3rd Hangar Bay
16th Squadron
Navy Recruit Harriette Kent

Harry was lying on a board underneath 'Sam', her very own A-SF13 Fighter Craft, fixing a loose fuel cell.
Harry had joined the UCON navy over half a year ago. She had some out at the top of her flight training class, impressing even some of her more battle-hardened instructors. After the academy she had been put straight into action, sent of to the war raging in the Hubworld on the CNS Barranow Lake. At first the sheer size of the Carrier she had been placed on had struck her with awe, she couldn't sit still on it and found a need to explore, but recently the amazement seemed to have wore off on the new navy recruit as she began to limit her movements between the ship cafeteria and her own fighter's cockpit, where she spent most of her nights.
"Yo Harry! I got your stuff!" A voice called from across the hanger. Harry slid out from under the ship, and looked for the source of the voice. There was Kingsly, her scrawny blond gunner, who liked to dress like a world war one aviator.
"Ya didn't fuck it up this time?" She asked.
"Nope, got it all. A large black coffee, one spoon of sugar. A BLT. And all the parts you asked for."
Harry snatched the meal out of Kingsly's hands. She sifted through the parts while sipping her coffee. Amazing! Everything was there!
She took a bite out of her BLT, and tried to make her voice inaudible, Ok, you did well. Maybe you're not a complete moron... Came out as, "Mm mm, hmm mmh. Mmmhm mmh mmm m mmhmmhmmm..."
Kingsly's face broke into a stupid grin.
Harry swallowed, "Wha'cha grinnin' at?"
"It's cute when you act like a that..."
"Shaddap!" Harry laughed.
The hangers PA system screeched to life, "All fighter pilots report to the briefing auditorium."
"Awww..." Harry groaned as she got up, she turned to Kingsly, "Sit boy!"
Kingsly dropped down on all fours and made barking sounds. Harry giggled as she headed off towards the over sized briefing room with her meal at hand.

20th Operations Group
86th Squadron
November Element
CNS Ulysess
Biko class Battlecruiser



With the bulk of UCON vessels spread across the Sol system, the sixteen ships of November Element were tasked with the rapid seizure of the orbitals of Terra. This, of course, was easier said than done. While the 86th Squadron was maneuvering to provide a wide "arc" of defense along what would inevitably be the avenue of attack for the guaranteed Aschen and Taiyou counterattack, a relatively small amount of vessels had been dispatched to take part in the orbital assault of Terra. Across the entire star system nearly seven hundred ships comprising the majority of the 20th and 22nd Operations Groups had quickly mobilized following the declaration of war, Admiral Savage himself sat on the helm of the supercarrier Megala to spearhead the opening theater of the war. Amassing as much firepower as Savage could spare, Captain Myorzi Yaakaz would be the officer charged with maintaining the close orbital superiority and to provide security for the transports, carriers and planet landers that would be following after the establishment of the "Terran Defense Arc", a fusillade line of nearly one hundred and thirty ships to form the backbone of the defense against any Aschen counterattacks. In the past thirteen hours the war had been silent, yet the flashpoint had long since past. War had come to Earth.



Captain Yaakaz stood at a full, stern height for a Tarsan, his stormy eyes spoke volumes of his battle record while his salt and pepper hair, cropped closely to his skull spoke even greater volumes of his age. Nearing the mandatory retirement age of sixty for a Navy officer, Yaakaz was determined to make his last operation a successful, even heroic one. Standing tall on the bridge of the Ulysess, the Captain eased himself into the slight undulation and forward velocity of the vessel as it rushed past the second Lagrangian Point of the planet Terra. On the forward airscreen the tiny blue marble spun ferociously across the vastness of space, eclipsed only be the shimmering nova at the center of the star system, Sol. With one hemisphere bathed in rich light, the other remained dark and unseen, with occasional winking lance of light from a meteorite burning harmlessly through the atmosphere.
"Captain, the Arkalay and the Riyker are prepared to sweep the area." The AI's voice was a menagerie of synthetic voice creation and audio recordings, which often gave it an otherwordly, supernatural air. Captain Yaakaz scratched his chin as a holotank activated half a meter form him, displaying the two Hornet class Prowlers that would serve as the eyes and ears of November Element. Though Yaakaz would've given half of his ships for even one of the newer Halycon prowlers, he was satisfied to be graced with two, while most of the Coalition ships in the entire system were stuck with the Royark class Robotics cruisers.

"Understood, issue orders for the rest of the element to maintain position behind the prowlers while they search the orbitals." Yaakaz said, steadying himself before withdrawing his PDA and easing himself into the command chair. Drawing his finger across a holodisplay in front of him, he quickly began to authorize a string of commands to begin the active mission; with the weapons of the Ulysess already at fifteen percent capability, there was still a considerable amount of time before the ship was operating at full capacity. One of only three Biko class Battlecruisers in the entire element, Yaakaz's own ship wouldn't be graced with sitting out of the fight should one arise, quite the contrary, with the Ulysess packing the 360inch spinal-cannon his vessel and the others would be one of the longest reaching platforms of the entire group.
"Captain, CHIMAERA Banks Alpha through Echo will require more energy from the hypercapacitators if we wish to maintain the RALS at a hundred kilometer arc ... " The AI was attempting to convince the Captain to blind himself to arm himself, something Myorzi wouldn't allow. There were countless times when he'd favored sight over weaponry, and one of those were right now. Shaking his head, he dispatched a closed-band communique to the two prowlers, the CNS Yraddi and her sister ship the Okaddi before turning his attention back to the AI, who floated like a blue specter from a holotank beside his chair.
"You keep the RALS online, sync hypercaps India through Lima into its conduit if need be, but I want our eyes open wide." His voice was stern and demanding, Yaakaz had always believed you needed to be deceptively stern and forward with these AI's, who believed their ship of residence was more like a functioning body than a weapon of war.
"Understood, Captain. I will keep you informed of any changes if necessary."






Weapons Control
CNS Ulysess


"Ensign Gygers, we have four twenty-six point six inchers, why are only three operational?" Lieutenant McGoebls demanded as he pulled himself along in zero gravity. While Weapons Control was located forward the main bridge, it also resided outside of the Command Bridges' artificial gravity generators, which meant while every up in the main room was sitting happy, the Wep-Cons were often stuck in zero gravity and the bad thing about zero gravity meant buttoned up in the Combat Helms. As McGoebls peered through his tinted visor over Ensign Gygers screen, he was greeted with a line format of the Ulysess' four 26.6 inch cannons, three of which were filled in with a vibrant green while the last aft turret remained offline. He reached forward and tapped the holographic display once, then twice, and raked his finger across a dialog of computer commands.
"That's why, Captain's using hypercaps to keep the RALS operational -- Levitt, get on the horn and let the bridge know we need at least one more hypercap to get the twenty-sixers online." The Lieutenant commanded boisterously before craning his elbows and projecting himself into the weightlessness. A young Ensign across the room was keying into the ship-wide communiqué while the busy din of Weaps-Con rose with a piercing siren.
“What the fuck is that?” An Ensign manning the Missile Control display shouted as the Lieutenant readied himself at his command interface. Across the holodisplay a bright icon throbbed with urgency, the Lieutenant reached his finger forward and activate the icon, which quickly grew into a full picture of Captain Yaakaz, his stern jawline and sculpted face almost startling the young Lieutenant.
”Captain, what’s the horn for?” McGoebls inquired as he cemented his hands onto the display, fighting to keep himself in position as the Ulysess began its speedy advance.

“We’ve got contacts on the RALS, from the Yraddi and the Okaddi, son. When can you get those weapons online?”




















20th Operations Group
86th Squadron
Juliet Element
CNS Barranow Lake
Concordia class Attack Carrier





“I want those Eagles and Sams out front five minutes ago, Launch Captain.” The Captain of the Barranow Lake spoke into the small digital communiqué channel, the irritable patterns of his voice fluctuating as he spoke to the Launch Captain of the Barranow’s one-hundred and twenty single ships. A myriad of Eagle II superiority-craft, A-SF13 craft, with the Barranow Lake and three other Concordia class Attack Carriers forming the backbone of Juliet Element in its wide arc around the planet to form one of the first lines of the Terran Defense Arc, Captain Jackarall was hard pressed to get his planes into the suck, and into the suck quick.

The Launch Captain, however, had different objective. While Jackarall had allowed two hours for the entire group of fifty Eagle II’s to be outfitted for combat against what would inevitably be the Aschen or Taiyou counterattack.
“Captain, we’re going as fast as we can – some of the Eagle’s need new calibrations for the seventy-six mike mikes and we’re running low on Shatter AS missiles, we can only outfit about thirty or forty – “ The Launch Captain continued to ring off a list of unimportant reasons to keep the craft in their hangars, they could still fight, you would still fly.

“Launch the aircraft, El-Cee.”







1st Hangar Bay
4th Squadron
Chief Petty Officer Koth


The dual engines of the Eagle II screamed to life as Koth anchored his craft into the starboard launching rail of the Barranow. A grinding sound was heard as the massive superconducting rails were charged with electricity. His HUD flickered momentarily before once again burning at its brightest, he reached forward and tapped several commands to activate the EMP hardening and offline the sensor suites of the Eagle. Having his electronic eyes wide open when he was hurled from the steel and metal insides of a carrier would most certainly blind him, something he couldn’t allow. Being in command of an eight craft strike team, Koth would be one of the first ones out, meaning his telemetry would be used by the entire squad in the following hours.

“Avalanche One ready for launch, requesting clear from Overlord.” Koth checked his audio channel to see if it was functioning; in front of him was now a boiling electromagnetic storm as the rails charged to their full capability. His audio crackled and sparked with static as the electromagnetic fury began to interfere with his logistical support. Not long now befor –

The forty-four tonne Eagle II was hurled along its trajectory and spat into space at nearly a thousand kilometers an hour. Koth was thrust into his seat as his hands gripped the launch handles on the top of the canopy while screaming his head off. The guts of the Barranow Lake gave way to the empty expanse of space, the one-and-a-half kilometer length of a Farriday class Battleship screaming below him as the Eagle adjusted and pulsed its thrusters, returning control of the craft to the joystick that Koth quickly reached for and found contact with, releasing a long string of curses as he quickly throttled the engines and banked the Eagle to the left.
“Hoooooooly shit – Thank the lord I joined the Navy!”
















Terra
2nd Armored Regiment
7th Battalion
SV-9 Claymore “Blackjack”



Gunfire roared around him as the cranked the steering shaft to the left, releasing a string of curses as he did. In the corner of the HUD a rocket flashed across the screen and impacted a blank wall, showering the buttoned up Claymore with shrapnel and boiling fire. Above him, the dual 30 millimeter cannons, Blackjack’s primary armament, chattered away. Alternating camera views in the corner of his HUD viewed entire faces of buildings being mulched by the high-caliber rounds as they impacted, and then detonated in a shower of boiling sparks and kinetic force.

“Blackjack! Keep the convoy straight, we’re two klicks out of the drop zone!” Captain Leegers voice boomed into his headset as Specialist Jarras maneuvered the Claymore alongside another Claymore as a three-vehicle group speared its way through a market, burning straight through roadblocks and scorched vehicles on their way to the drop-zone, a plaza situated in the heart of the market district that would serve as the primary drop-zone for the 605th Orbital Drop Infantry or ‘Jumpers’.

Jarras cranked the steering to the left to avoid a storefront in time, the Claymore behind him following tightly as well in the pin-head turn; the massive run-flat tires squealing in agony as the Claymore hopped a curb, annihilated a trashcan beneath its force and ran straight back onto the road. Behind him, the Commander of the Blackjack was fussing with the cumbersome commo-gear rigged into the cupola of the Claymore, tapping furiously on a computer display, Sergeant Urasi cursed before pressing a finger to the headset on his ears.
“Rookhead, this is Blackjack – I want you forward with Bravo, we’ll stay back and keep the back access clear. I want you in that plaza the second those Jumpers touch down, understand?!”











1st ODI Division
605th Regiment
Bravo Company
3rd Platoon
Lieutenant Robert Archer



“Call it Second, we’re on target – drop drop drop.” Archer was thrashed inside the SPECTR as it plummeted through the atmosphere. A trail of fire was burning behind the vehicle as it smashed through winds and clouds as the thirty-two SPECTR drop pods descended to the drop-zone, due to impact the industrial district in under a minute. Steadying his breathing, Archer released one hand from the drop handle and quickly double checked his riggings; should he be unleashed somewhere during impact, he would simple cease to exist as a functioning human and be nothing more than a gelatinized puddle of goo suspended in the bulky Type 10 armor.

“ETA thirty, Third Platoon; we’re coming in hot.” Sergeant Macalister’s voice flooded his ears as Archer drew one hand over his weaponry, first to the MR-18G slung across his chest then to the GL-91 60 millimeter Anti-Tank rifle fixed to a magnetic clamp on his left leg. With his free hand searching around his hips he was met with the embrace of the dual MH-7 handguns held in hip holsters and secured to his belt line. Inspecting his armor rigging, he made sure the entire eight magazine pouches were occupied and fixed to the ballistic plate before finally gripping the drop handle tightly and doing his best to relax himself ten seconds before impact.
“Drop in ten, Third platoon.” Sergeant Macalister’s voice once again flooded his ears before his eyes darkened and he was knocked unconscious from the sudden impact of the SPECTR entry vehicle with the smokestack of a concrete production facility, the tiny drop pod spun end over end and then impacted the second story of a sheet-steel complex, smashing through the iron-grating floor and them impacting with another deadly jolt on the concrete floor that splintered and fragmented. The 605th were ground-side.

3rd Hangar Bay
16th Squadron
Navy Recruit Harriette Kent

Thunk! The docking clamps for Harry's ship disengaged. The engines began to build into a roar.
"Ready for this?" She yelled at Kingsly.
The hanger doors were opening for the strike teams of A-SFs which were to large to fit on the launching rails…
“Nope, I’m SHITTIN’ MYSELF! But lets do it anyway!” The goofy co-pilot screamed back at her.
Harry let out a whoop of exhilaration as they shot into the cold darkness of space. Well maybe not so dark, the lights of the hundreds of UCON space vessels acted like a second sun burning away in orbit above the blue orb we call Earth.

A voice crackled over the radio, “Ok people! You know the deal, we’re here to assist in destroying the 36th and 37th orbital defense platforms, opening a hole over central Asia for our forces to enter. Then we need to make sure those PLD ladies hit the dirt with a minimal amount of bulletholes.”
Master Chief Petty Officer Fergison was the senior officer of their squad of about 30 A-Sfs. He was a decent guy, no good at poker though.
“Roger that.” Harry replied over the radio. Harry attached herself to the edge of the V formation the rest of the squad was forming into, and yelled back to her partner, “Kings, disengage the weapon safeties! Things’re gonna get fun!”

Terra
2nd Armored Regiment
7th Battalion
SV-9 Claymore “Rookhead”

Jolted to life as the voice of "Sergeant Urasi" boomed into his headset, he nodded in response before remembering he was talking to a headset. "Yessir!" He yelled into it and got onto what had to be done. He kicked one of his crew-members in the leg. "Get the fuck going, Jenkins!" He roared, as the man was already on the move, fearing retribution if he didn't. He gunned the vehicle, swerving to avoid a burnt-out buss.

He pointed at another one of his crew members. "Get on the commo-gear, get a line in on bet-" A loud explosion of gunfire as they swerved past a group of civilians who had decided to become heroes, the eight-tons of "Fuck that." Didn't help, as they were crushed under the wheels. "I said." "Get. On. Beta." said Corrdathough gritted teeth. The crewman gladly got onto doing this, sweeping his hands over the keyboard, flicking switches and making it easier than it looked.

"Beta, beta come in, this is Rookhead..how far away are you from plaza and how do you plan on linking up with us?" Rang the voice with a British ring to it.

The market it is. He accelerated, determined to fill in this order. He broke formation with little style, it was pretty awkward about how damaged wing-city was, when it was said to be a fairly impenetrable city. The gunfire was added too as the crew-members fired off the cannons, as they sheered though buildings like they were nothing but toast.

"Let's kick some arse."

Sol Space; Over Terra
16th Squadron
Navy Recruit Harriette Kent

"Five Contacts, three o'clock!" A voice called over the radio, "Spitfire, Thomson, you take 'em!"
"Yessir" Harry called over the radio, as she and another pilot split off of the formation, "Kingsly, fire the 40 mm cannon! One shot per target, no wasting ammo!"
"Got it!" Kingsly started tapping away at the targeting computer. The ship lurched as the turret fired off shots.
"Two contacts down, the other three dodged! These things're waaaay more nimble than us!" He shouted.
Harry hailed Thomson on the radio, "Tompson be careful! These guys are fast!"
"Dun voooory honey, I got this!" The pilot replied over the radio in a accent, "This'll all bee over in a- AAAGH!" The communication was cut. Harry looked back and saw the other ship, had been ruptured by a hail of bullets. The poor bastard probably didn't have time to pull on his helmet before his brains came out his ears.
"I'm bringing her round, get another barrage ready!" Harry called to Kingsly.
The ship turned to face these darting killer-bees of the Terra defense force.
"FIRE!!" Harry yelled. The ship lurched again. The remaining three ships were twisted inside out by shells from the rail cannon.
"HEEEELLL YEAH!!" Harry and Kingsly cried in union.
The radio crackled again, this time it was Ferguson, "Now if ye guys have stopped messing around, we have some orbital defense platforms to take down."

Aschen High Space Command SOLCOM
1st Assault-Reconnaisance Fleet
Battlestar Jupiter
Battle-Star Group 56
One Parsec Outside Terra
Operation: Looming Glacier

"Situation Report." Commander Huxley asked as he turned to his executive officer, a young woman named Amalia. The woman promptly adjusted her Duty Blue uniforms and spoke. "Several Coalition contacts in these sectors, I count several hundred ships." She said as the Commander nodded. "Position four three seven carom three nine two." He said. And with those orders, the massive hulking form of the Mercury Class Battlestar turned on it's keel, maintaining it's position just beyond Coalition AO, far enough that it could garner a head count. Initial recon was key in this mission. And so the Jupiter maintained the utmost silence, running it's engines dark, and using it's hull as a heat sink to hide it's signature. In tandem with the ECM Jamming that went on. The Mercury Class Battlestar was a fighting force in the Aschen Confederation, much more efficient then it's Columbia class cousins.

The Jupiter was supported by several dozen support craft, Battle-cruisers, frigates, and supply vessels to keep the coherent body of the Aschen fleet moving smoothly, numbering at little over one-hundred and twenty ships total. The Recon fleet was not suited for direct frontal combat operations. Their orders were to slip in and slip out, undetected. Utilizing it's DRADIS and LIDAR Systems to scan the distance.

"Ensure that all systems are functioning within nominal levels, Colonel." Huxley ordered.

Of course, the degree of automation that most Aschen ships enjoyed, allowed them to operate efficiently. This meant that most Aschen ships could enjoy reduced crew compliments without reduced combat efficiency, with less combat crew requirement, logistical crew could be used to maintain the ship's mechanics and automation. Allowing the Battlestar to run smoothly in all forms of combat.

"Commander I recommend we work our plan by hitting Coalition logistics, if we hit their logistical vessels, then we can weaken their combat front, and eventually bring them down. It will take some time for the main Force to arrive, but I am confident that.." The woman was promptly silenced by the raise of a hand. "No... we're not going to conduct guerrilla operations without clearance from the Chairman." He said flatly before he turned back to the screen. "Launch two recon Raptors, have them remain in the area, then spool drives for a jump out, have us rendezvous at the Tal'Dor staging ground."

"Aye sir." The Executive officer said with a crisp salute.


Hangar Bay, Battlestar Jupiter
Port Hangar Deck
Raptor Bay
Operation: Sight Unseen

"Alright pilots, prepare to move out! Our mission is simple! We're to recon the area and report to the Chairman, do not engage the enemy unless in defense." The CAG of the Jupiter's Flight crew ordered. All while men in bright yellow and orange jumpsuits scrambled about to prepare the two Raptors for takeoff. It was a flurry of mechanics, engineers, and other crewmen that ensured the Raptors were fueled, prepped, readied, and armed. So that they could operate at combat effectiveness. Lieutenant Sharon Halsey would board the Raptor, which was dubbed 'Raptor 4-2-2' Climbing in the pilot's seat she made sure her helmet was snug. Testing the new cloaking systems, and radar jamming systems. There were also laser point emitters, designed with confusing LIDAR in mind. Though it only was tested and proved slightly effective. The Raptor mission would rely on the skills of the pilots to take pictures, fly through, intercept communications and report back.

"Alright all personnel check.." The CAG Ordered.

"This is Raptor 3-2-1, All systems check, fuel check, weapons check, reactor, check.. we're good to go." The Pilots in the neighboring Raptor ordered. Both craft would then be lowered into the hangar bay of the Battlestar as it pulled away from the very edges of the SOL system.

Lt. Halsey would press the throttle, allowing her raptor to jet out the runway pod on the Battlestar, letting the void of space greet her, the two Raptors woul be deployed, side by side, and proceed to their objective. Noting the defensive arc the Coalition ships were placing themselves in. Feeding the high-resolution visual data to the Jupiter, which was slowly pulling away, only to flicker away in a bright flash of light.

"Alright boys, welcome to the suck." The CAG Said as she pushed her Raptor forward, engaging the cloaking systems.

(OOC this post was supposed to be in Sol)

Aschen High Space Command SOLCOM
1st Assault-Reconnaisance Fleet
Battlestar Jupiter
Battle-Star Group 56
One Parsec Outside Terra
Operation: Looming Glacier

"Situation Report." Commander Huxley asked as he turned to his executive officer, a young woman named Amalia. The woman promptly adjusted her Duty Blue uniforms and spoke. "Several Coalition contacts in these sectors, I count several hundred ships." She said as the Commander nodded. "Position four three seven carom three nine two." He said. And with those orders, the massive hulking form of the Mercury Class Battlestar turned on it's keel, maintaining it's position just beyond Coalition AO, far enough that it could garner a head count. Initial recon was key in this mission. And so the Jupiter maintained the utmost silence, running it's engines dark, and using it's hull as a heat sink to hide it's signature. In tandem with the ECM Jamming that went on. The Mercury Class Battlestar was a fighting force in the Aschen Confederation, much more efficient then it's Columbia class cousins.

The Jupiter was supported by several dozen support craft, Battle-cruisers, frigates, and supply vessels to keep the coherent body of the Aschen fleet moving smoothly, numbering at little over one-hundred and twenty ships total. The Recon fleet was not suited for direct frontal combat operations. Their orders were to slip in and slip out, undetected. Utilizing it's DRADIS and LIDAR Systems to scan the distance.

"Ensure that all systems are functioning within nominal levels, Colonel." Huxley ordered.

Of course, the degree of automation that most Aschen ships enjoyed, allowed them to operate efficiently. This meant that most Aschen ships could enjoy reduced crew compliments without reduced combat efficiency, with less combat crew requirement, logistical crew could be used to maintain the ship's mechanics and automation. Allowing the Battlestar to run smoothly in all forms of combat.

"Commander I recommend we work our plan by hitting Coalition logistics, if we hit their logistical vessels, then we can weaken their combat front, and eventually bring them down. It will take some time for the main Force to arrive, but I am confident that.." The woman was promptly silenced by the raise of a hand. "No... we're not going to conduct guerrilla operations without clearance from the Chairman." He said flatly before he turned back to the screen. "Launch two recon Raptors, have them remain in the area, then spool drives for a jump out, have us rendezvous at the Tal'Dor staging ground."

"Aye sir." The Executive officer said with a crisp salute.


Hangar Bay, Battlestar Jupiter
Port Hangar Deck
Raptor Bay
Operation: Sight Unseen

"Alright pilots, prepare to move out! Our mission is simple! We're to recon the area and report to the Chairman, do not engage the enemy unless in defense." The CAG of the Jupiter's Flight crew ordered. All while men in bright yellow and orange jumpsuits scrambled about to prepare the two Raptors for takeoff. It was a flurry of mechanics, engineers, and other crewmen that ensured the Raptors were fueled, prepped, readied, and armed. So that they could operate at combat effectiveness. Lieutenant Sharon Halsey would board the Raptor, which was dubbed 'Raptor 4-2-2' Climbing in the pilot's seat she made sure her helmet was snug. Testing the new cloaking systems, and radar jamming systems. There were also laser point emitters, designed with confusing LIDAR in mind. Though it only was tested and proved slightly effective. The Raptor mission would rely on the skills of the pilots to take pictures, fly through, intercept communications and report back.

"Alright all personnel check.." The CAG Ordered.

"This is Raptor 3-2-1, All systems check, fuel check, weapons check, reactor, check.. we're good to go." The Pilots in the neighboring Raptor ordered. Both craft would then be lowered into the hangar bay of the Battlestar as it pulled away from the very edges of the SOL system.

Lt. Halsey would press the throttle, allowing her raptor to jet out the runway pod on the Battlestar, letting the void of space greet her, the two Raptors woul be deployed, side by side, and proceed to their objective. Noting the defensive arc the Coalition ships were placing themselves in. Feeding the high-resolution visual data to the Jupiter, which was slowly pulling away, only to flicker away in a bright flash of light.

"Alright boys, welcome to the suck." The CAG Said as she pushed her Raptor forward, engaging the cloaking systems.

(OOC this post was supposed to be in Sol)

Aschen High Space Command SOLCOM
1st Assault-Reconnaisance Fleet
Battlestar Jupiter
Battle-Star Group 56
One Parsec Outside Terra
Operation: Looming Glacier

"Situation Report." Commander Huxley asked as he turned to his executive officer, a young woman named Amalia. The woman promptly adjusted her Duty Blue uniforms and spoke. "Several Coalition contacts in these sectors, I count several hundred ships." She said as the Commander nodded. "Position four three seven carom three nine two." He said. And with those orders, the massive hulking form of the Mercury Class Battlestar turned on it's keel, maintaining it's position just beyond Coalition AO, far enough that it could garner a head count. Initial recon was key in this mission. And so the Jupiter maintained the utmost silence, running it's engines dark, and using it's hull as a heat sink to hide it's signature. In tandem with the ECM Jamming that went on. The Mercury Class Battlestar was a fighting force in the Aschen Confederation, much more efficient then it's Columbia class cousins.

The Jupiter was supported by several dozen support craft, Battle-cruisers, frigates, and supply vessels to keep the coherent body of the Aschen fleet moving smoothly, numbering at little over one-hundred and twenty ships total. The Recon fleet was not suited for direct frontal combat operations. Their orders were to slip in and slip out, undetected. Utilizing it's DRADIS and LIDAR Systems to scan the distance.

"Ensure that all systems are functioning within nominal levels, Colonel." Huxley ordered.

Of course, the degree of automation that most Aschen ships enjoyed, allowed them to operate efficiently. This meant that most Aschen ships could enjoy reduced crew compliments without reduced combat efficiency, with less combat crew requirement, logistical crew could be used to maintain the ship's mechanics and automation. Allowing the Battlestar to run smoothly in all forms of combat.

"Commander I recommend we work our plan by hitting Coalition logistics, if we hit their logistical vessels, then we can weaken their combat front, and eventually bring them down. It will take some time for the main Force to arrive, but I am confident that.." The woman was promptly silenced by the raise of a hand. "No... we're not going to conduct guerrilla operations without clearance from the Chairman." He said flatly before he turned back to the screen. "Launch two recon Raptors, have them remain in the area, then spool drives for a jump out, have us rendezvous at the Tal'Dor staging ground."

"Aye sir." The Executive officer said with a crisp salute.


Hangar Bay, Battlestar Jupiter
Port Hangar Deck
Raptor Bay
Operation: Sight Unseen

"Alright pilots, prepare to move out! Our mission is simple! We're to recon the area and report to the Chairman, do not engage the enemy unless in defense." The CAG of the Jupiter's Flight crew ordered. All while men in bright yellow and orange jumpsuits scrambled about to prepare the two Raptors for takeoff. It was a flurry of mechanics, engineers, and other crewmen that ensured the Raptors were fueled, prepped, readied, and armed. So that they could operate at combat effectiveness. Lieutenant Sharon Halsey would board the Raptor, which was dubbed 'Raptor 4-2-2' Climbing in the pilot's seat she made sure her helmet was snug. Testing the new cloaking systems, and radar jamming systems. There were also laser point emitters, designed with confusing LIDAR in mind. Though it only was tested and proved slightly effective. The Raptor mission would rely on the skills of the pilots to take pictures, fly through, intercept communications and report back.

"Alright all personnel check.." The CAG Ordered.

"This is Raptor 3-2-1, All systems check, fuel check, weapons check, reactor, check.. we're good to go." The Pilots in the neighboring Raptor ordered. Both craft would then be lowered into the hangar bay of the Battlestar as it pulled away from the very edges of the SOL system.

Lt. Halsey would press the throttle, allowing her raptor to jet out the runway pod on the Battlestar, letting the void of space greet her, the two Raptors woul be deployed, side by side, and proceed to their objective. Noting the defensive arc the Coalition ships were placing themselves in. Feeding the high-resolution visual data to the Jupiter, which was slowly pulling away, only to flicker away in a bright flash of light.

"Alright boys, welcome to the suck." The CAG Said as she pushed her Raptor forward, engaging the cloaking systems.

ITN Kaze no Tani
Shokaku Class Carrier
CMDT Ayako Katamura
Operation: Divine Destiny
Taiyou Hyperspace Gate

The operation began quite swiftly, the hyperspace gate flashed brightly as another hundred ships flashed through, a majority of them were supply ships, but they added to the already sheer number of Taiyou ships in the area, already thousands of ships had assembled beyond the gate, a staging area that would mark the first days of this war. Taiyou ships would be seen as far as the eye could see. Shogun Battleships, alongside their Yamato cousins, positioned themselves to drive into the heart of the Sol system. But it would take time. Each Taiyou ship would be bristling with guns, the pride and joy of the Imperial Navy, accentuated with clean lines and a very traditional, yet futuristic Japanese design. Enemies need tread carefully when the Imperial Navy is afoot.

The Kaze no Tani, an ugly Taiyou ship, cruised at breakneck speed through the Imperial foothold, Commandant Ayako Katamura would be staring outwards, at the sea of Taiyou ships that were coming in through the Hyperspace gate. Turning to face the star charts, she would shake her head quietly.

"We need to start seizing worlds to ease the burden on our logistics, we cannot ship weapons and armor from the Empire and hope to maintain this offensive, we're going to have to rely on our own conquered worlds to keep this war machine chugging forward. I am confident the Shogun will approve of my tactics. We need to maintain a supply chain linking various worlds here and here...." She said as she loomed over the command table.

"Planet hopping is the Empire's best bet in taking down the Coalition, and pushing them to their holes, where we will crush them." She said, grinning as she adjusted her uniform.

"I want a report on my desk by the end of the night, I want the Shogun's blessing to move forward with my fleet." She added, her Lieutenant nodding. "I will carry out your order, and inform the Shogun upon his return that he is to approve your plan." He said, nodding and then he went back to his station.

All in all everything was quiet in the Taiyou foothold. Every day, several thousand ships would come through the Hyperspace Gate, most of them logistical vessels, some of them however, were warships, to prepare the foothold to drive into the heart of Coalition space, but first.

Their directive was to seize Terra.

RHB Wrecked Dreams(-Transmitting Transponder Code: ITN Higashi No Eden-)
Stolen Agano Class Light Cruiser
-----------
Operation: Long Haul
Taiyou Hyperspace Gate



The Captain of the Stolen Agano Class Cruiser, Wrecked Dreams, was a squat, tanned man. He came from a world in the fringes of the galaxy, under twin binary stars, his people lived and died. His strong brow, and crooked nose was a defining feature about him, coupled with his striking blue eyes and deep, black hair. He stood in a large overcoat, one hand on an ornate cane as he watched the viewscreen and listened to the comms traffic. His crew around him were frantically keeping themselves clear. They were surrounded by ITN ships on all sides.

At the previous checkpoint they had slipped in with the mass supply run, transmitting their false codes under the "ITN Higashi No Eden" Which was a Missile Cruiser lost over a hundred years ago and listed as MIA.

The heavily modified ship blended in perfectly. Once they got a lock on command ships in the area, and could crack the Imperial encryption codes once again, they would begin transmitting back to the Everlasting, which was sitting a few systems away with the rest of the Brigade, posied for a quick insertion near an old hyperspace gate that was listed as derelict. Instead of cleaning it up, it was left there to decay. The Brigade used it often, modified it to act as a slingshot to catapult their fleet anywhere within a resonable range that they wanted, solar alignments permitting.

The first leg of Operation: Long Haul was complete as they settled into a holding pattern with the rest of the countless ITN supply ships. Soon they'd have what they wanted, and the entire air aboard the bridge was buzzing with anticipation.

Sol Space
16th Squadron
Navy Recruit Harriette Kent "Spitfire"

The assault on the orbital defense grid had begun. The thirty-sixth orbital defense platform had fallen with little resistance, they had been caught off guard and destroyed. The CNS Harrowed Beach, a hulking battle cruiser, and the CNS Marianne, a equally deadly destroyer, had been giving them supporting fire. But the second platform had given much more resistance…
Their main cannon had punched a hole through the Harrowed’s reactor, first shot. Before the oxygen could escape into vacuum and deny the flames food, the entire deck had been ripped apart by an explosion. With the Harrowed Beach out of commission, the Marianne was now taking all the fire from the station.

"Goddamit! They got Ripley!" A voice cried over the radio, It was Manny, a fellow academy trainee. She had been good friends with Harry though their training.
“Manny w-what happened!?” Harry frantically stammered out, worried for her friend’s safety.
“One of them air superiority fighters broadsided us, Ripley took all the hits, now I have no gunner!”
“Can you still fly?” A new voice, probably one of the accompanying officers.
“I doubt it sir, they took out one of my engines too.”
“Manny, sit still, I’ll extract you.” Harry called over the radio.
“No! Maintain fire on the station! If you take that down you’ll have all the time in the world to save your friends!” The officer commanded.
“SIR! She’s a sitting duck out there!”
“Listen to me miss. You’ll be a sitting duck if you stop to pick her up. I don’t won’t to risk two lives for one! It’s not a fair trade off!”
Harry mumbled a few curses at the officer, though he did have a point.
“Kings, set the HS Missile’s to the boring heads, we’re goin’ in for a close encounter!”
Kingsly turned in his seat, staring at her in disbelief, “WHAT!? That thing has more turrets than the frickin’ Deathstar, but with decent gunners, are you CRA- …Oh wait.. You are… Well, if I die I’m finding you in the after life... And you don’t want to know what I’ll do to you!”
“Are you coming on to me?” Harriette laughed.
“Arrgh! You’re hopeless you!”

Harriette weaved between the storm of lasers and shells flying towards her ship. She clenched her jaw concentrating on her surroundings. No enemy fighters had notice her split off from the main group of the A-SFs yet.
Ferguson radioed her, “Spitfire what the HELL are you up to!? You’re speeding straight towards the station!”
Harry angled her trajectory slightly, ignoring Fergison.
“SPITFIRE!!” Ferguson screamed.
“Aww, shaddap and watch will ya!” Harry muttered back at him.
Back in the hanger Harry hadn’t just been fixing the fuel cells, she had done some ‘modification’ to the fuel injection system too. She hit the thrusters. The A-SF shot forward at breakneck speed, burning up the fuel at an alarming rate. The giant defense station loomed closer and closer. When she could make out the individual metal plates on the station’s exterior, she yelled, “Angle the target of the pods 35 degrees left, and 7 degrees down, set the lazer bores to 12 seconds, and fire… NOW!” to Kingsly.
FFFFOOOOSH!! The A-SF unloaded its missile pods at the base of the station’s main canon. This was a real life example of David taking on Goliath with a mere sling and stone as a weapon.
The missiles drilled their way into the ship. A few moments, then Harry saw a faint flash of an explosion through one of the holes.. A few more moments, then nothing.
“Damn…” Kingsly muttered, disappointed, until he saw the anxious face Harry was wearing. She was still waiting for something. It came. A deep rumbling. The exterior of the station buckled, then again in a different spot, then another. Kings watched in awe as a massive portion of the station ripped it’s self open.
“Whaaa?” The gasped.
“The cannon’s ammunition.” Harry began to explain, “I figured we couldn’t even scratch the thing normally, so I decided to use It’s own power against it. I figured where they had the ammo hidden away by-”
Ferguson interrupted her over the radio, “Spitfire!? Are you a saint of victory? A god of war? A master of the universe? HOW THE HELL DID YOU CREATE SUCH A MIRACLE!!? Oh fuck… Haha… My god… Ahahahaha! If you don‘t get a medal or something for this I‘ll cut my sack off with a rusty spoon!”
“Thanks for the thought…” Harry muttered back, sounding slightly disturbed. She was smiling though, isn’t it great to be great she thought.

RHB LAF-65
3rd Squadron, "Suicide Kings"
Ex-UCON Navy Pilot Kent "Deeds" Ridgen
Abandoned Hyperspace Gate


"Pull up! He's on your seven, I'll have him, just give me two more seconds!"

"Shit! shit! Get him!"

The Light Attack Fighter sprayed it's forward-mounted Vulcan Pulse Emitters, shredding the UCON Close-range Defense Fighter's wing and port engine. As plasma discharge ruptured into the cooling system, the entire ship shuddered, lurched forward, and supernova'd outward.

"God damn it, Deeds, if you weren't my wing man, I would be dead five times over..."

"Six times."

"Six? How six?"

"Remember the Frigate near Sylvonius five? If not for my chaffs those missiles would have ended you so fast only dropping into a star would have burned you quicker."

"Whatever, just glad you got my back. Don't remember any Missiles." Gary "Rock" Malone grumbled into the comms of his patched-up, ragtag LAF and formed up next to Kent and Bobby, creating a wedge formation as they received orders to fall back into routine patrol.

There was a bit of silence before Bobby broke it, "What do you think is going on? All these light fighters, so far from their ships... Think there's a battle going down?"

Kent responded as he switched into autopilot, "Not sure, but the Boss'd have us cashing in if they any more than we did, so I guess it's just time before we find out."
Bobby wasn't satisfied with the answer, but knew Kent didn't have any more of an idea than he or Rock did, and so settled into his seat to continue the patrol. The random fighters had been showing up recently, as if this spot was some sort of UCON fallback point. What they didn't know was that the entire Red Hand Brigade was poised near the modified gate, ready to slingshot near Sol and mop up any survivors to claim the spoils for themselves. Their intel was leaking in slow for the moment, but Phase II of operation: Long Haul had just begun, so they expected it to pick up within a few hours. Until then it was just sit and wait... His proximity alarms sounded and the formation banked to make for it even before being ordered to.

"Fifth group within two hours..." grumbled Rock, as he switched to manual flight and armed his weapons.
"At least it's entertainment while we wait for word." responded Kent and hit the engines to full speed even before the ships were out of their bubble, they had plasma bolts splashing their shields from the trio of Attack Craft.

"This is Deeds, Suicide Kings 1, engaging bogies."

"Roger that, SK 1 engaging UCON bogies, you are weapons free." responded command. the first two ships exploded and the remaining two split, one going up, the other to the right just as the patrol group sped off to pick them up.

1st ODI Division
605th Regiment
Bravo Company
4th Platoon
Lt Mayfield

Mayflield watched the status displays as 3rd Platoon made the drop planet side. A short burst of static announced the ship intercom before the Drop Chief's voice echoed into the room, "4th Platoon clear for operations drop."

Resting his head back against the interior of the SPECTR Matthew closed his eyes and breathed out a long, slow breath. Of all the things he could have done in the Navy he had decided to join ODI. He hated jumping, he always had, something about jumping out of a perfectly good craft and free falling miles to the ground didn't sit well with his logic. It didn't make sense but here he was, commanding a Platoon of men about to be launched out of a Navy ship into a hot zone. He had read of course that long ago the only way to re-enter a planets atmosphere had been to free fall in a contraption that made his SPECTR look like a high end personal elevator, he still wasn't sure if he completely believed that.

"From Heaven we will visit Hell upon them." Matthew spoke firmly into the intercom system.

"At the place of our fall only the dead shall be with out fear." A chorus of voices replied, and a moment later the Drop Chief's silent reply came as the pods launched from the safety of the ship.

It was the silence that got to him the most, the shear and utter silence. The first moments when he was still in space, when even the most heated exchange between super carriers was all cast into a void even as he watched it. It was more peaceful than anything he had experienced outside of war, where peaceful things were said to dwell. Then came the noise.

The first rush of wind was never expected, yanking him out of the surreal and into the violent reality at hand. The sound of the air around him bursting into fire as his vehicle of war plummeted toward the ground. The blackness of space shifted colors as the pod buried itself in the atmosphere. The whole ordeal would be over soon enough though the time spent inside that coffin felt like an eternity to Matthew. He focused on keeping his mind clear, focused on his first steps when the door cracked open and he was spit out into the truth of it all. He gave his mind no freedom to wander, his focus was turned to that of a killing machine, hell bent on completing his mission and returning home with the same amount of men he left with.

The second thing that was never fully expected was the sudden stop.

Matthew, surprised to note that he was more or less in the upright position, unfastened himself and kicked the door release, "Lieutenant Mayfield, 605th Bravo 4th Platoon, planet side and hot."

RHB Wrecked Dreams(-Transmitting Transponder Code: ITN Higashi No Eden-)
Stolen Agano Class Light Cruiser
-----------
Operation: Long Haul(Phase II)
Taiyou Hyperspace Gate

The bridge was a hive of activity. Comms traffic flooded into the small space, and extra crewman had been called up to monitor it. There were wires and taps and recording devices strewn about, all conected to the central Comms Console, which was constantly streaming live traffic to the Combat Control Room on the Everlasting.

They had heard the news, about the attacks on the Orbital Defense Grid. Things were going as predicted. Captain Maynard of the Wrecked Dreams was pleased with his crew, "Perhaps a 1.5% raise in hauls for the crew... I'll talk to the Cap'n about it, how do you like the sound of that?!?"

A loud cheer rose throughout the ship. The Cap'n would give them their raise. Without them, none of this would be possible. They continued streaming data, keeping their waltz with the rest of the supply ships floating around the Hyperspace Gate. Slowly but surely they made their way away from the pack, and towards Sol itself, the inner core. They would drop the ITN Transponder Code halfway through and keep themselves off the grid completely. It would make monitoring traffic more difficult, but they would just be one more civilian merchant ship trying to escape the ravages of war.

Operation: Long Haul Phase III was in affect.


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

RHB Mass Division(-Transmitting Transponder Code: CNS Harriet Liebman -)
Stolen Farriday Class Battleship
1st Red Landing Group
Operation: Long Haul Phase III
Location: Uknown


Their prize loomed ahead of them. Explosions rocked around, and they let the auto turrets run to pick off any 'enemy' ships that strayed too close. Too close to victory. Too close to the completion. They were blending in as one of the many ships called to aid the Terran Orbital Defense Grid, and they posed quite well for a ship that was listed KIA halfway across the galaxy. The entire ship was geared up. Two Squads of Mechanized suits, outfitted with Hull Cutters. The special Chainsaw-esque weapons were made with hardened teeth, bent for one goal: Slicing into the outer hull of Capital ships and lower. Their EMP emitters prevented them from more advanced functions. That, and they were all stolen, salvaged, scrounged and scrapped older models of the newer stuff the UCON, Aschen, and Taiyou employed. The Red Hand Members would argue that it was the pilot that made the suit, and they were about to prove just that.

It was closing in on time.

Ex-Corporal Duncan McCoullough sat in the cockpit of "Dirty Grey" His MICA-Evo. A large pipe hung loosely from his lips, the smoke clouding around since the artifical gravity didn't have too much pull on it. The rest of "Battering Squad" was playing cards on an overturned, emptied crate that once held the massive Hull Cutter that gleamed on his mech's left arm. Today was a good day for some other guy to die. And there would be death...

ITN Kabuki
Shogun class Battleship
CMDT Kenji Tenzai
Operation: Divine Destiny


"I've got several pings on the scanner systems here, the Transponder Code is the Hitagashi no Eden, a code that was locked out years ago." The Young Lieutenant, by the name of Shiro Kobayashi would say. Eyes on the prize for a moment. Bringing his eyes to the Commandant he spoke. "What are your orders, sir?"

"Break from the formation, intercept and engage, I want them destroyed before they compromise our location to the Coalition." He ordered before nodding to several Helm officers whom were all in charge of where the ship was going. This was evidenced by the massive Shogun class Battleship, which was easily twice the size of her older, Yamato counterpart would break from the formation of ships.

"Main engines full speed, forward guns, burst fire, take them out." The Commandant ordered as the Shogun Class moved into position, it's engines engaged, the Hitagashi no Eden wouldn't stand a chance, as the Taiyou Empire locked their transponder codes out whenever they went MIA, it was heartless but it was to protect the collective. All 5.6km of Shogun Battleship moved to engage.

"Target and fire." The Commandant ordered.

Keyboard clacking and the relaying of targeting information would soon be given. The forward guns on the Kabuki would spring to life, slowly and surely rotating on it's turret, cannons subtly adjusting to bear aim, Shogun Battleships were meant for range, and surely it would catch this enemy by surprise.

It was over in seconds, a one-two-three punch from the main guns sent three massive pulses of wave-force energy searing towards the enemy ship. It didn't matter if was a civilian ship, the Taiyou didn't care. Three Blue pulses of energy. Each carrying the equivalent of ten category five hurricanes, each more then capable of punching through the hull of even those of a battleship class. Each pulse seared at the speed of light, targeted for the Wrecked Dreams. Even as they dropped the transponder code, they were still noticed by one Commandant, and he was determined to catch them.

ITN Kaze no Tani
CMDT Ayako Katamura
Shogun Jyunichi
Operation: Divine Destiny
Launch Countdown - 5 Hours

"Are we set for launch, Commandant?" Shogun Jyunichi asked as he stood from his seat on the bridge of this mighty Shokaku class Carrier. Ayako would bow deeply, and show her respect to the Shogun.

"Twenty Five thousand ships, ten thousand of them supply are ready for departure to the Sol system to coordinate with Operation Looming Glacier, we await your order." She said as she bowed deeply to the man.

"I will relay the order to the fleet, so we can launch and arrive when the Aschen carry out operation Looming Glacier." She said and then bowed one last time, promptly ducking out of the Command section of the bridge, and returning to her own section to relay the orders.

"Set the coordinates and spool up the hyper-drive systems, broadcast coordinates to all the ships in the fleet, we enter Hyperspace in five hours."

And with that, the clock was set.

In Orbit around Titan (Jupiters moon)
Aboard The Wraith

"Commander we have an problem, Ashen, UCON and Taiyou forces are fighting over Terra." Reaper said and pointed at a hologram over the system showing all enemy concentrations. "Luckily our stealth systems are fully operational and has been activated." Reapers voice synthesizer was active and made him sound more like a machine than a man. The Commander looked at the hologram and said, "Send a message to the Ashen and Taiyou commanders that they we may have a common goal against the UCON."
"Consider it done commander." Suddenly a officer on the bridge walked up to them and said, "Sir, we have detected an UCON ship in the area what are you orders?"
The Commander thought for a second then said, "Disable it with an EMP then board it."
Both Reaper and the officer said, "Yes sir"

As Reaper came down to the hangarbay he had already ordered 200 troops meet him there. As he walked to the troops they all stood attention as he said, This is a standard boarding mission, you will be equipped with submachineguns and plasma grenades. We will board the ship in ten different boarding ships to complete our missions. That's everything, now board your ships."

As Reaper entered the ship he felt a bit of relief that he was on this mission. He and his squad were tasked with boarding the bridge and capturing the captain for interogation.

As the ship started boarding procedures Reaper readied his gun. When the boarding procedures where done Reaper and his squad entered the ship and began to take down the enemy. The enemies were taken by suprise and didn't last very long. When they arrived at the door to the bridge Reaper took out a plasma grenade and blew up the door. When he walked throught the former door and saw the captain, the captain quickly said, "Me and my crew surrender in exchange for our lives we will provide you information." Reaper went up to the commander and shot him, then he said to his troops, "Erase all evidence that we were here." The troops aimed their guns at the officers on the bridge and fired. After finishing his mission Reaper contacted the other squads to check on their progress, all tasks had been completed so Reaper siad"Start extraction procedure."

RHB Wrecked Dreams
Stolen Agano Class Light Cruiser
-----------
Operation: Long Haul(Phase III)
Taiyou Hyperspace Gate

"Captain! One of the ships is breaking formation and coming directly for us!"

The entire crew shifted into action as one hiveming. Alarms sounded throughout, and all hands manned General Quarters Billets as they prepared evasive manuevers. Maynard stood adamant and scanned readouts of the information,
"Christ, that ship for us? How did they pick us out? We were one among thousands. They would have to have been actively searching for KIA ships to even come across the name!" He shouted, "And we didn't even get to the damn checkpoint yet! Someone tipped them off!" he was furious, but kept cool after his little outburst. Now was the time for survival, not for panic and anger,
"Get auxilliary units to ready escape pods on the port decks! Any engineering available get the Hykano-G series online now, I want 150% performance from engines, route any power available to shields and propulsion!" Maynard was a veteran of several Deep-cover Ops missions, until his command through his file out when his cover blew. He managed to escape then, but never forgot the betrayel, "Sir! The Forward Cannons on the enemy ships are readying! twenty seconds to get our bearing!" One of the Navigators exclaimed,

"Bring us about, show them the Starboard, Move all extra men and women to the port side until we can get behind those asteroids there." He gestured toward a spot on the display. The orders he gave out were answered without question, "Status on Turbine Extensions Boosters?" He demanded, and a voice called out, "135%.." two seconds, "145%" one second, "150% Ready asnd operational!" The voice shouted and Maynard answered with the same tone, "Punch it! I want us out of here, now!"

"Sir the rounds are-" The young man on the RADAR was cut off as the sound of metal ripping intself to pieces, being instantly vaporised, then instantly cooled while atmosphere vented, all in one seongle moment reverberated through the ship. The entire ship lurched forward, and then at a diagonal, throwing several people scrambling, and Maynard against the railing which he white-knuckled. Sparks littered the air and the lights dimmed before coming back online,

"Status report!"

"Hit! Hit! Port quarter and amidships! Fires on decks 135-155Band C! Atmospheric clamps locking down on decks 280-300! Shields at 35%, engines at 130%! We got hit hard, a triple burst shredded like butter! It just barely missed the magazine, sir!"

"Get everyone out of the pods! Set trajectories for those moons there, and send a distress signal, then hail the cruiser that fired on us! I want us moving, now! We will not survive another salvo!" He roared.

The first shot had missed. As the experimental Hykano-G series engines that were installed on top of the ship's normal propulsion had lurched the entire ship forward in a burst, causing the first shot to stray off target. The second shot was slowed by the shields, but made it's way to the Port Quarter, opening a gaping hole and venting hundreds of people into the void. The last round, now compensating for the speed, and with the lack of shields, punched a hole straight through amidships, just forward of the Aft Magazine. If not for the rugged design of the Agano-class cruisers, the entire ship would have split in half. the only thing keeping it together was the force from 30% again the normal engine speed, and the reinforced ribbing. As it was, the groaning of the metal threatning to buckle amidships was a terrible noise to behold. Even amid the smoke and flames on the Bridge, the only respite was watching the green dots indicating escape pods go orange, meaning a succesful launch. If not all the crew, at least some would survive.

A heavily encrypted signal was beamed off several broadcasting satellites, making the intended target, and source unreadable. The signal ended up on the bridge of the Everlasting, and nobody was happy with the news.

Wrecked Dreams was giving full steam, pulling behind several large asteroids in an attempt to outrun the bigger ship, since it was smaller, faster with it's upgraded propulsion, their only hope was getting far enough out of the harasser's range to get the rest of the crew off before self destructing the ship to protect it's encryption algorithms. Even as they floated the banks were being wiped and destroyed, just in case they were boarded, or the files weren't destroyed in the detonation.

It was a last-ditch effort, and a middle finger to the tyranny of the Taiyou Empire.

20th Operations Group
India Unit
105th Support Squdron
Romeo Element
CNS Mercy Provis
Vanguard class Fleet Tender



The backgroup was alight with streaking weapons fire as the battle raged only a hundred klicks away. With the operations in the system reaching a fever pitch in the past several infantile days of the war, both forces had fought with tenacious resolve and almost animalistic brutality. The combat slowed for no man, no matter how wounded or how importrant; both sides of the conflict showed no quarter, and were expected none in return. Already two Aschen Battlestars lay crippled, their spines broken by volleys of liquid metal and ferromagnetic iron that leaped forth from the spinal-cannons of their smaller Coalition opponenets. In the distance, Hotel Element battled furiously with the one remaing Aschen Battlestar and her escorts as two Radegast class Battleships manuevered for their killing strike, explosions and shimmering magnetic fields flowering into the darkness while men and women of the Coalition Navy sacrificied their lives to provide rearmament for the eighty ships on rotation to the supply zone. That was Captain Ikozi's effort in this war, as the commander and leader of Romeo Element's ten Vanguard class Fleet Tenders, it was his duty to keep the titan of the Coalition Navy fueled, armed and effective. At the moment, the Vanguard was ferrying supplies to the two Sentinel class Heavy Carriers that loomed nearby; carbon scarring and molten T-92 armor pock-marked along the hull of the mighty Geresia and Mandalar Sweep. The tension on the bridge could be sliced with a knife as sirens wailed, collision alerts flared and the shipboard AI fought desperately to make it all understandable to the thirty-two humans who operated the ship to the best of their ability. While Ikozi would have prefered the ship, and those looking for replenishment, were stationary his wishes could not be granted. Hurtling through the blackness around the gas giant at nearly three thousand kilometers an hour the Mercy Provis and the ten other vessels attached to her hull were fighting time and the enemy simaltaneously. His crew showed it.

"Captain, the Ryger is attempting to break their lines!" A young Ensign from Engineering shouted from his station fifteen meters below. A holotank nearby flickered to life, seconds earlier displaying corrections to the trajectory that would bring the entire refueling zone behind the mass of Jupiter, quickly showed a line diagram of the Ryger, a Biko class Battlecruiser, down it's starboard line winking red lights appeared. Those holographic lights represented the airlock teethers that kept ammunition and supplies flowing from the Provis into the ship. Quickly, Ikozi would have to act as he lunged for his PDA and keyed himself into the Ryger's communique.
"Captain, the hell do you think you're doing?!" He shouted, though his voice carried pathetically over the already chaotic shouting and yelling of the bridge, his intensity could be heard by any who paid close attention. The Captain of the Ryger, one Captain Ambrosse, was quick to respond.
"We're breaking contact, Provis, get your crew the hell out of our ship and we'll leave room for someone who needs it more!" The Captain was being a god-damn hero, the Ryger was one of the first vessels to be struck in the first wave against Terra. Ikozi had no picture on hand, but he distinctly remembered the Ryger limping into the refit zone with a massive tear annihilating her port side, carving clear through the armor and leaving a nasty wound of shorn metal and carbonized armor to the deadliness of the vacuum. Amazingly, however, most of the Ryger's weapons were functional; through whatever stroke of luck that had been, Ikozi was certain that luck alone wouldn't carry the crew any longer.
"Ambrosse, are you insane?! You've got your hole fucking structure exposed and in the open! You can't go into a fight with that!" Ikozi felt immense respect, or perhaps pity, for the man. Ambrosse had become somewhat of a notable figure in the Navy, having volunteered himself for an almost suicide run against a fortified Halo station in the Frontiers with a poorly trained crew, an outdated frigate and a damaged AI.
"Look out there, Provis, they're getting chewed to hell and they need help!" With that, the Ryger had severed itself from whatever help the Provis could offer. Two M87 dropships, retrofitted to provide quick and effective supply dispersal amongst the numerous ships in the refit zone, zipped away from the Ryger as it began its full burn around the prow of the fleet tender and speared directly for the battle. In the distance, a single explosion announced one more Coalition ship felled by the Aschen Battlestar, and another after a full broadside from its deadly compliment of anti-ship weaponry. For every Coalition ship that died in the depths of vacuum, however, the crews and Captains of the remaining ships fought ten times harder. Whether it was out of fear, want of revenge, or just plain bloodlust the Scatterran race was notorious for, they fought.
"Ryger ... Ryger! God dammit Ambrosse!"

"Sir, the Annie Dusoc is requesting permission to detach also!" The Annie Dusoc, a Sigma cruiser, was much more prepared to charge into battle. With only one of the two 6.3 meter EMRC cannons lined along its spine damaged by a collision with a Terran fighter, the Dusoc fared ten times better than the crippled Ryger and her Captain. A twinkle then bleep of another holodisplay beside Ikozi sprang to life, displaying a video link to the bridge of the Sigma cruiser where the entire crew stood at attention and the Captain erect with his arms behind his back.
"Captain Ikozi, this is Captain Kirora of the Annie Dusoc ... " This was unnecessary, but Ikozi understood the mind of a combat Captain. He saw Ambrosse limping away from the tender, saw that even in such a poor condition a fellow Captain was willing to fight and die.
"Let us loose now, we'll go finish that fight before the Ryger can crawl within a hundred klicks of it." Kirora was a stout man, barely breaking six feet in his full boots, but the young commander looked more than ready for combat. While Ikozi had been preparing to fix the damage to the starboard 6.3 meter with one of the few repair drones that remained in the bay of the Provis, Ikozi shot one glance directly to the Captain, and then to a sensor relay diplsaying the Ryger slowly crawling out of the kilometer radius of the Mercy Provis. He damned his situation, damned the Navy for organizing this support zone in this sector and at this time.
" ... Alright, detach and get in that fight, Captain. I want you to rip their fucking throats out for everyone they've killed today." He raised his voice as several Cricket pilots began shouting through the communique about a shell tram getting jammed en route to a small frigate attached to the starboard side of the Mercy.
"Understood, Captain, I'd be honored to." With that, the Captain saluted and killed the link, leaving Ikozi in a state of hesistant silence before he was once again swept up with the flurry that was the bridge.




Refit Platform E-6

"Keep those three Destroyers, release that Robotics Cruiser and let that Guided Missile one in -- Go go go!" Lieutenant Commander Josephine Anbarnham had to practically scream into the Engineers helmet as she pulled herself along the vacuumed bay leading out to the refit platforms that dotted the bulk of the Provis. Through her tinted visor, the Lieutenant Commander viewed the first in a long line of ships with direct sight as they slowly edged their way to the Provis like young animals to the teat. Bright flashes of light signified the Captain pulsing the plasma thrusters in microsecond bursts to correct the trajectories before they were greeted with the sweet embrace of the Provis airlock boom. A dull rumble coursed through the recycling air of the Lieutenant Commanders helmet that drew her sight out into the void beyond, in tandem two Roucart Light Destroyers rumbled through the formation, engines burning hot as they sprang from the blackness and then rolled into the blackness once more. The two must've been bound for the engagement barely three hundred klicks away, judging by how much ass they were hauling. From what Anbarnham had heard before departing the bridge, she doubted two Light Destroyers would make much difference. However, if this mood of "War Hero" infected even more Captains, the amount of ships certainly would. The Provis was currently tending to four Atea class Frigates, a Heimdall class Battlecruiser, four Balius class Guided Missile Cruisers, and six Atlas class Destroyers on her starboard rigs; she didn't even debate how many were linked to the port rigs.

"El-Cee, RefCon says we've got a fuckin' battleship coming in. Says it's pretty beat up -- " The Engineer tasked with assisting the Lieutenant Commander as she did her best to make top from bottom of this logistical square dance offered her a PDA. On that tiny screen a line diagram of the CNS Ishoro was etched with swathes of red boxes and dark yellow dashes, red being heavy damage and yellow being medium. No green was represented, even in the compartments where the bridge would be located. Bile, suspended in her insides from the zero gee, attempt to fight its way upward as her guts were suddenly the victim of some unknown force of gravity. How the hell could anyone even pilot that thing, let alone survive in it long enough to get it here? Anbarnham had heard stories of crews managing to get their heavily wounded ship into port, listened to sailors at night talk of how they had seen ships shorn clear of their engines that had used inert-jet reserves or jettisoned their water supplies to bump them into a Slipspace jump after buttoning up whatever they could.
"Sonuvabitch ... that thing is beat up." Anbarnham muttered to herself, the Engineer beside her glancing out into the vacuum as a Cricket dropship zoomed for the platform with two Akralus freighting drones pulling a loose vee formation behind the M87. The bulky tail boom of the Cricket augmented itself to lower it in preparation for landing, a massive chunk of T-92 armor, scorched and charred from countless hits.








20th Operations Group
Task Force Oscar
105th Squadron
CNS Deliverance
Farriday class Battleship[/i]



A shudder rocked the hull of the Deliverance, announcing another volley of the spinal-mounted 9.1 meter railcannons. In the darkness of the command bridge, Captain Iden Volpe felt a rush of adrenaline as he watched the holographic targeting display fall upon the crippled Battlestar that was attempting to limp behind the mass of a derelict Sentinel class Heavy Carrier, hoping to use the dead corpse of its Coalition enemy as a shield from the hammer and anvil that was the 105th Squadron . A group of nearly twenty Battleships alongside a heavy screen of battlecruisers and light destroyers, with a healthy complement of five remaining Heavy Carriers. Captain Volpe was the commander of the Battleship Strike Group attached to the carrirers, providing an even heavier amount of firepower to complement the Sentinel's in their foray toward the center of the Sol system. With the bulk of Terra's orbital secured by Coalition forces in the system, with a total of nearly one thousand and three hundred vessels, the heavier arms of the 20th OG were now dedicated to eradictating any Taiyou or Confederation groups that still posed a major threat. With Terra effectively cut off from Aschen or Taiyou reinforcements, Admiral Savage had given distinct orders to keep the lid screwed tight on the little blue marble; it was the job of the Marines to take the ground, it was the Navy's to take away the chances of them losing it. The orders had been parsed, the entire fleet understood exactly what it needed to accomplish; with those orders the heavier craft were divided amongst specialized groups to perform bait-and-switch missions, enticing the obvious guerilla tactics of the Aschen vessels with lightly armed dummy convoys and then trapping them between a hammer and anvil.

This specific conflict was taking place nine hundred kilometers from the epicenter of an asteroid belt that separated the system into two disctinct "halves", many Coalition officers would have been very wary of utilizing this location; in part because just as many advantages it gave them, it gave the Aschen as well. However, those advantages were discintly with Coalition at the moment, fighting fiercely with their backs to the asteroid belt the Confederation vessels were pinned between the hurtling rocks on one end and the pinpoint artillery fire from the UCON ships. The two Aschen Battlestars the 105th Squadron had cornered would be hard pressed to manuever in the asteroid field while also retreating from the lopsided battle. Several ten-ship strike groups were weaving close in toward the last Aschen aggressors, to distract them for as long as possible while the first of ten battleships manuevered to launch one attack designed to break the spines of both ships. With the Aschen escorts effectively neutralized, there were only three or four escorts between the larger Battlestars, meaning that the strike groups were capable of attacking with little discrimination on whatever target they could see. In the far corner several Asault Frigates unleashed a broadside against a crippled Aschen destroyer, the vessel buckling and its shields failing from the impact before issuing a scorching detonation from its reactors as a shell pinned itself deep within before detonating with a small nuclear yield.

"Captain, we are in position -- ready and waiting for firing selections!" An Ensign from Weapons delivered the message before returning to his console, the four others beside him working as effectively as possible to aid the on-board AI, which at the moment was preparing a line of mathematics to feed into the targeting sensors for the turrets and artillery that would be present in the volley. Along with the dual, spinal-mounted 9.1 meter railcannons one of the Deliverance's 250 inch cannons would be present to the Battlestar group. While the 250 inch would be contained in a spinal-mount on any smaller vessels, the massive turret-housing of the cannon gave the Farriday class the ability to have not only one capital-ship weapon, but two. In the next several minutes Captain Kyle Alemadas recieved the same confirmation from the other five battleships in the group that were aligning themselves to release one deadly fusillade against the crippled Aschen Battlestars, which were now pushing themselves even closer and closer to the deadly belt of rocks that could mulch their vessels in the blink of an eye.
"Captain Alemadas, we have confirmation from the CNS Distance and the CNS Righteous Trinity with preparation to fire. All weapons are locked and prepared." Alemadas inhaled deeply as the main airscreen was occupied with a live feed from a prow-mounted hypercam. Magnified to nearly thirty magnification, the scarred hulls of the Aschen Battlestars were seen in crystal clarity while the smaller Coalition vessels zipped past, leaving lines of directed plasma boiling through the plating of the crippled Aschen leviathans. With their shields failed, their escorts occupied and their weapons effectively useless against the smaller Coalition ships, they were practically free to attack them as seen fit.
"Fire at will!" Captain Alemadas shouted, the lighting of the bridge dimming from a energy tranfser as the first of nearly ten 360 inch railcannons launched their payload toward the Aschen vessels. Across the darkness of space, the Aschen ships were struck with the full force of the heavy slugs, pocking the otherwise silent blankness of space with blinding mushrooms of 4 kiloton nuclear warheads detonating.







[b]5th Marine Division
3rd Regiment
5th Battalion
Delta Company
Terra



"Check left -- clear." The Corporal grumbled as he stomped through the alleyway, his MR-18G levelled into his shoulder as the optical sight illuminated anything in his weapons sights with pinpoint precision. Beside him, several other Marines manuevered with their rifles trained forward, the squad of sixteen Marines sliced through the alleyway to short-cut the barricade erected by enemy forces blocking them from Embassy Row. While the armor component of Delta company, four SV-9 Claymore's and another four HA-74 Tarantula's, was stuck absorbing the fire from a majority of the remaining American and Aschen forces while the Marines disembarked their vehicles and cut their way through the alleyways. While Captain Ishikala, commander of Delta, was assured that most of the American soldiers would dedicate their weaponry to the Claymore's and other armor, he was also a compotenent soldier, knowing full well that the Americans and their Aschen comrades had been allowed several hours to prepare their defenses while waiting for the inevitable push by 5th Battalion to seize Embasy Row an keep anyone from effectively coordinating resistance in the city.
"Right's clear, embassy's just out past that knick-knack shop. Delta Squad is oscar-mike, over." Staff Sergeant Ricoza keyed into his communique while edging his squad closer and closer to the open ground of embassy row. In the distance, the crack and bark of gunfire announced an intensified effort from the American forces to stem the casualties inflicted by the Coalition's superior weaponry and vehicles. A smear of black smoke stained the air with a bitter taste of burning oil and shattered electronics, Ricoza had noticed a burned out American light vehicle on their approach to the embassy several hours ago.

"Delta squad be heads-up, you've got a target rich environment ... " The static exploding from his headset signified only one thing, two if he counted the formidable jamming the Americans had employed throughout the entire district to hamper the abilities of the Coalition, that the ten M99 Annihilator gunships they had been assigned for air support had been forced into nothing better but simple reconnaissance in the face of American and Aschen AA rigged somewhere through Embassy Row.
"Charlie and Bravo are oscar-mike and india-foxtrot likewise, Delta. Suggest you try and locate those Triple-Acks before making your push on for the embassy." The muttled voice of the Annihilator pilot had to fight through a considerable stream of radiation that hobbled the efforts of every Coalition communications relay in a square kilometer. Crouching beside a stack of tires, Ricoza cocked his head forward as a blast of gunfire, too loud to be small arms fire, erupted from an adjacent alleyway down the street and spat a line of bright white tracers into the sky. While the close proximity of buildings in Wing City prevented launching dedicated anti-air missiles, save from the dangerously exposed top of a roof, the Americans had shown adaptability by utilizing several decomissioned anti-aircraft emplacements and simply keeping the Annihilators from drawing too close to bring their formidable firepower down on top of them. Even though the Coalition had air dominance, meaning any non-UCON craft could expect nothing but a missile up its rear-end, that didn't mean there wasn't danger flying close-in. With the M99's reduced to more eyes-in-the-skies, it was now a ground-war between the Marines and the Americans.
"Alright, let's get moving -- AirCav's lit up a Triple A just across the street. Who took the '91? Shandas?" Ricoza muttered, waiting for Shandas to waddle his way from the rear of the squad and issue the GL-91 Anti-tank rifle off his shoulder.
"Yessir, Ess-Ess-Gee. Locked cocked 'nd ready to drop the stock." He issued a crisp "'Ell Yah" while yanking back the chunky bolt of the anti-tank rifle and revealing a sleek 60 millimeter Amplamine-Res explosive warhead. While there were several 8 pound Amplamine charges between the sixteen man squad, Ricoza would still prefer annihilating the anti-air with a quick blast from the GL-91 rather than rigging it with A-charges and then bouncing to the next one.
"Alright, get ready to rock, Marines." Ricoza said before bringing up the second fireteam commander, Sergeant Allan Rachland, and quickly pointed to the T99 Kuriko PDW rigged in a sling over his shoulder.
"You'll be with the eighteen-gees, you see anyone moving to fire you give 'em hell, understand Sergeant?" His breathing was taxed, having previously hauled his sixteen men across three square kilometers before finally allowing himself and the others to rest. Beside him, Sergeant Rachland was slightly heaving, having to draw a bandana emblazoned with the striking blade of the 5th Battalion to dab at his sweat-slicked face.
"You got it, Ess-Ess, we'll drop any stupid fucker that's dumb enough to pop his head up."



"Sergeant, fire into the window!" Ricoza barely had enough time to locate the machine-gun fixed in a open window before it opened up on his small group, three Marines beside him huddling themselves closer into the overturned pickup and hunkering down while doing their best to return fire. Corporal Callieckas shouted something about stepping too far into the street before a bullet tore through the metal chassis of the vehicle and silenced him, illiciting several curses from him as he hunkered down closer to the ground.
"God ddddaaammmnn! Where's Rachland?!" He screamed, jutting his MR-18 over the edge of the pick-up and unleashing a barrage toward the entrenched position. Beside him, Specialist Noriega was struggling even harder to utilize his ECR-10 to gain a better shot than his comrade.
"Hold it steady ... hold it -- dammit!" The Specialist was forced back into cover, barely missing a duo of rounds that could have easily killed him had he not seen the swivel of the American machinegun.
"These guys have balls, man! I catch ona' these assholes on the floor I swear I'm putting two in his face!" Specialist Noriega cursed as he fixed his weapon to the ground and withdrew his Lashkav, the compact weapon wielded with ease in his hand as he sprayed a blind flurry over the top of the pickup. Corporal Callieckas was preparing a 40 millimeter grenade, fixing the charge into the underbarrel magnetic-launcher fixed beneath his MR-18 with a quick hand.
"Fuck this, if Rachland's gonna' let us sit out here with our asses in the wind I'm dying like a real fuckin' man -- " The machinegun was silenced by a spectacular shower of bright plasma and burning light as a silver beam lanced from the cover of a nearby sedan and into the gaping window. In a split second the entrenched team was vaporized by boiling ions and hyperconcentrated light that reduced the entire window into a bubbling, carbon-scared wound. Chunks of molten stucco and brick dropped and clattered to the ground with a loud splat as the three men regained themselves from the defeaning sonic boom following the impact.
"Holy shit ... I've never seen a tee-ninety-nine fire before." Corporal Callackies was working one pinkie into his ear as he fixed the loose bandana securing his hair closely to his scalp.
"Well, ya' seen one go off. Get your ass in gear, we've got some more shit to blow up -- Rachland, move your squad up!" Staff Sergeant Ricoza shouted as he disembarked from his cover and began to worm his way forward down the street.






2nd Armored Regiment
7th Battalion
Alpha Platoon
2nd Section
SV-9 Claymore "Blackjack"




"Go, nononono -- wait, yeahyeahyeahyeah!" Sergeant Urasi shouted as the Claymore rolled over the broken wreckage of a sedan, only barely avoiding the four Jumpers that had been hiding themselves behind it seconds earlier. After picking up the six platoons of Bravo company, 2nd Section had been rolled up with the rest of the Battalion in assaulting the powerplant two miles out of Wing City. In a desperate attempt to hasten the attack, the bulk of the platoon had simply commited to the assault with half-collected crews, a myriad of Marine and other units being conscripted from their original objectives and pressed into the attack due to proximity alone. Fortunately enough, 2nd Section had collected it's full complement of sixty-four Orbital Drop Infantry and was given the full protection of 3rd platoon on their assault on the east gate of the powerplant complex. Fighting for a swath of industrial parks that spanned eight kilometers, the bulk of the platoons two-hundred vehicles were assaulting the heavier defended north and west gates, while 2nd Section had been tasked with breaking the weakest link of the chain, unfortunately out of the entire platoon they were the least armed as well.
"Urasi, what the fuck do you mean?!" Specialist Jarras shouted, cranking the wheel yet again to avoid another vehicle, this time a burned out Terran police car that had been unfortunate enough to be rolling when the first 105 millimeter cannon armed SV-9's rolled through the street on its attack vector. Most of the fortifications that Alpha platoon faced were occupied by Terran Defense Force personnel, some intelligence had also reported several American combat teams attached to the TDF and ARMARX forces holding the powerplant. The ruined police cruiser groaned as its brittle structure was forced into the ground by the rolling tires of the Claymore, which quickly fought to regain its leverage before Urasi depressed the triggers of the dual 30 millimeter cannons. The fiber-optic targeting system allowed Urasi to fire the armaments of the GCV from within the safety of the bulwarked armor.

"I said drive this fucking can without getting us killed!" Urasi shouted before delivering a long burst to a pillbox of sandbags and concrete blocks that housed a ARMARX anti-tank launcher, the hyperconductive slugs tore through any defenses the Terrans had constructed, mulching the launcher and its crew in a gory spray of bloodied mist and shredded metal.
"Dammit -- Rookhead, where the hell are you?! I lost track of the Captain, what the hell you go on your screen?!" Jarras shouted, ignoring Urasi's brutish comment as he did his best to manuever himself over another barricade, this one slightly better prepared. Two overturned cars supporter by concrete blocks and several rope, however ineffectual Jarras gave a curt nod to his Terran counterparts, they sure knew how to deal with an invasion. Throttling the Claymore, he quickly jammed his way through the blockade before stopping and quickly throwing the vehicle into reverse.
"Shit -- Urasi, A-T gun! Fuckin' kill it!"




1st ODI Division
605th Regiment
Bravo Company
3rd Platoon
Liutenant Archer



"Dammit -- Fourth platoon, come in? Fourth platoon, where's your Cee-and-Cee?" Lieutenant Archer was practically shouting into the headset as he fought to maintain his voice above the gunfire. Already the Drop Infantry had run into problems at the east gate of the powerplant, while Archer and the rest of his sixty-four detachment had relative ease making it to the gates of the industrial park, he was hard pressed to make any advances into the complex without the armor support, which was stuck back behind a metaphorical gauntlet of barricades and anti-tank emplacements. While Archer had done his best to eliminate as many they came across as possible, he was well aware that the armor had been dispersed over a three hundred meter arc in their assault on the gate, the commander having less of a mind to split his forces and tell them to find the quickest way possible. The illegitimacies of waging a war infuriated the Liuentenat, that and his incapability to make contact with Lieutenant Mayfield, commander of 4th platoon and the adjacent outfit that was supposed to be making a move on the east gate along with 3rd, was only driving him farther and farther into frustration. With only two platoons dispatched to aid the Claymores in cracking this tough nut that was the east gate, Archer furiously disengaged the communique, leaving one simply suggestion for Lieutenant Mayfield if he happened to be on the same course he would be soon.
"BREAKING THE GATE, SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE"


"Let's roll, third platoon!" Archer quickly regained his combat mentality, which was fairly easy to do as one of the first Claymore's rolled past a barricade and unleased a burst of 30 millimeter cannon-fire on a Terran light vehicle. The car buckled and exploded from eighty rounds penetrating its engine block in a split second and flowered into a brilliant explosion that brought night into day, Archer's visor polarized in an attempt to maintain his night vision, before just as quickly cooling.
"Woo-hoo! Shoulda' joined the armor! Y'see what they did to those guys?!" Sergeant Foleys was waving his hands through the air as he flagged the Claymore down, Archer ran one eye over the vehicle, noticing that the Claymore belonged to the 2nd Section and was known as the "Oscar".
"Foleys! Get us a hole, we need to get that Claymore in there ASAP. Something tells me Mayfield will be close behind if the armor is already through, let's put out a welcome mat for 'em." Archer quickly shouldered his GL-91 and grabbed for his MR-18 attached to his shoulder plating. Moving to escort Sergeant Foley and his heavy-weapons squad as they moved about placing a myriad of AMP-charges across the gate of the complex, which was something akin to giant concrete slab along a trundle system that served to keep those that weren't allowed out. Sergeant Foleys and his sixteen-man squad were going to quickly remedy this, however. Sergeant Foley was stomping along the line as the Drop Infantry fixed their AMP-charges to strategic locations and then began drawing back toward the rest of the platoon which had formed a halo around the Claymore.


"Alrighty, El-Tee, we're ready ta' light that ol' slab up like a Indie-Day firework! Give the go!" Foleys was quickly hauling back toward the Claymore with two other Jumpers in tow behind him, Archer was quickly granted permission to detonate the warheads and crouched behind a concrete barricade. Activating a small radio transmitter mounted into his forearm guard, Archer waited until the last of 3rd platoon had found sufficient cover before pressing a single touch-pad key in his glove and detonating the charges in one single concussive blast. For a split second the world remained dark before being illuminated by the AMP-charges and spraying a fine mist of vaporized concrete particles and throwing massive broken chunks onto the asphalt. Archer was quick to react, simply peeling his back from the concrete slab and approaching for the gate with his weapon raised.
"Let's move, third platoon. First to fight."

Aschen High Space Command
SOLCOM 1st Main fleet
AHSC 'CNV - Emblem of Divinity'
Spearhead and Purge
CNV - SuperCarrier
Current Strength - 12,873 Vessels

Staring out the bridge of this 11 mile long behemoth of a Fleet hub, Admiral Peter Corman would be watching the battle unfold on long range DRADIS. He really didn't have much faith in the Aschen's Vangard force, but since the Main fleet had arrived Augmented with the 403rd Supply Division, and carrying the supplies of an entire offensive. The CNV Emblem of Divinity was a beacon of hope to the beaten and haggared remains of the Aschen's SOLCOM Vangard fleet. Bearing into the fight at 11 miles in length, backed up by over ten thousand ships. The Entirety of SOLCOM, minus the Vangard fleet would be bearing down on the Coalition. They had coordinated carefully with the Taiyou Empire in this moment of desperation, with Adar's statement going un-noticed the decision was made to keep fighting, as the Taiyou had begun to show signs of willingness to negotiate. It was coordinated to be a grand Hammer-and-anvil attack to smash the Coalition forces in the area with overwhelming Taiyou and Aschen coordination. The Emblem of Divinity coarsed alongside her escorts, roughly three thousand Battlestars of various classes, and nine other CNV's this included the CNV; Dante, the CNV; Enlightenment, and several others dispersed out in an arrohead formation, allowing her transports to move too and from the Reverences and Battlestars in the fleet, providing them with weaponry and supplies for the offensive ahead. Slowly, the Aschen SOLCOM Fleet pushed past the outer orbital area of Pluto, specks of ships emerging onto whatever scanner systems the Coalition had employed, the Aschen entirety of SOLCOM outnumbering the Coalition vessels in the Terran System at least ten to one. The Aschen counting on the Taiyou coordination to swiftly put an end to the Coalition stranglehold on Terra, and push them out of the system for good.

"We've lost a majority of the Vangard force that attempted to push into Terra." Lieutenant Siler would say as he turned to Admiral Corman, then his gaze was brought out the bridge of the immense CNV, the flagship of the twelve thousand ships employed by the entirety of Aschen's SOLCOM. Supply ships humming back and fourth, signifying the flurry of activity in this massive Aschen offensive.

"Langara is supposed to be dispatching the 2nd Tal'Dor defense fleet to aid us, an additional 10,000 ships, 3,000 of them combat capable." Corman explained as he tacked off the numbers on his star chart. "They are also going to set a trap at Tal'dor, but this battle will hopefully never reach Tal'dor."

Corman then brought his gaze to the Executive Officer of the entire offensive. "Ensure all supply ships have distributed their goods, I want CNVs in tactical support formations, Omega cannons primed for engagement, we're going to round up the damaged Battlestars and drydock them, while we push the Coalition away from Terra. Spool the FTL Drives for jump. Coordinates are as set." He ordered as the fifty thousand man crew of the CNV Geared for lockdown, Reverence class PACs joined the formation, spooling their drives and preparing to jump directly into the thick of combat. With the position of Coalition vessels known, the Aschen would rely on the intel provided by the now destroyed Vanguard fleet to coordinate their strikes.

"Admiral, the 1st Shogunate Armada has entered Hyperspace in the Epsilon Eridani system and will be here within the half-centar. We'll commence our offensive to draw the Coalition lines towards us while the Taiyou jump in rear, and engage." A Young Lieutenant explained as the Admiral nodded.

"Coordinates locked, all transports accounted for.... jump."

Suddenly all twelve some thousand Aschen capital ships would vanish from their spots in flashes of bright white light, glimmers in the distance. They were performing a combat-jump into the hotzone that was Coalition space around Terra. Each division of SOLCOM was handed a special set of coordinates, the CNVs were to hang back and utilize their Hyperdense Space-artillery platforms to lay waste to larger slower moving ships. While Reverences provided medium range support, allowing Battlestars and her fighter compliments to move to engage.

"Sir we've completed our jump, all our fleet is accounted for." A Lieutenant explained as the entirety of SOLCOM placed itself just 25,000 klicks outside Terra's moon, all ten CNV's would have jumped in a wide crescent formation, their assigned Reverences and Battlestars locked and loaded for battle. With the CNVs acting as supply hubs, ships that were damaged could return for rearm and repair.

Now in the thick of battle, the wreckage was made evident. Admiral Corman narrowing his eyes and the now coming about Coalition ships. "Let's do this." He said before getting on the radio. "All ships, weapons free." He ordered, then turned to his weapons officer, nodding the order was disseminated. And so, the first shots in the second battle would be made evident, as the Emblem of Divinity scored a direct hit on a Coalition Heavy Carrier, sending it's hyperdense near-singularty armament to render thick armored plating to slag, the weapon deployed piercing the ship like a lance through a piece of fruit, leaving a deadly wake of ionized gas, gravitic anomalies, and molten slag in it's wake. This was followed up by the battle-charged Reverences to fan out amongst the Coalition fleet, one Reverence dancing with a Farriday Class battleship, slinging it's heavy weapons back and fourth as Coalition heavy weaponry played havoc on shields and armor alike, bluish-white explosions rocking the 'Sublime Transcendence' with it's compliment of weaponry, much like the Reverence cutting swathes of molten slag much like a welder does to his metal through the hull of it's enemy. Commander Pendergast, of the Sublime Transcendence would keep his crew tightly working, while the AI Fired shot after shot of powerful energy weapons towards the target.

Even as the Farriday would succumb to the Reverence, as the Reverence carved the Battleship up like a christmas ham. The Reverence was not spared it's share of damage, with pockmarks of molten slag and carbonized trinnium gouging black holes in it's metallic finish. The Sublime Transcendence had earned it's small victory, showing the Aschen the Coalition were not invincible.

Rather the battle was now the Aschen's, signified by their fierce and renewed charge, using the powerful singularity cannons on the ten CNVs positioned in a crescent formation to pummel the Coalition ships from afar. Admiral Corman would be satisfied with the results of his offensive. However casualties would begin to mount, as the blown out hulk of the Emblem of Thanatos, a Reverence class Carrier, impacted the armored hull of the Emblem of Divinity. Causing the crew to feel a slight jerk. But Corman trusted the CNV's 3mm and 5mm Anti-ship guns to hurl dense slugs at high-velocities, punching holes in the smaller Coalition vessels, the ten massive CNV's maintained a curtain of flak, Anti-ship rounds, and singularity charges from their main guns to push their offensive.

"Sitrep!" Admiral Corman shouted, just as the brilliant flash of a singularity tearing a Robotics cruiser in two would register on visuals.

"Sir, the Singularity cannon is beginning to overheat, we cannot maintain this volley, other CNVs are reporting their singularity guns are overheating. Our kill count is climbing, but so is our casualty count. We also have reports of badly damaged Battlestars that need to drydock.. at this point the fight could go either way." The Lieutenant explained as the CNV Rocked violently from a broadside at the hands of a Sentinel Class Heavy Carrier. "Sir, we have massive hull damage in starboard sectors, we're getting gutted!" The Lieutenant panicked as the CNV Shuddered and groaned from the charge. Then the CNV Would be gutted even more so as the CNV Athenian Philosophy gutted the Sentinel with a well placed shot from it's Main gun. Resulting in the whole starboard half of the Emblem of Divinity to be rendered asunder, resulting in the ship spiraling out of control. "Coordinate.. I want some Battlestars forming up on me." He said. All while the Battlestar Helios would be seen limping towards a nearby CNV. Corman was not satisfied, as the lieutenant was right. The Battle could go either way at this point.

And that was truth, as he watched the CNV Triumphant go up in a brilliant explosion from a Coalition charge, sending Battlestars and Reverences alike hurling out of control, sending Debris which impacted a Reverence, and split it in three, resulting in it going up in a series of vivid blue explosions.

It seemed the Aschen were at least pushing a hard stalemate, hoping either the Taiyou Would show up, or the Tal'Dor fleet could tip the balance. This was everything Corman had, and he was not about to let the Coalition know that.

----


Imperial Taiyou Navy
1st Shogunate Armada
ITN Hōshō
Epsilon Eridani to Saturn
Operation: Divine Destiny
Strength: 25,000 Ships
Shogun Class Battleship


Shogun Hakuro would be standing against the metal bridge railing of his Shogun Class Battleship Staring at the 15,000 Combat capable Taiyou ships, everything from Shokakus, to Zuikakus, to Patrol Boats and destroyers, and the ten thousand supply ships that kept the juggernaut of the Taiyou Shogunate Offensive oiled and sailing. Staring out he would speak up. "Today is the day that Destiny has promised us. Our ships are fully supplied and armed, and now we will sever the Coalition's hold on Terra like the Katana's edge." The Shogun explained as the Epsilon Eridani Star loomed in his bridgeport. Taiyou supply transports entering and exiting hyperspace as part of a long supply chain back through the gate to Niihama, which only got longer and longer. This logisitical shortcoming was remedied by a new Taiyou ship. It was designed to be a portable Hyperspace Gate, allowing the Taiyou a direct line into the heart of the Terran System, as the Shogunate Armada sailed fourth. Supply ships would use this hyperspace gate to move supplies too and from the Taiyou fleet, at each system, the fleet would stop, resupply, and move to the next point. What steeled the Shogun was Epsilon Eridani was the last supply head. And now the Taiyou were going to drive into the heart of the Sol System. Joining their Aschen Comrades to put an end to Coalition oppression on the planet.

"Hyperspace coordinates set... My Lord, we are ready to join the fight." A Lieutenant Helmsman said as the Shogun stood up and spoke aloud, "Tora! Tora! Tora!" And the Taiyou Ship jumped fourth, lurching into the envelope of Hyperspace as it's course plotted it directly towards Saturn, and the Coalition holdings there. Much like Pearl Harbor, years prior, the Taiyou showed up without warning. The initial wave of Tengu starfighters soared from the Shokaku and Zuikaku class carriers a parsec away, Shogun Battleships forming a wide arc as they began pummeling the Coalition holdings from extreme range. The attack was onset fast, starting with a bombardment from the Shogun Battleship's powerful Wave-force cannons. Naginata and Fuso class ships spread out, and began to light off their guns at a nearby Coalition fleet tender. Pelting it with a combination of Railguns, and Wave-force energy which shredded through hulls and pockmarked armor. But the Taiyou would incur their own casualties. Coalition forces defending the supply stations that orbited the gas giant would be met with Kamikaze runs from crippled Taiyou ships. A Radegast class battleship impaled by a Taiyou Naginata class cruiser, only to be torn apart seconds later as the Naginata's Cold fusion engines went critical, and the entire ship detonated in a 75 megaton explosion. The Taiyou used fast-attack tactics, along with hit-and-run against the defending forces of the supply hub, allowing the Shoguns, the Kongōs, and the Kawachi class Battleships fan out to engage the larger Coalition vessels, taking hits and dishing out hits.

The Attacks from the Carriers would continue, as they projected Kamikaze fighters, Tengu fighters, and Banzai fighters coupled with Nakajima and Mitsubishi type bombers which deployed photon and nuclear ordinance upon smaller Coalition ship screens. The Taiyou fleet was acting like a wall which descended upon the Supply hub. The Taiyou's aim in this operation was to sever the Coalition's supply lines, allowing the Aschen to 'cross the T' and the Taiyou to prepare their forces for a ground invasion. Already, the battle had begun to teeter in the Aschen's favor, moment by moment as the Taiyou Armada descended upon the Coalition Supply hub, laying waste to everything that stood in it's way. Though the Taiyou incurred significant losses, they churned on, forward to Jupiter, and eventually the Asteroid belt where Terra lay for the siezing. Of course by now the Taiyou force was haggared after their offensive. The fleet would come to a stop, as the Hyperspace gate arrived, allowing the ship to replenish it's supplies, and send damaged ships back for repair.

1st ODI Division
605th Regiment
Bravo Company
4th Platoon
Lt Mayfield

4th Platoon moved quickly toward their objective, the east gate. They had been ordered in to a hot drop but had seen little in the way of initial fighting. The men moved in tight fire teams, each acting like a cell in the over all group. Mayfield was making good time considering their trajectory seemed to have put them about half a mile off target, which may have explained the lack of combat in the area.

As they continued the hostile presence grew, and with it their pace slowed until they were nearly on top of the original DZ and at a stand still. "Eden, take your fire team north and get us a new line of fire up. Bower and Kimble take that third story balcony for support. Master Chief!" Mayfield turned to the man standing a few yards behind him. "You're south bound. Lets move people, Third is waiting for us and we don't want them to have all the fun."

Taking up a position just outside of the intersection that would have served as their drop zone Mayfield began laying down fire with his Nano Rifle. The twenty two soldiers that remained with him did the same, drawing most of the attention their way as the rest of the teams made their way quickly to their designated area. Sargent Eden's fire team was the first to open up from the north, followed quickly by the sound of two MR20 anti-material rifles began picking off targets. The sudden increase in lines of fire threw the Terran force off balance which is exactly what the Jumpers needed to get their foot in the door, and once they started moving again their would be no stopping them. "Master Chief you are cleared hot, fire away. Friendlies entering hot zone, repeat, friendlies in the fire zone!"

The six minutes that followed felt like six hours for the men in the midst of it. They stood on the other side for a moment of relief as the Platoon regrouped with amazingly no casualties. Mayfield knew that luck wouldn't hold out the night but he would count on their skill to keep them alive. He subconsciously knew that Lieutenant Archer had been on the com during the fighting, he knew they were at the gate where the real fun would begin.

"Alright boys, Third beat us to the punch so we've got to go in double time to make up for that extra half mile of huffing we just did." With that they made their way to the gate weapons at the ready to complement their brothers in arms.

WAR-Day + 12




20th Operations Group
Task Force Hotel
Foxtrot Unit
CNS Atraliah Sun
Sentinel class Heavy Carrier




The Taiyou had severed the supply train, it was up to the Carrier Strike Groups to get it back. Keeping the bulk of the illegitimately managed Taiyou Navy occupied with heavy hit-and-run tactics, the fallback position had been secured, utilizing the gravity well of Neptune to spin retreating forces back into action at velocities that would surprise even the fastest of tacticians today, the fact that the Taiyou Navy had already begun to waver in its advance was all the motivation the crews of 20th OG would need. With two distinct divisions of the 20th OG separated by a Taiyou spearhead, their massive numbers had been split in two. One force having to move to the left, the other to the right. With some three-hundred and fifty ships stabilizing the Neptune springboard, the remaining four-hundred Coalition vessels had drawn the bulk of the Taiyou fire. While Captain Charles DeGaul understood that his comrades across the blockade had taken a brutal beating at the hands of a numerically superior Taiyou force, he was also aware that their commitment had left the fleshy meat of their power exposed. While the attack had been expected much later, the Coalition had deployed flexbility at the top of its requirements when figthing the Taiyou. Rather than allow them to cross the distance, many outfits utilized area-denial tactics like carpet-nuking a swath of space, while other simply aligned AEGIS manifolds to soak up as much damage as possible while keeping the vessels behind them functioning and alive. Of course, as Captain DeGaul understood with the 22nd OG, there was a heavy price to pay for every inch that Taiyou would tear from Coalition grasps. With the gas giant Saturn the lynch-pin to reorganizing the Terran occupation, the now-famous Admiral Savage would need every spare vessel he had in reopening that clenched pipeline. Already, attacks were being enacted on the point of Taiyou origin, as Foxtrot unit moved to engage the flank of the Taiyou a ten-ship Stealth Corvette detail was embarking on it's mission to sabotage the Taiyou hyperspace ship and annihilate anything else that stood in its way. With the full brunt of the Taiyou Navy was slow in arrival, it was obvious Admiral Savage was aware of what lay beyond this system. He would need to bar the Taiyou from the fight, or at least force them to arrive in small groups that could be dealt with by the Coalition's quickly deteriorating combat capabilities.

"Sir, Admiral Savage reports that the attack on the Taiyou hyperspace junction has commenced, Taiyou forces are in disarray and exhibiting signs of collapse." There was his que, steeling himself against the indominable giant of combat, he stuck his chest forward before releasing a curt noise to gather everyone's attention.
"You heard CommoCon, get ready for war ladies and gentlmen."


Foxtrot unit collided with a Taiyou group numbering around two-hundred and sixty eight two hours later. One hundred against two hundred were bad odds, DeGaul had to say, but momentum was on the Coalitions side. The first volley from a line of ten Missile Cruisers peppered the heavier ships with a torrent of nuclear ordnance. Utilizing several well-placed SLZS-88J jamming missiles to confuse, baffle and distort the anti-missile capabilities of the Taiyou ships, the intial kill-count rose to twenty-four capital ships, another thirty two screens caught in the crossfire of nuclear hellfire. With the Missile Cruisers reloading for another volley, the first of two fifteen ship Assault Frigate groups moved in to combat. Thrown to distract the screens, the Assault Frigates held well for being outnumbered. Tracers zipped back and forth and bright purple balls of superheated plasma flared as the Coalition defenses fought the volley of fire raking them. Sooner or later the shields would collapse, leaving the hyper-dense Slipstream armor to take the brunt of the attacks. In a tactical sense the Coalition was acting as a perfect machine, carving deep gouges into the enemy and leaving them in disarray for a second strike and even a third one. The first of nearly thirty Taiyou ships broke the Coalition charge when one of the Assault Frigate groups had been whittled down to barely three ships remaining, the other soon approaching that number as well. With a clear run from the screen to the meaty goodness of the CSG, the Taiyou struck for the twenty carriers of Foxtrot unit like an owl descending on a wounded prey. Descending, of course, until the twenty-five battleships opened up. Manuevering tightly behind the numerous carriers throughout the unit, the Battleship commanders had done a pinpoint job in keeping their appearance of weakness in the face of the enemy. Launching a myriad of cluster munitions and Zone-Superiority Missiles, the Battleships made mulch of the destroyers and cruisers that rocketed towards them. One Battleship was glanced by a passing Taiyou cruiser in its death-throws, which was trying its best to include the Coalition ship with it. Fortunately the Captain pulsed his energy projectors as the vessel steamed past, gutting it like a fish and spilling its belly contents into the vacuum of space.

A Taiyou carrier had survived the initial attack, only to close distance with Foxtrot and the be met with that same blast of heavy firepower from the Battleships. When it was obvious that the Taiyou recognized their ploy, the Battleships broke from their hiding places and manuevered to fire their spinal-cannons. Motes of light flashed from the gaping barrels of the weapons as three dozen Taiyou ships were speared by the spine-breaking 360 inch cannons. Their objective now was just to fight as hard as they could and break the nose of every Taiyou ship they came across. While still out of range, the first of nearly four hundred Taiyou ships began to arrive to support their comrades, many exiting their jumps in wreckage fields of their former comrades. One Taiyou carrier was limping away from a nuclear blast before three Assault Frigates descended on the vessel and tore the guts right out of her with pinpoit artillery fire. While DeGaul was expecting a reinforcing contingent, mainly Task Force India, to arrive in the next half-hour or so, he would be the only Coalition officer in the theater for now. He planned to capitalize on those warheads, however, they were invaluable.







22nd Operations Group
Task Force Juliet
Bravo Unit
CNS Welcomed Paradise
Farriday class Battleship



Outnumbered, outguned and outmatched the Coalition Navy fought with brutal tenacity. For every vessel that was torn to shreds, the Navy fought to the nail to inflict ten times more damage right back to the Aschen. While the fight had long been secured in the 4th ring of defenses that had been hastily prepared by the Coalition, the original eight hundred vessels had been bolstered by forward formations of the 1st Fleet, increasing their number of combat capable ships to nearly two thousand in the one and a half weeks that the Navy had secured Terra. The Aschen jump had been plotted and prepared for, the UCON forces more than capable of accepting their losses and dishing it out just as hard. In the distance, a bright flash of thermonuclear fire announced the death of an Aschen Battlestar as the distances between the two forces had closed to punching distance, something that Captain Haggers was fully prepared to exploit. Closing with the Coalition Navy simply capitolized on their heavy weaponry the Farriday class Battleship boasted. With the energy projectors and magnetic plates swelled to maximum effeciency, and the hyperconductive 120 kiloton fission warheads primed and armed, Haggers had detached a small group of Battleships and Missile Cruisers, launching a personal assault on a single CNV. The Slipspace jumps had been spooled for their little Teddy-charge, all Captains of the fifteen vessels agreeing that if they didn't knock it out with one strike, they'd be coming around again to not only launch their ordinance, but simple ram the sonuvabitch into as many bastards as they could.

"Captain, we have target selections! Forward two-fifties are prepared to fire, Tharkos charges are prepared. Awaiting order to engage." An Ensign shouted from his position, a dullness surrounding the bridge as a lancing beam of plasma impacted the supercharged magnetic field thrown by the forward plates of the Paradise, the hypermagnetic gassess boiled and frothed before dispersing along the heavy shielding and revealing the hulk of a Reverence, the snarling figure a domineering roadblock on their charge to the CNV.
"Dammit, knock that Reverence down! Missile Cruisers, launch your warheads!" He commanded, before initiating his offensive Haggers had created an audiolink to ever vessel in their small strike group. Covered by the major conflict roaring around them, Haggers had hoped that he would be able to simply blast his way through in one quick strike and knock his opponents down. With this Reverence blocking his way, he would be hard pressed to manuever, kill the Reverence and then survive long enough to launch his attack. A winking alarm sounded as the four Balius class Missile Cruisers launched their complement of missiles, eight Lasglow cluster missiles and four Chimaera Anti-Ship missiles struck past the forward screen of the Battleships and Sigma-Cruisers, spinning long trails of heated exhaust. Timed perfectly, the Lasglow missiles were the first to connect, sprinkling a beuatiful flower of 96 separate 250 kiloton warhead across its shielding, which shimmered and died just in time to allow the four Chimaera's to bury themselves along the vessel stem to stern.
"Launch the Slipspace drives, coordinate a puddle jump -- if you want to survive, you'll follow my ass to the tee!" Haggers shouted, several winking lights from the ship Captains announcing their adherence to the new policy as a curtain drew over the airscreen, showing the quantum fields that would allow them to precisely cut open the tangent reality and thrust themselves into Slipstream. A conductive slug slammed into the magnetic field thrown off the starboard side, delivered from a nearby Aschen cruiser that was manuevering to engage the group before it disappeared into a boiling sphere of chaotic energies. With their adventure in normal space taking practically thirty minutes to reach the CNV, Haggers and his small team could accomplish it in eight if they timed themselves properly.


"Sir, we're eight minutes out, preparing for departure." A Navigations officer remarked, the darkness of Slipstream passing through the airscreen in chaotic lines and jagged spears down the qunatum locator. Captain Haggers fought his growing heartbeat, while it was common procedure to use puddle jumps to retreat, he wasn't so sure about going toward the enemy using them. They could end up right in their guts, or four hundred kilometers behind them. Not only giving them the chance to locate them, but also turn them into nothing but useless slag before they even got a chance to turn around and look at them. Of course, the Aschen wouldn't know where they were going, lacking the capability to effectively track a Slipstream jump, which was even shaky at times when you could. Haggers hoped he could use his advantages while minimizing his disadvantages, which were a lot at the moment.
"Weapons, online. Drones, online. Shielding, online ... departing jump, now."


Out of the fire and in to the metaphorical frying pan. Haggers was thrust into the railing as the vessel and her fourteen comrades departed the jump in one fluid line, two of the Missile Cruisers having to quickly yank themselves upward to avoid eating the ass-end of their sister ships while also avoiding collisions with one of the many Aschen Battlestars. This would come as one big ol' surprise to the Aschen, Haggers smiled dryly.
"You know the drill, launch your gear and let's get the hell out of here! Open fire!" Captain Haggers screamed, his hands clenching to the railing as the first of the vessels fired. The CNV was one massive "shoot me" sign that was begging to be pressed. Lances of Longbow and Lasglow missiles speared from the vessels that utilized such launchers, peppering the heavy shielding of the CNV with a scattering of low-ton nuclear warheads designed to overtax the system and bring it to its knees. With barely three hundred kilometers between the two, the Coalition strike team attacked with its second fusillade of missiles. Acting and attacking far too quickly to be caught by the surprised Aschen Captains, Haggers and his team enjoyed a relative free approach as they put all their force into the second strike.
"Sir! The shields are down, we have a clear shot!" A Sensors officer shouted from his pit, the audio quickly being dispersed to the other Captains as well. Haggers knew that now was his chance, time to draw real blood in this war. He glanced to the side, looking to Lieutenant Commander Hido Ishamaj who had remained stoicly silent, the Maji tribesman standing with his hands behind his back and staring forward. Now, the Maji had craned his head to the Captain, his lips pulled tightly into a miniscule grin.
"Let them know what to really fear." He offered silently.


"Send 'em to hell!" Haggers shouted, the entire vessel shaking from the discharge of both spinal-mounted 360 inch railcannons. Bright arcs speared through space before impacting the soft hull of the Aschen megaship and burying themselves deep into the guts of the Aschen vessel before detonating in a furious 120 kiloton thermonuclear warhead. With nearly fifteen of the shells thrown into the CNV, it was an immediate death for the crew and the ship herself. Broken along her spine, what remained of the slagged CNV cracked and dropped from one another before releasing the contents of its belly into the vacuum, any unfortunate souls that had survived the explosions would be rocketed into the vacuum, sentenced to death out there. A cheer rolled through the Coalition group as Haggers broke over the hull of the shattered CNV, barely having time to notice the giant name of the leviathan stenciled on its charred sides, the "Truimphant".
"God, Haggers, we did it! God damn, we did it!" A Captain in a nearby Battleship was practically yelling, before Haggers quickly silenced his own crew.
"Enough -- let's get the hell out of here, we're in a god damn hornets nest."
The SHAMROC Slipstream engine had already been spooled following their exit, utilizing the exit-energies to fill the quantum matter containers to the brim in preparation for their next jump. With the wreckage of the Aschen CNV behind then, they would have a clear view to jump away from this pit of vipers. Announcing their withdrawl with a bright flashing light, the fifteen ships would funnel themselves in line-formation once again before activating their Slipstream cores and spearing into the alternate dimension, carving one Aschen Battlestar in half who had wandered to close to the Slipstream jump and succumbing to the chaotic energies. Haggers mission had completed the overall Coalition objective, let the Aschen know that if they want Sol they'd have to take more losses just like that.







22nd Operations Group
Task Force Sierra
Bravo Unit
CNS Acre
Sirona class Sigma-Cruiser




With the Aschen jump in the metaphorical "heart" of the 4th Defense Ring that formed the spine of the Coalition defense of an occupied Terra, they had essentially surrounded themselves in a cauldron of UCON's boiling water. While several of the units were initially routed in the hours of fighting that followed, a quick counter-attck by the Coalition had pressed the Aschen even greater, exacting several capital-ship casualties as well as a considerable amount of damage against smaller vessels. While the Coalition had suffered it's fair share of loses, nearly one hundred and ninety ships total, the score for the Aschen would be considerably larger. Hampered on all sides by Coalition forces, and packed into a sector that was increasingly hard to manuever in, the initial momentum that carried the attack was lost after penetrating the 2nd Defense Ring, then stumbling upon the heavy contingent of carriers and battleships that formed the bulk of Task Force Sierra. 370 combat capable vessels now held their crosshairs directly over the heart of the Aschen; while nearly one-thousand, five hundred and eight ships of the 22nd OG moved hastily to squelch them.

As the main cannons of the Acre fired, Captain Aarons shifted his gaze toward a tactical sensor screen, appointed by the AI to provide him with a steady knowledge of the battlefield. Their war had now been placed in a several hundred-thousand kilometer block, with the condensed Aschen formations packed between several thousand odd ships. Now that tactical superiority had eased it's way back into Coalition hands the Captains and Vice Admirals were capable of regulating, to the tee, where which units would go to press the counterattack. That alone had taken half a week, made even more difficult by the effort of keeping the Aschen from simply tearing through the entire network.
Now, however, they were ready to go on the offensive; and it was offensive they chose. Commanding a group of eight other Sigma-Cruisers, the Coalition had adopted a hard-strike mentality. Operating without so much as a spare cupholder for backup, Vice Admiral Lord Welfor had taken it under his wing to maintain a Coalition supremacy of Terra and its surrounding space. While the 20th OG was far better prepared to deal with the Taiyou flood, at least for the moment, with some four-thousand, eight hundred or so ships, 22nd OG was hard pressed to match the success they had seen against the Taiyou. His eyes returned to the tactical display, a strobbing red and green light signifying that one of the twenty-eight units forming this "arc" of screens had finally made contact with some form of the Aschen combatants. Closer to him, the first of a four-carrier CSG prepared its contingent of aircraft and drones. Most of the pilots had switched their weaponry to nuclear payloads, an Eagle II strapped with a Syrion 60 kiloton warhead and sent off to drop the bomb on some high-value Aschen Battlestar or even CNV made advance for the Aschen and cautious and deliberate action. The Coalition was not to shy away from sacrifice, either; from the start UCON Captains had made it known that there was a price for this territory. Already dozens of Battlestars had been crippled in suicide attacks made by everyone from Assault Frigate Captains to a Vice Admiral commanding a Heavy Carrier. The award-ceremonies were to wait, however, because before the Coalition could bury its dead it would have to recapture the ground which caused so much turmoil for the 22nd Operations Group. With a shudder, the first of the Aschen screen ships rounds impacted the activated magnetic fields. Several of the shots were atomized at the velocities and turn into scorching globs of molten ferromagnetic goop spreading over the shield before hissing and solidifying in the vacuum. The Coalition was wasting no time in returning fire, it seemed; already the fifteen Missile Cruisers they were screening for had launched a battery of nearly twenty SAM-9 Chimaera anti-ship missiles. Several of the warheads would be intercepted, probably five or so, but the remainder would arrive upon their targets and deliver their hellfire with extreme precision. This method was to soften the Aschen wave and allowing it to crash harmlessly, after which the heavier Coalition ships would proceed to filay whatever managed to survive.


"Fire the bow thirty-two inchers." Aarons muttered slowly, seizing a target of opportunity, an Aschen destroy with what appeared to be scarred damage from a previous engagement. The front thirty-two inch railcannons fired and the slugs crossed their distance in under a minute flat, breaking the prow shields and then slicing the nose of the vessel clean from its superstructure before flowering into a 6 kiloton explosion. More of the rounds landed home, few scoring a one-hit-kill like the destroyer, but many annihilating the shields and armor of the eight Battlestars and nearly fifty smaller craft that moved toward them. While Aarons considered himself lucky, he could be facing a CNV on down the line or a hundred Battlestars on the farthest flank. At least in those fights, however, you had carrier support, entire Battleship Strike Groups in reserve to keep constant the sting of the Coalition. In Aarons sector, however, twenty-eight groups of ten or twenty ships with only one CSG to provide a last-ditch strike if the Aschen manage to pierce the defense was all he could expect in his boots at the moment. He'd have to make due.

"Sir, Alpha-Delta Unit has launched a second strike, estimated eighteen Aschen vessels hit with ten being kills. They are still out of weapons range." Aaron had played his cards well, utilizing the long-reaching arm of both the Balius class Missile Carrier and the Chimaera's exceptionally long range. Complemented by nearly sixty Robotics Cruisers in the area, Task Force Sierra's envelope of striking fell well into the deepest of the Aschen groups. Two special groups of Missile Cruisers had even been stealthed in the back to launch missile strikes at key Aschen vessels beyond Sierra's initial target zone, meaning in the next three or so hours even ships behind Aschen lines would suddenly have nuclear warheads raining down on them.
"Delta and Echo have launched a secont strike as well, estimated thirty-seven ships total with most being kills." Another Sensor officer responded from the pit, Aarons gave a sigh of relief, obviously they still had a chance if units were living long enough to fire again. Of course, Aaraons could only speculate how long they could keep up the effective 'bombardment'. The Aschen had two relative options, Aaraons considered, take the hits or leave. However battle-thirsty a commander is, he would never unnecessarily risk the bulk of his army like this.
"Bravo, Charlie, Foxtrot and Golf have all launched second strikes, the numbers are climbing Captain -- we're easily looking at a hundred and fifty ships on the kill-list right now." A Communications officer shouted, drawing a rather beastful grin from Aarons as he suddenly heaved his chest up.
"Then let's join the club, order all teams to launch a second-strike."

Given immediate cover by the overlapping magnetic fields of the formation of Sigma-Cruisers, the Missile Cruisers were free to advance with little danger. With the first approaching wave reduced to a crippled haggle of two remaining Battlestars and less than fifteen smaller ships, Aarons was surprised at the ease of launching another attack. Apparently the Captains of the Missile Cruisers had already ordered the reload half a second after the previous order to fire.
"Just thinking ahead", the Captain returned in a short audio communique before activating a second wave of anti-ship missiles. This time, forty were aimed in a tight oblong elipse, skinny at the beginning and ending in a wide arc across easily four thousand vessels. Ten of the missiles would be strategic warheads with a 10 megaton yield aimed for ships scattered across the area with value. The remaining ships, all damaged by the warhead and some even floating dead due to the massive EMP release, were easily swept aside in the wake of secondary-suns blossoming into existence in the vacuum. The dirty nukes spat out tons of radiation that would fry electronics, scorch armor and blister the crew of any vessels nearby. By this point, the Aschen would know the sting of radiation poisoning, Coalition warheads designed to do two simple things, destroy and irradiate. He assumed that the mysterious cases of rapid-progressing cancers or malignant tumors developing would tax an already weighed system.


While there were no CNV's in his sector, Aaron was graced with a heavy group of Reverence class Carriers. In comparison, the Sigma-Cruisers were quick and manueverable gnats that the Carrier simply couldn't hope to hit with any on-board weaponry. The nuclear fallout had gaurenteed him some safety, however, 'lest they risk exposing pilots to radiation that still climbed high above the limit of safety. The Aschen ships would have to delay their attack until braving the last of the radiation pockets. With more warheads detonating, however, that was somewhat difficult to do. One Chimaera, after a burst of radiation from a previous explosion had fried the shielding, impaled itself into the bridge of the Reverence before creating the all-to-familiar white dwarf star and eviscerating the carrier in the blink of an eye. Then the first of four SAM-9S 10 megaton nukes detonated just off the prow of the carriers, one was simply sheared away from heat and friction release within a 20 kilometer radius from the first warhead. As the others began to explode, the battered carriers were caught in a metaphorical oven. Long whisps of molten metal spitting off the hulls of the ships as they were buffeted by the heat and radiation from the explosions. As the first of the ten Assault Frigate groups moved on the flanks to delivering the killing strike the last of the dwarf stars faded from view and revealed the charred husks of the Aschen carriers drifting uselessly through space. This small victory would keep him going, Aaron recognized, before the first of eighty Battlestars began to exit their Jumps.








22nd Operations Group
Task Force November
Charlie Element
CNS Crygis Dodalia
Lavtia class Stealth Corvette



Captain Habowski rubbed his eyes, they had stung from the constant study of the screens placed around the cramped bridge of the corvette. Kept in the depths of Slipstream, the twenty Stealth Corvettes of Charlie element had did their best to make their way to the waypoint. With the fight split into two distinct halves, the 20th OG forced to face the Taiyou wave and the 22nd incapable of sparing reinforcements to stem the tide of the Aschen, the battle had been handed to a small group of elite Captains and crews, those of the Stealth Corvette. While their FENRIR torpedos had been replaced with lower-tonnage Masada fringe-missiles, the complement of Stealth Corvettes in theater would be the secret ace-in-the-hole for the Coalition. With both of fronts fighting losing battles, the entire fleet had been pushed back a considerbale distance while whittling the Aschena and Taiyou down as much as possible. With the supply chain temporarily fractured, however, the 20th OG was effectively cut off from support. Meaning that if the Coalition wanted to seize both fronts, the Stealth Corvettes would need to break the back of their enemies to allow the train to continue rolling. Habowski and a detachment of nine other Corvettes were to be dispatched to the Taiyou theather. With a dull rumble, the Mark 6 SHAMROC began to propel the corvette through the blackness of Slipstream, long lines of vibrant swirling energies from the countless quantum sensors and gravimetric optics displayed the blackness of Slipspace in a brilliant display of orange and red energies, swirling into "currents" and ebbing into waves.

"Thirty minutes out, Captain. Masada tubes are prepared to launch on your command." Several computers took the information gathered by the sensors that monitored the Slipstream activity and transfered it into an erratic cacaphony of shrill wavering audio, often providing a soothing medium known as the 'Slip Sounds'. Trying his best at outpacing the Slip Sounds with his own thinking, he turned his gaze towards a holodisplay of the forward torpedo batteries. While the Masada lacked the heavier punch of the Fenrir, it operated on an entirely different thinking in comparison to the Fenrir. Made up of several charges designed to collapse quantum matter into Slipstream, while a Captain couldn't land a hundred-kill strike with one, he could easily pick off command and control structures, or capital ships.

Of course, they could fire back to. The Stealth Corvette's newest SHAMROC drive gave literal definition to "Trans-Fringe". While the Stealth Corvette was hurtling through Slipstream, it was nestled against the single fluid dimension separating the Tangent Reality from the depths of Slipstream. Habowski had analyzed it as a fish at the waters edge, so close to breaking the waterline without actually doing so. While this method was much faster, allowing the powerful sensors on-board the Stealth Corvette to not only map Slipstream, but use it's massive array of capabilities to jam, distort or listen to Aschen equipment. In the past week the Stealth Corvette had become a guardian amongst the 20th and 22nd OG's, while there was only thirty-five spread throughout the entire system, they had been used in a myriad of roles; counterattacking the Aschen offensive to break the 4th Defense Ring, which they inevitably did at the cost of twenty Battlestars and a host of other smaller ships, to monitoring the stabilized lines several days later. The Stealth Corvette had come alongside the prowler as the primary special weapons units in the theater, beside the Battleship and Carrier Strike Groups. One of the extreme disadvantages, that Habowski was a little too afraid to accept, was that the Stealth Corvette did leave a trail. If one could describe it, it would be like using a torpedo in a bathtub, every once in a while the course of the Stealth Corvette would thrust it from Slipstream into the Tangent Reality. While the powerful Trans-Fringe drives did much to prevent that, it had already occured several times. Considering there was no real way of describing depth in Slipstream dimensions, there was little Habowksi could do but cross his fingers and hope they didn't pop up on someone's radar.

With the forward Masada tubes adjusted to fire, the Stealth Corvette would have to correct its journey and launch, something that wasn't recquired to launch the Fenrir. Yet, with nearly five times more missiles, the ten ships bound for the Aschen pocket in th 3rd Ring were more than capable of delivering a series of deadly punches against any targets of opportunity the Dodalia would come across. On a Slipstream Transit map the Stealth Corvette burrowed itself through the buffeting "waves" and flowing currents of Slipstream as the Dodalia manuevered itself to fire the first of a series of eight Masada's. With the ten other vessels preparing a similar armament, the first in several alarms began to sound as the Coalition ships neared their targets. The standard protection of a Slipstream field would work to keep most of the Aschen vessels from detecting the alien ships that rocketed toward them, while the closer and closer they would get to the "fringe" of Slipstream their signatures and exhausts would increase.

"Three-million Kilo mark, Captain. Masada's armed and ready." Trans-Fringe relays and sensors allowed the Dodalia to peer into both Slipstream as well as the Tangent Reality. He prefered the warmth of Slipstream, however, knowing that you were presently invulnerable and undetectable. This botched go-between held few noticeable advantages, speed and striking-capability didn't outweigh protection and security. They were now at 40 percent fringe, with the suitable firing location being at about 35, Habowski wanted to make sure his missiles flew true. Straight into their targets.


The hull of the CNV glimmered and shone in the darkness of the vacuum. One of only eight remaining, the first one being annihilated in a Lanes-Manuever and the other battered so furiously that the Coalition simply wrote it off as unfit for combat, the Aschen superships had become the prime targets of the Stealth Corvettes. Surrounded by groups of patroling Battlestars and Aschen Planetary Assault Carriers, Habowski suddenly wished he'd dropped that fringe to around 35 percent and unload every missile he's got before he went too far in to hop out. A small diagnostic screen flickered to life beside him, displaying the readiness of the two-forward facing Masada missiles. One, fixed with a Trans-Fringe Generator was tagged to produce a yield of nearly 2 megatons, something that Habowksi was sure to break the spine of a leviathan like a CNV. The other was loaded with a experimental singularity generator that scattered thousands of microblackholes that were teethered directly into Slipspace. Meant more as a electronic weapon that a destructive one, Habowski was sure that four or five of the ships caught in the initial detonation would be simply torn to shreds.
"One-point-five million Kilo mark, Captain. All vessels are ready to fire on your order." Captain Habowsky inhaled sharply, several grainy images of the CNV lurking across the airscreens as the first signs of Aschen awareness dawning on them. They would realize by now that the random contacts so many ships had suddenly discovered was not an anomaly or malfunctioning equipment. Some Captains, ignorant for their situation and confident of their intagibility from this far back in the pocket, would remind their officers why they weren't in command and would dismiss these claims with a wave of a hand and the shout of an order. Others would be more fortunate, realizing that simply someone was coming from somewhere to do something, at that realization, Habowski ordered all ten Stealth Corvettes to open fire.


"This is the Lygers, missiles away."
"Mannu Vau, missiles away."
"This is the Tarsus Blade, missiles away."
"The Condemnation reports missiles away."
"Dawning Star, missiles away."
"This is the Golden August, missiles away."
"The Saggaron reports missiles away."
"Footfall reports missiles away."
"This the Descendant, missiles away."

Habowski waited in the cold silence, the last alarm dying away in the calm before the storm. Nothing disturbed Habowski as he plastered his eyes to the airscreen, waiting for the inevitable whump of the Masada's leaving their tubes and streaking through the vacuum. Due to the size of the missiles, they could function much more effectively, utilizing their Trans-Fringe depth to keep them out of the scopes of any anti-missile batteries and simply deactivating the Trans-Fringe drives upon impact. The Masada was one massive paperweight, designed to drag as much exit-energies as possible and carve a lance deep through the heart of anything it connected with. Habowski began to fight the urge to inhale, his breath waiting for his own vessel to fire. He continued the wait for several seconds before his eyes began to wonder amongst the crew, finally, he furrowed his brow and glanced down into the pits.
"Why haven't we fired, Weapons?"
"Sir, we fired ten seconds ago ... " Habowksi pulled his head up to a trajectory airscreen; WepCon was correct, twenty Masada missiles were spearing their way into the hearts of the Aschen vessels on their course to the target. Eight aimed for the massive CNV that loomed in the far distance, and the rest having end-trajectories in a wide arc, the swordsman cut to slice the tendon.







2nd Fleet
MS Habea
Megaship




The twenty-three kilometer keel of the Coalition supership exited its bridge-jump in the bright, vibrant flashes of Chernekov radiation and gravimetrict storms that boiled forth from the depths of an alternate universe. Where UCON vessels had to maintain a steady velocity and distance from other ships travelling in formation, the sheer size of the Habea allowed her to act as a metaphorical
"ship magnet", capable of accomadating a fleet or nearly hundreds of other vessels in its "Slipstream envelope". This ability was capitalized, in a split seconds dozens of CSG's winked in perfect alignment, entire Battleship teams striking from their looming position behind the megaship and preparing themselves to unleash the fury of an organized, determined Coalition counterattack. The 1st Fleet would be dispatched to cover the 20th OG and crush the Aschen pocket that so dangerously teetered on the verge of a clear avenue to Terra. The 2nd Fleet, and its figurehead commander, Admiral Jusef Bankovich, were to handle the considerably more daunting task of routing the Taiyou into retreat; or bloody their nose and send them right back to where they came from. At the helm of his massive chariot, Bankovich felt neigh unstoppable in from his throne. At his hands he controlled the first arm of a train of ships that trailed in a rapid zig-zag to the galactic halo, having become the Coalition's prime stepping-stone to Terra for the past month. With well over half of the Coalition's combat capable vessels commited to these following operations, a number which easily climbed into the hundreds of thousands, were prepared and waiting. They would come after, however, Bankovich was to be the first of the victorious Coalition admirals, beside that crock Savage, to rip Terra from the grasps of the Aschen and the Taiyou.

"Sir the thirty-third and thirty-second Oh-Gee's are ready for combat, all weapons online and ordnance prepared. We are ready for combat." A Ensign from Sensors reported as Bankovich took in a sharp breath. The ship-board AI, one of nearly eight, was processing the numerous targets the Habea and her crew could fire upon, pasting the information on a small holo-screen that was nearby. Already, several hundred targets had been fixed into the turret computers and appropriate ordnance loaded accordingly; Tharkos shelling to break any thoughts of a retaliation the Taiyou ships could even muster, with the sudden appearance of a leviathan eclipsing even the Aschen CNV, Admiral Bankovich was even flirting with the remote idea of surrender from either of the factions. It would be word of mouth now, that the Coalition had more than enough firepower to not only turn Terra into a smoldering ash with one salvo, but annihilate the entire system if Admiral Bankovich felt so inclined to. The Oriyak was tired of managing Savage's little frontier war, slipped with nothing but the bill and the death toll. It was Savage that had allowed this faux paus of military strategy to bear the fruit of a possible Taiyou and Aschen victory; if Regievko, that war-mongering foot he was, wanted this war won it would be Bankovich that needed to command from the front, not Savage.

"All units may fire at will, wipe these foul ncirkzhah from my view. Now." Bankovich fixed his arms behind his back and straigthened his chest outward, while his true age had long ago robbed him of the ability to fulfill any sort of direct-combat role, Bankovich still possessed a warriors eye and a predators mind; a simple personality aspect that had given him his easy rise from the grime of the Coalition Military to one of the highest seats on the Military Council. Second to only Savage and the Prime Minister himself, Bankovich smiled like a devil at his spontaneous correction, second to only the Prime Minister now, he would see to it that this war would be won effectively. Bankovich couldn't even feel the contingent of weapons firing dozens of meters below; in one bright fusillade thirty 360 inch cannons, ones that would normally mounted along the spines of any other Coalition ships, fired in prolonged bursts. Nearly one-thousand and eighty rounds were fired by the first group of the 2nd fleet. Bankovich watched with a wicked satisfaction, he always enjoyed condemning men to death.






1st Fleet
CNS Doomsayer
Harbinger class Heavy Destroyer



The Aschen and Taiyou had enjoyed a full scrutiny of the Sol system in the past days, and while they were still met with considerable fighting, it was obvious the Coalition was fighting uphill in this particular scenario. Admiral Savage had planned a contingency effort, utilizing an unknown amount of vessels in an unknown sector of space to act as a "quick reaction" force to provide supplies to UCON forces in the event similar to this. While UCON was still days away from running its combat-side supplies, this aspect of his plan was rather unnecessary. He could focus on utilizing the nearly six-thousand combat-capable vessels ready and waiting to take the fight directly to the enemies. More importantly, he could better utilize the nearly two-hundred Harbinger class Heavy Destroyers, equipped with the XC-1 Slipspace cannon. While the first of thousands of Coalition ships began pouring it at random locations all across the system, UCON vessels would begin to permeate the membranes of the Taiyou striking arm from their hyperspace junction, which had earlier been attacked by a group of ten Stealth Corvettes, four of which being destroyed in the attack, began to systematically target and annihilate entire groups of Taiyou vessels in a matter of seconds. Captain Jaselovich could only fathom what exactly the Taiyou were thinking at the moment. With dozens, even sometimes hundreds, of ships being wiped out in the first volleys, he could only cringe at the rumors spreading amongst the Taiyou forces.

"Captain, XC-1 is ready to fire. Targets coordinated and prepared, awaiting activation." A young Ensign from WepCon reported, beside Jaselovich a small holographic display popped up. A myriad of Taiyou vessels in red-line format were displayed, calming blue lines connecting the first Taiyou ship to the prow of the Doomsayer and from there spreading to several other Taiyou ships. All in all, roughly two dozen enemy ships were targeted. Had Jaselovich missed this opportunity to test one of the Coalition's most advanced vessels in the galaxy, he would have had a hard time believing that one ship could annihilate twenty-four enemies in under thirty minutes flat. Of course, he had already fired the XC-1 twice before in the opening advance of the 1st Fleet.
"Target vector approved, fire now." Jaselovich spat the command promptly, simply turning from the targeting data and looking at the prow-camera that fed a live feed directly into the Command Bridge. Mounted on the edge of a large dish, the Harbinger appeared more like an electronics vessel than a ship-of-the-fleet. However, this charged abruplty, in seconds the XC-1 activated it's Trans-Fringe generator; several seconds later the transuranium barrel of the XC-1 began to manipulate a gravimetric field to extract the Slipstream energies. After suitable charge had built up, the gravimetric sphere shifted into a lance, the host of Slipstream energies boled from the dish like a secondary sun and impacted the first of the Taiyou ships.

"Contact, sir. Activating targeting data now." A Sensors officer responded, Captain Jaselovich was far too interested in the XC-1 to pay attention though. The first Taiyou ship buckled, torn down the spine by a chaotic gravity storm before disintegrating from a host of radiation and thermal energy. Another secondary sun formed in the heart of the Taiyou vessel, the last remanants of the vessels superstructure disappearing in a boiling sphere of molten metal and superheated gases before making the jump to the nearest Taiyou ship. If that little display didn't put the fear of god in the Taiyou, this sure would.
"Contact two, sir." The Weapons officer replied dryly as the same fate that befall the first Taiyou ship occured in startling similarity to the second. While the first target had been a simple destroyer, the battleship that was now turned into a motlen heap detonated in a brilliant explosion, hurtling several globs of energy directly onto Taiyou ships.
"Advance, Weapons." He bellowed one sharp command, and then two seconds later the beam ripped free from the hull of the battleship and speared a carrier directly through the spine.
"Advance again, Weapons."

Operation; Looming Glacier: Cycle: 15


Aschen High Space Command
SOLCOM 1st Main fleet
AHSC 'CNV - Emblem of Divinity'
Spearhead and Purge
CNV - SuperCarrier
Current Strength - 12,305 Vessels
Key CNV Losses;
Dante
Triumphant
Achilles


Admiral Corman continued to watch the battle unfold before him on the viewscreen. The Emblem of Divinity had taken serious damage, with fires belching into the blackness of space. With Coalition Reinforcements en-route, and Aschen dropping like flies, the Admiral had to make a difficult choice. "Put me on the line with all the ships. That Mega-ship, it needs to be taken out. We'll utilize the extreme range of our Singularity cannons to take them out, I want all CNV's to be in an arc formation for simultaneous shot. We need to make this shot count if we're going to break Coalition morale. All CNV Commanders, I want a check in, load your singularity guns. We're going to make one final charge before we jump back towards the edge of the system... here... We'll use Neptune's orbit as a staging area to sling long range weaponry at passing Coalition ships... we'll use their dis-array to buy us time... and jump back to Tal'dor to organize a swift strike." Corman explained before he got on the radio. "Attention SOLCOM... this is the Admiral, all CNVs are to load your weapons, that Mega-ship... I want it taken out. We will avenge our lost CNV's. And we will show the Coalition we're not a weak faction to be rolled over. Coordinate." Corman ordered.

"All CNVs check in." He said over the comms, and would listen to the following response.

"Athenian Philosophy, Checking in..."

"Spartan Pride, checking in."

"Elysian Paradise, checking in."

"Hades Chariot, checking in."

"Zeus' Thunder, all systems go."

"Death's Carrier, we're ready to dispense."

"Salvation, check."

With that Corman would give the nod, and turn to his Lieutenant. "All ships prepare jump.... All ships jump!"

With that, spheres of light began to engulf the Aschen ship in a winking pattern, all of a sudden one by one Aschen ships would jump out, as if they were retreating. Flicker after flicker, ship after ship they jumped out. Soon where the Aschen fleet had remained, there was nothing. Corman had embraced the tactical retreat. And having pulled all his forces out of the pocket. He would make his next move.

Several hundred thousand klicks outside the Supership, the Aschen fleet had gathered, positioning itself for one final strike before it's retreat to Tal'dor. They would have to time this just right. This strike had to be perfect. And so it was, positioning the fleet in a relatively clear spot in space in the Sol system, the CNVs would position themselves in a wide arc around the MS Habeas This arc was several million kilometers apart, leaving for a wide band of coverage of Aschen ships Corman was going to avoid making the same tactical mistake. This time he was relying on the long range of the CNV's by using them in a surprise attack against the Coalition ship. Reverences and Battlestars grouped around at intervals of 25,000 Kilometers around the CNV, in a wide formation, an arc.

"This is Corman, all CNV's weapons free." He said, using the momentum and the brief confusion caused by the sudden jump. All 8 CNV's unleashed their singularity cannons towards the massive Coalition Megaship, Singularities would tear through any ship that posed a hindrance to their path. The brilliant flashes of gutted Coalition ships marred the blackness of space in eight long lances. The moment of truth would then come into fruition, the hyperdense singularities would impact the hull of the Supership. The aim was to break the vessel's spine, the initial kinetic impacts from the immense coordinated strike would rock the supership. Either tearing holes and ripping the ship apart, or simply pockmarking and gutting huge craters into it's armored hull. The first strike would likely catch Bankovich off guard. The Lieutenant aboard the Emblem of Divinity speaking up.

"We have a direct hit, all singularities impacted, damage confirmed." Corman would then offer a nod, an rise from his seat.

"Prepare a second volley! Be quick! We need to get in a second volley before they return fire! Let them pay for what they have done!" Corman shouted as a Lieutenant spoke. "Sir, they are coming about! If we maintain for a reload they will arrive within fifty Microns! Weapons range in Thirty Microns!" Corman then nodded. "All ships jump!" He barked, and before the Coalition could catch up to the sudden shift in Aschen tactics, the ships were gone. Corman was utilizing a quick strike protocol. Of course he was also buying time for the forces at Tal'dor Because he knew a Coalition force of this magnitude at Tal'dor would strike swiftly. So he needed to utilize the momentum. The ships had jumped, this time they would jump themselves outside the system, just beyond the Oort cloud, the entire pockmarked and badly damaged Aschen fleet would remain, Battlestars retreating to their CNVs for repair and drydock.


AHSC 2nd Task Force
SOLCOM 1st Main Fleet
Reverence - Harbinger of Piety
Commander Elias Gant
Current Strength: 2,500 Ships
1,500 Combat Capable, 1,000 Supply and Logistic
Task: Saturn Hold and Disrupt

The soft violet glow of the holographic interface would reflect on the Commander's face he would be watching a map of the Solar System, with the steady line of Coalition ships engaging the Taiyou over Saturn, he could tell the Taiyou could not hold out forever, and so he was determined to shut off the line of Coalition supplies indefinitely. And so, he would get on the comms.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen, our mission is simple, we're to reinforce the Taiyou offensive at Saturn, we're to buy just enough time for SOLCOM to regroup it's fleet, for unrep, and coordination. We're also going to cut off this crucial supply line to prevent Coalition reinforcements, so we're going to attack Coalition entry points into the system with hit-and jump attacks. We have enough ordinance to last us maybe a few Sectons, but all we need is one secton for Tal'dor fleet to arrive to reinforce SOLCOM, once they've Reinforced SOLCOM we can make another push towards Terra, but we're not going to let them reach Tal'dor. So far this war is unpopular back home.. so if we're going to win this, we need to rely on eachother for now. All ships synchronise your jump drives."

He then turned to the AI. "Tactical interface, disseminate to fleet." The AI would then nod. "Recommend the use of Century Bombers to hit-and run Coalition ship points, as well as entry points. Under frigate escort, they can be effective hit-and run." The AI Advised, The Commander then nodded. "2nd Task check in..." Once he recieved the check in from the other ships, a fragment of the SOLCOM Main fleet vanished in glimmers of light. They were going to position themselves to reinforce the Taiyou offensive, which had reached a bloody stalemate. And so it was. Several hundred Battlestars, support ships, and Reverence class PACs would position themselves over the Saturn Station, appearing in glimmers of light amongst the Coalition fleet, slightly behind it. Century Bombers would be deployed, many would be lost in the dense flak fields, but others had pilots that were smart, slingshotting off the gravity wells from the Reverence class ships, which had already begun to carve up the station and surrounding ships with it's main weapons. The Bombers would drop their payload. As quickly as the 2nd Task force came, they winked out. Tactical jumps were now being used as the backbone of Aschen tactics. Moments would go by before several dozen 150Kt - 75Mt Nuclear bombs detonated simultaniously amongst the Coalition fleet and space station, carving out a large chunk of the defensive fleet, and flooding the area with lethal doses of rads, hoping to tip the balance in the now 20,000 Taiyou ships's favor. As payloads were deployed, several Battlestars would likely be lost in the initial strike. The ship had positioned itself on the dark side of Saturn, using the eddies of it's atmosphere to hide from the Coalition ships. Phase II of the last strike had been completed.


AHSC - 3rd Task Force
Main fleet SOLCOM
Reverence Class PAC - A Psalm Every Day
Commander Galen O'Kelly
Strength: 2,500 Ships
1,500 Combat, 1,000 Supply
Objective: Secure Neptune Sling

Another objective that needed to be secured was the rebounding of Coalition ships coming into Neptune after a tactical retreat. This was to be closed up by the two-thousand Aschen ships of the 3rd Task Force. Led by Commander O'kelly, he would watch the tactical AI Screen and then receive the orders from Corman. The tactics had changed as diving right in didn't work out. So the Aschen fleet would make it's move. Knowing that a direct confrontation was a bad idea, the next objective would be to utilize attacks against Key Coalition staging areas. Knowing that Tal'dor was a skip and a jump away, it was up to SOLCOM to either force the Coalition to call a cease-fire, or secure Terra altogether. With the momentum of either side teeter-tottering, it could be decided either way. So the battle was up to the skill of the Commanders and other Aschen officers. They were going to display that they were capable.

This was signified by another portion of the Aschen main SOLCOM Fleet disappearing, taking their jump, they would jump into the thick of Neptune's gravity well, First objective was to scan for any Coalition ships in the area, and promptly engage any nearby Coalition forces. Fanning out to wide arcs to prevent being backed into pockets, the Aschen fleet would move and engage employing a ferocity previously unseen by the Coalition forces in the area.

"Alright we're in, all ships fan out and engage! Any ship that comes around from the previous Terran battle, I want you to pop it, we're going to wrest this system from the grasp of the Coalition, we will not let them lock it down!" The Commander shouted. With the ship's fanning out, the additional precious days would be bought with this last desperate strike.


Taiyou Hyperspace Gate
ITN Ryuho
Shogun Class Battleship
Current Strength 105,873 Ships
Shogunate Expedition

The slow moving juggernaut of Taiyou ships had come through the Hyperspace gate, maybe just a day before it was obliterated in a Coalition strike. Already Shogun Hakuro was watching the Stealth corvettes on the Scanners, Naginata cruisers had fanned out to meet the Stealth Corvettes by picking up on the fringe energies they put out, this allowed the Naginata cruisers to follow up and persue the fleeing Stealth corvettes, firing photonic torpedoes, though the gate had been neutralized, the Stealth Corvettes met an unfortunate end as the Naginata cruisers utilized specialized scanner systems supplied by an advanced race in their home galaxy to detect the corvettes, and home in on them. Rather the Coalition strike that bloodied the nose didn't drive the fleet back, no it steeled their charge, and this was evidenced by the Shoguns fanning out, utilizing their Wave-force cannons to pierce the armor of their enemy counterparts, the wave-force energy detonating the very atomic structure of the enemy ships, this allowed the energies to detonate in a flurry of explosion. The Taiyou had utilized their superior numbers to practically roll over any standing Coalition fleet, there would be more Taiyou ships then the Coalition had ordinance, ships would likely run into issues such as running out of ammunition, only to be popped by the slowly advancing Taiyou line of ships. Cut of from supplies and reinforcements, they would drive their charge into the heart of the battle. Soon all One-hundred thousand ships would enter hyperspace, flashing out in brilliant flashes of energies and radiation, they had all set their course directly for Terra, while in Hyperspace it would take them several days, the Coalition Terran occupation had until the main shogunate fleet arrived.

In Hyperspace, and enveloped, the entire Taiyou Shogunate Armada would rely on the hit and run strikes the Aschen utilized to weaken the Coalition stranglehold. The strategy was to use the Taiyou's sheer overwhelming numbers to wrench Terra from Coalition grasp, despite taking heavy casualties in the recent fighting.

Counter-Balance
2nd Division
Action Team Nine
Operatives 'Tyro' and 'Jackal'




"Aaannndd, pulse now." The labored breathing was broken by the brief shock of acceleration in zero gee; his words, which would normally be silent in the vacuum, were amplified by a small circuitry of audio capacitators and memory cores that would broadcast his words in a tight-beam, hyper-scrambled code to his allies and the CNS Rising Star, a Halycon class Prowler stationed barely a quarter of an AU from the bulk of what used to be the Taiyou foothold in the Sol system. Following the attack by the Stealth Corvettes, the Taiyou Navy had easily taken the bait and devoted the broad arm of their remaining guarding screens to locating and eviscerating the fleeing Coalition ships; this left their passive defenses completely understaffed and essentially open. In the early hours, when the thousands of vessels would begin their cycling of crews and commands for R&R, the Rising Star had slowly pulsed its way past the first of the Taiyou screens. Utilizing it's superior stealth capabilities, more often than not even rivaling the Stealth Corvettes active and passive abilities, the Star was practically unseen as it readied its payload. After jettisoning the useless cargo container that was modelled to resemble a decrepit and battered chunk of starship armor the truely difficult arm of the operation began. Tyro had fixed the cumbersome thruster pack across the joints of his armor before the final transmission from the Star had reached them, announcing that in the following minutes they would be unreachable via audio due to necessary re-stealthing protocols to keep the Taiyou from even thinking that a Coalition vessel was nearby. What Tyro essentially gathered as a "you're on your own now" statemement, Jackal had taken with a soft chuckle and grunt.


Allowing the computer to activate the thrusters for the last leg of the journey, breaking the three-thousand kilometer mark with a nearby Taiyou destroyer, Tyro couldn't help but allow a shiver to run down his spine. Hurtling through space on the front end of a literal missile rocket attached to a backpack, the acceleration alone was almost enough to force him into a black out. With the Taiyou vessel growing from a small pinprick into an easily discernable shape, Tyro had to work quickly to refit the scrambling-array that would make secret communication between him and his squadmate possible. His hands fell across the small datapad rigged to his hip, working his fastest to type keys without augmenting his trajectory too much, a small bar appeared on the display proclaimg "Scrambling Initialized".
"Jackal, Taiyou destroyer, one o'clock. Preparing for orbit." He said quickly before activating the computers entry programming, designating the Taiyou destroyer as the "landing site". The thruster pack began to edge him closer and closer to the vessel, a small blue beacon in his HUD affirming the fact that Jackal was following the same course as well. In fifteen minutes they were due for a light impact on the destroyer, hopefully to be landing somewhere near the prow, where it had been discovered that most of the ship's armor thinned in a particular area in the prow. This would make entrance easier, then it would simply be up to shooting and close-combat, Tyro's favorite type of combat.
"Understood, entering approach vector now. ETA Ten minute." Jackal responded, Tyro could hear the affirmative click that came with the loading of an assault rifle. Equipped with the standardized Coalition Hybrid Rifle, or CHR, that was a staple of the Counter-Balance Action Teams across the galaxy, Tyro and Jackal were going to pack more than enough punch to seriously dent any Taiyou resistance they could manage. Looking over his equipment, a Nano-Rifle, two Lashkav PDW's and a host of electronic devices, Tyro's nerves were steadied by the realization that for once he was prepared for a mission.

The Taiyou vessel was now easily visible, even without the magnification devices rigged into the hyper-reality helm he would have been able to see it. However, seeing it in the startling clarity that was common with the hyper-reality helmets that UCON had almost insitituionalized in ever single Counter-Balance team, still packed a fair amount of surprise. He could see exactly where he was due to make contact, several other meters in his HUD giving him a rough estimation until their arrival, five minutes.
"I've got five minutes, Jackal. Preparing for touch-down." Tyro began to wiggle himself slowly as he struggled for a comfortable landing position. While in an atmosphere he would prefer to be crouching or even in a stand, in zero-gravity striking an object while travelling at nearly three hundred kilometers a minute would make jelly out of anyone foolish enough to try it. That was why the computer was programmed on a course to decrease speed until the last possible minute and then activate a counter-force that would hopefully "skim" Tyro across the exposed hull of the destroyer, where he would then use magnetic clamps to secure himself.

"Approach is good, loading bar." Tyro's mind fell back to the brief thirty-minute discussion they had had before the mission. While it was obvious the Coalition was gaining the advantage quickly in Sol, and the nearly four other star systems that had most recently come under UCON occupation, it was still known in the inner circle of Counter-Balance that the Taiyou were a threat. With superior numbers, UCON lacked any real defense other than simple steamrolling tactics when it came to the Taiyou; they could knock any given number of Imperial ships down, but more would simply take their place. 'So long as that gate remains open', a Navy Vice Admiral had resounded in the small briefing room aboard the Rising Star. While Tyro and Jackal had been one of the most well-known Counter-Balance teams on Terra, their vicinity to actual combat often meant that they were to take as many missions as they could be dished out. Porting in new Action Teams across Coalition space would take too much time to gaurentee the success that most UCON commanders agreed would win the war.

So, the plan had been hatched to insert two operatives onto a Taiyou ship. One will provide the necessary protection and security while the other will perform a cleaning-house of anything one could pry from their systems. The spectrum of objectives they had was all over the place, Tyro would take fuel-consumption records, navigational data, radiological readings, resource-supplement listings and anything else that could point the Coalition in the direction of the Taiyou hypergate. This was easier said than done, however, Tyro was no stranger to danger, but jumping onto an enemy-held ship with heavy weaponry and the only support vessels a thousand kilometers off had always sounded foolish. Now, of course, since he was here he might as well just get it over with.
"Ship in twenty-klick range." Jackal responded haphazardly, he would be impacting before him, meaning if he acted quick enough he might be able to gauge himself using his comrades example. He'd have to find out, though, nearly a minute and a half later he passed the ten click range. He planked himself out, hands grasping at the magnetic clamps that would secure him to the vessel and prepared himself for the jolt of reaction-mass from the thruster pack.





3rd Fleet
66th Operations Group
Task Force Uniform
CNS Everlong
CA Westphalia class Drone Carrier





The massive hulk of the drone carrier's double-hulled design often forced sailors of the Coalition Navy to name the Westphalia class the "Madam Parelel", parelel of coursing being Hykan for "parralell". Its ease of manufacturation was capitalized by that fact, that it was simply two hulls of a Concordia class welded together and joined by the command bridge in the center. While the mass of the Westphalia was often a joke, never was its ability to practically swarm dozens of vessels with drones, neither was its ability to carry a payload of eight 60 gigaton NOVA warheads. Utilizing a ring of fission devices to collapse an internal 'salted' warhead, the yield of the warheads was practicaly quadrupelled, making the nearly two-hundred other drone carriers throughout Operations Group the main strategic arm of half of the 3rd Fleet. The lines had become relatively fixed in the past three days, the 3rd Fleet, boasting somewhere near fifteen thousand vessels in the combat arm alone, were spread across the berth of the solar system. With plans to bring in the 4th Fleet as well to aid in the sealing of Terra, the Taiyou and Aschen forces in the local region were quickly becoming outnumbered; and while fighting still continued even outside of Sol, it would soon be wearing on all three faction's mind that they might soon be looking at an attritional war rather than a conventional one. While Captain Everret Long understood the aspects of waging an "attritional war", he also understood the asepcts of surviving it; though he was confident in the 68th ability to contain, press and attrition the Aschen pocket that had just left the Sol system, he was hoping that the fools would simply retreat to Tal'Dor. There had been rumors of peace-treaties, joint-governence debates and even a Coalition surrender spreading throughout the entire fleet in the past several days. Everret was certain that peace would follow this conflict, he was event more sure that after engagements for Sol ended the Coalition would probably post-pone the efforts to press the war and approach the Aschen with a compromise, then all of this business could be behind him and he could quit the Navy, work on a farmworld somehwere in the Outer Empire. Crossing his arms over his chest, the Captain leaned himself backwards ever so slightly as several groups of Assault Frigates manuevered to provide overlapping fire for the upcoming combat. While the 66th OG was located on the far right side of the Aschen bubble still clinging to the edges of Sol, most of the 69th and 70th OG's were completely occupied by a wall of Aschen. He counted himself lucky, he could be facing the bulk of them, then he'd really be using those 60 gigatons. Instead, however, he was here on the far corner, with a measly estimated 300 Aschen ships against the one-thousand and two hundred Coalition ships.

"Captain, we have hyperspace-exit trajectories feeding into the sensors now, it is estimated that thirty-three to forty Confederation vessels will drop from warp soon." The AI was relaying him the entire sluece of information that was pouring from the sensor bridge, which would have been located only twenty or so meters below him. He couldn't help but smile to himself, when the first Coalition ships had engaged theri Aschen counterparts, they had expected to simply fight then when they bounded out from their 'warp' and then operate from there. It was one Junior Lieutenant in the helm of a Coalition destroyer that realized the passive Slipstream navigation systems could hone in on the mass disturbances the sudden absence of space created. Upon further investigation it appeared that the Coalition had found one of the simplest ways of countering the Aschen's hit and run tactics; that had been nearly a full year ago during the cold-war Terran conflicts. Now, the Aschen would be feeling the real hurt of the Coalition, practically wide open upon even dropping from warp.
"Understood, feed the data to Weapons and Navigation, then package it and send it to the others. We'll set out the welcome mat." Long clasped his hands behind his back and then inhaled, the refurbished air that was so common of Coalition vessels had become an almost aroma-like object to him. He released his breath as the first of a squadron of ten HIKER Attack Drones zipped through the conglomeration of vessels that made the thirty-ship strong Carrier Strike Group. A quarter of an AU away two more CSG's moved in, while between that a single Battleship Strike Group also readied itself for their guests; while Long expected the Aschen to come blazing in as their usual bravado, he was completely confident in Uniforms ability to handle whatever they could dish out.

"BSG Alpha One and BSG Alpha Four are moving on our right flank, CSG Bravo Two and CSG Bravo Five are maneuvering left. BSG Bravo Three and CSG Juliet Eight are holding the middle with us, Captain." The AI replied in the usual, monotone voice that was common of so many Coalition vessels. While in fact the standard Coalition vessel utilized two or three "dumb" AI's for simple tasks such as navigation, engineering and sensors, the main AI at the core of the ship was in all sense a "smart" model. The main AI often handled ship-to-ship communication, overlooked and double checked her dumber partners and aided the crew just as much as her other intelligences did. It was often so that these crews would develop a connection to their AI or "Momma' Hen", and in return the AI would design it's own "personality" to make the crew feel more comfortable in any situations. The Everlong's AI hadn't really 'developed' in any sense of the word, while it is common duty for most core AI's to take the name of the ship, Captain Long hadn't even began to justify it with that.
"Understood ... Everlong, keep your eyes open." He steadied himself as he spoke, and he could have sworn he felt a moments hestitation from the intelligence. He had even gone so far as to think he broke it after its lack of response finally occurred to it.
"Yes, understood, Captain Long."


"Alright, listen up! We've got about a hundred Confederation ships dropping from warp in Echo-Tango five, and we're rolling out the carpet for 'em." Captain Long had already taken dominance as CSG Alpha Two's commanding officer. Most of the times it was simply left to the conglomeration of vessels to elect a commanding officer, but Long had muscled his way past any of his candidates long ago and had assumed the reigns. With only one BSG in the area, numbering twenty vessels, he would have to rely on the drone complement of CSG A2 and CSG J8. With four Concordia class Attack Carriers, two Drone Carriers and two Heavy Carriers, the better part of a thousand drones and four Battlecruisers, the offensive capability of A2 and J8 was a much greater advantage than most of what the Aschen would bring. While Battlestars contained an effective load of "Vipers" they often paled in comparison against dedicated carriers such as the Sentinel of Concordia class. Several minutes later the twenty-vessel Strike Team began its deployment, utilizing the six Atea class destroyers as a screen, the two remaining Sigma-Crusiers were attached to the carriers to provide close support.
"Destroyer screen is online, sir." A young Ensign from Navigations boomed loudly, jolting Long from a transparent though as the first of several alarms began to announce themselves with wailing.
"Looks like the prom date's arrived, let's get her outta' that dress boys."




22nd Operations Group
Alpha Unit
1st Squadron
India Element
CNS Rigsby Gaines
BB Radegast class Battleship




"You said what happened?" Admiral Savage fought to keep the earpiece closed into the canal of his left ear, almost straining as his sudden vision became clouded with a mixture of rage, fury and appreciation. While the 2nd Fleet was still a ways away from completely evicting the Aschen from their pocket in Sol, it appeared that they had taken care of that problem themselves. Also delivering a crippling blow to the Habe as they did, leaving Admiral Bankovich with quite a concussion as well as several other vessels of the 2nd in chewed up bits. He gilded himself at the thought of Bankovich losing his precious seat in that massive Coalition warsteed that know listed lifelessly in space; with her back broken in several places, the Habea had barely survived due to sheer luck alone. With a quarter of her crew incapacitated as well, war-waging capabilities had once again fallen back into his hands and boy was he capitalizing on that. Using the unguided 3rd and 1st Fleets to establish a secure border, not only hemming in the Aschen who were now located somewhere between the Kuiper belt and the bulk of the Coalition blockade, but now the Taiyou as well were experiencing their own crushing anaconda grip. With the noose quickly tightening around Sol's neck Savage was sure to have this little frontier war bundled up by the time Bankovich got back on his feet. That didn't mean the loss of the Habea didn't upset him, though, it was far from the truth. With that leviathan out of the fight, there went the massive firepower she packed and sheer freak factor a vessel of that magnitude offered; now, of course, that just meant Savage would have to do it the old fashioned way.

"Affirmative, sir, reports put a Refit-and-Rearm at twenty weeks." The young Ensign on the line was from one of the Fleet Tenders that had escorted the Habea in had caught the full sight of her opening battle, witnessing the terror-weapons that had become the singularity cannon tearing through the mighty Habea. While she would fight another day, it wouldn't know, and that was what dissappointed Savage most.
"Damn, we really coulda' used the punishment she could dish out too." He couldn't help but fake the comment, only slightly, if Savage had been in command of 2nd Fleet and Bankovich was the one stuck between a rock and a hard place, he was certain old Mikal would be crying crocodile tears as well. It was a well known fact that in many issues, more-so regarding this war effort more than anything else now, that Admiral Savage and Bankovich were not the best of friends. For reasons unknown to him, only Regievko would dispatch a man he fundamentally despises to aid him in acquiring the first conquests of the war. If he asked him, Ludvik would probably just wrap it up for the media to gobble up, 'two of the most powerful Military Counselors acting alongside one another, that'll get the polls churning for the war effort'.
"We'll work as fast as we can sir, but I don't think OFFCOM will spare any more transport flotillas to help us out with repairs. Pretty sure it'll all be Fleet Tenders from here on out." The Ensign relayed, giving a curt grunt of disapproval at the thought. While the Vanguard class Fleet Tender was well aware of supplying the Navy in Sol and the other systems, it was well known that they couldn't carry as nearly as much extra ammunition or equipment as the massive Arkalus transports could. Though he hardly expected the Coalition to be running low on supplies soon, yet it had happened, his confidence was restored in the Fleet Tenders following the sudden exit of the Aschen. Now, the 22nd OG was practically brand-spanking-new in little under forty-eight hours. With an estimated combat efficiency at now 93 percent, Savage had even found himself dispatching units to the 1st and 3rd fleets, instead of the other way around. It was true that the 20th and 22ng OG had cut their teeth at Terra, now they would be considered one of the most well-trained units in the entire Navy, and Savage was sure to be leading the charge into the Aschen thicket with a combined fleet.


"OFFCOM will have their hands tied up with the DCTR by the time that happens," Savage mumbled to himself before dismissing the Ensign with a swift 'job well done' and then ending the audiolink. Gaines, the Rigsby's core AI, was displaying himself with crossed arms as he waited for Savage.
"Gaines, I want an OG to dispatch to Bankovich, that bastard's dead in space but we need that ship to survive. You have full control of who stays and goes, but make it worth it." Savage gruesomelly picked at the scar tissue that discolored a large portion of his neck. He brushed a long finger over the weeks worth of growth underneath his chin, a constant reminder that even with victory came the stresses of defeat. Gaines had vanished from his small display pad and left Savage in his spartan quarters, there was a small double-sized mattress and covers; a large airscreen and desk with a ruggedized laptop, but other than that the bare furniture was unnoticed. He pulled his lips into a tight line as he gazed at the holographic picture mounted beside his mattress, a older woman smiling brightly in the sun-dress that would've looked like it belonged on a college student.
"Lieutenant Commander, get a strike team ready, as much firepower as you can. We're initiating Operation Cloak."




1st Fleet
306th Squadron
Zulu Element
CNS Jacob's Ladder
CB Sirona class Sigma Cruiser




"The Heavy Destroyers are firing! We have a gap in the line, commit the attack!" Captain Jacksons nearly screamed as the first of the cruisers opened up with their spinal-cannons, hurling a wave of ferromagnetic slugs the size of a large car at a fraction the speed of light. A split-second later a string of flowers, bright miniature suns from the 60 kiloton Tharkos-tipped slugs, tore apart the flank of the Taiyou offensive. In a split second dozens of vessels were simply wiped out of existence, splattering their allies with molten globules of scorched starship armor, several more vessels were annihilated by the EMP bursts and careened into their comrades packed so tightly close to them. The Taiyou were taking unacceptable losses by this time, eight groups of five Heavy Destroyers had hemmed in an arm of the Taiyou offensive and was absolutely slaughtering them. Ruined Taiyou ships outnumbered the Coalition casualties by hundreds now, the XC-1 cannons proving the Coalition's greatest weapon against the Taiyou wave of ships. Down the line, Jacksons witnessed a wink of atmosphere and plasma boiling into the vacuum, unfortunately the Taiyou had always managed to claim one or two enemies, either by lucky shots or the kamikaze charges they had made themselves so well known for.

"Launch the Convectors, strategic warheads on the far flanks. Send in the screeners, and tear out their fucking throats." The war had become far more personal in the past several days for Jacksons, the 306th had been in the thick of the Taiyou strike from the very beginning of the offensive into Sol. He had watched countless vessels fall to the Taiyou machine, watched entire groups of vessels disappear behind a wall of Taiyou fire and steel, now it was his turn. He felt a deep pit of satisfaction bottom out his stomach as a Taiyou carrier was struck in the spine with a Lasglow cluster missile, sprinkling the vessel with countless nuclear warheads which blossomed into a violent, blooming flower in the darkness of space.
"Kill-count is at thirty-eight, Captain, and climbing -- we're actually winning!" A Navigation officer shouted from his pit, the sudden realization that the crew of the Jacob's Ladder might survive to fight in later battles of this damned war seemed to instill a sense of courage amongst the crew, because Jackson soon noted the elite precision of his own command.
"I've got a destroyer group target, they're packed tight. We could drop one Chimaera in there and wipe 'em all." A WepCon officer was typing furiously on his keypad while conversing with the core-AI and his own comrades.
"Let's do it, you have batteries Bravo and Charlie. Send 'em to Hell." Jackson had to fight the urge to smile.

"Missile launching ... "
"We've got two destroyers coming in from the left, targeting put 'em right for us! The Clandestine is moving to engage!" A Sensors officer shouted as an airscreen deployed in the front of the bridge, a starboard camera caught the sudden battle between the Coalition battlecruiser and the smaller Taiyou ships. The Clandestine fired first, four 32 inch shells tearing through the prow of the Taiyou vessel and gutting the ship outright, spinning uselessly before the Taiyou vessel unleashed its returning barrage. The wave-cannon tore a gaping hole along the Clandestine's prow and exposed a long tract of her internals to the vacuum, the Taiyou ship was preparing for another shot before the first of ten Longbow missiles collided with it amidship and simply snapped it in half. Explosions rolled up the two halves of the vessel before finally turning dark, dying in the blackness.
"Yeah! Give 'em hell!" Several of the officers shouted in chorus as the Clandestine banked to expose a Taiyou cruiser to a fusillade prepared by four Atea class Destroyers. The Taiyou ship, obviously dedicated to a kamikaze charge, fought its momentum to augment its path before simply be filayed by the spinal-cannons of the Coalition destroyers.

Aschen High Space Command
SOLCOM 1st Main fleet
AHSC 'CNV - Emblem of Divinity'
Operation: Looming Glacier
CNV - SuperCarrier
Current Strength - 11,508 Vessels

"We can't seem to hold this indefinitely so we need to come up with a plan B." Corman said as he contemplated his next movements. He was watching the holographic readout in tandem with the screens that displayed the long range DRADIS. Though the Habea had been destroyed, which served as a Morale boost, Tal'dor fleet was nowhere to be found, and so Corman was not getting his reinforcements.

"Gods dammit..." He mumbled as he watched the battle simmer down on his long range DRADIS Screens. Eying the screens carefully he would get on the Comms.

"I need another Battlegroup to hit Terra.. try to disrupt the Coalition forces there.. then we're going to pack up our things and head to Tal'dor, from there we'll rendezvous with the Tal'Dor fleet, then we'll make another push into Terra. Hopefully the Outlook fleet, and the Ragnaar fleet will rendezvous with the Tal'dor fleet, and maybe we'll get backed up by Home fleet, but until then we need to make a choice... continue fighting a losing battle, or regroup and make one grand push deep into Terra and ultimately Coalition space. I want every Scatteran man woman and child dead." Corman said as he narrowed his eyes, just as the CNS Rigsby Gaines came into the DRADIS Screens. This presented Corman with a devious idea. "Chairman Cain, come in." He said on the comms, and would await a response, just as her voice chimed in on the comms.

"This is Chairman Cain, go ahead Admiral." This resulted in a grin to span the older Admiral's face, as Helena Cain's voice echoed on the comms.

"Chairman, you're a Tauron, right? What of the old 'Blood for blood' oath?" Corman asked as he looked to the crackling speaker, DRADIS Readouts softly whirring in the background of the bridge. Lieutenants and other personnel would be moving about the clean white bridge, which was scored with fires and electrical discharges.

"I think I located the Coalition flagship, with Admiral Savage on board, DRADIS is pinging transponder codes and we've identified it as Savage's ship. I think you know what to do, Madame Chairman." Corman said on the radio, the phone firmly in his hands, calloused fingers clasped around the clean, slick black body of the telephone device. "You remember the oath we took when we joined the AHSC... the wartime doctrine?"

Cain then replied. "Fight 'em till we can't. I'll make the necessary preparations."

Corman then slowly set the phone down, staring out the bridge window at the Battlestar Pegasus. The Beast, slowly soaring across the field of view, over the crane servos that repaired and refitted the CNV Emblem of Divinity on the fly, along with the dozens of Battlestars docked in her underside hangar bays.

Corman's gaze then returned to the readout screen, watching the red icons representing Coalition ships, move about with Green icons that represented Aschen ships carrying out their desperate attacks against the Coalition stranglehold on the planet. This caused Admiral Corman to stroke his chin as he considered his tactic, from the relative safety of his fleet positioning, which loomed just outside the solar system, hidden from view by the eddies and asteroid particles that comprised the kuiper belt and the Oort cloud, it made sifting through DRADIS Useless, but it also allowed Corman's fleet to remain in relative safety. Sitting in the rear-echelon away from the front line attacks carried out by the two attack groups designated, and holding their very best against overwhelming numbers. Corman silently listened to the chatter of the Battlestar Commanders and Viper Pilots slinging it out amongst themselves, and against Coalition firepower.






3rd Task Force
Battlestar Pegasus
Operation; Blood for Blood
CHM Helena Cain
Strength, 1,500 Vessels

"Chairman we're prepped and readied for jump." Spoke a young Lieutenant in the helm control, allowing the Chairman, whom was a strong Tauron woman to stand over the war table. "I want to personally ensure that Mr. Savage is killed in this mission. Upon execution we're to set coordinates in our FTL Drives directly for Tal'dor, if you're taking too much damage jump out, there's no use in letting this sorry bastard kill you." She said, clenching the communication phone in her hand. "All ships, prepare to commence FTL Jump. Set Coordinates." Cain ordered as she pushed some hair out of her face.

The Pegasus, the hulking Battlestar that she was slowly made her way towards a group of Aschen strike ships, a handful of Battlecruisers, of the Sagittaria and Artemis class, several Picon and Equus class Frigates, backed up by Assault destroyers, and several hundred Alexandria class cruisers, but amongst the fleet was a pre-battlestar class Carrier. The Alexander, a large and cumbersome carrier. Yet she sported hundreds of Vipers, and Century bombers. Backed up by one of the last remaining pure Battleship classes. The Leviathan class. Easily twice the size of a Battlestar, this 5th Age era battleship sported updated and modern weaponry. Including the experimental Athena cannon. A Large weapon which fired a concentrated charged particle beam capable of reducing even the more resilient armors to slag.


Cain would let her eyes fall to the DRADIS screen, and then with a deep breath she spoke up. "All ships prepare to jump on my command.... jump." Cain's order was crisp and clean. The low humming of the spooled drives would be heard and then the ship, along with her contingent, winked out, to jump right in the thick of the Coalition Strike group, the prise, Savage's flagship in the center. Cain was going to have her revenge.


3rd Strike Force
AHSC Leviathen class Battleship
LCB - Bacchus
Operation; Blood for Blood


"Jump completed! They're rolling out the welcome mat now." A Lieutenant said aloud as Commander Finley would turn to the DRADIS readouts. "Athena Command, report." A Female voice then registered on the intercom. "Athena Cannon how may I assist you?" The Voice asked as the Commander spoke. "Paint and fire, enemy Coalition ship. Confirm, Sigma class cruiser, commence, full energy load-out." He said as the ship bucked, the hyper-dense Trinnium armor plating bucking against the ferromagnetic slugs hurled from Coalition ships, allowing the fiberclad armor underneath to crumble and disperse the energy. Even as Pegasus soared through the lines, putting up a dense flak field, augmented by Jamming, and utilizing her Cruiser escorts to dole out pain to nearby Coalition ships.

"Athena Cannon here, your call is important to us, we're charged and ready." Commander Finley would then nod. "Athena Cannon, this is the CO, is your target painted?" The Athena Cannon then replied. "Affirmative." The Leviathen would continue to sail through the void, letting her dorsal mounted Anti-ship cannons hurl superdense explosive magnetic slugs towards nearby Coalition ships. Dishing out the pain to all that came within range. Thin red beams of light would move about before centering on a Sigma class cruiser. Seconds went by before the cruiser was suddenly reduced to molten slag at the hands of a bright red beam of light which punched through the dense armor, and reduced it to superheated slag.

"Athena Cannon here, target neutralized." The Voice said as the Commander nodded, the ship bucking from a nuclear warhead impacting her side.

"Sir, Radiological alarm! We got nukes inbound!" The Commander then nodded. "Activate Aegis shield! Now!" The Nukes would make their approach, and suddenly detonate several hundred klicks short of the Battleship, a burst of light shooting from a small Point defense turret. "Nukes neutralized." Would be said just as a Coalition Drone Carrier came into view. Commander Finley then picked up the phone. "Athena Cannon... that Drone carrier, neutralize it." The Woman's voice then echoed. "Athena cannon here, target acknowledged." The Leviathen class then turned on it's keel, taking a salvo of slugs from a nearby Coalition destroyer, only to return the favor with a salvo of explosive fragmentation slugs, which detonated inside the enemy ships, sending fragments in all directions. The Aschen strike force clearing a swathe of destruction towards Savage's ship. Pegasus would be leading the charge.

Of course the attack was not concluded as the Leviathen fired small tendrils of light towards the Drone carrier, the massive twin-hulled ship would then meet the same fate, the Athena cannon discharge, running a deep lance of light through one side of the hull, diagonally through the ship, impaling the engines to result in a brilliant explosion.



AHSC 3rd Task Force
Sagittaria Class Battlecruiser; Daedalus
Operation: Blood for Blood
Commander Gairwyn

The Hulking hammer shaped form of the Sagittaria class would be coursing alongside the Pegasus as she made her run towards Savage's ship. Her charge was to keep enemy ships off the Pegasus' back as she unleashed her hatred towards Savage's ship.

"Watch that cruiser... forward photon cannons prime and discharge, torpedoes armed..." The Lieutenant said as the ship banked around, scoring several punches at a nearby Coalition cruiser, severing it in three as the battered and aged Daedalus kept pace with 'The Beast' which was a nickname for Pegasus. Helena Cain was preparing a risky maneuver. The 'Cain Maneuver' as it would soon be called. The Aschen ships continued their tightly packed group around the Pegasus, as they laid waste to the 22nd OG, despite taking heavy losses they maintained their charge.


3rd Task Force
Battlestar Pegasus
CHM Helena Cain
Operation; Blood for Blood

Sweat and blood poured down the woman's face as she clenched the railing. Lieutenants and helmsman pushing the ship to full throttle. Searing through escorts and ignoring the destroyers, she was gunning directly for the Flagship. "All forward batteries open fire! Do not relent!" She shouted on the phone as the Pegasus unleashed everything she had at the Radegast class Battleship. She promised herself that Savage would get a bloody nose, though ferromagnetic slugs impacted against the hull of Pegasus, she pressed on through sheer luck. Cain was going to try a risky maneuver. This was signified by a Lieutenant shouting. "500 Metrons and closing.... 300 metrons...." Cain then nodded. "Spool the drives..." By now the Pegasus had managed to punch a sizable hole in the side of the Battleship, simply by pummeling it with everything it had. Suddenly everything stopped. Cain on the intercom. "All hands brace for impact! Assault teams one and two prepare for depart, Red stripes prepare to repel boarders, Assault team four, take him down. I want to see his head personally on my desk.. good luck and may the Lords watch over you." And with that it was sudden, the Pegasus slammed into the already carved out side of the Radegast class ship, thrusters kicking hard as the ship burrowed, wiggled it's way in deeper, locking itself with the Battleship.

Pegasus: Forward Airlocks

"Alright you maggots prepare to move out! Blow those airlocks!" As the Pegasus locked with the decks of the Rigsby Gaines The badly damaged Battlestar would hold it's own, armor plating scored off as the Marines and boarding parties had mere seconds. "Go go go!" One shouted as they rapelled down the airlock and sides of the ship, some equipped with power armor, others in space suits. "Let's bring down the house!" A Marine shouted as he bounded onto the deck, discharging his disruptor at a stunned Coalition officer. "Forward now!" He barked as two Power armored Marines rappelled down the line. They were carrying a large device. a Naquadria bomb to leave as a going away present. "Get in as deep as you can!" A Soldier barked as they began to cut the blast doors open. "We need to get in before Pegasus jumps or this whole mission is scrubbed!" He shouted as Red Stripes, special Marines were already locked in engagements with Coalition forces trying to get aboard Pegasus. The wreckage and twisted metal turning into a battlefield as hundreds of Aschen soldiers poured from the Pegasus onto the enemy ship.

Pegasus: CIC
Glancing at her watch, Helena Cain would count the seconds as the ship bucked and rattled from the abuse it was taking. The Other Aschen ships crowded around the Pegasus, intercepting shots while the flak field kept out missiles. Cain was watching as the Marines defeated the first set of locks, forcing the doors open on the Battleship and lobbing grenades into the hold.


Boarding Party; CNS Rigsby Gaines

"Cleared!" A Power armored Marine shouted as he stepped over the dead body of a Coalition Marine, half of the man vaporized as the Boarding party attempted to carry the Naquadria bomb deeper into the ship, everyone's watches and timepieces beeped loudly. "Cleared! Brace Pegasus is jumping!" And the Pegasus suddenlu flickered out in a blink of light. The resulting temporal distortion cratered the already structurally weakened side of the Radegast class ship. Likely causing massive atmospheric venting, coupled with fires all over. But if the Boarding party succeeded, things were about to get worse. With Pegasus gone, the remainder of the Aschen fleet jumped away. What was carnage and destruction was peace once more. Except for the Two Hundred some odd Aschen soldiers aboard the Radegast class ship, determined to deliver Savage's Going away present.


CNV Emblem of Divinity
Outer Orbit

"Sir, Pegasus has completed her jump, there are only 867 Ships remaining, mission is so far a success." Corman then offered up a nod. "Very well... let us return to Tal'dor. We will rendezvous with the Tal'dor fleet... and mount a defense... I pray to the gods that we can get out of this mess." Corman said, then offered a nod.

All 11,000 Aschen ships, would wink entirely out of the Sol system to regroup at Tal'dor. They had lost the fight. But this would spur a massive industrial, and military buildup back home.

With Chairman Cain and Pegasus badly hurt, it would be at least a Sectar before Pegasus was fit for service, once she docked in the Emblem of Divinity, the ships would be gone. Grouping around Tal'dor and preparing for a massive defensive mount. Corman was going to ready another strategy to draw the line in the sand, and dare the Coalition to cross it.


ITN Ryouki
Naginata Class Cruiser
Taiyou Offensive

As Tyro made his way closer to the glimmering white hull of the Naginata class, it would seem to shimmer in the sun. Of course his approach was all but undetected, as a Taiyou watchman stared at him through the window. Lacking an effective cloak, the man was easily seen and made out. Picking up a comm node, Lieutenant Takamichi would speak up. "Commander, we have an unknown trying to break into the ship... prepare to repel boarders." He said as the Commander nodded. "Right..." He then would nod to the Lieutenant, and the several hundred Taiyou soldiers would mobilize, anywhere could be a point of Entry for Tyro. All they could di is watch, sit and wait.