Eternal Diligence-Part 2

[Badgerius]

Sorry I haven't been keeping up on this. My project is behind the eight ball, and I'm working my pants off. At the same time I'm attending school full time.

However, I think I can spare an hour or so today, and shall continue to write the story. A big pause was actually part of the story, oddly enough, so it works out.

Cmdrs, I am just the Skipper of a lowly Mk1 battlecruiser. I have been granted no command authority. If you decide to go to the moon and wait for the end that is your perogitive. I figured you'd head for Centris, though.

So, more to come today.

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

Commander Badgerius, GCV Diligence

[Badgerius]

Ok, back into action.

Cmdr Tringad, I've written you in. You may join us in Centris at your discretion.

[RP ON]

War +4 days 6 hours 23 minutes

Allison OÔÇÖNeil walked through the blackened corridor of deck one, moving towards the bridge. She carefully stepped over the emergency power conduits and coolant piping that had been laid across the bulkhead. When she reached the bridge, she opened the hatch manually. "The old girl is sure taking a beating this time," she said to herself, and stepped onto the bridge.

The bridge was a mess. The circulation systems werenÔÇÖt taking the smoke out of the air properly, so the whole room seemed to be shrouded in mist. Displays were flickering on and off at various stations, and there was a large crack in the main viewscreen.

The Diligence had fallen back to Cronus. The fleet had followed them. Then they had headed for Centris, in a vain hope of getting ahead of the Vesperon fleet. When they arrived they had found the area empty of enemy ships. Centris remained untaken. Then the fleet had deployed to defend Centris, and waited.

That was three days ago, thought OÔÇÖNeil, and there hadnÔÇÖt been one report of Vesperon movement since then. The Majestic Empirian Armada had remained at Cronus, unwilling to abandon their capital. But the enemy hadnÔÇÖt attacked. They had erected another class 14 minefield at the jump point to Cronus, and hid behind it.

Sparks looked up from his console with a look of relief on his face. "Lt. Commander," he said, "weÔÇÖve got reinforcements inbound! The 2nd ISS taskforce under Commander Tringad will be here within ten minutes!"

For the first time in days, OÔÇÖNeil almost smiled. "Excellent," she said, "IÔÇÖll go inform the Commander."

****

Commander Sev Badgerius lay on a cot in the Marine quarters of the Diligence. His own quarters were currently exposed to vacuum. Beside him lay Sergeant Hans Peterson, assigned as the CommanderÔÇÖs bodyguard, as specified by regulations in a time of war. Hans had taken to his new job quite well. He felt that this was his chance to atone for the death of his previous Commander. He knew that Big Al probably knew that when she assigned him this job after the death of his squad, but that didnÔÇÖt bother him. ThatÔÇÖs what officers do, he thought, they think of stuff like that.

Sev sat up. "It doesnÔÇÖt make sense!" he said, obviously frustrated.

"WhatÔÇÖs that, sir?" asked Peterson, unsure if the Commander was talking to him, or to himself.

Sev looked at Hans. "The Vesperons were winning. They had outgunned us, outfought us, and outmaneuvered us. Why did they stop now? If they hadnÔÇÖt theyÔÇÖd have conquered Pluto by now. Now weÔÇÖve gotten ahead of them, and we stand a chance of hurting them again before they reach Earth."

Hans shrugged. "I dunno, sir. Up until now, theyÔÇÖve been fighting smart. They snuck past us and took Tramis. They attacked Arima in a textbook pincer attack. So far, theyÔÇÖve been a textbook case of ÔÇÿHow to win a War.ÔÇÖ"

Sev nodded. "So, what has changed?"

Hans thought for a second. "Nothing, sir. They still have the upper hand."

"So, why deviate from the textbook plan?"

Hans looked at the ceiling, and thought out loud. "Well, sir, if it was a ground skirmish, and I had the upper hand, the only reason I would have for deviating from a textbook plan is" his eyes hardened, "an ace in the hole. Something that isnt in the book, but that will accomplish the same goals faster or with reduced casualties."

"An interesting notion. You may have something there." Sev paused, thinking. "You know, I had a thought like this a couple of days ago. Something they did that was an ace in the hole, but I cant remember what it was. Computer, check the bridge logs for"

Sev was interrupted by the opening of the door. Peterson tensed for trouble out of habit, but it was OÔÇÖNeil.

"Commander," Allison said, smiling, "The 2nd ISS Taskforce is approaching Centris."

Sev smiled. "Excellent! I thought we were going to have to win this on our own. IÔÇÖll go to the bridge, and greet Commander Tringad when he arrives." He stood and accompanied Allison back to the bridge, with Peterson following, as was his duty.

In the Marine quarters, the ComputerÔÇÖs voice spoke: "Data insufficient for a search. Please redefine parameters." But there was no one there to here it.

[RP OFF]

If anyone can see where this is going, feel free to act accordingly.

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

Commander Badgerius, GCV Diligence

[Guest]

Man, I had a whole post made, took me thirty minutes to write, and now I don't get to use it Anyway, that's a good a way as any to write me in.

Will post tomorrow maybe. If not then monday. Going out of town for the weekend.

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

Commander Alun Tringad

GCV Black Falcon ISS03

Vice Fleet Leader - ISS Fleet

Tactical Support Coordinator - ISS Fleet

Bushi of the Dragon Council - Order of Jade Dragon

Director of Strategic Operations - Order of Jade Dragon

[This message has been edited by William Ramsay (edited 09-30-1999).]

[Badgerius]

Oops, sorry about that.

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

Commander Badgerius, GCV Diligence

[Ben Zwycky]

Don't worry about it. I've probably made it worse with this post.

Maybe I've got this wrong, Badgerius, but it seems right.

[rp]war plus 4 days 6 hours 35 minutes

"Idiot!" shouted the Svoboda's navigation officer in frustration, loud enough to get the instant attention of everyone on the bridge.

"I'm such an idiot!"

"What do you mean, Chris?" asked Ben

"How could I have missed that? Oh, it's fluxfield 5 in tramis. That's why they were so keen to capture it, and why they didn't seem to go on any further."

"Sorry, Chris, you've lost me. What about fluxfield 5?"

"Well, one of the places it leads to is supernova 1. Ring any bells?"

"Supernova 1, supernova 1 that's where fluxfields 2 & 3 go. They can get right round us into Mercury or Pluto."

"Exactly. Normally I'd say they'd be taking a hell of a risk doing that, but the Vesperons have done enormous amounts of research into fluxfields. One of their main griefs with Galcom has been about them wanting to annex Procyon in order to redirect one of the exits from the fluxfield in Ramis there. So I'd be a fool to think they haven't found some way to avoid ending up at black holes 2 or 3. If they can do that then they would probably choose to enter Mercury, because that puts two jumpgates in between us and them, but if they can't then they'll most likely go to Pluto, because they only have to dodge one black hole that way. Either way we're in big trouble."

"Those brilliant b&*#@%£$. We've been suckered good and proper. Who have we got in Mercury and Pluto?"[/rp]

Well, everybody, if I've got this right, this is your chance to get involved. Anyone wanting to be in Mars or Pluto? Join the fun!

If I'm wrong, I'm very sorry, and I've probably messed things up completely, but this post can always be deleted. It does seem to fit together very well, though, although it puts us all well into the stinky stuff.

BTW, have we got an absolute date sorted for this i.e. what date was war plus 0? Or are we going to sort that out later? I mean relative to Gamma Omega etc.

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

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 10-07-1999).]

[Badgerius]

Maybe you've got it, maybe you don't.

BTW, my navcharts say that Flux point 02 at Mars connects to supernova 03, while flux point 02 and 04 at Pluto and Mercury connect Supernova 1.

Move your ships as you see fit. If you guess right, you'll get to fight!

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

Commander Badgerius, GCV Diligence

[Ben Zwycky]

DOH! misread the appendix. I've edited my post. On the other hand it could be a bluff to make us withdraw so they can capture the rest of Empirian space, but that seems unlikely. Anyway, nice twist!

Anybody want to join the thread? this is your big chance! be in Mercury or Pluto, or be a defender around Centris. It'd be nice to know how many ships we have to play with before we decide where to put them.

BTW Alun, what's happened to the ISS website?

Commlink's died, and I can't get the Members Listing to load.

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

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 10-07-1999).]

[Ben Zwycky]

Come on everybody! Why so shy all of a sudden? I don't have the command authority to order people to different areas, so you're either going to have to speak up or I'll have to put words in people's mouths again, which I don't want to do. I'll also have to just assume who's around. At the moment we have:

Ristar

Badgerius

Tringad and the ISS 2nd Task Force

me

plus as yet unknown defenders.

I'm throwing this wide open- old hands, newbies, you have a choice of places to be, you don't have to think of a reason for being there, you could just be in the wrong (or right) place at the wrong (or right) time. If it sounds like I'm getting desperate, then maybe I am but really I don't want this story to just fade away, and it'll be much more fun with lots of people involved.

I'd better calm down now. Think nebulae, think clouds, think... ahh, that's better

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

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 10-08-1999).]

[Badgerius]

I'm going to wait until after the weekend before continuing. We're getting close to the end, here, and I have another bc3k project waiting in the wings, so I want to finish this soon. I think three more posts from me (maybe four) should about wrap it up.

This will be the last pause. After this weekend, I'll finish this off at about one post every day or two.

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Commander Badgerius, GCV Diligence

[Ben Zwycky]

Well, I'm putting words in people's mouths again, but it doesn't seem like there's any other option. I left it as late as I could.

[rp]war plus 4 days 6 hours 40 minutes

"So you see the situation, sir." concluded Commander Zwycky.

"Indeed I do, Commander," agreed Fleet Commander Ristar, who then took charge of the situation;

"Commander Zwycky and myself will go to Mercury along with half of SCID HQ's forces, since Mercury is largely undefended; Alun and the second Task Force will return to Pluto, where he will be assisted by Gazer1, and everyone else will remain here in case this is just a ploy to get us to split up. Deploy probes in each zone and as soon as you detect an invading Vesperon fleet, let us know and if possible how many, and we will assist you. EarthCom won't like taking orders from us, but I'm sure they'll see it's necessary. Once in your regions, heavily mine the fluxfield if you have time."

Everyone carried out their orders, apprehensive of the battle ahead.[rp]

Defenses as ready as they will be. Hope I'm not out of line.

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

Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda

ISS Fleet

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

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

[Guest]

LOL Back to Pluto

[rp]

"Alright people, let's go back to Pluto." said Tringad.

"Sir, didn't we just leave Pluto?" asked Borin, standing beside Tringad.

"Yes, but that's where Ristar needs us, so that's where we're going" replied Tringad.

"Well, at least we're used to the region" remarked Borin under his breath.

[/rp]

Just letting everyone know I'm here. I really hope this picks up again.

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

Commander Alun Tringad

GCV Black Falcon ISS03

Vice Fleet Leader - ISS Fleet

Tactical Support Coordinator - ISS Fleet

Bushi of the Dragon Council - Order of Jade Dragon

Director of Strategic Operations - Order of Jade Dragon

[Badgerius]

Ok, everybody in position? I'll be posting the next chapter around noon (Pacific time).

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

Commander Badgerius, GCV Diligence

[Badgerius]

Ok, back in the game.

Ben, I put some words in your mouth. Nothing major, but I hope you don't mind.

[rp on]

war +4 days 6 hours 45 minutes

The answer came an hour later, though from an unexpected source.

"Sir, the GCV Svoboda is hailing us," said Sparks.

"Very well, put him through to the map table display," Badgerius walked over to the maptable, which was about the only display on the bridge that wasnÔÇÖt cracked, damaged, or completely burned out. On the maptable display was a man in a much cleaner uniform, on a much cleaner bridge.

"Ben! How are you? Please tell me your not going to offer me a tow. IÔÇÖve had two other offers in the last hour. WeÔÇÖre holding together."

The other Commander smiled. "Nope, I know how tough that buckets of bolts is. IÔÇÖm planning to stick with you in the next battle, as you seem to attract their fire. Which brings me to the reason IÔÇÖm calling. We think that the Vesperons are going to take the flux point in Tramis and jump to Mercury or Pluto, bypassing us completely."

Sev did a reasonable impression of a gaffed fish. "Of course, they invaded Alpha Majoris by stabilizing a flux point! They can do the same hereWhere to you need us, Ben?"

"ItÔÇÖs your call, but Mercury is less defendable, without a station in the area. IÔÇÖm going there, along with Fleet Cmdr Ristar and some EarthCom boys."

"WeÔÇÖll back you up Ben. See you at Mercury."

Sev looked up from the now blank screen. "OÔÇÖNeil," he said.

OÔÇÖNeil walked to the map table. "I heard, sir."

"Get us to Mercury."

"Aye aye, sir. Helm! Lay in a course to Mercury space! Best speed."

The GCV Diligence came about, her hyperspace engines warming up, and fell into formation with the Mercury bound fleet. Then, as one, they jumped towards Mercury.

****

"Approaching the Mercury jump point. Shields are up." The helmsman checked the systems one more time. "We are ready to jump."

"Very well, helm," replied Sev evenly. He keyed the public address system. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Captain speaking. We are approaching the Mercury jump point. Five minutes ago, contact was lost with the Orbital Defense System around Mercury, so we can assume the Vesperons have begun their final assault on this system. We will be heavily outnumbered, although not quite so bad as some of the earlier battles." He paused. Now for the bad news, he thought. "As you know, this ship is heavily damaged, and repairs are jury-rigged at best. It is entirely possible that we will lose gravity, power, and air before this battle is over. Therefore, all personnel are ordered to wear pressure suits from this point forward. Good luck." He turned off the PA system, and turned to OÔÇÖNeil. "Break out the pressure suits," he said.

Five minutes later, all was ready, and Badgerius turned to his helmsman, issuing a one word command: "Jump."

war +4 days 7 hours 6 minutes

[rp off]

Once more into the breach, dear friends

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

Commander Badgerius, GCV Diligence

[Badgerius]

This is it. If you want in on the fun, now's the time.

[RP ON]

war + 4 days 7 hours 7 minutes

The Diligence jumped into Mercury space alongside the rest of the fleet, but any semblance of group tactics quickly broke down into one-on-one, one-on-two, and even one-on-three situations. The Vesperon ships were everywhere, outnumbering the Galcom ships four-to-one. The situation quickly became desperate.

"Shields down! Damage to flight deck!" OÔÇÖNeil clung to the maptable with all her strength. The Diligence was getting pounded on by three cruisers. She couldnÔÇÖt take much more.

"Very well. Helm, launch 3 Vagrant missiles at our current target and do a tactical jump to the far side of Mercury."

"Aye, sir. Vagrants away! Engaging hyperspace engines!" The helmsman had blood running down his face from being hit by some flying debris, but he had remained at his post. His eyes gleamed cold and hard. He wasnt going to let them take Earth. He wasnt

OÔÇÖNeil cursed as the ship came out of hyperspace. "Two carriers have targeted us! 300 kilometers and closing! And it looks like those cruisers are following us!"

Badgerius banged his fist on the maptable. "Damn! Did the Vagrants hit?"

OÔÇÖNeil looked at the maptableÔÇÖs sensor readouts. "Yes, sir. One cruiser is heavily damaged."

"WeÔÇÖll concentrate our fire on that one."

OÔÇÖNeil nodded, then shouted, "The carriers are in firing range! Missiles inbound!"

Looking back, Sev could never quite remember exactly what happened next. The missiles must have hit the forward hull, just forward of the bridge. There was a blinding flash, and most of the bridge crew were thrown into the aft bulkhead. All except for the helmsman. A piece of razor-sharp shrapnel took his head off, killing him while he stood at the helm. When SevÔÇÖs vision cleared, the forward bulkhead of the bridge was gone, and he had an open view of space. He could see the battle raging around him as the Diligence tumbled through space. Amazingly, though, the artificial gravity of the bridge remained functional. The only thing allowing him to breathe, though, was his pressure suit.

Sev stood, and shook his head. "All bridge crew, back to your stations," he said. He couldnÔÇÖt think of anything else to do. He couldnÔÇÖt evacuate the ship with the flight deck damaged, and they couldnÔÇÖt just sit here.

He looked at the body of the helmsman. May you rest in peace, though you died in war, he thought, before his mind snapped back to the task at hand.

"OÔÇÖNeil, man the helm. IÔÇÖll check the damage."

It wasnÔÇÖt good. The ship still had main power, but two turrets were gone and both missile bays were offline. The flight deck was a mess, and about the only part of the ship that had air was engineering, which was heavily radiated. The solar reactor was gone, as was the probe launch bay, the mine launch bay, the cargo bay, and the crew quarters. The computers still worked, although why was an utter mystery.

And they still had shields.

Through some feat of engineering magic, the chief engineer had managed to keep the shields operating, and the main laser still worked, as did the sub-light engines.

"Helm is answering, sir. What course?"

Commander Badgerius almost gave the order to fall back to Earth. There wasnÔÇÖt much his ship could do to damage the Vesperon forces, and his ship was doomed if she stayed here. But then his eyes spotted another damage report coming in: hyperspace engines offline. Without hyperspace engines, he couldnÔÇÖt get to Earth in less than ten hours, and his ship could be easily destroyed enroute. None of the other ships could be spared to tow him, so that left one course of action.

"Back into the thick of it, Allison," he said softly. "WeÔÇÖll go down fighting."

War + 4 days 7 hours 51 minutes

[RP OFF]

In the next post the war ends. It's now or never.

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

Commander Badgerius, GCV Diligence

[Ben Zwycky]

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.

"$&*£!" Exclaimed Deadboy in the seat behind him as their ship was shaken violently by a laser burst from their pursuer.

"Oh, my"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).]

[Ben Zwycky]

[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)

[Ben Zwycky]

Sorry, accidentally submitted twice.

[This message has been edited by Ben Zwycky (edited 10-18-1999).]

[Guest]

Okay, here we go. Forgive me, but I'm a little rusty This is nothing like the PBEM DeSylva had going. (Not worse, not better, just different)

[rp]

"Sir, we've arrived in Pluto" reported the Nav officer.

"Good. Now, where's the party?" replied Tringad sarcasticly. He didn't know if the Vesperons were coming his way, but he sure as hell wanted them to. His force wasn't that big, but he was sure they could handle a Vesperon force almost twice thier size.

The Vesperons used the same type of ships that Tringad had in his inventory. That would make it easier because he would know the limitations of each ship. Unfortunately, those limitations applied to his force also. But he had something the Vesperons didn't: A Galactan-Class Battlecruiser. It wasn't much, but he had to take all the advantages he could get.

"Sir! Vesperon probe entering the region!" yelled the Tac Officer. Tringad had to think to remember who it was: Jennifer Maelstrom, his new Tactical Officer. She had been assigned to the Black Falcon after former Tactical Officer Danz Borin had been promoted to Commander, and given command of the GCV Midway, one of the Starcruiser-Class Heavy Cruisers in Tringad's task force.

"Put it on my tacops screen" ordered Tringad. Sure enough, a Vesperon probe. The Vesperons wouldn't send a probe unless they wanted to know what was in the region. And they wouldn't want to know that, unless they planed on going through Pluto to get to Earth.

"Destroy the probe" ordered Tringad.

The Black Falcon's twin IOD came to life and filled the viewscreen with bright fire. One shot was all it took to disintegrate the probe.

"Sir, message from the Shogun: They are under attack from the Vesperons. They want us to assist." reported the comms officer.

"Acknowledge. We are on our way." replied Tringad.

"Tactical, leave a probe in the region so we can keep an eye on Pluto. I want to know the second a Vesperon enters the region." said Tringad while turning to helm. "All hands, battle-stations. Helm, let's jump to Mercury."

The ship shook as they entered hyperspace. They arrived at the wormhole to Pluto and entered.

Mercury was in worse shape then they had thought. There was laser-fire everywhere. The first thing Tringad saw upon entering was the Diligence.

"Sir, IC3 out of the Diligence is requesting assistance." said comms.

"Right. TAC, have the Mars' Pride launch her ICs to assist the Diligence. I also want the Midway along side her. Have the Dragonfire launch her ICs with SAD orders, with the Guam running back up for the Svoboda" ordered Tringad at a million miles an hour.

"Yes, sir. Orders are being carried out." replied Jennifer.

[/rp]

FYI: The Mars' Pride is a Nightstar, as well as the Dragonfire. The Midway and the Guam are Starcruiser-Class Heavy Cruisers.

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

Commander Alun Tringad

GCV Black Falcon ISS03

Vice Fleet Leader - ISS Fleet

Tactical Support Coordinator - ISS Fleet

Bushi of the Dragon Council - Order of Jade Dragon

Director of Strategic Operations - Order of Jade Dragon

[Ben Zwycky]

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)

[Gallion]

PBEM = Play By E-Mail

[Guest]

Gallion's right about PBEM.

It's good,but my writting still isn't up to par with you guys

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

Commander Alun Tringad

GCV Black Falcon ISS03

Vice Fleet Leader - ISS Fleet

Tactical Support Coordinator - ISS Fleet

Bushi of the Dragon Council - Order of Jade Dragon

Director of Strategic Operations - Order of Jade Dragon

[Ben Zwycky]

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)

[Guest]

ROTFLMSAO: Rolling On The Floor Laughing My Sorry A$$ Off

Thanks, Ben Later.

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

Commander Alun Tringad

GCV Black Falcon ISS03

Vice Fleet Leader - ISS Fleet

Tactical Support Coordinator - ISS Fleet

Bushi of the Dragon Council - Order of Jade Dragon

Director of Strategic Operations - Order of Jade Dragon

[Ben Zwycky]

[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)

[Ben Zwycky]

[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)