Onslaught – Chapter 1: The Flight of Angels

[Heiro]

Originally Posted by flapjack

You posted and it was clear what you were going to shoot.

That and when I calced without you shooting everyone was even more dead then with you shooting.

Going to shoot and actually shooting is totally different.
If you hold a gun to someone head and are going to shoot, and blowing their brains out are completely different.

You shouldn't of overstatted the enemies then you silly sod. Take into acount peoples actual actions from now on.

Love and kisses fluffie.

[flapjack]

Originally Posted by Heiro

Going to shoot and actually shooting is totally different.
If you hold a gun to someone head and are going to shoot, and blowing their brains out are completely different.

You shouldn't of overstatted the enemies then you silly sod. Take into acount peoples actual actions from now on.

Love and kisses fluffie.

I didn't do the enemy ship stats, that was Bakan.

And we both realised they were slightly stronger then they should have been, which is why they're a hell of a lot weaker now, not so much in armor, but in firepower

[Heiro]

Now.
Sorry about that little divergence. I shall post in a while.

[Fluffie]

Originally Posted by Heiro

Love and kisses fluffie.

The same to you

[Heiro]

Originally Posted by Fluffie

The same to you

[ooc]I knew you still loved me!

Klavohunter. When people agree to me commanding their fighters, which I doubt, I will more than welcome their use. Until then… [ooc]

Ro looks blankly at the monitor. Such wanton destruction. Slowly, his mind snaps back into the firm grip of his body, and his eyes slip closed. The leather on the armrests of his seat flinches back as he grips into it. Within a moment, he looks at his comm. Officer. With a blur of hand movements, a channel opens.
“Captain Gokan. Pull in close, if you need it. Otherwise, watch for the shower of cover fire to your left. We plan to strike for a capital ship as soon as the fighters have been thinned some.”
Nodding again to his comm. Officer, he waits for the channel to flick frequencies.
“Captain Sharpe. Our turrets are covering you momentarily. I have dispatched our fighters to defend your hull. They’re lead by a ship with Red armour.”
The comm. Officer closes the channel, and Ro looks around the cabin, to see the hologram Pandora shimmer into view. Wearing a tight black fleet officer’s uniform, she wanders alluringly toward the science officers, adjusting some of the stations on her way. Finally, she settles into the chair next to Ro’s. Shaking his head, he returns to his duty.
“Helm, bring us about. I want us to cover the first angel with our shields.”

Her hull shook, as the mass of small needle picks slammed again and again into her shields. Weapons fire ranged from 12 points on the hull, fighters left and right being shot to pieces by the accurate and deadly .512 shells from the toy box’s hull mounted cannons. Blue ripples slide across the shield as the engines roar into life, so to speak, and the toy box rockets, with remarkable ease, toward the first angel. A squadron of deathgliders pass through the shields, as expected, only to become small impact craters on the massive hull of the box. The range drops steadily, as the angel drops into the viewer.

Fee slides to the right, her chair rolling backward as she does so, to click another fighter into her sights. Her technicians laugh as she pulls the trigger.
“52”
Her radio clicks on as the space around their ship empties, seeming horribly blank and eerily quiet.
“Damn you fee! We only made 8 that round.”
“Of course, we own your ass.” The sarcasm rings in her voice with the greatest measure of respect
“Yeah. Just wait til next round. Infact… Here she comes.”
The radio clicks off. The ships pass through the shields and the turret out of sight, though she knows to be reds, locks onto the lead fighter, and she smiles as his first slug pulverizes the pilot and ship in a single shot. Pulling the trigger, she joins the fray…

Baron pushes his foot down, and slides his stick back hard between his legs. The fighter beneath him responds with unnatural prowess. The computer behind him, Lucky red, as it has been affectionately dubbed, fires his engines to full, and he begins to feel the G’s behind his eyes. His gravity cushioned seat responds in turn, forcing him full forward, and allowing him to disengage with unnerving ease. A silent explosion flashes his viewer. One eye covered by a small screen, showing him his rear and readouts, the other uncovered, allowing him to fly with ease in this old out of date fighter, rebuilt himself, to protect his family. His family… The crew is his family now… Fee… The radio crackles. Then his viewer updates. All at once, Lucky red, loads the co-ordinates, waiting for the signal to jump.
“Bank left lads. We’ve got a new task. The nest is protected; it seems, by our gun crews. We’re to aid some less fortunate. Bombers, Drop back and keep fighting along side the toy box.”
“Aye Baron”
“Fighters, with me”
The ion drives pinned behind him power on, and along side him, in diamond formation, three military class fighters keep pace. Flying by the Pandora’s box, Baron salutes, and pulls her away. Lucky red does the rest. Feeling the kick of the engines hitting full, again, he leans back and relaxes. Taking off the compensators, he toggles their control to his sticks, and turns them back on, for the time being. Dropping back to real time, around a minute later, he looks at the situation. A Captain Richard Sharpe, eh…
“Fleet ship Vengeance, this is Lucky Red, your rearguard has arrived. Head for angel one. I believe we’re goin’ to attempt to punch our way through…”
His viewer flicks up a magnified view of the situation about to engulf the 4 fighters. Opening a comm. He waits for a brief response from his other pilots, before explaining the plan.
“We’re going for something simple. Shoot the bastards.”
“Aye.”
“Now. Let’s plough the road!”
“With pleasure!”
The vengeance, from the viewscreen, is being picked apart by deathgliders, however it seems to easily be covering it’s own against the heavier vessels. The gliders circle again for a second pass, pounding relatively small arms into its hull once more. Banking hard to the left, Baron flicks off the safety control, and begins to do what he does best. Pilot a crop duster. Firing his ion drives, he watches as the first wave of gliders eat his raw speed. Passing over the next formation, he releases his lower cargo, a collection of asteroid dust, watching it spray over the hapless fighters, tearing into their front cockpit windows, shattering them and spreading their blood into space. Pressing forward, he watches as his wingmen pick of the other 4 ships. Pulling hard up, he disengages, and roars after the next batch of fighters, his front .128 cannons firing burst after burst of controlled fire…

Ro leans back into his seat, as the first angel comes into view. The comm. Opens once more:
“Angel 1 slow your speed, and shelter within our shields. Heavy fire isn’t what you should be taking, all things considered.”
God look at me. I’m playing mother to the Human Race.
“Guncrews, you may now commense removing fighters from our friends, Captains Sharpe and Gokan. They need it more than us, though our engineer will tell us otherwise…”

[KlavoHunter]

OOC: Heiro, I was assigning them to you without permission, because, frankly, those fighters aren't going to do very much if used piecemeal. I figured we could hand the rest over to you and let the only person who was really interested in using fighters use them, seeing as you're not doing much, other than spraying down the enemy fighters by the dozens.

IC:

September 25th, 2391 – 0800 hours
Coalition Starship Archipelago, CRS-688

"Oh, shit." someone cursed after the enemy Merciless exploded from a direct MAC slug, as a pair of Gunships and some fighters slipped past the Dragoon's guns. A wash of plasma fire sheeted across Archipelago's bow, tearing apart newly-installed armor, making the ship shake and shudder in the throes of firepower, being tossed about like a rag doll. Fortunately, the ship was sturdy, the armor stiffened against the superheated assault. A last-second maneuver by Cordelia at helm turned the barrage off of the ship's nose, spreading the damage out more, instead of the possibility of a more devastating strike that might even damage the well-shielded MAC.

James held onto the arms of his chair with a white-knuckled grip as Archipelago screamed in protest as minor damages piled up in all too short of a time. Luckily, the Swarm's weapons were made up of numerous, smaller cannons, rather than the heavy-bore cannons, like the one that had blown such a chunk out of the ship's side in her last battle, making an attack run on an enemy Painless.

"Guns, reload the MAC, and make it fast." James ordered, as the corvette straightened its steeply-curved path through space, pulling in near the bulkier tender Dragoon, inviting the enemy Gunships into the powerful cone of fire the Escort Tender could put out. She'd shattered two of the four Hellraisers that had bored in after Archipelago at first, and if there was to be a repeat performance, he'd welcome it. The tender Deathdealer was opening up with her first salvos of the battle a touch late, after having been struck already by the enemy's plasma.

"AI Freeze! Red Sky's freezing up!" 'Archie' shouted on Archipelago's bridge, in sheer alarm. The Red Sky at Dawn's massive kilometer-long frame, though obviously incomplete, was still formidable, but suddenly the ship froze and did nothing, being mercilessly pounded by its enemies, weapons speaking no word in reply. Her twin enhanced torpedoes stayed dull in their tubes, and the big turrets of the Fusion Missiles didn't twist to acquire targets.

AI Freezing was a generally uncommon problem, where a ship's AI was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information coming in during a battle, and ended up with the equivilant of stage fright, freezing up and doing nothing. Entirely AI-based ships had this problem if their attached memory buffers, and interface processors were insufficient, and this was rather common, so the concept of AI-only ships was given up in around the eighth year of the War, for the most part. Of course, the situation here was different...

"She's probably going into reset right now. We're going to have to cover her until we can move it into the Pandora's Box's shield bubble. Signal to Dragoon that we're moving in to take out the first Merciless that's on her. Free up the guns and Interceptor to pick the fighters off our backs while we move in." James ordered, the ship steady and out of the enemy's fire for the moment.

"Aye, autoloaders'll have the second round prepped before we hit optimum. Besides, that one's not moving so much... releasing turrets to manual, and Interceptor to automatic." Gorge replied, issuing several short orders in a low voice, and adjusting a few controls on his board.

"I doubt they even notice us, sir," Cordelia said, and her arm twitched, sending the ship at a tilt to avoid incoming plasma fire, "I'll keep them off our back, and give Gorge the time to line up the shot."

"Do it."

The #2 .512 Pulse Turret swung around 180 degrees with speed that would have astounded a twentieth-century Dreadnought, compared to the turret size, and the gunner simply grinned as he lowered his sights on the dozen-odd Swarm ships pursuing Archipelago. A green set of sights moved around by its own across the enemy ships, it being the representation of the #1 turret's targetting. He just smirked as he settled his sights on the lead Deathglider of a formation, blazing away on full thrust towards the Coalition Corvette, and promptly opened up with a storm of solid rounds before the other turret locked in on its target. There was no time to be neat about it, only time enough to lock up one target, turn it into a lead mine, and then target the next closest fighter after that.

Rounds of ammunition chugged into the barrel and were blasted towards the target in a steady rhythm, a rapid roar of twelve rounds firing, and then an infinetismal pause before the round from the #1 feed line was spewed into the barrel. Only advanced cooling systems, and the highest-quality heat-resistant materials kept the barrels from melting at such a rate of fire, and, indeed, extended use in a single battle could cause significant damage. Of course, what had happened the last time in the #1 Turret was far worse.

The prow mounted not only the MAC, but also the Interceptor Missile Launcher in the very nose. Such a placement was simply convenience, as the missiels were devilishly maneuverable, and could do a quick snap backwards without a problem. And so a fussilade of missile promptly spat out of the forward cluster, and snapped around, curving tight against Archipelago's tattered skin, until the missiles struck full on with another Deathglider.

The foundering, helpless Red Sky at Dawn was pounded without mercy by its foes, and the ship had to survive. It had the jump coordinates for the system that was Humanity's final hope... and the odds were so painfully against it, AI as frozen as it was.

Of course, a few seconds later, the MAC round that smashed into one of the two Merciless-class frigates that was assaulting it helped those odds out, as the plasma-sheathed hyperdense round tore straight through the Swarm vessel.

Orders:

- Both .512 Pulse Cannons, and the Interceptor Missile Launcher, all target the Deathgliders still attacking me.

- Fire MAC at one of the Merciless' attacking No Dachi's ship

- Shepard No Dachi's ship into Heiro's shield bubble

[Heiro]

[ooc]Doesn't mean I should just take control of them though. Peoples opinions differ on this matter, unfortunately. However, I will edit my post so long as people give me the ok to start using the fighters. And I'd personally land the shuttles back inside a hanger. Boarding parties are for later [/ooc]

[ASME]

[OOC] Heiro you can use my two assault fighters and the bomber, just try and get them back in one piece [OOC]

[KlavoHunter]

Aye, see what I mean? There's a healthy chunk of the fleet's fighters. Now go use those bombers for attack purposes.

My post's been done since yesterday, for those who didn't notice. Make your actions accordingly.

[ASME]

[OOC] btw my orders are as follows: [OOC]

1) Shoot the **** out of several Hellraisers.
2) Shoot the **** out of several more Hellraisers
3) Deploy fighters and transfer contol to Heiro
4) Shoot the **** out of some more Hellraisers

[KlavoHunter]

Originally Posted by ASME

[OOC] btw my orders are as follows: [OOC]

1) Shoot the **** out of several Hellraisers.
2) Shoot the **** out of several more Hellraisers
3) Deploy fighters and transfer contol to Heiro
4) Shoot the **** out of some more Hellraisers

Buddy, those pulse cannons aren't going to do jack squat to the Hellraisers. I take it you're really targetting the enemy Deathgliders?

[flapjack]

ASME, you might be capable of giving 1 hellraiser the scare of its life, but you would need about twice your current firepower to actaully kill it.

I suggest you keep to deathgliders, remember, 4 deathgliders == 1 hellraiser in damages done

[ASME]

ok..ok.... switch hellraisers to deathgliders

[ASME]

but keep Hewitts ship targetting the Hellrisers, he should be able to tkae out some of them

[KlavoHunter]

No, I say keep Hewitt shooting the Deathgliders, too.

3 Hornet Carriers (1 with flight decks damaged)
18 Merciless Frigates (None damaged)
147 Hellraiser Gunships (None damaged)
287 Deathglider Fighters (None damaged)

See? We can't possibly take down all the Hellraisers at this point, but I'm fairly sure that we can start at the top and bottom, and work our way to the middle. There aren't that many ships that can effectively engage the Hellraisers, but there sure are a load of you who can pot out dozens of fighters at a time.

Let me break it down for you:

.512 Pulse Cannon = 4 Deathgliders down
.384 Pulse Cannon = 3 Deathgliders down
.256 Pulse Cannon = 2 Deathgliders down
.128 Pulse Cannon = 1 Deathglider down

See? The number of Pulse Cannons we're all packing could take an incredible bite out of the Deathgliders the Swarm are using. Ships with the big weapons, like me, can concentrate on the enemy Frigates.

The only weapons we are commonly using that are in the right range of damage to take down Hellraisers are the following:

Fusion Beam Cannon
Fusion Torpedo Launcher
Particle Beam Cannon
Twin Particle Beam Cannon
Pulsed Plasma Cannon

See what I mean? We don't have as many of these weapons, compared to the number of Pulse Cannons we're toting. Pulse Cannons vs Hellraisers is a waste, currently, so keep pumping that firepower out at the Deathgliders.

Everyone toting the "Anti-Hellraiser weapons" can either combine them up and take out the Merciless', or else spread them out and knock off Hellraisers.

[Spritely Zombie]

"Incoming transmission from the Pandora, sir."

Gokan pushed the comms button on his command panel and listened to the message.

"Understood Captain." he cut the connection, opening another to the weapons controls.

"All torpedo crews prepare for continuous fire and alter course 0-3-0 degrees." There was a minor jolt as the covering fire erupted from the Pandora's Boxes pulse cannons, streaming past them.

"We don't have the firepower to much more than dent any of the capital ships. Target the hellraisers and fire at your own discretion."

Torpedoes and missiles erupted from launch tubes carefully positioned upon the matte black surface of his ship, miniature computers guiding them and their deadly payloads onto interception courses with the enemy gunships.

"Take us closer to the Box, full lateral thrusters."

Numerous streams of compressed plasma erupted from the underside of the ship, lifting it 'upwards' towards the Pandoras Box.

[mrmao]

The ship rocked under the fire of the swarm."Damage report!"Alex called.

"We taken some hit's but the armour is still at 90% integrity." the engineer responded.

"Sir the Archipeligo is signaling they are moving to help the Red Sky at Dawn" the comm officer called over the chater of battle that was now buzzing through the brige.

"Okay, Helm move us to support the Archipeligo and the Red Sky, I wan't us on the opposite side of the red sky from Archipeligo. I wan't that intercptor missle to tartget any fighter that comes in range. When the next group of hellraisers comes in fire the plasma cannon at the lead ships then fire the torpedo at another .02 seconde later. Keep the .512 fireing at any death gliders in their range."Alexander barked these orders to the bridge, ther crew knew wht they were responsible for so they would sort there order out from the others.

Orders
support the Red Sky at Dawn and Archipeligo
if posible jam as many lock as possible on the Red Sky at Dawn(Them befor me)

Occ/well well commadoer klavo taken the lead, good job/Occ

[anarcharnate]

"I've never seen so many of the bastards!" Jaim screamed over the tumult of the bridge.
"I know the feeling..." Novalis replied relatively calmly, "Just try and balance out enough power to the repair teams on each deck. We may have to launch the Swift' with repair crews to the Angels soon, so hurry them up as well. Mishka- make the offer."
Novalis looked up sharply as a cheer rose raggedly around the room and Geraint's message was relayed from the targetting centre; "One Hellraiser- one bottle!"
Novalis sighed - Was the chief engineer drunk already? - and sent a message back.
"Just another hundred or so to go... you'll get your bottles then." Directing the Particle Cannon gunners to continue aiming at the same Hellraisers, he paced back to a his control screen to monitor the repairs.

Orders :
Continue aiming at Hellraisers
Repair own damage

I'm not sure if shuttling repair crews would be of any use ( ? ) but the offer's there if any one wants it- just ask.

[flapjack]

ooc/ hmm, an interesting prospect, it is possible to load up a shuttle with a repair crew and send it over to another ship. That should help No Dachi in case he can't get himself into a safe spot quickly, I might send my hazard repair team over for a turn or so, if someone can lend me the shuttle to get it across /ooc

[ASME]

*waits patiently*

"Sir, all pulse cannons report ready, engineering reports engines are as hot as they are likely to get." barked the TO over the din of the command bridge. Medical teams tended to the helmsman and the CO, Commander Anthony looked around the command bridge, and finally replied to the TO.
"Bring us about, signal the Crow to do the same, prepare the engines for the kickback from the cannons." commanded Anthony. The TO nodded and began carrying out the operations, soon they were in position, and the TO again waited for the inevitable command.

"Fire...."

Orders

1. Fire all weapons at Deathgliders
2. Stay Alive

[KlavoHunter]

Originally Posted by ASME

*waits patiently*

Orders

1. Fire all weapons at Deathgliders
2. Stay Alive

You get penalties for not putting any RP into it.

[flapjack]

no, he'll get extra attention. Bonuses (Bonus firepower, for the bad guys :P)

[ASME]

[OOC] *Ahem* *waits more patiently* *i.e. check previous post....* [OOC]

[anarcharnate]

[ooc] *whistles heartily to pass time*[/ooc]

[KlavoHunter]

Just about everyone has seemingly disappeared from RP for a while.

[mrmao]

bet i can wait better then any of you

[Heiro]

Well... I've not spoken to Bakan recently [in the last few days at least], but he did hint he didn't have the time...

[anarcharnate]

:s i was starting to like this thread, too.

[ASME]

those in favorof omendeering this thread in order to keep it going post 'aye' (or any accronym of that)

[KlavoHunter]

I say we wait a little more. But the main problem is that most of the people haven't made their posts!

[ASME]

well why dont they post then??

[Bakan]

Originally Posted by ASME

those in favorof omendeering this thread in order to keep it going post 'aye' (or any accronym of that)

*Sneaks back from beyond the grave of retirement, and stabs ASME through the head with a rusty spike, before going back to his grave for a long long sleep.*

[flapjack]

If a few more people could post, I'd make my post and start calcing.

But if 3/4th of the people would be dead anyways because they didn't post, it's not much use

[anarcharnate]

[obviously lacking anything better to do] 'Twould appear that Crazyboy, Hewitt, Flaag, Fluffie, Inspectre & No Dachi still need to post; although i can't remember which (if any) of them gave up. It's half and half at the moment. [/obviously lacking anything better to do]

[KlavoHunter]

Hewitt did say he gave up, that's why someone else is taking control of his ship for the time being.

[Crazyboy]

Originally Posted by anarcharnate

[obviously lacking anything better to do] 'Twould appear that Crazyboy, Hewitt, Flaag, Fluffie, Inspectre & No Dachi still need to post; although i can't remember which (if any) of them gave up. It's half and half at the moment. [/obviously lacking anything better to do]

Check back a page and you'll find me post

[anarcharnate]

Sorry, my bad

[ASME]

Are we just going to let this glorious thread die?

[Fluffie]

yeah, probably?

[KlavoHunter]

Hell no, we won't go!

[flapjack]

*Flapjack goes to fetch the remaining Swarm armada to land on Klavo*

[ASME]

ill grace you with my presence to save you Kalvo...

"Helmsman it seems the Dragoon is getting a little to much attention, we cant have them hogging the fun now can we... tell the fighters to remain close by until we get to the Dragoon, oh and Comms, signal the Crow Eater to folow us to the Dragoon, i ahve a feeling that we may need some punch...."Barked ASME

"Sir, that will leave the side of the Angel almost free of defence, though im sure the other ships can cope, i think it would be bett...." said the TO before eing interupted by a shap respose
"I will NOT let that ship have the s*** betten out of it, we will need all the defence we can get when we get where were going, now Helmsman full trusters towards the Dragoon." came the reply from ASME, he then sat back in his command chair... and listened to the almost distant noise of the firing pulse cannons, then to fall silent as their power was diverted to full thrusters, "Sir, we'll arrive at the dragoons location in 2 minuites sir...", "God NO!" shouted the Comms, "What is it Jenkins?", "Sssir! the swarm..... theyve broken through...... theyve got a clear run at Earth!", 2bring the picture up on the viewer," The screen at the front of the bridge crackled to life, and what was seen would be scarred into the minds of the crew of the Anubis for the rest of their lives, the Swarm ships had blasted a hole in the Earth fleet and its was being fulley exploited, thier capital ships pushed through the debris of ships both terran and swarm in origin, figters were soon to follow. Earth would soon fall..... and all they could do was pray, for the best.... and pray they did.....

[mrmao]

oooo shiny not dineng threrd now all we need is dachi to ppst, hope he dose because i reallly like this thread.

[flapjack]

I'm currently trying to contact Bakan, when I do it's most likely I'll get the DM post and those that haven't posted will be dumped from the thread (by painfull death).

That means Flaag, Fluffie, Inspectre and No Dachi had better post really soon.

[mrmao]

noooo we need dachi otherways my heroics were wasted

[flapjack]

not at all MrMao, we need dachie for the jumping, so his ship wouldn't be lost untill after the jump.
Not to mention heroics are never wasted

[mrmao]

yah but um well he's a missle ship with advanced AI and i just so recived revalation from the rp god, I'll download dachi. My ship has no ai so i got well an empty computer core. This solves him geting destroyed us jumping and making me feel good about my heroics. Of course this will only be possible if dm say so.

[flapjack]

he'll just be NPCed, since his survival is mission critical and we thus need someone controlling that ship.

We'll see how it goes

[Bakan]

[ooc]

Sneaks in, sees activity swears, grunts, and considers.

Who wants to see this thread restored?

I need the following people to agree to have it restored AND post for it to be restored.

No Dachi
Inspectre
Fluffie
APOC
Guess!!!

[/ooc]

[flapjack]

APOC == Guess!!!

and then he adds exactly those 3 people that STILL haven't posted