Sun and Steel [FT, IC]

by **Gagium** » Fri Sep 01, 2017 4:09 am

Gagium Forward Operating Base, Muranis

From space, you could almost see the lights of the large base, which now housed over 140,000 Gagium military staff, and a makeshift airbase from which 50 Stellar-class fighters operated from. The aircraft patrolled around 465,341 square km around the base, and ten large planetary defense guns were stationed around the base, covered by a large shield generator that the 1st Support Group brought with them. The base maintained direct contact with the Gagium fleet most of the time, and relied on them for information on enemy fleets. 400 Leopard 4B hover tanks were also stationed at the base, ready to be activated in a moment's notice. A makeshift bunker was also being constructed under the base.

Depending on the rotation of Muranis at the time, the large space battle was also visible from the base. Thousands of Gagium soldiers gathered at the center of the base to watch the battle for hours on end. The bright flashes and explosions of space warfare was something very little people get to see on the planets of Gagium.

Muranis orbit
Gagium 1st Fleet

"Report to all ships that we're entering the battle." Admiral Bismarck said.

"Wh-what? But our orders?" Vice Admiral Carl replied.

"Our orders have changed. We've been ordered to engage the enemy fleet. Unless the transmission was intercepted somehow, we should be able to surprise the attackers and strike at them before they know what hit them." the Admiral told him.

"Okay, well, yes sir!" said Vice Admiral Carl.

Within 5 minutes of this conversation, all the ships of the 1st Fleet, excluding 50 fighters and 10 frigates left behind to stay with the 1st Support group, were preparing to jump to the site of the battle. Admiral Bismarck gave the order to jump, and he watched as all the ships began to rapidly increase speed and disappear, before they re appeared and found themselves in the midst of combat. The men of the Gagium fleet saw that multiple fleets from both sides were already in the process of blowing up each other, and a large nuclear cloud loomed over the battle site.

"Order the fighters to begin attacking those carriers. Our dreadnoughts can launch their warheads once their shields are down."

At once, the fighters charged forward and began firing their laser weapons at the carrier.

by **United Human Planets** » Fri Sep 01, 2017 10:41 am

Astronaut Sergeant Alastair McLaughlin
2nd Squad
3rd Platoon
3rd Company
13th Marine Division

Sand Crawler 1, codename "Mothership."

Alistair's squad, for anyone who's interested.

"What do you think?"

Alistair sighed. "Im not sure yet, but their not threatening us." He held his helmet in one hand, and a pair of binoculars in the other. He glassed the dune again, watching for a little dark circle to pop up before ducking down again. He lowered the binoculars again and scratched his head, his short cropped hair prickly against his fingers.

"I got em again," said Sakaria, the company sniper. He lay on the landing pads on top of the Sand Cralwer, two magazines of ammunition besides him, the battery for his rail sniper rifle sticking out of the stock.

"What are they doing now?" said Alistair, lifting his binoculars to his face again.

"Cant tell, it still seems like their just watching us."

"I think their probably jerking off back their, and they're just checking to make sure we aren't coming to interrupt them like that one time their mother caught them watching porn in the family room," said Akihito, Sakaria's spotter.

"Man, what I would give for a good jerk off session," said Alistair.

"Hey, play your cards right and we won't have to pull watch tonight, and you can get your first combat jack in atmo," replied Akihito.

"Whats going on shit sticks?" said Aubert, his rifle resting on his ammunition pouches and munching on an MRE. Behind him came Anand, carrying his machine gun over his shoulder, holding onto it by the stock, and Hapai, carried a few extra MRE's, which he began handing out once he reached the group.

"It looks like we got some locals watching us," said Alistair. "We tried to get them on Com's, but I don't think their connected in any way, so we're going to have to go out and talk to them its looking like."

"We gonna kill em?" continued Aubert.

"If they don't clear out when we tell them too, probably," said Alistair. "We've been broadcasting warnings from this Sand Crawler all day, don't come near or we'll shoot you. So, they really only got this one chance."

"Hey, I think I might have seen a gun," said Sakaria.

A moment later Akihito said, "Yeah, I think I got it too."

Alistair quickly put his binoculars to his eyes, and scanned over the dune they were watching. He had to wait for a few seconds, but a head popped up again, and though he couldn't confirm yes or no there was a noticeable rod that came up with it, that looked an awful like a rifle barrel. When he saw this, Alistair quickly grabbed his radio that was attached to his flak jacket and pressed the button to speak. He heard the headphone that he had on the left ear crackle to life, and he said, "Lieutenant Patel, this is Astronaut Sergeant McLaughlin. My squad and I have been monitoring what we think are locals following the Sand Crawler. They appear to be armed, please advise."

"There was a brief pause, but then the radio crackled to life again and Patel responded. "Wait a moment McLaughlin, Im getting in touch with Godfather."

"Solid copy," said Alistair, and brought his binoculars to his eyes again.

"Think we're going to get to go out and lay down the law?" said Aubert through a mouthful of food.

"Maybe," said Alistair. "But I hope so. We've only been out here a day, and we got 6 more to go before we're back at Site 344, so if we're going to send a message better to do it earlier than later."

The radio crackled again, and Patel's voice came over the speaker in Alistairs ear again. "Alright, Godfather wants us to get rid of these guys. Head out there, tell them to fuck off, and confiscate their weapons. If they try to fight you, don't hesitate. We are trying to protect UHP citizens here, so you can't to be to careful, how copy?"

"Solid copy sir," said Alistair. "Alright everyone, lets pack it up and head down to the vehicle bay. Patel is having us go out to intercept those guys who are watching us. We are to send them off, and confiscate any weapons they may have."

"Roger that," said Akihito sarcastically.

Alistair put his helmet back on, and snapped the seal between it and his BDU's closed. He could hear the air purifier start working almost instantly, and he drank in the non dusty air in his helmet like it was some sort of drug. The squad quickly gathered their things with them and started off down the landing pads. Alistair took the lead, his helmet with its blood red stripe down the middle marking him as the leader. His squad followed behind him, their green and blue stripes marking them as 1st and 2nd privates and corporal's. When they entered the Sand Crawler, the temperature seemed to immediately drop, and soldiers and the Crawlers crew sat sprawled on every available surface, enjoying the cold while they were not on duty. Two of Gao & Sutherland's Private Army soldiers passed Alistair and his squad, and the two groups gave each other apprehensive looks.

When they reached the vehicle bay, the squad climbed into the front most Hellion Attack Vehicle, the only one of the 5 strong fleet that was painted in desert camouflage. The others were all painted black, like every thing else the Private Soldiers had, and as a result the Marines had in just one short day come do adore the single desert cammie Hellion, and frequently would argue and fight over having to use the black ones.

Alistair looked out from the passenger seat, and flagged down one of the Sand Crawlers crew, a young woman with hair so curly and poofy it could give a cloud a run for its money. "Hey," he said, and pointed at the ramp that was keeping them stuck in the massive vehicle. "Can you get that down for us?"

"Sure," she said, and climbed up a small set of stairs to a little platform with a console at the top of it. She punched a few buttons and typed in a password, and the ramp lurched forward with a loud grinding. It lowered onto the sand of the desert, and began to kick up a small plume of dust as it dragged slowly behind the Sand Crawler.

Hapai hit the gas, and the Hellion rolled down the ramp with a slight bump. "Would you make a better effort to not fling me out of this thing," said Anand, standing in the gunner post.

"Im just trying to get rid of you so we can close that hatch again," said Hapai. The one drawback of the desert cammie Hellion was that it had had its MG Camera damaged, meaning that the Marines had to manually operate it instead of doing it remotely, safe and buttoned up inside. The squad cruised off int the night time, a hint of dawn cresting over the horizon. It would be a few minutes to get to the locals watching them, but by the time they would be there it would be early morning.

by **Gagium** » Fri Sep 01, 2017 1:15 pm

(OOC: Continuation of my last post)

Muranis orbit
Gagium 1st Fleet

The fifty Stellar-Class fighters started circling the the carriers of Dimoniquid, firing their laser weapons in a small but massive barrage. The much more massive heavy laser turrets of the Dreadnoughts also began firing on the carriers behind the cloud. After some time, the Admiral looked like the shield of one of the carriers was nearly down.

"Alright, begin arming a nuclear warhead!" Admiral Bismarck commanded over the loudspeaker. "All fighters, pull out!" Before long, the holographic monitor in front of him reported that the warhead was armed. The shield of that carrier was on the verge of being down.

The ship's AI reported that the shield of the carrier was down, but reported they only had a couple second-long window to hit the ship. "Fire!" the Admiral commanded. At once, he saw the warhead launch from the dreadnought, and he looked away as the warhead hit the carrier with a bright flash of light and a massive explosion.

"Alright, that'll do. Continue firing the heavy laser guns on the other carriers. Fighters, do not re-engage." Admiral Bismarck ordered. The crew of the GSS Fiolia watched as the nuclear cloud left from the explosion began dissipating. The crew had mixed emotions about launching a nuclear warhead at a carrier with a disabled shield: However, they remembered that the only reason the Gagium 1st Fleet was here was to defend against the fleets trying to take possession of the planet. A large portion of the crew was experiencing their first space battle, so they of course weren't used to the idea of killing, however direct of an involvement they may have in it.

However, Admiral Bismarck had been serving the Gagium space fleet for nearly a century, and was quite used to blowing up enemy ships without mercy. The ship's AI reported the the Admiral that the entirety of the carrier was depressurized.

"Excellent." The Admiral responded.

Gagium Forward Operating Base, Muranis

The thousands of soldiers now stationed at the base watched as a large explosion occurred at the sight of the massive battle. From what the fleet told the officers of the base, the Gagium fleet has joined the fight. That was the last transmission heard from the fleet before they witnessed the explosion.

by **Dimoniquid** » Fri Sep 01, 2017 1:50 pm

Commandant Howell - DINV Say My Name
Heavy Destroyer - Designated DINV-2293-5A3
Facing the Gagium Fleet

"That was a ballsy move. Not ballsy enough, though." Howell called to himself, checking over his tactical station. Carriers weren't designed for fighting and didn't carry any offensive weapons, they were designed for protection; the main carriers may have been just over three kilometres long, but it's armour was deep and thick, and its extensive array of missiles, point defence guns, and directed laser weaponry were capable of holding off a great deal of threats before help could arrive. The laser were chipping away at the carrier, but enough that it was going to make a difference. It was going to be a long time before one of those lasers would worm its way into the ship. "Alright, let's show them who they're fucking with!" Howell called. "Have the carriers light them up, we'll run interference and take out stragglers; larger ships first, smaller ships later." He commanded his bridge crew.

The heavy destroyer, standing at just over eight hundred meters long, along with its six hundred meter long heavy frigates, had turned their position away from the nuclear cloud and were heading over towards the carriers. Just as the trio of ships had travelled into firing range of the Gagium fleet, the nuclear missile had been launched. Howell watched on his analysis screen as the missile hit the carrier; with a quick flash of light, the carrier phased back into view, his screen showing it remaining unharmed. "We have thirty thousand troops between those two carriers, did you think we were going away that easily?" He asked rhetorically. The carriers array of missiles and point defence grid had manage to destroy the missile just before it hit, and its extensive electronic countermeasures were attempting to convince the enemy fleet that the carrier was depressurised.

In a quick flash, both carriers had fired everything they had at the Gagium fleet; thousands of low yield missiles and heavy yield nuclear and antimatter warheads, hundreds of point defence weapons, and hundreds of laser weapons were currently swarming the Gagium fleet. As the shit-show had just begun, the heavy destroyer and heavy frigates were joining the fray by circling the battle, firing off their deck guns, and launching their heavy and low yield missiles.

by **Gagium** » Fri Sep 01, 2017 3:24 pm

Muranis orbit
Gagium 1st Fleet

Admiral Bismarck watched as the carrier appeared behind the nuclear cloud, apparently unharmed. A massive array of missiles was heading to his fleet, and the laser turrets of the ships were busy automatically targeting and firing at the missiles. However, only some of the shots hit, and Admiral Bismarck hoped that the shields could hold off some of the missiles.

"Fucking lying AI." the Admiral murmured. "But, hey, they passed the test. Order the frigates and cruisers to continue firing on the missiles. The 2nd Cruiser group can move forward and begin firing their ion torpedoes at those carriers." As the weapons officer walked out of the room, Admiral Bismarck was dismayed at the fact that he can't trust the AI of his ship- the flagship of the renowned 1st fleet- anymore. It has been decades since the last AI check, after all...

The 8 Dreadnoughts of the fleet began turning to face the Dimoniquid fleet. The Dreadnoughts fired their nuclear warheads and heavy torpedoes at the carriers and other larger ships of Dimoniquid. Admiral Bismarck watched as the fifty fighters circled around the Gagium fleet and began firing on the smaller enemy ships.

"Sir, GSS Mars of the 3rd Dreadnought Group is-"

"Shut the fuck up, lying AI." the Admiral responded. However, the Admiral saw the flash of light that marked the death of Dreadnought II GSS Mars. He watched as the remains began falling towards Muranis, hoping to see at least one escape pod come from the vessel. A couple frigates near the dreadnought also capsized.

"Continue firing every fucking thing we have at them. And order the Berlin-Class cruisers to activate their Scout-Class fighters. " Admiral Bismarck ordered. "We must avenge the GSS Mars."

Escape Pod GSS-Mars 094
Gagium 1st Fleet

Ensign Hanz Meyer of the GSS-Mars happened to be standing next to the escape pod designated as GSS Mars 094 when the explosion happened. He was smoking a cigar, and for all he cared he was off duty, despite the massive battle occurring. However, he still had the sense to scramble into the escape pod when he realized the explosion was from his own dreadnought.

As Escape Pod 094 detached from the GSS-Mars, he stared back, watching dreadnought being ripped apart by the explosion before it started descending on Muranis. He continued casually smoking his cigar as the small spacecraft continued floating away from the capsized dreadnought.

Cruiser Berlin-1043
Gagium 1st Fleet

The crew of Berlin-1043 watched as the missile hit the GSS Mars, creating a huge rip in the vessel and nearly instantly depressurizing it. The cruiser was a part of the 2nd Cruiser Group, one of the latest additions to the group. The cruiser only had two ion torpedoes left at the rate they were unleashing them on the enemy.

Erik Friedz was a pilot for the Gagium Fleet, assigned to the Scout-class on Berlin-1043. Just a year ago, he enlisted in the Gagium Fleet to serve Gagium and the Kaiser. About five minutes into the battle, the order came to deploy the Scout-class he named "Faust des Gottes". Erik Friedz and several other pilots among the cruisers of the 1st Fleet quickly rushed to their Scout-classes, ready to join the conflict. He quickly detached from the cruiser and maneuvered towards the enemy fleet, firing the laser weapon the fighter had. I'm not going to die, I'm not going to die, I'm not going to die he told himself. However, a missile hit his fighter, blowing the small craft to pieces and leaving no survivor.

Gagium Forward Operating Base, Muranis

The planetary defense guns were busy firing their massive ion-nuclear warheads at the Dimoniquid fleet. The missiles worked by transmitting a strong ion wave, significantly overloading any shield they hit, before detonating the nuclear warhead. However far up they may be in Muranis orbit, the warheads, using information from the Gagium fleet, were able to hit the massive carriers the enemy possessed. The larger the ship, the easier to hit was the motto for the 1st Planetary Defense Division. Hundreds of soldiers watched as a salvo of ten of these missiles was launched from the massive guns. They soon blinked into a sort of warp at 30% the speed of light before reappearing a mere km below the enemy fleet.

by **Eclius** » Fri Sep 01, 2017 6:00 pm

Muranis outer orbit
Foreign Intelligence Bureau Muranis Mobile Control Center

In the central control room of Foreign Intelligence Bureau's flagship, a young lady, in business casual, sat on a hover chair comfortably, while stared at the miniature artificial rainforest placed in the center of the ship. Socellia cherish moments like these, moments of peace, and utmost tranquility. Moments later, a message appeared before her eyes, it was from the message node placed inside her avatar, and it reads:

Code: Select all: >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> INCOMING TRANSMISSION Source: unknown >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Socellia smiled, she walked into the holographic communications room, then accepted the transmission request from the unknown source. Minutes passed, a device started to hum, and the image of Publius 2.000.4589C appeared before her. She greeted, "Publius, how are you doing? It has been long since our last large family reunion how's Relia by the way? My sister always complained about the noise level on Imperius Prime", "Socellia, hey" Publius responded, "It's been wonderful". "That's great! I heard my two nephews are graduating elementary this year, well, isn't that wonderful! Last time I visited, they already knew the learned the basics of temporal logic, how wonderful! I can almost envision them being wonderful scientists" Socellia burst in excitement, she continued for minutes before noticing that she had gone away from the topic, "anyhow, I've received orders from Inner Senate, it appears that..........things are quite different this time"
"How?"
"You see, Publius, unlike traditional perception of wars, this time, our goal is to liberate as many Bakrans as we can, while make an attempt to overthrow their oppressive government. Due to the political issue, we were told to avoid physical conflict with other faction at the best our ability.
"I see, are the others here?"
"Well, other legions sent from the Inner Senate are yet to arrive, however, we've already initiated a series of cyber attacks to Bakaran government"

Several Hours Later
Under Socellia's orders, a message was sent to the government of Bakaran

Code: Select all: To: Government of Bakra From: Senate of Eclius, Eclisian Department of Foreign Relations Encryption Level: Confidential 3-A It is asked for the government of Bakra to promote and encourage the process of cybernetic integration amongst Bakran population, or action will be taken on behalf of the senate and people of Eclius to liberate those living under the shadows of biological restriction

by **Cyborgs and Sentient Machines** » Fri Sep 01, 2017 6:47 pm

Thath Capital Spaceway

With the chunk of the door cracking open, and the hiss of air, rushing outside as the dropship door slid slowly open, Hermes began to see the bright outside, with opening growing larger, bit by bit, soon full of the slick, jet black interior was fully visible, as well as a large black canister standing on a dark sled, on the opposite side of Hermes seat, with a the liquid inside gently swashing about as the dropship came to a complete stop just touching down on the ground.

As Hermes unbuckled his safety strap with one hand, he reached over to do the same for the strap holding the sled and its canister in place, and with two mechanical clicks, the belts around the important cargo and Hermes retracted into the wall with a zipping sound, simultaneously a small platform started to emerge at the foot of the open door, which proceeded to lower itself so that it touched the ground, creating a gentle ramp for the sled to go down.

"Clockwork." Hermes muttered under his breath as he slowly, but firmly grasped the tall handle, that jutted up from the sled, about a third of a meter above the canister,
keeping his eye on the canister all the while, as if afraid it would spontaneously erupt.
"So my good sir, i take it that you will be escorting me somewhere, to someone important?" he asked the youngish looking man with the long hair slicked back. "I just hope there won't be many stairs" joked the cyborg, who on the exterior looked like a perfectly usual human, giving a smile off to the man dressed in formal Bakran attire.

Just as he let out a chuckle, he strode down the ramp, canister in tow, his mechanical eyes swept up and down each of the three figures, first the two armed guards with their weapons slacked just below chest height, then his eyes met with the aide while his arm shot out to offer a firm handshake, "I always like saying this part. Take me to your leader. Or at leat one of them, which is what you will do anyway, yes?" he said with a wry smile, finding the sentence amusing.

by **Dimoniquid** » Fri Sep 01, 2017 7:30 pm

Commandant Howell - DINV Say My Name
Heavy Destroyer - Designated DINV-2293-5A3
Facing the Gagium Fleet

Howell could visibly see some of he missiles going through, and some laser turrets wearing down the carriers hull plating as the carriers were putting one hell of a fight. He turned to another screen and saw how the logistics groups were being assaulted. "Get a frigate on that now!" He ordered, turning his attention back to the carries. One of the frigates broke formation, speeding under the battle to get to the smaller vessels and began to help defend them. Those vessels were lightly armed, with only a small array of point defence weapons and missile silos, but were not made for combat in any circumstance. The frigate began to fire off the rest of low yield missile silos, along with its smaller weaponry at the fighters, hoping for them to scatter, or to take the attention off of them.

Howell watched as the sensors flickered with light, signifying that that ion warheads were here. Since he hadn't seen anything like it, he didn't know what to respond with. "Fire missiles to intercept those warheads." He ordered. The missiles managed to worm their way through the light show of the battle, dodging ships and other missiles before reach the warheads. Sensor readings had registered five or six of them had been rendered destroyed, but three of them had managed to break through and strike the heavy frigate that was under the carriers, and the last one managing to actually striking the carrier, causing a visible buckle under the ship. "Report on the frigate?" The Dimonicist couldn't afford to lose something as valuable as a heavy frigate; the kind of armour and manoeuvrability was very rare to come by in a ship, and they were going to need it.

"They're registered deck breaches, casualties confirmed as well; demanding an evacuation of wounded and other non significant personnel on the ship towards the carriers." A communications specialist called back. "Ship is reduced in combat ability though, from their reports."

"Allow it, have the other frigate continue its' gun run around the fleet; we're going in". Howell ordered. He turned to his helmsman, who was currently checking over his vectors through his helmet and visor piece. "Helm, put us at ramming speed to the nearest side face dreadnought." He ordered, turning back to his analysis screen. Howell could physically feel the turn of the ship as it accelerated from its current position outside of the Gagium fleet and head towards the nearest dreadnought that was facing the carrier.

by **United Islands of Polis** » Fri Sep 01, 2017 8:20 pm

Muranis, Orbit
92nd Defensive Operations Fleet [Currently Engaged]
UIPNS Shield of Hope, Zenith Class Battlemaster Command Vessel, Bridge

"Energy Projector on Intensity 3 has little effect, bumping it up to Intensity 6, this may work." The chief weapons officer said through the comms but was stopped by the admiral "No, recycle power to the slipspace drives, if we need to make a micro jump to escape we need to to be prepared." as the battle played out another group of enemy bombers began to make an attack run on his ship, resulting in their munitions being caught in the defense net caused by the Mark XVs and their bombers shot down or shocked to death, any munitions that made it through did little to no effect.

"Admiral the enemy is strating to climb to another positions, orders?" a captain of a Marathon Class said over the battlenet as other captians began to confirm the enemy's strategem "Addapt to them, if they climb, we climb, if they descend we descend." as the orders were given another problem arose "Sir! Enemy has jumped into our position! They're firing nukes!"

The admiral swiveled around to the ensign in slight surprise "Fire everything on them! Make them regret that move!" Admiral Kyoto yelled. The broadside anitmatter cannons and plasma torpedoes launchers came to life instantly as they launched a symphony of death at the Olimpedian ships within their ranks, the ships who were behind the enemy fired SMACs and particle cannons at them, the smaller Frigates even did in system slipspace jump to get behind them. CIWS systems began to shoot down missiles, some exploded but only took aout a few ships, but most held as a Marathon Class emerged from the detonation with it's shileds flaring but holding. Bomber wings that weren't deployed were sent out to kill the enemy ships, crippling engines, the bridge an weapon systems aboard.

"Report!" The Admiral said "We've lost the Divinity, Conquest, Grafton IV and Pretorian, Archimedes, Cyanide Pills, Boston Blues, Hand of God and Neutral Fighter have reported damage to the hull and have some minor breached, their shileds are coming back online." a few losses but at least they were smaller ships, now it was his turn.

"Battlegroup 3, get behind their formation again and fire ASNR rounds (Anit Ship Nuclear Rounds: A giant HEAT rounds for ships but uses Nuclear power instead of usual explosives used by today's HEAT rounds, launched from MACs and SMACs) for some EMP missiles too, arming range 200 meters from Target, manually detonate as you see fit." when the order was given Battlegroup 3 disappeared once more and re-emerged behind the formation, a few ASNR rounds made their way to the command ship along with some EMP missiles. If they did make contacts all hell could be broken loose inside those ships, it was now only a matter of time.

Muranis, Surface
81st "Elementary" Constitutional Marines Batallion, 1st & 2nd Squad
Following Unidentified IFV [Currently Engaged]

As the Scorch was hit the shileds flared up making the solid rounds stop dead in their tracks "They're firing rounds, engaging, firing Goliath and Vanish." two missiles straked out and we're intercepted by a trophy system, the Goliath exploded while the Vanish also exploded but the blast radius was large enough to affect the vehicle.

"Missiles are no go, engaging with the M65." the pilot began to fire the M65 Valance Heavy Plasma Cannons at the IFV while moving about so they would get hit "Hunters engage them, fire Titan and Vanish missiles, rock them!" Sergeant Harris ordered. In seconds the 3 fighters dove from left, right and rear firing the requested missiles and their hard light and plasma cannons, after their first pass they came back again for more.

by **Olimpiada** » Fri Sep 01, 2017 9:52 pm

Muranis, Setsko
Bridge of the FWOS Colossus

In the midst of Ambrosius enjoying the results of his strategy, he was rudely interrupted.

“Sir, we’ve got incoming fliers,” said Akropolites with some concern.

“Well, shoot them down. I’ve got better things to do than worry about a stray nuke.”

“We’ve been doing that. They’re not taking it, they appear to be solid slugs.”

“Have one of the Hwach’as fire a few nukes at them, make it look like solid hits on one of the dreadnoughts. Should solve the problem at this range.” Ambrosius thought for a moment. “While you’re at it, have the same boat fire a few nukes away from the battle to trace after the people who sent those KKVs in, say, sixty seconds. Maximum speed at that point.”

“On it, si-” Akropolites was cut off by Phocus speaking frantically.

“They’ve got another group behind us, and I can’t shake them by burning vertically,” he rushed out, frantic.

“The laser is back, and it’s stronger now. Hull won’t like this much. They’ve gotten through a meter of armor on our port side,” chimed in Akropolites.

“Phocus, get us maneuvering in a pattern where we can disrupt their laser fire by putting other hostile ships between them and us.” Gravity periodically jerked in seemingly random directions as maneuvering thrusters realigned them as needed to disrupt the enemy’s line of fire. It jerked much more severely when a series of shocks throughout the ship rattled Ambrosius around in his gel-filled chair.

“Akropolites, what the fuck was that?”

“Appeared to be coilgun fired nukes. Impulse shock would have fucked us up, but the spaced bottom layer of the hull has prevented that.”

“See to it that it keeps doing so. Mister Stratiotica, keep the ship alive, I’m assuming Ypsilanti’s duties as coordinator.”

“S-sir?” stammered Ypsilanti, confused.

“Stay in your seat or you’ll likely die. I can handle it with my controls here.” Ambrosius had had enough of the enemy’s attempts at cleverness. “Akropolites, keep the main guns bursting at the enemy’s command ship, all four. Do your best to aim for their bridge and life support, I want that thing dead.” While Phocus and Akropolites did their best to keep the Colossus alive, and make the Shield of Hope much less so, Ambrosius rearranged things. First, he ordered the Antennas to Heaven and Mandarin’s Claws to open a long burst of fire up on any vessel that had fired those damned nuclear rounds, seeking to destroy them under the hail of high velocity rounds, each carrying the force of a tactical nuclear weapon, each of the four guns on each vessel firing ten times a second. In essence, the three dreadnoughts were each a 2400 RPM nuclear weapon launcher, without the associated bulk of actual nuclear weapons.

As he maneuvered his vessels about, he listened to Ireul reading off losses.

Code: Select all: Quo Vadis: Destroyed Icarus: Destroyed Tamahagene: Heavily damaged, operating on battery to avoid reactor detonation 11 other vessels: Hull damage, ranging from one meter to three meters burnt in some locations.

Muranis, Setsko
Bridge of the FWOS Cosmic Surgery

Isidorus really hated heavy burns. The 10 gs of acceleration he was experiencing as he and his ship sprinted away from the clusterfuck above them pressed him down hard into his seat, making it very difficult for him to breathe. The sight of the Quo Vadis exploding in a flash of light behind him didn’t help the issue either. Across the hostile fleet, the Olimpiadan intruders were fleeing their earlier locations in whichever direction got them away faster.

Most, like the Cosmic Surgery[i] were spraying missiles behind them to cover their retreat, targeting whichever ships passed closest for quick high acceleration burns of half a dozen missiles at a time. The other vessel which had lost its escort to a reactor shutdown was doing the same thing as the [i]Cosmic Surgery, and using surplus missiles as makeshift point defense. Golden fusion plumes added hundreds of new stars to the eternal night of space as they flared to life before dashing themselves against everything in sight: Hulls, shields, point defense systems, anything that they could hope to make a dent in.

Isidorus usually would have appreciated this, if not for the fact that he was focusing on keeping himself awake as his weight increased tenfold, his heart struggling to pump blood under the pull. Fortunately, the military standard issue nanites in his body came with some upgrades, so he wasn’t dead yet. If a few more enemy rounds connected, he would be. He hoped to avoid that. For now, he placed his trust in his missiles, allowing them to keep him both safe and sound.

You know what? Fuck that. I’ve got better plans than waiting to die in some damned tin can.

In his semi-paralyzed state, Isidorus could still manage orders to the computer via subvocalization. “Throw up a cloud of radiation behind us with a few of the missiles and deactivate the heat radiators as much as is safely possible,” he quietly grunted out through gritted teeth and a splitting headache. “Then slacken off on this damn gravity.” The computer followed his commands. The comfortable float of 0 g took peeled off the crushing grasp of the earlier 10. He had made an effort at faking his death. With any luck, it was time to get to work.

by **Gagium** » Sat Sep 02, 2017 6:58 am

Cruiser Berlin-1043
Gagium 1st Fleet

"This is the last ion torpedo we have, sir." the lieutenant said.

"Fire it." replied the Captain.

Both of them watched as the torpedo jetted out of the vessel, making its way to the fleet before being promptly destroyed by their missile defenses. The officers of the cruiser watched the flying lasers and missiles from the command room, not taking notice of the one that was headed right towards them.

Muranis Orbit
Gagium 1st Fleet

LIST OF CONFIRMED CASUALTIES:
002 GSS Mars
Cruiser Berlin-1043
Frigate Hamburg-2409
Frigate Hamburg-2410
Frigate Hamburg-0984

LIST OF HEAVILY DAMAGED:
Cruiser Berlin-1044
Cruiser Berlin-1490
Cruiser Berlin-552
Frigate Hamburg-0951
Frigate Hamburg-0385

Admiral Bismarck was looking at this list as the missile hit the unfortunate Cruiser Berlin-1043. However, he would not give up so easily, as he was determined to avenge the GSS-Mars by destroying one of their carriers. But the cruisers of the Gagium 1st Fleet were running our of torpedoes, and fast. He saw that only 18 cruisers had torpedoes available, and they only had one each.

"Cruisers, hold torpedo fire until the order is given to launch." Admiral Bismarck commanded. He then relayed another transmission describing the location of the enemy carriers to the planetary defense guns back at the surface, however they were quickly becoming out of range. The Admiral, as he was observing the battle, noticed that the GSS Mars was beginning to burn up, and entering the Muranis atmosphere. The ship's AI then reported to him that all left ion torpedoes were armed.

"Okay, aim that that carrier right there....very good. Three, two, one, fire!" He watched as the cruisers fired their ion torpedoes at the carrier, but he was much too busy to follow them. "All left fighters, pull back to the 1st Support group. We're bringing the other fighters here!" He observed as the remaining undamaged fighters began to warp out of the battle, followed by around fifty stellar-class fighters warping in. The Admiral ordered the pilots of those fighters to fire their lasers at the smaller vessels.

"Another wave of nuclear-ion missiles has been detected from our ground base, Admiral. According to calculations, they will be the last for several hours." the AI reported.

"They better fucking hit, all the trouble they went through to launch them." Admiral Bismarck responded. Admiral Bismarck had a question though. "What about the Olimpiadan fleet?" he asked the AI.

"According to our scans, they are busy fighting the fleet of Polis." the ship's AI responded.

"Alright. Fleet, prepare to warp to the 1st Support Group. We cannot afford another dreadnought of ours dead and crashing into Muranis." Admiral Bismarck said. Already, thousands of men were dead in this battle, and it was going nowhere.

Escape Pod GSS-Mars 094
Gagium 1st Fleet

Ensign Hanz Meyer listened as the transmissions he received from his own fleet told him they were nearly done firing up their warp drives. That would leave him at the mercy of the Dimoniquid fleet. Or, his escape pod would slowly fall into Muranis until it crashed into the sands covering the planet. The GSS Mars already was in the Muranis atmosphere, he observed. He hoped that somehow, there were still survivors on the GSS Mars: though he saw the result of the missile for himself.

Gagium Forward Operating Base, Muranis

"Sir, enemy fleet out of range." the AI informed Corporal Albert Gerstäcker and Private First Class Jan Wenzel as they were busy reloading another ion-nuclear missile into the turret. They stopped to stare at the AI face that appeared on the holographic monitor inside the turret, before turning it off and continuing to reload it. Hopefully the smart missile could find some way to still hit their target. The space battle was now on the edge of the horizon, and night was upon the camp. They heard that the Gagium fleet was preparing to warp out of the battle, but they were still determined to continue unleashing their missiles onto them.

by **Dimoniquid** » Sat Sep 02, 2017 10:05 am

Commandant Howell - DINV Say My Name
Heavy Destroyer - Designated DINV-2293-5A3
Facing the Gagium Fleet

Howell inadvertently punched their air, a cheer ringing out around the ship as the battle began to quell. "Stop attacking the ships, remain on the defensive." He ordered. "Communications, report on the carrier and frigate?"

"The carriers are fine; hull plating will need to be replaced, and the weapons systems will need to be reheated since they were overwhelmed, but they're fine." The specialist replied. "The frigate however... they've reported massive hull plating damage; those torpedo's had done a lot. Engines are fried, casualties have been moved towards the carrier. The repair station is on its way." The commandant moved his way over to the weapons console, examining the reports the weapons specialist was reading. It had seemed they had expended a huge amount of their ammunition taking out the enemy ships, and that a supply ship was on its way after the fleet had left to restock the ship..

Howell was also looking at the damage report for the enemy fleet; he was almost stunned that they could that kind of damage between five ships, even if two were carriers. The heavy destroyer was also getting reports of escape pods from the damaged Gagium ships. "Have our transports and crawlers pick them up, then send them over to the carrier; we'll dock with the carrier after they've been recovered." He ordered. The battle was over as soon as the enemy fleet had entered warp. The last of the ion torpedo's that had been launch were either shot down quickly in a volley of concentrated fire, or skimmed the ships and did minimal damage. The transports and two man engineering crawlers were cleared to vacate the destroyer, the unharmed frigate, and the carrier to recover any Gagium escape pods.

Crew Chief Thomas
Foehammer 2-3 - Attached to the DINV Say My Name

Chief Thomas was currently aboard Foehammer 2-3, a transport ship that was currently in the middle of recovering escape pods. He stood in troop bay, which had an modular extension pod attached to it so it could hold more people, but in this case, more pods. He adjusted his harness, which was currently attached to a thin motorised stabiliser that was feeding him his oxygen and keeping him inside the transport in case of any turbulence that might through him about. "I think we have one!" He radioed over to the pilots, pressing a small button hanging from his neck that connected the internal microphone of his helmet to his radio. He floated his way over to the edge of the pod, taking hold of the directed energy laser door gun that hung down from the ceiling, and switched on the flashlight that was attached.

He was half tempted to blow the survivor to smithereens with the door gun. Their people had just tried to destroy a few thousand of his friends, and now they wanted saving? It was almost laughable that they could want help, but he had orders to follow, no matter how much he hated the Gagium that lay in the pod. The pilots looked through their visors, flipping the silver block down and changing the view to a camera that was built at the back of the transport. Thomas twisted the weapon length ways, flipped down its gun shield, and raised it to the ceiling of the transport. With a few adjustments, they reversed themselves towards the pod, and Thomas guided it onto the floor before securing it with some tethers. He wiped the pod down, trying to get a good look at the inside, and peered at the markings on it. Escape Pod GSS-Mars 094. "Let's go find some more!"

Herren Knight Onhan Tane - DINV One From Me
Light Cruiser Battle Group LCBG JX4-A297 - Gracious Success
Pod deployed in unknown location

Onhan watched through the screens of the RWCS as the missile exploded, engulfing the IFV in a ball a flame. He could hear as the shrapnel of the missile casing was hitting the reactive armour, but the IFV was pretty unscathed, apart from visible scratches, burn marks, and damaged reactive plating. Dalle, Das, and the heavy drone watched as the IFV was engulfed, and then watched as the Scorch was engaging with a plasma weapon. "That'll melt right through the fucking thing in a few shots; have you got anything else?" Dalle asked Das. Das shook her head, taking cover behind the heavy drone before reloading her electro-thermal chemical railgun. Dalle took hold of the camera that was built into the heavy drones' chest. "You need to request a fire mission! We're not going to be able to take out all three of them!"

Ecker was informed of Dalles' concern by Braji. "Fuck it, I'm getting on the wire with the cruiser." She said, taking a hold of the communications radio and accessing her own TACPAD. "This Shrew 1-4 to Overlord, requesting fire mission on my position!" She shouted over the radio, the IFV taking a hit from the plasma cannon.

"This is Overload, request for fire mission granted. Requesting designation for target and armament."

"Three fighters, currently left of our position! Send out a missile battery, we're getting hammered!" She replied, activating a beacon that was calling their position. "Beacon has been activated, send the missiles!" Ecker waited with silence for what seemed a life time, the IFV continuing to fire and take evasive action from the fighters.

"Shrew 1-4, missiles are on their way, ETA is just over seven minutes." The six missiles, two each targeting the three fighters, were being launched from the light cruiser, just over four hundred kilometres above them. "Targeting for another battery, confirm for hits."

by **Bakra** » Sat Sep 02, 2017 3:15 pm

ATTN: Dimioniqud

Bridge of Loltha
Gargiz Battlegroup

The initial Dimioniqud volley, while not as large as the Bakrans, was more concentrated. It struck much of the brunt of the fleet, hitting the attack ships that made up the pickets of the force. Still, as Admiral Jaygo observed the explosions going off at the forward positions he couldn't help but think that the Dimioniqud were still vastly outnumbered. Might not have been the most honorably sentiment for a fleet commander, but that was how it was.

"Who was taken out by the initial volley?"

"The destroyers Hythol, Verrendin, Folly of Order, Effortless and the frigates Undulate and Throne, sir." Sensors Two reported.

"The crusier Falston reports damage, its squadron commander requests to pull it back to the periphery, Admiral," Comms One reported.

"Granted, tell the commander to put himself in a support role, fighter and long range fire only for the time being." Admiral Jaygo concentrated on the screen in front of him. The cloud was still hazy, but soon their sensors would be able to see past it. The heavy destroyers near the pole still had their sensors online. They reported some activity, another fleet coming in and engaging the Dimioniqud. They seemed to have been beaten back, for now.

For a moment Jaygo thought of pulling back, letting the newcomers fight them on their own. He wanted to preserve his command while he could, but decided to pull back his ships a little bit from the cloud, waiting to see what, if anything, the Dimioniqud would do.

ATTN: CASM

Capital Spaceway
Thath, Muranis

The man smiled, which appeared like something between a snake slithering across his face and like he was holding back a gag but laughing at the same time. It would have been disconcerting if the circumstances weren't the planet being invaded by more nations than the man would like to think.

"I always like saying this part. Take me to your leader. Or at leat one of them, which is what you will do anyway, yes?"

"Of course sir," the man said, "Although I don't know how much time you will have. The exarch is preparing the city's defenses. He is meeting us near the government building; I'm afraid no one is allowed inside without being a member of his personal guard or himself. I am not even allowed to enter."

The man led Hermes along a path away from the landing pads, the two guards following at a respectful distance behind them. Two more joined them once they exited the landing area of the space way, all of them in dark desert brown with blood red capes coming behind them. Their armor was substantially more advanced than the normal armor, and if one looked closely it would appear that they were part of the Thakis, the guardians of Muranis.

"Forgive the guards, they are necessary in these times. An attack could come at any moment, and the exarch desires everyone in the administration, and visitors, to be protected if battle should come our way." The man didn't bother to look back at the dignitary, cutting through the workers putting up barricades and civilian reserves manning anti-aircraft batteries and communications posts. Bakran soldiers in their normal armor set up defenses and deployed across the streets.

"You, nor your government, never said your purpose here. Why is it you wish to speak to the exarch?"

ATTN: Eclius

Sandhearth
Muranis

Despite being the leader of the entire planet, General Kunius couldn't help but think that he was always in the dark about something. First it was the damn artifacts, but that was back when Xurn was governor of the planet and not exarch, so it wasn't his problem. Then once he assumed command, Kunius had to deal with the cloak and dagger shit that the Imperial Intelligence Office thrived in, keeping him in the dark as to what they were doing to the artifacts. Then came those seeking to help them, which was fine, but their motivations always seemed to be out of the general's grasp. Then came the invaders, and that was where Kunius just gave up trying to remain in control of the system and concentrated on what he knew and capitalizing on that.

To: Government of Bakra
From: Senate of Eclius, Eclisian Department of Foreign Relations
Encryption Level: Confidential 3-A

It is asked for the government of Bakra to promote and encourage the process of cybernetic integration amongst Bakran population, or action will be taken on behalf of the senate and people of Eclius to liberate those living under the shadows of biological restriction

This was where Kunius finally went, fuck no.

Bakrans hated mechanical augmentation, it was anathema to them. The cyborg gangs that plagued the newly colonized worlds and Zeytyr would not be soon forgotten, but to a religious people it wasn't something to be trifled with. They had augmentations, sure, they had to in the darkness of space, but it was concentrated in artificial organs and pharmaceuticals, which provided more than enough for the nation.

His response, in between defensive preparations of the cities and fortresses, was a little more kindly worded than his initial reaction.

You will cease your approach and any plans for Muranis. This is not a request, and we will not yield. This is your first and final warning.

General Ruden Kunius
Commander, Muranis forces

ATTN: UHP

Dagai lands
Muranis

The teenagers were enclosed in robes, covered head to toe in multiple layers of cloth that reflected much of the heat radiating from the sun of Setsko, but were much more nimble than someone might have originally thought looking at them. They were raised on Muranis, unlike their parents, making them even more adept and running and hiding in the dunes. Sadly, that didn't keep them from being spotted by the UHP soldiers.

Many of them ran after seeing the vehicle approach, but of the six of them one of the more foolhardy remained behind. His parents were particularly bitter about the ethnical cleanings of their home city of Dagai several decades ago, and in both reverence to his parents and youthful stupidity he stood his ground, and though scarcely armed he wasn't about to let these interlopers "scare them off". Not again.

by **Eclius** » Sat Sep 02, 2017 5:52 pm

Planetary State of Athens, Eclius

Right by an artificial ocean created by Imperium's Department of Environment, a young girl, perhaps 18 years of age or so, sat by the window of her luxurious residence. It was a beautiful day, the artificial sunlight shined on the garden fountains, much like thousands of pearls lying softly on a sheet of blue silk. A few meters from the garden, the robotic butterflies wondered among the flowers, flowers gathered from every corners of the Imperium. The girl smiled, as she gently put down her book about advanced quantum physics and walked slowly and slowly towards the gardens. And as she played with the butterflies, and enjoyed the serenity of a lovely afternoon in outskirt Athens, she received a message from Implanted Communication System (ICS), it was from Secretary of Foreign Affairs, about General Kunis' response to Imperium's request. She smiled, but didn't quite say a word, she walked towards her personally study, and requested to speak with Caesar Augustus. Soon as the request was confirmed by the secretarial staff, Augustus agreed to her request. “Greetings, fair Consul Salviana, I have heard the news, from Muranis” Augustus system greeted, “however, initial data analysis indicates high chances of General Kunis changing his mind”, “such foolishness, even for biological organisms” Consul Salviana, with a hint of pride and to an extent, arrogance in her eyes, “soon enough he will bow before Senate and People of Eclius!”, “Consul, my sensors indicate military involvement of other foreign entities on Muranis” Augustus replied, “remember, fair consul, our objective to is liberate the weak, and overthrow the dictators. Much like what we’ve discussed the other day, we should seek minimal possible civilian casualty in this operation”, “I agreed, Caesar” Salviana said, “perhaps we should activate Operation Edelweiss”, “indeed” Augustus agreed, “Our objective, after all, is not to obliterate a nation. Therefore, it is the best to convince people into accepting the gift of cybernetics than forcing them. However, if the resistance toward cybernetic integration exceeds the public opinion that favors it, Consul, we are to ensure such act will never happen again. But for now, notify Department of Foreign Affairs, have them arrange a meeting with representatives from Bakra. On the other hand, have Bureau of Foreign Intelligence Bakra division prepared for Operation Edelweiss, in case of failure. Above all else, reserve military intervention for the last.

Code: Select all: From: Department of Foreign Affairs, Imperium of Eclius To: General Kunis Encryption Level: TOP SECRET (Level 5-X) General, as per interest of the Senate and People of Eclius, we wish to have a discussion with representatives from Bakra, in aim to resolve tension between our nation as hoped.

Meanwhile………
Cornelius 4.100.201, the head of BoFI Bakra division made an encrypted call to Socellia, whom was sent by Department of Security and Intelligence HQ to personally supervise the execution of Operation Edelweiss.
Cornelius: general, we have pinpointed all the appropriate locations for orbital drop within Thath city
Socellia: wonderful, Senate has asked for a meeting with Bakran representatives, reserve Operation Edelweiss for later
Cornelius: General Kunis, how foolish, a man who only knows how to play with guns is not a man who will succeed in war
Socellia: Kunis will soon be brought to justice, he who committed crimes against people of Bakra shall be punished, countless Bakran lives must all be liberated from the weakness of biological systems.

by **Dimoniquid** » Sat Sep 02, 2017 6:28 pm

High Ship-Lord Corde Lowsyk - DINV Flame of Kale
Heavy Cruiser Battle Group HCBG JX3-A56G - Fleet of Disciplined Ferocity and Gambit
Approaching Godspear

Corde clicked her neck as she waited for a live connection to the Say My Name could be established. The three vessels had done well for themselves; thanks to their tenacity and quick thinking, they were able to defeat a force that outnumbered them. She peered to the left of the command console, looking at a screen that flickered before showing a video connection of Howell on his ship. "Commandant, situation report."

"We have them running with their tail between their legs. One of the heavy frigates has taken a substantial amount of damage, we're probably not going to see it running into action for some time, but neither's that fleet. Those planetary defence guns were a problem, though." He replied. "Casualties number just under a thousand, and one hundred and twenty three have been declared dead, mostly from the heavy frigate. We've also been collecting escape pods from the Gagium ships that were left behind; poor sods."

"Stay vigilant, Commandant. I can see you're angry, but we're not out of a fight yet. Have the frigate repaired as best as you can for now, along with your own; if they can fire what they have, then it's good enough. The carriers must remain firmly where they are. You did extraordinarily well." She replied. Howell nodded and signed off from the communication. "Communications, report from the recon vessel." She asked, turning to the communications console.

"Reconnaissance vessel reports confirmed hits; six vessels are hit, more are possibly damaged." The specialist confirmed, concentrating on the report coming from their headphone. "They've also spotted some kind of group of vessels on the upper pole of the cloud. The recon ship doesn't think they've seen you." Corde tried to wrap her head around the problem. "My Lord, I've just received reports from the light frigate and light destroyer; evacuees have been removed from the ships save the Commandants and their AIs." They reported once more. Think step by step; use bigger cogs to spin small cogs; tackle the problem. She thought to herself.

"Have them continue their scuttle order; tell them to have all missiles ready and prepped, along with all guns loaded for a fire run. Once they get within firing distance, have the computer fire everything they have until they reach the fleet, and then detonate those engines." She ordered, making her way to the holo-table. "As for our friends up top... have a heavy destroyer face upwards towards them; can we get it into position?" She asked. The bridge crew worked quickly to figure the problem before a response could be concluded.

"It'll be a tight squeeze, and we have an approximate position of those ships above us, but one of the destroyers reckons that they can take the job." The chief tactical officer announced, pointing to one of the heavy destroyers. "What do you want it do?"

Corde smirked. "I want it to fire off a shot before ramming the fuckers into the next galaxy. Have it move just below the top of the cloud; when I give the order, tell it to do what I just said. Fire, ram, and lay into the fuckers with every missile and gun it has." She took a deep breath before realising something. While they were attempting to make their next move, the enemy fleet could have fired, moved into the cloud, or had even thrown a few missiles their way; but they hadn't. "Shit. Get me a communications link; fleet wide." The communications specialists nodded, connecting and sending communication requests to all of the ships that were inside of the cloud while Corde had made her way over to the command console and taken a large, metallic black phone from the side of the small screen to her left, and her tactical officer was talking with the sensor console.

"This is High Ship Lord Lowsyk. In a few moments we will be sending two ships to their deaths; we will mourn them later. However, for now, we have to act; when those two ships have left the cloud, they will detonate themselves by the enemy forces; on my mark, we will lay a volley of our weaponry, targeted towards the small ships, while our heavy destroyer will do the same to the group of destroyers above us. After that volley, we will advance from the cloud, and rain on them what the Gods have been hoping we would do. We will not falter, we will not break our line, and we will win this battle. Ready yourselves."

Corde breathed again, and looked at the communications station. "Give me a general communique towards the enemy fleet, all frequencies." Corde was about to make another grand speech to the enemy before her tactical officer whispered in her ear.

"Sensors have just scanned the cloud, and it's starting fade; whatever you're planning, do it now before they see us." He warned.

"To the enemy; what you have before you is a simple binary transaction. You can either run away, to your families and tell them that being with them was more important than your pride, glory, or honour; or you can all die through your stupidity and stubborness. I would promise, however, I don't make promises to feral animals."

"Send the ships now."

by **Universal Union of Panhumanity** » Sat Sep 02, 2017 6:58 pm

UCV Red October
Talos System
Universal Union

The Red October observed the vessels under its command, the highly detailed projection showing the six tight clusters of warships that made up the seventh fleet. For a long-range superluminal jump, the powerful hyperdrives of Heavy and Superheavy vessels were required, and the rest of the fleet clustered around these, within their warp fields. It looked up, seeing the expectant expressions on the faces of the fleet's avatars. They were currently within Fleet Command, a simulation that all the vessels within the 7th Fleet could access via the Ansible Network. It was from here, in cyberspace, that the invasion of Muranis would be directed.

"Comrades, we depart for the star system known by its inhabitants as Setsko in three seconds." began the Red October. Of course, for the group of superintelligences armed with several orders of magnitude more processing power than the human brain, a second was plenty of time for a speech. "The situation is... less than ideal. The natives have multiple OCSs and SCVs. We're heavily outnumbered, and have only half the ground forces I would have liked. Unfortunately, it gets worse. We have reports of foreign militaries within the system, some aiding the native defence and others carrying out invasions of their own. Of course, these other invaders will help deal with enemy numerical superiority, but they can't be trusted. It is highly likely that we're after the same thing, and they won't be willing to let us just take those artifacts."

"But we can deal with them later. Our current plan is to leave them alone, unless they attack us first. Now, as for the assault on Muranis, it is in our best interests to engage them at range. Those Orbital Combat Stations likely aren't very manueverable, if they can move at all. They're sitting ducks for our long-range kinetics, we can simply hang back and bombard them until they're destroyed. As for the planetary assault, we cannot immediately resort to nuclear bombardment, we need those artefacts intact. The region known as the Great Reach is essentially a wasteland, so we shouldn't expect much resistance if we land there. Of course, the details of the terrestrial war are up to Marshal Ozymandias." It concluded, gesturing to the Marshal's Avatar. "Now that you know the plan, prepare for immediate departure. This campaign shall be another glorious victory for the forces of the People's Revolution!"

by **Gagium** » Sat Sep 02, 2017 7:10 pm

Muranis Orbit
Gagium 1st Fleet/Gagium 1st Supply Group

The ships of the 1st fleet appeared alongside the dreadnoughts of the 1st Supply group after escaping from the conflict. Admiral Bismarck looked and saw that GSS Ecury had a large rip in it's hull, however the doors leading to the affected rooms had been sealed, effectively saving the ship, but not without losses. The rip completely destroyed the weapons systems of the backside of the dreadnought, rendering the back laser turrets useless. The flagship GSS Fiolia also sustained a hit while it was about to warp, destroying the torpedo launching system.

"Well shit.." Admiral Bismarck said. "Command the GSS Ecury to warp back to Mars for repairs. Also request that High Command send in two dreadnoughts to replace them, along with more supplies. We're going to need to replenish our torpedo supply if we want to continue fighting." the Admiral commanded Lieutenant Commander Eva.

"Yes, sir." she replied and walked out of the room.

"Huh, we're sending more dreadnoughts to die?" Vice Admiral Carl rhetorically asked.

Admiral Bismarck did not respond, as he was too busy looking at the estimated loss of lives on his holographic monitor.

Foehammer 2-3
Muranis Orbit

Ensign Hanz Meyer woke up inside his escape pod, but he found that he wasn't laying in space anymore: He was in some sort of vessel. He lay quiet as he waited for whoever rescued him to open the hatch, praying that he was rescued by a friendly vessel.

Gagium Mars
Solar System

"They allowed for the one dreadnought named after our fucking planet to be destroyed, and they report another dreadnought heavily damaged?" Grand Fleet Admiral and heir to the throne Otto von Freidrich asked. "And now they're requesting we send two more dreadnoughts? It's clear that our dreadnoughts aren't faring well against their larger ships that are multiple kilometers long." Otto von Freidrich thought for a moment, then said, "Send in the GSS Gagium.". "It's been a hell of a long time since the GSS Gagium faced combat.." he thought. He opened up the 3D file of the GSS Gagium and took a long look at the various armaments and details the ship had.

One hour later, Otto von Freidrich stood at the helm of the readied GSS Gagium, with Mars and the sun behind him. The ship was preparing warp to Muranis, where it would meet up with the Gagium 1st Fleet and 1st supply group. The ship had 30,000 soldiers in it's stasis chambers and 700 Puma-B56 Infantry Fighting Vehicles in storage, ready to be deployed. He watched as the carrier entered warp and his home planet disappeared behind him.

Muranis Orbit
Gagium 1st Fleet/1st Supply Group

"Sir, response from High Command is here. They're sending in the GSS Gagium!" Lieutenant Commander Eva could barely hide her excitement. During her whole lifetime, the GSS Gagium hasn't seen any military service. The last time the GSS Gagium fought was back during the various skirmishes in the Andromeda Galaxy against the Legot'hes Empire.

"The GSS Gagium is being sent?" Admiral Bismarck replied in a skeptical tone. "Are you sure about this?"

"Yes, yes! And it is being commanded by Grand Fleet Admiral Otto von Freidrich, heir to the throne, himself!" Lieutenant Commander Eva responded.

"Just the firepower we need to gain the advantage. Excellent." Admiral Bismarck responded.

by **Bakra** » Sat Sep 02, 2017 9:18 pm

ATTN: Eclius

Sandhearth
Muranis

From: Department of Foreign Affairs, Imperium of Eclius
To: General Kunis
Encryption Level: TOP SECRET (Level 5-X)

General, as per interest of the Senate and People of Eclius, we wish to have a discussion with representatives from Bakra, in aim to resolve tension between our nation as hoped.

At this point Kunius was a little more open to talking to these newcomers, but not much. He had just dealt with the Exarch' ego for the last few minutes, something to do with a dignitary visiting him in Thath. Kunius was forced to give him multiple divisions worth of men to protect the capital to a man who was what, a field commander who never saw combat? Of course, he had to admire the man's zeal for the nation, which is probably what got him his job, and Colonel Guthna was a good advisor. A complete twat by many soldier's standards, but still a good fighter.

Kunius detested this diplomatic back and forth that kept occurring, but he didn't have the time to fully devote for these sort of things, especially with this business in orbit.

Official diplomatic channels can be established. If you wish for a vid-conference, I can oblige. For an in-person meeting you would be dealing with someone with substantially less authority, I'm afraid.

General Ruden Kunius
Commander, Muranis forces

The reply went through the FTL transmitter, allowing him some time to focus on the anti-orbital batteries at Hellhorn and more requests for reinforcements from Ethnul. Everyone wanted a piece of everything.

ATTN: Dimoniqud

Bridge of Loltha
Gargiz Battlegroup

The admiral wasn't about to be caught off his guard again. He ordered a maximum burn across the fleet, separating the ships even further into loose conglomerations of squadrons rather than the close tactical formations used on the idyllic fleet sims. Jaygo was dealing with someone creative, and he would have to get his hands dirty on this one. The next Dimioniqud, while hurting some of the other ships, wasn't nearly as destructive as the first. Two destroyers were out of the fight after that, floating along but not totally decimated.

"Sir, enemy message coming in." Comms three reported, before Jaygo gave the go-ahead to put it through the loudspeakers on the bridge.

"To the enemy; what you have before you is a simple binary transaction. You can either run away, to your families and tell them that being with them was more important than your pride, glory, or honour; or you can all die through your stupidity and stubborness. I would promise, however, I don't make promises to feral animals."

Jaygo couldn't help but smile. This was a battle. He chose not to respond, it was unbecoming of a Bakran officer, and his crew knew that. Not that he didn't enjoy banter, but it wasn't something the Bakran Navy usually partook in.

Two ships approached out of the cloud, firing everything they had at the fleet. It struck a few of the ships along their front, but only a few escorts were hit. Jaygo was puzzle by this, it was almost as if they were on autopilot, a distraction or maybe as a...fire ship. The notion had hit Jaygo right before the destruction commenced. Though he managed to keep his ships spread out and isolated, the blasts were enormous enough to cause too much damage for his liking. First it was a frigate, then the squadron was either hit or damaged, and the other ship had completely taken out the cruiser Falston as it maneuvered away from the fleet, taking with it two escorting corvettes. All the way at the center of the fleet, the battleship Loltha didn't feel the blast, but it wretched him on the monitors.

What followed was yet another volley from the enemy fleet, slamming into the fleet with as much fury as the enemy could muster at this point. Even more casualty reports started coming in.

"Status report," the admiral snapped. Steadily it came in.

"The frigates Beylon, Tasmic, Te-"

"Give me fucking figures!"

"Yessir. Eleven frigates were destroyed, the cruiser is just...gone, six more frigates are at 50% capacity or less, and two corvettes are done for. Just in...four destroyers as well." to her credit the sensors operator was utterly devoid of emotion, not letting the shock cloud her, "We're reporting some damage on two more cruisers sir, but it seems they're still battle worthy."

Jaygo nodded, and for a moment contemplated his situation. The Dimioniqud weren't willing to run, not yet, and he would oblige them in battle. They had whittled down his forces, but they hadn't tested them in direct battle yet. The Bakran ships were built well, but fleet-wide concentrated fire and fireships wasn't something you could prepare well for. He hoped that how many Bakrans had fallen would cloud their judgement, just not his. He silently cursed his hesitation in originally engaging them, it had cost thousands of lives.

"What does Commodore Thell's squadron report?" The heavy destroyers were still away from the battle, scouting out the other side.

"Its a bit of a mess sir." Comms reported, "It looks like they were hit by the Dimioniqud. But it looks like they followed through with the plan sir."

"Good. Once the destroyers are clear lets give them a volley."

ATTN: Dimoniqud

Compatriot Bridge
Orbit over Muranis

Commodore Daven Thell was by no means a brutish man, just a direct one. It had landed him a job he was destined to die or retire in, commanding a heavy destroyer squadron. It wasn't the most glamorous of posts in the Bakran navy, he wasn't a wing commander or dueling with battleships and dreadnoughts, but it let him get into the thick of the fight without having to deal with the equipment that was practically wet tissue paper compared to what the Firespire-class heavy destroyer was.

Not quite four meters yards long, the ships were a testament to Bakran engineering. Though not the largest ships on the battlefield, they were the toughest per square meter. The surface of the ships are packed with enough weaponry that they actually carry a larger AI core than most ships their size to deal with it, and the armor on them are legendary. Cross support beams line even the hallways, honeycomb armor reinforces the thick outer layers, and even the shield systems are beefed up to allow them to be overloaded for short periods of time. This made them much less maneuverable than their peers, true, but they were probably more gunship than sophisticated warship anyhow.

They observed the two ships going into the cloud, though Thell didn't ascertain what their purpose was. In his view it wasn't his job to, he was just going to relay that they were coming. As he gave the order, sensors frantically reported another ship, easily twice their size, coming out of the cloud. It appeared out of the haze, moving in to ram the Fool's Gold. Thell and his crew watched in marvel at it, the two ships inching closer and close without much of anything for them to do.

When the two hulls met, it was probably a little bit more than what the Dimoniqud ship had expected. The heavy destroyer's hull was possibly the only thing voidfaring that was built to sustain inordinate amounts of punishment and still be flying. It was speared, there was no saving it, but instead of being split apart by the force it stubbornly stuck onto the tip of the enemy ship.

Aboard the Fool's Gold, there was only one officer on the bridge not killed by the force of the enemy ship slamming into them. Still flying about and the inertial dampeners only diverting some of the g's, the weapons officer ordered the combat AI to fire at the enemy ship until they ran out of missile and lance rounds. He blacked out a short time later, but the rocket pods and oversized bullets that made up Bakran lances continued to fire at the surface of the enemy ship.

"Sir, we're receiving multiple damage reports from the enemy attack." The sensors operator didn't even say anything about the Fool's Gold as it continued on top of the enemy ship in the distance, "It looks like the enemy fleet went into the cloud."

"Squadron readiness?" Thell inquired, his voice as course as it always was, as if nothing had happened.

"85% sir. There are still six left for the fight."

Thell admired the enemy captain, took a helluva lot of balls to do what they did. That, and whoever ordered the Fool's Gold to keep firing while it was being impaled. He put his admiration on hold for a moment to go through with Admiral Jaygo's contingency plan. The man may be much too cautious for Thell's taste, but at least he thought of how to deal with the Dimoniqud coming through the cloud.

"Order a 90º burn, use emergency blisters, then full burn into the cloud. Have the AIs calculate their positions based off of initial trajectory and velocity." The heavy destroyers, though exceedingly sluggish for their size, were equipped with emergency 'blisters' for combat maneuvers. Explosives mixed together to create a violent reaction, blowing up the blisters and forcibly moving the ship depending on which blister they destroyed. It was stressful on ships, but the reinforced hulls could take it. In quick order each ship detonated their backward bow emergency blisters, causing everyone to grunt with the force.

The ships then fired up their thrusters, the reactors redlining on three ships in an effort to push them through into the cloud. Their window was closing, but the enemy fleet still hadn't got on the other side. Guided more by prayer than physics, they entered the cloud, communications cut out and sensors reduced to only a few meters. Both sides were now blind in the cloud, and since their sensors were down as well Thell knew they couldn't see them get into the cloud. He was going to be outnumbered, but at least he had the element of surprise. Or at least, he hoped he still did.

Theme Music

Fix bayonets

The acceleration would have killed the crew if it wasn't for their inertial dampeners, but even then they were thrown back into their seats. Six destroyers entered the cloud, timing their arrival with that of the enemy fleet. The AI had mapped out their course based off of their initial trajectory into the cloud, pinpointing where they would be. With any luck they would miss the enemy ships, though by the skin of their teeth.

The destroyers each fired three spinal rounds when they were into the cloud, their targeting computers using their predications to find where the enemy fleet should be. Each ship aimed themselves at one ship, hoping that the the nuclear-tipped railrounds would do fatal damage or at least take down their shields. What followed was something decidedly more impressive; the follow up attacks. Hundreds of missile pods launched, though they were largely unguided thanks to the sensor and comm dampening forces of the nuclear cloud, which made them stick together rather than separate. Nevertheless nearly one thousand missile pods fired off in all directions towards the enemy fleet, followed by hundreds more lance rounds firing from turrets using the same algorithms as the missiles and railrounds. They vertically cut through the enemy fleet, meeting them as they came through the cloud, largely keeping from ramming their hulls, although one ship did scrape their stern against of the ships on the way down.

Now came the hard part: pulling up.

"Sir, we're exiting the cloud now. We don't know how much damage we've done yet, but we're fifteen seconds from hitting the atmosphere!" The sensor console wasn't quite panicking, but one could easily hear his fear.

"Explode forward bow and rearward upper blisters!" Three blisters in one battle was generally a bad idea, but that was for ships that didn't have the strength of a Firespite and captains that weren't Daven Thell.

All but one of the ships that exited the cloud managed to blow their blisters, flipping themselves around and keeping them from entering the atmosphere. The Forlorn Hope continued its way into the atmosphere, hull turning red hot as its commander barked orders. The ship's reactor was beyond repair, but the captain was going to try and land it. He was out of the battle, and to Thell that was as good as dead.

His ships didn't rest, but he engaged in a slow burn towards the fleet. The reactors needed time to cool after that maneuver, though he was more than watchful for anyone coming after them.

by **Remnants of Exilvania** » Sun Sep 03, 2017 6:26 am

Erzadmiral Elza von Hohenlohe
Osmium-Verschweiger Class "Leichentuch"
Warping into Muranis' Orbit

She could feel that something was wrong this time. So often had she already warped into a system on the orders of the ZZ Reichskommandant, so often felt the familiar sensation and yet something was off this time. And her feelings did not betray her. When the fleet finally appeared not too far from Muranis, the sound of creaking, overstrained metal echoed through the ship before it was rocked by several explosions. Lights started to flicker and several interfaces and monitors shut down or restarted themselves. It was pure chaos on her bridge as officers and crewmen who had been violently thrown onto the ground when the explosions shook the massive ship tried to get back up onto their feet, retrieve their documents and resume with their duties.

Elza von Hohenlohe, sitting in her almost throne like command chair on an elevated position in the centre of the bridge watched the efforts of her underlings as they hectically tried to go back to work. They looked a lot like ants she thought. Finally, someone seemed to have some form of report for her, as an officer in the dark blue uniform of the Exilvanian Navy stepped before her and saluted:

"Heil, Mylady! Waffenoberraummeister Fegek reporting! Due to unknown reasons the Nerocyte reactor has been destabilized, causing an overload in the energy supply. We are still assesing the damage but it is difficult as some of the sections' systems are fried and won't respond. However, it seems that the explosions were caused in the Silencer section by some of the more unstable means of communication blocking. The energy overload probably destabilized them and led to these eplosions. Or that's atleast what we believe since that section went dark and doesn't respond anymore."

Well, looks like the godesses were not looking down favourably upon this particular raid. If there had been explosions in that sector, than that meant that probably most of the intricate equipment in that section had been destroyed, robbing her flagship of it's primary use, that being the jamming off all communications. Well, guess it would have to be towed into a position perfect for invading and then stay there as stationary orbital defense platform to protect the troops down below from orbital harassment.

"We're missing the tools and supplies to repair those instruments so send a battalion there to salvage whatever can still be of use, even if it is just raw materials. You, Waffenoberraummeister, will now be personally put in charge of reestablishing communications across the ship. We need to find out if the targetting computers for our batteries are still functioning. I want this ship back in action as quickly as possible. You!"

, she shouted at an officer in the uniform of the much dreaded ZZ.

"Establish a connection with your Oberstrategieführer. He's got a lot of explaining to do..."

Meanwhile, a comms officer had managed to reestablish comm links with the other ships of the fleet, immediately noticeable by a voices crackling out of loudspeakers, desperately asking for the "Leichentuch" to come in. With a sigh Elza von Hohenlohe took a microphone from her throne and brought it to her mouth before calming down her Admirals with her cold and emotionless voice:

"Osmium Verschweiger Class Leichentuch reporting in. There has been a temporary power failure over here. Several systems are down and the jamming equipment is as well. This changes the plan, as now staying further away from this planet and jamming the communications is not possible anymore. The Leichentuch will now instead accompany the fleet towards the landing zone's orbit where it will remain stationary and provide support against attacking orbital forces."

The ensuing silence in the loudspeakers was then broken by a loudspeaker to her left. A quick look confirmed that it was the Titan Class Carrierdreadnought Todverbreiter and the voice told her pretty well who was on the other end of the line. ZZ Oberstrategieführer Karel Vanneck.

"Negative. We are in hostile space with possible hostile forces all around us. Towing the Leichentuch would rob us of mobility and maneuverability which is badly needed should we be engaged by hostiles. I suggest..."

But Elza interrupted him with a slight hint of annoyance in her voice:

"I suggest that the XI Army's Support Fleet will take over the job of towing our flagship into position. The remaining forces of the III Terror Fleet are to provide cover against possible interception by forces from the enemy battlegroup above Selneasis. Stay vigilant, strike vicious! Erzadmiral Elza von Hohenlohe out."

Her admirals promptly started following her instructions, severing the cables the connected their ships with the Leichentuch before forming a protective wall for the XI Army Support Fleet, their artillery facing the direction from which the Selneasis Battlegroup would most probably come. Then followed the difficult maneuver of reconnecting the cables with the cables of the Titan Class ships of the XI Army Support Fleet, which had now taken the place of the Titan Class Carrierdreadnoughts of the III Terror Fleet. It took a while but it eventually proved fruitful when the work teams in charge of connecting the cables reported that they were finished and the Titan Class ships began towing the Leichentuch.

During this whole scenario, the Exilvanian fleet had not contacted any other forces. They stayed silent and moved slowly but steadily into orbit above Kembra.

by **Cyborgs and Sentient Machines** » Sun Sep 03, 2017 7:13 am

Thath, Muranis

Hermes pushed the trolley in front of him and pushed the handle downwards, so that only two of the four wheels on the sled touched the ground, raising the front into the air causing the dark canister to jolt up slightly, but it stayed buckled into the sled, with a large magnetic belt, hugging around both the canister and the pole that went up to form the handle which was almost unnoticeable, blending in with the dark colour of both the trolley and canister, leaving himself slightly behind as well as off to one side from the man in the long cloak like suit.

"Yes, I do imagine the guards are quite a bit necessary indeed" and while Hermes quietly ploughed his way through busy workers and civilians who were too busy to notice his presence among the almost frenzied commotion with the raised edge of the trolley, he glanced from piece to piece, finding the anti aircraft batteries amusing.
"This isn't entirely important, but if you can tell me, do you know whether or not the double a cannons mounted everywhere fire ballistics or lasers? For your own sake, I hope it's the latter. I do imagine that if all of the defenses above our heads falters for even a single moment, this place right here will be the first target on a list for dropping as many nuclear bombs as it takes to turn the ground into nothing but volcanic glass. I've seen innumerable images of large stretches of what must have been once a city in the distant past burned to the ground in a nuclear holocaust. It's a more common occurance than you'd like to think, you wouldn't believe how thorough some people are. Lasers would be better for shooting nukes down, but you've probably got some subterranean mini city, or a subway, or a series of bunkers that might be able to protect you."

Hermes stopped abruptly, which was announced by the sudden chorus of swishing and swashing that came from the liquid contents inside the canister suddelny coming to a complete halt. For a moment after finishing his sentence he stood still, noticing the words that he was uttering did not sound polite, not at all, "I've probably scared the poor fellow" Hermes thought to himself, then, then he continued. Continued to walk and talk.

"Do forgive me for that, my thoughts went off on a tangent right there. Enough people have come here, all for the same reason, it would be most unwise to have tried to communicate through open broadcasts, that would only draw more attention than there already is. You may or may not know this, this might be on need to know bases for your government, but i know, this may be above your clearance but there is a single reason why so many nations have been drawn to a remote desert world. here let me just get a little closer, this stuff you don't want everyone hearing, unless you plan on starting a gold rush among civillians too."
Hermes quicked up his pace, to close the distance between him and the man whom with he was about give an info dump, leaning in close to the mans ear he began talking in a soft tone.
"Somewhere beneath the sands, somewhere on your world, somewhere on this very world has been discovered advanced artifacts belonging to an advanced race, that is all my people know. The exact whereabouts is a mystery to my government, and so is what secrets the artifacts hold. That, my friend, is the Decillion Dollar question. I don't know what real allies your government has, and which nations fighting to 'defend you' that have come here really have plans to secretly cart off the single most valuable items in this part of the Galaxy off to their home world, once they know where they are.
I have to say at least the invaders are honest about their intentions, and my government.
Well, my government has sent me here because we'd very much like to politely ask to study any of the items of great scientific interest, that your government is willing to offer."

by **Dimoniquid** » Sun Sep 03, 2017 8:16 am

Commandant Vera - DINV Sceptre of Urah
Heavy Destroyer - Designated DINV-2293-5B9
Facing the heavy destroyer squadron

Vera woke up against a wall, the pounding inside of her head becoming more prevalent as she realised what was going on. "Commandant, we're impaled! They're firing whatever they have at us, what do we do?" One of the crew members asked.

"Adjusting... thrusters, suppression fire on their weapons..." She ordered standing up and wobbling her way over to a tactical screen, and assessing her situation. Multiple hull breaches, weapons arrays are non-functional, and we've currently got a ship drilling its way through our hull. "Get us level towards the enemy fleet, I don't want the ship to push us into the cloud." She ordered again, checking over more the situation. Structural integrity has been altered, hull plating has been destroyed, confirmed casualties and fatalities. She read more, and thought about her next move.

Whatever those heavy destroyers were made of, it was the reason it for the term 'heavy' in their name. Vera, despite being the youngest Commandant in the Dimonicist fleet, had seen a few battles in her young time, but had never seen anything quite on the level of those destroyers. Vera watched on her screen as she got reports of the remaining ships of the Bakran squadron delving into the cloud. "What are you doing?" She asked herself.

High Ship-Lord Corde Lowsyk - DINV Flame of Kale
Heavy Cruiser Battle Group HCBG JX3-A56G - Fleet of Disciplined Ferocity and Gambit
Approaching Godspear

Due to the cohesion of the Dimonicist Battle Network, the squadron of heavy destroyers would have only inflicted a fraction of the damage it could done thanks to the large array of missiles, railguns, and point defense weapons, but due to the cloud scrambling the Dimonicist fleets sensor arrays, the fraction of damage had grown. Corde looked over the damage report, the Flame of Kale firmly rocked by their encounter with the squadron. "The light frigate that had previous damage is currently leaking a huge amount of fuel, along with hull fractures along its side. It won't be in combat for long. I've also go reports of several other ships reporting hull plating damage, weapons arrays being damaged, atmosphere venting and a good amount of interceptors being destroyed; and we're pretty sure one of the scratched our paintwork." The tactical officer reported. "Our decoys worked, though; we're reporting a large amount of scatter from the recon vessel."

Corde stood and contemplated, observing the holo-table refreshing itself from the data gathered from the recon vessel and the battlenet. Cordes' fleet were well and firmly battered, and not up to their optimal combat potential; but they had managed to split up their fleet with the destroyer and frigate. "Tell the frigate to trail back to the carriers as best as it can, tell them to evacuate once they get out of the cloud." She ordered, observing the scattered enemy fleet. "Have our fleet align back up and seal those vents, and have the battlenet designate targets for another volley; after that, we charge." She called. The ships crews have had years of routine training, making the sealing of the open breaches a quick venture, but it was the combat they were less adept at; rebellions and uprisings had only consisted of small groups of ships compared to the overwhelming figures that the Bakrans presented, and the air of confidence the crews once held were starting to diminish if they were already going to lose three or four ships.

As reports came in that the fleet were properly aligned in their attack formations, and most of the major breaches had been sealed, the battlenet had started to assign targets; the two cruisers were going after the larger vessels in the smaller groups, as were the remaining two heavy destroyers. The four light destroyers, along with the two heavy frigates that left, were going to handle any smaller escort vessels, while the two light frigates that had had miraculously escaped destruction were going to keep the cruisers company. The missile guided frigates and the remaining seventy interceptors were going to make short work of any fighters that would come into range, clear any stragglers, and attempt hold off any incoming rounds and from the capital ships. Once all of that had been done, the capital ships would face volley after volley of fire until they either ran away, or were destroyed.

"First volley, then advance!"

by **United Islands of Polis** » Sun Sep 03, 2017 9:03 am

Muranis, Orbit
92nd Defensive Operations Fleet [Currently Engaged]
UIPNS Shield of Hope, Zenith Class Battlemaster Command Vessel, Bridge

"Intensity 6 seems to have made the enemy command ship give a fuck, pulling it up to Intensity 8 when we're ready to fire." The chief weapons officer said from a secure comm line. "Slipspace generator ready for micro jump on your command." beautiful news to hear for everyone on the bridge.

"What of the enemy infiltrators?" Admiral Kyoto asked. "Fleeing with their tails in between their legs, looks like they regret it." An ensign reported bringing a smile to the admiral's face. Outside the unlicky ships who manage to still survive the barrage of plasma and antimatter were finished off by the bombers or other ships, an unlucky one found itself prey to an Everest Class Ultra Heavy Cruiser, a ship was unfortunate enough to have fell preyto a Stallion Class Destroyer's M335 Plasma Lance's causing it to be cut in two literal halves.

"Sir, incoming volley from the enemy, multiple bursts focused on us!" An ensign operating a sensor module yelled. "All ships, dump power into your reserve batteries and send that power to your shileds on my mark." As shileds flared under the buckle of the enemy's barrage, the smaller vessels began to loose their shileds but the Titanium battle plating stopped most damage. "Mark!" to demoralize the enemy each ships' shields flared back to life.

"All ships fire! All weapons fire on the command ship!" Admiral Kyoto ordered. Rounds left, blue plasma torpedoes raced towards the opposing fleet and particle beams produced orange streaks racing towards the enemy, waiting for the damage to be done.

Muranis, Surface
81st "Elementary" Constitutional Marines Batallion, 1st & 2nd Squad
Following Unidentified IFV [Currently Engaged]

"Missile lock!" Hunter 2-2 yelled as he tried to shake them loose. "2-2 I'm going to attempt to shoot them down, stay still." Hunter 2-3 said as she flew directly behind 2-2. The missiles were following 2-2 around like a rocket propelled duck, 2-3 fired a Titan missile set on manual detonation, when it got close enough to the missiles she detonated them, destroying one and causing the second to succumb to gravity.

"2-3 you got bogeys on your 3 o' clock, come around I'll take the heat off." 2-1 replied as he did the same move. 2-1 was ready to engage but the computer warned him of a missile lock "Shit." was all he said as he saw the missiles and began to do successive barrel rolls, the missiles followed suit and failed to collied, 2-1 dove as close to the ground, flying over a sand dunenwhere the missiles connected with the sand.

"Hot Box 6-2, fall back I'm firing an EMP loaded Titan." Hunter 2-1 said over a secure channel. The Scorch turned tail and jetted off for a moment as 3 EMP Titan missiles were fired, one from each fighter, each manually detonated before reaching the trophy system's apeffective range, the blast radius of the EMP from 3 different directions should be enough to knock it out. After the blast the Scorch came back while keeping the M65 pointed at them.

by **Gagium** » Sun Sep 03, 2017 12:02 pm

Muranis Orbit
Gagium 1st Fleet

Admiral Bismarck watched as the Waren transportation vessels loaded with ion torpedoes ran back and forth between the various dreadnoughts of the 1st Support Group and the Berlin-class cruisers, restocking them. He noticed out of the corner of his eye that his holographic monitor was blinking. He turned his head and saw that it was from High Command, informing him that the GSS Gagium has arrived in the system, and will meet up with the 1st Fleet in three hours. Even though the GSS Gagium is 1.2 kilometers long, it still appears short compared to the massive dreadnoughts of other fleets. Admiral Bismarck knew that the GSS Gagium had a large amount of firepower for it's relatively small size, as he used to serve as an Ensign aboard it.

Admiral Bismarck also knew that as soon as the GSS Gagium rendezvoused with the 1st Fleet, he would be temporarily relieved from command of the 1st Fleet until the battle for Muranis is over. The Admiral thought himself guilty of indirectly causing the deaths of all the people on the GSS Mars, however, so he was okay with this.

Gagium Forward Operating Base, Muranis

There was a rumor going around the Forward Operating Base that the famed GSS Gagium was arriving to assist in the battle, bringing along with it a couple thousand more soldiers and little under a thousand IFVs. The number ranged from three hundred to nine hundred, depending on who you asked. However, only General Heinz and the other officers in charge of the base's operations knew for certain.

In the command tent at the center of the base, a meeting was ongoing about the situation.

"According to the fleet, we are receiving approximately 40,000 more soldiers and 700 IFVs." General Heinz started. "With these IFVs under our command, we could significantly increase our patrol range and be more well-equipped to assist the people of Muranis." General Heinz continued.

"Sir, may I have a word?" a Brigadier General asked. After General Heinz nodded his approval, the Brigadier General said, "With those IFVs, and our current amount of hover-tanks, we could possibly try and locate where these artifacts are...with the approval of the Muranis government, of course."

"Interesting proposal." the General responded. "Though it's highly unlikely that we'd get the approval to do so until after the various enemy fleets are done for and gone. And even if we were given clearance to do so, how would we locate where the artifacts may be?"

GSS Gagium
Setsko System, .09 AU from Muranis

The desert planet of Muranis increasingly became more visible from the bridge of the GSS Gagium as it crept closer to the conflict. Grand Fleet Admiral Otto von Freidrich looked at the surface of Muranis on his holographic monitor, reading various information about it's history, cities, and geographic locations. The rumored artifacts could be anywhere, from the great reach to any of the seas Muranis had to underneath one of it's cities. However, Otto von Freidrich caught himself, and reminded himself that the Gagium 1st Fleet and the GSS Gagium was here to assist them in their defensive operations. If the attackers did win, however, who knew how they'd split the artifacts, or if they'd end up fighting themselves for control of the planet. Otto von Freidrich wondered.

by **Dimoniquid** » Sun Sep 03, 2017 4:23 pm

Commandant Howell - DINV Say My Name
Heavy Destroyer - Designated DINV-2293-5A3
Docked to the DINV Shield of Unah

Howell was overseeing the requisition of the Gagium escape pods, along with General Vero Melnau. "That was a fine battle, Commandant." Vero admitted, watching the large cargo bay acting as a triage centre.

"Thank you, sir. Shame about that frigate, though; Lord Lowsyk won't be happy when I tell her it'll take longer than we thought to fix it up. We've been taking scraps from the Gagium fleet to act as our hull plating, but I don't think it's going to be making a difference." Howell responded, leaning against the railing on the upper catwalk with Melnau. Howell was chewing through an MRE and downing a metal canteen of orange flavoured water, something that Howell had a soft spot for. He had even put in some special tablets to create an endothermic reaction to keep it ice cold, which was revered since they had been operating in a giant metal can. "We've already chucked away two ships, and we still haven't invaded Godspear yet. What are you planning to do?"

"I have my plans. Being mostly underground doesn't help, but I've faced harder sieges with fewer men before. It's all about being a few steps ahead." Melnau replied, observing the first escape pod about to be cracked open. "I better observe this; stay as long as you need to, Commandant." He continued making his way to the small elevator to the end of the catwalk and taking it down with a few other crew members. He scuttled across the cargo bay, darting in between corpsmen, marines, and crew members who had been sent to the cargo bay for casualty triage. He stepped to the escape pod, marked Escape Pod GSS-Mars 094 a few marines holding holding carbines while some engineering technicians and a corpsman attempted to open it. "How long?"

"It should be opening now..." A technician pondered, using a plasma cutter to cut through the seal. Once the seal had been broken, the technicians opened the pod, revealing Ensign Hanz Meyer. The technician who had opened the pod picked up a small grey orb from the floor, along with a controller; with a few clicks, the orb had left his hand and the inside pylons were rotating around its computer. The small device was a translator, among other things, and would take a few minutes to kick in before any coherent sentences would form. "I bet this is a scary fucking dream you're having, isn't it?"

Herren Knight Onhan Tane - DINV One From Me
Light Cruiser Battle Group LCBG JX4-A297 - Gracious Success
Pod deployed in unknown location

"Overlord, the missiles have failed, I repeat, the missiles have failed!" Ecker called. "Reconfirm for another battery! She ordered again.

"Shrew 1-4, confirmed for another battery. We're sending a section of four interceptors to assists; hang in there." Overlord called. "ETA for interceptors, three minutes; ETA for missiles, seven."

"That's easy to say when you're in a fucking spaceship!" Ecker spat, feeling the turn of the IFV as they tried to dodge the EMP missile. The missiles hadn't hit the IFV, but the range of the EMP had certainly knocked out the IFV. It rolled slowly to halt, the screens flickering off; luckily for them, the IFV was made to do a hard reset in a situation like this. Rebellions in Dimonicists solar systems had usually pulled a tactic like this, knocking out army squads to an entire space vessel; being effective as it was, the Imperial forces had caught on quickly from the tactic. "Hit the hard resets, quickly!" She ordered, pressing a few buttons on the front console she was sat at. "Those interceptors need to get here quickly..."

by **Gagium** » Sun Sep 03, 2017 7:16 pm

(OOC: Sorry for short post, I'm kinda busy atm)

DINV Say My Name
Muranis Orbit

Ensign Hanz Meyer opens his eyes to reveal his escape pod has been opened. He looked directly into the eyes of a foreign officer, hoping it was one from a friendly faction. As the officer said something incoherent, Hanz Meyer guessed from his tone that he was in the hands of the enemy. With a growing sense of fear inside him, he told himself he would survive. A translator machine translated it something Ensign Hanz Meyer could understand: "I bet this is a scary fucking dream you're having, isn't it?"

"Who....who the fuck are you? Where am I?" the Ensign quickly asked while standing up, arms raised.

Sun and Steel [FT, IC]

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