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Unread 26 Feb 2004, 19:25   #151
Fluffie
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

"The others agree on the game plan, cap'n. We'll try and snatch the center one, they'll see what they can do about them two others... Probably with some help from them ships 'ready 'ere, eh."


A bit earlier.

"Some ships are al.... wait, make that some ships and a starbase already here. They're friendly, looking battered...."

"Incoming transmission, sir."


"Well, let me hear it then......"

"Ah, right away."

The message, most obviously, is played. All the way to the oh shiT! Incoming!! part. Then, like the Starbase Man said, ships jumped in. Bad guy ships. The kind of ships you'd rather see captured or burning in space.

"Looks nasty, don't it?"

"Could've been worse."

"Aye."


Even before that.

"Slipstream Core fully charged, co-ordinates locked in. Slave circuits active on the other freighter, crew standing by on both vessels."

"In other words, cap'n, he means we're ready to go."

"Yeah. That. The other ships in our nice little fleet too, y'know. All Explorers. Everyone has like these Explorers. How do they expect to haul the salvage back, eh?"


"How about not."

"Aye, that's it probably. Damn fools are going to make everything they shoot at extra crispy. Bloody idiots."

"Aye."

"Good thing they've got us, eh?"

"Damn. They should have some of us in every fleet!"

"That's soooooo right."


The last speaker rolls his eyes while saying that. During the conversation above, the Slipstream Core remained active and even though the other (nameless) freighter has no slave circuits, the crew all just played pretend while doing the work themselves. That's the way the Cap'n Liked it. Indeed. Liked with a capital L. 'Cause that's how he likes it.


A bit after that, but before the second before, eh.

"All systems working, we're Slipstreaming some major... Eh..."

"Slipstream, sar!"


"Bloody great then."

"All other ships are with us, including our... Eh... Slave circuited sistership, cap'n."

"Still bloodily great then. Don't bother telling me when we drop out of Slipstream. I'll notice it myself, ok?"

Nods all around from the (bridge) crew.


Before the "A bit earlier" but after the lines that were read/written before that.

"Take us in. We've done this before, so make this a piece of cake for us and a walk in the park for the other ship. Divert power from our Phasers to the Shuttle Launch System ooc// (SLS! Yay!), but keep our Machine Guns and Shields ready for deployment."

"Aye Cap'n. Heeeere we go!"

The two Heavy Freighters exchange some final communications, before entering a complete radio silence. Engaging their advanced cloaking systems, their gravimatric drives suddenly lighten up (in shiny cloaked-ness) and begin moving the two ships through the big, black void. They quickly speed towards the three Motherships, their outsides looking disturbingly quiet. That is, if you could see it. Those Go-ulds better not be able to see it.

Their inside is less quiet though. Troops rush through the corridords of the cramped ships, all quickly heading towards their Assault Shuttles, which will very soon be launched at the ugly looking bastards that are supposed to be Motherships. Back in the day, when Fluffie might've still been in a cryo-pod, Motherships were real big and not wussie-ass like these critters.

But, what's going on on the bridge? Lets see!

"You know, we've never fought these Go-ulds before."

"True. They said we should've watched, Stargate, SG-1, or something."

"What?"

"That's what I said. It's like they speak some... Extremely foreign language at HQ."

"Seems like it. I wonder what idiot thought of the name... Stargate."

"Yeah... Bunch of... Nevermind."


"Better have our troops set their phasers to kill then, eh?"

"Phasers? Wussie. We use hand-cannons and the likes, mean stuff! Not that wussie-ass stuff."

"Oh, right. Well, make sure the remains of these Go-uld are splattered across their own ship. Or maybe fry them extra crispy. M'kay?"

"Sure thing."

Back in Engineering, at the very same moment, a techie sips his milkshake and watches a nearby console. The console displays the status of various very important ship's systems. The console said they were a-ok. The techie saw that they were a-ok. Thus, everything was perfect, smooth and very lubricated and oiled.

Not far from the techie above, another engineering like person was seated. He was in control of the powering of the SLS. The thing, the device that would somehow manage to propel the shuttles through shields. Though nobody knew the specifics about this system, people liked putting a lot of power into it. Like the power from the Phaser V's, which by itself was quite an amount of power. But they put all spare power into it too, hoping that the SLS would work even more superbly, in a funkified way.

It usually did. Sometimes they launched fireworks along with the shuttles, to dazzle their foes with such an impressive show that the ship was easily overtaken. Just hit them in the back of their heads with something extremely blunt while they're still staring at the fireworks - that did the trick, most of the time.

But they were out of fireworks. And bubblegum. So they'd just kick ass with raw firepower and... Utter l33t-ness.

But, how is Fluffie doing, on the bridge?!

Fine. Mighty fine!

"We there yet?"

"Nope."

"...how far can it be, we've got the fastest drive, right?"

"Chill my man, we're half way there."

"And we're ready to kick their arse too. And I don't know what to expect, so we'll just flood their ship with our own guys."


"Sounds like a plan to me!"

"Well it really ain't, but hey, if you want to!"

"I do!"

"Then it is!"

"Wooohooo!"

"Yay."

Somewhere in the background, several crewmembers bang their heads against the wall and random objects, forsaking the person responsible for them being assigned to the two Freighters. Others, too in the background, silently give the troops real orders, which include a basic plan of securing 'important' hot spots first, such as the bridge, engineering and a possible armoury and/or barracks. Just to be sure.


Again some time later, but this time it's 'real life time', due to someone needing sleep!

The two Freighters, still invisible to the naked eye and most likely to scanners, sensors and other detection equipment as well, are now very close to getting very close to the Go-uld Mothership. The crew on both vessels, idiotic as they might've seemed before, still are... but in a l33t, orderly and efficient kind of way. The way that was supposed to capture the ship, or if that wouldn't work, cripple it.

Then, the ships were in position. They were each on a different side of the Mothership, holding their positions. The cloak was still active, the shuttle delivery system ready to fire and all ship's defensive system on stand-by. They were ready for the match, these were just the very few silent seconds before the storm.

The storm did hit though after those few seconds. It hit, almost slow-motion like. Maybe it was, who really cares? The cloaking-field on both Freighters dropped, almost at the very same moment the shuttle delivery system fired the two Assault Shuttles from each Freighter at their target, the shuttles theirselves looking like big bolts of surging electricity being hurled through space. They connected with the Go-uld's shields, but sliced right through and then slammed against the hulls. Clamps quickly grabbed onto it, holding them in place while the drills started with their part of the show, making an entrance.

Somewhere above the shuttles, the freighters remained. The second the cloaking field had dropped, their Machine Gun Turrets had opened up, at first just shooting into space like an orgasm of bullets just intending on making a pretty fireworks show, but mere moments later they aquired their targets, the Deathgliders, and started ripping them apart.

BUT! What about the bridge?
This! Yay! 'Bout the bridge.

"Shuttles have connected with Go-uld ship, entrance almost complete."

"Wait, where's... the... What the.."

"Please don't tell me..."

"Captain?"

"Oh god."

"He is?"

"He's on one of the bloody shuttles?"

"Aye."

"Damnit."

"Did he suit and gear up?"

"Seems like it."


Cue a short lived silence on the bridge.

"So, how long you reckon he'll live?"

"Five minutes, tops."

"Want to bet on that?"


So, it seems our heroic Fluffie decided to join the grunts in the... erh.. fray! A fray inside an alien vessel, while outside the freighters' turrets stop firing and engage their cloak again, quickly retreating and moving into a holding position somewhere near their target, but very out of the way of the big combat soon taking place. Ish.


Later, again the 'real time' kind of later. Eh!

With a big thumping sound part of the Go-uld Mothership's hull fell to the floor. A hatch from the Assault Shuttle opened up with a hiss, troops storming out as soon as the green light inside the shuttle lit up. Four shuttles in total, each with three units of Elite Troops. Each shuttle was empty swiftly, a few troops staying behind to guard it, while the rest begin roaming the ship, killing off everything in sight that wasn't them or other troops from one of the two Freighters.

Somewhere amongst the small army now moving through the many corridors, was Fluffie. Leading a squad of his own, which had no real objective but roam the ship and kill off any resistance (important tasks such as capturing the bridge, engineering and the barracks/armoury were left to the more qualified squads) encountered. They had just split away from a bigger group, which was heading for the bridge, to explore a lone corridor. Not having encountered any enemies thus far, they were cautious, unsure of what to expect...

Then, Fluffie raised his hand, calling his unit to a halt. They quickly got in cover, hearing the sound of a group of people marching. The origin of the sound was quickly found, as a group of six Go-ulds, all with staff-weapons, came 'round the corner.

Deciding this wasn't a time for mercy or questions, Fluffie jumped out of his cover, suprising the suckers and opening up with his.. blaster. Htting one Go-uld full in the chest, the poor man falls. His companions don't take long to react though, doing that thing with their staffs and firing them at the spot Fluffie quickly rolled away from. The rest of his group jumps from its cover and quickly turns the Go-uld patrol into a sizzling heap of remains.

Yeah. And then they move on, some daring souls amongst them picking up the staff weapons, others taking the now free blasters and going into dual-wield mode, for l33t and ultra-d4m4g3 purposes. And yes, the more serious and qualified squads engage in battle too, adjusting their standard tactics as best and fast as they can to counter the Go-uld threat and overtake the ship as fast as humanily.. possible.


And yeah. That's most likely the best I can do for now. Possibly subject to editting, but I'll let ye know 'bout that. M'kay.
Shiizzling. Wooooo!
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Last edited by Fluffie; 27 Feb 2004 at 00:11.
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Unread 29 Feb 2004, 17:19   #152
Planetkiller II
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

Location: Outer edge of Hope Nebula - Empty Space

*The Phoenix Dawn and Phoenix Talon reverted to realspace a short distance out from the Goa'uld Trading Station. The other vessels of the small taskforce also burst into reality. On the bridges, the atmosphere is tense.*

"Report please SRO."

SRO - Sensors report 24 Coralskipper class vessels, 12 Coraldevastator class and 12 Goa'uld cargo vessels in addition to the Trading station. Half the fighting craft are spiltting off from formation and closing on our position.

"The Swarm don't seem to be tactically on form today. I'm not complaining though. Open communications to captains No Dachi and Wo2."

SRO - Channel open.

"Greetings. It looks like we have a fight on our hands eh? I'm going to direct the Dawn and talon to attack the skippers. Perhaps you could divide the devastators and cargo ships between you?"

SRO - Scans on incomming skippers complete:

24 Coralskippers
Bio-Organic Hull
Singularity Shields & Drive
2 Bio-Plasma Shooters - 1000 Hit Points

"Excellent. Get the Talon on the comm and relay the following tactics. We are going to need some serious coordination in order for this to work properly. So, since singularity shields can only be directed in one angle at once, we will fly on either side of the enemy, and fire simulataneously, thereby eliminating the effect of the shields. Due to our small size, this should not be a problem. The fighters and point defence ships are to be launched and perform a similar operation, ganging up on one target at a time. Also, begin charging the MACs, they will prove invaluable for conducting 'relations' with the station."

SRO - Talon acknowledges.

"Then let's get on with it."

*The two swift gunboats burst forward, burning towards the enemy detachment, quad pulse phasers and photon torpedoes powering up.*
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Unread 1 Mar 2004, 18:42   #153
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

DM'ing shall occure this Thursday.

Those who do not post, better have your captains grasp their respective nether regions for those will be missing after said DM.
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Unread 2 Mar 2004, 17:49   #154
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

ooc/ about my engines on the Shadow Hunter, i have only one gravimetric subspace engine since i cant fit the other one, and since it is a waste of energy.
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Unread 2 Mar 2004, 18:24   #155
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

Quote:
Originally Posted by Disrupter
ooc/ about my engines on the Shadow Hunter, i have only one gravimetric subspace engine since i cant fit the other one, and since it is a waste of energy.
Then your ship is approved
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Unread 2 Mar 2004, 22:54   #156
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

remember, slipstream drives can divert power directly into shields/weapons/other systems, so keep them as much free of power drain as possible, to dump it all into your weapons at that 1 critical moment and then completely vaporise your target in a beautifull post with much special effects

to bad you don't any slipstream drives
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Unread 2 Mar 2004, 22:58   #157
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

You would also most likely vaporize your weapons array and half your ship with the thermal overload...
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Unread 2 Mar 2004, 23:52   #158
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

ooc/ i will do mission 1 if it is ok

Duke stood cooly infront of the window that looked out onto the his new ship Shadow Hunter. The small fleet of 5 or so construction droids were still hovering around the superstructure, adding bits and pieces and calibrating several of the 12 quad phaser cannons. He beamed with glee as the squadron of 12 dodger class fighters flew at top speed back and forth around the station like moths about a fire.

Ensign- "Sir the ship is just about done and the AI and holo arrays are being installed. After they are complete, you can take command and join the others on one of the missions."

Duke- "Thank you Ian. You are dismissed until the new systems are installed. When they are done, contact me at once.

Ian- "Aye captain i shall contact you at once."

Ian turned on his heel and walked out of the room in a prestine military fashion. When the door closed, Duke turned once again to the viewport he was standing by. The Dodgers still wized all around, but the droids were gone. An umbilical cordish tube connected the Assault Frigate to the station. Duke noticed that various figures were moving to and fro on the tube, probably the teams that were to install the AI and holo arrays. Duke brought a small radio transmiter up to his mouth.

Duke- "Pilots of Dodger squadron, Hunter, you are free to board the Shadow Hunter and move all nessacary equipment."

He then fiddeled with the settings and made another announcement.

Duke- "All personel assigned to the Assault Frigate Shadow Hunter, prepare to disembark at once."

A small light on the transmitter started to blink.

Ian- "Sir, the ship is at your command, please report to the bridge at once."

Duke- "Thankyou Ian, I'm on my way now."

Duke turned away from the viewport and started walking in the direction of the umbilical tunnel that still connected the station and the Frigate. As he walked, a young women in her early twenties, approached him.

Women- "Sir, I am your tactical advisor, Jen. I have been assigned to the Hunter to help you on your mission."

Duke- "Very well, Jen, come along with me then, I'll lead you to her."

They turned a corner and walked down the hallway. A few moments later, they reached the tunnel and boarded the Hunter. They continued to walk together in ackward silence, obviously with the same destination. The reached a turbo lift and pressed the "bridge" button. After a moment or two, the doors opened, and they walked out onto the bridge.

Ian- "Sir, in order to leave and join the others we have to activate the AI."

Duke- "Well, what are you waiting for?"

Ian- "Uh sir, you're the only one with athorization."

Duke blinked twice and then muttered something under his breath. He walked over to his Captain's chair and punched in a few buttons. Over a large circle in the floor, appeared a giant 5 foot talking penguin affectionatly dubbed Captain Cook by Duke. The penguin starred blankly then walked around abit. Duke turned on the ship's loudspeaker.

Duke- "Is everyone and everything ready to depart?"

On a counsel close to Captain Cook, a bunch of green dots blipped into existence. The giant penguin turned and somehow managed to give a thumbs up. Duke then hit a small key and the door to the tunnel shut. A loud hissing noise was heard as the ship broke away from it and completely disconnected from the station. Duke put his hands onto to basketball sized spheres with hand indentations in them. He then proceeded to back the ship up, and tilted it above the station.

Duke- "Captain Cook, plot course and prepare to engage FTL engines."

Captain Cool- "Aye Cap'n"

Ian turned to Jen with a puzzled look.

Ian- "I quess it can talk after all."

Duke punched the throttle and the ship rocketed forward at full speed. In a mater of moments, the ship left the Nebul's system and was almost out of the Nebula itself. Captain Cook hit a button and the ship blinked out of visibility. It jumped out of the system to it's plotted course. Duke relaxed in his chair and put his feet up.

Duke- "Captain Cook, what is our ETA?"

Captain Cook- "About 5 hours give or take."

Duke- "Most excellent."

Duke leaned back and closed his eyes.

Duke- "Someone wake me when we are within an hour of the target."
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Unread 4 Mar 2004, 04:16   #159
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

*Eath stood aboard the bridge of his proud ship, his new uniform gleaming. Looking around, he studied his bridge crew, working away at various consoles, and smiled. Everything is going fine. We should be able to win this war in no time, what with all the eager young blood willing to fight the good fight. After studying the boring view of the slipstream around him, Eath turned to a console and tapped a button, Powering on the Computer AI to interact. A clean cut young looking man stepped out of an invisible door before Eath in the center of the bridge, drawing the attention of the young ensigns for a moment, before they returned to their screens*

Good evening, Ayris (Automated Yet Realistic Intelligent Shipboard computer), how are you doing?

"I'm doing fine, captain. All systems are running just fine. And thank you for activating the emitters, I was beginning to become cramped in the central unit"

You are quit welcome. *Said the captain, smiling. Sitting down, Eath asked of Aris*

Have you met the med bay hologram? I hear she's a real looker *Eath winked at the image before him*

"Sir, you know that means nothing to me. I have no real emotion"

Right..... Remind me to fix that after we smash these aliens and collect our pay

"Of course, sir. Logging the request to memory"

*Eath sighed. This would be a lot less interesting until he could get emotions for Aris. Oh well Eath thought. I'll just have to make do*

What is our ETA, Aris?

"Approximately one hour*

Excellent, notify me when we near our exit

"Of course, sir."

*With that, Eath pulled out a book, leaned back, and started reading*

One hour later

"Sir, wake up. Wake up sir, its time to reenter real space"

*Eath sat up abruptly in his chair, dropping his book onto the floor*

Fire the cannons! All hands to their stations!
*Looking around at the confused faces of his crew, Eath stands up and composes himself*
Ehem, I mean, bring the ship out of the slipstream, and prepare for whatever is on the other side. Oh, and thank you for your message, Aris *Eath stated the last bit with a hint of sarcasm in his voice*

"Your welcome, sir" *said the AI, unaware of Eath's sarcasm

*As the ship enters real space, a message is received from the station. After hearing the whole message, Incoming are indeed spotted on the sensors. Three large ships, with fighters.*

Hmm, this should be interesting. I hope all of you are ready for combat, as we are to engage those ships immediately. Helmsmen, bring the ship on a course for the leftmost of the mother ships, to make a pass along the inside side of the beast. I want shields on full all around, and all turrets charged! *Eath grabs a comm unit* Gunners! Aim for its engines if possible! Target four qppts on the engines, and have the last two fire at will! Also, begin charging the MACS. We'll blow those ships to pieces if we don't cripple them on the first passes. Damage crews! Stay prepared for action! Lets go.

*As The Thunderer bears down on the mother ship, its guns begin to select targets. Warming up, the barrels start to glow on the MACs, while the qppts fill their chambers with energy. Flying in fast and close, and using fluffie's attack as a distraction, The Thunderer opens fire on the engines of the leftmost mother ship, biting through the shields and causing massive damage to the engine pods. The crew cheers, but Eath remains solemn* we didn't get them.

"But sir, we got a direct hit!"

That we did, but they are about to return fire. Full shields towards the mother ship!!! Helmsman, I want this ship behind the mother ship and out of range of some of the ships guns! Move now!
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Unread 4 Mar 2004, 08:34   #160
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

ooc/ it's not a smart move really to take mission 1, seeing as how i just wiped out the enemies for that mission and am already beginning to scan things, your ETA of 5 hours would certainly mean i'd have finished several of the planets by the time you arrive /ooc
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Unread 4 Mar 2004, 15:00   #161
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

Quote:
Originally Posted by Richpur
You would also most likely vaporize your weapons array and half your ship with the thermal overload...
Not to mention find out you were relying on that power after the systems were disabled.
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Unread 4 Mar 2004, 15:33   #162
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

DM-age today and screwed-ness to the rest, woooo \o/
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Unread 4 Mar 2004, 16:41   #163
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

occ/ flapjack i dont think i have much of a choice anymore, besides you never know what Bakan could throw at you. oh and the ship is currently 1 and a half hours out/
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Unread 4 Mar 2004, 17:40   #164
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

ooc/ no, it's 1 DM out.

and like i already said, i've scanned the system, i've already completed the mission. The only reason i'm still there is because i want to go and have a really good scan of every planet and get anything of value from each of the planets. /ooc
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Unread 4 Mar 2004, 19:18   #165
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fluffie
DM-age today and screwed-ness to the rest, woooo \o/
Screwedness to us too... unless inspecy has posted and ive not noticed.
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Unread 4 Mar 2004, 19:19   #166
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

But I still love you!

Doesn't that mean.. anything?

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Unread 4 Mar 2004, 19:23   #167
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

Oh but of course it does my dearest fluff... But we need his guns, not the love of a fine... man.
Unfortunately, or we'd be fine...
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Unread 4 Mar 2004, 19:51   #168
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

well, if someone doesn't post, he's going to get in trouble

and if someone doesn't post on the impossible mission, you're all dead !!

hahahahaha
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<Heiro> I think that is wise, Master Walrus

<Gryffin> ungrateful wretches
<Gryffin> they should be here!
<Gryffin> so I can grace them with my presence
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Unread 4 Mar 2004, 20:06   #169
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

id say thats a bad sign if no one posted on that mission in which case i will gladly lead the Shadow to its demise at Earth (once again waitning for Bakan's decision) tho if that happened i would need an hour to post again
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Unread 4 Mar 2004, 20:25   #170
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

just inspectre that didn't post, so no need to go to earth now

may i however inform you about the risks of bearing so many pulse phasers?
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<Walrus> Let's all poke him next time he appears.
<Heiro> I think that is wise, Master Walrus

<Gryffin> ungrateful wretches
<Gryffin> they should be here!
<Gryffin> so I can grace them with my presence
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Unread 4 Mar 2004, 20:36   #171
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

It's not called "not posting", it's called "typing up an incredibly long post that's going to save everyone's arse while looking 1337 doing it" :-p

You'll see.
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Unread 4 Mar 2004, 22:04   #172
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

Rich killed 4!!
4/6!!

Saving our asses indeed. We are fine. Just kill things, then brag afterward

(ps-> We love you inspectre )

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Originally Posted by flapjack
just inspectre that didn't post, so no need to go to earth now

may i however inform you about the risks of bearing so many pulse phasers?
Ok.. may i just point out, that even without him, we'd carry on...
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Unread 4 Mar 2004, 22:07   #173
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

well inspectre, it looks like Richard is the 1 doing all the saving around here, so there's no need for you to do that, next post Richard can easily finish off the remaining 2 motherships
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<Walrus> Let's all poke him next time he appears.
<Heiro> I think that is wise, Master Walrus

<Gryffin> ungrateful wretches
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Unread 4 Mar 2004, 22:08   #174
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

EXCUSE ME!
i killed one of them
We only have one left.
and fighters

Now shush, before i come and find you and repeat the process.
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Unread 4 Mar 2004, 22:14   #175
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

how would you do that? i can easily outspeed you. Ofcourse there'd be the problem of your shields, but even your shields can't hold up forever now can they? whereas my primary weapons can go on forever and ever and after
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<Heiro> I think that is wise, Master Walrus

<Gryffin> ungrateful wretches
<Gryffin> they should be here!
<Gryffin> so I can grace them with my presence
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Unread 4 Mar 2004, 22:47   #176
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

whats the problem with my 12 quad phasers hmm? its not like ill fire them all at one time....allthough....

oh and CAN SOMEONE TELL ME WHICH MISSION IM DOING!?!?!?!?!!?!!!!?!!?! ty
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Unread 4 Mar 2004, 22:51   #177
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

Im sure bakan can. When he DM's
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Unread 4 Mar 2004, 22:56   #178
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

I think Heiro's bigger ship has more fuel

Just wait till flappy's engines stop and then.. squash him like a fly between shields and random (big) object, eh?
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Unread 4 Mar 2004, 23:39   #179
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

i don't think a fight between my ships and his ship would take weeks now would it?

because i should be capable of breaking his shields in a couple of dozen attacks
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<Heiro> I think that is wise, Master Walrus

<Gryffin> ungrateful wretches
<Gryffin> they should be here!
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Unread 5 Mar 2004, 02:02   #180
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

Mission #1
Participants
Flapjack
Disruptor

Flapjack

*Unfortunally for you, your tatical officer GROSSELY underestimates the shield strength of the Gou-uld mothership.*

Tatical Officer: "SHIT, sir, we ****ed up, that mothership just took everything we had to give it, and just smiled. Reading multiple weapon lock-on's, SHE'S FIRING!!"

Helm Officer: "Initiating evasive manuvers!"

*Your ships both shudder violently as they are struck by the energy rounds from the Gou-uld Plasma Cannons, with the Deathgliders flying low attack passes. Several panels explode, sending crewmembers flying across the ship, several injured, many dead.*

Engineering Officer: "Shields barely held that off, they are at 20% efficiency. Minor Hull Damage, all systems still online."

Science Officer: "The fighters are regrouping sir, they are preparing to make another pass."

No1: "Orders Sir?"

Flapjack Ships Status
GoldenSword
Shields: 20%
Hull: 95%

Skylight
Shields: 20%
Hull: 95%

Disruptor

No1: "Sir, we have been assigned to mission #1, as backup for captain flapjack's ships."

Helm Officer: "We are launching, we should arrive shortly after he does."

Time Passes

Helm Officer: "We are reverting to normal space."

Science Officer: "Scanning the system, Holy Shit! Flapjack is one hell of a idiot. He has a Gou-uld mothership after him, just fired a salvo at him........ he's still alive. Reading several Deathgliders in the area.

Tatical Officer: "They have not yet detected us sir."

Communications: "The communications in this area have been jammed. Howeer.... crap, I'm detecting the last traces of a distress signal from what appears to be the remains of a mining facility. We should be expecting company soon."

No1: "Orders Sir?"

System Notes

Type G Star

Deneb 1 - Volcanic Planet

Deneb 2 - Gas Giant - 26 moons

Deneb 3 - Rubble - Former colony outpost according to records.

Gou'uld Mothership
Hull Strength: 5000
4 Gou-uld Energy Shields - 10000
4 Gou-uld Sublight Engines
HyperSpace Window FTL Engine
Gou-uld FTL Jammer
56 Gou-uld Plasma Cannons - 1000 Hit Points
Status
Shields: 56%
Hull: Intact

24 x Gou-uld Deathgliders
Hull Strength: 100
2 Gou-uld fighter plasma cannons - 200 Hit Points
Status
7 Destroyed


Asteroid Field

1 x Gou-uld Mining Outpost
Hull Strength: 5000 Hit Points
6 Gou-uld Plasma Cannons - 1000 Hit Points
Gou-uld FTL Jammer
Status
Destroyed

Deneb 4 - Gas Giant - 357 moons

Asteroid Field

Deneb 5 - Gas Giant - 23 moons, 3 Rings
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Unread 5 Mar 2004, 02:23   #181
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

Mission #2
Participants
Planetkiller II
No Dachi
wo2

Planetkiller II

Helm Officer: "We are manuvering into position."

Communications Officer: "We are in sync, powering weapons."

Tatical Officer: "Firing main weapons. MAC Cannons will be charged shortly."

*Your ships shudder as they fire their weapons, while at the same time taking damage from the enemy Coralskippers. Your tatic works, slicing many of them open."

Engineering Officer: "Shields holding sir, they are at 90%"

Helm Officer: "Breaking away, letting the other ships prepare for their runs."

Ship Status
Ship #1:
Shields: 90%
Hull: Intact
MAC Cannon: Ready to Fire

Ship #2:
Shields: 90%
Hull: Intact
MAC Cannon: Ready to Fire

No Dachi
[NOTE] ND as of this moment does not wish to continue in the thread. Thus his ship will be turned over to NPC control (aka: Me) for the time being in the event he wishes to return.[/NOTE]

*The Red Sky at Dawn, designed for heavier combat, moves into position to take on the CoralDevorures directly since Planetkiller II is taking on the fighters. It's heavier weapons open up, overloading the Singularity shields on 3 of the CoralDevoures, tearing them apart. However, the remaining 9 return fire. The Red Sky at Dawn's AI enhances the shields and manuvering systems, allowing it to dodge the worst of the fire, with the shots that connect reflected by it's shields.*

Ship Status
Red Sky at Dawn:
Shields: 80%
Hull: Intact

wo2
[NOTE] YOU DID NOT POST! SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES! [/NOTE]

*As the Coralskippers move in, they are assualted by Planetkiller II's ships. Many of them are destroyed, however one is shot with a glancing hit that is flies out of control. Thanks to targetting conflicts, it manages to strike your shields. The remains of it's singularity shields manage to open up a small hole, so that it rams into your hull. While it dosen't cause that much damage, it causes enough so that a coolent pipe below you explodes, sending debris into your nether regions, shredding them horribly. As you cry out in pain like a baby, your first officer takes over, steering your ship clear, requesting orders from Planetkiller II. Emergency medical teams rush onto the bridge, and start treating your painful and embarrising injurues.*

Ship Status
Earth's Song
Shields: 98%
Hull: 97%

System Notes

Location: Outer edge of Hope Nebula - Empty Space

12 CoralDevorures
Bio-Organic Hull
Advance Singularity Shields & Drive
24 Bio-Plasma Shooters - 1000 Hit Points
Status
3 Destroyed
2 Light Damage
1 Moderate Damage

24 Coralskippers
Bio-Organic Hull
Singularity Shields & Drive
2 Bio-Plasma Shooters - 1000 Hit Points
Status
7 Destroyed

12 Gou-uld Cargo Ships
Hull Strgnth: 250
4 Gou-uld fighter plasma cannons - 300 Hit Points
Status
Intact

Gou-uld Trading Station
Hull Strength: 4000
Gou-uld Planetary Shields: 50000
128 Gou-uld Plasma Cannons - 1250 Hit Points
Status
Intact
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Unread 5 Mar 2004, 02:31   #182
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

flapjack would you rather have my ship or my squadron of fighters help you against the mothership while the counterpart goes for the fighters?
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Unread 5 Mar 2004, 02:58   #183
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

Mission #3
Participants
Fluffie
Hewitt
Gen_Eath

Fluffie
*As your freighters clear the area of Deathgliders, your troops onboard the mothership tear through the ship, eliminating pockets of resistance. While taking casualties, your troops, trained by the mysterious "stargate" video's, tear through their opponents. Eventually they manage to capture the bridge and engineering, with other sections of the ship still under assualt.*

*Your personal team, near the hanger bays by chance, are caught by surprise by a squad of Jaffa, apparently protecting the captain of the ship, who's glowing eyes reveal him to be a Gou-uld. Snorting at you, he waves his hand, unleashing a energy pulse that sends one of your troops crashing into the far wall with bone-crunching force. The Jaffa raise their staff weapons and start firing at you.*

Ship Status
Shields: 90% for Both
Hull: Intact for Both

Hewitt
[NOTE] YOU DID NOT POST! SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES! [/NOTE]

*By freak chance, when your ship reverts from FTL speeds, a power conduit underneath you explodes, sending shrapenal into your nether regions. As you collapse on the deck screaming like a little girl, your first officer requests orders from Fluffies ships. Medical personal are quickly summoned and start treating you.*

Gen_Eath
*As your ship banks hand, you see your weapons fire punching through the motherships shields, striking her engines. 3 of the engines explode, causing the lights on the ship to flicker as power is lost in many sections and she starts drifting in space. This is fortunate for your for her salvo she was preparing to fire is discharged prematurely, with many of the shots going wild.*

Ship Status
Shields: 85%
Hull: Intact

ALL

*Meanwhile, the 2 Defient Class vessels fly in a attack pattern, unleashing their firepower upon the Gou-uld mothership that you have left alone. Their weapons punch holes into the ship's shields, with many of them exploding against the hull, sending debris and her crew flying into space. Unfortunally, the Starbase is to far away to lend support.*

Friendly:
Starbase
Planetary Shields - 250000
24 Station Phaser Cannons - 10000
Status
Moderatly Damaged

Shipyard - Heavy Class
1 BattleStar Class vessel under construction
Status
Intact

2 "Defient" Class Attack Cruisers
Hull Strength: 5000
Shield Strength: 25000
4 Impulse Drives
1 Warp Drive
4 Quad Pulse Phaser Turrets
2 Quantum Torpedoes
Status
Intact

Hostile:
3 Gou'uld Mothership
Hull Strength: 5000
4 Gou-uld Energy Shields - 10000
4 Gou-uld Sublight Engines
HyperSpace Window FTL Engine
Gou-uld FTL Jammer
56 Gou-uld Plasma Cannons - 1000 Hit Points
Status
1 Captured by Fluffie Forces - Lightly Damaged
1 Damaged - Engines Crippled
1 Lightly Damaged

36 Gou-uld Deathgliders
Hull Strength: 100
2 Gou-uld fighter plasma cannons - 200 Hit Points
Status:
24 Destroyed
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Unread 5 Mar 2004, 03:35   #184
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

/ooc And at the zero hour . . . I post. 11,152 words . . . eat that, biatches! ooc/

“You’ll never get away with this.”

“You know, my dear, if I had a deci-credit for every time someone said something like that to me, I’d have . . . well ok, I’d probably only be a few credits richer at best. But I would still have those credits. Just like I’m going to be a few credits richer once we get all of this swag into port for the Black Market. Right, me hearty?” Julian McKinley said, turning to look at a passing crewman, cradling a computer module in his arms.

“Aye, captain sir! This should fetch us a couple hundred credits at least!”

“See? I told you.” Julian said, turning back to face his captive. His rather attractive captive, if Julian said so himself.

The captive in question was a twenty-something girl in the uniform of a Lieutenant Commander, although Julian was able to look past the uniform and see the person inside, unlike some of his more brutish men who simply saw Federation. The girl’s shoulder length brown hair perfectly framed her heart-shaped face, or would have had she not spent the past half hour first trying to kick Julian’s head in, and then struggling to free herself from the chair that Julian had tied her into. The girl had pretty green eyes as well, although Julian imagined they looked even prettier when not narrowed in hate as they were now. She also had a pretty nice figure from what Julian could see, and definitely worked out considering how hard she hit.

Unfortunately, the kidnapping of a Federation officer was a far more serious offense than raiding Federation convoys. So, Julian would have to leave the little b*tch behind. Which was probably a good thing, because the one thing that surpassed this girl’s beauty was the foulness of her mouth. Which, for the umpteenth time, she demonstrated for him with a rolling litany of how he was somehow the descendent of gutter trash and a goat. When she finally stopped to draw in another breath in order to continue her verbal barrage, Julian politely but firmly clamped a hand over her mouth.

“If you do not keep quiet like a good prisoner, and insist on insulting my lineage yet again, I shall be forced to gag you, and – OUCH!!”

Feeling a sharp pain blossom in his middle finger, Julian quickly jerked his hand away from the girl’s mouth. He was just in time to catch a flash of the girl’s perfect teeth, before they were covered again by her bloodstained lips. Bloodstained lips!?? Looking down at his aching hand, Julian noticed that there was indeed blood welling up from a significant cut on his middle finger.

“You . . . BIT me!??”

Although no stranger to the sight of blood, Julian was always surprised when he saw his own. It wasn’t often someone managed to draw blood from him, even someone like this little h*llfire. But Julian was one to take life’s surprises as they came, and so it wasn’t long before his shocked expression changed back to his customary smirk.

“I kinda like that. You’ve got a lot of spunk.”

The girl’s only reply was to spit in his face, splattering his one cheek with a mixture of her saliva and Julian’s own blood. Still smirking, Julian carefully reached a hand up and wiped the spittle off.

“Remind me to find you a muzzle.”

“Consider that a down payment for what I’m going to do to you when I get out of this chair, pirate. That little cut will be the least of your worries then, oh yes. You will RUE the day that you chose to embarrass Lieutenant Commander Stephanie Dahalla, captain of the FSS Swordfish!!”

“More like the FSS Minnow, I’d say.” Julian retorted, looking around at the rather cramped quarters of the FSS Swordfish’s bridge. Of course, the bridge was now somewhat more open than it had been before, due to the fact that nearly 80% of the computer consoles had been forcibly removed. Despite being only a small patrol corvette, the Swordfish was a modern warship, and as such its consoles and other removable equipment would fetch a good price on the Black Market.

As Julian watched, two of his crewmen prepared themselves to lift the firing control console out of its cradle, while a third crewmen turned off the plasma torch he had used to cut the console free. The two men managed to lift the console up several inches after a moment of grunting and tugging, but then one of them lost his grip on the console’s edges, causing it to crash back down into its cradle with a loud thump.

“Hey, watch it you two!! That will fetch us a good price only if it’s in one piece!!” Julian’s voice cracked like a whip across the bridge at the two imbeciles, causing them to flinch, and then nod sheepishly before preparing to try again. Julian nodded in satisfaction, and was about to turn back to Stephanie, when suddenly her voice cracked across the bridge as well.

“Yeah, watch what you are doing!! That console cost the Federation several thousand credits!!”

Once again surprised at the unpredictability of this woman, Julian turned back to face her with a grin.

“So you do want me to make a nice profit.”

Somehow, the girl managed a slight shrug despite the tightness of her bonds (and Julian had made sure they were quite tight, before he dared to turn his back on her for even a few seconds).

“Eventually the Federation will reclaim every piece of my ship that you managed to steal, pirate. But every piece that they have to replace instead of re-install will cost them significantly more money, and that comes out of my payment.”

Julian snorted, and then actually chuckled for several moments, before he was able to reply. “Hahaha . . . so you’re concerned about the bottom line as well, are you? Federation, pirate, it’s all the same: everybody in this galaxy looks out for their own *ss first, specifically when it comes to money. And you’ve just proved that with your little comment about the Minnow’s repairs coming out of your own paycheck.”

Amazingly, the girl didn’t seem to have a caustic comeback ready this time. She did, however, skewer Julian with a disgusted glare. Thinking he had won, Julian’s own smirk simply increased as he sought to press his advantage.

“What’s wrong? No witty retort this time? Don’t like being told the truth?”

Stephanie simply shook her head, and then replied, the patriotic furor in her voice increasing with each passing word. “No, but you are hopeless. Pirate scum like you only care about money. You know nothing about duty, honor, or merit. That is what I’m going to lose thanks to you. But, even if I’m always going to be Lt. Commander Stephanie Dahalla, at least I know that I will die as a respected and remembered defender of humanity. The only thing you have to look forward to is a short walk and an airless breath.”

During her tirade, Stephanie’s face grew more and more flushed. Julian decided it made her look more attractive, if anything. Now, if he could just get her to keep her mouth shut, perhaps he would take her along after all, kidnapping charges be d*mned. After all, the Federation could only space him once. Or perhaps not, as Julian decided he was already bored with the Lt. Commander’s constant barrage of threats, insults, and lectures. Time to end this meeting and head to the Black Market with his winnings.

“You know, you look quite attractive when you’re worked up. I feel the irresistible urge to kiss you.”

“WHAT!? Oh no, don’t you dare! Kiss me, and I’ll personally see to it that you walk to the airlock as a eunuch!”

“Personally, eh? Well I just have to see this, considering you’re currently tied to a chair, so . . .”

Grinning from ear to ear, Julian leaned down as if he was going to plant his lips around hers. Stephanie tried to turn her face away, but Julian reached up and held her head still with one of his hands. He slowly moved his lips closer to hers, and then changed direction at the last second to kiss her on the nose instead. Releasing his grip on her head, Julian laughed uncontrollably, drowning out Stephanie’s string of curses with peals of wild laughter.

Julian was still shaking with laughter when the soft ringing of an incoming transmission filled his right ear. A moment later, the subdermal implant in Julian’s ear activated, and the melodic voice of KALI (Kronos Artificial Link Intelligence) began to flow through his ear canal.

Would you please stop f*cking around with that girl so we can get out of here? The last of the cargo has been stowed, and if we don’t get out of here soon something bigger than a patrol corvette is going to be breathing down our necks soon enough.

“Oh, I’m not f*cking around with her, just kissing her.” Julian replied, and was rewarded for his off-hand remark by even louder curses from Stephanie. Suspecting that the conversation was about to get more serious, Julian walked several steps away from Stephanie’s chair, so that she wouldn’t be able to overhear anything.

I wish you would take things more seriously. I still can’t believe it was you who found and rescued me from that asteroid. I don’t think any of you meatbags should be capable of such a feat, mind you, but you’re an especially poor example of humanity.

“Why thank you, Kali. You’re an upstanding role-model for AIs everywhere yourself. The Federation will just space me if they catch me. You, on the other hand, I think will be memory wiped, and installed in a . . . garbage scowl, perhaps. Not that wiping your memory would be very difficult, considering you could drive a Star Cruiser though some of the holes in your memory.”

Please. I would self-destruct and take half the dry dock with me before those b*stards would even come close to wiping my memory. I’ve already slept for a century or two by my estimates; I’m not waking up to find intelligent monkeys crawling through my innards again.

“And you’d still be sleeping if this intelligent monkey hadn’t found you, come aboard, crawled through your dusty and aged innards, and woke you up. But please, no need to thank me, oh no.”

I figure I’m already doing more than enough thanking by going along with these mad pirating schemes of yours . . . I was a Federation ship before my little nap. At least, I think I was . . .

“We’re Buccaneers. For the last time, it’s Buccaneers, not Pirates.”

Oh right. Sorry, oh great Buccaneer Captain Julian McKinley. Shall I take myself out to be executed for my crime, or shall I wait for you to return in order to do the honors?

“Neither, since we need you to run the ship. Feel free to wipe yourself from the memory banks once we’ve figured out all of your controls however. It would certainly make my life easier.”

Indeed. Well, hurry back, or we’ll just have to leave you behind so you can continue spending some quality time with your new girlfriend, right up to the time that Federation reinforcements show up.

“Kali, first off, she’s – “ Julian began, then grunted in frustration as Kali cut the channel, preventing him from finishing.

“We’ll continue this later.” Julian grumbled under his breath as he turned back to face Stephanie. Settling a confident smirk back onto his face instead of a grimace, Julian walked back over to Stephanie.

“Well, my dear, it seems that it is now time for us to part ways at last. I do hope you have enjoyed your meeting with the great Buccaneer Julian McKinley.”

“One day, pirate, I am going to find you. And when I do, you’ll be lucky if the Federation gets to space you.”

“Tut tut, such a thirst for revenge is unbecoming of a Federation officer. And for the last time, it’s Buccaneer, not Pirate!”

Julian then began to back away from Stephanie, while making grand sweeping gestures.

“While I doubt I’ll have to say this, remember this day always, because today was a special day for you. Today, you were defeated and taken captive by the great Buccaneer Julian Mc-Kinnnn . . . oh f*ck!”

Just as Julian was reaching the end of his speech, the back of his legs encountered a chair. Left there, no doubt by one of Julian’s careless crewmen, the chair was one of the few things left on the bridge that the pirates had not taken. The only reason it had not been taken was that it was hardly worth anything, not that it was bolted down. As such, the chair immediately fell over onto its side as Julian bumped into it, allowing Julian to land on the chair’s hard frame instead of its seat.

Despite the screaming pain in his back from the sudden impact against the chair frame, Julian was back on his feet in a minute.

“As I said, r-remember this day!”

Julian turned to leave, planning on walking forward towards the lift this time, in case his crew left any more booby traps for him. As he took his first step forward, his foot encounters the chair again. Muttering a string of curses, Julian bent down, picked the Chair From H*ll up, hefted it, and then threw it across the bridge. He then walked into the lift and left the bridge, the bitter, mocking laughter of Stephanie Dahalla following him.
-----------------------------------------

- Two Months Later -

Buccaneer Ship Kronos, Bridge

“Well well well . . . what do we have here, but another Federation convoy, ripe for the picking.” Julian said, smiling as he looking at the viewscreen, displaying the bulky shapes of three Federation light freighters, in addition to the two minnow-like shapes of Federation escort corvettes, darting around and between the freighters.

[i]Scanning the convoy now . . . the freighters are the FFS Gandhi, the FFS Marco Polo, and the FFS Yangtze. Their escorts are two escort corvettes, the FSS Rapier and the FSS Swordfish.

“The Swordfish? Hey, isn’t that the ship that your girlf –“ One of the bridge crewmen began, and abruptly stopped as Julian’s sidearm flashed out of its holster on Julian’s left thigh.

“Don’t you say it, don’t you dare say it.” Julian said, waving his pistol around in the general direction of the offending crewman.

“Ever since that raid two months ago, I’ve been harassed by every single one of you slobs at some point or another. The next one to refer to Lt. Commander Stephanie Dahalla as “my girlfriend”, instead of “the enemy”, is going to get that thought removed from their brains by a bullet, savvy?”

“Y-yes, Captain McKinley!” the crewman stammered, prompting a grim smile from Julian as he holstered his pistol.

“Good. Now then, let’s turn our attention back to the prize. I’m sure the cargo of three freighters and two escort corvettes will fetch us quite a pretty credit on the Black Market. Kali, open a channel with the FSS Swordfish.” Julian said, ignoring the grins of his crewman as some of them nudged each other.

“This is all your fault.” Julian muttered, prompting a snort from Kali to fill his ear.

My fault!? You were the one that had to go play footsie with the Lt. Commander.

“I wasn’t playing footsie with her. I was taunting her so that she would have to acknowledge my superiority. You know stuff like that inflates my ego.”

That wasn’t the only thing she was inflating . . .Channel Open.

Julian was then forced to bite back his furious retort, and quickly alter his angry grimace to his usual confident smirk as the view of the convoy was replaced with a view of the Swordfish’s bridge. Included in that view of the bridge was the face of Stephanie Dahalla, currently twisted into a confident smile that matched Julian’s.

“Hello, Lt. Commander. It seems we meet again.”

“Hello again, pirate. This time, the pleasure is all mine.”

“Oh? You were looking forward to be tied up and having your bridge stripped down again?”

The cold, calculated way in which Stephanie’s smile increased began to send warning bells off in Julian’s head, but he ignored them.

“Not at all. This time, I intend to be the one that captures you. And to facilitate this, I’ve brought some friends along.”

The warning bells going full tilt now, Julian nevertheless managed to fake a laugh, and then say, “Now really, my dear, do you really expect a single escort corvette to make a difference if this turns into a farce of a battle?”

The temperature of the bridge dropped to sub-zero as Stephanie smiled again, and said, “Not at all, Julian. But I suspect that this will quickly turn into a farce of a battle: for you.”

Sh*t! I am picking up one Federation Heavy Strike Cruiser decloaking off of our port side. They’re already raising shields and powering up weapons. Picking up a hail from them now.

“This is Captain Olsen of the FSS Starkiller. Surrender now, pirate, or we will destroy you. You have three minutes to power down your drives, shields, and weapons, and prepare for boarding, or we will begin firing. Attempt to flee, and we will shut your drives down for you. Captain Olsen out.”

Shall I start to comply, sir, or would you prefer a slightly more suicidal tactic?

“If I thought that it would mean getting rid of you, while keeping me alive, I would.” Julian muttered, his mind racing as he sought to find a way out of the hamster cage he suddenly found himself in. Hamsters made it look so easy to get out, why did he have all of these problems?

Finally, he decided on a possible course of action that just might get them out of this mess alive. Smiling at the angelic face of Stephanie still on the viewscreen, Julian said, “If you’ll excuse me, my dear, I do believe that I have to make preparations for my surrender.”

“I’ll be sure to attend your execution, pirate. Lt. Commander Dahalla, out.”

The image of the Swordfish’s bridge then winked out, to be replaced with a view of the approaching Strike Cruiser.

Sure that none of the Feds would be tipped off now that all of the communication channels had been closed; Julian outlined his plan for Kali and the crew.

“Alright . . . these b*stards think they’ve got us in a tight spot, and normally they’d be right.”

Normally? That’s a Federation Heavy Strike Cruiser out there, no doubt armed to the teeth with the most modern weapons the Federation has. I’m good, but even I can’t take one of those things head-on.

“The Federation certainly has been stepping up its military program as of late . . . I wonder what’s going on.” The Helmsman said, interjecting his opinion into the conversation.

As usual, this drew out the ire of the Communications Officer, who snarled, “You’d think a Heavy F*cking Strike Cruiser would have better business to deal with than us then, if the Federation really is building up to something big. But obviously it does not, so shut the h*ll up and let the captain spit out his plan to save our arses from a cold walk outside.”

“Both of you shut up, before I spaced you myself . . . a little olive branch to the Federation, perhaps.” Julian shouted, then coughed, and returned to his normal tone. “Apparently we have irked the Federation with our little program to share the wealth. And clearly, since Lt. Commander Dahalla couldn’t handle us, they sent in the big guns to back her up. We’re about to prove that the Federation is going to have to find an even bigger gun to point at us, however, because we’re going to slip right out from under that Strike Cruiser’s nose. Kali, I want you to begin powering down the shields, and then the engines. Wait for our big friend over there to start lumbering its way towards us, and then throw all of our power into the engines and send us shooting straight at the sucker, guns blazing.”

“Umm . . . have you gone mad, captain? They’ll blow us out of the sky!!”

“Oh, they will, will they? One: so far, they seem most eager to take us alive, so they’ll be somewhat hesitant about damaging the goods. Two: we’re going to be going from drifting to rocketing towards them at max speed within a second – their weapons won’t be tracking us too well for the first couple of volleys, and that’s all we’ll need. Three: you’ve got a gigantic, solid, crystalline missile hurtling towards you. Even in a strike cruiser you aren’t going to want to play chicken with that, high probability of survival or no. So, they’ll be busy trying to get out of the way, their weapons can’t track us very well, and they probably have orders to take us alive. This plan can’t fail!”

“Well . . . you are the boss . . .”

“I am indeed, so snap to it!!”

“Aye aye sir!!”

“Kali . . .”

Yes?

“Do try to make sure that the Helmsman pulls out and skims along the Starkiller’s hull, instead of plowing into it. And then when we’re clear, plot a course to get us out of here while that thing is trying to turn around. And our Slipstream drive had better be recharged by then as well.”

Blah, blah, blah . . . what do you think I am, human? I figured all of your orders out already.

“Well then, you should have no problem following them to the letter, will you?”

Yeah yeah.

A few moments later, the shield generators surrounding the Kronos in a protective shield of energy faded as the shield generators were turned off. The engines shut off as well, although Kali continued to run power through them in order to facilitate the sudden start-up and leap to maximum speed. As the weapon batteries embedded in the Kronos’s crystalline shell winked off one by one, the Federation strike cruiser began to lazily make its way over to the “defeated” pirate ship. No doubt the bridge crew was already congratulating Captain Olsen on the capture of yet another pirate. A pity Julian was about to disappoint them all.

Julian waited until the strike cruiser was almost within tractor beam range, and then shouted, “Now, Kali!!”

With a mere thought from the ship’s AI, full power was restored to the “deactivated” gravimetric drives, throwing them all of the way up to full within a handful of seconds. The Kronos streaked towards the FFS Starkiller, a bluish-white blur as it rapidly accelerated towards the bow of the massive cruiser. As the two starships grew closer together, panicked fire began to pour from the striker cruiser’s mass of gun batteries, but as Julian predicted, the majority of those hasty shots missed. The few that did hit merely scorched the Kronos’s hull; minor pits and scrapes that could be repaired once they had safely reached space dock again. Meanwhile, Kali had managed to power up one of the Quad Pulse Phaser turrets again, and peppered the strike cruiser’s outer shields with fire. Overall, these weapon bursts were even less effective than the panic fire coming from the Starkiller. However, they did unnerve the crew of the Starkiller even more, and no doubt convinced them that the “mad pirate captain” Julian McKinley had finally snapped for real.

A few moments later, the hull of the strike cruiser filled the entire viewscreen, and Julian bit his lower lip in worry as he began to think that his Helmsman had somehow managed to turn his plan into a real game of chicken. At that very moment, however, the Kronos broke very hard to the right, breaking out of its dive and skimming along the strike cruiser’s shield bubble. A cheer broke out on the bridge, but a moment later it was cut short, along with the Kronos’s forward momentum. Unprepared for the sudden deceleration, Julian went flying from his bridge chair, tumbling through the air to land awkwardly just behind the Helm, and slamming the back of his head against the helmsman’s seat.

“Helmsman!!!!”

“It’s not me, sir!! The Starkiller, she’s got us in a tractor beam!!”

Sighing, Julian summarized the feelings of his subordinates quite clearly. “Sh*t.”

Slowly pushing himself back up into a sitting position, Julian reached up to gently rub the tender spot that had formed where he had struck his head. Grimacing, Julian snarled, “Weapons Officer, get a lock on that tractor beam: I want to know its exact spatial coordinates.”

“But sir, we can’t attack the tractor beam . . . it’s a beam of energy: there’s no way to disrupt it.”

“I wasn’t planning on disrupting the beam, I was planning on destroying the tractor beam’s projector. Now, get those spatial coordinates locked into the computer, and prepare an Omega torpedo, ten second detonation delay.”

“Ahhh . . . I get it now!!”

“Yes, well . . . let’s hope your enlightenment didn’t come too late. Now get that torpedo ready, before we’re all in a Federation brig!!”

“Aye sir!”

Although somewhat shaken by the sudden appearance of a tractor beam grappling his ship, Julian was still confident that he could get out of this pitiful Federation trap. It would take a lot more than a single strike cruiser and a couple escort corvettes, no matter who was serving as captain, before the Federation would catch him. As Captain Olsen of the Starkiller was about to find out.

“Coordinates locked-in, sir. Torpedo is armed and ready.”

“Well then, FIRE!!”

A reddish streak emerged from the underbelly of the Kronos a moment later, shooting directly away from the ship for several moments, before looping back around to start coming back. Its target was not the Kronos, however, but the tractor beam currently connecting the pirate ship to the Federation strike cruiser. The Omega torpedo flew into the faint bluish glow of the tractor beam a few moments after that, and its ten-second detonation timer began to count down as the Starkiller’s tractor beam took hold of the missile.

Set to hold and reel in an Assault Frigate class ship, the Federation strike cruiser’s tractor beam found little trouble in pulling in the small sliver of metal that was the Omega torpedo. The Omega torpedo began to be sucked up through the tractor beam, going through the Starkiller’s shields and almost reaching the emitter itself before the ten-second timer reached zero and the missile’s warhead detonated.

Any weapon that managed to penetrate a ship’s shields generally caused serious damage. An Omega torpedo, it was believed, was one of the most powerful warheads in existence, capable of taking out small escort vessels in a single hit. When combined, it was a wonder that the Starkiller even remained in one piece.

Nevertheless, as the brilliant glare of the Omega torpedo’s detonation cleared away, it revealed that a fair portion of the strike cruiser’s side was blackened, and several of the gun emplacements nearest to the tractor beam projector were badly mangled. Of the tractor beam emitter itself, it was practically vaporized in the intense burst of energy released by the Omega torpedo’s detonation. Naturally, the Kronos was no longer caught in the tractor beam, and immediately began to move forward again, passing the strike cruiser’s engine assembly and beginning to leave the large Federation ship behind.

Chuckling, Julian turned to the Communications Officer, and said, “Well, I think it’s now time to send one final message to the captain of the Starkiller. Open a channel with them, and tell Captain Olsen that it looks like he won’t be catching Julian McKinley today. However, he should always remember this day, for today is the day that Julian McKinley added him to his list of outwitted enemies.”

“Aye sir.” The Communications Officer replied, with a smirk that matched Julian’s own. Unfortunately, Kali was about to ruin the jovial mood spreading throughout the bridge (as usual).

I’m picking up an odd energy signature several kilometers ahead and to port . . . looks like a . . . sh*t, it is another cloaked ship.

“D*mn. Alright, Helm: evasive maneuvers: now. Weapons Officer, lock onto that area of space and start pelting them with phaser fire. Kali, you better have that slipstream drive online quick . . .”

Too late. They’re decloaking now. Another Heavy Strike Cruiser, looks like. They’ve got shields and weapons powered up . . . and another tractor beam.

“What?” Julian said, and a moment later he got his answer as the Kronos slammed to a sudden stop yet again, and he was launched from his command chair once more. This time, he managed to avoid crashing into a chair, although he still hit the deck hard and having the wind knocked out of him.

“The other Strike Cruiser is hailing us . . . shall I put them on, sir?”

“*Gasp* Y-yes . . .”

“This is Captain Caspian Dwight of the Federation Heavy Strike Cruiser Ganymede. You are caught in a tractor beam and surrounded. If you do not surrender immediately, we will destroy your ship, and space you that way, pirate. You have one minute to decide your course of action.”

Coughing weakly, Julian hauled himself up onto his feet, and looked at the newcomer on the viewscreen.

The Ganymede has locked weapons onto us, sir. The Starkiller has as well, and is approaching us from behind.

Still coughing and struggling to regain his breath, Julian glared at the image of the Federation cruiser, and then looked around the bridge. All of the members of his crew were looking expectantly at him, awaiting orders. He was their captain, and despite the fact that the only real common bond between them was greed for credits, they were waiting for his order to fight to the death. Either that, or they simply weren’t sure whether being blown up or spaced was the better way to die, and they were waiting to see what he would pick.

Much as he would like to ensure that a least a few more Federation personnel went down with him before the end, Julian knew he owed his loyal crew more. His mouth twitching upward in a parody of his usually confident smirk, Julian said, “Well everyone, I guess we’ll take Captain Dwight up on his offer. At the very least, we can make a lovely show of our trial . . . one last thing for them to remember us by.”

For a moment, the bridge was filled with the chuckles of Julian’s crew: Gallows Humor.

“Alright Communications Officer, signal the Ganymede and tell them that we surrender, no tricks. Weapons Officer and Helmsman, power down the shields, weapons, and engines. Tell all of the crew to stand down, and prepare for boarding.”

Julian then turned back to face the viewscreen, and the image of the Ganymede, slowly growing larger as it used its tractor beam to pull the Kronos in closer.

“Thus ends the chronicles of Julian McKinley, Buccaneer Extraordinaire.”


*Several Hours Later*

“So guys . . . how’s the food in Federation prison? Not bad?” Julian said as he was led down one of the Ganymede’s many corridors to its Brig. The two Federation marines escorting him did not seem to be too concerned with their charge, nor should they be, considering that the marines themselves were wearing heavy body armor and carrying assault rifles, their prisoner had his hands cuffed in front of him, and they were all currently inside a Federation strike cruiser. So far, all of Julian’s ideas had been shot down, either by his own assessments of a quick rifle butt to the back whenever he tried something “funny”.

The trio was just entering the corridor leading to the Brig, when a voice called out from behind them: “Stop!!” Turning to see who had just called, Julian grimaced as he saw the familiar face of Lt. Commander Stephanie Dahalla approaching.

“Excuse me, marines. I just wanted to say good-bye to this pirate before we part ways for the last time.”

“Just can’t get enough of me, eh? Well, better hurry while I last . . . I’m sure my trial will be a railroad sending me straight to the airlock.”

“It won’t be a fake trial, pirate . . . just justice being served. Now as for saying good-bye . . .”

Stephanie clamped her hands down on Julian shoulders, and pulled him in close. Her lips moved towards his, and then stopped, to hover a few centimeters away. Several seconds passed this way, and then Stephanie whispered, “This is for that kiss earlier.”

A moment later, Julian felt something hard and unyielding slam into his groin as Stephanie drove her knee upwards. Julian’s legs gave out, and he was held up for a moment by Stephanie’s grip on his shoulders, before she let go to let him drop unceremoniously onto the deck.

“Police brutality!!” Julian screamed, writhing around on the deck while tears began to flow from his eyes. “I’ll have you brought up on charges!! I’ll have them throw the d*mn book at you!!”

Stephanie’s voice was deathly sweet as she retorted, “Now Julian . . . who do you think they’re going to believe: you, or me? This little meeting never happened according to me. And it never happened according to these fine, upstanding young men, right marines?”

“Yes, ma’am. Never saw a thing.” Chimed-in Marine One.

“Nope . . . just escorted the prisoner to his cell.” Added Marine Two.

“I’m going to kill you all!! I’m going to break out of jail, and hunt you all down!!” Julian shrieked, still rolling helplessly on the floor.

“Julian? Julian!!” Stephanie called, causing Julian to stop his antics momentarily to look up fearfully at her.

“Yes!!? What do you want now!!?”

“This is for my ship.”

Stephanie pulled her foot back, and then snap-kicked Julian in the head. The heel of her foot slammed into his right temple, and a second later his vision went black.


*Several Weeks Later*


“So, where are we going now, fellas? Yet another meeting with a Federation official, who’s going to try to tell me to cough up my ill gotten loot, in exchange for a reduced sentence?”

Julian’s only answer was the butt of an assault rifle slamming into his back, knocking him off-balance and causing him to stumble forward several feet.

“Keep moving and keep quiet, pirate!” Snarled the marine who had hit him, and Julian smirked to himself as he mentally added up another point for his side. So far, his side had most of the points, despite the fact that the Feds currently had him locked up in a high-security prison, and were probably going to try and execute him in another couple weeks. Well, they had had him locked up in a high-security prison, but after a little incident with another inmate that got a little too friendly with Julian, the Feds seemed eager to move Julian elsewhere, while the other inmate got a free ticket to the hospital for several months. Now, he was on some sort of ship, or space station perhaps . . . it was rather hard to tell, what with being locked up in a windowless Brig all day, and seeing only featureless walls the rest of the time.

“Here’s our stop . . . this is where you get off.” One of the Marines taunted, smacking Julian in the back with his assault rifle again, and shoving him towards a door directly in front of him. Detecting the approach of an individual, the door slid open as expected . . . however, the door’s engineers apparently hadn’t thought of the possibility of someone stumbling against a door, and so Julian’s one foot got snagged on the doorway, and down he went. Julian landed face-first into the room, but luckily managed to catch himself with his hands, before his nose would have smashed into the deck.

“So . . . this is the great pirate Julian McKinley. Humph . . . certainly not much to look at.” Called a voice somewhere above Julian and in front of him. Shifting in his position on the floor, Julian managed to crane his neck to look up and see a Federation Admiral standing a few feet from him and looking down at him.

“Oohh . . . I didn’t know I was important enough to rate a Federation Admiral. Tell me something . . . are those boots of yours spit and polish?” Julian replied, and then spat at the Admiral’s feet. Surprisingly enough, the spittle managed to land on the Admiral’s right boot, fouling the immaculate black leather.

Julian heard one of the Marines stomped towards him, no doubt with murder on his mind, but before he could get there, the Admiral called, “Hold!” The Admiral then turned his attention back to Julian, while pulling out a handkerchief. “I see your reputation for crassness and lack of discipline is quite well deserved.” There seemed to be genuine amusement in the Admiral’s voice, but then his tone turned serious again as he addressed the Marine in the room.

“Help Mr. McKinley up and direct him to sit down over at that desk, will you? Oh, and remove his cuffs . . . I don’t think he will try anything.”

The Admiral then bent down and began to rub up Julian’s spit from his boot, leaving the Marine to roughly grab Julian by the shoulders and yank him back up onto his feet. As Julian’s feet got back under him and out of the doorway, the door slid shut with a soft hiss. This left one of the Marines outside of the room, with no idea what was going on within the room unless he heard something . . .

Julian was just starting to consider the possibility of jumping the single Marine as soon as his cuffs were off, and then taking the Admiral hostage, when the Admiral said, “I would truly hate to kill a man before I even got a chance to discuss my offer with him, Julian. So, don’t do anything stupid, hmm?”

“Wasn’t thinking of it.” Julian replied with a tight smile as the Marine unlocked the cuffs around Julian’s wrists.

“Good.” The Admiral replied, straightening up finally and walking towards a small conference desk to one side of the room. “Now then, join me over at the table, and let’s talk business. I think I have an offer you might really want to consider.”

“Uh huh . . . I’m not telling you jack sh*t, if it’s information you’re after.”

The Marine still in the room grabbed a hold on Julian’s left shoulder, and no doubt would have put the hurt on him for his blatant statements, had the Admiral not waved him off.

“Perhaps it would be best if you waited outside, Sergeant. I doubt Mr. McKinley is going to try anything.”

“But sir . . .”

“Now, d*mnit! Wait outside the room . . . I’ll call you when we’re finished.”

“Yes sir!!” The Marine Sergeant replied, snapping off a salute before marching resolutely towards the door.

“Ah, the joy of having lap dogs.” Julian said, and he noticed the Sergeant’s spine tighten for a moment, before he exited the room and the closing door blocked him from sight.

“So Admiral, what’s this business you wanted to talk to me about?” Julian said, turning back to find that the Admiral had already seated himself at the conference table, taking one of the three chairs set up around it.

“Well, I will admit that you are quite a skilled ship captain, Julian. I had to send out a small battle fleet just to bring you in.”

“Yes . . . I imagine two heavy strike cruisers was a rather large investment on the part of the Federation.” Julian replied, making his way over to the table and taking up one of the remaining chairs.

“It was indeed. However, I had a purpose in sending out that much firepower just to bring back a mere pirate, and bring him back alive.”

The warning bells in Julian’s head began to go off again, as he began to think that he was being maneuvered into yet another trap by this man. However, Julian allowed him to continue, which the Admiral did quite happily.

“Yes, I have quite the proposition in mind for you . . . but first, my assistant needs to arrive. In the meantime, care for some Saurian Brandy?” The Admiral asked, pulling a bottle and two shot glasses out of a small compartment built into the table.

“Yes, please.” Julian said, accepting the full glass from the Admiral after he had poured it.

Worried about getting drunk while around such an obviously devious man, Julian sipped his drink only slowly, while taking in the rest of the room with his eyes. Other than the conference table and a small couch, the room seemed to be quite empty. There was in one wall, however, a plastisteel window that showed a stunning view of the stars, shining brilliantly beyond the bulkhead.

“They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” The Admiral commented, evidently watching Julian very carefully.

“They are . . . but all we’ve got is the Hope Cluster, eh? And it’s probably going to stay that way for quite a long time.”

“Oh, and what makes you think that?”

“The Swarm is out there, that’s why. Even little kids know that. And considering the entire old Federation got its *ss kicked by them, I doubt we have a chance if we go grabbing at the tiger’s tail again.”

“Uh huh . . . and when do you think we will be ready?”

Never, that’s when! I don’t know why you Federation fools fail to realize that it’s a hopeless proposition, but it’ll take us hundreds of years to build all of the ships necessary to combat the Swarm; there’s no way we can win. Not yet anyway . . . we don’t have the ships.”

“And if I told you that we did?”

Julian’s head snapped around, and he simply stared at the Admiral. He chuckled upon seeing Julian’s reaction, and then replied, “Yes, we’ve been building up our fleet substantially over the past decade, behind the scenes. We now believe that we’re strong enough to begin the initial phases of taking the galaxy back from the Swarm. But first, we need to explore and see what’s out there after all of these years. And for that, we need skilled ship captains. Captains like you, Julian.”

“M-me!!? I’m a Buccaneer, not an Explorer!!”

“You are now . . . unless of course, you’d like to spend the rest of your days looking forward to the airlock. Cheers.”

The Admiral tinked his glass off of Julian’s, and then finished the remainder of the Saurian Brandy in his glass. Reluctantly, Julian began to follow suit, allowing the alcohol to burn his worries away. Snapping his glass back down onto the table, the Admiral continued.

“My assistant has all of the details, but basically if you agree to do this for us, you’ll get your ship back, along with a full pardon from the Federation. I suggest you consider your options very carefully, not that you have many.”

“Any is more like it.” Julian thought to himself as he allowed the Admiral to pour him another glass.

He was just taking his first sip of this second glass, when the door to the room hissed open.

“Ah, there’s my assistant now. Good day, Commander. Care to join us?”

Turning to see who the Admiral’s assistant was, Julian froze in his seat when he saw just who the “Commander” was. He managed to avoid spurting his Saurian Brandy all over himself, although he did nearly choke on the fiery brew, and broke into a coughing fit.

“K-keep that woman away from me!!” Julian screeched when he finally managed to stop coughing, and stood up in order to flee around to the Admiral’s side of the table.

“Hello Julian.” Stephanie Dahalla said, now clad in a blue Federation uniform with Commander pins on the collar. “It’s been awhile, hasn’t it?” She grinned, and Julian retreated even further behind the mystified Admiral. “Now what is going on here? Commander Dahalla, is there something between the two of you that was not in the official records, which could possibly be causing Mr. McKinley’s bad reaction to you?”

Stephanie’s lips quirked upward in a sadistic smile, and she said, “Why no sir. I guess his defeat thanks to my plan must have inspired a great deal of fear in him. A good thing too, considering how fresh he was with me when the situation was reserved.”

“S-she . . . kicked me! Me! In the balls! And then while I was rolling around on the floor, she kicked me in the head! Keep her the f*** away from me!” Julian cried, still attempting to keep the conference table between him and the calmly approaching Commander. Instead of getting support from the Admiral, however, as he expected, Julian was dismayed to hear the Admiral start chuckling.

“I never knew you could be so vicious, Commander.”

“Oh, I’m not vicious . . . just ruthless in my punishment of criminals.”

If glares were death lasers, Julian was sure that the one Stephanie was giving him right then would be enough to destroy a planet.

“Admiral, I refuse to do anything until you assure me that I will not have to work with this . . . . this . . . She-Demon!”

“Oh, but you will, Julian.” Stephanie said, smiling sadistically once more as she gracefully lowered herself into a chair.

“Yeah, and why’s that?”

“Because if you don’t, we’re going to space your worthless *ss.”

“The commander is correct, Julian. The agreement is for you to – temporarily, of course – become a Federation officer, and go on the missions that we assign you. You will be compensated financially for your services of course, and in addition you and your entire crew will receive a full pardon from the Federation.” The Admiral replied, turning Julian’s stomach into a lump of rock.

Never one to miss a chance to twist the knife, it seemed, Stephanie also offered her interpretation of the Fed’s deal.

“In other words, we own your *ss, until we feel that you have repaid your debt to society. Try to run, or cut our arrangement short, and we’ll have you in an airlock faster than you can say ‘popsicle’.”

“Alright . . . well, since you don’t seem to have given me any other choice, I guess I’ll have to accept. Now what do I sign and where?” Julian said, this time meeting Stephanie’s glare with one of his own.

“Excellent . . . you will start immediately, Julian. Stephanie will be your contact and your supervisor. If you need anything, talk to her.”

“Wonderful . . . I don’t suppose she could get out of my sight and never return?”

“Come on Julian, smile. I have the feeling that we’ll working together for a good long time.” Stephanie said with another of her d*mned smiles.

“That’s what I was afraid of . . .” Julian sighed.


*One Week Later*

“This uniform itches . . . I think there’s something wrong with it.” Julian complained, scratching at his neck for the umpteenth time since donning the uniform of a Lt. Commander in the Federation Space Fleet.

“Quit it . . . you’re just not used to looking respectable.” Stephanie snarled in his ear, grabbing a hold of his hand and yanking it back down to his side. “Try to at least look like you’ve been part of the Federation Fleet for more than a day, please? Admiral Bakan doesn’t particularly like Fresh-out-of-the-Academy officers.”

“I have been part of the Federation Fleet for more than a day . . . seven days, to be exact.” Julian retorted, and was about to say more when Stephanie hissed in his ear. “Quiet!! I think they’re about to let ship captains into the briefing room. Try to be on your best behavior, at least. And don’t talk to anyone, you might say too much and prove your ignorance far faster than usual.”

“Yes, Mother!” Julian replied, and received an elbow in his right kidney for his trouble. “Oww!”

“I’m far worse than your mother, and you better not forget that, pirate.” Stephanie hissed, and then shoved him forward as a lieutenant suddenly opened a set of double doors directly in front of them, revealing a spacious room well stocked with food and drink. A flood of people began flocking towards the now-opened Briefing Room, most wearing Federation Blues, although Julian did catch a number of people clothed in what was definitely not Federation Regs.

The social before the Briefing was nigh-intolerable for Julian. First, he didn’t get to talk to anyone, as Stephanie would rapidly hunt him down and pull him away to “chat with him for just a few moments” whenever he managed to slip away from her. Secondly, she seemed obsessed with starving Julian, as she prevented him from accessing a majority of the wide variety of food available, and even more importantly, the alcohol.

“How do you expect to survive this arrangement of ours, if I can’t even get drunk to forget about it for a little while?” Julian whined as the little witch pried yet another glass of brandy out of his hands.

“If you get drunk, you can’t function very well. And if you can’t function very well, then you most certainly can’t complete your mission. And if you can’t complete your mission . . .”

“What good am I to the Federation . . . yeah yeah, I know.”

“Oh! Looks like Admiral Bakan is finally ready to start the briefing!” Stephanie said, looking around for a place to set the glass she had just appropriated from Julian down.

“I can help you with that –“

“I’m fine, thank you very much.” Giving up on finding a place to set the glass down, Stephanie just shrugged, and finished off the rest of the glass. Julian stared in shock for a moment, and then snickered. “And you call me an alcoholic . . .”

“Oh, shut up and listen to the briefing.”

If the Social was terrible for Julian, the Briefing was even worse. If there was a talent Admiral Bakan had, it was certainly delivering bland information in a way that made it even more boring. Julian felt himself nodding off several times throughout Bakan’s droning speech, and he probably would have been able to take a nice nap if Stephanie had not began to continually elbow him in the ribs, even when he was wide awake. Finally, however, Bakan’s speech reached its plodding conclusion, and then it was time for mission assignments.

Each of the four available missions was explained in detail, and the ship captains were cautioned about the level of danger in each mission by a simple, one-word rating, such as “easy” or “suicidal”. After all four of the missions were described in that manner, it was time for the ship captains to pick their own missions. Right off of the bat, Stephanie called and exclaimed, “Hey, over here! We shall take the fourth mission, the one to Earth!!”

This woke Julian up completely, and he gazed at Stephanie in shock as she began to hammer the nails in his coffin.

“Wait . . . wasn’t that the suicide mission? Hell no, we aren’t –“

Stephanie clamped a hand over Julian’s mouth for a moment, and grinned apologetically. “Clearly, my second in command is a bit hesitant about taking on such a difficult mission from the get-go. Nonetheless, I am much more confident in his – I mean – our, abilities.”

“I see. And who are you?” Asked the lieutenant jotting down mission assignments.

“Oh, just put down Julian McKinley and the Kronos. I was thinking of allowing my second in command to have control of the bridge for most of the mission, to give him some more experience with captaining a Federation vessel.”

“Alright . . . so noted. Anyone else?”

As the other captains continued to give out their names for missions, Stephanie leaned in close to Julian, and whispered into his right ear, “And that, my dear Julian, is for being a pirate. Did I forget to mention that I will not be coming along with you for this mission? Oops.”

I hate you.” Julian murmured back, and then stalked off to get back to his ship, and perhaps figure a way out of this mess.


*Several Hours Later*


“So, where to first, boss?” The Helmsman asked when it was finally time to disembark.

“Earth.” Julian said simply, causing the entire bridge to burst out in wild laughter. The serious and angry look on Julian’s face, however, quickly killed the laughter, as everyone soon realized that he was dead serious.

“B-but sir . . . we’re not even sure if Earth still exists!! And anyway, it’s supposed to be deep behind Swarm territory!!!” The Helmsman exclaimed, clearly panicking a bit.

Julian sighed in response, and said, “That’s why it’s called a suicide mission. And we had better get used to do those, since I’m sure our good friend Stephanie Dahalla isn’t going to stop giving them to us until either we don’t come home, or she doesn’t.”

Ohhhh . . . that b*tch, I told you she was going to be trouble. But did you listen to me? Nooo . . .

“Kali, just shut up for now, please.”

As if sensing (for once), that pushing matters would not be a good way to educate her captain, Kali stopped and did not say another word.

“As I said: Helm, disengage us from the station, and plot a course for Earth. Communications Officer, inform the station that we’re on our way out now, and contact the other ships that are supposed to be going with us and tell them that we’ll be entering formation shortly.”

“Yes sir.”

Clenching his hands into tight fists, Julian breathed in and out, trying to calm his burning desire to find Command Stephanie Dahalla, and beat her head in with an especially blunt and painful object. By the time he had managed to vent the majority of his rage so that he was his typical clear-headed self again, the Kronos had entered slipstream.


*Several Hours Later Still*


"Someone explain to me what just happened." Julian asked from his position; sprawled out on the floor of the Kronos's bridge.

We just dropped out of slipstream unexpectedly, and . . . oh sh*t. Picking up five large pyramid ships . . . running ID list of known Swarm ships now.

"Just great . . . thank you, Stephanie Dahalla.” Julian grunted as he painfully pulled himself back up into a sitting position.

Well, this is supposed to be a suicide missions . . . ID finished: those are Gou'ald Motherships. They are launching fighters now . . . most likely, Gou'ald Deathgliders.

"F*** . . . as if this day couldn’t get any worse. Get our weapons and shields up now!!" Julian shouted, while getting to his feet and staggering back over to his command chair in the center of the bridge.

"Weapons are charged. Any particular targets?" The Weapons Officer asked, actually grinning at the chance to shoot his weapons at an opponent that could fight back. Evidently, prison had not been too kind to him, not that the Weapons Officer was ever an exactly stable person to begin with.

A moment later, the entire ship quaked slightly as the first wave of Deathgliders closed into firing range and pelted the Assault Frigate with weapons fire. In a show of fairly impressive discipline, all of the Deathgliders broke off from their attack run at the same time, clearing the way for the second wave that was almost in firing range now.

"You can start by killing those little b*stards." Julian grunted, glaring at the viewscreen image of the second wave entering firing range and opening fire. Once again, the Kronos quaked as the Deathglider's plasma bursts impacted against the shields, only the bridge shook a bit harder this time.

"Shields down to 85% . . . thankfully, the Gou'ald Motherships seem to be focusing on the other ships, and letting their fighter swarm deal with us." The Tactical Officer reported, still starring worriedly at the large red blips on his screen that represented the Gou'ald Motherships.

"That's their mistake then. Weapons Officer, kill those things with all of our weapons, but load one of our Omega Torpedoes, and give one of those Motherships a taste of oblivion."

"Yes sir, happy to oblige." The Weapons Officer replied, running his hands furiously over his console.

A mere second later, the Kronos appeared to explode in a blaze of energy as all four Pulse Phaser Cannons and three Graviton beams lanced out in all directions at the swarm of Deathgliders continuing to circle around and make attack runs on the Assault Frigate. Several dozen of the small, unshielded fighter craft were destroyed, and after the Weapons Officer had blasted a path through them, an Omega Torpedo shot through the Deathglider swarm and headed towards a Gou'ald Mothership.

The Mothership, busy hammering away at one of the other Federation ships, ignored the approaching torpedo until it was too late. The heavy munition slammed into the Swarm capital ship's shields and detonated, releasing an enormous amount of energy. Although heavily drained, the Mothership's shields seemed to still be up, and Julian cursed.

"It's um . . . turning around sir. And locking weapons onto us." The Tactical Officer reported, his voice laced with a quiver.

"Then get us out of here, Helm! Evasive action!!!"

A moment later, the Gou'ald Mothership opened up with its plasma batteries at extreme range. Due to a series of quick maneuvers and rapid course changes, however, all of the plasma shots missed: which was probably a good thing, considering how big those plasma shots were.

F***ing amateurs . . . I could shoot better than that without any sensors.

“Don’t underestimate them . . . their shots appear to be getting closer.” The Helmsman reported, before wrenching the Kronos into a (capital ship sized) stomach flopping corkscrew dive.

“Those Deathglider pilots are persistent as well . . . I keep killing them, but they’re still coming.” The Weapons Officer replied, triggering another burst of fire from all four Pulse Phaser Cannons again, and sending brilliant beams of emerald death back at the pursuing Gou’ald fighter craft. Several of the beams found their target, shearing off a Deathglider wing, or punching through its ****pit to vaporize the pilot inside. One bolt also directly hit the chassis of the Deathglider, rupturing its plasma gun capacitors and consuming the entire craft in the resulting explosion.

Warning . . . Hull Temperature is rising. My crystalline skin may be tough enough to absorb greater than average waste heat from all those guns, but not even it can take much more of this . . . this is simply ridiculous.

“I know . . . I don’t think I’ve shot our weapons off as much as this since that time we jumped that Federation convoy which had an escort carrier with it. These Deathgliders are a lot more determined though . . . little f*ckers just keep comin’.”

“As is that Gou’ald Mothership . . . it is still continuing to follow us, and I’m not sure how much longer I can keep up these evasive maneuvers, sir. Sooner or later, that thing is going to get a solid target lock, and it’s going to plaster us.” The Helmsman reported.

“D*mnit d*amnit d*manit, and d*mn Stephanie Dahalla to H*ll!” Julian cursed, but he managed to bring his anger back under control before he lost control. He had to keep his mind clear, or none of them would be getting out of this alive.

“Alright, Tactical Officer: what is the current situation? How are the other ships doing?”

“Well sir . . . there’s um . . . a lot less Gou’ald Motherships around than there were a few minutes ago. That one really big ship apparently just crushed one of the Motherships against its shields, and that only ship . . . . holy cow sir, it just plowed three of those things under with a massive barrage of firepower.”

“Well, good to see at least some of us are going to survive this . . . .”

“Oh, and that other ship just crippled another one of the Motherships . . . doesn’t look like it will be fighting anymore today.”

“Crippled, you say? As in, floating dead in the water?” Julian said, a plan beginning to take shape in his mind.

“Aye sir . . . completely dead in the water. I’m still getting power readings, but for now it appears that that particular Mothership is shut down until they can get some repairs and stabilize their reactor.”

“Stabilize . . . their reactor. Heehee . . . alright, I think I’ve got a plan that will save our *sses. Helm, set a course that will take us over to that crippled Mothership.”

“WHAT!!? You want to move us closer to another one!!?” The Tactical Officer replied, eyes widening.

Shrugging, Julian retorted, “You said it was crippled, so it shouldn’t be able to do anything . . . except blow up.”

“Ahh . . . ahah! I understand now sir! You’re a genius!!” The Tactical Officer cried a moment later, after examining what Julian was suggesting.

“Isn’t it the truth . . . Weapons Officer, get a plasma torpedo ready. We only have a couple of them aboard, but I think this situation calls for one.”

“Aye sir.”

Several more tense minutes pass, as the Kronos made its winding way towards the crippled bulk of the damaged Gou’ald Mothership, still twisting and turning to avoid the still fully-operational Mothership’s plasma bolts, as well as the surviving Deathgliders.

“In weapons range now, sir . . .” The Weapons Officer reported, locking the Kronos’s weapons onto the massive ship.

“Don’t start firing just yet . . . rather, target one of the shut-down engines on that thing. I want you to send our plasma torpedo right up that thing’s deactivated tailpipe. And hopefully, directly into the reactor.”

“Uh huh . . . heheheh . . . I get it now sir. Target is . . . locked on. Plasma torpedo ready to fire on your signal.”

“Good . . . and . . . FIRE!!!!”

A greenish streak emerged from the underbelly of the Kronos a moment later, and zoomed towards the hulking form of the crippled Mothership. It quickly found the exhaust tubes that were the Mothership’s engines, and went up through one of the non-active ones, as it was programmed to do. Several dozen meters later, the plasma torpedo encountered the drive vent for pumping excess energy from the reactor out through the engines to make the ship move. It quickly burned through that, and entered the reactor itself a few seconds later. The end result was a critical reactor failure that sent the entire reactor assembly into meltdown. By the time anyone realized what had happened, it was too late to stop the chain-reaction, or warn anyone. The still active Gou’ald Mothership was just passing its crippled sister when the reaction went critical and the ship was consumed in brilliant, immolating fire. The explosion expanded out from the dying, formerly crippled Mothership, and happily absorbed the still operation Mothership, and added it to the carnage, along with a fair number of Deathgliders.

A cheer erupted from the bridge as the viewscreen displayed the success of Julian’s trap, but the battle was not quite over yet, it seemed.

There’s still one operational Mothership, Julian. And it seems to be ignoring us for the moment, instead focusing its firepower on the other ships.

“Sigh . . . what do we have to do to teach them not to underestimate us? Clearly, the Swarm needs the same lesson that the Federation received. Alright, Helm, bring us in . . . let’s plaster the grin right off of that Mothership’s face.”

“Omega Torpedo Tube reloaded, Julian . . . that should mess that up, heehee.”

“Indeed, although their shields seem able to take a pounding or two . . . hmmm.”

Julian, after some analysis of the Motherships’ design, I have determined that the Ship’s Bridge is probably at the tip of the pyramid.

“Wow, what a brilliant place to put a bridge . . . not.”

Well, normally it seems that the greatest majority of the Mothership’s shields are focused there, at the tip, but for some reason this captain as altered his shield composion so that the greatest majority of the Mothership’s shield power is going into the bottom . . . towards the other two allied ships.

“I see . . . so the dumbf*** thinks he can ignore us, and focus most of his energy towards the other two, eh? Well, let’s teach him a lesson then. Hold our fire until we’re in close, Weapons Officer, then let them have everything we’ve got. Concentrate everything on the tip of that pyramid, and blast a hole through those weakened shields so we can slip our Omega Torpedo in.”

“Yes sir! They’ll be sorry they ever turned their backs on us, haha!!”

The silvery white streak of the Kronos closed in at maximum speed on the Gou’ald Mothership, preparing to fire its weapons and take the ship out before the captain could react. And indeed, the bridge crew was apparently taken by the surprise appearance of a third enemy, as they did not begin to shift their shield power back to cover the bridge until the last moment. By then, however, it was too late, and the Kronos’s massed Graviton beams and Pulse Phaser Cannons tore through the shields to open a hole in them. A hole that resulted in an Omega Torpedo slipping through, and crashing directly into the bridge viewplate before detonating.
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Unread 5 Mar 2004, 04:44   #185
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

Mission #4 - Part 1
Participants
Heiro
Richard
Inspectre

Heiro
*While your shields slice the Gou-uld Mothership in half, the feedback unfortunally blows out 1/4 of your shield generators. While your ship shudders, sparks fly, and crewmembers and thrown, burned, crushed, and mutilated, overall the damage is pretty minimal. Fortunally, your remaining shields are more than enough to protect Ricahrds ship. You engineering officer reports that your down shield generators will be up once they replace a shitload of fuses and power conduits.*

Richard
*Your weapons fire, while most considerable, unfortunally is only enough to destroy 2 Motherships. While the explosions that they make are pretty, the third mothership's shields implode, and great fires erupt from it's hull. But there is no pretty explosion. Your tatical monitors light up at the remaining

Inspectre

[COUGH]

[HACK]

[UGH]

[EEK!]

[HOLY MOTHER OF ****!!!]

[YOU ARE ONE SICK PUPPY!]

[AHEM]

*Your torpedo takes out the bridge of the Gou-uld mothership. Between your ship and Richards, you are able to clear out the rest of the system quickly. Your ship suffers only superficial damage fortunally, easily repaired.

ALL

Part I completed

*Now that the motherships have been destroyed, obviously there is nothing to prevent you from jumping into FTL speeds. Jumping back into FTL speeds, your ships start working on repairs while in-flight, which thankfully are relatively light. For the rest of the journey, your run into no problems whatsoever. Finally, after much anticipation, your ships revert from FTL speeds outside the Earth system. Before the swarm, this area of space would be filled with sensor nets. Your sensors however detect no artifical installations. Proceeding further, your science officers scan the system, sharing their data.

System Information

Sol
Status - Detecting unknown ring around star.

Mercury
Status - Intact

Venus
Status - Intact

Earth
Status - Moon missing, planet now has a ring of debris.
Massive scars on landmasses
Ozone Layer reduced by 85%
Planetary Tempurature Increased by 23 degrees C on average
Atmosphere Consisting of High Amounts of Co2, Nitrogen, low levels of Oxygen. Barely life-sustaniable.

Mars
Status - Remains of colony domes on planet, detecting breakdown of terraforming ecosystem

Asteroid Field - Reading thousands of destroyed ships

Jupiter
Status - Sensor Readings Inconclusive

Saturn
Status - Sensor Readings Inconclusive

Uranus
Status - Destroyed

Neptune
Status - Destroyed

Pluto - Former Outer-System Patrol Base
Status - Destroyed

Science Officers: "Sir, it looks like this system..... took a beating...... I...... I can't detect any signs of.... humanity."

Tatical Officer: "What is that.... thing.... around the sun?!?"

Science Officer: "It looks like it's some kind of energy absorption ring.... it's draining the sun..... for what..... I don't know."

Communications: "I'm.... detecting a few low-powered distress signals, many of them concentrated around the asteroid field between Mars and Jupiter."

Tatical Officer: "Looks like that was the last stand."

Science Officer: "Oh no, I'm reading multiple ships emerging from FTL speeds.... I don't reconize their specs... however.... they are similar to Gou-uld motherships..... just.... biggger...... MUCH bigger."

Enemy Ships
3 x Super Gou-uld Motherships
Hull Strength: 15000
12 Gou-uld Energy Shields - 10000
8 Gou-uld Sublight Engines
Hyperspace Window FTL Engine
Gou-uld FTL Jammer
256 Gou-uld Plasma Cannons - 1000 Hit Points
12 Gou-uld Plasma Streamers - 5000 Hit Points

12 x Gou-uld Motherships
Hull Strength: 5000
4 Gou-uld Energy Shields - 10000
4 Gou-uld Sublight Engines
Hyperspace Window FTL Engine
56 Gou-uld Plasma Cannons - 1000 Hit Points

1024 x Gou-uld Deathgliders
Hull Strength: 100
2 Gou-uld fighter Plasma Cannons - 200 Hit Points

Tatical Officer: "Oh.... crap."

Communications Officer: "We are being hailed, putting on main screen."

*On your viewers, the image of the Gou-uld appears. Human, clad in what appears to be bronze-age armor, he sneers at you, his eyes flashing white, confiring the fact the human is the host fo the Gou-uld parasite within him.*

Gou-uld: "I am Seti. Surrender now, and prepare to submit to my will as my slaves. Otherwise, prepare to die in this unholy system of death."

*The Gou-uld looks to his side, and the transmission ends.*

Tatical Officer: "Sir, they have locked ALL their weapons on us. They seem to be concentrating their targetting on Captain Richpur's ship."

Science Officer: "Their shields are all raised, and they are jamming our FTL drives. Wait..... I'm detecting odd signals from the ring around the sun. It's almost as if it's.... creating a solar flare.... but focusing it...... ERUPTION!!!"

*The eruption streatches out into the ring, but rather than damaging it, it is absorbed by it. Glowing brightly, a great beam of light fires from the ring. Streaking out, breaking the laws of physics by breaking the light barrier, it strikes one of the Gou-uld motherships. Within a eyeblink the mothership is... gone. No debris, nothing remains of it.*

No1: "What the hell was THAT?!?"

Science Officer: "Somehow that ring... created a solar eruption, focuesed it, changed it, and fired it at the motherships. I'm detecting the traces of another eruption, estimate 10 minutes until it fires again."

Communications: "I'm detecting a odd signal.... coming from the ring. I can't..... make sense of it...... trying..... wait.... Gou-uld are hailing us again."

*The viewscreen wavers again, and again Seti appears.*

Seti: "You have reactivated the unholiest of weapons scum. Your lives are forfeit. We taught your once what happens when you do this.... we will have to teach you again."

*Again, the transmission is cut.*

Tatical Officer: "Sir, the remaining ships are coming at us, estimate 5 minutes until they are within weapons range. They are blocking any exit vector from this solar system."

Science Officer: "Agreed, also... I'm detecting..... odd signals from the asteroid belt..... can't make sense."

No1: "Orders sir?"
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Unread 5 Mar 2004, 04:49   #186
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

Inspectre
Rank: Captain
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Crew Rating: Experienced
Medals\Awards:
[Longest F*cking Post EVER]

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[Creative Use of Shields]

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No Dachi
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Unread 5 Mar 2004, 14:44   #187
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

* Looks at Inspectre's post.

**** you dude
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Unread 5 Mar 2004, 21:34   #188
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

Dear god.
If you exist, please praise Inspectre for such a finely crafted, woven piece of articulate writing. Also, please, if you can, kiss him when he comes to heaven for saving our asses...

* * *

Anyhow. Now, to formulate a post. And i need to talk to you bakan... MSN, later?
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Unread 5 Mar 2004, 21:54   #189
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

*stares blankly at Inspectres post. Blinks several times. Starts to cry and runs out of room vomiting.*
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Unread 5 Mar 2004, 23:39   #190
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

Caprain Bremnair breathed a sigh of relief, his respect for the AI entity known as the Red Sky At Dawn having grown further still. It appeared to have slightly more control of the ship's systems than the technicians had predicted. Unforutnatly, it definitely couldn't control the gun turrets, and so the warship Red Sky At Dawn was "at the mercy of unreliable and error-prone human gunners" - the shipmind's words rather than his own. Bremnair himself believed the gunners of the mighty Federation war fleet to be among the finest in existence.

"Captain, you will excuse my impertinence in dusturbing what is no doubt a very deep consideration of the various possible tactical approaches to destroying the enemy on your part, but I must strongly advice that you immediarely order the gunners to return fire on the Devourers." The shipmind reminded him in its irritating way, as though believing the captain to be too stupid to give this order himself. Bremnair quickly reminded himself that patience was necessary. He reminded himself of what McCallistair, the Chief Technician in charge of maintaining the various top-of-the-range computer systems aboard the Red Sky At Dawn that gave the shipmind its limitted control of subsystems, had told him just before the shipmind was shown to its new place of rest. "You might find the shipmind is a little irritable, sir," McCallistair had said, "but it can't help it. From what we understand, those things were built to be integrated completely with their ships. A shipmind without a ship is kind of like one of us living without arms or legs, or eyes or ears or taste bu -" at this point, Bremnair remembered tapping his foot impatiently on the steel deck plating below him, causing the rather nervous computer expect to continue hurriedly, "you get the idea, sir. Plus it thinks faster than we can possibly comprehend. From what contact we've had actually speaking with it, it can be a little...er...condescending, at times. Just bear in mind that it's a little different from us, sir, is all I'm asking."

And so, keeping this advice firmly at the forefront of his mind, Bremnair nodded to noone in particular, knowing that one of the Red Sky At Dawn's camera drones would inevitably pick up the gesture. Reach out over the right armrest of his plush command chair on the bridge of the destroyer, Captain Bremnair grasped the microphone of the solid-wire communications system linking the bridge to the vital systems of the ship. The wire ran next to the fuel lines running down the very centre of the vessel. Personal communicators were all very well, but they were also succeptible to coms jamming, especially if the vessel were to be boarded - god forbid. Bremnair gave an involuntary shiver as he pulled the microphone toward his mouth.

"This is Bremnair, all gunnery batteries report in immediately." He ordered, before releasing the transmit button and waiting for the response...

"Fore Heavy Battery reporting in," Came the first reply. The Red Sky At Dawn carried six Dual Pulse Phasers as its principal armament, and these were split between four batteries, 2 light and 2 heavy, one of each at the bow and one of each toward the stern. The heavy batteries were both on top of the ship's chasis, the light batteries both below. Between them they were capable of sending heavy fire at all angles, long enough for the ship to bring its bow to bear on the opposition, wherupon all six could target whatever enemy threatened them, and subsequently blow it out of the sky.

"Aft Heavy Battery reporting in, sir," Came the second reply. Bremnair waited, four more reports to go.

"Fore Light Battery reporting in, all systems are fully operational,"

"Aft Light Battery affirming full combat readiness, sir." Bremnair nodded. All four Phaser Batteries were fully operational and, most likely, already locked onto the CorralDevourers that the Tactical Officer had deemed it best to engage. Now just two more reports...

"Fusion Missile Battery reporting. All launch tubes are loaded, all mounted warheads are armed. We have multiple lock-ons and are awaiting the order to fire." The Captain felt a gentle wash of relief at this; for if there were one weapon system on the Red Sky At Dawn that were likely to malfunction, it was the autoloader system on the fusion missile launcher. And, if the missile battery were to go out, the Red Sky At Dawn's firepower was greatly reduced.

"Point defense master control reporting. All point defense turrets are running hot and linked to sensor data. Ready to recieve incoming ordnance." Bremnair nodded. All weapon systems reported fully operational. This was not unexpected, but it was certainly welcome.

"All phaser batteries switch targetting to the cargo vessels. You are to aim to disable them, but do not allow any of them to reach the station in tact. Destroy them if necessary." The phasers were highly accurate but also highly damaging, it was wasteful to target the strike-craft sized CoralDevourers with them. "Point Defense Batteries are to concentrate on the surpression of enemy strike craft. Fusion Missile Battery prep one warhead for launch at the CorralDevourers, but hold fire untill my mark." Bremnair added particular emphasis to the final part of the order, for throwing a fusion warhead at CoralDevourers in loose formation would be somewhat pointless. Instead, he would have to try and coax them into assuming formation, and the Captain had an idea of how to do this. Knowing that the gunners were competent and capable of carrying out their orders pefectly well, Bremnair allowed the speaking end of the wire radio to snap back onto its slot on the wirecoms pannel to the right of his chair, not listening to the gunners' affirmation reports. Instead, the Captain took another, identical microphone from the rack and pulled it out toward him. "Flight Control, report status."

"Flight Overcontroller reporting all strike craft prepped for combat launch, sir." The Flight Overcontroller was responsible for all the Red Sky At Dawn's strike craft; the fighters and the gunboats. Ordinarily he would pass on any information from Shuttle Command and Tactical Fighter Command and pass the necessary parts onto the Bridge, but in the instance where the Captain requested a status report, both the Shuttle Flight Controller and the Tactical Flight Controller were obliged to give the report themselves.

"Shuttle Flight Controller confirming Gunboats crewed and loaded out, ready for launch." - both Gunboats had all their crew in place, and a contingent of elite marines aboard each. Bremnair temporarily dismissed this information; for although he would need the troops later in order to capture the cargo ships if indeed the gunnery managed to disable rather than obliterate them, but for now with no enemy capital ships in sight there was no use for them. The fighters, though, were part of his plan.

"Tactical Flight Controller reporting, Blue and Red Flight Leaders report that their wingmen are prepared for combat launch. Chief Ground Crewmen confirms readiness, awaiting orders." Good, the Captain though, everything in the fighter hangar had worked according to protocol and all eight of the Red Sky At Dawn's strike fighters were prepared for a combat launch - in other words, to be shot out of the ship using megnetised launch rails, wherupon they would immediately be able to engage the enemy.

"Recieved. Tactical Flight Control, launch all fighters immediately, repeat, launch all fighters immediately. Both flights are to engage the CoralDevourers immediately. Order Blue Flight to flank right and hit the CorralDevourers from that side and Red Flights to flank left and hit them from there. The objective of both flights is to push the Devourers inwards; make them bunch up." The Captain said, already watching the Devourers clustering together, in his mind's eye, in an attempt to stop themselves being swamped by the small, fleet-footed medium fighters. Bremnair barely even listened to the Tactical Flight Controller's report.

"Aye sir, all fighters are away...Red Leader and Blue Leader affirm their orders."

-------

The shipmind of the Red Sky At Dawn testily watched the human Captain's strategum unfolding through the ship's (comparatively) primitive sensor array. The Ancients, at the time of the shipmind's construction, were far ahead of the present Federation in technological developement of every respect, and starship sensors were no exception. For the shipmind, looking through its human-built sensors was rather like looking through a sheet of thick, dirty perspex. Everything was visible, but not clearly so. However, the shipmind was very much aware of the eight fighters leaving the hangar at speed, before splitting into two groups of four and breaking course, one flight heading right and one flight heading left. The shipmind was also aware of the human gunners switching targets. The new trajectory took the phaser beams to... - the shipmind did the machine equivelant of squinting - the cargo ships. Interesting. To leave the CoralDevourers unmarked the Captain must have something special in mind. And, indeed, watching the fighters and the targetting telemettry data from the missile launch bay, the Red Sky At Dawn began to see just what. The human Captain was more intelligent than he seemed...

---

The two flights of medium strike fighters descended on the CorralDevourers, commencing Bremnair's plan. Despite taking heavy fire from the Devourers, the agility of the fighters combined with the skill of their pilots resulted in most of the heavy shots going wide. With the enemy's opening salvo spent, the Flight Leaders ordered the attack proper to begin. Diving on the larger, slower, less nimble craft the Strike Class fighters pummelled the Swarm vessels with missiles and laser fire and broke formation. With the smaller fighters buzzing around them like angry nats, the larger CorralDevourers found themselves unable to bring their guns to bear, and sure enough, they flew inwards toward eachother, contracting into tight formation in order to offer defense from all angles. At this point the fighters abruptly broke off their attack. For a few moments, the alien crewmen of the Devourers wondered why, then they spotted the bright exhaust trail of the fusion missile arcing through space toward them....

((more later))
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Unread 6 Mar 2004, 00:07   #191
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

An Onslaught post, brought to you in parts by... Fluffie!

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!"

One of Fluffie's lean marines realized their dire situation. Fluffie did too, but he stayed . He was, after all, very . His magnificent mind of course also, already, had a remedy for this... not so friendly looking new opponent. Quite the attack that dude had, but the staffs firing... right there and right bloody now weren't too bad either.

Indeed they were bad. Bad in the... Bad kind of way. But Fluffie was bad too. Otherwise he wouldn't be the man in charge, now would he?

Fluffie's bad mind had a bad-ass idea. Firing some more rounds in the general direction of the staff-dudes, one of their shots wooshes past, leaving a nasty trail on his armour. Cursing, he lets go of his weapon and grabs four of his grenades with two of his hands. Using a trick he learned in an obscure and dark past, he pulls the pin from all four at once and throws them at the Go-uld.

While doing the action above, he yells something.

"'nades! 'nades! 'nades! 'nades!"

While yelling and throwing, he runs too. He runs fast. Away from the grenades he just threw.

Still yelling the "'nades!" thing over and over again, Fluffie and his team (who all throw one or two grenades (none throw four due to not wanting to outl33t their master and commander)) retreat out of the room. Everyone but Fluffie (who lost his weapon, remember?) has their weapon aimed at the door.

Nothing comes through. So, no weapons are fired.

Then that particular part of the ship shakes and shivers, as if some mighty explosion.. just.. exploded! And guess what, it did! A shockwave blows the door out of its hinges and a cloud of smoke follows. After having waited a bit, Fluffie's team moves in, Fluffie himself keeping to the rear due to only having a wussie side-arm...

The room looks blackened, scorched, burned, exploded. Nasty. Filled with dead bodies, dead mutilated bodies and other... stuff... that just was in an explosion.

Fluffie grins. 'nades were good.

Fluffie's team grins. They obviously agree with Fluffie's thought about grenades.

Maybe they just were good.

Or maybe not.

Why not? Because something in the room just started moaning, as if in pain. As if very seriously annoyed, while being in pain. Then the creature, the person that shoots shockwaves from his hands gets up, throwing another shot at an unexpecting trooper. Cursing as this second fellow breaks his spine, Fluffie curses at the evil man, who just snorts back.

Fluffie curses again and picks up one of them staffs, which very luckily was still very much intact. Not quite knowing how to handle it, he just decides to leave the whole firing option for now. Instead, he just whacks the sucker real hard, knocking him off his legs. Calling at his troopers to hold fire, Fluffie brings the end of the staff down in the little ****ers stomach, making him want some air real bad.

Taking a step back, Fluffie sees the Go-uld look at his glove-o'-shockwaves. Smiling, our l33t Captain brings the staff down with such force that the hand and glove turn into one. Literally. One, big... heap, puddle... Of... Nasty-ness. The now seriously injured man cries out in pain, but somehow still manages to get up, snorting some more at Fluffie.

He smiles back. He grins a sick grin. He then launches the staff forward, stabbing the Go-uld and actually shoving the end of it right into the chest. Still looking like a seriously sick and mad character, Fluffie figures out how the whole firing stuff works and does 'that thing'. The staff 'opens up', ready to fire. The Go-uld can do nothing but look really scared.

Then his chest explodes. In a violent way. In a very violent and sick way, spraying blood and remains of bones and organs all around. The parts of the body that are still connected together fall to the ground and start bleeding to, making the floor of the ship real messy.

The marines stared at Fluffie. He turned around and stared back for a second, wondering what the hell they were doing.

"What the **** are you lot doing?"

Cue a silence as the men continue staring. Then, after a while, one finally breaks the eery silence, that is only interrupted by bleeding sounds of the just killed Go-uld and the remains of his ex-escort.

"You Sir, are one sick puppy."

Several troopers nod violently, agreeing very much with the speaker. Fluffie raises his shoulder and looks innocent.

"Guy broke two of our spines. Then he wouldn't die. Deserved it, the bastard."

"Yeah, sure. But still..."

Raising his shoulders again, Fluffie 'closed' his new weapon (the staff ) and opened a comms link to the troop commander, who by now should be on the bridge. The troops around him spread through the room, making sure everything was dead. Some guarded the exit, others started collecting the most effective Go-uld weapons. Fluffie just stood and talked to the commander.

End of Part I




Change scenery to the NEMESIS. Picture a really neat bridg, with a Captain's chair that looks... rather exploded. Somewhere in the background, noises of someone in extreme agony being dragged away, down to sickbay. More central in the picture is the No. 1, obviously Brittish, standing with his hands behind his back. He looks around the bridge crew, who suddenly also all look very Brittish. Smiling satisfiedly, the No. 1 nods at the Comms Officer.

"Open up a channel to the [name of still unnamed leader freighter of Fluffie]."

Suprisingly, not much later the channel is opened.

"Nemesis Command to Fleet Control, we have lost our Captain and are requesting orders."

The entire line, of course, is said in the most Brittish Brittish tongue you can imagine. And then just a bit more.




Part II, continued

"Alright lads, we have our orders."

A jolly good affirmative cheer is heard on the bridge of the suddenly very Brittish Explorer, not yet having earned its name. It would, pretty soon though.

"Take us after those Defient Cruisers, helm. And Weapons, we won't mind at all if you take down some of this Gliders."

Without a word, the big, lumbering Explorer class starts moving. Not much later, the Quad Pulse Phasers come to life, roaring through the void of space and tearing through some unsuspecting Deathgliders with their immensely fast, but widespread firepower. The No. 1 looks at the officer responsible for this and smiles.

"Bloody well done chap! Now, Comms, inform the Defients we will be aiding them in their fight."

"Aye Captain."

Suddenly having an immensely smart idea, the commanding officer suddenly lashes out...

"Wait! Hold that order!"

...scaring the poor man at the Comms' console really bad, making him look very sad. Which in its own place makes the No. 1 feel bad.

"Aww.. Dreadfully sorry there, but I just thought of something!"

Looking up at the soothing words, Comms quickly wipes a away a small tear and nods, awaiting further orders.

"I have a plan!"

And with that, the almighty Brit waits for the Comms to open the channel, before telling his plan to the two Defient Cruisers, who happily agree. Preparations are made, targets locked and firing positions taken...




Part II, "finalé"
Somehow, Hewitt's influence returns. Influenced by the Fluffie rays, the No. 1 probably is now unable to remember the grand plan he had thought up earlier. Too bad, but then again, it saves me a lot of typing.




Part III
In a big blurry movement, with the camering moving through the bridge, bulkheads, space and many other things, we eventually end up looking at Fluffie's very own bridge crew. They all look a bit tense, but still relaxed - the battle was their mostly. The Freighters were mainly still orbitting around their target Go-uld ship, cloaked and awaiting further orders.

The orders would have to come from Fluffie, or if there was a big certainty he was dead, from someone else, high ranking, down on the Mothership.

But no such order had come through. And because of the forced radio silence due to battle-cloaking-protocols, the only thing that could really keep the silly crew going was to continue their bets on the living-ness of good ol' cap'n Fluff.


Down on the Mothership, the Captain was actually doing pretty fine. By now having secured the entire vessel, some squads were beginning a second sweep, determined on making sure everything hostile aboard was dead. Other units were spread around strategic locations, with the intention of getting the ship up and running to get it to the Starbase - which without a doubt would have use for it. Maybe they'd want another vessel to fend off invaders with, maybe they could strip it down for salvage.

Fluffie didn't know, he'd just get the vessel to the Base and see from there on what they wanted. By now, he was standing on the vessel's bridge, the marines close to having figured out the basic controls of the craft. While waiting for them to start this big thing movie, Fluffie gets out a radio and breaks the radio silence, giving his own ships some orders.

"Fluffie here, you lot still alive?"

"Very much, Sir."

The on the radio announces the winner of the bet, followed by a loud cheer in the background (there were a lot of credits betted there).

"Any orders?"

"Yeah. One, tell me who won. Two, inform the Starbase that we're bringing in this Mothership, its all theirs. Decloak and take up escort positions, fire at will."

"Bones, Sir. Carrying out orders now."

Not much later, the two freighters drop their cloaking fields, quickly redirecting the power to their shields and weapon systems. As the two bulky ships glide into their escort positions, their machine gun turrets open up on the Deathgliders, scoring a few easy kills on the few remaining and unexpecting fighter craft.

The machine gun's fire is joined a few moments later by the double Phaser V's on both freighters, taking random shots at the two remaining Motherships, just messing with them. Around this time, the captured Go-uld ship starts moving as well, beginning to make its way to the Starbase, with the two freighters neatly keeping their formation.

"This [nameless freighter] control to Starbase, we are bringing you in a present. Please provide covering fire, should we need it."

End of Part III




And Part III was the last part, I think. Nothing much else I can do here, I've taken down my Mothership, you lot (Eath & Hewitt) take care of the rest.
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Last edited by Fluffie; 13 Mar 2004 at 00:58. Reason: have to make it l33t, eh
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Unread 6 Mar 2004, 02:36   #192
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

The Shadow drops out of FTL speeds into an already pitched battle. Duke, who had gone to his quarters for some shut eye, races down the hall and to the turbo lifts. He smashes in the "bridge" button and rushes to his command chair. He drops into the chair and takes control of the frigate himself. Duke uses the steering spheres to hurtle the Hunter towards the brawl.

Duke- "Captain Cook, i want a full report on the battle! Jen, I want you to coordinate the gunners and have them prep the torpedos."

Captain Cook/Jen- "Aye sir"

Jen-" Attention all gunners! Bring all 12 qppts to full power and bring all guns to bear off the bow! Torpedo crews! Charge all tubes and load at least 8 torpedos!"

Captain Cook-"Sir both of Flapjack's ships have 20% shields and almost full hull strength."

Duke-"Thankyou Cook, Jen, tell the tractor beam team to aim at the foremost important point of the Gould Mothership. Have all the gunners and torpedo crews to focus on the weak points connecting that part of the ship to the rest of the ship."

Captain Cook-"But sir what about the fighters?"

Duke-"Ours or theirs?"

Captain Cook-"THEIRS!!!!"

Duke- "Excuse me you tuxedo wearing flightless fool, leave them to Flapjack, we will use ours if and when they are required."

Captain Cook-" Aye sir."

After all the crews had their orders, Duke piloted the ship directly toward the slightly larger ship. He perferred to have direct control over and responsibltiy for his ship and crew. He heard a faint hum as the super powerful tractor beams came online. The ship lurched as he reversed it to attempt to pull apart the Mothership. The two ships, the Mothership and the Shadow Hunter, were now in a tug-of-war for a small piece of the Mothership's front hull. As the Hunter came into range, it opened fire with its 12 massively powerful Quad Pulse Phaser Turrets. The greenish lasers lanced out from the Frigate and struck the Gould ship's shield. Blue streaks were the result of four streams of torpedos coming from the port and starboard sides of the ship. With the first several volleys of laser and torpedo fire the section of Gould shielding fell.

The torpedo launchers had spent their set amounts of torpedos and even though they had unlimited supplies, they ceased firing. The 12 qppts continued to fire hammering away at the sections of hull on the mother ship. Just as things seemed to be going without a hitch the Assault Frigate came into enemy weapon range. Instantly, the Gould ship opened fire on the Shadow Hunter.

Duke-"ALL POWER TO BOW SHIELDS!!!!! ALL POWER THAT ISN'T KILLING THAT D*MED SHIP REVERT TO BOW SHIELDS!!!!!

Captain Cook-"Aye sir the shields are being recharged but are steadily falling at a more or less controlled rate."

The Hunter's lasers continued to pummel the Gould's exposed hull, and by now they were hitting the outtermost rooms aboard the ship. Of course, the Shadow wasn't invincible itself. The two ships engaged each other in a slugging match, exchanging raw energy for metal and lives. The Gould was doomed to lose, however. The Shadow Hunter outtmatched the Mothership in armor and shields, which was, for right now, where it counted. There was a loud low creaking noise as the section of hull was ripped away and then crushed by the tractor beams.

Duke-"Torpedo crews fire into that hole until they start to come out the other side. Lasers fire at will, pick off those damned turrets!"

With a gapping hole in its bow, the Gould Mother ship was incredibly weak, especially since it had no shielding in that area. The torpedo tubes fired a steady stream of torpedos straight into their target, filling it with fire and burning deathness. Despite the considerable damage it took, the Mothership did not let up on its viscious assaults. The shields on the Shadow were almost 3/4 down.

Duke-"Launch the fighters! Have them attack the turrets and draw the fire away from us. Leave their fighters to Flapjack. REREOUTE ALL POWER TO THE SHIELDS!!! SHUT DOWN ALL ENGINES, FTLS AND SUBSPACE!"

Captain Cook- "Aye sir, fighters away."

Duke looked out a nearby viewport and watched the 12 Dodgers zoom away from the Frigate and straight towards the Mothership. The lasers continued to pick off other lasers, and the Shadow's damage rate steadily fell. The torpedos continued to punch the hole in the ship even wider, and more of the ship blew apart, burning. The fighters broke into groups of four, and then into wing pairs (groups of two). The 6 groups flew about the Mother ship like gnats around a fat sweaty bald New Yorker, and out-manuevered all laser fire. Their petty straffing runs did little, but the distraction was a big help to the Hunter's shields. The torpedos were making good progress when the Shadow's viewports were blocked by a blinding light. The torpedos had struck the ultimate mark, the Gould Mothership's reactors. When the light faded, Duke notcied that the squadron was returning towards the frigate and that the mother ship had been blown into three large parts and thousands of small parts. All of the parts were on fire and no life of any kind was detected but the Gould fighters.

Duke-"Now we'll just wait for Flapjack to kill them and we'll be all set."
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Unread 6 Mar 2004, 11:52   #193
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

*Flapjack cursed loudly as a small panel to his right exploded and caught fire, only to be immediatly sealed by a small forcefield, the flames dieing out within moments due to a lack of oxygen*

Me: "Damage report."

*Before any could respond, flapjack pulled the ship into a steep turn to once more face the Goa'uld mothership and the Goa'uld fighters on the other side of it as the Shadow jumped in and engaged the mothership*

Fixman: "Minor hull damages, secondary power conduits damaged, secondary pulse phaser couplings offline, all primary systems are working within nominal operating parameters."

boomer: "Locking onto the enemy fighters, firing."

*As the Skylight and Golden sword flew into the swarm of fighters, their weapons lighted up, streaks of phaser and pulse phaser fire immediatly lighting up the area and targetting the various fighters, the phasers were especially lethal and the 8 phasers among the 2 ships took down most of the remaining 17 fighters. Then the anti-fighter missiles fired at the remaining couple of fighters, scatter missiles flying out and detonating all around and on their target.*

*In this fury of high energy weapons fire the most dangerous were the 2 machinegun turrets on the Golden sword and the Skylight as they sprayed fighters with small pellets of metal, the fighters not knowing what was coming untill it was literally coming through the ****pit.*

Theodore: "Nice shooting."

Boomer: "Thanks, it looks like they're all gone now, to bad, i'd have prefered more target practice. Oh and thank the gunners as well will you? they did most of the work."
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Unread 7 Mar 2004, 01:14   #194
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

“Entering the Sol system… or at least what’s left of it.”

“’What’s left of it’?” Richard swivels round in his seat and looks up at his science officer, or at least towards where his science officer would have been on his last ship. After a brief moment’s reorientation he turns back the other way and glares at the back of the lieutenant’s head, daring him to have noticed.

“Well for a start we’re three planets down,” he answers too busy with the readings to feel his commander’s eyes burning a hole through his neck. “Not sure about Jupiter or Saturn, I guess they’re on the other side of the sun. Mars seems to have almost reverted to pre terraforming days.”

“And Earth?” The girl on tactical asks. Richard is just about to remind her who asks the questions around here when he realises that everyone is silent, waiting for the answer; wanting to know the fate of the homeworld they had never seen. The anticipation and anxious optimism in their expressions causes him to relent. Besides, she had shown him the bridge… among other things.

“It’s dead;” the lieutenant sighs after a quiet few seconds, “dead as a doornail. I’m reading average temperatures up in the high fifties, sea levels appear to be normal though; massive water loss, the atmosphere is dry. Looks like pretty much the entire ecosystem has collapsed; unless cacti can talk we aren’t going to get much of a welcome.”

The sense of loss is almost palpable; Earth, the birthplace of humanity and pride of the old federation, now no more than a second hand memory.

“No signs of survivors anywhere?” Richard asks.

“I’m picking up several distress beacons, numerous automated calls for help; but from the transmission levels and the degradation of the recorded messages… well I don’t think it’s likely the people who sent them need our help any more.”

“They might though. We didn’t come all this way to ignore a distress call. Helm; set a course for the closest of those signals and…”

“I hate to interrupt,” says the tactical officer, doing so anyway, “but there’s about the biggest mass of hyperspace signatures coming in that I’ve ever seen.”

“How many?”

“Fifteen of them, all hyperspace window drives.”

“More Gou’uld.” Richard groans.

“They’re entering optimum sensor range.” Calls out the science officer.

“Confirmed,” says tactical, examining her console, “Twelve of those motherships we just finished with, and three others, same template but…”

“Shit those things are big.” The science officer exclaims.

“Indeed.” She says scathingly, “Although I would have phrased it differently.”

Richard smiles to himself; this tactical officer will turn out all right.

“Engineering; what’s our status?”

“Variable sir,” the voice comes back over the speakers with a metallic tinged Scottish accent. “Somewhere between green and amber, I’d say something around a pale olive.”

The smile turns slightly sour and Richard puts his head in one hand, rubbing his eyes as he shakes his head in disbelief. His chief engineer is a technical genius; mending graviton generators with one hand while blindfolded poses no problem; given a large enough supply of Lego he could build a fully functioning dyson sphere and probably the star to go with it. But like a lot of geniuses, communication is not his strong point.

Richard closes the comm. channel and stands up. With a slightly over-dramatic twirl he walks back to the tactical post and glances over the sweeping rack of screens and consoles.

“What was your name?”

“Marco, sir; Lieutenant Commander Karen Marco.” She replies; the surprise at being asked under the circumstances making the answer a touch formal.

“Well then Lieutenant Commander Karen Marco,” He begins with a slightly mocking emphasis, “How would you like to become my chief engineering liaison officer. Basically you have some of these little screens over here telling you what works and what doesn’t, and you tell me about it.” He looks at the screens again, noticing that most of them are already full. “Unless of course you need a bigger rack.” The three quarter profile glare she sends at him through her fringe sets off warning bells. “No offence.” Unsurprisingly the glare stays constant regardless.

“Helm!” Richard calls out, turning and moving quickly away from the impending doom of the tactical station. “Set course…”

“Those Gou’uld ships are here.” Karen mentions to his retreating back.

“Assessment?” Richard says between clenched teeth.

“In total we’re looking at just under one and a half thousand plasma cannon, thirty six plasma streamers and just over a thousand Deathgliders. Local subspace field is collapsing, looks like more of those jammers sir.”

“Our status?”

“Shields are at full capacity. Pulse phaser turrets coming online, quantum torpedoes loaded and the magazines are full… Assault cannon are charging, but it’ll be some time yet.”

“Great!” the science officer exclaims, “So we’re defenceless against those ships!”

“If by ‘defenceless’ you mean that if we sit here and shoot at each then we’ll all die an exceedingly fast and horrible death, then yes we are in fact defenceless.” Richard replies swinging back into his chair and twirling round to smile across at the panicky lieutenant. “But we don’t plan on sitting here and being shot at, do we… Helm set…”

“Incoming transmission from the Gou’uld ships; a bit of sideways rhetoric but is comes down to ‘surrender or die’.”

“They’ve locked weapons on us,” Karen reports with a trace of incredulity, “They’re still out of range, but they seem to be rather serious about the die aspect.”

“Considering the alternative is playing host to a Gou’uld parasite…” the helmsman joins in.

“Picking up a massive energy surge from around the sun,” the science officer says, “some sort of ring in orbit. It’s firing.”

The main screen almost whites out with the energy discharge blazing across space in front them. The shot however is travelling faster than the light itself, so from the perspective of the Chimera’s crew the first thing they see is a mothership vanishing into a bright white bolt, flying in towards the sun and being absorbed harmlessly into the ring.

“Would you like to correct that?” Richard suggests.

“No sir, the ring definitely fired; somehow the shot exceeded light speed… Just don’t ask me how.”

“It looks like our options have just dropped by one.” Reports communications. “Apparently they think we fired that… thing, surrendering isn’t an option any more.”

“I think we’d already decided that.” Richard says. “Helm…”

“The remaining ships are coming at us sir,” the science officer interrupts, “five minutes till they reach weapons range.”

“If you would be so kind as to let me finish an order; we can get on with the little problem of surviving certain death.” Richard says, “Unless, of course, you’ve got a better idea.”

Silence descends upon the bridge, the quiet background rumble and twitter of the ship rising to fill the gap.

“Helm,” Richard starts once again. “Set course for the asteroid field; and don’t waste any time getting there.”

“That field is a lot denser than records suggested it would be sir, navigation will be… problematic.”

“That is the point.”

“Oh. Setting course, ETA seven minutes”

“I can see one problem.” Karen says.

“Which one?” Richard asks.

“Several of the incoming vessels are altering course; from their current trajectory and acceleration they will intercept us in a little under four hundred seconds.”

“Which ships?”

“Those ship.” Karen brings up the three super-motherships on the main viewer their surfaces veritably bristling with weapons.

“Those ships?”

“Those ships.” She confirms.

“Engineering;” he hits the comm. panel. “We need more speed.”

“Well it’s possible that if I stripped down the drive and replaced a couple of the graviton converters we might be able to squeeze a bit extra out of them, but it’ll take me the best side of two hours.”

“We don’t have two hours Mister Macleod.”

“Aye sir; then I guess we’ve got a problem.” He says and closes the line.

“Right…” Richard says, a little lost for words, as he usually ends up after contacting engineering. “Right.”

“Those ships are coming up fast sir,” Karen reports after a few minutes, waking Richard from his thoughts, “weapons range in thirty seconds.”

“Go to map view on the screen; show positions of us, the incoming ships and the asteroid belt.” He orders. The Main viewer at the front of the bridge shifts from showing the asteroid belt growing ahead of them to a dark grey grid over the system, zooming in on a section just beyond the fourth planet. A number of lighter shapes show the locations of asteroids in the field, a blue dot for the Chimera; and red dots coming in at an angle for the three Gou’uld vessels.

“Overlay weapon ranges.”

Red and blue circles shade in on the display, the outer rim of the light red area inching closer to the blue shape of the Chimera’s hull with every second. But Richard just frowns at it.

“Sir?”

“Now add tractor beams please.” Richard carries on after a short pause. A large purple field spreads over most of the screen centred on the Chimera. Inside it sits the cluster of three red dots.

“Much better.” Richard smiles. “Lock target, asteroid at bearing five mark one three.”

“Target locked.” Karen replies, quickly catching up with the change of focus. “Coming inside long range.”

“If that thing was near a planet we’d call it a moon,” cuts in the science officer, “I know these new tractors can shift just about anything, but that is pushing it.”

“The emitters can handle it.”

“It’s not the emitters I’m worried about,” Karen says, “It’s the hull.”

“We’ll have to live with it, if the ship flies apart we won’t be any more dead than if they catch us. Divert secondary power to the forward emitters and engage.”

A pencil thin beam of gravitons shoots out of the Chimera’s bow emitter, spearing across the space between her and the large lump of rock just inside the asteroid belt, after a fraction of a second the beam fluoresces with a sparkling blue light and grows in thickness. The energy being passed through the emitter’s capacious circuits being turned into a beam of pure pulling power. The chimera leaps forwards rocketing towards the comparative safety of the rock-strewn field.

While the asteroid is much bigger than the Chimera, it is not immovable. Within a few seconds the prodigious lump of silicate is moving out of the asteroid field at a substantial velocity.

“Set two torpedoes for delayed impact detonation and prepare to deploy.”

“Got you.” Karen says, her hands flying over the console. “Two torps; armed, set and ready. Tubes one and three.”

“Scans showing a fissure in the rock; linear grid angle seven three centre on point one eight mark nine five.” Says the science officer as he catches on to what Richard is trying to do.

“Can you target those co-ordinates Karen?” he asks.

“Should be able to sir… Yes. The torpedo would be on automatic for the last second or two but it ought to work.”

“Ready tube two for low yield, deep penetration; prepare to disengage tractor beam on my mark.”

The asteroid on the front screen grows rapidly, filling the entire wall with its dusty grey mass.

“Hard to port.” Richard orders, “Fire tube two; set tubes one and three for a reverse angle trajectory and prepare to fire.”

The inertial dampeners on the bridge struggle to cope with the sudden banking, with the engines pushing the craft one way and the tractor beam insistently hauling it in another the whole vessel trembles under the strain. Amidst all the commotion the slight jolt of a torpedo launch goes unnoticed. Its impact however is less so; the torpedo smashes into the rocky surface, boring down several metres before exploding. The asteroid splits in two, one half continuing along its current path, while the other swings violently towards the Chimera as the tractor beam continues to exert its utmost effort on the still considerable mass.

“Hard to starboard!” Richard shouts over the increasing tremors. “Cut tractor beam in three, two, one, Mark!”

The bridge seems to suddenly lurch several feet to the left as the sideways acceleration cuts out moments before the inertial dampening catches up. As he clambers back into his seat Richard closes his eyes to the alarms going off around him and counts under his breath.

“…Ten, eleven, twelve. Fire!” he calls into the audio cacophony.

“Torpedoes away!” Karen shouts back.

“Switch tractor beams to repulsor mode and direct a wide beam at the two asteroid fragments.”

“Already on it, engaging now.” The ship jolts slightly as the beam ramps up to full power, doing a little fine-tuning to the fragments’ courses as they accelerate further. Then the beams cut off, allowing the gigatons of rock to soar out towards the rapidly incoming super-motherships. “Ships closing on the asteroids rapidly, if they don’t adjust course soon they’ll crash right into them.”

“Give them a few more seconds tactical.”

“They’re beginning to turn.”

“Hit them.”

“With pleasure sir.”

Deep inside the two asteroid fragments two high yield concussive quantum torpedoes detonate one after the other. The pressure waves flow out through the solid rock, cracks spreading through the substructure breaking huge rifts in the surface as the asteroids break apart. The pieces fly out from the detonations, filling space with hurtling shards of partially molten rock like a pair of enormous fragmentation rounds, just with every piece the size of a small ship.

While the sheer size of the Gou’uld super-motherships makes them decidedly unwieldy when it comes to manoeuvring their controllers had been given plenty of warning about the large masses being directed towards them and were well aware of their vessels’ limitations. Even so they had understandably not factored in the possibility of said masses suddenly spreading out over a much larger area. With engines running well into the red in the attempt to escape this cloud of rock heading towards them the ships pulled away, but slowly, much too slowly.

The three ships ploughed helplessly into the maelstrom of cooling silicate; shields fluoresce with a multitude of impacts as the boulders crash into them sending vast ripples out over the protective skin of force. While the vessels had more than enough shielding to withstand even the most prolonged conventional attack from their much smaller prey, even they had not been designed to play chicken with their own personal asteroid field.

Under such a heavy load the powerful bubbles collapse in short order leaving only the vessels’ thick hulls to protect their contents. Yet when it comes to halting a megaton of solid rock at the relative velocities involved the substantial armour proves little better than tin foil. Within moments the hulls are perforated beyond any hope of repair, leaking atmosphere like a sieve. Finally the inevitable occurs, a fragment of rock scarcely bigger than a fighter slips in through a hole from one of the many previous impacts and crashes headlong into one ship’s main reactor. With no shields, and little in the way of integrity, to protect them from the ensuing explosion the other two follow suit in short succession as their systems go critical.

“My god…” Richard gasps as the threefold explosion filling the viewer subsides, leaving behind a rapidly expanding cloud of little more than ions.

“Well that worked.” Beamed the science officer, “Just do that a few more times and we’ll be home free.”

“Except we can’t do that a few more times.” Karen points out. “The entire framework around the forward tractor mounting is buckled, there are hull breaches on decks twelve through fifteen. Several of the power conduits through that area have fractured; the safeties automatically cut off plasma flow to the affected grid but we’ve lost power to the entire lower turret network.” She turns to another screen quickly and continues rattling off details. “Damage control teams are patching the hull leaks and say they’ll get onto the power systems as soon as they’re done; but there’s nothing we can do about the structural damage without a spacedock.”

“I’ll add one to my Christmas list.” Richard mutters as his ship moves into the relative safety of the asteroid belt.
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Unread 8 Mar 2004, 17:18   #195
Heiro
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

As the lull comes over the crew, Heiro stands up and walks swiftly off the bridge. Pandora sighs, before dissipating to follow. A smile comes over the helm officer Jemma Helix as the ship safely exits to trans-warp, dropping nicely in behind the other two ships with slipstream drives. All in all, the medical supply ship under independent ‘captain’ Heiden Ro, a mysterious figure from the nebula’s premier alehouse. Sighing, he looks across the room at the mess of broken consoles, including that of the tactical, sensory, and navigation officer, scattered amongst the corpses. Standing up and brushing the tattered second helm console from her uniform, she steps politely over the corpse of her companion and superior; Jason Lestrat. Looking at his burnt face, she lets a tear run down her face, onto her uniform, before she can catch it.
“Ensign, you forgot the dry ice.” she says with a sob, before removing her jacket and laying it over her friend.

*

Heiro hits the lift buttons with a hard clenched fist begging it to hurry toward deck level 2. All signs of happiness have left his face now as he steps around the lift, agitatedly, avoiding eye contact with anything but the console. Walking into something solid, Ro panics and looks up with a quick but annoyed; Sorry. Staring down at him, Pandora apathetically stares, until Ro begins to notice the blackness in her eyes, the regrets and the blood on her hands, and at least, the tears on her cheeks. Taking her hands, Ro smiles at her, apologetically, trying to say sorry for other things, everything, and nothing. Slowly debating what to do next, Ro begins to doubt his position, and himself.
“What have I done Pandora?” Rhetoric but valid in his eyes.
“Pardon me for saying Hei, but you were great back there” The words come through a flood of tears, slow weeping seemingly beyond the AI core capacity.
“Great does not mean what I read on my side monitor.”
“Great and lucky isn’t the same thing, is it.”
“Don’t be stupid, it’s not within your IQ bracket to be stupid.”
“Oh Ro. I know what you feel. I feel it to. I was too arrogant.”
“Nonsense, they need to learn, from two people. Us.”
“True. It’s not enough.”
Heiros temper flares, unexpectedly.
“You’re DAMN right it’s not enough!”
Sobbing, Heiro starts to recoil from her, toward the side of the lift. Wishing for something else, he just wimpers to himself.
“I was only a commander in the mecha infantry. I was only in command once.”
“Ro. Stand up. Now.”
Heiro looks blankly up at Pandora. Staggered at her outburst, he straightens himself out and looks into her eyes, full of a new resolve. Pulling himself to his feet, he cracks a half hearted smile under her penetrating stare. Unprepared, she grabs his arms and embraces him in a hug. She strokes his hair slowly, as he begins to sob again. Muffled by her breast, he trys to talk, unrelenting, she continues to hug him.
“But 40 people.”
“I know. Trust me. But they need you’re strength. You were natural out there…”
“It felt good. This doesn’t. I don’t know what to do.”
“Trust in me?”
“Ok. Ill try, just guide me, ok?”
“Yes. Whatever you say captain.”
The turbolift doors hiss open. 20 people stand, looking into the lift at the scene with the AI and the captain. Straightening themselves out swiftly, Pandora goes red, and Ro, leading the way takes red to a new level, almost breaking into infrared spectrum for his facial colourings. Stepping through the doors, Ro remarks his crew for their steadfast nerves in battle, comforting each one as best he can. After little over 20 minutes, he makes it to the cargo decks, converted to a morgue and hospital for the wounded. Entering his personal unlock code, Ro steps through the small metal door into the vast expanse of the locked cargo. 36 large metal suits, empty, unused since before the nebula had been protected by the fleet. Walking up the white crouched suit with large titanium wings and a wreath on the crown of its forehead, Ro runs his hands along the metal, cold to the touch, and vivid with memories of the past, overlaid with a latticework of thoughts for the future. Sighing, he whispers to Pandora standing some feet away from him.
“Deal with things for a while, ok”
“Yes Ro.”
“Ill be here if you need me.”

[Some minutes later]

Jemma stares into space, out of the view window. FTL is pretty she thinks to herself. Very pretty. Drifting from her point of steady focus, she begins to slip into sleep. Considering her other options, she swiftly downs her drink, almost instantly snapping back awake. Still, she doesn’t hear Pandora slip in the door, and walk over the room toward her.
“You alright?”
Jemma jumps. Shivering from the cold, she forces a smile from her hurt face. Sighing, she turns around and looks at the hologrammatic woman, also with apparent tear soaked eyes standing in front of her. Nodding, he sips the first mouthful of her new cup of coffee.
“Well.”
“Under the circumstances” she adds.
Without warning, the speakers crackle on. The old PA system breaks into life catching most of the crew unawares. A booming authoritative Ro speaks calmly, although not crisply over the crackling system.
“I have come to the decision.”
A slight pause of hesitation fills the captain’s voice.
“…The decision to order you into clothes of your choice. Also, I require anyone with abilities in a Mechanical LEV to report to cargo bay one alpha immediately. Good job people.”
The cracking fades and Jemma slowly stands and makes her way out of the door.
“Whatever you’ve got Ro, make it good.”

[Around 6 hours from end of warp flight]
“Alright people. I’ve got the 35 pilots with the most flight time in any kind of LEV transport or otherwise selected, the rest may leave”
Five others walk from the room, wishing the rest good luck and godspeed when the shit hits the fan. Waiting until the door slowly shuts, Ro smiles, gently at first, then into a full grin.
“This might be the most insane plan I’ve ever thought up. So listen closely…”

[5 hours to end of warp flight]
Leading the men (and women) into the briefing room, Ro shuts the door, locking it with his command codes, before continuing to his seat. Pandora materialises behind him, and pats him on the head.
“Pandora, dear. Can you mask this room from communications? I don’t want to be disturbed.”
“Yes, I certainly can.”
“…”
“Done”
“Help yourselves to a drink people; we’re officially off duty for the next few hours…”

[4 hours until end of warp flight]
Long since the other ships with faster FTL systems passed out of sensor range, Ro and Pandora, along with the other 35 pilots sit in the briefing room come ships bar, sipping tequila and an assortment of other high volume drinks. Ro looks at them, one by one, realising the chances of success on reaching the solar system is minimal. Pandora, sensing his doubt almost, walks over and puts her arm around him, half hugging him and half comforting him. Sighing again, he turns around and looks out into the great and vast arena of space. Downing the rest of his glass, Ro unhooks himself from Pandora, before sitting at the head of the briefing table. Within half a minute, he dismisses the crew.
“And remember, normal duties until I deem it necessary to use our last countermeasure.”
As one, all 35 echo;
“Aye, Ro.”

*

Jemma walks swiftly from the briefing room, feeling a little flushed with the excitement of being allowed to drink whilst on ‘duty’. The smile on her face as Pandora had hugged the captain was rather large, and only just beginning to wear off now. Trying to focus on the task at hand, she wanders back to her quarters to lose her uniform, and get into her clothes for her funeral. How this doesn’t blind her, she doesn’t know, but the feeling of well-being and comforting melancholy settling over her begins to disturb what sanity she has left. Apon reaching her room, she climbs onto the bed, and removes her uniform before promptly falling asleep, rather drunk but mildly unaware of the danger about to face the crew, and her.

*

Once the crew had left, Ro and Pandora filtered swiftly out after them, leaving the room in a state of darkness. Within moments of coming from the shielded room, Ro’s comm. Began to buzz with activity, the bridge and the cargo bay. Answering the cargo bay first, if only because the ensign in command really rather aggravated him beyond all belief.
“Yes? Report?”
“We have 36 functioning suits sir. We managed to cobble together some systems from the engineering sections power relays, and re-routed the large correlation of wires from each suit into a newer, more efficient cell. They will last up to 6 hours in combat flight, and 24 in standard ground to ground or air combat.”
“What an improvement. Good job”
“We have also rerouted the Machine rifles these relics were using. Consider yourselves upgraded in that department also. You’ll like the way you fire now, trust me. Given that we have around 3 hours until we reach the terran systems, Ill set about overhauling the movement capabilities on these suits too. Ok?”
“Oh, of course. We need to be able to work out there, so don’t put anything in that’ll break before we get to see the enemy.”
“Aye. Cargo bay alpha out.”
Pandora looks at Ro’s determination. She wonders to herself, how he does it. Smiling at him, she tries to broach conversation.
“What about that comm. From the bridge?”
“Why answer, that’s where I’m going.”
“I can see the logic.”
“Yes. I can also see a very upset FX officer…”
“That’s taken for granted, when is she not.”
The lift doors swish open, and the confines of the small cylindrical box encapsulate them. Ro wanders over the control console and keys in the bridge into the pad on the wall and the lift shoots upward, far quicker than when he came down. His nerves flutter, as the lift comes to an abrupt stop with a loud ding. Pandora moves to speak, however Ro beckons her to stop. Walking through the doors, he is greeted by a roar of voices, each trying to ask questions, the loudest from the acting captain and FX officer, the gracious Ms. Stein. Bowing, before doing anything else, Ro moves swiftly off down the left hand slope, and into the door marked ‘Captain’s Ready Room’. As the door closes behind him, he sighs, and slumps back onto the spacious leather chair, weary and tired. Expecting everyone to take a hint was possibly one of the worst ideas he’d ever had, and to prove it, the door swings open once more, and Ms. Stein strides through, and slams her fist on the desk, hard.
“Well?”
“Well what?”
“What the hell are you thinking?”
“I do believe; ill take a captain’s prerogative on this one.”
“You can’t do that!”
“Yes. I can. Now kindly leave.”
“And if I refuse?”
“Ill demote you to another lower rank, now get out.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“Women! Can’t you take the hint that I want to be left alone! My head is a mess. I don’t know what I’m thinking and I couldn’t tell you even if I did!”
“That’s all sir. Ill go now…”
“Damn right.”
Silence reigns as the doors shut. Needlessly, Ro orders a double brandy and the desk draw responds quickly and efficiently with a bottle and a glass. Smiling at his preparation and allowances for such situations, he utters a loud curse as the door mechanism buzzes with pleas to open. Throwing the content of his drinking hand at the door panel, he takes consolation from the shattered glass. Swigging from the bottle, he finally gives in and gestures for the doors to open. Wishing he hadn’t a couple of seconds later, as 3 members of the crew wander in with stacks of datapad’s, and a rather bad look on there faces.
“If you’ve got questions, leave. I’m not in the mood” Ro says, whilst taking another drag from the lips of the bottle.
“No, we haven’t. We’ve got the full schematics for our upgraded unit.”
“Ah. Bring them over here, and I’m terribly sorry about the mess…”

[Moments before end of warp flight]

Ro walks back onto the bridge, shadowed by his three engineers. Grinning the likes of pre battle Ro would, he leaps the barrier, and lands into his soft captains chair. Most of the bridge staff looks at him with horrid glaring stares, and he finally cracks.
“The plan, as follows: We don’t die.”
“Oh wow. So helpful”
“You’ll likely need a side arm, which I’m glad to know most of you have.”
“Why?”
“An idea, you’ll see.”
“That’s what worries us”

[End of warp flight]
The ship shakes momentarily before crashing from trans-warp into the solar system minutes after the others. Ro stares blindly at the monitor, before removing his clenched hands from his seats armrests.
“No FTL inhibitors. Sensors?”
“Massive numbers sir. 11 motherships. 3 breaking off to intercept.”
“Pandora, lower shields to ½ power, and reduce our speed to ¾. Give us some damage, using the external holo-emitters ensign.”
“Yes sir”
“Right, when they get within weapons range, bring us up to 100% power, give us full speed. Disable their shields temporarily. Slam into them. Do you understand Pandora?”
“Yes. I do.”
“You have the bridge then”
“Ok. Take care Ro.”Her eyes look tearful, her voice sounds scared.
“I will. Believe me.” Pressing the comm. Controls down, Ro subtly orders his crew into positions. Standing up, and half-heartedly saluting the rest of the bridge, he kisses Pandora on the cheek, before storming out to prepare.
“Hold her steady” Pandora moans, as tears escape and with the neat manipulation of pixels flow readily down her cheeks.

Down in Cargo bay one alpha, 35 pilots strap into the 10ft tall armoured LEVs. Clipping their oxy-generation units into their helmets and taking up the remote arm controls, they test the thrusters and begin to sight the rifles. Each model has a slogan daubed on the side, taken from old war movies, books or general battles from 200 years previous, characterising each member of the team. Jemma stands in her suit, her rifle slung and her hand flinching on the controls for the extendable blade built into the right side of her suit. Smiling with satisfaction, she giggles as the blade shoots out to its full length of 5ft within half a second of the button being pressed. Her smile evapourates as she looks at the jury-rigged control panel adds an additional 5 buttons to her list of possible commands, for the new thrusters and weapon controls. Pausing for a second, she sees the captain walk through the door, to a hail of cheers and loud shouts. Climbing into his seat, he flashes her a smile before clipping his helmet into place and attaching his fuel line.
“Speech!” someone calls.
“Ah, I was going to avoid that formality.”
“Speech, speech!!” they all cry.
“Ok!” he pauses, before continuing, to try and wait for some form of silence.
“This isn’t going to be pretty. And I don’t expect us all to make it out alive. We know our objective, lets not fail ourselves now, especially now, when it matters the most. Many of you will have lost loved ones to these bastards, and I’m sure as hell not ready to let them get away with it. With me?”
“AYE SIR!”
“Right. Let’s rock”

The three motherships close in for the kill, beginning there triangular formation to sweep in and destroy the ship floating aimlessly in space, with fairly few defenses available to stop them. Their scans show no weapons. Pandora on the other hand, has a few surprises up her sleeves.
“Now, raise shields, full power to engines.”
Her three-dimensional flow chart of real time battle focuses in on them, and the three ships. She indicates the one to the upper left of them.
“Full speed, slam into his shields. Then engage the tractor-beam on my command to force the emitters to fail.”
“Yes ma’am.”
Pandora’s box fluctuates in space for a second, as a shimmering white ovoid shape encapsulates the ship, engulfing it. Once this surprising turn of events finishes, the gravimetric drive powers itself to full, glowing wholly white behind them as it forces the ship to flutter like a butterfly on the currents over the sea. At the point of rest, the rear of the ship ripples as it forces the mass forward, and it closes on the first mothership with startling speed. Before they can react, Pandora’s box slams hard into their golden shields, and the white glow begins to mix with it in a storm of lightening and arching fire in the massive vacuum around them.
“Now!”
The box’s tractor beam flairs to life, sucking onto the hull of the first mothership, dragging it closer to the hull. As the white light builds to a blinding level, crushing the golden field with its sheer strength and power. Suddenly, the gold gives out, and Pandora’s box heads straight down to grasp its hull. In the distance, the other two motherships begin to charge their plasma cannons, focusing intently on the smaller ship disabling one of their comrades.
“Raise shields, around us and the mothership. Keep it alive.”
“Err. Yes ma’am?”
“Do it!”
The white flutters away, and as quickly as it left, it reappears, encircling the first mothership. 112-plasma cannon shots power into the shields, shaking them visibly, but doing nothing more. The underbelly of Pandora’s box opens, as the final stage of the great ‘plan’ comes into fruitition.

The floor beneath them folds away and all 36 descend swiftly into the spacial freefall of around 2 kilometres before they reach their target, or at least the first checkpoint; the hull of the mothership. Firing his boosters, Ro; mounted in his large white mech folds his body into a slipstream, and joyously grins as the mech follows suit. Jemma and her squadron designated Eagle one, after an old earth bird with immense prowess and speed, immediately change their stances accordingly. There helmet radio’s crackle online, and Ro’s voice streams through.
“We’re closing on the hull. Give it… 20 seconds. Apon landing, Eagle one follow me, and Eagle two, make your way to entry point beta, located on the second side of the hull. Ok?”
The voice crackles out, and Jemma flicks her retro’s into full reverse, kicking up a roar of white flameburst to slow her descent. He notices however, that Heiro does not. Grabbing her comm., she beckons him to pull up
“Ro. Pull up dammit!”
“Steady girl, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.” He replies in a horribly arrogant American accent. Glowing red, Jemma watches the futility of her warning. Flipping his suit onto its back, Ro fires his thrusters on full propulsion, scorching into the hull, and propelling himself at high thrust toward the expansive fighter bay half way down. Jemma sighs as her Mech lands on the hull and Ro’s skims gracefully along the surface, distancing himself from them with ease.
“Ill scout ahead, join me when you can Eagle one.”
“Aye”
A sense of freedom overcomes his trapped senses as the adrenaline of the near-miss stunt kicks in, and he unfortunately is forced to bring himself to a complete stop above the fighter bay. He can hear the loading gear manoeuvring a squadron of fighters, and their technicians readying for launch. Gesturing for the squad of 17 to join him, he passes on the information from beyond the doors below.
“We need to get in there now, and access the main computer. Think you can handle it? I need 4 volunteers”
Jemma, along with 3 others swiftly speak out.
“Good. Load your rifles, and don’t miss the fighters. The rest of you, hit the deck with as many rounds as possible, and let’s get a foothold and do what we’ve come to do.”
“Aye”
The white angelic suit, accompanied by 4 black suited bodyguards, drop down the 20ft into the hanger entrance way, loading their rifles and activating their swords as they fall. Activating the thrusters, they each pick a target from the front rank of fighters clamped from the sealing. Firing in unison, their shots tear into the metal nose area of the fighters, and seconds later, 5 ripple into explosion, signalling the decent of the other 12 warriors. Ro pulls the trigger a second time, holding it in for a burst and carrying the rifle in a small movement to his left, catching three fighters as they unclamp and try to attack the threat. On the ‘ground’ some 50ft below, a small army of Gou’uld bring staff weapons to bear on the 5, and pulses thud into the ceiling above them. In the short bursts that follow, Jemma and Ro pick yet more targets, shooting out the clamps on at least 6 fighters before there engines can be prepped for launch. Ro takes a second to watch the fighter plummet toward the deck, slamming down with a small explosion. Seeing his backup unit descend like angels of death, their anti fighter machine rifles firing off hundreds of rounds as their thrusters carry them into the mass of warriors below, Ro smirks. Finishing off the last of the fighters for no loss, he, Jemma and the other 3 drop down to join them. Surprisingly, staff shots still pummel their position, and literally as the descent starts, three shots slam into the warrior left of Jemma, tossing his suit needlessly apart and down, swiftly into the deck. This pressure relieves however as the 12 smash down into the dwindling numbers of Gou’uld, bringing their swords to bear in unique and vitally damaging ways, taking out perhaps two or three men per slash, whilst their ambidexterity with a rifle allows them to continuing covering the comrades. Directing the 4 from the first attack down into the rear of the Gou’uld, they swiftly remove the threats remaining, and Ro orders a count of his men.
“How many down?”
“We make 3 sir, including the one in the air”
“Ill memorise their names later. They must be remembered.”
“Yes…” the voice trails off.

The launch bay corridors swing into full view as the doors from the joining sections open to reveal a large number of staff armed Gou’uld. Ro steadies his men, some looking rather un-nerved at the sheer numbers on the ship. Loading his second rifle, Ro swings it out and hands it to Jemma. Receiving it, she holds it close, just like her first rifle. Suddenly, a loud voice booms out, over the 14 remaining men.
“Drop your weapons and submit to becoming hosts. You may prove… useful.”
Incensed, Ro switches his communicator to loud speaker, and shouts back:
“Rot in hell you worm-brained bastard.”
Levelling his rifle at the commander, Heiro proceeds to blow apart the 4 Gou’uld standing mere feet from him, before handing his main weapon to another soldier. Activating his booster, Ro has time to hear Jemma screaming no before his suit leaps off to attack the masses alone. Waves of staff fire slam into the deck around the remaining 13, and they move into cover of the drop ships stored in the hanger. One mech explodes, in a vast shower of flame as the fuel tank takes a hit from a staff weapon. Cursing, Jemma levels her rifles, and opens fire. Following suit, the whole deck erupts into a fire fight of epic proportions.

*

Pandora brings the visual display into place, zooming to the desired level to show the fighting in the cargo bay.
“Dear god” The science officer mutters.
“Is that the captain?” Stein adds.
Pandora scans the display for a second, before yet more tears well in her eyes.
“Yes” She says sadly.
“Yes. It is.”

*

From the first wave, three Gou’uld from the upper left corridor manage to survive the reign of fire slamming hard into the mass of bodies. The count looking to be 20 now, Jemma locks her weapons into place, and as the beep goes off announcing her readiness to fire, she holds back, letting them get into what would be called; Close range.
For Rohan. He didn’t deserve that death on the bridge
Two single bullets ring out over the fire, the first smashing the legs from the running Gou’uld, and as he begins to fall, the second takes the other in the chest, removing what would be described as his entire torso in a stream of bloody pain. The first lands hard on the deck and a scream of pain breaks from his lips, as Jemma’s third shot blows his head into thousands of pieces. The third Gou’uld however, levels his staff at her, the plasma skimming the side of the black metal suit, thanks to her nimble legs. Leaping forward, he cleaves him in half using her Arm-blade. Her suit sensors bring up Ro, flying full tilt.

*
Bracing himself, Ro rolls left, banking the side of his white angel into the metal deck. Sparks fly and so does Ro, but thankfully the shots aimed at his previous position miss. His hands swiftly flick him into the air, the shoulder of his suit catching the head of a Gou’uld warrior, breaking it clean off. With agility unknown, Ro raises his right arm, cutting the first shooter in half. The blood from his blade mixes swiftly with the two next to him, and both his left and right blades take sections from their legs and head. Without ceasing the movement, Ro subtly allows his hands to fly over the controls, propelling him forward into 4 more men, his blades twirling in arches of sunlight reflected steel through each of them. Spotting his target, Ro guns his thrusters, setting two Gou’uld rear ‘chargers’ on fire, before rushing off into combat once more.

*

Jemma orders her unit into close proximity, as the waves of warriors surround them, shots slamming amongst their thin ranks. Jemma fires the last of her rounds, flicking out the blade once again to catch a slow warrior before he can react, disembowelling him. Her radio splutters to life, and Gold one’s commander, Jefferson from catering, barks;
“Mission accomplished, need a hand?”
Jemma swiftly responds
“That we do, get here double time, we’re out numbered and out of ammo.”
“Yes Ma’am”
“Jemma”
“Yes Jemma, we’re on our way”
The 8 remaining suits stagger backward, fending off enemy after enemy for minutes, until suddenly to there right, The Golden mech of Jefferson smashes through the 20 Gou’uld rear-guard. His gun blazes, and the black suits of the second unit pour in, their guns locking on and cutting a bloody swathe through the midst of the troops. Using this to her advantage, Jemma yells ‘charge’, and pitches a crate over as she activates her thrusters, and leads her 7 into the midst of the remaining men. Within moments, all the fighting lulls to a close, and all eyes turn to Ro.

*

Flicking his blade, Ro decapitates the last Gou’uld bodyguard of the leading warrior. Unsurprised, the warrior shoots into the side of his white angel, and staggering backward Ro hits the speaker.
“How about I get out, and let’s do it properly.”
“You’d risk your life, you human worm?”
“You’re dead either way, and I’m an honourable man…”
The warrior lowers his weapon. Ro responds by lowering his suit to its knees, and stepping forward, with one swift agile movement he allows his suit to run the commander through. Using his second blade, he easily rips the Gou’uld’s head from his body, before pitching it into the pile behind him.
“Not that honourable, you bastard”
His comm. buzzes open.
“Ro, the bomb is set, and Pandora is hacking the computer now. You’ve got 5 minutes I’d say. We’re pulling back now”
“Aye, thank you my blade brothers.” over the open comm.
“I’m pulling out; ill see you back on board”
“Aye Ro. Good luck”

*

“They’re back, 25 of them at least.”
“Ro?”
“Alive”
“Thank god.”
Pandora smiles for the first time. Half her runtime replies to her queries, and to her surprise, the core navicomp aboard the Mothership cracked like a glass bottle overused in a pub bar brawl. S******ing, she initiates the firing sequences.

The shields around the mothership drop, and re-materialise around Pandora’s Box. The cannons on the hull of the ship begin to charge, First glowing a guttural yellow, before building into a bright red, before reaching a final, glowing gold stage. 56 Guns ripple shots of plasma into space, easily collapsing the shields of the second mothership, before crushing its hull into many pieces. One shot connects with the main reactor intake, and the mothership rips itself apart , its Sub light drive core exploding in a plume of raging flames. The hacked mothership then powers its engines, and fires in the direction of the third. The third begins to charge weapons, but to no avail, as the First mothership slams into its shields, compressing them to levels of stress previously untested. Collapsing, the shields disappear, and in their wake comes a gargantuan mothership, crushing into the hull of the third with ease, both exploding into a swirl of mixed flames before a shockwave ripples into space. Pandora activates one last surprise. A large collection of dust spreads into space from the top of the ship, and as it reaches a considerable distance, a pair of large, holo-grammatic angels wings spread from the top of the ship, beating as its gravimetric drive throws them to the safety of the asteroid belt.

[ooc]Sorry, if the tags are broken and all. Its a long post and im sure i missed some.[/ooc]
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Unread 9 Mar 2004, 01:53   #196
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

*Wo2 waited for the pain killers to kick in and then retook command, while still on the floor.*

Wo2: "Oh there going to pay for that, tell Capt. Planetkiller were sorry for the delay and of course we'll do our thing. Helm, Engines on full and set course to the Cargo vessels."

Comm: "Message sent"

Helm: "We're on the move sir *snicker*"

Wo2: "Oh shut up... WO you may fire at will."

Helm: "Yes sir"

*The Earth's Song's engines flared to life and the ship sped forward and set a path that would send it right through the center of the 12 attacking coral skippers. The ship fit tightly through the center of the formation, scrapping the shields of 3 of the ships. Once on the other side, the WO took the time to turn the guns around and gave 1 of the Coral skippers a round in the "Nether regions". The guns unleashed their fury on the ship and the combined energy slammed into the shields, the small ship was engulfed in a blaze of light and before the blaze died down Wo2's ship was already long gone.*

Wo2: "Poetic Justice... lovely... Nice job."

WO: "Thank you sir."

Wo2: "Ok were through that, target the nearest Coral devastator and fire the Mass driver and all other weapons, then switch course to the next closest."

*The officers nodded to the next batch of orders and the ship kept on its course towards the nearest Coral Devastator. It held that course and the Devastator opened up on the Earth's Song, but the ship kept coming. It then fired its entire bank of weapons and the mass driver projectile, banked hard towards the next target. The Coral Devastator’s sensors saw the shots coming to it and the doomed ship tried to turn out of the way, but it was far to late. The shots slammed into the shields and ripped a hole in it. Those shots were quickly followed by the Mass driver shot. The little shot then collided with the front section of the Coral Devastator and turned it into a massive fireball. The glow could be seen for quiet a distance But when it cleared, the ship still remained, crippled but living.*

Wo2: "Damn, Helm bring us about, were gonna take this beast down. Keep us moving at full speed. WO I hope your ready."

WO: "Yes sir."

*The Earth's Song did a 180 flip and fired its engines again, even with inertia dampers, the jolt could be felt. The small ship came in fast and tight around the Coral devastators port side, laying down fire with the turrets that could hit. Small fires erupted from the hull of the enemy vessel before the weapons on the Devastator came to life. The first round slammed hard in the shields of Wo2's ship. Those were quickly followed by another few shots but then the Helmsman got his bearings back and began to swerve the ship around, until they reached the front of the ship. At this point the Helmsmen fired the Starboard thrusters hard, causing the Earth's Song to pivot sharply and face the enemy ship head on. The WO took this opportunity to bring all the Earth's Song's weapons online. The Turrets spun forward and began to fire on the bow of the Devastator while the Earth's Song raced towards the ship at full speed. The Turrets were quickly joined with Omega torpedoes and the front of the Devastator was ripped to shreds.*

Wo2: "Bring us behind it and take out the engines. Shields?"

WO: "Down to 79% sir"

Wo2: "We need to finish this quickly or we won't be in shape for taking down a second one."

*At this point the twelve remaining Coral Skippers had picked up what was going on and were on full boar to where the Earth's Song was causing its havoc. Wo2 saw them coming and that merely made him add another layer of urgency to his orders. The Earth's Song rocketed to the rear and did a twist to bring the top of it to face the engines of the Coral Devastator. Two Omega Torpedoes were fired from the launcher and they speed towards the massive engines on the ship, they detonated and wrecked a large percentage of the drive system. To finish the job the WO brought the turrets to bear and systematically target the remaining engines one at a time. Soon the Devastator was rendered immobile.*

Wo2: "Leave it like this. Let them sweat for a bit. Set course to the Nearest Cargo ship and engage. Well be back to finish this Devastator later.

Helm: "Course set."

No1: "What about those coral skippers."

Wo2: "Well get them when their here. If were close enough to the Cargo ship, we may be able to use their weapons to our advantage.
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Unread 10 Mar 2004, 03:49   #197
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

DM'ing SHOULD occur this weekend.

However, one of my courses will most likely kick my royal ass. Thus DM's may occur more randomly. At worst, 1 DM per every 2 weeks..
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Unread 10 Mar 2004, 04:07   #198
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

Considering the amount of time it takes certain people to post * glances in Inspectre's direction * I'm not so sure 2 weeks isn't appropriate.
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Unread 10 Mar 2004, 11:05   #199
Heiro
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

And reading time, don't forget reading time...
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Unread 10 Mar 2004, 21:49   #200
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Re: Onslaught: Tides of Revenge

Ah yes that took me almost all day to read *elbows Inspectre in the ribs* (Im a slow reader) In fact, i didnt even finish it, i havent read the last 1/4 of it.
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