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Preemptive Strike: FINAL CONFRONTATION


Blades
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It sounds dramatic. It is. Everything you always thought you knew about suspense and excitement is about to be blown away.

Possibly smile.gif

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

Commander Blades

GCV - TSUNAMI Ôäó

PRIME Fleet

'For Queen and country'

ICQ#43692958

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I presume this is the new thread, isn't it?

[rp] Chief Medical Officer's Personal Log

Countdown T-18 hours 50 minutes

Well, here we are with our little army; little being the operative word. I may not be a military tactician, but I know that this is not good. I hope we're not the only ones left. Sure, we could probably defend ourselves here, but that's not why we started this. We were supposed to stop them using their weapon of mass destruction, but we've just contained ourselves harmlessly in here. We've got to find some way of hurting them, or the ship. I mean, we don't even know how much time we have. Certainly, time is on their side. Neena said something about the interceptor pilots getting past them. I hope she's right.

It's good to see Jayce again. I'm glad he made it, because he's only just had his chance to prove how useful a crewmember he can be, and also because he's a nice young lad with bags of enthusiasm. I'm sure he'll be heading for great things if we get through this. If we get through this. Now there's a big if.

End Log.

[/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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Guest Ron Wallin

T minus 18 hours 15 min.

{rp}

Personal log: GnySgt. Diamond

Begin Log

I didn't need that thoron generator after all. I made it to Cmdr. Stone's quarters. Like any good GALCOM Officer he keeps, rather, he kept his access codes hidden. Well, not too hidden. I found the microtab in the iris of a personal picture. His wife maybe? I hope not.

The Cmdr. had a back door to the systems and his command access within his quarters were still secure. It seems no one's bothered to check his quarters since his death unlike all the explosive traps Malone had rigged for the other occupied barracks.

Not smart, or perhaps they were monitoring Stone's quarters... Doens't matter... I'm alive, armed and now invisible to the ship's systems. I couldn't remove myself completely, but I was able to change the log to show me dead and located in the ship's morgue. Doc 'll like that one.

Bad news is that if someone checks the system in the right way, they'll know that my setting has been changed using the Cmdr.'s codes. However, it's unlikely that anyone Malone has on his team will think to check.

The XO and the rest are holed up in the shuttle bay and are under heavy guard. They know I'm not there but if they check the dead, they'll find one of the marines wearing my tags. That should be enough.

I'm not going to try to get back to the XO. There are too many gaurding the entrances for me to hope to get through. I'd end up dead or worse: stuck with the rest in the shuttle bay.

However, Malone should be undermanned now at his key points and I should have easy access without too much bloodshed to the galley and engineering. I found a bag full of these modified drones. I think it's time Malones HQ met the little baddies. It should buy me enough time in engineering to sever power to everything but sheilds and life support.

-----

T minus 17 hours 30 mins.

Begin Log

Have I mentioned how much I hate this covert BS! I could end this now if these black ops *******s would show enough respect to give me a fair fight in the open.

Damn... I'm just annoyed beyond belief. There are more of them still alive than I thought. No matter, my plan was too full of "shoulds" to be remotely sucessful.

I changed the plan. The various heads (lavatories) close to Malone's encampments were completely unguarded. I set up the drones at the back of the doors to the stalls , in the showers, and underneath the sinks. Perscan shows 12 unknowns unmoving from head at the galley. Looks like I should be able to trap most of them with their pants down.

Someone else is in these access tubes. I'm going to disappear for an hour now and watch Malone's troops pile into the head. It should be easier going without those drones to slow me down. Only problem is that no one is using the facilities in the engineering section.

I'm headed there now, but will circle around and see if I can't catch this tunnel rat that's been crossing my path...

End Log

{/rp}

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

Cmdr. Akira

ICV Nevermore

Spectre, Command Staff

Base Commander, The Dojo

Official Tester

Battlecruiser Series

[This message has been edited by Ron Wallin (edited 10-12-1999).]

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[rp]

-----

Countdown T ÔÇô 18 hours 51 minutes

Damnation, that Malone strikes a hard bargain. But if can gets this done for him I gets the russian wench and the Chief Prick himself. Wasnt much of a choice, either I assimilated or sucked vacuum. No brainer, never been good at sucking vacuum. Damn, my ribs are killing me. Now where did I leave my med kit

-----

Countdown T ÔÇô 18 hours 31 minutes

Got access into the HK drones, ÔÇÿtwas an easy affair once that dang encryption baloney was bypassed. Managed to reactivate them and lock out all but myself from changing their target list. ÔÇÿTis kinda difficult to filter a target list with PERSCAN running at the same time. Well IÔÇÖll have to think on it for a while, hopefully I can get it done without dumping several PERSCAN processes.

-----

Countdown T ÔÇô 18 hours 19 minutes

No luck, had to modify one process and generate another. Managed to filter most of Malones special fecal gang. Dont know about the rest of them. They seem to be somewhere else

-----

Countdown T ÔÇô 17 hours 54.234 minutes

Something odd here, I cant figure it out but it looks like someone is accessing the Command Codes. I thought that all were locked out. I better check

-----

Countdown T ÔÇô 17 hours 45 minutes

Yep, I was right. Someone is accessing the command codes and is using root access codes. I checked the logfile and isolated the source to  no it cant be. He is dead. Stone is dead. He cant be access the system. Unless

-----

Countdown T ÔÇô 17 hours 27.875 minutes

Damn that Malone, he is a bigger prick than the Chief or the russian wench. I dont trust that bugger. Not a bit. He does not believe what I am telling him about reprogramming the HK drones. The twit don't know squat about tech stuff an' he's trying to tell me what can or can't be done. Looks like I needs to get me an insurance policy and fast. Now where is the rest of the crew

-----

Countdown T ÔÇô 17 hours 21 minutes

Found them hold up in the shuttle bay. I can do some wondrous things in the computer system. Only thing that I needs to do is find me a  ahhhthere be one in CB2, not to far from the Shuttle bay. Take that gizmo and put it  damn only place is in the Shuttle Bay. Ok, not a problem. Go get the equipment, and install it in Shuttle Bay. Now how the hell am I gonna talk my way into that hornets nest. Some of them people I knows would love to get their hands around me neck. Maybe, just maybe. Yep, the medic is there. I will start with him.

-----

[/rp]

System Engineer #13

Benni Arnald

GCV Chikuma

Had to make one correction, BC2 is now CB2

[This message has been edited by Gallion (edited 10-16-1999).]

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Guest Ron Wallin

{rp}

T Minus 17 Hours

Personal Log: GnySgt. Diamond

Begin Log

I've found the rat crawling around behind me. Engineer Arnold... He's working for Malone. Maybe he has since the begining. No way to know now.

The punk is good, though. He's found Stone's codes in the log. He's reprograming the damn drones. If he doesn't think too hard he'll notice the change in the Perscan.

I've been tracking him with the trusty old Mark I Eyeball and from what I can tell he's after something located in the same hold as the XO and her crew. No matter. I know it's him now. I wonder if he knows it's me?

I've got to find a good hiding place and hold up for a few days. If I'm lucky I will be able to patch into the passive systems and watch Arnold movements from there. But he's not my main concern.

Malone has been getting ansy. I've missed his men, barely, too many times now. They're hunting, only they don't know hwat for, yet...

End Log

{/rp}

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

Cmdr. Akira

ICV Nevermore

Spectre, Command Staff

Base Commander, The Dojo

Official Tester

Battlecruiser Series

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"Ok, Doc, this has been fun but it's time to see if we can get one of these birds to fly," said McKendrick as he laid the cards down. "Come on, maybe you can give me a hand, you too Rod." McKendrick grabbe his trusty tool kit and entered shuttle 4 . The good doctor and Rod followed him. "All right, lets see what damage we can do. We know the ship won't lift without power to launch control. I tried that before. But the ship has power. That's good, it's just the launch control computer that needs power to transmit the launch codes. So let's see if we can dig down in the system and get some launch codes. "

McKendrick began tapping out commands on the shuttles interface but had no luck accessing launch codes. "Whoa! pretty girl! Look at this doc. Look familiar?"

"Why yes it does. That is the ships roster. We often use it in Medibay to scan the current assignments for the ships crew. From there you can get to the commlink, the logistixs, basically any system in the ship but the medibay computer is locked out."

"This ain't Medibay Doc." McKendrick grinned. Once again the atv's locked on a target but McKendrick was too excited to notice until he heard his name called. "What the?? Come on Doc. Let's see who we got for company."

McKendrick, with his rifle ready, lead the doctor around the corner of an ATV to find Neena Polovoski and three other crewmembers standing there. He ordered the drones to stand down their weapons and immediately a medic began placing small medkits around the room.

"Miss Polovoski?"

"Yes?" raising an eyebrow at the feminine attachment to her name. She was used to being called "Mister".

"There is something I need to show you in shuttle 4. If you would follow me please ma'am."

Again the raised eyebrow as she followed him. This was not the scared FE she had encountered earlier. He was more confident yet even more polite. As she entered the cokpit of the shuttle he simply began pointing to the control console. "How did you get into that system?" she demanded.

"I simply activated the ship's roster and all the other options were there."

"Mother has locked down access to that system for quite a while now. I demand to know how you got in that sytem." she said heatedly.

"Ma'am" said McKendrick as gently as he could. "This ain't Mother. It's a subset. All shuttles have it. It's basically a duplicate of Mother but downgraded for shuttles. Or so I thought till I accessed this system. It seems the engineers forgot to wipe that link. "

"So it seems Mr. McKendrick. Gaurd the left flank of the shuttle bay with Jayce Allen and let me see what I can do with this. "

"Yes ma'am and umm, there is a commchannel open but I can't raise anyone. It may be the ships shielding, no one is in a position to receive comms, or they are not turned on." said McKendrick as he left the shuttle.

{RP} OFF

Credit to Lynx for the link to the main computer. Remember his "Navitron from Shuttle" thread in TIps forum? smile.gif

Real life hit me too. I learned a valuable lesson also. Never give your parents a computer late on a monday night. wink.gif

Charles/Chavik/McKendrick

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[rp]

Countdown T ÔÇô 16 hours 51 minutes

So many things to do and not enough time to do it. I dont know who is worse, Malone and his special fecal types or the Chief prick and what is left of the prick crew. Ahhhh, there is what I am looking for. Now where did I leave that...

-----

Countdown T ÔÇô 15 hours 26.981 minutes

Damn near fried my fingers off connecting the new remote interface unit - aka router. I think I may have fried the blippin' thing, either that or I am as colour blind as Jonesy was. Something about -5vdc applied to RD pin. Gonna have to break it down to the componet level, hopefully nothing serious is fried.

-----

Countdown T ÔÇô 14 hours 51 minutes

Yep, managed to isolate the crispy critter, 1ea diode went kaput. Simple to find a new one and replace it. Now where is the microlaser at...

-----

Countdown T ÔÇô 14 hours 01 minutes

Managed to repair the router without to much difficulty. Self-test and diags came back 5x5. Interface into the ship's systems went like clockwork. Found a strange anomally in the passive monitoring systems via Perscan subroutine. I think that I located the source using the command codes; need time to investigate. Only one major problem with that, the medic Jayce and some FE named McKendrick sniffed me activity near the shuttle bay. I gave them a line of shite, hopefully they bought it. I need time, time that is running out...

-----

[/rp]

System Engineer #13

Benni Arnald

GCV Chikuma

[This message has been edited by Gallion (edited 10-25-1999).]

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***** Many apologies for bein tardy gang, but things have gotten real interestin over the last couple of weeks and it's kept me from finishing this up before I go away. However, I should be able to get online once in a while over there, so shall be posting somthing more soon with any luck. Feel free to continue. smile.gif *****

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  • 3 weeks later...

***** Sorry itÔÇÖs taken so long for an update. But as most of you know, IÔÇÖve been on vacation to Florida, had a website to build, a fleet to reorganize and an impressive older woman to woo. So far, IÔÇÖve managed to accomplish all of these with the exception of fully reorganize the fleet. Anyway, heres the next installment. We nearly in the end zone now. *****

Countdown T ÔÇô 13 hours 30 minutes

[Narrative ON]

The stand off had been going on for several hours. Mallones people, convinced that a frontal assault on the well defended shuttle bay would deplete their numbers significantly, (Not to mention damage the ship and endanger certain aspects of the mission) so remained at their positions on the controlled section of the cargo bay and waited.

Work had been proceeding for the last few hours to ready the HK drones, and with the assistance of Benni Arnauld was close to completion.

Neena and her motley crew of mutineers had armed themselves well, and had secured the majority of the shuttle bay from attack from the outsiders. However, none were confident that they could withstand a full assault, despite the frightening arsenal at their disposal, manned almost entirely by several droids.

Despite the efforts of McKendrick, the droids themselves were poorly equipped for combat duty and at best could only hope to hold the advance of Mallones marauding troops for a short while. However, Neena believed with the support of the Pilots locked dock in the fighter bay and her own people positioned within the shuttlebay, a stand off of sorts could be maintained.

Sadly, time was not on NeenaÔÇÖs side and inaction at this point was just as risky as making an effort to retake the ship.

Whichever way she looked at it, the outcome was almost certainly to be the same.

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

ÔÇ£So then,ÔÇØ started Reynolds, now effectively second in command of the Chikuma. ÔÇ£what do we do next?ÔÇØ

Neena considered his words for a few moments, and looked thoughtfully down at the sketchy perscan and tactical reports she was able to gleam from a shuttles command interface.

ÔÇ£I donÔÇÖt really know.ÔÇØ She honestly replied. ÔÇ£We could sit here and wait for help from the fleet, but in all likelihood we will be intercepted and destroyed before the got a chance to ask any questions.ÔÇØ

Reynolds grimaced. ÔÇ£Anything else Lt.Commander?ÔÇØ

Neena nodded. ÔÇ£Yes, we could sit here and wait for Mallones monkeys to come in after us. End result, pretty much the same. Although we will take a good many of them down with us and probably cripple several of the Chikumas major systems in the process.ÔÇØ

Reynolds frowned even more at this option. ÔÇ£No, I donÔÇÖt like the sound of that either.ÔÇØ

ÔÇ£Ok then.ÔÇØ Said Neena. ÔÇ£The only other thing I can suggest at this point is that we fight. Try and retake the ship by force. Take control of engineering and the bridge. Reestablish the command protocols and signal an S.O.S to the fleet.ÔÇØ

Reynolds slumped down onto a crate. ÔÇ£Odds are that will produce the same result, Neena.ÔÇØ

The Leutenant Commander nodded. ÔÇ£Sad, but true. Besides, providing we somehow manage to retake the bridge and engineering from Mallones goons I doubt heÔÇÖs gonna be willing to just give us the command codes if we ask him.ÔÇØ

ÔÇ£If we take the bridge quick enough,ÔÇØ started Spencer, the chief engineer. ÔÇ£We wont need the command over rides.ÔÇØ

Neena looked at him. The chief was smiling. He had a datapad in his hand.

ÔÇ£What you got there chief?ÔÇØ she asked.

ÔÇ£Just pulled this from one of the shuttles. There was a partial tac link still in operation directly linked to the bridge. It wasnÔÇÖt there before, but it sure as hell is now.ÔÇØ

Neena looked puzzled. ÔÇ£You would need Stones command codes to create that kind of link up, and heÔÇÖs dead. Which means ..ÔÇØ

ÔÇ£Which means,ÔÇØ interrupted Reynolds. ÔÇ£that we either got someone on the inside trying to help us out, or Diamond is still out there somewhere.ÔÇØ

ÔÇ£IÔÇÖm inclined to believe the answer lies behind door number two.ÔÇØ smirked the Chief. ÔÇ£Damn, that grunt is good.ÔÇØ

ÔÇ£So whats on the datapad, chief?ÔÇØ

ÔÇ£Well,ÔÇØ said Spencer. ÔÇ£from what I was able to pull before the link was traced and shut down, it looks like every major ships system is operational, save for the transporters and launch control. However, the navigation and helm systems are locked out from manual input, which means we are flying on automatic. From the code fragments I was able to analyze, the program mother is running is self terminating at a set time, but cannot be interrupted until that termination time is reached. Basically, this ships on course for somewhere and nothing we do short of destroying the engines and navitron computer is going to stop us.ÔÇØ

Neena looked at the now glum sounding Chief engineer. ÔÇ£Anything else chief?ÔÇØ

Spencer nodded, solemnly. ÔÇ£Yes. We appear to be on a countdown. Our target, wherever that is, is less than 6 hours away.ÔÇØ

Just then, in defiance of all things fair and just, a strange buzzing sound began to grow audibly closer to the shuttlebay. Immediately, everyone took their firing positions, the droids manning the APCÔÇÖs slowly adjusted to the perceived threat and began tracking the as yet unseen newcomers.

As the seconds drew on, and the buzzing became louder, each of the assembled officers and present crewmen braced themselves for the anticipated firefight.

There was not one amongst them who was not shocked to see the first of a viscious wave of automated Hunter Killer drones swoop like locusts into the shuttle bay.

ThatÔÇÖs when the firing started.

Countdown T ÔÇô 5 hours 43 minutes

[Narrative Off]

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

Fleet Commander Blades

GCV - TSUNAMI Ôäó

GALCOM ORION Fleet

'For Queen and country'

ICQ#43692958

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McKendrick had gotten tired of simply standing there. He decided he would see what was going on. "Mr. Polovoski, have you made contacts with the IC pilots yet?" He had just finished the question when they heard it. They turned as one and took positions behind the drones. They looked towards the entrance of the shuttle bay to see a swarm of "things" come around the corner.

They hesitated a second as they assessed the situation. Luckily the droids manning the ATV's were faster. Anything not already here was a target. McKendrick had cleared all safeties when Neena informed him no one else would be arriving. Four of the things dropped immediately under ATV laser fire. Three more followed while the rest sensed danger and started taking evasive maneuvers. The one that was already targeted escaped bust just barely; it got singed and looked none to steady but it was still operational. Sensing the threat they converged on the ATV's. Plasma fired spewed off the shields. They held and the things changed tactics again. They actually latched onto the ATV's and started cutting through the hull. A couple more got picked off this way but the damage was apparently too great for the shields.

The droids on the ATV's apparently communicated with the ones in the bay as they suddenly lurched into motion. They picked the things off the ATV's manually and welded them to nonoperation. McKendrick and Mr. Polovoski took the droids leads and conentrated fire on one of the things. It finally fell to the floor after a sustained burst. A couple of droids weren't so lucky as they basically aimed the plasma lasers at themselves. One droid exploded taking the thing with it. One escaped but with an arm still attached. It flew unsteadily trying to compensate for the extra weight. It went down under ATV fire. McKendrick ducked reflexively as one ATV shot at one directly in front of them.

It was over in minutes. Minutes that had felt like hours. He was sweating again and he had hardly even lifted a finger. He turned away from the view of the little droids to Mr. Polovoski and asked, "What the hell was that?"

FE#13 Michael McKendrick.

(edit in: sorry all: typo, I'm the FE{G})

[This message has been edited by Charles Lindsey (edited 11-30-1999).]

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One piece of coursework in; time for my reward to myself smile.gif

[rp]Countdown: T-5 hours 38 minutes

Chief Medical Officer Martin Summers' Personal Log

I made my last few log entries each time thinking it would be my last, but I'm still here, still with some sort of fighting chance.

Just 5 or six minutes ago, Neena was talking about contacting the IC pilots with someone, then we heard a sound that will probably haunt us for the rest of our lives. A frenzied buzzing that got louder and louder very quickly. We got into position as quick as we could, and the ATV cannons swivelled round to the doorway just before a swarm of these metallic things burst through the doorway.

Luckily for us the droids manning the ATV's don't suffer from shock and took out at least four of them straight away. I wouldn't want to be on the wrong end of those ATV laser cannons. A couple of those things went right past the shuttle bay entrance as if they'd changed their minds or something as lots of others poured in. We all started firing then, with varying degrees of effectiveness. I let out a long rapid fire burst with my rifle, managing to hit one of them a few times. I hardly scratched it, but managed to make it mad at me. I saw it turning to aim at me and ducked behind a crate just in time to shield myself from its return volley, which melted a small hole in the floor next to me. Before it could come around the obstacle for a clear shot at me, an ATV cannon volley took it out.

As I hid behind a pile of crates, I examined my rifle to see why it hadn't had any effect on those things. After a panicky search, 'Setting 1?!' I fumbled with the controls to put it on the maximum power setting, then looked up to see one of those things clamped to an ATV, trying to cut through its armour. I shot it at least 6 or seven times, in combination with someone else, which finally took it out. Then I heard a scream of pain behind me and switched back to medic mode. Molten shrapnel or something had hit someone, I couldn't quite tell who it was. I grabbed my medkit and headed over. The rest of the battle I don't remember; I was concentrating on my patient. I flinched and looked up a couple of times when there were explosions close by, but I only looked around again when the shooting stopped.[/rp]

Blades, I'll let you decide who my patient is. There's a few possibilities for why those drones went past. Another situation to play with, I think.

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

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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  • 2 weeks later...

Countdown T - 5 hours 30 minutes

[Narrative On]

"Idiot!" shouted the enraged Colonel Mallone from the bridge of the GCV Chuikuma.

The target of his anger, one of the technical marines in his unit snapped to attention and took the brunt of the outburst without so much of flinching.

"If I may explain, colonel?"

Mallone stepped up to him, raising to his full height and staring down at the smaller man. "Make this good, soldier."

"Sir! Yes, sir!" obeyed the marine. "The HK units are adaptive sir. They learn from their failures in combat and transmit the relevant data back to the engagement computer in the mess. The engagement routines are assessed by the computer, the available sensor information from the shuttlebay is analysed and a new attack model is determined."

"In english, marine?" barked Mallone.

"Sir! The second wave will be a lot smarter than the initial drones. They now know the full combat potential of their enemies and will take this into account on the second wave. They will succede where the first wave failed."

Mallone glared at his subordinate. "They had better marine. Or you are going to find yourself reasigned to the engine room as reactor shielding."

"Understood, sir. The second wave wont fail."

Mallone dismissed the marine and turned his attention back to the bridge viewscreen.

In a little over five hours, the Chikuma and her deadly R.A.N.D.O.M device would be in range of their target. In a little over five hours, the remainder of Fleet Commander Stiles's battlegroup would start their assault on the secondary target.

It would take at least three days for a significant GalCom reaction fleet to catch up with them, and by then it would be all over. A treasure trove of technology and secrets would be in the movements control, and a new galactic power would be born. The price, however, would be the near extinction of another race.

Mallone smirked. "Casualties of war." he quietly said.

"Colonal?" said an officer attending the navigation terminal.

"Yes?" said Mallone, turning his attention to the officer.

"Sir, we are approaching the worm hole to Vega Eridani."

Mallone looked back at the viewscreen and noticed the revolving anomoly in the distance, growing ever bigger as the massive Battle Cruiser approached. "Excellent."

"No indication of Syrion or Drodian vessels, colonel."

"Stiles didnt think there would be." said Mallone. "He figured they would probably keep a small reaction force at the borders of their territories and mass the remainder of their fleets at their homeworlds."

"In preperation for a Gammulan counter strike?"

"Exactly." said Mallone, grinning.

The marine smiled at his commander. "The poor *******s. They wont even see it comming until it's too late."

At that instant, the Chikuma passed through the worm hole and reappeared in the Vega Eridani system. TacOps immediately gave a readout of several Drodian transport vessels burning hard accross the system.

"Any indication that we have been detected?" asked Mallone.

The marine quickly checked over the TacOps station. "Negative, sir. The cloak is holding. There is no indication we have been detected."

Mallone sat back in the command chair and blew out a sigh of relief. "Looks like the rumors of their sophisticated detection systems were unfounded."

The marine turned to his commander with a slightly puzzled expression on his face. "Sir? You're dissapointed."

"Not exactly." said Mallone. "It makes our job a lot easier, but the technology would have been valuable to us."

The marine turned back to the bridge navigation terminal as it bleeped for attention. "We're set on the next beacon, colonel."

"Excellent." said Mallone. "Next stop, Alteris."

"Aye, sir." said the marrine. "Alteris it is."

Mallone looked directly at the countdown indicator on the viewscreen and allowed himself another small smile. "Nothing can stop us now."

Countdown T - 5 hours 14 minutes

"Movement." reported Reynolds from the cockpit of one of the ATV's in the shuttlebay.

"Source?" asked Neena Polovoski, shouldering her rifle and leaning over the communications officer and glancing at the readout.

"Cant be positive, but I'd bet a years pay that it's more of those flying doodlebugs."

"Hell." said Neena. "I thought we took care of the lot of them."

"More likely that was jsut the first wave." suggested Spencer from behind her. "I took one of the less damaged units to pieces and found all sorts of complex analysis and comms equipment in them. My guess is, they are adaptive drones. Capable of learning and reassessing strategies."

"Why dont I like the sound of that?" muttered the sickly looking medic that accompanied Neena, Reynolds and Allen from sickbay.

"No question, it's more of the drones!" said Reynolds, sounding concerned. "And they commin in fast."

"Combat stations!" shouted Neena, throwing herself out of the ATV and pulling her slung rifle to shoulder height.

The rest of her people took similar stances, and positioned themselves behind crates, machinery and other fire absorbing structures as McKendricks mechanical army began to train the ATV's weapons systems on the shuttlebays exposed enterance.

"Range?!" shouted Neena over the hum of frenzied activity.

"Twenty five meters!" shouted Reynolds from the ATV's cockpit. "And closing fast."

"Reynolds, take your position!"

"Wait!" shouted Reynolds. "I'm trying to isolate their comms frequency. If I can isolate it I might be able to-"

"Reynolds!" shouted Neena again. "Get your ass out here now and take your position!"

"Incoming!" shouted McKendrick from his well covered position.

Neena Polovoski heard the hum of the appraching HK drones before she actually saw them. As she turned her attention away from the ATV where Reynolds was hastily trying to isolate the drones comm frequency, the second wave of drones soared into view and immediately began blasting. She dived for cover, and barley evaded being cut in half by concentrated plasma fire.

Allen and McKendrick immediately began firing at the closest of the airbourn drones, but meerly caused them to evade rather than strike them directly.

ATV three's droid gunner began firing the powerful repeating plasma turret at the approaching drones, and managed to successfully drop two of the less nimble drones in the massed fire.

The droids turned en mass at ATV three, and within a few frightening seconds had reduced the turret and cockpit into smouldering slag. The droid within was utterly destroyed, and squealed out in twisted agony as it's servo motors buckled and melted under the barrage.

The drones then broke into smaller groups, and began heading in different directions throughout the shuttlebay. Each group concentrated fire on the ATV's of those positions occupied by the crew.

As Neena pushed herself to her feet, she found herself staring down at two HK drones that had ducked under massed plamsa fire from ATV 2 to get at her. Her weapon was gone, lost during her dive for cover. She was defenceless, and staring death right in the face. The two drones approached, and their small, rotateable turrets swivveled and locked onto her. Neena swallowed, and accepted that now she would die.

The lead drone violently exploded under a mass of small arms fire, and it's companion dropped and weaved in an evasive maneuver as the sickly looking combat medic tried desperatly to hit his second target.

Neena rolled to her left, quickly scanned the floor for her rifle and then dove for it when she found it. Immediately, she was up on her feet, leveling the rifle at her would be assasin and loosing off a abrage of automatic weapons fire into the drone. It exploded on the third hit, sending shards of metal in all directions. She spun round to face her saviour, and beamed a greatful smile at him.

The medic fell in two distinctly bloody pieces as a third HK drone blew through his midsection and passed through the new gap in an effort to aquire a lock on Neena.

Horrified, Neena froze jsut long enough for the third drone to fire a single burning plasma charge into her shoulder. Knocked back, she collided heavily with a supply crate and fell awkwardly into an open access grill beneath the deck.

The drone, apparantly satisfied that his target had been neutralised spun on it's axis and attemtped to aquire a new target.

Inside ATV one, Reynolds frantically attempted to isolate the confused comm frequency of the attacking drones. So far, he had concluded that each of them was operating under it;s own unique frequency, and was therefore virtually impossible to simultaniously jam all of the drones. However, he did detect a faint (And concealed) returning carrier wave from each of the broadcasting drones. He quickly concluded that despite the drones autonomous nature, certain tactical information was being directed from a central source back to the drones.

He excitedly isolated this frequency and attempted to jam it from within the ATV. To his genuine horror, he discovered that the jamming signal from the ATV's comms systems was far below the required output.

He needed a more powerful transmitter. One that was designed to breach vast distances and punch through an assortment of interference.

"Shuttle!" shouted Reynolds.

He pushed himself out of the copilots seat of the ATV and back into the marine cabin. The exit doorway was open, and outside he could see massed weapons fire from both sides lancing accorss the deck. Sixty feet from his position, he could see the open rear enterance of Shuttle 1, and beyond it, the cockpit where he could transmit the jamming signal.

Taking a deep breath, Reynolds steered himself momentarily for the insane dash accross the battlefield.

Then he was gone, hitting the floor running. He crossed the first twenty feet without even realising he had done so. The weapons fire in front and behind him was distant enough not to be a major concern. The next twenty feet became more difficult, as he heard frantic shouts of "Get into cover!" and "Get down you idiot!" from his startled crewmates.

Beside him, ATV 4's cockpit exploded and the concussion knocked him sideways. He hit the floor hard, the wind knocked out of him. He looked up, saw that he was barley ten feet from his target and groggily pushed himself to his feet and stepped closer.

Blood trickled into his eyes, and he absent mindedly brushed the flow from his eyes and stumbled a few feet closer. Somwhere near him, a distorted voice shouted at him to get down, and he looked up just in time to see Allens vague features gesture in slow motion for him to move aside. To late, he realised what Allen was telling him, and he spun on his heel as a plasma blast burned into his back and sent him crumpling to the floor.

He had been close. So very close. The shuttlebay doors were three strides away from him. A few more seconds, just a few would have been enough.

Someone was standing over him. He couldnt see the face, his vision was too badly distored.

With pained breath, he muttered the comm frequency he had isolated within the ATV. He repeated it. Said it should disrupt the drones for a few seconds. He gestured in the direction of where he though the shuttle was. He said he was afraid. Then he was silent.

The battle raged on.

Countdown T - 5 hours 08 minutes

[Narrative Off]

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

Fleet Commander Blades

GCV - TSUNAMI Ôäó

GALCOM ORION Fleet

'For Queen and country'

ICQ#43692958

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[RP ON]

Countdown T - 5 hours 14 minutes

"Incoming!!!" was the last thing he wanted to hear. The first wave had been frightening enough, now this other wave was supposed to be smarter or so Neena said...

Jayce Allen swiveled his rifle and began firing as fast as his sore fingers could press the trigger. Damn droids could take a lot of punishment, he fired constantly at one of them, but it didnt seem to notice! It was coming closer...and closer....

The combat medic was in some sort of trance, tunnel vision engaged on his target, nothing around him mattered. An explosion by his side knocked him on the ground, he saw the HK droid whiz past him... over him... then explode as it hit the wall a few meters behind him.

"...."

At the corner of his vision he saw someone else firing furiously into another droid, it too was getting too close for comfort. Jayce snapped his rifle, aimed it and joined the light show thrown at the HK droid.

A scream....

"Medic Down!!!" screamed a voice as he saw the other combat medic sliced in half...it surprised Jayce that that voice was his own.. it sounded...different...tired...

Another scream...from across the bay...female. "Officer Down!" he screamed, Neena had been thrown into some containers, by an HK...the HK was swiveling to find another target. Jayce did the only thing he could at that distance: He set his rifle into overload and fired as if there was no tomorrow.

Explosions...

The depleted rifle lay on the floor where the combat medic had been, the HK lay in a pile of scrap metal. Armed with only a miserable wristlaser, Jayce cought a glimpse of someone running in the open... it was that engineer!!!

"Take cover you crazy b****!!!! Take...!" he saw an HK jump behind the running engineer... when Jayce turned to warn the engineer, he noticed the engineer was looking at him.... Jayce tried to tell him to hit the dirt... the engineer apperantly didnt understand.

"Noooo!"

The engineer fell to the floor, a wisp of smoke coming out of his mangled back.

"Neena... gotta find Neena... she got me into this dammit, she has to get me out of here!" the thought wirled in the young medic's brain as he ran towards the containers...

[RP OFF]

Err... hope I was not the dead medic or the scared guy Blades! :-). But by now, my poor medic is about to get an EVA suit and jump ship! (hey that might be a good idea! *G*)

[This message has been edited by Tac (edited 11-30-1999).]

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Guest Ron Wallin

Hehe, turn up the heat... I'm posting tonight, unless you'd rather I didn't Blades?

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

Cmdr. Akira

ICV Nevermore

Spectre, Command Staff

Base Commander, The Dojo

Official Tester

Battlecruiser Series

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Guest Ron Wallin

{rp}

T-5 hours 25 min.

Personal Log: GnySgt. Diamond

Begin Log

This ship has more passage ways and crawl spaces than I ever hoped possible. I've eluded the couple of rats Malone sent. One is dead now. A little trip mine went off in his face in an especially tight crawlspace.

Malone doesn't know I'm the one in here, but I'm sure by now he knows someone is or at least was recently in the spaces between the ship.

Good news is that the idiot Arnold hasn't found my link. I've still got access to most of the systems. It's only passive right now, but with a little work and some spare parts and an engineer it could become something more... No time for that now.

Arnold fixed those damn HK's. The first wave was unsuccesful, but there's going to be another. I'm about 10 minutes away from their location. If they're smart, the XO will hold them up in a shuttle with max power to sheilds. I hope she's thought of that. I hope it still works.

Either way, I made it to the weapons locker and have a large bag of goodies to get to them. If there's some way to drop it off and stay incognito I will. I missed a shot to Malone's head by a breath. If I stay in the black, I can make it back to that position and end this quickly.

Too many if's. I'm hungry and a bit dehydrated and haven't slept in a while. I'm going to focus on getting them these supplies. If they seem to be doing well, i'll slip back into the shadows. I hope they're holding up...

{/rp}

Blades, gotta run to class. I'll finish this within 3 hours.

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

Cmdr. Akira

ICV Nevermore

Spectre, Command Staff

Base Commander, The Dojo

Official Tester

Battlecruiser Series

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Guest Ron Wallin

{rp}

T-5hours-12min.

Very few people knew that the ventilation shaft in a BC was quite large. Big enough for a moderately sized man to crawl around somewhat uncomfortably. The openings were different.

Small, but large enough to slide in and out, the openings left little room for manuevering. Gunnery Sgt. Diamond had never really thought about them. He did now. Something was big was happening in cargo bay beyond.

Must be the second wave, Diamond thought as he finished the last screw. The grate was off, and his hands were at the edges. Muscles tense, Diamond began his lurch forward.

Diamond closed his eyes as a laser bolt struck something outside the grate sending sparks around the opening. Listening in the darkness he only heard the thump of what he figured was a crate now blocking the entrance.

He opened his eyes to find himself lip to lip with one unconcious XO. Startled, Diamond instinctively drew back his head bumping it smartly. Barely a sound escaped as he bit tightly on his lower lip. The blood flowed into his mouth returning him back to reality.

Damn, this is not what needs to happen now, he thought. But thinking wasn't his way. Diamond quickly grabbed the XO and pulled her into the shaft. You'll have to forgive the inpolite groping, sir, these holes weren't made for someone of your build...

Neena out of the way, Diamond launched himself out of the hole. Rifle at the read he lifted his head over the top of the nearest crate and pulled the trigger. One HK immediately exploded.

"They're not prepared for me," he mumbled to himself. Diamond lined up again. Another HK burst. He lined up again, only to catch the glimpse of a man running from one of the ATV's toward a shuttle. The others were shouting at the man as he ran.

"Damnit, you're only calling attention to him,"he spoke under his breath as he pulled the sniper rifle from its rest and snugged it to his shoulder. The HK's were between hima and the others...

Diamond rounded the box, lined up his site. The HK exploded taking out the nearest ATV's control cabin. Diamond winced as the shockwave passed. The engineer was down.

Diamond shouted but those near him wouldn't be able to hear... The HK's were different. 3 HK's broke off and headed toward him. Diamond picked up his pace.

Sight, breathe, squeeze. Sight, breathe, squeeze. Sight, breathe, duck. Sight, breathe, squeze. All three down. 25 to go. The Hk's were past the downed man and performing a flanking manuever to pince their new target.

Diamond sprinted the remaining distance. A combat medic gave him an astonished look as he ran by Diamond in the opposite direction leaving the downed engineer.

"Medic, with me, NOW!" Diamond barked to the man. Diamond dropped to his knees avoiding a laser bolt and slid the last few feet to the downed man. Sight, breathe, squeeze. Diamond repeated that five more times before the HK's started to back off to the peripherals and slide back behind him.

Looking down, he noticed the man's lips moving. He put his ear to the man's mouth and listened as he loosed a final breath.

"You're not going today soldier," Diamond told the body. "Medic," he shouted toward the confused greenie behind him.

"I'm after the XO, he's dead he can wait," the medic shouted back as he dodged HK's trying to get behind the crates.

"You're with me or against me right now son," Diamond boomed as he brought the rifle and sighted the man's head. The medic fell to the floor as if he'd seen the look in Diamond's eye magnified by the sights on the Gunny's weapon. A second later the Medic was on his way back to the shuttle.

Diamond grabbed the colar of the downed crewmember and dragged him into the cargo hold like another sack of produce. Adrenaline on full now, Diamond litterly flung the body onto the medic-aid rack. Turning, running, shooting he made it around to the others.

"To the shuttle, now," he whispered to each as he sighted and destroyed targets with the vengence only a Marine was trained to muster. Five more HK's down and everyone was back into the shuttle. The hatch closed.

"Sheilds," he barked running to the pilot's cabin.

"They don't work," someone passed back. "We've been locked out of the consoles."

"Sheilds, now! They work..." Diamond finished typing the BC command codes releasing the systems.

"Sheilds dropping quickly. She's taking too many hits," a voice said from the seat to the left.

The adrenaline was slowly leaving his system leaving his hands shaky.

"We've got maybe 30 seconds before they break through, Gunny."

"Two numbers left, when I say, press the green control on your left."

"That's the broadcast, there's no one to hear us but Malone..."

"DO IT NOW!!!" The shields dropped. Everything was silent for Diamond as a single HK hovered in front of his face just outside the forward viewport. Ten, nine, eight,... he thought to himself. Diamond watched in slow motion as the business end of the HK's blaster heated. His hand wouldn't move to where he'd set his weapon.

No matter, he thought I've done all I could...

"Semper Fi," he started to yell. Diamond would go out like a Marine.

Time crashed to normal as Diamond shouted that oldest of mantra's. The HK simply hung there as if in awe of the man's resolve before it fell to the ground with a loud thunk.

Diamond, along with all the others had stopped breathing.

"Breathe," he weezed as he made himself and the others inhale. Diamond sprung from his seat. "It's not over yet, the next wave will come any minute. Medic, fix him," he said as he pointed to the man on the table. "You with me." He pointed at the nearest person standed. "We've got an XO and a few supplies to retrieve." No one moved. They were all just staring...

"How did you...", one of the others started.

"MOVE, NOW!" He shouted in return. Less abraisively, "Sorry, I'll tell you in a minute. For now, we've all got to get to work!"

The third wave didn't come as soon as Diamond had expected. The engineer and XO were slowly coming to. The power supply's from th damaged droids and ATV's were now being jacked into the shuttle's systems. Everyone was busy working.

Diamond slipped to behind the crates. He picked up the grate started attaching the bolts. Maybe now I would be a good time to leave, he thought. A small droplet of something dark pinged off the metal. Diamond looked at himself. Covered in camo grease, coming from nowhere, they'd think me a ghost, he thought as he grabbed his portion of gear and slipped back into the tunnel.

{/rp}

Blades, it's a bit wordy, so let me know if you need me to change anything. Hope I didn't ruing anything for ya smile.gif

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

Cmdr. Akira

ICV Nevermore

Spectre, Command Staff

Base Commander, The Dojo

Official Tester

Battlecruiser Series

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Cool post Ron. smile.gif

Not wanting to be a moany Morris, but the engineer in question IS in fact Ensign Reynolds. You know, the comms guy from the bridge? And hell, if you like him that much, I guess I'll let him live for a bit longer.

Quick head count. We currently have one Leutenant Commander Neena Polovoski, Chief Engineer Spencer, combat medic Jayce Allen, the CMO (Who's name I cant recall for some daft reason right now), flight engineer McKendrick and the heroic Sgt. Diamond in the shuttlebay and available for active duty.

Reynolds is alive but unable to do anything until he spent some quality time in sickbay and two distinct halfs of the other medic littering the place.

The pilots are ALL locked down in the fighter bays and cant do a damned thing. Should the pilots want to do anything, the respective players really should get round to posting.

Benni is currently bending over backwards to accomodate Mallone on the bridge, and all the rest of the crew are locked down in quaters and boobytrapped should they attempt to escape. For scenario purposes, they are no longer a useable variable.

There are currently 12 functional goons outside the shuttlebay. There are 3 more in the operations center established in the mess and three others with Mallone on the bridge.

Call this a tactical update if you wish. Happy hunting. smile.gif

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

BLADES Ôäó

GCV TSUNAMI

ORION FLEET COMMANDER

TSUNAMI

BATTLE-GROUP

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

[This message has been edited by Blades (edited 12-01-1999).]

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Countdown T-5 hours 25 minutes

McKendrick watched as Mr. Polovoski turned and entered one of the ATV's with Reynolds. He picked up one of the drones and looked at it. Nasty bugger he thought as he threw it back down. He had never seen anything like them before. He was glad they were gone though. he wen t around the shuttle bay checking on the droids. The four in the ATV's had survived but those on the floor had not faired so well. Three of the ships droids were toast. Those were the ones that had the misfortune to aim the drone's lasers at themselves while trying to defend the ATV's. A few simply had missing parts and were easily replaced with parts from the destroyed units. Two of Rod's counterparts were destroyed as well. The floor of the shuttle bay now looked like a techno junkyard with droids, droid parts, and drones littering the area.

Countdown T-5 hours 14 minutes

He had nearly made it back to his position when he heard heard Mr. Polovoski shout "Combat stations!" He scrabbled back to his position wondering how many of the things they had. Then he heard them. "Incoming!" he yelled and got his rifle ready. He and Allen began firing as soon as they came through the door. They were much quicker this time around and simply avoided the fire. The ATV's began firing as well and got a few but they grouped up and destroyed ATV 3 with a massive volley of fire. They then split up and began firing at individual targets. They avoided the droids completey this time rendering them useless. The upside was that since they were apparently no longer a threat they were being ignored.

It went downhill from there though. A medic died. McKendrick did have the satisfaction of destroying the drone who had done it. It had stopped to aim and he shot it while it was concentrating. Not before a life was lost though. Some of the drones turned on him and it took a rapid fire burst from his rifle to disperse them. Luckily osmeone noticed and began shooting at them from behind. They got a couple more this way but it was taking much too long. They were definitely acting differently this time.

Worse still, Reynolds tried to make a break for one of the shuttles only to be cut down. Then amazingly the drones started dropping rapidly. McKendrick tried to look around to see who had gotten so good so suddenly but he was having a time of it fighting off the drones. He thought he heard someone call for a medic but the voice was unfamiliar. A couple minutes later Sgt. Diamond came by and told him to make his way to the shuttle. He was surprised to see him but began a tactical retreat back to SC-1.

They all amde it to the shuttle with the exception of the dead medic and Mr. Polovoski. McKendrick wondered if she wwere dead as well. Sgt. Diamond overrode the command codes and got the shields up but they immediately began dropping. This is it, he thought, we're all dead now. Sgt. Diamond started screaming something and the drones dropped. McKendrick was stunned. At Sgt. Diamonds orders they went outside and started gathering power supplies. A couple more droids had gone down in the crossfire. They started jacking into the shuttle's systems. McKendrick kept an ear out for more of the nasty little buggers as he worked though.

Countdown T- 5 hours

[/rp]

What were we working on Ron? Now I'm confused. Use my character as needed. Blades, my ace in the hole was using the shuttles tractor beam against the drones. Since Sgt. Diamond has so nicely gotten it working there's an option. smile.gif If you want to control the action in the final part of the confrontation go ahead and use me as you will. We still have a missile or so left as well. The droids could relay a message to the IC pilots if you want to use them. At this point i am ready for you to take control. I'm about out of ideas.

Charles/Chavik/McKendrick

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[RP ON]

T-5hours-12min

"Nuts...nuts... nuts!" was all Jayce could think as he sped behind this insane Marine...

The fact that he had put a gun on his face had long dissapeared from his mind...he was now more worried about the HK's shooting at them as they sped towards the shuttle.

Once inside the craft, he was thrown to the back section of the shuttle as the shields were brought up. Jayce wondered why Neena hadn't done this before. Then again, she may know better... he cursed the day he boarded this ship.

Diamond had him busy stopping the bleeding of the man that had been shot in the back..amazingly, it turned out he was no engineer but actually the comm's officer! Battle Stress, clouds judgment and recognition. the words from his lectures came to his mind. He shut them off as the man continued to bleed... and his hands worked furiously to cauterize the wound..

[rp off]

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Countdown T - 4 hours 58 minutes

[Narrative On]

"They are what?" screamed the enraged Mallone as he pushed himself from the command chair.

The reporting marine involunterily took a step back. "Disabled, sir."

Mallones face contorted into an expression that terrified the marine. His eyes were near manical, completely devoid of any flicker of rational thought. He looked as if he might burst into blind fury at any moment. The marine knew he would be the sole recipient of of that fury.

"How?" asked Mallone, his face softening unexpectedly.

"I'm not 100% sure, sir. But it looks like they somehow managed to isolate the return frequency from the drone control computer and jam it."

Mallone snorted. "Cleaver."

"Yes sir." repleid the Marine. "But we were able to cut through the jamming signal within a minute."

Mallone turned his back to the marine and let out a despondent sigh. "And the drones?"

The marine swallowed hard. This was the part he was least looking forward to explaining. "Well sir, during the time the drones were being jammed, they reverted to standby mode. They hovered in the air just long enough to be neutralized."

Mallone snapped round at a frightening speed and backhanded the unfortunate marine accross the face. "Idiot!" he shouted as the marine tumbled backwards and crumpled on the floor. "You should have been prepared for this."

Slowly, the marine pushed himself to his feet. "I'm sorry, sir. The technology is unfamiliar to us. We're working on impr-"

The marine was cut short from his explanation as Mallone reached out and grabbed the man by the throat. In a lightning fast movement, he jabbed the marine with his free hand in the ribs, felt the break of bone and the muffled whoosh of breath being blown violently out through the marines nose.

"Failure is not acceptable." said Mallone as he dropped the marine to the deck. "And you have failed me one time too many, marine."

Mallone stamped decisevly on the downed marines throat and sharply twisted his foot. The sickening crack of breaking bone was loud enough to be heard by the two other marines manning the bridge. Even though they didnt look on at the specticle, the sound itself was enough to make them shudder. Fortunately for them, Mallone didnt see this. He was too busy watching the glimmer of life ebb away from the fallen marines eyes.

"Now then," started Mallone as he stepped off the body. The two remaining bridge marines turned and looked directly at their commander, never allowing their eyes to look towards their fallen comrade. "can anybody tell me how many of those drones we have left?"

"Twelve, sir!" snapped the first marine.

"Twelve." said Mallone. "That should be enough."

"Yes, sir!" agreed the second marine. "And they wont be able to jam the last batch."

Mallone nodded. "Send them in. I want this taken care of, once and for all."

The first marine saluted. "Sir, yes sir!"

"Oh, and one more thing." said Mallone.

The first marine looked up at the colonel. "Sir?"

"Dont make the same mistake the corporal here did."

The marine nodded. "Understood sir. There already dead."

Moments later, the marine activated the final batch of hunter killer drones and directed them to attack the occupants of the shuttle bay. This time, nothing short of a miricle would prevent the total destruction of every living thing within.

Countdown T - 4 hours 54 minutes

[Narrative Off]

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

BLADES Ôäó

ORION FLEET COMMANDER

[TSUNAMI BATTLE GROUP]

GCV TSUNAMI

'For Queen and country'

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[RP]

Countdown T - 4 hours 52 minutes

Banish sat in the cockpit, and continued waiting, as he had been for hours now. Over the years he had learned patience, but this was straining that patience to the limit. He decided that since they hadn't heard from the XO, that he would take matters into his own hands. "Big, I'm sick of waiting. What about you?"

"Damn sick of it, boss. Let's get this show on the road, and do something." the wizzo replied.

"All right." Banish opened the IC commlink. "Scorpion Flight, listen up. We've run out of time waiting around. From the looks of things, the rest of the crew is either locked down, or dead. There's been no contact from the XO for hours, so I'm assuming her group is dead too. Looks to me as if the 7 of us are all that's left to take care of the bad guys. We need some options, so start talking to me." Silently, he prayed that they came up with a good idea. If they didn't, he had a plan that would stop the ship, but would also kill them all.

He didn't want to resort to the desperate measure, though. The overload of all the interceptors reactor cores would blow the Chikuma apart from the inside out. But it would also kill everyone aboard, and no one would ever find out the real story. Hell, even Banish himself didn't know that.

Banish waited quietly, to see if the other bright souls could come up with a better idea to stop the Chikuma, without killing them all.

[/RP]

Drastic times call for drastic measures. Unless another one of these numbskulls can come up with better idea. Blades? wink.gif

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

Robert 'Banish' Anderson

Scorpion One

GCV Chikuma

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You really know how to make me feel important, don't you Blades? smile.gif

Tac, I'm putting a couple of words in your mouth. Hope you don't mind.

[rp] "Looks like we need to get this guy to the medibay" commented Jayce, looking up from his stabilisation work.

"In an ideal world I'd agree with you," I replied, "but I don't fancy carrying him through the service tunnels or past those goons and drones. Do you?" Jayce nervously looked down at the floor. "Besides, if you'd ever been evacuated down to a planet, you'd realise what a reasonable field hospital a shuttle can make. Just see if I can get- yes, and there. Good. Right- let's get him up here." I unfolded the field stretcher from my expanded medkit and quickly slid the two halves under Reynolds, before attaching them together. "OK, I'll take this end, you take that. Lift gently." We lifted Reynolds up to the 'surgical table' and hooked up the shuttle's rudimentary diagnostic equipment, augmented with some additions from my kit.

"Right, what have we got here, muscle damage, severed spinal cord. Nothing that can't be patched up for now. Hold this for me, Jayce. Right- no, no, aha. A delicate operation, but quick. Just give it a little while to configure itself, and tada! One rudimentary prosthetic spinal section! He should have about half the range of movement he had before, and be able to do most of the things he could do before, but not as quickly. It's a temporary fix, but should be OK unless he moves around an awful lot in the next couple of hours. A local block for the pain, and some hyper growth hormone to quickly replace the damaged muscles, and he should be OK. Make sure he drinks the high protein nutripaks, though. OK, now Neena, we're going to apply some hyper growth hormone to your shoulder, which should get you basic use of it in about half an hour. Until then we'll just support your arm in a useful position, like here in front of your face, so you can still aim your rifle."

"A bit further forward than that, I think, doc. There, that's it."

"OK, there we go, try not to get into any more trouble," I ordered with a grin.

"Are you actually enjoying this, Martin?"

"It just takes me back a bit, to when I was evacuated to Lennen from the Gilmore. It was how I became a CMO."

"I'll just see if I can access the medibay's computers and check on how Tamara's doing in the medibay. 85% LF? Not bad. Let's see How can we get a message to her?"[/rp]

Ah, the wonders of medical science! Hope I'm not out of line with that last bit.

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

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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Countdown T - 4 hours 45 minutes

[Narrative On]

Somwhere in his minds eye, Reynolds watched himself die. He saw the plasma discharge leave the small turret on the HK drone and drill into the small of his back. He watched himself spin on the spot, collapse backwards onto the cold, metal deck then, after a collage of colors and distant images, the face of Sgt. Diamond glaring down at him.

Reynolds watched himself silently mouth instructions to the hardened marine, then was overwhelmed with darkness. He felt himself die.

Suddenly, he was dragged back from the curious specticle he was wittnessing, and became aware of the burning agony in his back. All at once, his senses came alive, and all at once he knew he was still amongst the living. However, the pain was such that he wished he was still dead.

Briefly, his eyes opened. He was face down on a cold surface. His senses couldnt fathom where he was, but his mind rationalised that he was in the company of friends, desperately trying to keep him from slipping back to oblivion.

He heard words from those around him, though he could recognise the voices of the Allen, the combat medic and the CMO.

More pain. Jabbing in his back. Another wave of agony overtook him. Then, the bliss of unconsciousness took him again. Peace.

**********

Countdown T - 4 hours 40 minutes

Neena Polovoski examined the dressing surrounding her wound. It was a patch up job, nothing pretty. Just enough to keep her mobile and semi active. Perhaps later, once they had retaken the ship the doctor could perform the neccesary surgery that would fully heal her.

She almost laughed at her optormism.

"Whats the damage?" she groggily said to the CMO as he worked on ensign Reynolds.

The doctor didnt turn, but answered none the less. "It was a glancing blow. The spine was severed, but we're working on reparing the most obvious damage."

"Whats his prognosis?"

The doctor was silent for a moment. "Well, he's alive and stable. The nerve damage is significant, but with the proper facilities and care he can expect to get about 60 % of normal movement. With therapy, perhaps up to 80 %."

"Can he walk?" asked Neena.

"No." said the doctor bluntly. "He will never be able to walk unaided again. Ever. With the right surgery and implants, he should be able to get himself around, but his days as a bridge officer are over."

Neena was saddened by this. Reynolds was young and full of life. His appointment to the Chukuma just over a year ago had been the high point in his career. He had so much potential, so much promise. And now, it was cut short by Mallone and those flying monstrosities.

Still, it was better than being dead. Reynolds might not be suitable for starship duty any more, but he could still have a very productive career back at HQ, or on one of GalComs other starstations. He was a talented comms officer, and had somehow managed to isolate the comm frequency from the drones that had saved them all. Perhaps a career in R&D would be presented to him, or maybe in intelligence.

Whatever the case, she was glad he was alive and had the potential to recover. Recover, however, wouldnt happen until this crisis was over. First, they had to retake the ship, and they were no closer to that than before.

"Whats the countdown at?" asked Neena.

The combat medic, who was now watching the skillful hands of the doctor work on Reynolds shifted to the front of the shuttlecraft and pulled up the relevant details from the computer.

"Countdown is at T - 4 hours 38 minutes, sir."

Neena wondered. It had been over half an hour since the Chukuma traversed the most recent worm hole. That still didnt explain anything to her. She didnt have the faintest idea where they were or where they were going. All she did know, was that in a little over 4 and a half hours Mallone planned to use the RANDOM device on an unsuspecting population.

Whatever the consequence, this could not be allowed.

"There." said the CMO. "Thats all I can do from here."

The doctor shifted from his position and immediately tied the shuttles computer into the medbays systems. "I dont know how the gunny did it, but I am really pleased we at least got some sort of outside access."

"What are you looking for?" asked Neena, pushing herself up from her squatting position and unsteadily onto her feet.

"Looking for ...... well, hello."

"What?" said Neena.

"I'm into the medbays computer and security systems. Ailsa is still there, unconscious. Her life readings are at 60% and holding steady. But theres more .."

"WHAT?" barked the ever so slightly annoyed leutenant commander.

"Jensen is there. And she's alive!"

"Tamaras alive?"

"Yes! And she's quite healthy. Unconscious and restrained, but healthy."

Neena thought for a moment. "Guarded?"

The doctor checked his systems for a few moments. "Negative. Nobody is home."

Neena's brain began to work in overdrive. Suddenly, there was a plan in the works. "Doc, how much control do you have over the medbay systems?"

"Apparantly, medical systems are considered a low level threat priority. I got full access."

Neena found herself smiling. This was their chance!

"Jayce, go get the gunny."

The medic nodded. "Yes, leutenant commander."

Neena watched the medic rush out of the shuttle. He seemed excited, as if he knew that somehow the tides of fortune were about to shift in their direction.

"Doc, can you wake Tamara?"

"Already working on it Lt. Commander."

Nena slapped the CMO heartedly on the back. "Good work doc."

Just then, Sgt. Diamond entered the rear of the shuttle. "You wanted somthing, sir?"

"Yes sgt." said Neena. "Would you agree that staying here is a rather poor idea?"

The sgt. snorted. "At best we got about another ten minutes before more of those damend drones come pouring in. The shield in here are shot, all but one of the APC's are disabeld and McKendricks droid army are little more than scrap metal. Now would be a good time to leave."

"Problem is," started Neena. "is that as soon as we leave the shuttlebay, Mallones goons will track us on perscan wherever we go. We wont get a hundred yards without being taken down."

"Damned if we do, damned if we dont."

"Unless, of course, we got ourselves a trump card to play."

Sgt. Diamond frowned at her. "Trump card?"

Neena nodded. "The doc found Jensen in medbay. Not only is she alive, but she's unguarded."

"Hmmmm," started Diamond. "I did notice Mallone pulling his people away from that area on my little jaunt around the ship. I guess he figures two downed and restrained crewmembers in medbay a minimal threat."

"And thanks to your help, the doc has full remote access to the medbays systems."

"How restrictive is his access from a remote location?"

Neena though for a moment. She hadnt considered this. "Doc?"

The doctor pulled away from the shuttles control terminal and reported. "Theres only so much I can do from here, but it's enough to cancel the restraining field and wake Tamara. Once she up on her feet, I can grant her the right priveliges and give her access to the rest of the medbay."

Neena blew a sigh of relief. "Right, now thats sorted out, this is what we're going to do ....."

**********

"Colonel?"

Mallone regarded the marine that spoke to him. "What is it, soldier?"

"The last drone has been modified. They are now resistant to the jamming."

"Very good." said mallone. "Dispatch them immediately."

The marine tapped into his control terminal. "Drones dispatched. Proceding on target."

Mallone chuckled to himself. Finally, it was going to end. As troublesome as Neena Polovoski and her band of merry mutineers had been, they couldnt be able to withstand the final assault from the combat drones. However ....

"Have the units outside the shuttlebay prepare to move in. I want to make sure there are no more complications."

"Relaying those orders now sir. Teams three, five and six standing by to move in."

"Give the drones two minutes head start, then send them in. No prisoners. I want them all toe tagged and ready to jetison within half an hour."

At that moment, the other marine attended to the bleeping communications terminal.

"What is it?" asked Mallone.

"Sir, we're recieving an encoded packet from Fleet Commander Stiles."

"Stiles?" said the suprised sounding Mallone. "You sure?"

The marine checked the security authentication. "Yes sir. It's from Fleet Commander Stiles alright."

Mallone frowned. "Have it decoded and sent to my terminal."

Immediately, the marine obeyed. Moments later, Mallone read through the decoded text message that now displayed on his terminal screen.

When he had finished, he thumped the screen with his fist and shattered the hardened plexiglass covering.

"Sir?" enquired the first marine.

"There has been a change of plan." said Mallone. "It seems that the Corsairs have been dispatched to this system to hunt us down. Stiles doesnt believe they know our true motives, but doesnt want to risk being intercepted."

"So, what does that mean, Colonel?"

"It means," started Mallone. "that the timetable for the launch has been brought forward."

"How soon?" asked the marine.

"Stile's fleet will begin the attack and sieze the secondary target one hour from now. We are to launch from extreme range in 45 minutes."

The marine frowned. "But we will still be three hours from the rest of the fleet."

"Theres nothing we can do about that. Not without destroying the central computer core and manually taking control of helm. And we cant risk doing that, not with the launch so close."

The marine nodded in agreement. "I'll have the device installed on the modified probe, sir."

Mallone nodded. "Have it loaded and prepped for launch. Oh, and enable the failsafe."

The marine looked quizically at him. "Sir?"

Mallone snorted. "I just had a bad feeling marine. And as a rule, I dont ignore those."

**********

Launch T- Minus 42 minutes

Groggy, but fully aware of her instructions, Tamara Jensen prepared for the manic dash out of the medbay and down towards engineering. In her hands, she held two distinct canisters of weird looking fluid. She didnt know what the containers contents were, but she had been reliably informed by both the doctor and Chief Spencer that when combined, these chemicles had the capacity to eat through compressed neutronium.

Neena had explained the situation carefully to Jensen. She explained that the vast majority of Mallones troops were stationed outside the shuttlebay, keeping them pinned down while they were relentlessly attacked by the flying drones.

Neena also explained that their only hope for escaping the shuttlebay that was shortly to become their tomb, they needed the perscan computer taken out.

And thats where Jensen came in.

Neena knew that it was asking a lot of the injured young officer, and that in all probability she would be intercepted by a team of goons after taking out the perscan system computer in engineering.

The outcome of this likely event, was not good. However, it simply had to be done. Billions of lives could well be resting on her next few actions.

Taking in a deep breath, and quickly testing her leg muscles for the neccesary strength needed for the manic dash, Tamara Jensen said a silent prayer and hit the exit button.

**********

Launch T - 41 minutes

The plan was simple. In precisely two minutes, everyone still in the shuttlebay would begin to enter the service ducts that Diamond had previously used and make their way to the interceptor launch bay. There, they would meet up with the stranded pilots, break into smaller groups and systematically take out the remaining troops. At least without the perscan tracking them, the odds would be even.

**********

Launch T - 40 minutes

"Colonel, we have movement on the engineering deck!"

"What? Who is it?"

"I believe it's the helmsman, sir. She's somehow escaped from medbay. She's making a beeline to the engine room."

Mallone stepped up to the perscan system. "What the hell does she think she's doing?"

"Unknown sir, but whatever it is she is planning, it looks like engineering is her target."

"The computer core?" suggested the second marine.

"No," started Mallone. "The core is shielded and would take a significant ammount of firepower to breach it. She must be going for one of the sub systems, trying to disrupt our control over the ship."

"She's entered engineering!"

mallone tapped his comm unit. "Team six, disregard previous orders and head to engineering. There is a rogue crew member attempting to sabotage ships systems. Neutralise her."

"Sir, she's just standing there, not doing anything, she seems to be ........... what the hell?"

Mallone turned to him. "What is it?"

The marine swallowed hard. "Sir, Perscan just went down."

"WHAT?"

"It's just died sir. The whole system has gone down."

"Switch to the back up." ordered Mallone.

"We cant sir. The entire backup system was fried when you initilised the Preemptive Strike protocol."

"Dammit!" shouted Mallone, kicking out at a redundant computer terminal and shattering the protective covering with his foot.

"Get thsoe droens in there! Get them in there now. Send in teams three and five! Find those *******s and kill them!"

**********

Launch T - 39 minutes

"Incoming!" shouted McKendrick as the hum of approaching drones came within ear shot.

"Everybody! Move out!" ordered Neena Polovoski.

A rush of movement. One at a time, the survivors retreated into the the innards of the Chikuma and made their way towards the Interceptor Launch bay. Behind them, the sounds of automatic weapons fire accompanied the roar of explosions as the last remaining APC surrendered under a hail of plasma fire.

Concealed between the deck plates of the shuttle bay, the unconscious Reynolds was oblivious to it all.

Moments later, when the firing had ceased, the lead elements of teams three and five entered the shuttlebay to find nothing.

"Colonel Mallone?" said one of the reluctant marines. "The're gone sir."

The marine tore the lash away from his head as Mallones enraged roar bellowed into his ear.

Launch T - 38 minutes

[Narrative Off]

***** take it from here guys smile.gif *****

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

BLADES Ôäó

ORION FLEET COMMANDER

[TSUNAMI BATTLE GROUP]

GCV TSUNAMI

'For Queen and country'

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