ATFC Artillery Battery

"We have counter fire. Gentlemen, your targets." Captain Weisiger, proud native of the Grand Duchy of Virginia, lowered looked up from the relay provided by the tiny drone, a modified hummingbird-like creature, that was relaying targeting information back to the ground crew, "First section take the left side, second and third the center, fourth the right. Fifth and sixth, counter battery on anything bigger than a twenty mil. Commence at the section chief's discretion."

The direct fire weapons of the battery sprang to life, rather eagerly as the howitzer's had been taking all the glory thus far. Between the heavy 122mm guns and the lighter 76s, the array of firepower present was quite significant. It wasn't long before the familiar whine of charging capacitors filled the air, followed by the harsh cracking and billowing coolant clouds indicating gunfire. Favoring brute force over elegance in this matter, the shells were generally simple high explosive, delivered at quite impressive speeds along a ballistic arc which took them over the horizon, and the heads of the attacking ATFC force.

---

The Kaybor Gate

As the first shells whistled over at hypersonic speeds, producing a keening note which tended to be quite unnerving, the enemy's first shells started to impact the front line of the mercenary's assault. Those which struck the shields directly burst in multi-hued fireworks shows of impressive violence, leaving brief, bright stains on the otherwise transparent shields of the columns even now being urged to advance. Officers, taking station just forward of their units, and equipped with their own personal shielding devices, bellowed commands which were taken up by sergeants, and the columns started their advance.

Now and again a shell would strike just short of a unit, or even at the interface of ground and shield, spraying fragments under the shield with deadly results for the first rank of men. The soldiers of Gordon's brigade, though, were disciplined veterans, and the wounded were quickly passed through the ranks to the rear of the column where they could safely be left for medics. The dead, more often that not, were simply stepped around. The advance was conducted at the standard double-time pace, the columns moving in a conditioned lockstep jog of sorts which ate up the distance at a steady pace. In perhaps five minutes they would enter engagement range.

[Excidium Planetis]

Nipton Base

The remaining Excidian vehicles quickly fell before the Necron and Doom Scythe attacks. Disabled or destroyed, the AA guns were all pit of the fight.

The remaining Tachyon Security forces still held out, though. Bursts of automatic laser fire harassed any of the Necron infantry that approached the wreck of train #1, and a few sporadic bursts of 12 mm rocket round fire issued from the half dozen first wave troops that still survived, hiding behind wrecked box cars for cover. Though the corporate infantry were far more fragile than their mechanical enemies, the Necrons had no cover and were falling fast.

Meanwhile, the battle in the skies was looking a little more bleak. The five surviving fighters suddenly veered off to the north, rocketing away from the battlefield. The Night Scythes turned to pursue, quickly shooting down two of the fighters, which made very little attempt to dodge. The remaining fighter pilots ejected from their fighters, though supersonic low-altitude ejections typically weren't very good for one's health.

The reason for the apparent abandoning of the fight was quickly made clear: another squadron of eight fighters, long en route to the battle, approached from the south, and had the Night Scythes in their sights. As the newly arrived squadron opened fire with hardlight cannons, the Doom Scythes also came under attack from another airborne source: The 24 Aesir suit pilots, until now simply acting as aerial spotters, fly into the battle, firing their directed energy rifles, forearm-mounted energy cannons, and 40mm coilguns at the enemy starfighters.

The Void

Though in an instant in the "real world" Piercing Descent would appear next to the Menelmacari ships, here in the near-timeless Void that Aeiouia used for travel, there were still several minutes left.

Several of the ship's crew rushed out to secure the Warp Ring to the carrier via metal cables and magnetic clamps, a few of the engineers hastily welding the ring struts back together in a fashion that even space pirates would be embarrassed by.

In the ring itself, the lone engineer sent to activate it reported back to the ship's captain via short wave radio. "I'm on board, and the ring has fired up completely. Should I engage?"

"Negative. We can't get out of here without the Aeiouians. Wait. Keep it ready."

"Yes Captain."

Orbit

As Piercing Descent emerges from the Void, it is swiftly caught in Menelmacar's gravitic field.

But the captain is not aware of this. He gives a short order to the engineer on the Warp Ring, who activates the Perrault Drive. The Higgs Field has its polarity reversed in a specific area inside the ring. Platinum orbs dispersed throughout the ring gain negative mass values, and project an antigravitic field around the Carrier.

The field contracts space in front of the Crossbow Class vessel, and expands space behind it. As the ship moves forward, the field contracts the space further in front of the ship, moving the entire starcraft forward faster than a photon would travel across the same space. The vessel's destination was random: several dozen light years away, far enough to put the ship out of range of any possible weapons the enemy possesses.

Chri-irah, Surface

All across the northern regions of the Birrin Homeworld, Electromagnetic Pulse from the numerous warheads deto ated in the upper atmosphere wreak havoc on communications systems. The relatively low yield of the corporate weapons prevents more damage than the few short-term power outages in more outdated electrical systems nearer the blasts.

Of far more significant damage are the hundreds of projectiles and wreckage of destroyed munitions that rain down like an artificial meteor shower across the Kendi skies. Several of the more durable objects impact the surface, destroying farmland, random hills, and a few houses. One "lucky" shot manages to blast a sizable crater in The Monarch's Square, kicking up dust and causing a general panic as it is feared that Offworlder artillery has somehow gotten past the border defenses and begun shelling the Capital city.

All but 7 of original train's infantry are dead.
All Aesir exosuit pilots still alive.
All AA units disabled or destroyed
31/98 Tachyon soldiers killed by Necrons
5/8 Ventus fighters destroyed, 3 pilots eject

8 new Ventus craft appear and attack Night Scythes
Tachyon soldiers still firing on Necrons
24(?) Aesir exosuit pilots firing on the Doom Scythes

[Menelmacar]

MIV Nírnaeth Arnoediad

"We have him!" The triumph on Nienna's face was palpable as the Piercing Descent dropped into Turambar's gravitic clutches.

Then Piercing Descent jumped.

"Aaaaaand he's gone." The look of triumph instantaneously became one of supreme irritation.

"How?" Ferinion gaped.

She said nothing for a moment, perusing gathered data. "It appears they somehow repaired their drives in the instant they were gone-- wait, no, this is interesting. Temporally, they're slightly out of phase with everyone else. If I had to guess, I'd say whatever the Aeiouians did dropped them out of sync... they weren't teleported to us, per se, they experienced several minutes while we did not. They used the time well, and managed to reattach the drive ring to the hull and activate it. In terms of lessons learned, if we're going to cut the engines off a ship, we should immediately follow up by destroying said engines outright. Fortunately their drives are slow. Pursuit should be simple."

"Well, it's clever, I'll admit," Ferinion grumbled. "And, noted. Still, it is a minor spot on an otherwise glorious victory. Send a message to Baroness Conde, tell her to dispatch some ships to pursue, but not to engage until further notice. Likewise coordinate with our allies to regroup, as in the meantime we've still this pompous newcomer to deal with, followed by securing the planet."

[Chri-irah]

Station Lazic, The Kiln

The two Cloakmouth craft were not deterred in the slightest by the return fire from the PTFS-backed terrorists freedom fighters. Perhaps they did not notice the tendency of the chainguns to hit only spots where the bullets would ricochet, or perhaps they did but attributed it to a targeting error. At any rate, the propellers were getting hammered, and one of the Cloakmouths was now going into a slow death spiral from sustained damage.

The dying aircraft fired off its remaining missile, and unleashed a very poorly aimed burst of 12 mm fire until the ammo belts ran out. Its comrade targeted one of the laser cannon structures, and fired another missile, also aiming a stream of bullets towards the construct.

Realizing the fight was essentially lost, the pilot of the first downed UAV left his console in the Fleet of the Air for the Nation of Kendi (FAK) to request an airstrike. Though the FAK was currently scrambling for another operation, three Pseudoraptor Mk II fighters equipped for ground attack were deployed to the Kiln.

Kaybor Gate

As Offworlder Artillery shrieked over the heads of Birrin troops waiting in the trenches, the soldiers continued their defense of the first trench network. As the lines of battlesuited soldiers approached, roughly two dozen rocket propelled grenades flew from the line of Kaybor troops, some impacting the shields, others hitting the ground, and one flying wildly off target. After this, a round of heavy machine gun fire from a few brave individuals gave some cover as the first line retreated to the second rank of trenches. The Birrin took heavy casualties as they fled, but there were still far more of them than the enemies that opposed them.

Suddenly, from within the ranks of the approaching armored infantry, explosions designed to take out infantry squads and light vehicles began to erupt right under the feet of the Russians. The Offworlders had fallen prey to a device that had defended fixed positions for centuries: the landmine. In between the smaller fragmentation blasts were the occasional HEAT mine, placed with the intent to disable the tanks and IFVs used by the Excidian invaders.

Meanwhile, the Artillery rounds swiftly disabled many of the Birrin guns defending the Gate. Realizing their new threat, orders were given to turn a few of the CIWS guns on the direct fire artillery. This would likely do little to stop it, but it was the best that could be done. A last salvo of rockets fired from the fortress towards the origin of the Offworlder artillery rounds.

[Allanea]

"It what.” - said Priscilla.

"It escaped.” - said the Adjutant, helpfully.

"Fuck its grandmother nine times in the back and its grandfather in the head, fuck it in the arse with a stallion's cock, what the fuck is this cocksucking communist bullshit, it's fucking drive was shot off, what is this shit I ask?” - asked Priscilla, and swore profusely.

"It's out. Gone. Left. Piercing Descent has left the building.”

"YES I GOT THAT YOU SHIVERING FARTSNIFFER.” - said Priscilla - “And the elves want us to track that?”

"Well we can't. Our scans do not reveal where it went.”

"Well then. Send out a message of apology to Marechal Ferinion. I shall owe him a T-bone steak.” - replied Priscilla. “Now, all vessels, full steam ahead towards the planet. I believe our allies there will soon require our assistance. Death to the slaver.”

[Menelmacar]

MIV Nírnaeth Arnoediad

"Baroness Conde sends her regrets but claims her ships are not equipped with sensors capable of tracking the fleeing carrier."

Ferinion eyed Nienna's avatar for a long moment. Finally he said, "Are you serious."

"That's what she told me."

Ferinion double-facepalmed. When he looked up again, he said, "Ask the Hobbiests if they can do it. If they say yes, send them. If not, tell me and I will dispatch some of our own ships. Tell them that I do not want the carrier attacked, destroyed, or otherwise engaged, I merely want it followed and tracked."

[Hobbiest Republic]

General order to the Hobbiest Fleet
All cruisers and destroyers pursue rogue enemy carrier element known as Piercing Descent, You are to follow and track the carrier, reporting on its movements until the Menelmacari are satisfied, or are prepared to bring the War Criminals to justice. Remember on your honor and lineage, the Menelmacari have the right of First Blood. Any to breach this pact will be subject to disciplinary action at the Rear Admiral's discretion.

Missive to Menelmacari Command,
Pursuit elements have been dispatched to track the movements of the War Criminals aboard Piercing Descent. Order has been to allow First Blood to the Menelmacari. We will follow and track, but will not engage, with the sole exception of engaging if engaged.

A total of four Marilquist Class Cruisers and three Tenement Class Destroyers plot likely courses for Piercing Descent's FTL trajectory utilizing the same algorithms based on how they'd calculate their own FTL courses, analyzing the spatial distortions left by the departure of the large vessel. Each of the destroyers paired up with a Cruiser and launched with their sensors fully powered for detecting the moment that the they caught up to the trail left by the Carrier. All of the Hobbiest production ships were capable of travelling twenty light years per day at cruising speed.

[Aeiouia]

Orbit

Unfortunately, the Piercing Descent had forgotten to take one key factor into consideration during its escape. In order for the smaller Avatar vessel to teleport it out of the Aeiouian home realm, it had to be almost touching the larger carrier. Since its Void drive could just barely accommodate the size of the vessel.

The vessel had made no attempt to briefly trust its engines or take some other action to distance itself from its escort craft before making the jump, even though these actions would have probably distanced itself just enough for it to be out of range of the Avatar. Weather this was an oversight on the part of the crew or simply due to the fact that the crippled ship was unable to do so was anyone's guess, however.

Since the warp rings on the larger Excidian vessels transport a decent area around them in order to transport non-FTL ship classes like the Pike and Gladius (the latter of which being about the size of an Avatar), the Aeiouian strike craft is carried along with the Excidian vessel in its jump.

A few moments after the Perrult Drive is activated, a beamed transmission is sent from the nearby Avatar, which is practically nestled in behind the carrier's Warp Ring:

"Well. You are certainly a group of ballsy tiny little bastards, I will give you that. I would ask that you turn around, but I sure as hell know that that is not going to happen.

Look. I get it, that feeling of fear by being chased by something angry that could annihilate you in a mere moment. Trust me, I really do. But, right now, your actions are endangering all of your comrades back on the planet."

"Not just zat, Dummkopfs. Do you honestly think zat ze factions zat attacked you today are going to simply ignore Excidium? Ze second zat they find your Homeship, it's going to be bombarded vith ze same missiles used to destroy ze Stormwrathian starbases today.

Ve totally agree vith zeir anti-slavery ideology, since many of us, myself included, vere slaves at some point. But, zey're definitely incredibly bloodthirsty to a rather frightening degree. If zis isn't finished, zey will get zeir disproportionate retribution against Excidium as a whole.

Right now, you're violating ze most important rule of your people's culture; "national survival above all else".

So, I give you Dummkopfs a simple offer. Never return to zis planet, officially give up your imagined rights to it and consider it to be territory of Aeiouia or some other nation that ve choose, and cease your actions against ze species zat's native to it. If you do zis, ve'll leave you be, and tell ze attacking forces zat your vessel disintegrated due to battle damage shortly after making ze jump.

But, if you intend to keep exploiting ze Birrin for your companies' profits despite vhat happened here today, Forge here has a few Disruption Bombs in zeir avatar, and working comms systems to contact ze belligerent forces. Ve're not entirely sure of zeir motives, but ve think zat zey will simply board a ship vith disabled weaponry instead of destroying it.

And don't think zat you can just break your word and send an attack fleet here in a few months to slaughter ze Birrin. Remember, you'll probably be facing ze same belligerent forces again if you do zat. Because ve'll inform ze belligerent forces of it, in order for zem to defend ze freedom of ze Birrin.

I'm trying to remain as neutral and fair as possible here. But, I'll leave zis decision up to you, but I vant you to realize how much of a risk I'd be taking in my own part for ze former option. I'd essentially be helping a nation zat's hostile to my own, and allied vith ze Stormwrathians, who we know are at war vith us and preparing to attack our worlds as ve speak,

Not to mention showing unvarranted mercy to a nation zat used to practice ze deplorable act of slavery. Something zat I'm all too familiar vith...

Zat's quite a bit of generosity from a crazy old drunkard. Take it or leave it.

... Oh... And, uh... You're ze Gizmos and Gadgets Surplus flagship, right? Tell me, are you guys ever going to allow ze purchasing of individual Bolt fighters, or sell ze production vights to zem? Ve need lots of ze Bolts for ammunition."

The Kiln

As soon as the ace Procne detects that the cloakmouth drone behind it is beginning to lose altitude, it immediately reverses its engine, deploys its airbrakes, and sharply pitches upward in order to slow its velocity.

As it falls back behind the drone, it begins accelerating again, attempting to match its speed. But, not before launching a grappling hook in an attempt to snag the smaller craft.

[Excidium Planetis]

En Route to Undesignated System

The Piercing Descent was free. It had gotten away, fled to the safety of faster-than-light travel. The crew was safe, the carrier uncaptured. Gizmos and Gadgets was still in possession of its hundred billion credit asset, though it was swiftly becoming a depreciating asset.

The captain relaxes for about ten seconds before the Comm officer told him the Aeiouian vessel was on the line. "Dammit. What do they want? How are they even communicating with us?"

"We appear to have pulled their ship along with us in the warp bubble."

"Uh, dammit. Play the record."

After listening to a recording of the audio communication, the Captain directed the Comm station to give him a live channel with the Avatar craft. "Hello? Ah, yes, its you."

"Look, the enemy isn't going to find Homeship Reckoner. The Home Fleet isn't listed on any Excidian star charts, no record of travel from or to any system is kept on the nav computers, and the coordinates to warp to Home Fleet must be entered manually. And they won't be following us there, the Lapsum Protocol mandates that we jump to another Fleet instead. We'd go to Dawn Fleet because it's closer, but Dawn Fleet was declared a no-go until Diplomatic relations with your nation were resolved, so we'll be traveling to Silent Fleet for the next few months. Once there, we'll be in the sovereign territory of the R.u.B. Union, so any warfare conducted will likely be condemned. In short, nothing in our actions threatens our national survival.

"Your offer is also refused. Even if we had the rights as a private enterprise to suddenly give a foreign nation complete control over a sovereign nation, and even if we did have some kind of agenda against the Birrin as a species, we would still refuse. We have to return to Chri-irah because we still have people there.

"Also, your threat is empty. Your disruption bombs won't shut down the Perrault Drive, and we won't be stopping for two weeks. Good luck stopping us.

"As for your individual starfighter idea, I'll pitch it to... Crap. Counselor Nguyen got f***ing killed. S***. Man, this is bad."

[Aeiouia]

En Route to Undesignated System

A response is almost immediately recieved from the Avatar:

"Okay, you schtill have people there? Fine. Ve'll evacuate zem upon acquiring ze planet. Additionally, put a price tag on zat hunk of rock. We'll buy it from you if necessary. After all, money is of no value to us, and ze only market you're going to be inflating ze currency of is your own.

So, we'll buy it for vhat ve deem is a fair price, and zen immediately give ze rights to ze Birrin. Sound simple?

But, right now, you are weighing your profits above ze survival of a species. Vhich is pathetic and deplorable. If I had ze same mindset, I'd see ze Reckoner as a big tube full of delicious snacks. But I don't, because I value basic decency and respect for less advanced civilizations.

If you don't agree to zese terms, zen YOUR threats are ze ones zat are going to be empty. My patience grows very, very thin with you Dummkopfs."

The Avatar seems to make some odd movements, before sending another message:

"So, last call. Co-operate, or zis situation is about to get much, much worse zan it already is.

All I want is a gurantee zat your company, not Excidium as a whole because I know you don't have ze power to do zat, vill leave ze Birrin alone. And not interfere vith zeir civilization."

[Excidium Planetis]

Piercing Descent

The Captain sighs. "Look, I don't think you understand. We can't sell you the planet. The world of Chri-irah is owned by private individuals, and other companies, and governments, none of which we control. Even if you offered us a better planet, we could not sell you the land. We'd have to own it in the first place, and we don't.

"Furthermore, we aren't making any threats, so our threats can't be empty! Just leave us alone, alright? We can't help you."

[Aeiouia]

En Route to Undesignated System:

"Again, Human. All I'm asking is zat your company never returns to ze planet, and recognizes all Birrin factions on it as sovereign nations whose lands are not a falid target for any non-consensual commercialization. I know zat you don't have power over ze Dummkopf governments, but you do have power over your own corporation.

Agree to have your company never even think about returning, and you're free to go. Zey'll be no consequences unless you break zis agreement, vich I want in writing. Or, vell. Electronic vriting vill do it, too. But, you know vhat I mean.

Regardless of your actions, ve vill also be providing evacuations to any of your comrades zat abide by ze surrender terms.

... And, also. If you vant lots of ze monies, sell ze Bolts individually. Ve can just synthesize zem, but I'm not sure if zat's a violation of some veird scarcity trade-copyright thingy or not. Too drunk to remember right now, honestly."