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Eternal Diligence-Part 2


Cmdr Ristar
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With the Vesperon Commander on the way to Ben's bridge, I think this is the perfect time to wrap this up.

[RP ON]

War + 4 days 8 hours 28 minutes

Twenty minutes later, they were still fighting. The Svoboda had come do the DiligenceÔÇÖs aid, along with twelve fighters, and together, they were carving up the Vesperon fleet. They were giving far better than they got, but it couldnÔÇÖt last.

"The Svoboda is reporting reactor damage!" Sparks reported over the suit commlink. "They have escaping prisoners! And we just lost Interceptor 3!"

Badgerius swore. "We cant take any more of this. Maybe we can" His words were cut of by the flying form of Sergeant Peterson as he tackled his Commander. A bolt of plasma struck the maptable, shorting it out in a shower of sparks.

Peterson was up, gun out and returning fire, even as he was yelling, "Intruders! TheyÔÇÖre on the outer hull!!"

And so they were. A contingent of Vesperon Marines, seeing the gaping hole in the DiligenceÔÇÖs upper surface, had landed on the forward hull, and were advancing towards the bridge, firing as they came.

"Take cover! Return fire!" Sev pulled his pistol from itÔÇÖs holster, and moved to a position behind the maptable.

"Aye sir!" OÔÇÖNeil had drawn her weapon, and from her much closer position at the helm, blasted two of the approaching Vesperons before falling back to the maptable and taking cover.

With the bridge crew occupied, the Diligence drifted out of control. With no one to correct her course, or even notice it, the Battlecruiser fell slowly towards the molten surface of Mercury.

Now the battle was fully joined. Bolts of plasma crisscrossed the bridge. The first of the Vesperons had reached the hull breach and were stepping onto the bridge. They were taking murderous losses, but they outnumbered the bridge crew five-to-one. The bridge crew was taking casualties, as well, with both the Navigation Officer and the Flight Ops Officer laying still on the deck. Sev looked at OÔÇÖNeil. He knew that they were thinking the same thing: They would have to fall back.

Then, through the gaping hole in the hull, a lone fighter could be seen. It was venting heavily, but it came on straight and true. With almost perfect precision, it skimmed the surface of the DiligenceÔÇÖs hull, laser blazing as it cut the invading Vesperon troops to ribbons. As it pulled up and did a roll, the bridge crew of the Diligence let out a cheer.

The cheering promptly died, however, as an undamaged Vesperon carrier blew it out of space with one shot from its main gun. As the carrier came around, bringing it main gun to bear on the Diligence, the crew was silent. The bridge was a smoking ruin from the firefight, and there was nothing they could do to prevent the destruction of their ship, and their own deaths.

Finally, Alison spoke up, "Sir, on behalf of the crew, it has been an honour serving with you."

Sev stood on the dead bridge of his dying ship and said, "The feeling is mutual, Lt. Commander." He stood at ease, hands clasped behind his back. He pushed the button on his suit to record a log entry. "CommanderÔÇÖs log, final. We did our best, and what a best it was. I recommend honours of the highest order be given to all of my crew."

Suddenly, just as the carrier was about to fire, a massive beam of coherent light pierced the huge ship, and it exploded in a massive fireball. A stunned Badgerius looked out to see the sky filled with capital ships. But instead of Vesperon ships or Terran ships, he saw something new.

"The Syrions! There must be a hundred Syrion ships out there! I donÔÇÖt see any Vesperons at all, theyÔÇÖve been wiped out!"

Sparks turned to face the Armada that had suddenly appeared. "Confirmed, sir. The GCV Svoboda reports that the Syrions came out of the FluxPoint five minutes ago, and have since swept the skies of Vesperon craft. The Svoboda is also reporting that we are drifting towards Mercury, and that they are coming to give us a tow."

Sparks then cocked his ear. "Sir, a transmission from the Syrion fleet."

Sev could not tear his eyes from the spectacle before him. "Put it on audio, Sparks."

A strange alien voice filled Sevs commlink. "All Vesperon aggressive ships outside of their home system have been destroyed. We have destabilized the Fluxpoints so that no other fleet may attempt to invade in this way. Let this be a lesson to all those who would invade Alpha Majora. The Droidan world is under our protection. Do not underestimate the might of the Syrions."

And then, whether by cloaking or through some advanced hyperspace drive, the Syrion fleet vanished.

War + 4 days 8 hours 42 minutes

[RP OFF]

Ben, your prisoner should have quite a sight to see when he get's to the bridge.

That about wraps it up. I'm going to write an epilog in a day or two, which should give everyone time to finish up their points of view. After that, it's on to my next project.

------------------

Commander Badgerius, GCV Diligence

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[rp]War plus 4 days 8 hours 20 minutes

"$&**********+!" bellowed Poltergeist as he rolled and weaved, the two stardrones on his tail spraying laserfire all around his dancing vessel.

"Hold on there, guys, the Cavalry's on your wing!" announced Cavalry as he soared down from above and behind IC-2's pursuers, dispatching them both with precise bursts.

"Thanks, Cav!"

"Yeah, nice one!"

They then went on their way to new confrontations, with the satisfaction of a few less enemies to worry about. Cavalry's confidence turned into overconfidence as he took on a group of 3 stardrones. They split apart, then each turned to concentrate their fire upon the new threat, taking down IC-3's shields and slightly damaging it's engine.

"Careful, man! This ship's damaged, and isn't as manouverable as in the simulator!"

There then followed an epic dogfight that would have been the highlight of the greatest flight display ever performed, had anyone been there to see it. There were multiple missiles dodged, lasers skimming off shields, near collisions, and impossibly tight turns and rolls that were just a blur to the naked eye. The vesperon pilots were very good, but Cavalry was a man inspired. He eventually finished them off, after what seemed an age, but along the way

"TACSCAN's gone, Comms is gone, weapons pods are gone, ejection system's gone, NID, ILD and EMD are gone, shields are gone. reactor's at 50%, engines at 40%, Manouvering thrusters at 36%, guns at 30%, armour at 28%, hull at 38% and I spilt my coffee!" Added Deadboy, trying to lighten the mood.

"Not good," agreed Cavalry. "Hey, look over there, isn't that the Diligence?"

"I can't be sure, but with a hole that big in the bridge, it's gotta be. Is that laser fire within the bridge?"

"Yeah, there's a load of marines on its nose! You see what else?"

Through the other side of IC-3's partially melted canopy they both saw the fearsome profile of a vesperon nightstar drifting ominously towards the diligence, like some giant breaker bar ready to be driven into the Diligence's hull breach to prise her decks apart. With their damaged engines, they wouldn't be able to reach the diligence much before the nightstar, and with their manouvering thrusters as they were, they wouldn't be able to avoid its PTA system, but they couldn't see anyone else around to help. If their TACSCAN computer had been working, they would have seen a great flood of blue targets filling their radar and swamping the red ones.

They both decided what their duty was.

"Good luck, man. It's been an honour."

"Likewise. Full afterburn."

The little vessel darted forward as fast as she could, the strain on her engines causing more external ducts to fail and spew out a colourful trail behind her. She flew straight as a die, lined up perfectly on the mob of vesperon marines as she let loose her deadly volley, continuing until she nearly hit the constellation's nose before pulling up just enough to skim over her bridge and pull into a victory roll. They could almost telepathically hear the cheers coming from the Diligence's battered crew.

"Yeee-"

Cavalry never got to finish his celebration. A massive single volley from the newly arrived Nightstar slammed into them, imparting a millisecond of white hot agony before all was still. [/rp]

------------------

Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda

ISS Fleet

http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda

"Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

[This message has been edited by Ben Zwycky (edited 10-29-1999).]

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[rp]War plus 4 days 8 hours 50 minutes

"Welcome to the bridge Mr A'Shar. If you take a look out there you can see the progress of the battle."

S'Lin A'Shar looked confidently at the bridgeviewer which displayed empty space, plus the TLD's for a few terran vessels. He looked insulted.

"No it doesn't."

"Yes it does. The battle is over. Your fleet has been destroyed."

"Impossible! We outnumbered you enormously!"

"We held your forces' advance here in mercury, and were continually weakening you, then the Syrions arrived and wiped your fleet out."

"You lie! The Syrions would never support you!"

"Computer, play back TACOPS log from time index 5051 to 5053, then play the fleet message from the Syrions."

S'Lin A'Shar stared in horror and disbelief as he saw the hundreds of blue targets flood the sector, slicing through the fleet he was so proud of and hammering it to dust. He listened to the message in complete bewilderment, turning to rage as the message ended.

"Lies! This is a deception, just like in Arima!"

"Haven't you noticed that this ship isn't taking any more hits? Your ships are no more. It's over."

"This is not over! It will never be over until we are victorious! Even if you defeat us a thousand times we will rise again and destroy you!"

"Take him back to the brig. We'll let Fleet Commander Ristar decide what to do with them all."[/rp]

I've got a sort of epilogue for my ship written which I'll not post until you've done yours, Badgerius. On second thoughts, I'll email it to you, so you could incorporate it in your post, since otherwise it might detract from your ending.

------------------

Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda

ISS Fleet

http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda

"Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

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[rp]Overall, the Svoboda had survived pretty much intact, and only six crewmembers had been lost:

Marines Stuart Drelson, Jack Baker and Dalíbor Buzák had been lost, Stuart aboard the P'ilek, Jack and Dalíbor fighting intruders on the Svoboda.

System Engineer Darren Chettle had been killed by schrapnel from solar panel 1

Interceptor Pilot Francis Morgan aka 'Deadboy' and Flight Engineer/Primary Backup Pilot Gregory Robinson aka 'Cavalry' had been killed in IC-3.

The marines were ejected into the Sun in a full military funeral the next day, Darren Chettle was transported back to Earth to his family for burial, and Linda Waddilove activated the cloning bay to clone Francis Morgan. His clone would have no memory of the heroics he had performed aboard the Svoboda or of the friendships he had made, would need to be retrained in all the things his predecessor had learned there and would be treated as far as possible as a new crewmember.

The same could not be done for Gregory Robinson. Since he was only a flight Engineer, and only intended as a temporary replacement pilot, no DNA record of his was kept in the cloning bay. Instead, he was given an honour no other pilot on the Svoboda had ever been given. A plaque was placed above the pilots' quarters by Commander Zwycky which read:

IN MEMORY OF GREGORY ROBINSON AKA 'CAVALRY'

STARS ALWAYS SHINE THEIR BRIGHTEST JUST BEFORE THEY GO OUT.

It also became a tradition among the pilots on the Svoboda that if they ever got out of a tight spot 'They had the Cavalry on their wing'.[/rp]

------------------

Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda

ISS Fleet

http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda

"Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

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[RP ON]

It would later be called "A close call." While the Galcom forces may have been able to repel the first attack at Mercury, a second or third wave would have obliterated all Earth defenses before sufficient reinforcements could have arrived. Galcom intel was reporting that a coup dÔÇÖetat had occurred on the Vesperon homeworld following the destruction of the invasion fleet, and that the new provisional government was seeking renewed membership in Galcom. Still, despite their offers of compensation for the losses they had inflicted, it would be some time before the Vesperons were returned to full membership in Galactic Command.

Sev lay on a bed in the guest quarters of Galcom HQ. At least I got a bed out of this war, he thought. The Diligence had been towed back into the drydock she had left only days before. This time the refit would not be rushed. A full eight months had been allocated for the repair and refurbishment of the tired old ship. There had been some talk of decommissioning her, but Sev had been able to persuade the brass that the Diligence had some fight left in her.

Unfortunately, that left him with a problem. Without a ship to keep them together, Sev would lose his officers over the course of the next eight months. TheyÔÇÖd get re-assigned while Sev commanded a desk, and when the Diligence was ready, he wouldnÔÇÖt be able to get them back. There was one option, although when he had first heard it, Sev hadnÔÇÖt been thrilled by the idea.

"What the hell, itÔÇÖll be a change of pace," he said to himself, and he got up to find OÔÇÖNeil.

He found her in the OfficerÔÇÖs Lounge, staring through the window at a freighter that was on final approach to the docking bay.

"A credit for your thoughts?" Sev asked, smiling.

OÔÇÖNeil kept staring at the freighter. "I thought it was a penny," she said absently.

Sev shrugged. "Inflation touches everything." He sat down across from her.

"Any thought as to what youÔÇÖre going to do now?" asked Sev.

"I donÔÇÖt know. IÔÇÖve had my fill of combat for the time being. IÔÇÖm thinking maybe XO of one of those." She gestured in the direction of the freighter. "I havenÔÇÖt got the time in service for a promotion to Commander. I donÔÇÖt really want it yet, either. What about you?"

Sev shrugged, "Ive got some options. Desk job until the Diligence is refitted. Of course, if I do that, Ill lose you as my XO" he smiled.

Alison looked at him, "You will anyway. IÔÇÖm not signing onto a front line unit until after a nice, quiet cruise on a freighter or something. IÔÇÖm tired of Galactic Emergencies, failed rescue missions, covert operations, and hopeless battles. I need some time away from all that."

Sev nodded, "Actually, thats my other option. Pending refit of the Diligence, Ive been offered command of a Exploration and Survey ship, the CGV Calypso. Galcom has refitted some old cruiser into a research ship, and well spend our time charting the debris fields in Lunar space, or searching for the rare snow beetle on Cronus. The bridge is pretty small on those old cruisers, but Ill still need an XO"

Alison looked pensive. "Can I think about it?" she asked.

"I need to know by 0900 tommorrow, Lt. Commander." Sev said, getting up. "IÔÇÖm in guest quarters 23."

*****GalcomHQ Mail Service*****

From: Lt. Cmdr A. OÔÇÖNeil

To: Cmdr S. Badgerius

Re: New Assignment

Commander,

Ill do it. A research ship will be cleaner than a freighter, at least. Besides, Ive always wanted to see the Snow Beetle of Cronus

*****End Message*****

*****GalcomHQ Mail Service*****

From: Sgt. H. Peterson

To: Cmdr S. Badgerius

Re: New Assignment

Commander,

IÔÇÖm in. Someone has to protect those EggHeads.

*****End Message*****

Sev smiled at the messages. Yes, this was going to be interesting.

And the Diligence would wait for him. She had been around for a long time, and she would probably outlive him. She was practically eternal.

"Eternal Diligence," he said to the empty room, "that has a nice ring to it." And with that he stood and went to find his new ship.

[RP OFF]

Be on the lookout for the GCV Calypso web site, coming soon!

It's been a pleasure working on this. I'd like to thank all those who participated and commented throughout.

I think this thread should remain open for about a week, for any questions or comments. After that, if someone would close the thread, I would appreciate it.

Oh, SC if the coup d'etat messes up anything in Procyon, it could be faulty intel, or just rumour.

[This message has been edited by Badgerius (edited 11-03-1999).]

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