Ben Zwycky

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

I'd like to know that too, Josh. Jeehun? Alun? Lensig? You around? ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Hey, cool, I get to be the 100th reply [rp] Ben was stunned as he heard their orders. 'The 666th? I thought they were a myth, and even in the myths I heard they only had ships. Those guys must have some stories to tell' Ben shook himself. He and his ship had a job to do. "Steve, is everyone on board?" "They are." "Beam me back to the bridge and prepare to disembark." "Gotcha." As the jump anomaly formed in front of him, Ben started to think about how the crew would take being sent back where they had just come from, with only a single night's rest in between. They were a hardy and well-disciplined crew, but they were in need of a morale boost. As he arrived on the bridge and sat in his command chair, the tense and depressed atmosphere was obvious. "OK, Karl, see you there," said Karen into her comms screen, then looked up and announced, "We've all got to head back to Galcom HQ for equipment and supplies before we set out." This was greeted with a positive but somewhat resigned response from the rest of the crew. Then the two self-appointed morale officers came into their own. No-one's quite sure how they did it, but a typically surreal conversation between Karen and Simon naturally flowed into the bridge crew doing a rousing chorus of 'We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz', which Karen broadcast over the Svoboda's internal communications system, encouraging the entire crew to join in, which most of them did. Feeling suitably lifted, they closed on the jumpgate to Earth and passed through. [/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)

One piece of coursework in; time for my reward to myself [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)

Yep, I'm still around, but trust everything to start happening at once just when I've got lots of coursework to do. Grr. I might get something done if I'm in real need of a break from course-related stuff, but I should back to sort of normal (if there is such a state for me) by the end of the week. See ya, ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Nooo! I'm going to be away this weekend, so I won't be able to take part in this great adventure if that's the time-frame. Well, at least you don't get to find out how bad I am at this game. (Note to self- must get some practise in tonight). Blades, you do make yourself a very tempting target. I must resist the temptation I MUST RESIST! ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Nice post soulus. [rp]Noticing an ISS logo on the uniform of a Commander approaching him, Ben knew this was the newest addition to the fleet. Ben desperately tried to visualise the name at the top of the file he'd received. 'Duva, Delo, Divo Come on brain, help me out on this one. Dilvon Dilvorn!' Ben stopped himself from punching the air and shouting "Yes!" in triumph and contented himself with a subtle clenching of the right fist. Before he could show off his monumental (for him) feat of memorisation, the other commander introduced himself: "Hi, Cmdr Dilvorn, GCV Conquest. I was beginning to think that I was going to be the only commander from ISS here. Must be something big if they've called us here too." "Greetings, Commander. I agree- it seems most serious." "I guess now we just wait for the SC to get here." As if on cue, fleet commander Blades then ushered us all in to the MISCON briefing room. The suspense would soon be over.[/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)

[rp]As Ben repeatedly scraped over the same region of his face he thought to himself, 'I've got to get a new razor sometime.' He managed to remove every trace of visible stubble, then repeatedly splashed his face with cold water in an attempt to wake himself up properly. If he got out of bed as soon as he woke up, he normally was fine for the rest of the day. Today he had slept in a strange bed on Orion Station that had just been too comfortable. When he concluded that he still wasn't really waking up, he dropped to the floor and did a quick thirty press-ups. Not enough to wear him out, but enough to get the adrenaline flowing for the next couple of hours. Feeling suitably recharged (at least temporarily) he headed over to MISCON. Upon arriving, he saw quite a few unfamiliar faces (not that he was very good at getting to know people, but he was usually able to recognise people he had met before. Usually the other person would remember his name, or have been told it by someone else, but Ben would have absolutely no idea what their name was, which only served to emphasise his social inadequacies. Recently he had made a resolution to combat this trend.) He introduced himself to one of the people he was reasonably sure he'd never met. "Good morning Commander! I'm Ben Zwycky of the Svoboda."[/rp] You're not on your own anymore, Josh. ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

[rp]During the distraction of someone bursting out laughing, Ben took the opportunity to grab the piece of bacon and tug it free. Unfortunately, it was stuck to his hair a bit more strongly than it had first appeared, and it took a few of Fleet Commander Blades' hairs with it. Blades turned angrily towards Ben to ask him what on earth he thought he was doing, when he saw the hairy piece of bacon and his face fell again. He seemed to be almost on the point of tears, when Karen's maternal instincts took over. This day would be the final proof that she had recovered from the terrible events that happened all those years ago. This was the man her brother Mark had written to her about so often, who had always plagued him with practical joke after practical joke well after the point when Mark found it funny, eventually driving him temporarily insane. She had only met him a few times, but she hardly ever forgot a face, especially one who had had such a profound impact on the lives of people she cared about. When Mark's course of psychiatric care was completed, her other brother James had taken him on a cruise of Galcom space as a celebration. On the third day of the cruise as the tourist ship entered Nevuela, it was attacked and destroyed by raiders before it could be evacuated, and both of them were killed. She had long since known that holding a grudge against someone would only end up causing more damage to everyone involved, especially to herself, and so she resolved to try and forgive everyone who wronged her and do everything she could to repair any damage to the relationship. This would be the greatest test of that decision, and it had taken an enormous amount of will power, but with the help of her faith she had managed to forgive him. Up until now she had never faced him. Now she was able to look at the man who had (albeit unintentionally) caused the death of both her brothers and see a man who had made a few foolish mistakes but needed some help now. (The events of the last few minutes had helped her in that respect.) She took hold of his hand and crouched down slightly to look into his eyes. "Hey. It's OK. It happens to all of us sometime. Come on, sit down." Just as conversation was about to restart, lots of commlink units went off, including those of the Supreme Commander, Fleet Commander Blades and Commander Zwycky. They all checked them. Mission Briefing in 30 minutes. The SC said his farewell, "..ok, Karen, I guess that's it, we'll resume this later. I'll probably see you at the briefing over at MISCON. Be careful out there." She replied "You take good care of yourself, and say hello to your brother for me. Bye." Before he left to get cleaned up for the briefing, Ben turned to his Comms Officer, "Looks like we might be heading out again soon. You going to be ready for that?" She looked back at him with a peaceful smile. "Yeah, I think I could take another tour." And so a large number of the patrons of Orion Lounge went their separate ways, and the latest episode in the history of this institution began to fade in its memory.[/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)

Hmmm, Karen seems to have had more of a past than I thought. I must speak to her about that sometime [rp] As Ben was halfway to the SC's table, he heard a large crash behind him and turned to see a pile composed of fleet commander Blades, a waiter, a breakfast platter and a fair amount of broken glass. He froze in amazement. This day was just too full of surprises already. He began to think 'Is this my chance to escape?' then corrected himself 'No, the SC and certainly Karen would notice.' He just stayed where he was to see what would happen next. Fleet commander blades hurriedly mopped himself down with a few napkins given to him by a young commander Ben had never met before, then attempted to walk over to the SC's table with as much dignity as he could muster. This was pretty difficult given what had just happened and also that his cleanup operation had left a little to be desired, missing a particle of egg at the corner of his mouth and as he walked right past, Ben got a good view of the small fragment of bacon that was still determinedly clinging to the hair on the back of his head. Ben found himself transfixed by the piece of bacon. What should he do? Should he reach out and try to remove it without anyone noticing, or pretend he couldn't see it? After a wrestle with himself, he decided he needed to remove it. He slowly walked over to where fleet commander Blades was still attempting to come to terms with being told about the piece of egg, trying desperately not to look at the back of his head for too long. He desperately tried to think of some sort of natural gesture he could do that would enable him to move his hand within striking distance of the offending particle. As he approached, Karen smiled at him again then turned to the SC, "Karl, can I introduce you to my Commander, Ben Zwycky?"[/rp] Sorry Blades, couldn't resist that, but at least I'm a partial distraction. ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

[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)

[rp]Karen went on to talk about all the things that had happened to her since she had last seen him, including her relationship and eventual engagement with Robin Closeman and some of the amazing things she had seen during her time on the Svoboda. Her relaxed, joyful and maternal manner also enabled her to ask (and get answers to) questions that no-one else would dare ask the Supreme Commander of Galcom. She wasn't one to harbour any sort of grudge against him, she hadn't really regarded their dinner together as a date, just a nice evening out with a nice guy who happened to have a very difficult job to do. (She often didn't appreciate the sort of impact she had on the lives of the men around her. She would never try to use her looks as a means of influencing people, she just naturally broke down barriers.) The conversation eventually came round to the current situation. "Don't talk to me about the Empirians and Vesperons! I mean why can't they ever learn to settle their differences? Especially the Vesperons after the hammering they took last time! What are they thinking?" At that moment, Commander Zwycky entered the room, looking even more worn out than Karen, and went straight to the bar. "Orange juice, ice and lemon." "Sure you don't want anything stronger than that?" "Nah, wakes me up and gets my mind going without destroying any brain cells." He took a gulp and gave a sigh of satisfaction before turning round to see who was around. As his view reached a table at the back he nearly dropped his glass. He took a second look. And a third. He rubbed his eyes and took another. It was! Karen sitting next to the SC having a friendly chat! She looked up from her conversation, noticed Ben, smiled at him and beckoned him over. He was very confused and stayed where he was. She beckoned him again, mouthing, "come on!" He started over very anxiously, not sure what to do or expect. He was socially backward at the best of times, but this...[/rp] that gives you about 20-30 seconds of conversation between the question and when she notices me, if you want to use that. ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

[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)

[rp]The Comms Officer of the GCV Svoboda entered the room and headed for the bar, on the brink of emotional exhaustion after her long shift in Procyon. She attracted an amount of silent attention with her prescence, since she was tall and thin with long ginger hair and bright blue eyes. She was pretty, too. Not a supermodel, but certainly pretty enough to have had many a faux pas excused her over the years. She ordered her favourite drink of all time, lemonade and blackcurrant, before looking around for a familiar face. Normally she would be the life and soul of any party, but right now she wasn't in the mood to make any new friends. Her face brightened enormously as she caught sight of an old aquaintance. She took a sip from her newly arrived drink and headed over. A number of surprised eyes followed her as before he could say a word she walked over to his table, put her drink on it, sat down next to him with a thump, and said with a broad smile, "Hi Karl, I haven't seen you in years! How're you doing?" During her five years as a secretary on Galcom HQ, she had never known him as Karl Reines, Supreme Commander of Galcom and most powerful military leader on the planet. She had known him as Karl, the nice man who worked a lot with her boss Jiri Bitbek, chief administrator of Galcom HQ at the time. [/rp] You can 'jog your memory' of her by looking at her personnel file, here, SC. (If you want) http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/S...ommsOfficer.htm Hope I haven't been out of line, there. ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

[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).]

[rp]War plus 4 days 8 hours 30 minutes S'Lin A'Shar and his remaining four followers made their way quickly to the turboshaft and selected the Sub-Deck. S'Lin was concerned that the only weapons they had managed to aquire were a few pieces of twisted metal that had been blown from one of the bulkheads. They had managed to blunt the edges of one of the ends slightly and had wrapped some material from their uniforms around it to make a serviceable handle, so that it wouldn't slice into their hands as soon as they used it. The other end was pretty savage and would do a fair amount of damage if they could get a good swing at someone, but their best hope was to avoid any confrontation with the Svoboda's marines. As they exited the turboshaft, they looked around the corridors for any sign of a marine or a vulnerable flight or systems engineer that they could take hostage, but the corridors were clear. The Svoboda's engineers were well trained and knew that during an escaped prisoner or intruder situation, their first priority was to find refuge, cover, or at least somewhere where they could see someone coming early and have a number of escape routes. After that, they would listen for the Combat Officer's report of where the intruders were, so that they would know whether they could safely carry on with their current assignment. S'Lin's little militia wouldn't be getting any help. Almost as soon as they had all left the turboshaft, the doors closed behind them and it whisked itself back up to a higher deck. S'Lin was concerned. The turboshaft was almost certainly going to pick up some marines to come after them. He had three choices. Either he could run down the corridor as far as he could with his men and attempt to get to the shuttle bay, though he very much doubted he could get far enough in time and if those marines had sniper rifles he would be sentencing them all to death. They could try and get to the shuttle bay via the service tubes, but since they were unfamiliar with the detailed layout of this vessel, and would be largely unable to use their weapons in the tight confines of the tunnels, they would be putting themselves at another disadvantage. The third alternative would be to try and ambush the marines as they exited the turboshaft. It would be tricky, but with the element of surprise on their hands and in a close-combat situation they would stand a chance, and if successful, they would have a much better selection of weapons. S'Lin made his choice. Ambush the marines, then if successful, grab their weapons and try the service tunnels. He gave the order and they flattened themselves against the bulkhead wall either side of the turboshaft as they heard it coming back down. Joost van Weig and Matti Eriksen headed down from deck 3 in the turboshaft, having been informed of the situation by Doug. The escaped prisoners had just left the turboshaft and hadn't had access to any of the ship's arms. They both knew that this didn't mean that they would be unarmed. They had been resourceful enough to escape, so they would have been resourceful enough to arm themselves in some way, especially with the bits of debris lying in some of the corridors. They might try to ambush them. There were no guarantees. They stayed at the back of the turboshaft module with rifles at the ready. The doors opened. The corridor ahead of them was empty. Joost made to leave, but Matti held him back. He pulled on his arm and whispered something in his ear. Joost nodded. They both braced one foot against the back wall, facing forwards, rifle still held firmly in both hands. Matti nodded once, twice, three times. They both pushed off hard with their back foot, made one step across the module and then dived forwards, twisting in the air to land on their backs at the doorway entrance and slid on a few metres further, aiming their rifles either side of the doorway. The two vesperons nearest the doors had swung their metal shards hard at where they thought the marine's midriffs would be as soon as they heard the footsteps. They missed by a long way, turned to where their targets now were, only to be looking down the barrel of a standard issue assault rifle, albeit from 2 or three metres away. One of them foolishly fancied his chances and started to swing his rudimentary machete only to be dropped almost instantly with a short burst to the chest. The rest of them thought better of it and resigned themselves to recapture. Matti then reported in; "Sir, we have captured the escapees, including Mr A'Shar and are awaiting backup. One prisoner lost." "Roger that Matti. Good work. Backup on the way." When Ben was informed he added a further instruction. "Matti, when backup arrives escort Mr A'Shar to the bridge. Let's show him how his fleet is doing." War Plus 4 days 8 hours 45 minutes[/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)

[rp]War plus 4 days 8 hours 20 minutes "Yeeha! That's the last of them!" shouted Steelfingers in exultation as he threw IC-1 into a victory roll, "OK, how are the rest of our guys doing?" "You see that big bright glow over there?" replied Cutthroat. "Yeah?" "That's where the Svoboda is." Steelfingers snapped out of celebration mode. "Preparing to jump." Space yawned in front of IC's 1 & 3 and then gobbled them up, spitting them out again a seemingly impossible distance away and giving them a spectacular view of the battlefield warping past them in the meantime. The bright glow grew brighter and bigger until it was all around them and they could see the individual laser blasts and explosions that gave out all that light. And there was the Svoboda in the middle of it all, charging, spinning and weaving to the best of her ability, pouring out laser fire of her own to add to the deadly display. All around her swarmed dozens of fighters locked in life or death struggles with each other or the Svoboda's PTA. At the same time big lumbering Supercruisers and carriers were slugging it out, the Vesperon ships trying to rely more on weight of numbers and fire than tactical manouvers, which was costing them. The two earthcom Spacestars that had joined the fray were co-ordinating their attacks very well, and since they had significantly higher firepower per ship than the Sentry class ships, they had managed to take out a significant number of the Vesperon forces. They had done particularly well when co-ordinating their sweeps with the Guam, whose ralix missiles and T2 torpedoes had been sending many a sentry to the scrapyard. Still, the God's Wrath had been a very welcome bolster to the combined Earthcom/Galcom formation around the Diligence. It was still there, and still contributing, though there were very few people who weren't surprised by that. Maybe it was down to the skill of its pilot, command crew and systems engineers; maybe the vesperons had got themselves a new public enemy number one. Maybe the vesperons were going more for targets of military value rather than ones of revenge. Maybe it was a combination of all of those factors. In any case, the vesperon forces were starting to come under pressure. "Concentrate fire on that Nightstar!" Four IC's did long strafing runs on the enemy vessel, wearing down its shields and digging up showers of molten armour. Then came the Svoboda and one of the Spacestars piling in with their main guns, punching hole after hole until one of them was fatal and the crippled vessel blew apart, severely weakening a couple of the ships attempting to support it, and also damaging one of the IC's. "OK, next Nightstar." ordered Ben. "There are no more of them near us," replied Steve Culper "Are there any more on the way over?" "My TACOPS viewer has gone a bit fuzzy so I can't tell how many are left in the region, but its not many; two or three at the most." Ben thought to himself 'we might actually be winning' then was shaken off his feet as the Svoboda took a number of big hits. "Reactor Cooling System's Damaged: down to 60% power" reported Paul, as The Svoboda's lights and viewscreens flickered briefly. '60%? Didn't we need 65? Oh, no.' "We've got prisoners escaping!" "Are all non-critical systems shut down?" "Cloaking is off, all weapons, shields and engines on full power, launch and chargers are off. Comms are off." "Is the fore turret on? Shut it down! It's not working!" As power to the fore turret was cut, the containment fields in the brig and brig expansion reformed, catapulting a couple of the escaping prisoners into nearby walls, cracking a few ribs. The marines on duty reacted quickly to the situation, because they were still on alert after all the intruders the Svoboda had had. As a number of the escapees were cut down by the brig guards, the rest of them started coming to the conclusion that their own lives were worth preserving and gave themselves up. A few still valued 'the cause' more highly and nearly made it to within striking distance of the guards before falling. In the brig expansion, however, since it was designed primarily as a residential block and there were fewer guards per escaped prisoner, a number of them made it past the guards, including Group Leader S'Lin A'Shar, before they were able to re-establish order. [/rp] I'll do another post soon. Cheers, Alun, that'll come in useful. BTW, have you still got my application form? I'm still not on the ISS members listing nor been given an ISS No. There's no great rush, but I did join a good few months ago. ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Looking good, that's a cool little animation you've got there. I wish I knew how to do that. On the other hand, I'd better correct all the mistakes in my site first, and my mum says I spend too much time in front of the computer at home already. ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Yay! Welcome to the fire, and thanks for the compliment. TTFN (I know that one ) ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Welcome to the party, Alun! [rp]War plus 4 days 8 hours 15 minutes "FATAL system launching!" "Activate PTA! Fire IOD and launch questors!" A section of empty space suddenly started to ripple and boil, erupting great waves of missile and laser fire as the Svoboda's cloaking field broke down revealing it's fearsome aspect. It seemed all the more fearsome with the great gash across it's fore turret, which spat showers of sparks across its nose. The missiles hammered into the Svoboda's target- the latest Nightstar to reinforce the Vesperon group. It's shields weakened, then buckled, then failed, leaving it open to the last few missiles and a mighty rain of laser-fire, which punctured huge holes in its armour, obliterating critical systems and eventually triggering a core breach. There were still a large number of ships nearby with very unfriendly intentions towards the Svoboda and Diligence. The Svoboda launched leech and crab mines from time to time, more to distract and absorb fire from the enemy fighters and PTA than anything else, but they occasionally did more than that, adding a few more Sentries to the mounting tally of losses. "How many more mines have we got?" "Three crabs and two leeches." "OK, carry on launching them, but less often. Missiles?" "4 Vagrants, 10 questors, 16 Perseuses." "Not great. Use them more sparingly; try to line up the IOD more. Karen, see if Alun can spare us any more ships."[/rp] Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood and cry God for Harry, England and Saint George! I thought that you had one sentry and one Starcarrier. Doesn't matter all that much, just for consistency's sake. Great to have you involved. Does it feel good to be back? Whats a PBEM? ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Well Done, Blades! You said you wanted an oscar for Preemptive strike; well you got something better- an orion! It is well deserved. Not that Thomas wouldn't have done a great job, either. ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Sorry, accidentally submitted twice. [This message has been edited by Ben Zwycky (edited 10-18-1999).]

[rp] War plus 4 days 8 hours "We've got a load incoming, from all directions; At least 6 Sentries and 2 Nightstars. There's probably more- it's hard to tell with all that's going on." "Ready the armoured probes. Let's give them some extra distractions." During the 3-day wait, Paul had been making some modifications to a number of the Svoboda's probes. This was mostly because Paul was getting very bored reorganising his quarters, (it was already the tidiest and best-organised room Ben had ever seen in his life) but it also served a useful purpose. Basically, Paul and his team had added a couple of instant Blockades to the flatter sides of the probes to augment their armour and give them some shields, and omniglued some crab mines to both ends of the probes to give them some firepower. They were both attached via universal joints that allowed them to track targets without letting them point at the probe's own solar panels. [/rp] I'm assuming that the whole of the crab moves when it tracks its target. If not, then that makes this a simpler process.[rp] "Another four Sentries confirmed! They're all targeting the Diligence!" "They really don't like you, do they Sev? Add to priority list- assign both Nightstars as FATAL targets- 6 Vagrants each, four of the Sentries 1 Vagrant each, launch probes!" As the 'Get Badgerius Task Force' emerged from hyperspace, their Tacscopes exploded with enemy targets. As determined as they were to get through to the man who had blown the whistle on their plans, they were unprepared for the sheer weight of fire that they met. Nightstar No. 1 and three of the Sentries were torn to pieces almost immediately, then they began to regroup and organise themselves, co-ordinating their attacks. Nightstar No. 2 launched all it's fighters and the situation became serious. They split into three groups, The Nightstar plus four of its fighters and two Sentries attacked from one direction, and a group of 5 sentries plus two fighters attacked from another. The third group of four lightstars held back, hoping to wait for a hole in the defensive line to appear, so they could get a clean run in on their target. The different formations weaved this way and that, trying to either tempt their adversaries out of their defensive positions by offering easy opportunities to surround isolated ships, or trying to establish a crossfire of their own, all the time looking to punch a hole in any weak spot they thought they could see. Ben assigned three of the Svoboda's interceptors to take on the four lightstars, 5 of the IC's temporarily under his control to assist the Starcarrier against the main sentry group and 4 to assist him against the Nightstar group. The two IC's left assisted what was left of the Diligence's IC's in engaging anyone who got past. As the battle progressed, Ben reassigned his vessels as the different vesperon groups were depleted or reinforced and his own groups suffered losses. Three on four quickly became three on three as Cavalry started to find his feet. "Nice shot, man!" applauded DeadBoy, "go get em!" It had been a lucky shot that had taken out their opponent's engines, which had made the fatal shot much easier. However, it was enough to get some confidence flowing in the new pilot, and all the promise he'd shown in the simulator started to shine through. He span round and dived to line up a lightstar that was trying to get a lock on the Diligence. A sustained laser burst first took down the little crafts shields then shattered its canopy and the last few shots pummelled directly into the pilot, causing a very unpleasant, but quick death. As the battle progressed, it gathered more and more attention from the vesperon forces, and the ships that survived long enough gradually worked out that it was the Svoboda that was organising the defence. As a result, they began prioritising the Svoboda with their reinforcements and attacks. It happened gradually, so Ben didn't catch on immediately, but they became more and more determined, so that eventually Ben struggled to maintain his balance as the Svoboda was rocked by a couple of explosions. "Shield integrity breach. Damage." "You don't say." "Fore turret is gone! So are the solar panels and IC bay 1!" "Cloak the ship, switch off PTA and get us out of here! Full afterburn!" The Svoboda shimmered into invisibility as it sped away, still absorbing fire. As the volume of fire decreased, the Svoboda's powerful Linear S/IV shields started to recover. As soon as the incoming shots dropped to nothing, Ben ordered his ship back into the thick of things "Shields back up to 40%" "How many Vagrants do we have?" "Just ten more, but we've got 30 perseuses and 20 Questors" "OK, assign 4 Vagrants to the new Nightstar on FATAL, be ready to switch the PTA back on, and ready some more mines. Go." As the Svoboda swung round to deliver more death to the enemy, Ben started to wonder in the back of his mind how long they would be able to keep this up. [/rp] Imitate the action of the tiger. Come on, Alun! ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Alun, I had you in pluto 'cos I didn't know where the attack would be, and you're only one region away from the three possible attack points, so you could support anyone quickly. I'm mentioning your contribution to the battle, so please feel free to tell it from your perspective and have someone (me, Badgerius, or "the phantom" Ristar) call you in to Mercury and join the carnage! Ristar, I've put enough words in other people's mouths not to mind it the other way round. That was no problem at all, because it was consistent, and adds to the plot. That's all that matters, really, when people read this later either at my site or in the archives here, and they say- "Oh, here's a good one- Eternal Diligence- that was Badgerius" first story- a quality story by a quality author.' "And the other one says, the Badgerius? Wow- I've gotta read that!" Everyone: I've edited my post from a while back to give the correct number of ships left at that stage. [rp] war plus 4 days 7 hours 50 minutes The invading fleet and Galcom's response had shattered the calm of Mercury space for nearly an hour now. Capital Ships lumbered from tactical position to tactical position, attempting to swat away the clouds of fighters engaged in their own life-or-death struggles around them, pouring out deluges of missile and laser fire. All over the region armour was cracking, bulkheads were squealing, screens were shattering and ships were bursting in spectacular blasts of heat, light and debris. "Look out!" Shouted Smiler, as the stardrone they were chasing flew right through the line of fire between two of the capital ships and was torn to shreds. Poltergeist climbed sharply and span to get a look at their pursuer. In the moment of decision, he had chosen to dive below the deadly line, enabling IC-2 to get round behind him. That was his last mistake. Ten seconds later, despite all his best efforts, he was nothing more than a vague memory. IC-2 was then momentarily clear to make a run on the nearest Nightstar, which it did, launching a Vagrant and getting off a long laser burst which tore off a torpedo turret, while it was largely occupied with the Aestrom Carrier that had come from SCID. "Got him!" Shouted Firehail as his tally of enemy fighters reached five for this battle. "$&*┬ú!" Exclaimed Deadboy in the seat behind him as their ship was shaken violently by a laser burst from their pursuer. "Oh, myÔǪ"said Firehail as he saw the stream of fire from the Svoboda's PTA arcing towards them as it locked on their assailant. Two bright spheres of energy hit IC-3 before it tumbled out of the line of fire between the turret and it's target. Luckily, the target didn't fare so well and erupted shortly afterwards in an orange flash. "Sheilds are damaged, the missile bays are damaged, tacscan's out, lost some armour, and navigation doesn't look too hot. We'd better head in, Firehail. Firehail?" But Firehail didn't respond. He was still sitting strapped into his chair with his head flopped forward, blood dripping gently from his forehead and starting to form a small pool in the middle of his visor, the metal shard of former armour still half-sticking out of his helmet. Deadboy, who didn't particularly want to live up to his callsign quickly took over flight control of their little vessel, which suddenly seemed a whole lot smaller amidst all the mayhem. "Svoboda, this is IC-3. We have moderate damage, and Firehail's unconscious. Request emergency recall." "That's approved." Ben called his chief engineer. "Paul, I want IC-3 fixed and rearmed as soon as possible. Take short cuts and call in the backup pilot." Flight Engineer Gregory Robinson was about to get his first taste of a genuine interceptor combat. He, along with seven others had been selected for training as interceptor pilots, each having been overseen by one of the regular pilots, and were ordered to do at least one hour per day in the dogfighting simulator. He had done more than that and had achieved the highest ratings out of all the candidates, and had done many mock battles in real space, but this was different. One mistake could mean death. However, the exhilaration of the moment and all the tricks, techniques and lessons that had been drilled into him took over and he felt up for the challenge. IC-3 looked a mess to start with. Luckily Firehail was taken out of it and was in Medibay before Greg arrived. It wouldn't have done much for his confidence to see Firehail being dragged out. Paul and his team quickly assessed the damage. Imediately they cut off the piece of twisted armour that was blocking the exit to a number of the launch tubes, and slammed a couple of instant blockade mark II's over the weakest points in their armour, and removed the missiles from the launch tubes that weren't quickly repairable. In all, it took them just over two and a half minutes. "Right, we've supplemented your shields, so you actually have more than it says there, and the same with your armour. The rest we haven't really touched, or it's obvious what's wrong, so Deadboy can tell you about that on the way. Off you go." Before Greg (or Cavalry as he would now be called) could reply, Paul jumped down from the IC's wing and moved quickly out of the way before IC-3 was catapulted back into the fire. "Doug, how's the intruder situation?" "Contained, and we're just moving in to finish them off." "Good. How are our repairs going?" "Not too bad, the fore turret's nearly fixed and the reactor cooling system's back up to 86%. We're ignoring the damage to the Shuttle Launch Bay for now until the intruders are cleared." "Okay, how's the Diligence doing? I said we would keep close, but we've lost her in all the confusion." Steve flipped through the friendly targets, "Erm, it's at- huh? 36% hull integrity but 40% shields? In deep trouble, Ben." "Right, let's get over there! Try and get some of the second Task Force's IC's to come with us. Nobody tries to kill my friends!" The arrival of the ISS Second Task force had been a great morale booster. There had been a sudden explosion of green dots on everyone's TACscopes when its nightstars had started to launch their IC's. Steelfingers was at his diplomatic best "Come on you guys! We're going to go and save Badgerius!" "Sev Badgerius? Sure! He taught me and my brother! Come on guys, lets go rescue the Badge!" The Svoboda, flanked by 10 Solarian class interceptors and a starcarrier came out of hyperspace with all guns blazing and piled into the two Nightstars and four Sentries who thought they were finishing off a beaten vessel. The speed of the attack combined with it's ferocity caught them completely off guard, and suddenly they were the ones in deep trouble. Five Vagrants under FATAL control smashed into both of the nightstars, which were then pummelled by the concentrated fire of the Svoboda's IOD and turrets,the guns of two interceptors, a starcarrier, and what remained of the Diligence. They didn't last long. Each of the Sentries now had two IC's attacking them, who made impressively short work of their immediate targets before engaging the remaining fighters. At different moments during the skirmish each and every pilot was amazed that the Diligence was still in less than 10 pieces. "Hang on in there, Sev. I know you can," ordered Ben, knowing that he couldn't afford to expose the Diligence to much more fire. Once the immediate danger was dealt with, Ben looked around for the next potential threat. "Assume Defensive formation around the Diligence. We are not going to let these guys down. Looks like I was more right than I wanted to be." [/rp] Once more, or close it up with our English dead! ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins) BTW- I won't be around until tomorrow evening at the earliest- going to my sister's graduation (it's unusually late, but then that's up to the university). I'll probably miss the Orion Fleet Leader election unless they take late votes. I might be able to make it, though, you never know. Anyway, later. [This message has been edited by Ben Zwycky (edited 10-15-1999).]

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)