Starship Smackdown!

[Silux]

O’Hara was not in direct control of the ‘Black Widow’ Virus; that job was deferred to the more specialist branches of the EW platform wing that was located within a sealed strongroom directly below the command deck. The two wings had a direct cable communication link as to provide a solid network even through interference. The Spyder Hull were a part of the Advanced Prototype Fleet, developed on Earth for combatting more dangerous foes - and the Spyder was the vessel specializing in EW warfare; it would require a secure connection between command and EW to be able to operate at maximum efficiency.

The EW platform sergeant had begun to work furiously, tapping incessantly at his virtual terminal keyboard and dragging an untold number of holographic icons into different locations to activate multiple functions within the virus code. All data that existed in relation to the current combat situation and the ‘Black Widow’ passed through his terminal for review. He had been on comms to O’Hara since the virus’ activation, and the two were working tirelessly to ensure it’s seamless effect.

“O’Hara!” He shouted through his terminal, still diligently working to keep the virus online. “I have some news you may be interested to hear.”

There was a moment of silence before the captain’s voice came booming back through the terminal, thick with anticipation. He was growing ever more anxious about the battle, even if the other two Spyder’s within the squadron were on route.

“What is it, Davidson?”

EW Sergeant Davidson took a moment before he replied, double checking his information before he relayed it to the captain. The information would be vital to their survival.

“It appears that the enemy have cut off some communicative aspects of their hardware. They are fighting the Virus but we should be able to keep it in relative equilibrium if we maintain our current power feed and the polymorphic engine keeps itself optimal. They are essentially working to solve a Rubix cube that is fighting back. They will need to have some very talented personnel to clean the hardware.”

“Is that all, Davidson? What of the communication shutdown?” O’Hara asked impatiently.

“Well the Virus is a polymorphic self replicating virus with an encrypted variable key. It can transfer itself to any other entities within the range that are linked to the anchor upload linked hull.”

O’Hara did not reply. Davidson was being intentionally over-knowledgeable to boost his own ego in jest.

“It means that the virus will transfer itself to any friendlies that are in direct communication or link with the ship we upload to. If the Xindhi vessel has turned off it’s communications then we can only assume it is in communication with something nearby. It may be the fighters, but I would not risk it, their formations and attack routes seem far too controlled to be out of communication with the main ship; their hardware is also too small scale to be a first priority target for the Virus. Be careful of raiders. The Xindhi may be predictable in their boarding stratagem, but they are certainly fierce; don’t take this situation lightly, captain.”

“Copy that, Davidson. Thank you for the advisory”

===============================


A volley of high powered rounds had sped past the Spyder only minutes ago, but already high speed debris had begun to eject from the shattered rock body, sending yet more shards spiraling towards the Acharis, some the smaller vanguard shards narrowly missing through expert flying by the navigation teams--though some shards had pushed their way through the the Energy Transfer Field--, and the larger, slower moving masses had still to strike their target due to their slow speed, though they were definitely approaching. They would need to be dealt with soon lest they rip the Hull apart. O’hara still had time to consider a solution, however, as such bodies were still a good distance away. Small dust particles, however, had a way of scrambling standard sensors, blocking preliminary gunnery tracking as the Spyder made it’s way behind the wrecked Docking Station that provided cover from the Drifta’s heavier guns. Direct targeting was nearly impossible given the situation, the Arachis could retaliate in a manner not dissimilar from the Xindhi vessel’s firing strategy.

A few directed orders from O’Hara to his gunnery teams had set the stage for a retaliatory attack. The charged Stratic Lances lining the dorsal weapon spine had been charged previously in anticipation, awaiting the chance to emerge from behind the dock and unleash a quickfire solution to disable the enemy vessel. This plan had been altered slightly in light of circumstance.

Glowing with a purple-blue haze, the Stratic hardpoints channeled their capacitor charge into a temporary firing coil that illuminated the previously hollow weaponry barrels; they filled with a more opaque substance than the haze that surrounded them in a nebulous swirl of erratic dynamics. Suddenly and silently, the weapon barrels exploded with energy and the Dorsal Weapon Spine lit up as it fed constant energy to the weapon systems. Beams of brilliant blue-white light reached from the comparatively tiny turrets deep into the battlespace instantly. Three turrets aimed at the fighters that swirled around the Spyder, hopefully slicing them in half due to the near unavoidable nature of beam weaponry; the final three had locked a half kilometer wide asteroid not far from the Drifta’s position and punched a gaping circular hole straight to it’s heart.

The Spyder crew worked almost in clockwork tandem. The latter three Stratic Hardpoints shut off almost in total synchronization with the rapid fire of a volley of Explosive repeater rounds that, in a mere few seconds, penetrated the weakness created by the Stratic lances and crashed into the heart of the rock, before detonating it violently from the inside, showering the area with jagged rocks that moved with incredible velocity.


Summary:
-O'Hara works with EW teams to decipher there must be something the Drifta is trying to shield from 'Black Widow' infection, characterised by the willing shutdown of infection-prone communication links.

-Stratic Lances fire at an asteroid in the general vicinity of the Drifta, playing the same tactic.

-The Spyder narrowly avoids the majority of the asteroid debris, owing to momentum. The larger, more dangerous chunks have yet to make their way to the ship, but will do damage if they are not dealt with (in the next post).

-Stratic Lances fire at the swirly fighters that are in line of sight.

[Skallagrim]

Aboard the Drifa Captain Evja stared at the screens as the comm crackled to life, before Halva could speak he shouted to the helms as an asteroid erupted before them, “Continue the starboard drift, up plane 20-degrees.” Turning back to the screen he murmured, “Halva, what do you have.”

“Well that was the first problem, the second is they are using a high-energy beam weapon. Something that we don’t have. I am bringing the point defenses on-line. They are maneuvering to use the facilities docking station as a shielding agent.”

Captain Evja pursed his lips and said coldly, “Fire on that station. We will deal with the ramifications later.”

“CIC aye.” Halva said as she turned back towards the screens before her, tapping several gun batteries she drew the data to her monitor calculating the firing solutions. Once satisfied she transferred them to gunners who began a swift check against the data to ensure it was correct. As they were doing that, she tapped the shielding point defense systems which generated a large energy spike easily readable by the OPFOR. While the shields charged, nimbus of black energy swam around the hard points where the generators were, creating a shimmer and warping of space as the energy began thrumming and pulsating. Several of the faster moving debris from the exploded asteroid were intercepted by the dark energy reaching out and redirecting their direction quickly to allow the ship to sail through the smaller stuff.

The fore deck guns fired several times at the large rocks, reducing them into smaller bits where the point defense shields began tracking and deflecting them from the ship.

In the CyW, Lt. Sigvatr chewed his lip as the ship rocked from the surging power of the point defenses firing to protect the ship. His eyes continued to read the data as he popped he head up and shouted towards the others; quickly he began hammering the keys as he transferred code to others in the CyW. Toggling Command he almost shouted before calming down, “Command this is CyW.”

“Command, go ahead.”

“Command we think we can transfer data to the raiders from one of the fighters, and I think we can use it as a screening ship to help keep the raiders hidden, request permission that another flight is scrambled.”

“Command, CIC, we can do that.”

“Do it then.”

“Aye, CyW out.”

“CIC out.”

Two more fighters rocketed from the catapults. In the asteroid field the damaged one trying to regain control turned into a beam and exploded in a brilliant flash of silver-blue light. The lead of that flight banked away and darted between some asteroids as the beam sliced through space behind it. Outside the asteroid belt, the previously damaged one roared at full speed and arced up at a 70-degree arc, its weapons coming online.

Aboard Vapor-22 the three ships continued their run through the asteroids as they dropped further and further down below the horizon of the orbit, as they did so a brilliant flash erupted on the screens of the pilots.

“Looks like the Drifa is still fighting…”

“Then we need to get to our target asap.”

“Aye, aye.”

Summary:

The Drifa is avoiding the debris from the asteroid exploded near it.
It has launched another flight to use as screening and communications with Vapor-22.
Vapor-22 is below the horizon and racing towards the last know where the Spyder class ship was.
The Point defense systems have been activated to protect the ship from the debris and from the beam weapons.

[Silux]

"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..."

Two shimmering dots had appeared in the distance amidst the silent volleys of weapon fire that had been unleashed by the two competing ships; they had remained that way for several moments, just out of normalized sensor range but capable of direct extended communication - this factor was quickly utilized by the crews of the two newcomers which had come reeling from the dim backdrop of the gas giant. One ship moved on a negative horizontal vector, the other moved on a positive green-line, acting almost like a distant pincer to close in on the Xindhi Drifta in little time if they kept on their current course.

“Acharis, this is Phobos, checking in”

“Reading you, Phobos.”

“Acharis, this is Deimos, checking in”

“Loud and clear, Deimos. Welcome to the fight.”

============

Acharis had begun to take initiative to deal with the small-body threats while it was out of the direct line of sight of the Xindhi vessel, though the enemy had also begun to maneuver behind the docking facility in order to mirror the tactic and avoid direct weapon fire. O’Hara had started to utilize the time to prepare a defense for fighter formations by strengthening the THRONE Grid and putting power into the Energy Transfer Field; they had subsequently slowed the larger asteroid chunks that were previously headed for the hull.
The Stratic Lances had tracked onto the first wave of fighters and pulsed their beams at them, tracking with a calculated precision that had managed to strike true on one of the stragglers.

The Acharis’ had, under the previous advisories from HANA and Davidson, also begun to take internal measures to prepare for Xindhi boarding parties, though the exact details of the theorized attack were not known, nor could they be properly predicted in an error-free manner. Standard battle plans had come into effect, with the outer automated decks depressurising and internal defense drones coming online; the 150 on board marines had been spurred into action by O’Hara’s orders to secure defensive chokepoints within the ship as to stunt any advances should the enemy come on board. The best the crew could do was wait, hope the gunnery crews did their job effectively, and hope the Captain’s tactics did their ship justice.

===========

O’Hara, on the other hand, was hard at work in communication with the inbound Phobos and Deimos that were approaching the battlespace fast.

“O’Hara this is Achilles of the Phobos. We are in maximum Dorsal Forge Driver range. SMMC has given us permission to engage with painter beams. Standby for latch-on effect”

“Copy that, Achilles”, O’Hara replied, a slight grin creeping across his face. He knew that the latching beams would span the battlespace in mere moments, providing an invisible guidance path for a deadly spearing strike on the Drifta’s hull.

“O’Hara, this is Kirk of the Deimos. We are preparing to move into repeater range to engage target head on. Focus on any small-body ordnance in your area. You are in good hands now”

[Skallagrim]

The DAS operator s stared at the data that popped up on their screens, several tapped the screens and doubled checked the data and a low murmur went through the DAS room, before the data was transferred to both command and CIC.

Captain Evja snarled, the XO, Lt. Hallma gasped, “Human vermin. They breed like goddamned rats.”

“CIC, Command.”

“CIC, aye…”

“What are they?”

“Command they appear to have similar signatures as the ship we are currently facing.”

Captain Evja slumped back in his chair, a hand rubbing his neck as he eyed the XO who shook her head. Tabbing the CyW he barked at Lt. Sigvatr, “Get a link to our raiders…we’re pulling out. Get them to go on ELF homing and meet us for extraction.”

Lt. Sigvatr gulped as he looked at the others in CyW, “CyW, Aye.”

Switching to a closed channel he spoke rapidly to Lt.Cmdr. Halva, “I want shields and weapons charged. We are going to be doing a fighting withdrawal. If we cannot hit a single ship we aren’t going to have much luck against three of them. Get me solutions and options that provide us the best opportunities to get our boats and go.”

“CIC aye.”

Halva grunted as she sat back in her seat, her fist balled and unballed several times. She hate running from a fight, but only a fool remained in one when outnumbered and seemingly out-gunned. Leaning forward she began tapping data into the computer and transferring the telemetry and delta v information to the gunners who began the process of double checking before the guns and missile systems started tracking various targets.

Deep in CyW, Lt. Sigvatr and the other whiz kids began the process of using the fighters as a comm platform to the raiders. It would take a few minutes but he and the rest of the Blue Cube worked furiously on the code and transferring it to the fighters.

In command Captain Evja inhaled deeply then said, “Helm ahead one-third, bring us below horizon and get ready for a fast run.”

“Helm aye.”

In CIC, Halva nodded to the green screens that flashed, as she did the fire control operators tapped their screens. A scant nano-second later the Drifa rocked as the four large guns fired at the approaching ships, the heavy guns firing their neutron-tipped masses at the Deimos.

At the same time 48 missiles launched at the vessel as the mid-ranged guns powered up. The dark matter point defenses sat at the ready as the CIC continued to watch the events unfold as the surging of the engines vibrated the ship.

Aboard Vapor-22 the pilots noticed a bright yellow fighter arc in front of them then bank away, as it did so the ELF light glowed on their dashes. Toggling the ELF, a static-filled robotic voice filled their ears, “Vapor-22. Follow ELF to extraction. Abort, Abort. Abort.”

Vapor-22’s lead boat glanced back at the Lt. Colonel and tapped his ear set, once the ValdrikR was linked he heard the fighter drone on the repeated communication.

“What the hell…is this verified?”

“Aye. We have our recall orders. Something must have changed, the Captain wouldn’t pull out of a fight unless it was serious.”

Lt. Colonel ValdrikR nodded, “Roger that. Get us home then.”

“Aye, aye.”