Sigma

Galaxy Aflame! A space opera RP (Closed)

We should also try to keep the OOC active, sure we got the Discord, but it helps to keep the thread active :)

Galaxy Aflame! A space opera RP (Closed)

@Brithwyr Besides History being left blank everything seems in order! You may move your sheet over to the Character Tab.

Galaxy Aflame! A space opera RP (Closed)

Yilumi System
Kasui, High Orbit
The Darkstrike hung high in orbit of the serene Agriworld of Kasui, is dark shades contrasting with the green and blue landscape underneath the vessel. Nearly a day had passed since the incident at the Urbos Station, Captain Ian Leska had locked himself away in his private quarters, giving himself time to think, plan and mourn. He laid against his recliner chair, his coat hanging by the door, a glass of whisky in hand as he indulged himself in the alcoholic drink every now and then.

Despite his less then chipper position, he was far from it, the incident still lingering in mind, the various mistakes made coming to him like an avalanche, but in truth, this rather disastrous infiltration Op had provided some "positive" results, for a lack of a better word.

Ian Leska knew full well that the Federation must enforce it's border integrity. This was thee plan from the start, the recon being a sort of "inspection" before any serious actions were to be taken, but honestly, that no longer mattered, the very presence of these stations was a clear slap to the face of the Federation, and with that, it needed a heavy response. The original projected numbers of the probable task force was under a hundred, but that won't do, no, more were needed.

Leska set his glass aside. "Aisha." The Captain called out to the ship's AI. "Set up a private holo-link with Grand Admiral Sanders."

"Understood, Captain." A digitized, feminine voice replied, echoing through the room. "...setting up link now." Within moments, a holographic form of Aged human, a dark-skinned man in his early sixties, materialized in the center of the room, a holo-projection device emerging from the ceiling. The Admiral was slight caught off guard with this sudden call. "Captain Leska." He begun, with a deep, soothing tone in his voice. "I haven't expected another call from you so soon."

"I apologize for the rather sudden call." Leska said. "It's....regarding the Urbos Incident."

"Ahhh, yes, I see." He realized. "I assure, both your ship and the Crow's Nest will be listed as ships to join in the task force."

"Thank you, sir." Leska said. "But, there's...another request I have to make."

"Oh?" Admiral Sanders raised an eyebrow."What is it then?"

"Sir, I suggest the task force be expanded." Leska said. "The currently projected numbers will simply not do. We need at least two hundred vessels for this mission."

"Out of the question." Sanders replied swiftly. "You should be all too aware of the grave threat we're facing, every ship recalled from the frontline is an asset lost and a victory for the Daisan." He paused, clearing his throat. "We shouldn't even be doing this! But the N.A.C. have forced our hand in the matter."

"That's exactly my point, sir." Leska said, standing firm in his resolve. "That is why we must not take little risks in such a situation." Leska paused as he sat down on the edge of his bed. "We mean to send a message, yes? Then we must answer the N.A.C.'s taunts with overwhelming firepower."

Sanders was silent, pondering on the possible scenarios and outcomes, but the Captain had a point. "You do realize the risk we'd be taking, yes?" Sanders asked.

"I'm fully aware, sir." Leska replied. "The Daisan can wait, at least for a moment. For now, we must send the N.A.C. a message."

"...Very well, however, if this all goes terribly wrong, It's on both your head and mine." Sanders said.

"Understandable, sir." Leska said. "But if this goes just as well as intended, we'll be done with this before the Daisan reach the Gateway Systems."

Galaxy Aflame! A space opera RP (Closed)

A shame to see you go, but I guess it can't be helped.

Galaxy Aflame! A space opera RP (Closed)

Collab between me and Terminal.

-----------

The Aurolian Federation
Yilumi System
Orbit around the Urbos Gas Giant
Aboard the Stealth Corvette Darkstrike

"Target within visual range in twenty minutes." An artificial, yet soft and feminine voice rang out through the halls of the Darkstrike, much to the annoyance of one Kadan Morau as he awoke from his short slumber, followed by a loud groan. "Couldn't this just wait a little longer for godsake..." He groaned some more. He arose from his bed, eyes still barely open, gazing upon the dreary sight that was his bunk, his squinted eyes turning to the attention of his already awake bunkmate, a fellow Ishkaan by the name of Ushia Ganis as she was getting properly dressed for the briefing to come. "Kadan, get your ass up and gear." The female Ishkaan spoke sternly. "Captain wants the team assembled for briefing."

"Yeah yeah." He said, waving his hand and shrugging her off, he slowly stood up, stretching himself as d far as he possibly could, releasing an incredibly satisfied moan, followed by a yawn. "You go ahead, I'll catch up soon." Ushia gave that look to Kadan, and stared for a brief moment before nodding. "Gotcha, see you soon." Ushia was already dressed in a Intelligence variant of the naval uniform, with a darker shade of plum, the door sliding open as she left for the Bridge.

------

Unsettling reports begun to sprung up within the ranks of Federation Intelligence, reports by passing starships, be it some civilian cargo freighter or a patrolling SDF craft, spotting strange, alien, yet incomplete orbital installations around select systems across Federation Space, descriptions and captured footage of these installation closely matching with previously obtained blueprints provided by the Ninth Amaranthine Circuit, or "Printers" as they've become to be called by many.

Oddly enough, and beyond sheer coincidence, the known locations of these installations had been identified as areas of space the N.A.C had previously attempted to requisition, much to no avail. The dots started to connect, it seems the Ninth Amaranthine Circuit were hellbent on their little project, even to the point of violating Federation sovereignty. Much later on after the sightings, the N.A.C had informed various leaders in Government and the Military of their intentions, leaving all doubt as to what they have planned. Before any drastic action was to be taken, High Command deemed it worthy to send a Psi-Ops reconnaissance team in advance.

-----

Darkstrike
Bridge

The Bridge of the Darkstrike, like all Stealth Corvettes, had an almost translucent look to it, the floor, the celling, the various controls and consoles, all matched the infinite, dark cosmos outside, it was almost calming in a way, the atmosphere itself felt the same, the bridge staffed by only the captain and two Central Operators, Stealth Corvettes by Navy standards, were very understaffed, running mainly on small skeleton crews.

The two helmeted operators were going about their business, directing and maintaining the ship as they made their fast approach their destination. The Captain himself stood in the center, facing the Commando team, or part of it. He had an air of casualness, or at least, seemed somewhat more relaxed then the Commando team standing before him. Ushia, Kadan and two humans stood at attention.

"As you're all aware." The Captain begun, pressing a small button on a device he held, a holo-display materializing behind him, images playing on a loop. "There's been multiple sightings of these orbital installations all over federation space." he paused as he pressed down on the device again, pausing on the Urbos Installation, their present target. "Sometime after, the N.A.C had opened up to all Leaders in Government and the Militart about their little project, the Vacuum Maintenance Subspace Realineators."

"A what?" One of the humans, Leena Homs, asked in bewilderment.

"I'll be Honest, don't know either." He quickly replied, shrugging. "But, we sure as hell know that the N.A.C never got such permits to build these things." He paused, stepping forward a bit close to the squad. "The higher ups are having a panic attack with this little revelation."

"What's the plan?" The last human and squad leader, Arnold Jenkins, asked.

"Before the Navy go in guns blazing." The captain said. "We're being sent in ahead for some good ole recon, your squad will be sent in to investigate the installation, direct combat is ill-advised."

"And if we can't help it?" Kadan asked.

"Then weapons free." The Captain replied with a grin.

"And if things go wrong?"

"In case it all goes wrong, an SDF carrier is on standby, ready to cover for any tactical retreat."

"Sounds good with me." Usiha said.

"Captain Leska!" One of the Operators called out to the Captain. "We have Object on approach!"

The NAC may have been illegally building their station while flgrantly violently the sovereign authority of the Aurolian Federation, but at least it appeared their standards were up to code. The displayed site was surrounded by three interlocking rings of light buoys with a radius of approximately twenty-five kilometers and a circumference of around a hundred and fifty-seven. There were larger, more prominent caplights at the pole of each axial intersection. Even using archaic sensors, the site would have been impossible to miss from across the system unless Urbos was obscuring it.

Positioned along the sphere's X-axis was what must have been a supply depot; a wall of evenly spaced cargo container cubes interconnected by a web of cables and kept stable by anchor-drives. The technology used for those was a relative unknown; they were apparently scaled-downs version of the same sublight drive most of the NAC's vessels used. There were just under a thousand of the containers in total, each with a width of twelve meters. Parked directly in front of the large wall of containers were three of the NAC's transport frigates. They were curiously compartmentalized even along their exterior hulls, which bore multiple seams and detachable bulkheads. They resembled extended octachorons, with smoothed curves at each angle that broke only at the observed seams. The material the hull was made from was of some interest to the Federation's own structural engineers, as all of the NAC's ships and a large number of their craft and structurs appeared to be uniformly flat down to the atomic level, as if they had been shaven to a perfectly level plane and set of grooves with a monomolecular honing blade. Not beyond what the Federation could accomplish of course, but it was a matter of application. Aurolia did not have the industrial base or use manufacturing methods that might have allowed for such uniformly applied precision, but obviously the NAC's did, despite their initial facade as a mundane heavy industries manufacturer.

Sitting serenely within the sphere of light buoys was the station itself. Its own structure was deceptively simple, with a solid spherical central complexed ringed along all three axis with a network of external arrays and secondary station segments, similar in structure but smalller. The design was clearly highly modular and standardized in nature, building up and connecting all the individual external components was clearly the least time-intensive aspect of the station's assembly. From what had been seen of the blueprints, the internal components were largely the same; but there were many, many more of them and they had to be manually installed in a piecemeal fashion it seemed, which was the predominant complicating factor of the mission. They would have no idea going in which station segments were close enough to begin finished to warrant power, an atmosphere, and life support.

The group stared in awe at the massive station. "Amazing..." The Captain let slip, simply astounded by the sheer scale and speed of their construction, he turned back to the Commandos, knowing for sure the next question coming, and intercepted it. "Before you say it, no you won't get lost." He said, followed by a few sighs of relief. "From referencing the blueprints, the station should be relatively the same, the data has been uploaded into your gear, so your entry point should be easy enough to find."

"Once we're in." Jenkins said. "Anything in particular we're looking for?"

"Just a simple recon." Captain Leska replied. "See if it matches up with the actual blueprints, and if not, search any irregularities and anything out of place."

"Get in, take some pictures, get out." Kadan said.

"The gist of it, yes." Captain Leska said, followed by a chuckle.

"Say no more." Jenkins said, walking besides the captain to face his squad. "Echo Squad, gear up and meet at the airlock."

"Sir! Yessir!" They replied in unison.

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

The Corvette continued on its approach towards the station, slowly becoming more and more translucent as the cloaking generator engaged, hopefully undetected by the station's sensors. Following the direction of the schematics, the corvette powered off it's engines as it drifted closer to the station, within a reasonable range to deploy the commandos safely.

Within the ship, Echo Squad gathered at one of the airlocks, making final preparations before tossing themselves out in the vacuum of space. The four of them were cramped up in the airlock, tightening anything loose. Kadan was the one most having trouble. "Uh..sir?" Kadan called to Jenkins. "Can't reach my jump pack."

"I got it." Uisha said as she tend to Kadan, tighten up the straps.

"Ah, my caretaker, what would I do with you." Kadan said humorously.

"Dead that's for sure." She replied.

"Well maybe one day I can repay you."

"I'll hold you up to that." She said with what constitutes as a "grin" for ishkaan, getting downright flirtatious.

"That's about enough love birds." Leena said, turning her attention to Jenkins. "Boss, we're ready." He nodded and took one last look at everyone, one final check. "Alright people, from here on, we maintain radio silence, use your psi-amps to communicate."
"Yes, sir!" They all nodded.

"Good...brace yourselves.." He said, making the countdown. "5...4...3...2...1..GO!" He smashed down the button, the airlock opening wide as the four were sucked out into space, all spinning like mad. "Activate jump packs!" Jenkins ordered via telepathy, pushing the trigger on his suit as the jump pack activated, maintaining his stance, the others following suite.

The team made their way steadily across the field of vacuum. Of course, a 'reasonable distance' was a very relative term. Stealth Corvettes like the Darkstrike were usually most effective the closer they were to their targets, its small size occasionally allowing it to slip into gaps between sensor arrays and completely preclude any chance of detection. Of course, the snag was that the closer you got, the higher the chance of a mishap collision or of damaging and alerting the target with propulsion burn from manuevering thrusters, or disrupt the craft's cloak. The happy medium of distance to remain undetected was the relatively short kilometer.

Of course, what was reasonable, relative, and a happy medium for a stealth corvette was ten-minute nightmare for the commandos. To remain undetected, none of them could use full burn with their packs, so they had to slowly build up velocity and then abruptly decelerate halfway there, on top of making course adjustments. If the Darkstrike was detected at any time during that period, they would either have to turn around and spend a very exciting mininute at full burn to return to it or otherwise continue throwing themselves at what, for all they knew, had transformed from an infiltration target into the jaws of the underworld.

Thankfully, nothing went wrong. They reached one of the secondary station segments still under construction, slipping through the gaps in the hull to the nearly-completely internal skeleton. Even that was relatively large, the largely-hollow superstructure being perhaps a hundred meters in diameter with only support beams and struts filling the space. Towards on end was an obvious airlock, the only apparent means of entry. The first complication of the mission ensued: The airlock was unpowered.

"Mission is a go." Jenkins' telepathically announced. Echo made their careful advance, drifting closer and closer towards the unpowered airlock. Jenkins was the first to reach the end, maintaining his stance with his jump pack, the other soon following in. "We'll have to skip the pleasantries." Jenkins said. "Leena, you're up."

"Say no more boss." Leena said, pulling out a magnetic demolition charge from her chestplate, pushing forward from the group to Jenkins' side. "Brought this little bastard for such an occasion." The Magnetic charge was glued to the surface, Leena pressing down several keys before the device sparked to life, only for a brief moment of course, the countdown represented by bright red numbers. "Charge is set." Leena proclaimed. "Get clear!" Before the countdown ended, Echo squad scattered, and drifting away from the blastzone, or well, at least away from any sharp debris. As the countdown reached to zero, the demolition charge went off.

Although Echo Squad was no stranger to spaceborne ops, the lack of a proper "boom" was still a strange sensation, all they felt was a small shockwave as the charge blow a large hole where the airlock doors once stood.

Echo squad then did the one thing absolutely nobody in space should have done. They [i]heard[i] atmosphere rushing past them as the section they had just breached vented out through the new hole that had just been punched in the airlock. The sound of alarm klaxons ringing carried across that rushing air as it flew around and past them until finally, the section they had breached either locked itself down or simply ran out of atmosphere to vent, leaving the squad in silence once more.

"Shit." Kadan cursed. No doubt the station was already on alert, but then again, accidents amidst constriction are bound to happen, kadan just hopes and prays the Printers think more of the latter then the former, nonetheless, now with that out of the way, Echo Squad was able to proceed with the mission, and begun their trek, delving deep in the bowels of the station. The interior of the station, or at least the section Echo Squad was in, screamed Corporate. The lighting had turned red, and was flashing in a few places accompanied by holographic projections helpfully displaying warning messages which the team's translators helpfully revealed read as 'DANGER: HULL BREACH! NO ATMOSPHERE! NON-TYPHIS EVACUATE AFFECTED SECTION IMMEDIATELY!'

The walls, ceilings, and floors were polished, almost reflective, the design harking back to a more "retro" and "nostalgic" era so to speak, it was all so bland, but at the same time, that blandness was inviting, calming, all the more unsettling to a degree. "Let's be thankful this sector wasn't inhabited." Jenkins said. "No need for a body count...yet." The squad proceeded forward, their jump packs on a low setting as they drifted through the corridors.

Jenkins peered around the next corner they came across, seeing just another empty hallway. Signalling for the rest of the squad to follow, he then turned the corner and immediately bumped into a crewman.

The most startling aspect of their abrupt appearance was that they were barely wearing anything. A utilitarian, skintight bodysuit of some sort that covered most of their torso, but left the feet, lower arms, hands, and head exposed. At least, whatever it was the alien being had for a head, which was really more of a vague lump in place of a neck. It has no visible sensory organs or orifices, resembling a discolored dome of flesh protruding up from the creature's torso. The flesh of its feet looked somewhat swollen and bulbous, but seemed firmly connected to the floor even without any internal gravity - told further by it remaining firmly planted where it was even as Jenkins himself was shoved away by its four arms to collide with the nearest wall.

The appearance of the "crewman" was a startling experience for for the squad, once Jenkins was shoved aside by the creature, the rest of Echo Squad instinctively aimed their rifles at the creature. "What hell is that thing?!?!" Kadan shouted, telepathically of course. The other squad members, under their helmets, were visibly disgusted by the creatures appearance, and were moments away from pulling the triggers. "Echo! Stand down!" Jenkins ordered. "Look." He said, pointing at the creature, which in actuality,seeminly paid no mind to the commandos' presence.

The creature appeared unarmed - it was wearing a pack across its chest with several pouches and contact-seams, and pinwheeling in the space behind it was what looked like a welder with accompanying tank of some kind. A non-combatant, perhaps, maybe even a technician responding to the hull breach.

Of course, just because it was neither armed nor strictly a combatant did not mean it was not a threat. It had immediately begun to backpedal down the hallway, its swollen feet permitting it to reach a slow jogging speed in the vacuum. Its limbs moved with a strange, undulating limpness and ease suggesting it was quite acclimated to moving around in a zero-gravity vacuum. As it retreated, it had unsealed one of the contact seams on the pack it carried and was reaching inside with one of its four limbs. Its rapid retreat halted, briefly, when it ran up against the same welding device and the tank it had presumably been carrying earlier.

The Squad observed the creature for a brief moment. "Captain, you're seeing this?" Jenkin said loud.

"That's an Affirmative." Captain Leska replied over the commlink. "Never seen anything like it before...proceed onward, if it or others like it try to stop you, eliminate them."

"Roger that." Jenkins said, turning back to his men. "Echo Squad, move forward, and don't provoke that...thing, until they're deemed hostile."

The thing then drew what was clearly a hand-weapon from the pack and leveled it right at Jenkins. There was a brief pause as its other three limbs splayed in the air, as if it was trying to make itself look even larger than it already was. It was then that Echo Squad noticed a change in the scrawling text being holographically projected at certain intervals.

'DANGER: INTRUDER ALERT, HULL BREACH, NO ATMOSPHERE! ALL NON-COMBATANTS EVACUATE! ALL NON-COMBATANTS YIELD TO SECURITY PERSONNEL!'

Jenkins was caught offguard in the moment, freezing as he saw the creature wielding a firearm of sorts, Uisha was quick to react as she raised her rifle and shot the creature several times in several parts of it's body, head included, the other two following her lead as they fired.

Uisha's spray of fire hit the creature three times dead its center of mass before it fired. There was a ever-so-brief flashbulb like pop of light, and in that instant the hull besides Jenkins' head was smoldering with a red-hot glow of suffused heat, a black ring of char-marks surrounding it. Uisha's fire then riddled the creature in the head, and a few stray shots caught various parts of its arm.

Staggered by the force of the shots, the creature extended its arms to catch at the sides of the ceiling and walls of the hallway to stabilize itself as the kinetic force rocked through its body. Although the Squad scarcely even noticed in their haste to shoot the thing dead, none of its wounds appeared to be leaking vital fluid, and apart from its body being forcibly blown backwards by the kinetic force of each projectile, it did not seem terribly worse for wear. This was only borne home when the two other members of Echo Squad drew beads on the creature and similarly opened fire, completely shredding and destroying the fabric of the pack it was wearing, filling the hallway with shreds of torn synthetic material, tools, and loose pieces of metal and ceramic construction components. Their fire completely severed two of the creature's arms entirely, causing it to lose a firm grip, while another shot pierced through one of its anchoring feet and caused it to lose its grasp and fly back through the air, the repeated shots from Echo Squad forcefully flinging it back down the hallway. However, it made abundantly clear through the rapid flailing of its remainings arms and legs that despite having been shot upwards of several dozen times, it was still alive and likely incredibly angry.

Jenkins was frozen where he stood, and but a hair away from death, taking notice of the blasthole made from the beam weapon, everything seemed to move at a slower pace, taking a brief glimpse of his fellow commandos dispatching the creature before he had regained his composure.

"How's it still alive!?!" Kadan shouted, breaking the silence.

"Can't do much anyway!" Uisha shouted over the com.

"Jenkins!" Captain Leska called over the commlink. "What the hell's going on?"

Jenkins shook his head, regaining his senses. "Things got a little complicated, captain.."

"Orders sir?" Usiha asked.

"We press on." Jenkins replied, staring at the wiggling, furious creature. "Leave it, it can't do much now." And with that, Echo Squad glided through the hallways, their jump packs almost at full settings, searching for any means to traverse other parts of the station.

They blazed past the flailing creature as it attempted to reorient itself in the corridor, leaving it behind in the dim emergency lighting of the halls. Echo squad soon reached yet another complication: an emergency bulkhead. Essentially a secondary airlock for use in emergencies, it had probably slammed down once the original hull breach had been detected, and it was powered. Which meant the section behind it was likely pressurized. Helpfully displayed as a holographic projection in front of it was another emergency message.

'AIRLOCK SEALED, SECURITY HAZARD NEARBY. AWAIT SECURITY PERSONNEL.'

"Leena, gonna need another hole." Jenkins ordered.

"Got it." She replied as she pulled her last demolition charge from her chestplate. "I really hope we don't need more.." She muttered to herself, placing the charge in the center of the bulkhead, following the same routine as before, the countdown starting. "Here's come another! Get clear!" The squad backtracked, bracing for another shockwave, and perhaps metal scraps flying their way.

The explosive blast from the detonation was carried to the team as another wave of atmosphere rushed past them, alarm klaxons once again blaring. Multiple shards of metal and debris in the form of furniture and curios slammed into the wall around the corner opposite the blast door, and then, thankfully, the rush of air stopped, the arranged debris spiraling about the hallway at manageable velocities.

Jenkins peered around the corner again and saw that they had company however. Taking a step through the breached bulkhead was another one of the massive four-armed creatures - only this one was wearing a powered exoskeleton with segmented armor plates, and carried with it a long carbine that was probably larger than Jenkin's arm. It raised the carbine as it spotted Jenkins, who thankfully pulled their head back before the armored being could fire.

"We got company!" Jenkins declared. "And they've brought in the big guns!" Echo squad backed further away from the blasted blukhead, they rifles ready to rain shards upon the enemy. "This ones got heavy duty armor, be careful!"

Rather than the hulking armored brute they had expected to round the corner, a spherical, hovering drone the size of one of their head's careened around it instead, orienting its front-mounted array at the Squad. It projected a holographic display even as it bounced off the wall, the message somehow remaining stable in a set orientation even as the small drone attempt to balance itself.

'SURRENDER OR DIE. THERE ARE MORE BACK THE WAY YOU CAME.'

"Shit..." Kadan let slip.

"Sir, we're caught in a rock and a hard place..." Uisha said. "Orders?"

Jenkins, for a but a moment, pondered on his small list of options, although this was a quick decision. "Captain." Jenkins called over the comm. "Infiltration Op is a failure, initiate Plan B." There was a brief silence, Echo squad waiting, time being of essence, especially if the machine was telling the truth.

"Understood."

-------

Outside, the Darkstirke had shed it's cloaking field, exposing itself to the station. Within the command bridge, Captain Leska stood at the center of the bridge, in between the Operators as a console emerged from the floor, rising at just the right height, he pressed down a serious of keys, holo-image of an older woman displaying in front of him. "Captain Rosland, the mission has gone sour, we request the Crow's Nest's support."

"Roger that." She said. "We're en-route to your position and will cover your retreat." The holo-image dissipated as transmission was cut off. "Good, let's lend Echo a hand. Open fire." The guns on the Stealth Corvette begun to flare up as particle beams and kinetic rounds were shot out, assaulting the exterior hull for a but a moment. "Get out of there Echo!" Captain Leska ordered.

There was seemingly no reaction to the Corvette's attack on the station. Although the munitions were able to punch through the hull easily enough, it was just shooting into a depressurized environment - courtesy of Echo Squad. It did little real internal damage. Curiously, none of the frigates parked nearby reacted to the attack. However, the Corvette's internal sensor array had picked something up.

"Captain, we have just picked up multiple inbound Slipspace mass signatures, and none of them are ours. High probability it is the NAC fleet observed by scouts earlier. It must have been stationed on overwatch to respond to attacks at the construction sites." One of the Operators aboard the bridge reported, their voice remarkably level considering he had just announced they were about to be cornered by a massive fleet. "We have less than a minute before they arrive."

"Godsdamnit, they're not making this easy." Leska cursed, placing his middle and index finger over his right ear, the comm device located there. "Echo!" Captain Leska shouted. "We got hostile warships on approach, you have a limited time window, get out of there now!" The Captain turned his attention back to the situation in space. "We stand no chance against that fleet, prep the engines, and as soon as Echo Squad is extracted, I want this ship out of orbit and out of this system ASAP."

-------

'SURRENDER OR DIE. YOU HAVE FIVE SECONDS. FIVE. FOUR. The hovering drone had regained its stability, and was now slowly advancing beyond the corridor, approaching Echo Squad as its message counted down.

"Echo squad! Fall back!" Jenkins ordered, the four of them activating their jump packs to max setting, blazing though hallways. Their rapid withdrawal came to a halt when a second of the floating drones cut them off at the next corner down.

At that range and at their speeds, hitting the drone in time to stop what happened next was next to impossible. As Echo Squad Decelerated in order to break and swerve around the corner, the drone detonated like a large grenade, right in front of them.

Jenkins and Leena were front and center, and were caught in the blast, Usiha and Kadan were fortunate enough to only be blown away. All was calm for a few moments before Kadan regained consciousness. "Boss! Guys! Can you hear me..?" Much to his horror, the blast had killed Leena and Jenkins upon impact, their suits torn to shreds, limbs and droplets of blood floating. "Ohh sweet Irura...no...no.." Panic started to overflow, the team leader and demolitions expert were dead, all that was left was..."Uisha!" He called out to her, turning to see her still alive, but barely conscious. "Oh thank you..." He whispered as he drifted towards her, grabbing onto her as they pressed on to their exist. "Captain...we lost Jenkins an Leena..." Jenkins and Leena were front and center, and were caught in the blast, Usiha and Kadan were fortunate enough to only be blown away. All was calm for a few moments before Kadan regained consciousness. "Boss! Guys! Can you hear me..?" Much to his horror, the blast had killed Leena and Jenkins upon impact, their suits torn to shreds, limbs and droplets of blood floating. "Ohh sweet Irura...no...no.." Panic started to overflow, the team leader and demolitions expert were dead, all that was left was..."Uisha!" He called out to her, turning to see her still alive, but barely conscious. "Oh thank you..." He whispered as he drifted towards her, grabbing onto her as they pressed on to their exist. "Captain...we lost Jenkins an Leena..."

Kadan felt a smooth, hollow piece of metal suddenly being pressed against the back of his head.

Having approached silently in the vacuum of the hallway, the power-armored alien Jenkins had spotted earlier had caught up to them. Using one arm to keep its carbine leveled at Kadan's head, it had moved to grab Kadan by both of his shoulders, and was even now reaching for his weapon with its free fourth arm.

"Guess this is the end.." He thought to himself. "But not for you..." Before he would be taken by the armored creature, he reactivated Ushia's jump pack, still awake, but barely. "I'll hold this monster off, go." He telepathically told Usiha. "Live on." He pushed her ahead, he pulled his sidearm with the short time he could, and accepted his fate.

A second of the power-armored, four-armed begins stepped around the bend of the corner the exploding drone had met them out and effortlessly caught Ushia in three of its hands, completely dashing any hope of her escaping once she recovered from the blast. The drone that had warned them earlier of there being more back the way they had come had evidently not been lying. As Kadan wrestled the creature grappling with him for his weapon, he found himself completely overcome by its monstrous, inhuman strength. Trying to resist its movements seemed like he was trying to stop a cave-in from crushing him. Moving with slow and deliberate ease, the taller being moved its grips from his shoulders to his forearms, and then rather than continuing to try and rip the weapon from his hands, simply chopped at his fingers with its free remaining extremity with enough force to fracture each individual bone in his fingers.

-------

Back on the bridge of the Darkstrike, things had been eerily quiet. There had been no reaction whatsoever to either their abrupt decloaking or to their firing upon the station's exterior. None of the four frigates had moved or appeared to be powering their weapons. "Captain, the station is hailing us." One of the Operators announced.

This added on to the unease of the situation, but time was still needed to prep the ship for their retreat. "Very well, open channels, let's see what they want."

"This is Stationmaster Poenghrin Eight-Hundred Eighty-Four, Darkstrike. There appears to have been a minor security issue onboard concerning some intruders. Unfortunately, while security forces were engaging the intruders, your guests were inadvertantly caught in the crossfire. I am afraid there is no sign of the intruders themselves anymore. Two members of your crew were killed, but thankfully their nervous systems are intact enough for us to revive them. If you are willing to wait a few hours, I can have our medics tend to the other two while the others are being resuscitated. If you are presently under duress or are aware of any hostile craft in the area, please inform us. Respond."

The Captain was silent, utterly astounded at what he heard, are they truly not aware of their violations they've committed? The deaths they caused? Nonetheless, the Captain had maintain his attitude, he needed to get his remaining people back, he sure as hell doesn't trust these things to do another with both the living and the dead. "That will not be necessary...I uh..must insist the survivors immediately be returned to us."

"Well, that's quite a strange proposition, but I guess you do get to decide who can board your ship or not. The survivors will be returned shortly, be aware they are in need of medical treatment. Do you have anything you would like us to tell the fallen parties once we have revived them?"

As Poenghrin's transmission ended, one of the bridge Operators signalled the Captain, indicating the numerous slipspace mass signatures had just vanished and that the NAC fleet had arrived. "They appear to be moving to intercept the Crow's Nest upon its arrival. They must have picked it up on their own sensors." They indicated discreetly through the Captain's earpiece.

"It's too late for them...they knew the risks." The Captain said sorrowfully. "But they will all be avenged, make no mistake."

"I can tell you from personal experience that being told that sort of thing upon revival after dying is very perplexing. Not for the least of reasons because they are to be avenged for something profoundly stupid their superiors were responsible for." The voice on the other end of the transmission was transparently smug as it finished that statement. "No matter though. I suppose we'll just have them dropped off at the nearest colony. The survivors are on on-route, by the way."

Leska's blood started to boil. "The way I see it.." He began. "Their deaths were at the hands of your abominations, on an illegally-built station that clearly violates Federation sovereignty, as such, you will force our hand in the matter and we will have no choice but to remove or seize your assets for ourselves. Enjoy it while it lasts monster, but we will be coming for you, that I promise." Leska turned to one of Operators. "Cut Transmission."

"Yes, sir." He complied, and with that, connection was lost.

Thirty seconds later, both Kadan and Uisha were bodily slammed against the forward window of the Darkstrike's cockpit by a quartet of drones.

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

Elsewhere, along the edge of the Yilumi system, the Crow's Nest, one of several heavily modified carriers made from two civilian cargo haulers, jumped out from slipspace and began its trek to the Urbos Station. Within the Command Bridge, Captain Rosland sat, and along with her crew, waiting in anticipation for combat, however, the battle would unexpectedly arrive to them.

Proximity alarms rung throughout the ship as the NAC fleet was on intercept course. "Captain!" An Operator cried out. "We got a hostile fleet our way!"

"Shit...they saw us coming." Rosland said, biting her thumb nail. "The Darkstrike will have to wait, battle stations!"

Throughout the halls of the carrier, the crew scrambled to their assigned positions as they prepared for battle, dozens of pilots streaming down the halls as they assembled in either of the four launch bays.

"Captain," An Operator called out, "Enemy fleet composition is overwhelming. Advise mission abort."

"Captain, we are being hailed by one of the hostile fleet's Dreadnoughts." Another Operator announced in succession.

"...Open transmisison." She ordered, despite her gut feeling saying otherwise.

"This is Fleet Admiral Ariamache Twenty-Four of the NAC." The voice coming in over comms was feminine and had a low, mischievous tone. "You seem lost. The Daisan frontline is to the Galactic Northeast of here, Captain. Do you need directions?"

"Captain, we have been painted by multiple targeting beams." Another one of the Operators called out. "We have entered presumed effective weapons range for the enemy forces. We are two point four million kilometers out. No incoming fire."

Rosland cleared her throat, ignoring the clearly condescending tone of the NAC officer. "Attention NAC warships, this is Captain Jess Rosland of the SDF. Your vessels are in clear violation of Federation Sovereignty, stand down or there will be dire consequences."

"We are not the Federation's enemy, Captain. We are not the ones butchering your fleets and your planets. We are not interested in conflict. But if you shoot, we will return fire. The only dire consequences that are going to come of this will be the Daisan conquering your space all the more swiftly for the lack of the forces you will throw away combating us. Which is not to our benefit either. The Federation is, after all, the buffer between our assets and the Daisan." The Admiral sounded vaguely amused as they spoke, as though they were in the middle of laying out a long joke. "I am being informed by the station authority that they elected to spare your operatives and your stealth craft. Next time, we will not be so generous."

"Your generosity will not go unnoticed." Rosland said. "However, I don't quite recall the higher ups in Government agreeing to any sort of property acquisition to the N.A.C." Rosland paused, letting a small cough. "The Law is the Law afterall, any illegal actions within our borders will be dealt with..." Rosland however, knew full well she was outgunned and outnumbered. "However, that day will not be today, I do hope you have time to...evaluate your position and be warned, the Federation will not stand this clear act of aggression, and WILL answer it with force."

"I see. So what you are saying is that I should motion the second board to establish more station sites so that I can requisition a larger defense fleet." Ariamach's voice brimmed with barely constrained laughter. "Well, I suppose it is nobody's business but the admiralty's whether or not your entire civilization ceases to exist. Safe travels Captain." There was a brief pause. "Now get out. And take your inept lackeys with you."

"...Take us out." Rosland ordered. "We'll get that bitch later."

"Yes, Ma'am." One of the Operators said, all of them directing the ship outwards, jumping into slipspace. "We must inform High Command of this...situation." Rosland, mostly talking to herself, and to any crew close enough. "It's a risk, but we must not allow any foriegn fleets operating within Federation Space, no matter the cost."

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

A pair of crewmen in space suits had volunteered to venture out and retrieve the two injured commandos, bringing the barely alive ishkaan, once they entered the ship, medical staff had stood there waiting to take over care for the severely injured soldiers, and hauled them off to the Sick Bay.

Before long, the Darkstrike's engines flared up with life as the ship swiftly departed from the vicinity of the station, fleeing to the system capital of Yilum, to both better prepare and await the arrival of the main fleet for the assault to come.

Several hours later, within the depths of the station, Jenkins abruptly woke up as if from a dreamless sleep. The last thing he remembered had been...

The second breaching charge on the emergency bulkhead doors. Leena had placed it and then everyone had retreated past the bend in the corridor and now...he was abruptly here, in what was clearly an infirmiry room. He was resting on a raised bed, and there was a large compartment mounted on the wall to his right which he vaguely recognized as being similar to a modular, fold-out storage unit for specialized medical equipment. To his left was a line of counters with blank viewing panes set into the wall above them and several rows of neatly arranged handheld medical devices as well as several cylindrical containers for biological materials. He was wearing his undersuit that had accompanied the rest of his operations equipment, but the rest of his gear was missing. He was not restrained to the bed and there was not any equipment hooked to him, so although his abrupt displacement things seem alright.

Directly in front of him towards the front of the room was a metallic sliding door - which opened even as he contemplated what his next move was. Another Human wearing a loose and baggy, one-piece bodysuit underneath a medical coat entered the room. They looked unremarkable, like any normal Federation citizen.

"Welcome back." He said to Jenkins wryly. "The Captain of the Darkstrike told us to relay you a message for when you woke up. He said that it was too late for you, but that you knew the risks and that you would be avenged." He looked expectantly at Jenkins.

Jenkins raised an eyebrow, utterly confused of the situation. "...What's going on? How did I get here?" He asked.

"You died approximately..." The man glanced at a nearby info-pane on the wall. "...Seven and half standard hours ago? There was enough of you left over for us to resuscitate you."

Jenkins was speechless, scanning his surroundings and getting a good look at the stranger before him. "I vaguely remember...why do this though?"

"Well the call was made to return the survivors from your team to their ship, and the Stationmaster decided as long as we were doing that we should revive you and the other casualty on the offchance your captain was willing to wait long enough so they could take both of you back." He paused briefly. "Oh, right, sorry, sort of forgot what I was supposed to be doing. Could I please have your name and personal information for our records? We did not find any identification on your corpse."

"...It's Arnold Jenkins.." he replied. "And there was another? Who else died?"

"Well we still don't know her name, she has not woken up yet. Internal sensors indicate she was the one who planted the second breaching charge. Very stealthy entry method by the way, I have no idea how security even figured out you were there."

"Leena..." Jenkins muttered.

"And is that her first or last name?" The man asked expectantly.

"It's Leena Homs."

"Great." The man pulled a viewing-pane with an antiseptic, white-colored trim from his overcoat and spent a few seconds entering the two names into an unseen form before replacing it. "Now I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but both the Darkstrike and the Crow's Nest elected to leave without you two. I am afraid you and Leena are going to be here for a while. At least until the next transport arrives. I am fairly certain we can have them drop you off at the nearest Federation colony, but it may be several standard weeks before the next one gets here."

"We had a mission to follow, I don't blame them for leaving, we were dead afterall." Jenkins said, no hint of regret or resentment to be be noticed. "I'm willing to wait...but I'm sure they'll be here before you get the chance."

"The chance to do what? It's not like we're building a superweapon here. And whoever it is you think 'they' is," The man airquoted as he spoke, his eyebrows raised slightly. "bear in mind, if they destroy the station, they will be killing you too. Take a hard minute to think about that. Not everyone gets a second chance like you did."

"That is true, and you got my thanks, but, I'll manage, and if not, I at least did my duty." Jenkins said with a smirk.

"Yeah, sure, whatever makes your boat go." The man replied dryly. "You can make use of this room for lodging until you leave. You and your friend will have base access to most of the station. Be warned, if you even given the Typis a reason to suspect anything, they will kill you. Welcome to VMSRA 1044." With that, the man turned heel and left the room, the sliding door closing behind him.

With that, Jenkins hopped up, losing his balance for a moment and left to search for Leena's room. Upon existing his room, he found himself in a brightly lit hallway, in all its sterilized glory, complete with the white walls, floors, and ceilings. Jenkins continued to his left and just walked forward until he could find the correct room. The first room he tried opened to reveal a familiar looking, alien being in a skintight suit, missing two of its four arms. It adjusted the shard-ridden lump that was its head to look up at Jenkins briefly from where it lay secured on the raised bed, before raising both of its remaining arms and making what was undoubtedly a profane gesture with both of them.

The second room was Leena's. As the door silde open, he found Leena, still unconscious, although perhaps Jenkins wiould have better luck getting her to wake up. "Leena!" He called out to her."Get the hell up!" He shouted.

"Ughhh, Boss, please lower your voice..." Leena mumbled, finally back from the dead. "Had a terri-" She stopped midway, realizing she's not on the Darkstrike. "Uhh, sir, where are we?"

"What do you remember?" Jenkins asked.

"All I can think of was a real bad dream, we botched a mission and..." Her eyes widened. "That wasn't a dream, was it?"

"Nope." He replied. "We died, and for some odd reason, those NAC guys "revived" us."

"I have questions..." Leena said. "But at the same time..I don't want to..." Leena remained silent, just thinking. "Did the others make it?"

"Yeah, they did." Jenkins replied. "They got away before things got too ugly."

"Good to know..."Leena sighed with releif. "Soo, we gonna get rescued?"

"Probably, probably not, I guess it depends." Jenkins anwsered, pondering. "They still think we're dead, so..chances are a bit low."

"Oh don't worry." Leena grinned. "When the fleet comes, and they will come, I'll make sure they know."

SACRILEGE WAR (Grimdark Fantasy NRP)

Artium Tribal Lands
A month had long passed, Prince Philip and his small host, still licking their wounds after their humiliating defeat at the hands of the Yuwanist savages, the occasional scout group returning with one or more less men then there were before, a grim reminder of how woefully unprepared the young, arrogant prince and his men were. Within a large, very noticeable tent, it's fabric much more...refined then the raggy and dirty materials of the tents used by the peasant levies. Prince Philip and several of his most veteran soldiers gathered around a table, it's surface decorated with daggers, candles and a large map of the region, provided by their generous allies. "My lord, we've scoured the border, nearly all of our patrols taking losses.

The young prince sat at the very edge of the tab, paying little mind to his officers as his attention was more focused on his maimed hands, the small stubs where his fingers once were, quite frankly, it was a miracle he and his surviving men had not died to infection like the others, the local Priests in the camp ensuring survival once they arrived. His expression was sour, the bitterness and anger festering every time to gazes upon his maimed hands.

"My lord?" One of the Officers spoke, taking notice of his unattentiveness.

Philip shook his head and looked up. "Yes, yes?" He said.

"Uhh..As I was saying, the savages seemed to have a solid grip over the border, our troops unable to effective in any sort of fight."

"Those heathens...." Philip hissed.

"My lord, I strongly suggest we fall back, we can no-"

"NO!" Philip snapped. "I will not be beaten by these savages! I will be satisfied, I demand it!" The fail skirmish was a real impact on the prince. "They will not so easily be sparred of any retribution, as Justinian as my witness, I WILL conquer these lands!"

"My lord..it simply Isn't.." Before the man could even finish, some commotion was going on outside, the men chattering and hollering. "What the devil is going on out there?" Another Officer spoke.

"This will have wait." Philip said, standing up and leaving the tent, as he lift up the flaps, he took notice as soldiers begin to crowd near the camp entrance, this caught his curiosity. He simply moved forward, the levies taking notice of their lord, and by instinct of their class, cleared a way through for him.

He reached the Camp entrance, his brows raised to the sight before him now. A small company of Gunners stood before him, leading said men was a an aged man in his sixties, the Captian of the Nudden House Guard, Atharan Homwell, he rode atop a white stallion. "Captain?" Philip spoke in bewilderment. "What is the meaning of this?" He asked.

"Greetings my prince." The Captain said. "Forgive me, but unsavory rumors had begun to spread, and...it seems they were not far off." He paused as he dismounted his steed. "Your father feared the worst, and had me personally lead an expedition to the Northern Lands."

Although this could be taken as an insult of sorts, or perhaps not, either way, Philip's pride has already been bruised at the hands of the savages, however, the situation seemed to improve, Philip now had his Father's best warrior and the elite riflemen of Aberys at his disposable."

"..I must thank you and my father for this assistance...but I must ask, is this your whole party?"

"Goodness no." Atharan said with a hearty laugh. "See for yourself, my prince."

The Prince moved forward, going pass the Captain and gunners, looking down the hill his camp had been set up on, his eyes widened. Before him was a marching aberysian host, their banners flying under the House of Nudden, the sight itself brought a tear to his eye. By Justinian, this truly is a gift! Philip's expression switched from awe, to a sinister grin, followed by a small chuckle "I care not if this is an insult from father or not, I now have the means to which I can enact my vengeance." He said, turning to the other spectators. "Know this! These savages will be no more soon! I will conquer these lands in the name of not only Justinian, but in the name of my House, these lands will soon be ruled by House Nudden, it is now mine by birthright!"

Cheers soon followed, moral has risen, and it seems the twilight dawned upon the Artium tribes.

Galaxy Aflame! A space opera RP (Closed)

@WrongEndoftheRainbow I would say your sheet is approved, you may move it over to the Character tab to continue work on it.

Galaxy Aflame! A space opera RP (Closed)

@Darkspleen@Goldeagle1221@Willy Vereb@CrunchyCHEEZIT@CaptainBritton@Commodore@Oraculum@Arawak@FrostedCaramel@Vecee@Terminal@Taeryn@Ozerath@darkwolf687@SantosGabriel77@Archetype Zero@The Spectre
Alright people! We're all set! We can all now start posting in the IC.
Those not yet approved, hurry up or you'll miss the fun! :P

Galaxy Aflame! A space opera RP (Closed)

Ignore.

Galaxy Aflame! A space opera RP (Closed)

Anaria -- Five years ago, just before first contact

Anaria’s capital city was bustling with life, people going about their daily activities and rituals, a clutter of voices and sounds filling the air. A young man in fancy attire sat in the outdoors section of some small coffee shop, blissfully taking in the energetic scenery while enjoying his cup. Across the table he was sitting was another man in similar clothing. "Today's the day, isn't it Isaac?" The man asked.

"Yeah...nerves are getting to me." Isaac spoke. "Thanks for coming along Justin."

"No problem man." Justin said. "I can't miss my brother's big moment." Isaac continued to sip his coffee, placing it down as he pulled something out of his pocket, a small box, he pushed it back to reveal a ring. "Think she'll say yes?"

Justin nodded. "She'd be crazy not to say yes."

Isaac took a deep breath, taking one last look of the ring before placing it back in his pocket. He then turned his attention to his watch. "Ah, almost time. Let's pay and head out, Diane's waiting."

“Wait, what’s up with the sky?”

Isaac followed Justin’s outstretched finger to the once blue sky, now a deep plum. He squinted, “I’m not su-”
In a great blinding flash, a monumental object of fear and destruction smashed into the city. Its black tetrahedral body piercing the crust of the very planet as it touched down, sending a powerful and explosive shock wave in all directions. The buildings leaned away from the impact, and crumbled into particles. Shadows of vehicles, people, pets, were whipped away from the city, their owners ceasing to exist, and most not knowing why.

---

"What the hell is going on!?!?!" A Defense Station captain screamed out, warning sirens crying out throughout the station, adding on to it, the structure itself had shook violently. "We don't know sir!" One of the CIC staff replied.

"Something hit us, sir...we can't identify.."

"Captain! Multiple Silpspace ruptures...by the the gods, they're in the thousands!"

Sweat begun to seep downward from the Captain's forehead, this fear was something he's never felt in his life. "G-g-give me a visual!" He stuttered.

A holo-display instantly materialized in the center of the room, what probes that remained had captured some images of the alien fleet, the image chilling the crew to the bone. Thousands of vessels of unknown design, eldritch in shape.

"Contact the fleet! We need to act! NO-" The Captain couldn't finish his orders... a plasma bolt had hit the station, leaving a large gaping hole in the CIC room, the Captain and his subordinates sucked out into the void of space, their screams of terror soon muffled and silenced.

Horrified, one solitary survivor managed to break his fist on the door pad, forcing the door into emergency mode and shutting him off from the void filled tomb of his coworkers. Oxygen rushed back into his lungs, scratching his throat and causing the chilling sweat on his neck to shiver. He found his legs and began to run, the station crushing behind him as he ran through checkpoint after checkpoint. The emergency doors slammed closed behind him as he sprinted, the colorful flashes of enemy weapons causing a kaleidoscope of negatives to twist his vision as he continued his flight from death. He passed the infirmary, but it had been ripped off the station, only a emergency wall keeping the corridor safe, a severed body split against it. He kept running.

The Survivor pressed on in his long trek across the station until reach his final destination, a few escape pods had remained, most of the crew, understandable, dead. He whispered a quick prayer to the gods and jumped in the pod.

The pod jettisoned out from the station, the survivor taking a brief glimpse of his doomed world.
Pocks of explosive light erupted on the planet below. The bright spheres illuminated the silhouette of escaping ships, civilian and military, from the amassed fleet of unknown origin. Ensign Zaamil pressed his forehead against the window of his pod, fear gripping his stomach as he watched strange yellow beams rip right through those attempting to escape. He was helpless, he was alone. The vacuum of space swallowed the flood of screams, the shouts of desperation, as uncountable bolts of plasma tore apart all he knew, as machines of the unknown deep ripped apart the very federation he served.

----

Present Day, Uduna

Five years have passed since the Fall of Anaria, for five years the Federation has been on the constant defense against the Daisan's droid swarms, slowly losing system after system, but despite such losses, the men and woman of the Federation Armed Forces refuse to surrender and keep the fight on to preserve the federation and their way of life.

Uduna was one of many worlds that has yet to fall to the Daisan, the 4th Fringe Defense Fleet holding the line in orbit of the arid world. Hundreds of federation ships were pitted against a near endless swarm of Daisan warships, no matter how many were destroyed, they kept coming.

Within and out of the fleet, federation fighter squadrons struggled as they fought their own battle against the drone swarms, the fleet itself now a deathtrap for the squadrons. A trio of Starhawks moved in unison, a symphony of lights blazing all around them as the larger ships continued their exchange. “Green Four and three, maintain formation!" The Squadron leader ordered as they chased and shot down a few drones. "The rest of you!" he called out to the rest of his scattered squadron. "Regroup at the Valentia!" The three starhawks took a sharp turn as they flew past the remains of a federation frigate, the static still emanating from the downed vessel, calls of help and screams heard. "Shit.."

"Green leader!" Green three, a feminine voice called out. "Boogies incoming!" Over a dozen fighter drones were on hot pursuit of the trio, plasma raining down over them. "Scatter!" Green leader ordered, the three fighters parting their separate ways, all around was utter chaos, the fleet was faltering, ships going limp, drifting, others going out in a blaze of light. "Fuckfuckufuck!!" Green leader cursed repeatedly, it was all going so wrong, again. Things would only escalate.

A group of Daisan suicide droids whizzed by, just barely missing the pilots. A massive static cloud erupted from the droids as they pummeled into the side of a close by federal ship, shredding through its shields. As the destructive cloud dispersed, an all too familiar sight came into view.

“Daisan hive inbound,” a voice on the intercom announced. Straight ahead, past the volley between the Daisan and Federal forces the scourge of the federation approached. A massive deflector shield covered the approaching hive in a nigh indestructible sphere, five escort ships surrounding the gear shaped hive inside of the shield, along side equally intimidating cruisers.

“You know the drill,” the voice came back online, “take out the escorts, the shield falls.”

Admirals always had a way of making it sound simple. Just as the order came in, one of the cruisers exited the hive shield, an opaque cloud of strike craft quickly following. A massive yellow beam blasted out from the bow of the cruiser, tearing through the federation forces deemed too close to the enormous hive escort.

“Boogies!” The call forced attention from the massive Daisan ships and to the cloud of Daisan strike craft breaking through into the federation line.

“Watch out for those suicide drones!” The smaller strike craft appearing in front of the encroaching fighters and bombers. A bolt of plasma struck one of the Federation fighter’s wings, the three Daisan fighters from before reappearing behind them.

“Green le-”

“I know.”

Green three’s fighter was suddenly blown to stardust, shattered by a hail of plasma bolts. “Godsdamnit!”

“Green leader! We got incoming friendlies!” Green Four spoke, several squadrons worth of fighter craft rushing to engage the drone cloud. “Delta Squadron standing by.”

“Deathsheads, standing by.”

“Gnashu, standing by.”

“All squadrons, we need to buy the fleet time, keep those buggers off!” Green leader cried out.

The three squadrons came charging, unleashing a volley of missiles against the drones. “Scatter! Scatter!” Delta leader ordered, the squadron breaking up, the others soon following. The space between the Daisan Hive and the rest of the fleet was a frenzied dogfight, the pilots giving their all, years of pent up rage directing every shot. What remained of Green Squadron flew in a arrowhead formation, turning away from the battlefield for but a moment. “Green two, Green Five, what took you?”

“Sorry, sir, it’s a godsdamn mess out here.”
“We’re here now, Green Three won’t die in vain!”

The four craft made their charge, towards the buzzing angry hive of warfare as they assisted their fellow pilots, unleash another round of missiles, small blooms popping up. “Yeah!”

“Weapons free!” Green Leader ordered. “Don’t die on me.” Green leader’s starhawk zipped and zoomed around, dogging incoming plasma and yellow beams, pursuing the occasional drone and blasting it into dust. “Green Leader! We have a problem!”

The hive was closing in, and its swarm of strike craft were chewing through the federation ships and fighters. Those going too fast bounced off of the spherical hive shield in violent blooms, while those who managed to enter it to engage the escorts were quickly overwhelmed by a crossknit of the Daisan yellow beams or pounding storms of plasma. The federation ships were slowly being forced back towards the orbit, those on point being pummeled by the encroaching Daisan ships, as well as pincushioned by an endless sea of suicide drones and bomber craft. More massive beams raged through the void of space, green leaders eyes following one as it touchdowned explosively across the federation flagship, Valor]’s, shield, causing it to fluctuate. Another beam came pounding forward, and another, a hovering of bombers added to the strain, Federation fighters floating dead around them. The barrage continued and suddenly the last few fatal shots echoed across everyone's channels as the final beams tore through the center axis of the Valor, tearing it in half was a violent flash.

The Pilots stared in awe as the dreadnought was torn in half. “Fuck!” Green cried out in frustration. “....fall back.”

“Sir?”

“All squadrons fall back to the surface!”

The Daisan hive slowed as it entered the planet’s orbit, the federation defenses unable to halt its invasion. From the hive’s belly, flashes erupted as foreboding black spikes the size of ships themselves fell from the hive, flying slowly out of the shield, and then as they cleared it, they were gone with a massive blast of speed, plummeting to the planet like lost comets.

7th Army Forward Command Center, outskirts of Jedan City

“General Bradley.” An Operator called. “Dasian Spikes have breached Orbital defenses.”

General Argus Bradley stepped forward from the shadows, his attention focused on the images of the approaching spikes. “I want all ground batteries blowing those things out of the sky.”

“Understood.” The operators replied in unison, relaying the General’s orders to the STS Artillery crews. Within moments, the distant hills were blazing, the heavy Anti-Ship artillery unleash their rounds, large fiery orbs colliding with the spikes, punching holes through several. The General and FOB staff watched in anticipation, followed by some cheers as several spikes begun to break up before passing the atmosphere, a good portion of the enemy’s ground force had been taken out, but it was far from celebration worthy, more spikes were still incoming. “Brace for impact, order all ground forces to find cover! The big one’s coming.”

Even being far from one of the impact zones, the ground shook violently. Everyone quickly looked away from the spike as a bright flash erupted from the impact, the explosion vaporizing the local defenses, and sending clouds of what was friends and comrades out from the impact zone and scattering them for miles.

As the ringing in their ears stopped, a worse sound replaced it. An ominous cacophony of groans polluted the dusty atmosphere as the factory spikes activated. Comlinks quickly opened up from fortifications that survived the impacts, those close enough to the factories reporting contact.

“We got Daisan cyclops droids!” one message shouted.

“Destroyers inbound!”

“Fuck, they brought Melees’!”

“Daisan warmachines approaching!”

“kshhhhhh -- Hyeekshhlllkeesh rgr-rgr,” one of the last comlinks simply echoed the sounds of Daisan blasters, and their bizarre speech patterns.

----

“Hold steady men!” Reginald shouted. “There is not a force on this planet that can force us to move!”

The men shouted a chorus of “Aye Lord Captain!” in response, either blissfully unaware or simply ignoring just how close they had come to being annihilated. The fortifications nearby had been destroyed when the Daisan had made planetfall. All of them.

Reginald looked up into the sky as a pair of Imperial strike sabres roared overhead. Their railguns opening on some target The lord captain and his men couldn’t see yet. Some of the men lifted their fists and yelled cries of victory at the sight of the friendly aircraft, but it was a short lived celebration. One of the strike sabres dove and rolled, narrowly avoiding Daisan return fire. The other tried to gain altitude, but wasn’t fast enough, its right wing flew off as a Daisan beam struck it, sending the aircraft into a death spiral.

“Here they come paladins!” Reginald shouted again. His men hunkered into fighting positions, most aiming down their railgun’s sights while a few others drew their swords. Overhead the remaining strike sabre dropped a pair of bombs before beating a hasty retreat.

The next few moments seemed to last an eternity as Reginald and the paladins he lead waited for the Daisan to approach. His father once told him that being in the military was long stretches of boredom intersected by moments of intense terror. Funny how his thoughts went to his father at times like these. His finger squeezed the trigger of his railgun before he even fully realized a Daisan clanker had walked into view, appearing through the distant dust cloud.

“Open fire! Open fire!” He yelled. It was unnecessary as the paladins all around him were already powering fire downrange. Bolts of plasma erupted from the dust clouds in response, the barrage jetting out of seemingly everywhere.

Reginald put a droid in his sights, squeezed the trigger, and dropped it. Only for two more to appear where the first had fallen. He growled, dropping the second droid as the third returned fire. Its aim was solid, Reginald’s shields flashing as the droid’s beam struck his shoulder. He’d probably have lost his arm if not for the shield.

He dropped more fully behind cover and looked around at his men. They were faring well, thus far only a few were wounded. It wouldn’t last though and they all knew it. The Daisan would keep throwing droids at the problem until the paladins were either overwhelmed or relieved.

Reginald peered over his cover, but had to duck quickly as a hail of Daisan fire greeted him. One of the paladins further down the line yelled “They’re keeping us pinned.”

“Watch the flanks!” Reginald yelled. “Watch the damned flanks!”

“Harris here” That was the lieutenant in charge of Reginald’s left flank. “We are taking heavy fire. We need- Watch it! Myrmidons!” The transmission cut off suddenly; whether because of some kind of jamming or Harris’ death, Reginald had no idea.

“First sergeant! You’re in charge here!” Reginald said. “Sergeant Pynty, you and your men are with me!”

“Yes sir!”

Reginald charged towards the left flank, his men following close on his heels. By the time they reached the left flank, the battle there had devolved into a free for all melee. Paladins and myrmidons exchanged sword blows, plasma swords and monomolecular blades finding their way into human bodies just as often as droids. A few paladins were desperately trying to keep the clankers pinned with railgun fire while their brothers fought valiantly to keep the myrmidons off of their backs.

Reginald aimed his railgun at the closest myrmidon and fired. The myrmidon seemed to simply lean backwards, dodging the round, before snapping back forward and stabbing the paladin it had been dueling with. Reginald pulled the trigger again, but snarled when his rifle didn’t fire. Had he already run out of ammo?

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” He shouted as the myrmidon turned towards him and charged. He dropped his railgun and, in one single smooth motion, drew his sidearm and shot the myrmidon in the head. It wasn’t a killing blow, but it did throw the droid to the ground and give Reginald enough time to draw his own plasma sword and promptly plant it into the droid’s chest.

“Destroyer droids!” Someone cried. Reginald had just enough time and look up and spot where the three crab-like droids had managed to flank the paladin’s position, before they opened up a hail of fire on the defenders, their signature shields bubbling up around them.

“Fall back!” Reginald shouted. A few paladins turned their railguns on the destroyers, only to have their rounds do little more than dent the destroyer’s energy shields. Some paladins, Reginald and the squad he had come with included, managed to fall back towards the center. The majority, however, found themselves still locked in a melee with myrmidon droids even as the destroyers gunned them down.

“We need support here! Now!” Reginald shouted over the radio. “Air support. Mechs. I don’t care. We are moments from being overrun!” A nearby explosion through the captain off his feet. Men screamed in pain, their limbs torn from their body. Reginald took just enough time to pat himself down and make sure nothing was missing before shouting “This position is a shattered sword! I repeat: we are a shattered sword!”

“Kshhhh Mecha’s inbound, hold tight River company” a federal accent suddenly came over the comlink.

TO BE CONTINUED…

A moment of silence

- Green Three
- Everyone on Anaria
- Isaac’s hopes and dreams
- Suicide Drone #7734
- Valor and crew
- The Fifth Comlink
- Strike Sabre Pilot
- Harris