[u][b]
Arctic Wastelands
Ashtar-Malthecian Contested Zone[/b][/u]

The Coralis gunship’s shields held, barely. Heavy jamming meant that the Crusader’s blazing attack run had not been as precise as it otherwise would have been. The chaff threw off all four missiles, but the gunship’s dedicated psintegrat was there for a reason. Reaching out with his mind, he used the small psytech tranceivers in the missiles to bring two of them under his control and wrangle them back on target, re-establishing their locks and sending them screaming after the Crusader once more.

The pilot, meanwhile, made a rather macabre decision. He had a scant few seconds before the Crusader would come around for another pass, and his Coralis could not match its speed. In any kind of dog fight, they would be at a severe disadvantage, even with shields and multiple missiles to spare. But the Crusader was not their objective; the men on the ground were. As soon as the Crusader had appeared on sensors, Point Jakurna had deployed a flight of Swiftwinds to chase it out of Ashtar airspace. They were still half a minute away, so the Coralis might well not survive to meet them. It could, however, accomplish its primary mission.

The gunship abruptly emptied its missile pods, fired its compact omega pulse cannon, and went to rapid fire mode on its thumper turret, bringing all its firepower to bear on the Malthecian patrol below, blasting series of craters deep into the ice.


Much to his own surprise, Kahlan was not dead. He’d moved far enough to not be completely incinerated by the bombardment, and had instead only suffered a broken arm and massive damage to his power armour. It was reduced to emergency power, becoming little more than a life support suit. His rifle was gone, lost somewhere in the snow after the blast threw it clear. He watched the gunship unleash its payload on the Malthecian position, then whirr off in a desperate attempt to fight off the Crusader. Grimly drawing his sidearm, Kahlan slowly began to haul his battered body towards the freshly devastated ground, intent on finishing his mission.




[u][b]Anuria
High Orbit
Archangel class cruiser [i]A Vision Pierces the Void[/i][/b][/u]

Captain Edun Tameron had the misfortune of commanding the only Ashtar ship not to successfully make the FTL jump to the other side of the Vaegir fleet. “Damn vultures” he said quietly as he watched the MSSC ships close on his own. “FTL status?”
“Gate generators are fine, but the external graviton emitters on the jump drive have been heavily damaged, and can not be repaired in combat,” his tactical officer reported. “MSSC vessels are closing. Judging by previous encounters they almost certainly intend to board us.”

Tameron grimaced. There weren’t enough power armoured marines on his ship to hold off a sustained assault by MSSC boarding parties. “Transfer command stations to main engineering,” he spoke out loud to the ship. “Site to site teleport bridge personnel to main engineering on my mark. 3...2...1...Mark” A flash and a surging feeling later, and Tameron found himself in the emergency command center in engineering. Main engineering was a cavernous space predominantly lit by the steady blue glow of the cruiser’s primary harmonics chamber. A quick glance at a display told him that MSSC boarding parties were already breaching the hull. He certainly couldn’t fault them for their efficiency. “Lock down the ship. Marine response teams, prepare to repel intruders. Main engineering is our last stand, seal the blast doors and do not let those vermin in here!”

All over the ship, blast doors slammed down, isolating sections from eachother. They opened at psionic commands from authorized marines, but no one else. They were only temporary obstacles to a man with a good plasma torch and a little time. Marines deployed to key chokepoints and activated various built in turret systems, while indirect combatants throughout the ship reached their thoughts out to the SIF troopers, waiting for the right moment to strike.