Elosha's Story

Elosha is here?

The Sun was shining in the grounds where Natalie was going to be buried, there was a small crowd of Aschen gathered, George, Marlene, and a few others whom knew Natalie personally, there was a woman standing at a podium at the head of the casket, which had the Aschen flag draped over it.

"Ohmmm... asato maa sad gamaya... Tamaso maaa.. Jyotir... Gamaya..."

She then took a breath. "Mytyor maa amrtam gamaya.." After she sung the mantra, she rang a bell, and then spoke, her voice solemn. "With heavy hearts, we lift her body up unto you.. O Lords of Kobol. In the knowledge that you will take from her.. her burdens.. and give her life eternal. We also pray that you look down upon us, with mercy and with love." She then paused for a moment.

"The burdens of this life are with us but a short time. For Special Agent Natalie Schultz, Daughter of Rudolf and Mara Schultz, the time was too short, but we take comfort in knowing her life was willingly given in service to all of us. We honor her for that. And thus, it falls upon us to repent our sins and with the help of the Lords of Kobol, make our own lives worthy of that gift. And now, we commit her body to the ground from which we were all made." She said, inclining her head.

Elosha approached Mara and Ari inclining her head. "Is there any solace that I can offer for you and your child, my dear?" She said, turning to Ari. "And you too... you seem perplexed by your friend, she is with the Gods now."

Elosha sighed. "That was her choice, one I disagree, but her's none the less."

The Parliament building of the Aschen Confederation.

Inside the derelict halls of the Aschen Parliament building, a restructuring of the government was taking place, with new orders being disseminated out to the Aschen fleet.

Televisions had been turned as the people watched with bated breath...

"Mr. Kane if you would raise your right hand, and place your left on the book." Priestess Elosha, a Kobollian Priestess said, as she prepared to administer the oath.

Jarrod Kane nodded slowly, before he raised his right hand, and he placed his left on the book.

Elosha nodded. "Repeat after me..." She said.

"I... Jarrod Kane, Do avow and affirm to faithfully execute the office of the President of the Aschen Confederation of Planets..."

Kane took a breath.

"I... Jarrod Kane, do avow and affirm to faithfully execute the office of the President of the Aschen Confederation of Planets."

..."To Protect and defend the Articles of Confederation."

"To Protect and Defend the Articles of Confederation."

..."From Enemies both foreign and domestic."

"From Enemies both foreign and domestic."

..."With every fiber of my being."

"With every fiber of my being."

..."So say we all."

"So say we all."

Following the swearing in, thundering applause erupted in the Parliament building, and the Quorum building, and began to spill out into the streets as a bell began to chime. The Rioting, the destruction, and the death took a brief and festive pause, thundering through the city's ruins as the people began to tear down the statue of the Divine Shadow. Screaming and chanting in the streets.

"Freedom!" They called out, as energy weapons fire streaked into the sky from small arms across the city. It was a bittersweet moment across the Empire as mothers embraced their children.

From the streets of Tal'dor, to the towering buildings of Molecay, people poured into the streets to celebrate, as the Empire began to crumble, and collapse around them. Roving bands tore propaganda from the walls, and statues toppled one by one.

For anyone tuning in, a festive atmosphere began to spread like wildfire across the Aschen Empire.

However, despite the celebration across the Empire, those hurt and dying in Caprica City had an immediate issue to face, as Emergency workers moved through the rubble and debris, and the occasional celebratory mob. Those that emerged were taken to hospitals across the Caprican Province.

Ean Falcor yawns and stretches as he walks along the streets, looking for a decent place to eat

High above Langara, and Caprica City, thousands of small satellites began to come online, somewhere between low orbit, and the thermosphere, a Hard Light Shield began to form electro-quantum mechanics similar to a Watchtower's Aegis field. A Top secret Aschen project dubbed 'Lunatea's Veil' Which was incorporated into Langara's defenses sometime following the Galactic War.

Shimmering like sunlight on water across Langara's sky, the barrier began to stretch as far as the eye could see.

Feidlimid made a request across the beleaguered engineering through damage control comms, "Damage control, Critical, please assess transit support field systems in sector tau-psi-6. Possible tampering. It is not aligned correctly with neighboring sectors and it would be good not to explode right now."

The temperature was rapidly rising in the primary coolant crucibles for the engine and he had to keep enough head-end for the shockpoint jump to initiate cleanly. The ship was already starting to hum with the load on inertial dampening systems attempting to keep rei from turning the crew into red paste.

As the Cobalt Glaive gained altitude from the spaceport, several ground based emplacements that dotted Caprica City's towering skyscrapers, and the surrounding mountains swiveled to life, they almost immediately began to garner firing solutions, as dozens of heavy anti-orbital gun batteries fired, causing deafening booms to reverberate all throughout the city, as school bus sized ferric-tungsten slugs were hurled up at the ship, calculated for trajectory at near relativistic velocities, igniting the atmosphere into a white hot plasma as they screamed through Langara's atmosphere.

Raid sirens began to blare through Caprica City's streets, as Langara's defense fleet began to move in for a star-side intercept.

Leading the charge was the Reverence II 'Esteem' But there was little they could do on the other side of the Aegis field, so the fleet moved with coordination, and haste only Aschen ships seemed to be able to pull off, they moved into position.

Ean called this out just as one of the Tungsten slugs from the orbital defense arrays clipped across the ships shields, shearing off the starboard side. No damage was done to the ship itself, but the shields would not be able to hold that bombardment for long.

Feidlimid busies himself with trying to keep the ship from melting as he replies, "I have an option if there is a breach. Thin then shift the shield and throw hot plasma at it. Hot metal at least will puncture less armor. It will cost us core health and fuel but needs must."

Rei grit her teeth and poured as much power as she dared into the ship to evade the defense arrays, and push them further away from the planet. "Crazy bitch... I did not want Aschen Rim 2.0.." She muttered as she continued their ascent towards the rapidly closing shield. Rei just hoped they could make it far enough before having to resort to other matters.

Dozens of Type 100 'Pilum' Orbital defense guns fired their second salvo in unison, sending each magnetically accelerated projectile upwards and into the sky.

The first time these weapons installations had been fired since the Great War and the subsequent Strategic bombing suffered at the hands of the Coalition, the well maintained defense installations were intended to destroy capital ships in low orbit. While incredibly accurate, they weren't supposed to be deployed against a ship the size of the Cobalt Glaive. With Targeting data piped in from EVE, they kept on, with their only limitations being the hydraulic servos that gave them movement.

They cracked their terrible report once more, and it reverberated through the skyscrapers, and the mountain valleys below.

The shimmering barrier continued to expand across the horizon, their escape avenue directly to orbit had been cut off, they would need to adjust trajectory for one of the other closing holes further on the horizon, or risk being trapped.

Ean Falcor smiles brightly as the shields close. "Rei, Keep us running straight up to that barrier."

Ean Falcor began accessing systems via his console and called out over comms. "Berri, leave the cooling systems to Feid for a minute, Load up the null cannon, and get ready to fire. Feid, start the Shockpoint drive, hold the final discharge until I say"

Feidlimid didn't know quite what the Captain had planned but decided the best thread he could pull would be to have the shockpoint engines warmed up. Rei had everything engineering could throw at her but with the one down coolant line isolated from the system it left a loose thread to tether. A quick pelt of tentacles repathed some coolant lines to get a direct shunt between the isolated thermal dissipator and the shock point hardware. It likely caused Rei's control to hitch just slightly but the shockpoint engines on the console entered warm-up mode in spite of the load from main engines. Though there were several critical warnings erupting on her console.

Rei Harkov grumbled something less than kind under her breath about the Aschen and their defenses as she kept the ship on track for the next rapidly closing hole in the barrier.

As her console lit up with lurid red and orange warnings, she firmly ignored them and pressed onwards. The controls briefly shook before Rei regained control. It was taking all of her concentration and then some to speed for the opening and keep the ship steady.