CNS Risen Blade
CG Balius class Guided Missile Cruiser
CSG-H Dorothy,
Polis, Tarkit system, the Razorbacks
Captain Hammes




The siren wailed through the Command Bridge as the Captain struggled to disseminate the information flooding through the ships' AI core. The sound of his pounding head was enough to thwart the Captain's efforts, he and the crew of the Risen Blade were the first-responders in the Belkan invasion; heaving entered the system through an array of scattered cosmic debris, the Risen Blade and her team of six Destroyers had broken from the bulk of the combat fleet. Leading the charge, the Risen Blade had broken the fifth La Grange point of Polis, a lonely forestworld of Coalition settlers and Scatterran innocents. Polis was burning from the ground, long massive hammers of the atmosphere reached up toward the blackness of space; a bright flower signifying a second nuclear detonation ripping through the planet's biome. With the forces in Polis in complete disarray, the small detachment of marines the Risen crewed would have been of little use other than gunners, something Hammes would know he'd be needing. Reaching across the railing to a small holopad, the Captain activated a stream of codes, one authorizing the weapons and defense systems, while the other ordering the core AI to target and identify the Belkan starships in the system.

"Affirmative, Captain, running Long-Range-Spectrum sweep now." The AI responded in a fictional voice before Hammes watched the planet turn in its slow orbit once more; amongst the screaming and shouting of the bridge, a pit taking hold in the Captain's stomach as the first of countless silhouettes were seen against the blue and green marble. His eyes were no match for the powerful zoom of the ships cameras, and Hammes watched as the screen accelerated toward a Belkan starship parked in high orbit above the planet, attached to the bulk of a UCON trading station.

"God dammit -- Where's my ID on that ship?" Hammes shouted, looking down to the Sensors pit and staring at holographic screen identifying nearly eighty Belkan starships around the planet. A Junior Lieutenant looked up toward the Captain, typing several keys as lettering appeared on the main airscreen beside the Belkan star-dreadnought. It wasn't until then that Hammes realized the scale of the Blasberg; the Belkan starship outclassed the station in size by nearly two kilometers horizontally. The air was charged as the Risen finally came online; with a soft chirp a holodisplay announced the weapony was online. This would be Hammes' first contact, fresh from the Soviet Academy in Tandanir; it was by the will of God himself that his opponents would be the Belkans.


The history lesson has been changed, but the truth has remained a painful sting to the Belkan. In the earliest months of the Coalition, the planet of Scatter remained divided through a lack of representation. The planet had recovered from a series of debilitating conflicts, brought on by the greed and desire of national governments, and the human occupants of the world had constructed something marvellous, something unbelievable. The Coalition. Hammes shook the thoughts from his head as the Lieutenant Commander appeared beside him, a young Azrik woman with a healthy waist and pleasant chest, though plenty was covered in the skin-forming dress uniform, Hammes' could still piece bits and pieces of information.

"All weaponry is ready to fire, Captain -- " With a sudden stop, the Junior Lieutenant let the siren wail; Captain Hammes stepped up from his chair, pulling his PDA with him, and watched as the first of several windows spring to life, Belkan ships all across the star system targetting the small team of seven Coalition ships.

"We've just been painted -- dammit -- Radiologicals are going off, prepare nuclear countermeasures!" The Lieutenant Command shouted, her own info-device active as well, though hers was a simple holographic display mounted in the palm of her hand, as she walked to the railing and pointed toward the weapons pit.
"Tier 2 weapons active, I want the Chimaera missiles active in thirty-seconds, get me a firing solution in fiften."


Captain Hammes turned his lips downward as the first of three Belkan destroyers turned to face them. On the far edges of the combat-space, Hammes estimated it would take another ten minutes before the Belkans would fire, giving the team that much more time to prepare its shielding, online its weaponry and prepare its crew for the first Belkan activity in this galaxy for nearly five decades. A once proud race that had ruled the planet alongside the most well known of Scatterran leaders, the Belkans had long since rejected their absorption into the Coalition, instead the ruling regime decided on exodus. From the galaxy itself.

"Captain, all missile batteries are online and active -- Firing solution has painted two cruisers past the engagement zone with immense radiological output." The same Junior Lieutenant, a young Zhakis male by his developing mustache, repeated to both the Captain and the Lieutenant Commander as the first SAM-9 anti-ship missile launched from its VLS tube and zoomed through the blackness. Accompanied by nearly fifteen more, the Chimaera's zipped along their trajectories at increasing speeds. Unaccompanied by the standard salvo of missiles, Chimaera's combined with Archer missiles equipped with high-yield jamming suites, the initial volley was designed to simply test the Belkan defenses and their relisliency. Coupled with a 950 kiloton warhead, the Chimaera's were more than capable of harming the undefended starship.

"Missiles are away, time to impact fifteen seconds," The Lieutenant Commander said, her eyes fixing to the airscreen with Captain Hammes, slowly watching the flaring thrust-engine of the missiles on their trajectory toward the Belkans.







Tadin Station
7th Polis District,
Garrison Vatka
Polis Planetary Defense Corps
66th Defense Platoon




"Noooo! You need to leave now!" The billetman shouted; overhead Belkan aircraft zipped overhead the city, off in the distance the bulk of a Belkan destroyer loomed like an immovable sentinel above the suburbs of Tadin. Situated here, at the railstation, the sky appeared to be alight with the clash of thousands of metal bees. Occasionally things would rain from the sky, a burning UCON drone or a scorched Belkan transport would collide with a roof some streets down the way, one of multiple ways for the Hegemony to get to the ground. Picking a piece of dirt from the tri-barreled anti-aircraft gun, the crew of Tadin Station's Battery 6 looked upon the FBP runner with a curious glare; with a growl Sergeant Katsby hopped down from the gun's command module and waved one handgun at the Rakistani runner.
"And just who in the hell are you? Get the bloody fuck out of here you Rakistani shit -- Where do you think we will leave to, Belkans control the starport!"


Corporal Hantid shrugged his shoulders once, leaning away from the mounted 12.7mm magnetic rifle atop the battle-crete fortifications added to Battery 6's own. The FBP runner cursed in Zhakistowi, his mouth running a mile before the Sergeant discharged one round into the frame of the doorway; the Rakistani crouched, shouted something in his foreign langauge and quickly departed, the automatic door closing behind him several seconds later. With the Rakistani gone, Katsby holstered his weapon, a simple TN-45, and pointed to the four other crew members of the cannon. The 8T9K Ilshilka was a triple barrelled 30 millimeter anti-aircraft cannon was used throughout the Coalition, a staple of the FBP Planetary Defense Corps. Equipped with a sensor array, targeting information and an uplink to POLCOM, Sergeant Katsby and Romeo squad had been dispatched to Tadin Station via Vulture to defend the six 200 inch railcannons situated at the station until relieved by Coalition forces massing in the suburbs.

That was nearly eight hours ago, when dawn had broken over Tadin and the inhabitants had awoken to the shout of Belkan infantry and the roar of Hegemony artillery from orbit. Corporal Hantid and Sergeant Katsby, along with the four other surviving members of Romeo squad, formed the backbone of a 500-man company at its deployment to Tadin. Eight hours of combat with the Belakn forces had left only two platoons to defend six cannons, about twenty Ilshilkha cannons and thirty N6V3 125 millimeter magnetic rifles. Now, there was only one Lieutenant and six Sergeants commanding nearly one hundred and sixty soldiers, tasked with defending an underprepared anti-orbital installation with an understaffed company.
"Sergeant ... What are we going to do, stay here?" Corporal Hantid finally asked, breaking the several minutes of silence that had followed as Sergeant Katsby and two other Privates loaded a link to a 6,000 round magazine. Tapping several keys on a holographic command prompt, the cannon's barrels came to life with a loud buzz.

"Damn right, 'nd we'll keep on stay 'ere until we're damn ready to leave, Corporal. The Hegs won't be makin' us go anywhere soon." The Sergeant remarked, eyes fixed tightly to the command prompt as he tapped several more keys. The thin alloy doors that had formed the roof of the recon bunker pulled away into the construction of the building to allow the Ilshilka a better targeting scope. With one final command, the cannon loaded its ammunition and the turret fired on its first contact; the sawing noise the weapon made was deafening, causing Hantid to throw his hands to his ears and scramble away from the magnetic rifle he had been previously manning toward the door, which slid open automatically.
"Aaah! We're cooking with fire -- Hantid, take Jans and Montep and take an armor rifle; the railcannons should be operational soon!" The Sergeant commanded, another Corporal taking position nearby him to man the Ilshilka. If it meant getting away from this racket, Hantid nodded his head and grabbed his own rifle, an MR-18C carbine outfitted for use by the FBP, and was followed out of the gunpit by Private Jans and Montep.

Stepping out into the trench system that led through the complex, the noise outside was a noticeable octive higher than if they had remained indoors. Hopping down the stairs, the first of two FBP soldiers rushed by Hantid with replacement barrels for an Ilshilka slung over their shoulders. Mantep and Jans stopped beside him, giving the soldiers plenty of room to manuever past; Montep turned his eyes upward as a pair of Hurricane fighters passed low overhead.
"Those Hurricanes are flying low, we must have lost the fight in orbit ... " Montep said, Hantid barely gave the statement though before leaving, toward the first of two 125 millimeter magnetic rifles.

"Of course we've lost the fight in orbit -- the Belkans wouldn't be on the planet if we hadn't!" Jans voice was loud in comparison, he was probably the loudest in the entire squad, as Montep and the Private descended the stairs leading to the open gunpit. Situated on the far structure of the station, Corporal Hantid and the two soldiers manned a gunpit aimed out toward the suburbs; the Belkan destroyer a large sentinel suspended in the air.
"Sure as shit, the Belkans are back. God damn, look at that thing!"

Corporal Hantid quickly jumped the few steps leading to the guns platform. The N6V3 was a fairly large weapon, equipped with an 18-round magazine that occupied the bulk of the platform, Hantid seated himself at the command prompt and wrapped one gloved hand around the joystick that controlled the sights and mechanism of the weapon.
"Jans, just take a gun and shut the hell up dammit!" Hantid shouted as the cannon's electromagnets came to life with a deep groan. Mantep was soon mounting the second cannon, the double-barreled version of the N6V3 warming its conductive rails much quicker than the older model.

"Where's the manual for this thing -- I didn't read a lick of this in Defense School!" Mantep shouted over the noise of three 125 millimeter rounds loaded into the barrels of the cannons. Hantid still fiddled with the prompt, activating the targeting system and releasing the auto-controls as he peered through the holographic sight that appeared in front of his eye. Swiveling the turret, Hantid moved the joystick several more inches before the crosshairs finally rested on the bulk of the Belkan destroyer. The automatic range-finder in the sight was calculated in a matter of seconds, and a trajectory sprang to life in the small sight; a pale red line sprouting from the barrel of the railcannon and ending at the Hegemony starship.

"Point and click, Private, looks like the militamen left the assistance mode on -- We've got three hundred rounds between all of us, make 'em count!"

Tadin Station
Defense Platoon Delta
Polis, Tarkit system, Razorbacks
Operation Mantis Shield




It was only fifteen minutes before the last of the Coalition drones were blown from the sky, tossed to the ground by the sheer volume of Belkan transports descending in rapid-assault formations across the entire continent. The last Coalition drone, a Convector II, fell low to the ground to avoid the majority of the Hegemony anti-aircraft artillery and the dominating advantages of the Belkan fighters. Hantid had watched it and the last group of drones zip and buzz along the Belkan formations, the four drones planting missiles in the bellies of nearly five transports before Belka gained air superiority above Polis. It wasn't until the last heavy drone descended from the sky in a burning fireball did Hantid notice the low rumble of engines. Not from the air, but from the ground. Peeling himself from the sight of the Belkan destroyer on its slow path toward the station, Hantid flexed his hand over the joystick of the cannon as he spun it lower, using a pair of pedals to traverse horizontally. It was several minutes later that the first Belkan transport passed low over the station, engines screaming as the aircraft descended from the intense ground-fire and prepared themselves for landing.

"Oh shit, here they come!" Jans screamed over the roar of gunfire as the first Belkan aircraft strafed the station. Had Hantid found him anywhere else, he probably would have found himself smeared by the passing aircraft; a stray round flared in the ground besides him as the first of several magnetic shields deployed. The devices were built to reinforce the gun emplacement during combat, capable of withstanding considerable shrapnel and even direct hits. Though Hantid wasn't sure how modern this shield module was, these things could be pretty dangerous if they were old enough, and he wasn't willing to tempt it. Yanking a holographic display to the side, the four rails of the cannon separated to form the main conduit along the slug, and with a hiss a current of electricity was ran through the weapon.

"Montep, you know how to target this thing?" Hantid yelled as he discharged the first round with a heavy squeeze. He cursed loudly as the roar swept across him, he felt his stomach fluctuate from the electromagnetic waves that accelerated the 125mm cannon shell into the cockpit of a Belkan transport. The airjet toppled through the sky before exploding in one final flower; tendrils of smoke and burning debris falling to the ground as a second pair of Belkan fighters zoomed in from above. Before Hantid could will the cannon to reload, a pair of Belkan Ka-348s unleashed the first in a volley of missiles that came crashing into Tadin Station in a split second later.

"Shit! Shit! They're everywhere!" Montep suddenly screamed, his voice a hurried shout as the double-barreled railgun roared. Sooner or later, Montep would realize his high-rate of fire would result in the destruction of the rails, something that would be more harmful than useful at this current situation. As another slug was loaded into the cannon Hantid took his eyes from the sky to see the tell-tale silhouette of infantry and armor fighting their way through the ruined suburban streets leading to the rail station.

"God dammit, they won't stop! Where the Hell did all these fuckers come from?!" Montep continued to yell as Hantid yanked back the holographic icon once again; though instead of the familiar click of a shell being loaded, Hantid was nearly tossed from the platform as the core of the weapons battery unit folded apart to reveal the burning hot core of the weapons barrel, molten slag beginning to slowly ooze downward from the punishment. Looking away, the heat alone caused enough discomfort, Hantid awaited the cannon's built-in cooling system to douse the molten mixture in a film of ultra-cold nanomachines designed to rebuild and repair the rails of the weapon. It wouldn't be a permanent solution, but Hantid could easily replace the rails if they managed to fight off the Belkans.

" -- Corporal Hantid, are you there? Corporal?!" The sudden voice of Katsby nearly tore Hantid from his position at the gun. As a Belkan Grauhund transport passed overhead, the first of countless Belkan bullets found themselves bombarding the trio of Coalition soldiers. Hantid was first to notice the Belkan airjet looming overhead. With a soft sound and a whir the mechanism of the railgun closed and a fresh round was loaded, the clamp spinning the round to generate a small amount of static as the battery charged the rails.

"Yes, Sergeant! Have we stopped the invasion yet, we're getting our asses kicked out here!" Hantid shouted, discharging the cannon one more time and watching the round zip by just below the hull of the airjet. Aware of the platform, the Belkan airjet loomed overhead in a steady hover and unleashed a hail of fire from the tandem 20 millimeter cannons mounted at the nose of the Grauhund. Hantid ducked his head low between his legs as the rip and tear of the cannon tore across the platform, churning the ground beside the Corporal before slicing across Montep's cannon and severing the battery connection. Hantid managed to raise his head long enough to see Montep thrown from the cannon, in half, by a volley of unguided rockets from the Belkan transport.

With Montep dead, Hantid released a scream of fury as the cannon roared a final time, placing a shell neatly in the cockpit of the dropship and gutting the entire vessel in one clean shot. Hantid could have sworn he noticed the black figures of Belkan infantry dropping from the airjet as it banked into a building, before he once again looked to Monteps gun, which was now a black and annihilated mass, Montep's corpse wasn't anywhere to be found, at least a majority of it.

"Corporal, get Jans and Montep and get back here dammit, we're pulling ou -- " The radio suddenly broke away into static and interference before Hantid pounded at the small com-link rigged to his forearm. Typing at a few quick keys, Hantid attempt to stream-line the channel, but it was lost in frequency jamming and interference seconds later.
" -- You hear me Corporal?! We have to le --"

"I'm out of ammo but they still have armor -- Where in the fuck is Katsby?!" Jans shouted, suddenly disembarking from the anti-armor rifle and ducking behind a parapet to prepare his MR-18C. The shortened, foreguard grip-equipped carbine version of the MR-18C weighed less and was much easier to maintain, but in combat-situations the falacies quickly became evident. To not only Hantid, but all of Delta as well. Huddled against the embattlement, the Private loaded a fresh magazine into the weapon before stepping away from the bastion and unleashing a burst of fire toward the Belkan onslaught.
"They've got a whole fucking division out there! I saw logistical trucks and a fucking supply train to that --"

The crack of the sniper rifle tossed Hantid's crosshair away from the Belkan destroyer, now noticeably closer than it had previously been, as Jans dropped to the floor. Cursing under his breath, Hantid forced himself to load one last round after glancing over to the Private's motionless body. It was painfully obvious the young Hykan was dead, a thin pool of blood beginning to pool around the silent corpse.

"Sergeant, this is Hantid -- Jans and Montep are dead, the Belkans are overwhelming the platform, fall back now!" Hantid screamed into his comm-bead as he painted the Belkan destroyer and depressed the trigger. Hantid closed his eyes, half expecting to be wiped from the face of the earth in the following seconds, he was dissappointed to suddenly hear the mechanism of the weapon spring open to reveal the empty breech. Looking into the slugless chamber, Hantid pounded one hand on the frame of cannon as the sky roared overhead. Glancing upward, Hantid was only able to see the bright yellow tail of the missile before it connected with the bulk of the cannon opposite him. In an instant Hantid was tossed from the weapon, his seat forming the better part of a massive blast shield to protect him from the explosion; ripping the cannon from the platform and tossing it onto its side before depositing Hantid on his face.






As his vision fought to return, his hearing quaked from the explosion, blood freely poured from a ruptured vessel in his nose, staining the ground below him a sickly crimson as he raised himself to one knee at the edge of the gun pit. It wasn't until then that the first Belkan infantry, well within fifty meters of their emplacements, began to unleash the first volleys of grenade fire onto the ramparts of Tadin Station. Hantid was barely on his feet before the first launcher sent a 40mm grenade into the stairwell leading to the lower trenches. The battle-crete was shredded from the impact, spraying chunks of superhardened materials across the platform.
"Sergeant -- Sergeant Katsby?!" Hantid began to shout as the grenades descended around him, tossing up great columns of mulched dust and debris, occasionally a bullet would snap into the ground beside him and spray a fine film of dust across him. Hantid let his feet step in whichever direction they could manage as his eyes stung; blood poured openly from his nose now, a long stain of crimson reaching from the neck of his armor toward his stomach.

"Corporal, over here! Move now!" Sergeant Katsby shouted from the stairwell leading up to the Ilshilka bunker, his carbine roaring from a quick three-round burst as two other soldiers crouched behind him. One, Corporal Pallev, hefted an SM-10 anti-tank rifle onto one shoulder and shouted his protest to the Belkans as a thunder crack tore Hantid's eyes free of darkness and off into the suburbs as a Belkan APC roared into flame from the impact of the 80 millimeter slug. Pallev was quick to ditch the SM-10, it was a bulky piece of weaponry that painted a fairly large target on a man's back, and quickly passed beside Private Valta. The Private's ECR-10 was cracking in a mellow beat, one Belkan falling for every report of his rifle before Hantid felt himself in the Sergeant's grip.

"This isn't our place to die Corporal, we need you alive just like the rest of us!" Katsby was screaming as he shoved Hantid along the stairway, one hand reached out for the railing as he put forth his own effort and was soon behind the retreating Pallev and Valta.
"Corporal Pallev, jam the door and prepare the explosives. We will blow this platform when they sink their dirty teeth into it!" Katsby's voice continued to fill the gunpit as the Ilshilka roared to life once more, gutting a Belkan airjet down the middle with the whiz of its cannon as Hantid was laid against a stack of ammunition crates and supplies.
"Private, silence that gun! She's done her duty, now it's up to us."

Hantid finally came to with his rifle slumped in his lap, several hand grenades laid beside the Corporal as he looked around the room hazily. The door was jammed, the Corporal had forcefully annihilated the command prompt and kicked in one of the bolts of the guide line in, locking the heavy door in place. Peeling away from the door, Corporal Pallev trotted past Hantid before hauling him up by his shoulder. With his feet on the ground, Hantid found it much easier to move, slowly crouching toward the ground and shoving his rifle into his shoulder. Passing Private Valta, he stopped in his tracks to hold the coupling cover open for the Private as he reached in and yanked a conduit bearing life to the machine. The turret sputtered once and died as the barrel slowed and dipped toward the ground. Seconds later the heavy doors of the gunpit began to close, plunging the room into a temporary darkness as the battle roared outside.

"Alright, check your equipment everyone -- The Belkans will be here any minute." Came the voice of Sergeant Katsby, shattering the darkness with his voice before physically doing so with a flashlight. The beam carved past the inoperable Ilshilka and bathed Hantid and Valta in a cone of light. A second one activating, illuminating Corporal Pallev's position, before the Sergeant trotted past the Ilshilka toward the doorway leading deeper into the command complex.
"I pray the Lieutenant has our evac ... " Katsby said in a low tone as the door slid open, letting in the sharp light from beyond the doorway. The Sergeant's figure quickly disappered into the light as the first hiss of welding torches were placed to the opposite door. Corporal Pallev was next to act, quickly sprinting toward the doorway even as Valta and Hantid still discussed how to stop the Belkans.

"Go now, everything in here is going to detonate!" Pallev screamed as he planted himself outside the door and launched a flare from the underbarrel grenade launcher past the others. The projectile smacked the door and dropped, burning brightly as Hantid rushed for the doorway in tandem with Private Valta. Reaching the doorway, Valt bolted up the stairs and spun to snap off two quick rounds at targets in the distance; Hantid rushed past Pallev before he turned to see the Corporal fumbling with the pin of a hand grenade. Hantid turned himself in mid stride and held the door apart for the Corporal, creating a wide enough opening for Pallev to ditch the FG-4 Hedgetrimmer into the room as the hissing of welding torches died away. Hantid quickly leaped back from the doorway, Pallev grasping him by the shoulders and hauling him up the stairway as the bunker detonated in a furious explosion.
"Take that you fucking Belkan shits!"

Rushing through the empty command complex, Hantid gave little thought to the lack of corpses from combat, his feet simply kicking into the ground with every breath he took. The others were just as determined as well, Valta was the only one purposefully falling behind to toss thermobaric grenades onto the Coalition equipment. As Hantid and Romeo squad sprinted through the last barracks of the complex, Sergeant Katsby pointed to a highway tearing away from the railstation at Tadin and forging off toward the more developed area of the continent. Scattered across the asphalt paving and railing was the roaring engines of an entire armored battalion. Though loosely equipped, they were honest-to-good Armored Cavalry crewmen; the battered brown armor fatigues of the Marine Cavalrymen a welcome sight to the simple olive drab of the PDF.

"He did it! He fucking did it!" Sergeant Katsby shouted over his labored breathing as they passed by the first SV-9 Claymore AFV as it sat sentinel at the intersection. As Hantid passed by, the first of two PDF soldiers disembarked from the rear of the AFV and waved their hands through the air at the sight of Romeo squad.

"Whoa there, you guys can't just come walkin' outta' the Belkan crosshairs in one piece, not after I watched them slaughter a whole stadium of people and then dress up as our guys ... " The FBP militiaman inquired, stepping in front of the Sergeant before looking the other three over with a scrutinizing glare. The other soldier reached one hand out to his comrades shoulder and pulled the rogue in toward himself slightly.

"Those aren't the Belkan colors, Sergeant, stand down now." Lieutenant Vasquez commanded; the Sergeant was pulled back by the commander of Delta platoon and cowered at the mere thought of crossing the Lieutenant. He was a retired marine Major, wounded in fighting on Terra and transfered to the training and tour of Delta platoon. His neck still bore the scar of a wound that tore a section of his shoulder apart still visible reaching up to his neck.
"Sergeant, sorry to hear about your boys. I'll personally see to it we cut every last Belkan on this planet down." Vasquez affirmed with one firm handshake to Sergeant Katsby.

The Sergeant was stone cold with the Lieutenant, simply grasping his commander's hand tightly and holding his chest for a moment before nodding to him.
"Affirmative, Sergeant -- I'll be with you every step of the way." He muttered beneath his breath, releasing his grasp and striding forward, the rumbling engine of an idle Saber HMGV drawing the Sergeant toward the vehicle as the Lieutenant stepped beside the NCO and looked toward Hantid.

"This fight's done for now, wardogs, let's sadle up on some wheels and move out. We'll hit the Belkans right where it hurts next time."






CNS Risen Blade
CG Balius class Guided Missile Cruiser
CSG-H Dorothy, Team 6
6,000km+ outside Polis' gravity



They had managed it through the sheer luck of god, whatever damned god allowed them to survive it this far was now quickly rethinking his decision. As the Blade passed through the aegis manifold dropped by a destroyer, the shattered and broken hull of the destroyer CNS Macadelia suspended in the blackness, forever frozen in death. The manifold flared with a furious intensity, the model I manifold was outclassed by the newest models like the ones equipped at the keel of the Blade. Utilizing a neutral fission core, the massive nano-forge that formed the bulk of the manifold deployer used the nuclear reactions to project a variable plasmoid shield nearly 200 kilometers in either direction. Set to extend only 15 kilometers from its location, the shielding array was strengthened from its conservation of mass, and the blank wall of violent energies were far too thick to peer through to the space beneath.

"Why did they ditch their manifold, what were they thinking?" A Junior Grade inquired abruptly, his eyes staring blankly into the airscreen as Captain Hammes clutched his PDA and wrapped his other hand around the railing. The Lieutenant Commander was beside him, her arms tucked behind her back and her face blank beneath her combat-helm. They were aware of exactly who, or very well what they were fighting in the Razorbacks. Belka has returned to the Coalition.

"Don't question the dead, Lieutenant. All weapons active, I want to kill more of them." Hammes' voice was a brutal husk as he leaned himself against the railing. He could sense the most hidden of hesitations from the Liuetenant Commander, and then from the crew as a whole. Several seconds passed, the mass of the energy manifold disappearing from the cameras and becoming nothing more than a ghostly smear on the sensors of the Blade as she swept through the 2nd La Grange point of the planet. It was a giant blue sphere from this angle, the Risen Blade and her team of four destroyers struck past the bulk of the Coalition Heavy Carrier Strike Group that engaged the Belkan pickets to hit the force directly above Polis.
"I want our guns operational now, I didn't join this Navy to watch the Belkans take a planet from us." Hammes said with a loud shout, inwardly furious from the shell-shock of the entire crew until he called the ships AI.

"Yes, Captain Hammes -- you requested weapons operation, which system do you wish to fire?"

"Prepare the two-hundred and fifty, and find me a solution for the nearest Belkan starship." His voice was a steady, animalistic tone as the AI quickly processed the orders. It took thirty seconds for the Risen Blade's lone 250 inch electromagnetic cannon to load a thermonuclear warhead onto a ferromagnetic slug and prepare it for launch. The air charged slightly from the fluctuating magnetic fields, the insides of the starship housed around the railgun warping and arcing slightly.

"I have located a target, Captain, providing imagery and trajectory now."

The holopad nearby cracked open, in tandem with the main airscreen, displaying the sleek and streamlined Belkan corvette suspended in an orbit above the planet. Captain Hammes inspected the trajectory of the 250 inch slug, well capable of gutting a ship if unprepared, would pass through little resistance on its trip towards the Belkan vessel. The Blade and her escorts were hidden in the debris of a hundred Rakistani starships, the illegitimate Eastern Republic of Rakistan Navy broken and defeated in at the hands of the Belkans. An eerie call back to history.

"Fire the cannon."