Starship Smackdown!

[Holeypaladin]

A popular holovision show in the Achenaran Imperium, the program called "Starship Smackdown!" broadcasts a variety of space battles for the entertainment of the audience. Some of these battles are inspired by actual wars, while others use realistic simulations that are indistinguishable from reality. Cool Spaceships are designed by the writers, or taken from actual existing ships, and placed against each other in spectacular displays of space combat.

"This week on Starship Smackdown!" The announcer, an Ekathian named Ronald Burgundy, a former employee of GNN who had been fired after numerous viewer complaints about his difficulty separating his personal romances from his work environment, was now working a much more laid-back job with "Starship Smackdown!"

"We have a battle between behemoths," said Burgundy. "The Xindhi, whose mere gunboats are the size of light dreadnoughts, will be taking on a force of Spyder class destroyers, themselves the size of battlecruisers! Who will win this epic feud in the depths of space? Tonight we will witness the spectacle... of Starship Smackdown!"

The view shifted to the void of space, in order to display the fleet movements of both sides in the time period before the engagement.

[Skallagrim]

TOP SECRET

Copy No. 4 of 22
IXFSPACOM
Haz’ard’ul
0011-2302-22543
54-098

22543-3211-098
Reference: Deep Space- Sector 33-45
Time Zone: Local
Task Organization: Patrol Squadron-Galleon (IXF)
Patrol Boat/ Command Ship- Drifa
1. Situation- IXFSPAWARCOM detects large-scale maneuvers of unknown ships near reference point 33-45 a/d. Dispatch PS-Galleon.
a. OPFOR- Unknown strength. Detection of light “wobble” among star and planets indicating movement of unknown elements disrupting normalized light emission at asteroid mining facilities at reference point 33-45 a/d. Possible raiders/pirates.
b. DSPS-Galleon Element A/11- Drifa
2. Mission- DSPS-G-A/11- Enters sector to do preliminary scan of OPFOR. If OPFOR is hostile, evaluate strength and report to IXFSPACOM. DSPS action approved if hostile actions taken against IXF.

TOP SECRET

Captain Evja stared at the orders a moment before a frown crossed his ruggedly handsome face. Casting his eyes towards his XO he handed her the sheet, his voice a low grunt as he glanced out into the inky black. The sparkling stars filled his vision.

Lt. Hallma whistled slightly as she handed the orders back, “Well Captain, technically we will be in the theater of operations. “

Grunting Evja shook his head, “It’s not that. I have a feeling, something in my bones. We’ve just been retrofitted with the upgraded weapons systems, but the battle group is going to be nearly 1,250 light years distance. If we do find something, we may be in for a long fight.” A grim smile as he looked at her, his gnarled hand on the back of his command chair, “It doesn’t seem like a great distance, but it is.” Exhaling he eased into his chair and nodded to her, “Take us out.”

Lt. Hallma nodded and stepped up to the command lectern; her hands gripped both sides tightly as she tapped the intercom, “Helm, take us out.” She pressed in the coordinates that quickly popped up on the screens of the helm and sensor operators. With quick, precise movements the helmsmen got the patrol craft underway. Drifting away from the space station the Drifa kicked on the MTU engines and their distinct high-pitched whine filled the engine room. The crew looked up and listened as the ship lurched a moment then the surges of power caused it to shudder once before silence.
Glancing back, Hallma nodded to Captain Evja before saying with a hint of excitement, “All ahead full.”

“All ahead full, aye.”

20- hours later on the edge of the Vel’ha mining facilities, an asteroid field orbiting an aging red-giant, the Drifa slipped out of manifold space and sluiced through the bending of gravity as it seemed to pop into existence. Everyone on board was at duty stations, Captain Evja clicked the CIC, “Launch two birds, get them out on station. Get two more online and ready, then scan the fields and do a system wide sweep. See if we’re alone.”

5 minutes later two bright yellow Slyph, unmanned fighter/bombers raced away from the ship. At the 500-mile point they cut their engines and let their momentum carry them out and around the first layer of the asteroids.

“Captain, CIC.”

“CIC, this is the Captain.”

“Sir, we are not detecting any activity at the main mining port. There are ships but we aren’t getting any readings on power. It looks dead sir.”

Captain Evja lowered his head a moment before he said, “I hate it when I get a feeling". Punching a button on his command pad he said, “CIC, weapons online until we known the situation. Tap out the sensors to maximum range and get me eyes on anything that moves.”

“Aye sir."


Summary-
Entered battleground- Asteroid field orbiting a red giant.
Launched two unmanned fighter craft into Ship Protection Patrol.
Readied two more unmanned fighters for scramble.
Detected no energy at the mining facilities.
Extended sensors to maximum range and brought weapons online.

[Silux]

“Captain O’Hara?” came a voice from the intercom, interrupting the uniformed captain from his thoughtful gaze from the front Augmented Visor with a surprised shake. “Captain O’Hara?” The voice repeated.

The captain, rather disgruntled at being disturbed, pushed a small button on the intercom on his captain’s chair; the button itself lit up with a warm glow to indicate it was active, and a smooth background static forced it’s way through the speaker as though it’s power supply was minimal at best.

“What do you see, Private?” he asked, leaning into the comm system as to transmit his voice with more clarity.

“Xindhi bogey just entered the system. They have initiated a scan but don’t seem to have picked up our residual signature just yet. It seems like they are eyeing up the docks.”

O’Hara nodded to himself, before confirming what he had just heard with the young man on the other end. He let go of the comm button, and silence once again returned to the apparently empty deck that was only just illuminated with dull darklights as to not draw unnecessary attention to themselves. That particular ‘Spyder’ class vessel was nestled within a fluctuating gas cloud that was pumped out by the docks - it served to hide them mostly within the electromagnetic spectrum provided they kept their own energy levels to a bare minimum.

O’Hara looked up once again, checking the display several feet ahead, pondering a plan of action while considering the data that was being streamed to him by a simple scan: two fighters had been released, presumably to patrol the area. The captain would need to play out his attack with the utmost care and precision, and bring power back online in such a way as to not totally reveal himself to the enemy.

He pressed down on the comm system again, and the same dim light and static followed.

“All hands, this is Captain O’Hara. Xindhi hostile has been detected. Command has given us a weapons-free designation to engage on our own accord, as is our mission. Please make your way to assigned locations and await further orders.”

He knew that it would take five minutes at best for his crew to ready position; they were well trained, and the captain certainly trusted them with his life, but perhaps more importantly, he trusted them with the ship. ‘Spyder’ Hulls were nowhere near cheap, costing in at a hefty Ten Billion Credits. Such was to be expected, however, they were a newly designed ship with state of the art weaponry and experimental technologies. The mission was going to be the second of it’s kind in that it was handled solely by these new Destroyer Class vessels with no support from larger, more standardized warships.

The captain gave his crew their designated time allotted to get into position before he leaned in to give more orders. “Ok. Flight Sergeants, I want thirty percent capacity on the engines, and I want the Gunnery Staff to charge the Lances, Forge Drivers and Repeaters. All protective measures should be at one hundred percent efficiency. I don’t want a surprise hit getting through and wrecking our hull.”

He gave it a moment, before the ship began to creep forward in response. The forward sensors engaged and O’Hara was provided with a fully functioning display of the scene ahead. The HUD displayed the charging status of the ship weaponry which would only take a moment to come online.

The Captain made sure to send a silent call to the two other ‘Spyders’ hiding within the system, though they would take their time to arrive at the scene. After all, FTL drives would almost ensure their immediate discovery. Surprise was the element of this battle as far as O’Hara was concerned.

He saw as the forward display locked on to the two fighters tumbling toward the asteroid belt. “Ready the Gigajoule repeaters for firing. On my call”

There was a moment of indecisive bleeping as the ship’s computers tracked the fast moving ships.

“Steady...”

it was followed by a definite lock-on tone that signified that firing was now ready, and that the computer was successfully tracking the target.

“Fire repeaters”

His words were followed by four quick jolts that seemed to reverberate through the hull itself as four bright projectiles exploded from the ship, two for each fighter, as the energy signature of the Spyder came fully online.

[Skallagrim]

The two Slyphs coasted on their momentum around some tumbling asteroids when both rang with a lock-on tone. Both kicked on their engines, however the first fighter banked into the oncoming burst and exploded in a shimmer glow. The second fighter managed to race behind an asteroid as the attack slammed into the spinning rock causing large chunks of it to break off and spiral away. One of the pieces damaged the outer edge of the remaining Slyph’s frame. Boosting its engines the fighter began evasive maneuvers among the asteroids as it swung out in a wide elliptical orbit.

Deep in CIC the amber glow of the screens cast surreal images before the combat staff, when a single brilliant flash and a stream of data ripped across multiple screens. A single tone rang through the room for a full ten seconds before it went dead. Several sailors began tapping screens and speaking in rapid tones to each other, all monitored by the Combat Warfare Officer. Lt. Commander Halva stared a moment then toggled the bridge.

“Bridge, CIC. We have activity one of our birds is down. Repeated down…” Halva stopped as more information fed up to her station, a growl escaped her as she continued, “We have activity near the docks.”

Captain Evja slammed a hand on his command chair, half rising, his voice thundering, “All ahead, down plane 15-degrees, move it.”

XO Hallma began scanning the feeds coming from the sensors, through CIC and up to her screens, her eyes we drawn to the docks where the DAS detected some movement and where the attack came from, “Captain we have an UNKFOR near the docks. CIC is calculating a fire solution currently.”

“Captain, CIC, target is obscured we cannot gain a definitive target acquisition, but we are tracking with heavy guns.”

“CIC when you get a solution fire at will. And scramble those birds”

“Aye, aye.”

The heavy rail cannons on the aft of the ship swung around tracking the emerging ship that had fired on the fighters. At the same time two more fighters screamed out of their catapult launchers, racing along into the field, jinking and dodging as they began feeding data back to the CIC. They were hunting the ship that had fired on them. Two more fighters are prepped and loaded on the catapult ramps, waiting to be released.

Throughout the ship, everyone waited as the heavy charged weapons drew power that caused a slight haze near the weapons decks. In the combat ready room, the Talisan mercenaries and Shu’fasa began preparing their gear for boarding operations.

Summary:
One Slyph fighter destroyed, the second is damaged but is heading out of the asteroid field.
Detecting the Spyder as it emerges from the dock area.
Heavy weapons are tracking it but cannot get a clear shot.
Two more fighters deployed.
Two fighters prepped and loaded on catapults, ready to scramble.
Mercenary and Shu'fasa troops preparing for breaching operations.

[Silux]

There would have been a small celebration at the first target hit if the crew were not focused on their objective to the point where outside influence became irrelevant and the only stimulus that mattered was the orders directly from the Captain.
The Gunnery Staff watched intently as the fighter began to swivel and rocket to a lower plane of combat as the Gigajoule repeaters followed in suit; two weapon turrets fired repeatedly at it’s calculated position, leading the craft into what would be, hopefully, a direct hit on the fighter. If left unchecked, it could prove to be an inconvenience to the Destroyer.

The ship’s main weapons turned at the command of O’Hara, instead locking on to specific hardpoints on the Xindhi main vessel, namely the weapon systems and the hangar as to prevent any more fighters from being unleashed into the fray.

“Gunnery Sergeants”, came the Captain’s voice on the intercom “Begin charge up phase for the Dorsal Forge Drivers. Ensure a solid link is formed with the bogey before we fire”

O’Hara stood from his Captain’s chair as light finally shone within the command bridge; a deck that was unusually nestled within the heart of the ship as opposed to the more traditional locale atop the hull, looking across the battle. It was designed as such to reduce vulnerability to Shield-Piercing weaponry and allow maximum survivability for the command team.
O’Hara paced the few steps toward the artificially streamed visualization of the battlespace, gripping hold of one of the three-dimensional projections that represented different aspects of the theatre of his ship. He dragged the projection downwards while calling some commands down a, now shipwide, communication network.

“I want torpedo tubes open and a full scan to be initiated. I want to know exactly what the Xindhi have planed.” He rubbed his brow, wiping off a little sweat. he knew full well that these opponents were not widely known as ‘easy prey’. Taking one down would yield one hell of a pay bonus. “And I want the EW relays fired up. Let’s kill them from the inside”

Another round of Gj Repeaters fired from the ship’s cannons, both at the newly scrambled fighters and the one that began to maneuver around the asteroid field.

[Skallagrim]

Lt. Commander Halva watched with grim fascination as the ship emerged from the gas cloud that hid it. It was not a ship familiar to her, and the recognition charts could not place it but it had a definitively human feel to it. Tapping the mid-range gun controls she began lining up the port side topside weapons, the charging icon blinked on her screen. Toggling her mic she spoke rapidly to a fire control office who glanced at her then nodded taking command of the gun battery.

A second gun battery on the port lowdeck began lining up, two more guns charged but had not yet moved to a targeting solution. The main guns, a deep nimbus of blue-white energies racing around the tip sparkled slightly.

The damaged fighter dipped as another series of explosions rocked the area around it, causing more debris to fling off around it, several pieces hit the fighter causing it to wobble a bit then jump over a space rock before it.

The two fighters sped their way through the debris field, splitting up as they swerved around an asteroid about 6-miles across. The lead fighter taking the upper plane, while the second dipped to the lower plane, skirting an explosive blast of rock spraying from a blast against it.

Captain Evja read the data stream before him, his eyes focused on the weapon analysis, what they were fighting had some high energy weapons, things found on capital ships. “Damn…” He hissed as he caught the XO’s eye, “We are facing heavier weapons than we have. We’ll have to rely on our experience to deal with this threat.”

Lt. Hallma grunted as she tapped her screen following the stream the captain read. Looking up she shrugged, “Our fast movers have the advantage in the debris field, so that’s a plus on our side. We have to hope our armor and shielding can hold out long enough to get a better fix on this ship.”

Captain Evja nodded as he toggled CIC, “Halva, fire on the mining facilities, target the methane exhaust vents.”

Halva nodded as she heard the order, then checking the DAS she tapped the screen bring up the image and telemetry data. Once it read green, she fired and the ship rocked as the large main guns aft fired, first one barrel then another. The two neutron-tipped rounds accelerated to 450 kms, streaking through the field and towards it target. The rounds had a small window, but the firing solution was accurate enough to land the two projectiles witin three meters of one another as they slammed into the exhaust vents igniting the methane, creating a back draft that ignited the gasses in the line causing the dock area to erupt in a glow as explosions ripped through it sending out projectiles slamming into the docked mining ships. Breaking them from their moorings and sending them off into space tumbling dangerously towards the ship that had hidden in their area a few moments before.

Halva eyed the recharge meters on both guns, as she transfer control of the two fore guns to a fire control officer, who began tracking the ship. It would be difficult to see the damage if any though the confusion currently in the OPFOR presence.

Captain Evja toggled the helmsmen, “Bring us around, two-thirds, level us and keep a barrier between us and them until we get a better idea of what we are facing.”

“Aye sir.”


Summary-

Damaged fighter still racing away, more minor damage from the action taken against it.
The two fresh fighters, moving deeper into the mine field, using the asteroids to provide them cover.
Mid-ranged cannons beginning to track the Spyder.
Aft-long range cannons firing on the methane exhaust vents of the mine causing an explosion and sending moored mining ships to break loose and tumble around dangerously close the Spyder.

[Silux]

The blindingly powerful explosion rocked the Spyder for a second of turbulence before calm once again returned to the battlespace; though in the dock’s place, a thick field of black smoke drifted from charred and shattered structure remnants that were still fixed in position. Oxygen pipes burned bright for a few seconds more as their supply rapidly drained to the void of space. The spectacle lent to a tremendous display of light that shot across the asteroid belt, lighting up each individual rock in unison with a harsh yellow gleam for not but a moment.

The Spyder itself pushed a roll, rapidly spinning on the horizontal plane and accelerating as to avoid a fragment of rock that had been fired from the dock explosion; and altering pitch to narrowly evade a spiraling body fragment of a docked frigate. The THRONE APS systems had already come online and worked to suppress most of the erratic debris in small bursts of explosive light; the systems themselves destroying most smaller bodies that veered towards the Spyder’s Hull.

“Captain O’Hara?” came a voice on the captain’s intercom. “We have activated full scanners. We seem to be dealing with a Xindhi ‘Fate’ Class Special Operations Patrol Vessel. The design is on file. Report?”

O’Hara nodded to himself in acknowledgement before responding positively to the report request, and awaiting the data from the scan teams.

“A one thousand, three hundred and twenty meter long vessel, designed mostly to patrol behind-line systems when larger warships are not required. They have powerful sensors based on Electro-Optical Distributed Apertures. Estimated twenty seconds before the obscuring gas vent dissipates and our hull becomes viable for direct shots. Recommend green-lining to the negative vector on the docks.”

“Confirm green-line. Take her forward.” O’Hara confirmed, as the ship once again began on a fast, but steady course to behind the docks as to avoid the direct fire of the XIndhi weapons.

“Gunnery Staff,” he continued, still leaning in to the comm system built into the forward display. “keep guns trained on fighters. Engage small bogeys with Hellfire torpedoes and Gigajoule repeaters. It should keep them off our backs. I want Stratic Lances charged and ready for use for when we emerge.”

The two commands were completed by the unmistakable shudder of missile fire -it always sent a hollow-feeling clap through the Hull frame- followed by the repetitive bursting shake of repeaters firing their deadly salvo at the tiny fighters that seemed to be near indistinguishable from the cosmic glow of he asteroid field and planet nearby.

O’Hara remained silent for a moment, hoping to hell that his basic strategy would keep the Xindhi off his back, before the scan team once again came through the comm system with an advisory.

“Captain, be advised the hostile has a 90% chance of fielding boarding parties. Xindhi love getting their teeth into their enemies. Decision is yours, Captain. Shall we instruct the charged EW array teams to begin uploading the “Black Widow’?”

“Roger than Alpha-five. Light em’ up.”

There was no more audible response, but instead the forward display that O’Hara was using to monitor the battle bleeped once before showing a small Spider icon that pulsed red, representing the initiation of the upload of the ‘Black Widow’.

The Captain stepped back and took a breather.

[Skallagrim]

Aboard the Drifa in the hanger bay, Lt. Colonel ValdrikR of the 3^rd Battalion, 3^rd Radiers also known as the Queens battalion looked over the troops before him. The heavy black suits on the breach and heavy weapons operators, the gyro-jet assault rifles and heavy plasma throwers at the ready. The large, four-armed Shu’fasa with their plasma lances and kinetic bolters stood at attention. The Talisan mercenaries waited as ValdrikR spoke to them. While called mercenaries, they were in fact part of the Xindhi fleet forces and had been for well 10,000 years.

“Alright, listen up. We have an unknown ship out there. It appears to be a human design, which one of the human protectorates, confederacies or empires it belongs too is up for debate. They have fired upon on and we are going to do everything we can to make sure they never make the mistake of firing on a Xindhi vessel again.” He paused as the whine of the Hopper drops ships cranked up as the pilots prepped for launch, “We are assuming they are known humans and thus they are aware of our tactics. We don’t have a heavy hitter to soften them up for us, but the Captain and crew of this ship expect us to do our job.”

The company nodded solemnly as the three drop ships raced their engines to make sure the proper fuel mixture filled the lines for the rapid deployment. With a snap of a salute the raiders boarded their drop ships and waited.

“Skyboss, this is Vapor 22, we are ready."

“Vapor 22, Skyboss, you are cleared for launch.”

“Cleared for launch aye.”

“Give ‘em hell Vapor 22.”

With that the port side mid-ranged weapons cranked up a barrage of rounds that exploded about 22,000 miles from the ship, cascading the space with highly magnetic and reflective chaff to help scramble any sensors directed at the Drifa.

As soon as the guns fired their salvo, the three drop ships screamed out of the hanger, immediately they rose and raced towards the asteroid that lay directly in front of them, cutting their engines they dropped down below it and raced to another asteroid, using the chaff as cover. Hopefully, they would help block out any incoming sensors while they maneuvered into position.

The two bright yellow Slyphs were taking a lot of fire, forcing the computers to take evasive action as they closed on the Spyder at nearly 10,000 meters a second. The lead element rose, banking around an asteroid and cut loose with the six-barreled rail gun, the heavy depleted uranium rounds accelerated to nearly 4,500 meters a second as they streaked towards the Spyder.

The second fighter dipped below level and arced up at a 60-degree angle targeting on the underside of the Spyder, where it unleashed four Shrike anti-ship missles before banking away. As it did so the back end was clipped by a salvo from the Spyder, knocking it spinning around. The computer quickly began working on fixing the issue since the main gyroscope seemed to be affected as the fighter spun around and out of the asteroid field.

The prior damaged fighter reached the end of the field and accelerated towards the planet, kick up its after burners as it banked around the planet in a wide ellipse before whipping back towards the asteroids. The speed was near the maximum it could maintain, augmented by the gravitational whip.

Onboard the Drifa, Captian Evja continued to monitor the data stream of the battle. The ship shuddered as the mid-ship guns fired. He nodded as the raiders left, toggling the CIC, “Halva, once you have a firing solution fire the heavy guns on that ship. I want them to be distracted by us so the raiders can get close.” Before she could answer he toggled to the helmsmen, “Helm, back one-third and bring us to a heading of 108, down plane 30-degrees.”

“Helm aye.”

In the CIC, the fire control officers continued to track the Spyder, each of the heavy guns followed the projected telemetry of the ship, while the mid-ship guns shifted their rounds to the dense mass cores. The missile defense system toggled to active as the ship slowed and dropped in space.

Lt. Cmder Halva quickly began setting up firing solutions for the four main guns, each one ready to bracket fire the Spyder, once it came clear. After a second she tapped the screen before her, the green light appeared at the fire control officers manning the guns, they quickly checked their screens to make sure the data lined up with theirs then tapped their screens. The four large guns unloaded causing the ship to shudder, slowing it a moment before the engines drove it onward.

Each round raced towards the Spyder, everyone on the Drifa waited expectantly to see what would happen. While the DAS operators continued to scan known space.

Summary:
Launched three boarding/raider Hoppers of the 3/3 Queens Battalion
Two fighters engaged the Spyder, one firing depleted uranium rounds from rail gun.
The second fighter fires 4 anti-ship missiles and takes damage.
Previously damaged fighter sling shots around the planet and races back towards the fight.
The Drifa fires a salvo from the heavy guns to bracket the Spyder starting outside in to land a hit.

[Silux]

“Captain, it appears the main Xindhi vessel is fighting back. Heavy gun firing signatures have been detected. They have also scrambled our forward sensors - it appears they are trying to stop us from seeing something. What are your orders, Captain?”

It was as if the comm system had come alive, and the forward display had lit up with all sorts of flaring notifications and informational snippets as to provide O’Hara with as much data as possible so that his next decision could be the right one for his crew. He would need to juggle three separate attacks from three different orientations, which would have been hard to comprehend on his own accord; luckily his ship, the Acharis was adequately equipped for such a situation.

“All hands, this is captain O’Hara” he called, assuming the FD would pick up his voice and transmit it to all teams working hard on the outer decks. “I want five tracks of power to be directed to the APS systems and the Energy transfer fields. Make sure the ERA is adequately powered. We want all defensive systems to be charged to absolute maximum.”

The FD began to blip incessantly to inform the captain of the latest actions of the fighters that buzzed around the Arachnis, far wide from the scanner disruption field. Railguns and missiles became visibly inbound; the THRONE APS gave maximum priority to the missiles, which were safely neutralized from a calculated distance. The Railgun rounds, however, had only three of their number stopped by the APS given their immense speed. Two rounds passed through the energy transfer field in the Spyder’s vicinity, emitting a blinding, sun-like glow as they gradually slowed in the ship’s wake before crumbling to nothing several kilometers from their impact point. The remaining round found it’s way through the field intact, though it’s energy had been severely diminished by the experimental shield technology, it connected with the Arachnis’ armor with a heavy thud, before the projectile itself was vaporized by the electrical reactive component, leaving a charred, black mark and little more at it’s point of impact, leaving the hull no worse for wear.

“Advisory warning 2:33:45” came female AI voice from the FD - it was HANA, the computer visuo-speech warning and natural order system. “Xindhi forward guns have been engaged. Recommend increasing speed vector to avoid direct impact.”

O’Hara complied, engaging the FD engine icon, gradually pulling it upwards, and the ship lurched forward in response.

“Brace danger-close, deck teams”, the Captain warned, hoping to ensure the safety of his crew. he knew it would be a close call. The front half of the ship had been obscured from target by the remnants of the mining community, but the back half was still exposed. The CPU of the ship had determined an effective acceleration speed to avoid being tail-struck by the main gun projectiles that raced toward the ship; and upon engaging the full capacity of the engines, the projectiles headed for the Spyder’s tail end passed by, although the miss was too close for comfort for the captain. He could see the ordnance rocket past through the dorsal window above him. The ship vibrated from the force of the objects that simply passed by. He would hate to have been hit by such forceful weaponry.

‘EW team, ‘Black Widow’ is available for upload. Take them down” He commanded, not long after the near miss. The upload would have been visually unimpressive, but the Xindh vessel would, in a matter of moments, begin to feel the effects of the virus closing down airways and locking vent routes - it was a weapon designed to kill from the inside with deadly efficiency.

O’Hara’s job would have been complete for the moment were it not for the scrambler field, distorting scanner vision between the Xindhi vessel and the Spyder. Such a state worried him slightly; he was no fool, and was aware that the disruption must have been to mask a certain action, though he was unsure as to what.

“HANA” he called out, turning away from the FD to pace the command room. “I need a probability check on disruption outcomes.”

The computer responded almost immediately. “Yes sir. Probabilities are as follows: Reinforcements: 10%, Heavy Weapon Charging: 50%, Raiding Parties: 30%, Withdrawal: 10%. Probabilities are isolated. Recommend taking defensive measures for both outcomes”

O’Hara nodded. He knew the CPU did not need recognition or validation. He had the information he needed.
Approaching the FD once more, he slammed his hand down on the commas button. His plan would require absolute precision and perfect timing.

“Gunnery Staff, I want turrets 3 and 6 to continue firing on the fighters. Continue missile firing phases as planned. Repeater turrets 1, 2, 4 and 5 are to fire explosive rounds at 10% velocity to our negative aft vector. I want them to be slow enough to hit.” He knew the order was unorthodox, but he was confident in it’s defensive capability.

The ship shuddered ten times as an equal number of relatively slow moving explosive projectiles drifted at some speed to a relatively clear area between the disruption field and the Arachnis, before another quick order saw the THRONE APS target the slowed projectiles, prompting them to shatter into a field or razor sharp, explosive debris that would act as a screen to prevent any above average bodies from passing without significant damage.

[Skallagrim]

Deep in the darkened room known as the Blue Cube, several men and women sat at stations, their eyes glued to computer monitors as they listened to the combat taking place. CyW sat directly across the hall from CIC and during duty stations, no one was able to enter or leave without proper security clearances. The two large, four-armed Shu’fasa with their plasma lances and heavy bolters ensured that.

Lt. Sigvatr, a Talisan newly assigned to the Drifa from the Capital Ship Hauk, stared with glazed eyes at his monitor. Engagements like this rarely required the CyW electronics warfare unit to be anything more than baby sitters for the complex computer systems on all Xindhi ships. Therefore, when the alarm klaxon rang followed a millisecond later by a harsh red light that ripped through the darkened room everyone froze a moment as they processed what was happening. Then the room erupted in activity as everyone tabbed up their monitors and started scanning the data that was being feed to them.

CyW was an expected part of warfare, it had been so since the first races jetted off into space. Everyone relied on their systems to keep themselves alive, and it was such with the Imperial Xindhi Fleet. Lt. Sigvatr punched several floating keys before him; bring up the virtual servers that were under attack. Tracing the systems data, he locked on to the odd, mutating code that was running through its processes as it tried to overwhelm the virtual systems, slowly shutting off some systems while the more hardened and protected systems maintained integrity.

Tapping a command he looked at the Chief and muttered something as the Chief nodded and returned to her screen, they would have to whip up a quick link with the drop ships to protect them from their vital systems shutting down.

“Alright everyone. We’re up to bat, get me some code and lets find a way to keep those raiders alive.” He said, his voice rising slightly.

“Sir, you need to let command and CIC know.”

Lt. Sigvatr gulped, as he eyed the Chief then toggled his mic, “Captian…um…Command this is CyW.

“Go ahead CyW.”

“Sir we have malicious code attempting to access our ship. Currently we have it in the virtual system. I think we can contain it, but we need to work on code for the raiders, It seems a wide attack and the boats are linked to us, could be a back door into our systems.”

“What do you need to do?”

“Sir, requesting permission to de-link from the boats, it won’t be for long but they will be on their own.”

“Command, CIC, if they need to we can still communicate with the drop ships by a fast-link through the fighters.”

Captain Evja pondered this a moment before chirping his mic, “CyW de-link and set up a comm link to the drop ships. Keep them briefed as long as you can.”

“Cyw, aye.” Lt Sigvatr turned off his mic then faced the rest of the electronic warfare specialist, licking his lips he turned towards his monitor, “You heard the man, let’s get this going.”

In the CIC, Lt. Cmdr Halva toggled her screen and watched in puzzlement as the ship they faced, fired a series of rounds aft of them then detonating them in a plane behind them.

“What are you planning?” she hissed as she fed the data to the Captain.

Captain Evja eyed the data then chirped CIC, “CIC…what are they doing?

“CIC…unknown at this time Captain, running the computer models it looks like they may be setting up a defensive hard point to stop missiles or our rounds from hitting them.”

Captain Evja, leaned into his monitor, his eyes tracing the scenario then a grin spread across his face, “Sonavbitch. He is doesn’t know we have raiders, but he is covering his bases. I’d do the same thing. Halva, I want you to fire a slavo just ahead and 20 degrees up plane of their position.”
With that Captian Evja made sure that the ship corrected course to a down plane of 35 degrees and had the helm kick out the massive maneuvering engines on the port side to funnel the thrust so it started to swing right.

“CIC, aye.”

Halva began calculating the telemetry and detla vee for the fiiring solution. Once satisfied she transferred it to the gunnery mate who checked then fired the smaller fore-guns at a space holding a large mile-diameter asteroid. The dense core rounds would strike the large space rock that would be above and this side of the Spyder class ship as it maneuvered. The impacts would sheer off tons of ejecta that would spray towards the Spyder, but more importantly the kinetic impacts would send the rock towards the ship.

She eyed the monitor for the main guns, they were still tracking the enemy ship, the DAS system working out a myriad of firing solutions, once an optimal one was green lit she would fire. A twisted grin appeared on her face, while she wasn’t overly violent, she did enjoy these tactical battles. The fruit salad on her breast told of nearly a hundred encounters and battles. All successful. While she didn’t want to admit it, she got a high on these moments.

Aboard the fast attack boats of Vapor 22, the pilots noticed angry red lights on their consoles.

“Vapor Lead…everyone suit up. Something is forcing our air to decompress.” Then toggling the mic so that Lt. Colonel ValdrikR and his command group could hear him, “We are losing a lot of our general system control. The hardened systems are still under control, but we have lost contact with the Drifa.”

ValdrikR spoke up, his voice tinny in the mic under his rebreather, “We have to assume they are out of commission. Can you get us to our objective?”

“Aye, I can do that…” Then he spoke again, “We have an issue…it seems the target just exploded a series of shells…unable to get a clear reading on results. We’re going to take evasive action to jink around the field.”

With that, the three fast attack boats raced along in a line, dipping down deep into the asteroid field, flying and skirting around the tumbling space rocks to grant them as much cover as possible.

Two of the three fighters were experiencing issues with their command and control due to the virus attacking them. The damaged fighter shunted more power and attention to regaining control of its system. The undamaged fighter banked and dove deep into the field, ripping and twisting to gain distance between itself and the Spyder. Clearing the asteroid field it began a series of diagnostics to isolate the virus in the virtual system.

The Xindhi had faced such an issue against the Garndan Hegemony during the Tanner Systems Wars. They learned when the Garndan managed to insert a virus to the Nightmare Class- Fastarr which shut down the command ship for nearly four hours during which time the smaller ships of the Hegemony inflicted serious damage to the fleet before command was restored and the destruction of the capitol city along with the five major commercial centers were wiped out along with nearly 1 billion citizens. It ended the war in one fell swoop but at a terrible cost to the fleet.

Summary:
CyW is working on defeating the virus.
The fast attack boats are de-linked from the Drifa and are w/out communication.
The fighters are fighting to regain their systems.
The heavy guns of the ship is tracking the Spyder.
The mid-range guns are hitting a large asteroid near the Spyder in attempts to kick out ejecta and move the asteroid towards the ship to flush it out where the big guns can hammer it.