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ComNet > Imperial Navy > Archived Naval Story Board > VEN: Out of the Invisible
 
 
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Topic:  VEN: Out of the Invisible
Slasher
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Slasher
 
[VE-NAVY] Commander (CDR)
 
Post Number:  892
Total Posts:  1054
Joined:  Oct 2008
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
March 11, 2012 6:16:18 PM    View the profile of Slasher 
Commander Slasher looked about the situation room on board the Dead Gun, although not as in tune with events right outside the warship as the bridge was, in his role as the Executive Officer of Task Force Besh of the First Fleet he often found himself there during his off-duty hours as the ship's Commanding Officer, and catching up on the movements of the Task Force, and of the fleet as a whole.

"Chief Dentor, get me the Halcyon Warrior, I'd like to speak with Captain Mihawk." Surprisingly the image of the Commanding Officer of the Warrior appeared almost immediately,

"Slash, I was just trying to reach you," Drac started before Slasher could get a word out, "There have been some crazy events here at Abrae, we're currently out of system with elements of the Task Force, as well as some other units from the First which have been attached to Besh, we're all preparing to enter the fray, how soon can you be here?"

"I was just calling to inform you that we were approximately two hours out at current speed, sorry about the difficulty finding us, but we were under a communications black-out in an attempt to keep our movements secret. A micro-jump can get us there almost immediately, we were coming in through the edge of the system to do some calibration with the navigational sensors, but that is not essential, we'll be there as soon as we are able, expect us to be combat ready within 20 minutes of entering the system, we have to get the fighters prepped and the crews to them."

Nodding to Chief Dentor to close the channel, Slasher jumps to his feet and heads for the bridge, just a short ride away via turbolift, as the doors open he steps off of the lift and into the organized chaos that always is the hallmark of the bridge of a warship.

"Captain on Deck" rings out the voice of Master Chief Ornmil, and behind him Lieutenant Junior Grade Castlio, the Duty Watch Officer, turns to see why his commanding officer has returned to the bridge, especially after pulling a double watch his last time around, and having only departed some two hours before.

"Captain?" he inquires, wondering what the reason for the surprise visit was.

"Lieutenant, I have the bridge, get to your Stand-By Alert station. Helm, flank speed, set a course for the coordinates you should have just received from communications, plot a micro-jump and engage as soon as possible." continuing to make his way toward the walkway above the crew pits, he motions to various members in the crew pits as he issues orders.

"Bring Alert squadron to Alert-5, have all other fighter squadrons brought to Alert-10."

"Aye Sir,"

"I want all sections of the ship brought to Stand-By Alert."

"Right away Captain."

===Undisclosed Location, VSD Dead Gun===

The man slips inside the room after carefully checking the corridor to make sure that he is not being followed. He nods in greeting to the three other people in the room, and once the door has fully shut behind him, he begins to speak. "We don't have much time, the ship is moving to link up with the rest of the Fleet, and we need to be ready to make our move before our forces arrive in system. How are your cells doing?"

The middle aged Zabrak wearing the rank insignia of a Chief Mechanist is the first to speak, "My team and I are ready to go as soon as the order is given, how is the bridge team doing?"

Master Chief Petty Officer Akate "Acorn" Helin looks up from the corner, where she had been sitting, idly flipping a knife in her hand, "We're ready to go, that bridge will be ours within 30 seconds of our setting foot on the bridge, when do you want us to go?

"We'll make the move as soon as the ship makes a move to enter the battle, if you are unsuccessful we will use our secondary disabling methods."

"Ok,"

"Mr. Clart, is your team ready to hit engineering?"

"Yes, everything is ready and in position, we're just awaiting the word go."

"Very well, let's get back to our own quarters before any of us are missed, I'll signal you on the designated frequency when the time comes."

With a quick nod of heads the four members of Super-Cell 112I3F-DG, return to their cover assignments, waiting for the time when their missions will become obvious to those who make up the crew of the Dead Gun, their target.

===Bridge, VSD Dead Gun===

Commander Slasher paces the walkway above the crew pits, below him the crew of his ship quickly goes about their assigned tasks, making sure that every part of the immense ship works perfectly, he turns and nods to Akate Helin as she exits the turbolift onto the bridge, taking up her position, and nodding to Ensign Cevdis as she passes him, "I missed you at the mess hall earlier Cev, where were you?"

"[I was knee deep in communications circuits on deck 7, somehow one of the fuses in there went, and fried damn near thirty circuits, felt like I had to rewire half the friggen ship.]"

Helin's response is lost to Slasher as the ship comes out of hyperspace and moves into a flanking position next to the Halcyon Warrior,

"Communications, I doubt it is necessary, but please inform Captain Mihawk of our arrival, and request further orders."

"Aye Sir."

===Deck 12, VSD Dead Gun===

Petty Officer 2nd Class Diona Palr was a relatively new member of the Dead Gun's Internal Security Section, and as such was still a little jumpy about people coming into her area, at the same time however she was always hesitant to challenge a superior who was in the area, for fear of misidentifying someone, and getting chewed out by someone who has every right to be in the restricted area. In this case it took her less than a second to see that the person, a relatively young Leading Crewman, had absolutely no reason to be in the area, and as he bends over the console at the end of the corridor she calls out, "You there, identify yourself."

The young man, surprised to hear her voice, looks up from the panel he was working behind, and seeing a member of Ship's Security coming toward him, freaks out and bolts, running away from her, leaving his tools sitting there on the ground next to the open panel.

Seeing that the man is starting to run, Diona draws her blaster and yells at him, "Halt, this is a restricted area." he makes no motion to stop, and Diona starts to go after him, her left hand dropping to her belt and pulling up her comlink so she can call for backup, with her mind occupied trying to keep up with the intruder, and getting her comlink, she never sees the wrench as it comes up and makes contact with the side of her head, dropping her to the deck, and with a swift second blow, ending her life forever.


OOC:
WC: 1195
AAR: The Dead Gun is returning to the fleet from a diplomacy mission, she joins up with the Halcyon Warrior and is waiting for the story to be moved forward to combat. In an underlying story arc, there is a group of saboteurs aboard the Dead Gun including both new plants, and sleeper agents, (like Akate Helin) who have been serving in VE units for years, (Slasher flew with Helin back when he was a Fighter Pilot) this is going to serve to do some serious character development, both for Slasher when he is betrayed by someone he has placed such trust in, and for the Bridge Officer Cevdis, who has been with Slasher since he commanded the Onyx as a Warrant Officer. NOTE: Some cosmetic Editing to be done
TFXO:B|SCAP/CDR Rorran "Slasher" Gorma/VSD II Dead Gun/TF:B/1st FLT/VEN/VE
[IC1][SoV][CBV.][MC:1][SoL][GWC][NS-3][LSM][=*IM*=][=*SWC*=](=*A*=)(=*SA*=)(=^ME^=)
Hades
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Hades
 
[VE-NAVY] Petty Officer 2nd Class
 
Post Number:  184
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
March 11, 2012 11:25:29 PM    View the profile of Hades 
Hades growled, his fighter rocking from the blasts. Everything was happening so fast, almost too fast for Hades' liking. He was now pursuer free, but that didn't necessarily clear things up. Why? That was what Hades wondered, why now, why here, why? he wondered in vain, regarding the Imperial Dominion attack.

Scral - although flying well - still had two on his tail, following him through every twist and turn like two relentless predators smelling fresh meat. Unfortunately for them, Scral was not fresh meat, nor was he alone. Hades flicked a glance left - Maroy was there, flying level with him as they zoomed to Scral's assistance.

"Chief" Hades hailed Maroy on the Comm "take left, I'll take right"

"They're too close to Scral" came back the response, her voice regulated, but with a hint of tension.

"Roger that," Hades responded before raising Scral the same way. "Scral, prepare to break left on my mark,"

"Hades what are you-" Maroy began.

"On my mark, open fire." Hades said shortly. He probably was breaking some rule or other regulation by giving her instructions, but he didn't really mind. Pilots' lives were on the line, no regulations should prevent saving them. Maroy didn't seem too worried about it, and acknowledged. His targeting indicator flashed once.. twice.. then green!

"Mark!" Hades said over the comm. Scral broke left suddenly as he and Maroy opened fire, their linked-wing lasers taking a deadly toll on the enemy Interceptors. The explosion wasn't too big, but enough to turn the enemy into space dust, blasting their fighters into oblivion. Hades grinned slightly, coming back around and nearly colliding with a friendly TIE Avenger of Elix Squadron. Damn them Hades thought bitterly, they probably think they're better than us.

"Watch it, Elix Squadron!" Hades snapped over the comm. It was bad enough they had a selfish, heartless bitch as the squadron commander; they didn't need some hot-headed squadron of hot-shots to boot. There was no response, and Hades felt his frustration rising. The pursuing fighters had forced Tuk'ata squadron to turn around, meaning their noses were now directed toward the Atrus. Hades rolled his eyes at yet another complication.

"I'm coming around" Hades spoke to Scral and Maroy, who both acknowledged with a click of their comm. He pulled his fighter into a tight turn, until he was facing back toward the enemy forces. Hades shook his head slowly as he fully comprehended the scale of the ID forces. And I thought we were allies.. Hades grimaced and where the frak is the Warrior? Hades' reverie was broken by a laser bolt. Enemy interceptors were trying to live up to their namesake by attacking the bombers of Bha'lir squadron. Not today. Hades rolled left, bringing him into the path of an oncoming bogey, who was obviously stunned by the reckless move. Hades accelerated, his throttle sending him hurtling toward the enemy.

"Let's play chicken, shall we.." Hades smirked to himself, a daring glint in his eyes.. The enemy fighter kept coming, and the two interceptors looked ready to collide - until the enemy dove, narrowly missing Hades' interceptor. An explosion rocked his fighter again, and he noticed Maroy had gotten the fighter.

"Nice flying, Hades" Maroy complimented him.

"Not too bad yourself, Chief." Hades smiled, and felt it, for the first time in a while. He checked his sensors - fighters were still harrying the bombers and engaging Elix squadron. Hades commed the SC.

"Ma'am" he began, overly-courteously "requesting permission to assist Elix squadron with the Interceptors"

Hades was expecting some snappy response that was characteristic of the Squadron Commander, whom he was very tired of. She wasn't an incompetent commander, per say, but she didn't inspire them. He could name several others who would make a better SC than she. Of course, as a Petty Officer 2nd class, that was not his place. He'd heard whispers that a new SC would be appointed soon. But then the ID forces had jumped in-system, and everything had seemingly gone to hell.

Or at least, for the friendly enlisted and NCOs of the various fighter squadrons. Hades had his suspicions about Naval High Command.. he figured they had had some idea what was coming and yet had not informed any of the lower ranks. Hades could see why, but he still wasn't happy that he wasn't fully prepared. They could have given him at least some warning.

"Confirmed." the curt response came back. Hades was momentarily stunned. She was as bitter as ever, but somehow she'd approved his request. Something smelt fishy to Hades.. he did a double take to make sure the Halcyon Warrior hadn't emerged out of hyperspace suddenly. Nope, no Warrior yet.. so the fishy smell was coming from elsewhere...



OOC:
Wordcount: 814

AAR: Hades blasts a few fighters and gets a feeling that something's up, after the SC gives him permission to assist Elix Squadron. Of course, that might be because she'd received orders that she had yet to share with the squadron. :P

And Ryn, I may be away, but I'm not gone.. don't plan my downfall just yet XD

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Petty Officer 2nd Class Demetrius "Hades" Aita, Tuk'ata Squadron
FM | PO2 "Hades" | B-3 | S:26 "Tuk'ata" | W:58 "Javelin" | mSSD Atrus | TF:A | 1Flt | SC | VEN | VE
[MC1] [CBV] (=SWC=) [CAR] [BWC]
{INTER} {SfrM} {XenMA} {AFM} {HypM} {0Gee} {INFL}

"Life is warfare."
~Lucius Annaeus Seneca
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Ryuno
ComNet Novice
 
[VE-NAVY] Leading Crewman
 
Post Number:  25
Total Posts:  29
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
March 12, 2012 9:41:20 AM    View the profile of Ryuno 
Naomi’s sensors blipped a message, that a ship had just entered the system- VSD Dead Gun. One more support ship for when the Dominion does eventually get tired of throwing fighters at them and moves Capitals up to blast them all. The more pressing concern than Dead Gun’s arrival was the aforementioned fighters, in total of three … And the easily panicking concern of at least one missile lock.

Her voice was tight, but deliberately steadied so as not to sound worried, as she keyed into Ryn’s communicator, simultaneously powering her cannons down to divert to the Interceptor’s missile tubes without sapping from the engines. “Got a flight at my six. Go on ahead, I’ll clear them.”

Her communicator clicked once in acknowledgement … Granted Naomi wasn’t entirely certain that she could, in fact, clear them … But she did have a plan; One that relied almost entirely on coincidence and dumb luck. The problem wasn’t coming about to face the flight in question … That simply involved a manoeuvre she’d executed in simulators time and time again. The problem was timing. A warning screamed in her ear that a missile had been released, but it streaked lazily overhead, perhaps the product of faulty sensors, as she pitched downward and began to follow through with the turn to bring herself about and to face the flight as its Lead was releasing another missile. At such ranges as they were, this one should have no trouble tracking, and vaporizing, Naomi’s Interceptor. This was where the dumb luck came in … Along with the reason she’d powered her missile tubes … Because with only her Interceptor’s cannons, she could never make such a shot. Hell, she didn’t think she could do it with a missile … But survival was always worth trying for.

A metallic thump that rang Naomi’s cockpit like a gong and rocked the Interceptor underneath her joined a screeching launch warning in her ears as she dumb-fired a missile to meet a locked-on version of the same. What happened next was so peculiar that Naomi wouldn’t have believed it had she not seen it herself … And certainly wouldn’t have thought herself one to attempt such a thing. But the result was almost exactly as intended. As the Dominion flight’s Lead dove and the flight formed on its wing, the two missiles passed each other closely enough to trigger proximity fuses. The ensuing explosion, doubled in magnitude by the detonation of two concussion missiles rather than one, and each of which was easily enough to destroy an Interceptor, split the Dominion flight Lead’s wingmates apart, effectively breaking the formation. Sadly, the detonation was not enough to do any remarkable damage to any of the three fighters … Which was where Tuk’ata Squadron’s Gamma flight came in by sheer, lucky coincidence.

Because the two pilots of the Imperial Dominion that had been affected by the detonation were, at this point, without shields, the pair were easily mopped up by salvos of cannon fire. Naomi keyed into the Squadron’s encrypted channel as her Interceptor screamed through the debris field left by the missile detonations. “Gratitude for the assists, Gamma Flight. Lead, Tuk’ata Four requests permission to link with Hades and assist Elix Squadron.”

There was no reply until Naomi clicked her microphone to speak again, but the first word of her request for confirmation was drowned by the Zygerrian’s voice. “Negative, Four. You will rejoin Tuk’ata Three and thank your Stars that she wasn’t vaporized in your absence.”

And that was the berating Naomi had expected. She clicked her comm once in acknowledgement and pitched her Interceptor about so quickly and into a turn so hard that the manoeuvre actually threatened her presence of mind. When she had come full-about, she was inverted. A quick snap-roll corrected this and she took a second to clear her head before actually keying into Ryn’s communicator. “I’m with you, Three. What do you want to do?”

As Naomi dropped neatly onto Ryn’s tail, she observed that the more experienced pilot had apparently just finished off an Interceptor of her own … As both Ryn and Naomi sailed through a cloud of crystalline fuel, frozen in the vacuum of Space … And Naomi could swear that there was a pilot in the wreckage of the craft in question, not quite vaporized from the bolts of cannon fire that were his demise. It was perfectly understandable that the reply didn’t come right away.

OOC:
WC: 747 … They just get shorter and shorter.

AAR: Naomi and Gamma Flight deal with a trio of Dominion pilots … Relying mostly on luck and circumstance. Naomi requests permission to link with Hades but is turned away, in favour of rejoining Ryn.
I'm told that my mind is a restless nomad with goldfish characteristics.

FM/LCRW Naomi Ryuno/A-4/S:26 "Tuk'ata"/W:58 "Javelin"/mSSD Atrus/TF:A/1Flt/SC/VEN/VE [SoA]
Echelon
ComNet Member
 
Echelon
 
[VE-NAVY] Chief Petty Officer
 
Post Number:  312
Total Posts:  546
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
March 12, 2012 6:34:24 PM    View the profile of Echelon 
Stopper Beta-5, an older pilot, though, one that had just come out of flight school, had been instructed, as well as the rest of the squad, to proceed to battle. He had immediately jumped in his flight suit, and gotten in his TIE, thinking nothing of the seeminly routine mission. But nothing about that mission was routine in the end to him. Was death routine?

"Here they come!" his female squadron leader called, "Get ready!"

He was flying the basic and standard TIE fighter. Nothing special. Ahead of his craft was the enemy. A squadron of TIEs much like he was flying. Except that they were Dominion craft. Evil, or so the propaganda stated. They were people, just like him. The Dominion probably labeled the Vast Empire evil. It was all in perspective. All he knew was that they were trying to kill him, thus, he should fight back.

A few hundred meters from intercepting the enemy squadron, he looked intently out his viewport, trying to take in the situation at hand. Though, he couldn't really see the incoming TIE squad, he could see a multitude of stars. It was pretty, but not important. Glancing down at his displays, he noted that they were 100 meters away and closing. Grabbing the throttle control, he yanked it back, slowing his approach and giving him better aim at the starfighters when they were near.

"All starfighters, fire! Fire!" commed his squaron leader, intent on destroying every Imperial Dominion craft in her reach.

Though a bit hesitant at first, he pressed down on his trigger. A milisecond later, a large stream of green plasma blasts flew out of his craft at enormeous speeds. The Imperial Dominion craft quickly avoided the bursts, firing some of their own. Pulling on the yoke, his craft pulled up, avoiding a blast.

This is where the fun begins...

Yanking hard to the left, Beta-5's TIE began a sharp turn, and it ended with the craft flying straight downward. Levelling out the craft, he became parallel with another TIE. Not sure if it was Vast Empire or Imperial Dominion, he checked his sensors. They showed the craft to be a red dot: Imperial Dominion. Slowing down and turning so he fell behind the craft, he pulled the trigger, sending a multitude of blasts toward the TIE. The first few missed, but the last met its mark causing the starfighter to dismantle in a series of violent and multicolored explosions.

"Nice hit, Beta-5!" someone called out on the radio.

He nodded cockily. He had graduated in the top ranks of his class. He was good and he knew it, but even the experts had to die sometime...

Performing a U-turn, a red light began to beep in his cockpit. Surprised, he began to desperately figure out what the problem was. A quick look at his sensors noted an enemy craft was behinds him, and locked on. He yanked on his yoke in any direction, trying to shake the craft. But this one was sticky. It wouldn't shake. He would need to ask for help quick!

"Beta 8! Get over here and shoot this bastard down!" he yelled, frantically trying to escape the enemy TIE fighter.

"Alright, on my way," a voice replied over the radio. Though, finally feeling a sense of hope, Beta-5 let his guard down. Just for a moment though. But a moment was all the enemy needed. Now flying straight and not in vicious turns, the enemy fighter had the perfect chance to rip Beta-5 to shreds. And that's what it did.

Firing its lightning fast projectiles, several heat intense bolts ripped through the bottom of his craft. Inside, he shook wildly, and smoke began to fill his cockpit. Surprisingly though, the attack crippled the ship, but didn't destroy it. However, just as the enemy fighter was right about to fire its finishing shot, Beta-8 swooped down from the top, releasing its own shots to smash into the Dominion fighter, causing the entire thing to shatter.

"You alright B-5?" the squadron leader commed over the radio.

Coughing through all of the smoke, Beta-5 managed to get an answer across, saying, "Yeah... *cough* ...But I was hit... *cough* ...pretty good."

"Get over to the ship now. I don't know how much longer that beat up craft of yours will hold."

The smoke begam to settle down as he engaged the throttle. The ship shook erratically, without warning, and steering it was a different story all of its own. The ship seemmed to want to drop to the left, which was why Beta-5 kept constantly pulling on the right. Nevertheless, he worked his way towards the ship, and impressive feat for a ship that badly damage, but that all changed when he flew into the dockingbay.

"Stopper Beta 5," the flight control officer said calmly over the comm system. "Are you ok?"

"Just...got...clipped...by a bolt...any hangar...will do..." he said, desperately trying to control the craft in the narrow confines of the dockingbay. The ship was acting up, the steering, at times, was unresponsive, and he didn't seem to have any control of his throttle, but luckily, it was going slow...for now. The ships movement became more and mopre sporatic. The ship jutted forward, and then slowed down! Was he going to make it?

Attempting to level out his craft, it suddenly turned to the left. He pulled right, but nothing happened. Adding a little fuel to the engines, still, nothing happened.

Galaxy darn it! Fraking craft move! You're going to get me killed!

Suddenly, without warning, the extra fuel seemed to kick in. The craft bolted forward, completely loosing its steering capabilities. Suddenly frightened by the event, Beta-5 attempted to put on his intertia dampeners, trying to slow the craft down! The wall was coming close now! Coming faster and faster! Pulling his yoke, to try and steer away from the incoming metal wall, the ship turned a little bit, but it was too later. The last thing he felt was a warm sensation that overwhelmed him. Was is the firery explosion that he was feeling? Or was it simply the feeling of death? It would be impossible to know, for poor old Beta-5 was nothing but a smoldery, charred mess, blazed on a wall...

OOC:
Word Count: 1,046.

AAR: An NPC post. I mentioned this incident in the previous post, so I wanted to flesh it out.

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DMG-CTRL Officer/CPO Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran/mSSD Atrus/TF:A/1Flt/FC/VEN/VE

TO/CPO Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran/PLF Cappadocious/VENA/VEN/VE

[SoA] [NAR] [CAR] [MC2] [BWC] [HNS] [MC1] [SWC] [=*ENG*=]
{VehM} {SfrM} {HypM} {Astr} {LogS} {Shut} {Gunn}

[This message has been edited by Echelon (edited March 12, 2012 7:11:14 PM)]
Drac
ComNet Marshal
 
Drac
 
[VE-NAVY] Captain
[VE-VEMC] 2nd Lieutenant
 
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
March 14, 2012 8:44:55 PM    View the profile of Drac 
Beautiful. Just fracking beautiful, Drac thought to himself as he dismissed his XO. What dark and twisted current will VENI be sending my way next? Somewhere in the back of his head the Mon Calamari was aware that the situation wasn’t Serpent’s fault. The man had performed superbly so far, aside from a tendency to command through fear perhaps a little too much. Given his rank and youth, that wasn’t too surprising of a development- it was a method of compensation. Time to mature at the arts of command would surely –or at least hopefully- lead the young Human to command more through respect…But none of those considerations removed the vicious ache of yet another metaphorical dagger stuck in his back by VENI. His XO?!? Seriously?!? It was the stuff of a sick joke. Whoever this new Captain Grey was, he wasn’t starting things off on a good footing.

Mihawk closed his eyes for a moment, schooling his expression after noticing his reserve beginning to crack.  Now was not the time for useless anger, no matter how justified he felt in it. He had an overriding responsibility to these ships and these soldiers, and that had to come before any personal consideration. This anger thing…it’s becoming a problem. When I get a moment, it’s going to need to be addressed. Before it begins getting my men killed.. He especially couldn’t afford to let his angers and uncertainties show for the bridge officers to see. That could get more people killed than any tactical mistake he might make. It would sow fear and discord that would trickle down throughout the fleet- and why not? If he exhibited fear, how much more should they be worried?

So the Mon Calamari mastered himself and set aside the issues that weren’t truly germane right at the moment. Straightening his posture in his command chair, he nodded toward the Chief Communications Officer, “Mr. Warnock. Is the fleet ready to jump?”

“Aye, Captain. All ships green and standing by for the jump.”

“Very good.” He turned one eye to regard Chief Pilot Groenveld, “Master Chief, it seems we have some uninvited guests on our doorstep. I think it’s high time we joined the welcoming party.”

Groenveld grinned, “Aye, sir. Ready to jump at your order.”

“Excellent. All ships: jump on my mark. Three…two…one…mark!”

~~~

The jump was a short one- a bare four minutes. Then the streaming starlight snapped back to brilliant pinpoints and masses of ships blocked out whole sections of them. Then things started happening. Quickly.

Every ship of Drac’s fleet started spewing fighters. FOF signatures multiplied on the holoscreen, with friendly numbers ramping up to become comparable to those of the enemy force. Shields flickered as they came up and the barrels of turrets twitched and whirred through final pre-battle diagnostics.

On the bridge of the Halcyon Warrior, orders flew as thick as the starfighters outside. Drac stood, speaking calmly but with speed and precision, “Order Binder to bring up her gravity well generator. She’s to aim a cone at that Allegiance-class and keep it pegged. If every other ship of that fleet runs away, that one stays here. Acrimonious, Trenchant, and Surprise are to begin fighting their way toward the Allegiance-class as well. All other capital ships are to plot and report targets. All ships are to remain in a cone formation- maximum firepower, minimum exposure. Fire priority goes by size- the big fish engage the big fish, the small fry engage the small fry.” He paused for a moment, thinking. “Also: All ships carrying tractor beams that come within range of the Allegiance-class are to focus their beams on that ship. Denying her hyperspace isn’t enough: I don’t want her moving so much as a meter if we can help it.”

A chorus of confirmations rolled back over the next twenty seconds, from bridge officers and other ships alike. Drac stood near a tactical holoscreen display, watching as Binder surged up above the plane of the Warrior’s course to get a clear angle on the massive ASSD. Moments later the hyperspace indicator light winked red as her mass shadow generator spun up.  Then a Sensors officer called out, “Two minutes to firing range!”

Out ahead, nearer Abrae, the most furious fight Drac had ever seen was well under way. If Belgaroth had been bad, this was a miniature hell. Two massive fleets traded fire, and ships were already spewing flame and debris. It was an amazing, terrifying, beautiful, and horrible display of light and fury. The space between the Atrus and the Allegiance-class SSD she was dueling  made the rest of the battlefield look positively friendly and welcoming. Starfighters wound their way through the fire and fury of most of the battle, but that zone was devoid of small craft. Fighter jockeys might be insane, but they definitely weren’t suicidal.

Frowning at the Allegiance-class and the several ImpStar Deuces escorting her, Drac pointed at the cluster of enemy ships, “We’re on point, heading there. Primary target for the Warrior is the ISD-II Countenance.”

“Aye, Captain. Heading set.”

Serpent spoke up as he returned, “Guns are reporting all ready, sir. Also- I have the data you requested.”

“Thank you. Please display it on the auxiliary holoscreen to your left.”

The data came up a moment later as the Human officer transmitted it to the appointed holoscreen. Detailed specs came up, including number of guns, shield generators and capacity, starfighter capacity, and even weaknesses and strengths in the class’s electrical systems. Chief Petty Officer Feldunarra and his staff began examining it, conversing back and forth and pointing out various features.

Ahead, the enemy force began to change formation in reaction to the new threat. A couple of the Star Destroyers redeployed along with their escorts and came about to face the new Vast Imperial fleet. Drac favored them with a tight smile. Things were about to get very interesting indeed.

“Fifteen seconds to firing range!” came the call.

Drac turned to look over his bridge officers at their stations in the crew pits, “Gentlebeings. Good luck. I’ll see you on the other side.”

OOC:
Word Count: 1020

AAR: Drac reacts to the revelation about Serpent, then orders the fleet to jump to Abrae. They arrive and the Binder immediately spins up its gravity well generator to trap the Allegiance-class. Drac issues orders to his forces, then they push forward to engage. A portion of the enemy fleet turns to face them as they approach and the post ends moments before this new round of combat begins.

Orders: React to this post and use the fleet information I posted in the discussion topic to step into combat. All members are clear to begin fighting.
TFC/CAPT Drac/ISD II Halcyon Warrior/TF: Besh/1Flt/FC/VEN/VE
Captain of the ISD II Halcyon Warrior
Chief of Naval Warfare
CNW|Captain Drac|NHC|VEN|VE
"Think Ackbar, but Imperial."
Echelon
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Echelon
 
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
March 15, 2012 4:41:18 PM    View the profile of Echelon 
"We are now in range of the Allegiance-class ship."

The Atrus, the largest ship in the system, and for systems around, slowly approached the Allegiance-class ship, Loyalty. It was like something from a holomovie. Two foes standing off, everything quiet around them, each preparing to make their first move. TIE fighters, both Vast Empire and Imperial Dominion left the scene, for they knew it was dangerous. The space between them was literally barren of anything. The moment was tense, and suspense hung in the hearts of both crews.

Exactly 4 seconds later, the battle truly began. As the ships came within accurate firing distance from each other, all of their guns let out a vicious stream of violent blasts and powerful beams. They all hit their targets, causing explosions to fling debris in every direction. Shields absorbed the powerful shocks, keeping the internal crew safe, but some lucky blasts found vulnerable locations. Those that did pierced the hull and causing widespread damage and fire. It was a true example of Naval warfare.

Back in the Defense Room of the Atrus, its crew began to take in the new information being blasted at them.

"Let's get a Damage Report!" Latency, the chief Defense officer, authoritarianly ordered.

Keplar, the Chief Damage Control Officer, pulled herself out of her command chair, and strode over to the other Damage Control Officers, trying to get a report together.

"Flare, your report?" she asked, looking down at Flare (first name Owen) and his console.

He pressed a few buttons, took in the information, and replied, "Well, no serious damage so far. We've only had one hull breach, but I sealed it off quickly. Electrical power, air supply, pressure, and gravity all at normal levels. No lethalities, but one injury."

She smiled at the good news, but she also knew superb situations could get bad. Fast. "Great. You Macro?"

Macro, who didn't need to look over her information, immediately replied that everything was holding, with no casualties. Keplar, pleased with the news, turned over to the last Damage Control Officer, and Tatooinian man known as Echelon.

"It better be good, Eche. It would be nice to have three good reports," she said, clearly joking by the statement.

"Well," Echelon began, knowing that the correctness of his information would be sent to the captain. Thus vital for the battle. He was in charge of the middle of the ship, Flare, the front, and Macro, the back. They each monitored their sections individually, each utterly responsible for their sections. It was a tense job, knowing you had the lives of the crew in your hand, but, as the old saying goes, someone's got to do it. "We had one hull breach, a TIE fighter missile, but that was awhile ago, before the ray shields were up." He stopped and glared at Lightning, the ray shield operator who was partially responsible for not getting the shields up in time. "All systems are normal, and there are no casualties."

"Brilliant!" Keplar called out, excited by the great report. "I'll send it to the captain immediately. Now get back to work, you underlings."

Echelon turned back around to his control station, a maze of buttons, switches, levers, screens, and dials. On his onscreen map, he checked his section of the ship, keeping a close eye on damages. Green dots showed up, alerting him where blasts hit, but didn't find a way through the shields. So far, the ship was holding well, but he wasn't sure how long it would stay that way. He selected a random portion of the ship, and checked his other screen. It displayed the shield level, an important part of defense. As the blasts pounded away at the ship, the shields would absorb the energy, but in the process, the shield generator would lose some of its energy. Soon, the shields would lose more and more energy that the generator wouldn't be able to make up for. Then, there would be no shields, and the entire ship would be completely and utterly vulnerable to any attack. That was what the shield technicians were trying to avoid. Echelon hoped they would.

The screen told him that they were around 99% in the section he chose. A quick moment later, they dropped down to 98%. Intrigued by the sudden loss in power, Echelon stared at the screen. Shields drop, but not that fast...

Flipping once again to his damage screen, he did see, to his suspicion, that that part of the ship was being bombed heavily with blasts.

Why that part of the ship? Was it purely random and a coincidence...or was it planned?

He flipped a switch and his screen changed. It now displayed a black and white image of the battle from the view of one of the communications towers. He turned the camera to the section of the ship he was wondering about. In the distance and to the right was the Allegiance, a mess of bright blasts firing from the ship. It seemed that the two ships were both planning to broadside each other, but that wouldn't be for at least another 20 minutes, for they both would want to drain the enemy's shields down as much as possible.

After a moment, he finally located the strangely targeted part of the ship. There, he saw buildings and towers (which the Atrus actually has) get pounded repeatedly by enemy fire. The blasts were luckily absorbed by the shields, but explosions still rocketed around the area.

Why would the enemy want to target that part of the ship?

"Hey Keplar," he called to his commander, and she immediately strode over to his control station. "Check this out. The enemy is directing about...I'd say 40% of its fire at this part of the ship."

Keplar gazed at his screens, taking the information in and processing it to something useful.

"Hmmm," she replied, staring intently at his consoles, "I'm not sure. That is quite odd. There isn't any vital systems over there, I don't think."

"Maybe its a tactic. Concentrate all firepower on one section before moving to another."

Keplar thought for a moment. "Perhaps. Bring up schematics, I want to see what's over there."

As Echelon did as she commanded, Latency, the Chief of Defense, couldn't help getting involved in the mystery.

"That is odd, Echelon," he began in his loud, militaristic voice. "Good perception for picking that up. What ever it is, the shields are going to be down there pretty soon. You better get prepared to control some serious damage."

The though of that made Echelon nervous.

Great. Just great...

"Ah," Keplar said, "here it is. It is the head administrative section of the ship, but, I don't see any reason for bombing it..."

Echelon's heart skipped a beat at the word "administrative".

"Helen," he whispered to himself, emotion overwhelming him. "Helen..."

A moment later, he disobeyed orders, and was sprinting down the hall, tears welling up in his eyes.

"Helen..."

OOC:
Word Count: 1,164. Not the best writing, but I was going through post withdrawl. This will be the first post in the three post story arc When Love is Lost.

AAR: Echelon begins Damage Controlling, and he leaves to go save his lady friend.

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DMG-CTRL Officer/CPO Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran/mSSD Atrus/TF:A/1Flt/FC/VEN/VE

TO/CPO Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran/PLF Cappadocious/VENA/VEN/VE

[SoA] [NAR] [CAR] [MC2] [BWC] [HNS] [MC1] [SWC] [=*ENG*=]
{VehM} {SfrM} {HypM} {Astr} {LogS} {Shut} {Gunn}

Ellesmere
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Ellesmere
 
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
March 15, 2012 6:56:55 PM    View the profile of Ellesmere 
As they underwent the short jump, Michele kept surveying the people serving under her with a deep sense of nervousness in her gut. As she finished her scan of the bridge, she looked up and stared out the viewscreen and found herself to be quite fascinated with what she saw in front of her. She didn’t really recall every experiencing a hyperspace jump, so this micro-jump was still new to her. As she kept on looking, she tried to concentrate on the many points of light which seemed to be stretching on forever. As they came out of the jump, she quickly re-focused her thoughts and listened in to the orders being handed out.

“I want all hands on deck pronto! Have our Squadrons ready to go; I want them out there helping out in that chaos ASAP. They have their orders already, and their briefing was done on the way here so no reason for there to be another one. Once they’ve rolled out I want each Squadron Commander to report back to me, I’d also like a status report at regular intervals!” She barked as she paced up and down the command deck, her eyes darting to and fro.

“Aye ma’am. Reports coming in now…Shock and Awe is green to go, Smash is still launching out of their docking station – they’ve joined up with the two other Squadrons, they’re ready to go”

“Send them on their way” And may they be blessed… she thought grimly as she watched the fighters whiz out of sight. Looking over to where her CO was posted, she noted the tension on his face and saw him shoot a glance her way. He was watching her closely; she had better not screw this one up!

“How are those troop transports doing?” She queried, looking over at the comm officer. “They’re doing fine for now ma’am” was the curt response she got.

Right, they have to learn to trust me as their new XO so it’s understandable they’re all tense around me and don’t take well to my orders…Gotta warm them up to you first, Ellie! They’ll at least learn to tolerate you with time

Quickly getting her thoughts back in order, she mentally shook herself and scanned the bridge, methodically spewing out orders.

“Weapons status?”

“Online; ready when you are ma’am”

“Good. Fire at anyone who gets too close, ensure the troop transports are well covered; get Smash to and Awe to cover the transports until we can  get them safely to the Loyalty

“Aye ma’am”

Taking a deep, steadying breath she moved about the bridge until she found a new spot where she could stand and comfortably watch events unfold. As she intently stared at the battle taking place before her, she heard the soft clicking of footsteps behind her; next thing she knew Commander Trykon was standing beside her, also staring out at the ensuing battle.

“A little rough around the edges but otherwise very good work so far Ms. Blondeau, keep up the excellent work”

“Thank you sir” she replied, stammering a little.

Working to keep her composure and to relax a little, she closed her eyes for a few seconds and took a few deep breaths to steady herself once again. This job was quite nerve-racking though she imagined it would get easier once she got used to things and went on a few expeditions with the Surprise

Opening her eyes once again, she stared out at the other capital ships and numerous fighter squadrons out there and couldn’t help but smile.  Not too long ago she was in the shoe of many of the pilots out there, piloting an Interceptor and being in the thick of it. Training in simulators, getting either a debrief or a real pep talk from her SC, becoming a Flight Leader and taking on the responsibility of only a few people and now this.

This was quite the step up for her, many people were under her command but there were also a fair number watching her every move as well. It was almost like being stuck in the middle of something bigger than one could ever imagine. As she kept thinking back to the old days, she watched as a colorful array of energy bolts played out on the viewscreen .And the plot thickens…




OOC:
WC:722
AAR:A description of what happens on the Surprise as battle commences mixed in with some CD
SXO/PO2 Ellesmere/SMC Surprise /TF:B/1FL/FC/VEN/VE [MC2][MC1]

SCO/PO2 Ellesmere/TF:B/Raptor/VENA/VEN/VE [MC2][MC1]
Echelon
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Echelon
 
[VE-NAVY] Chief Petty Officer
 
Post Number:  314
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
March 15, 2012 7:57:19 PM    View the profile of Echelon 
Eric Stendar, a turbo laser cannon operator, rushed into the gunnery deck, his footsteps echoing along with all the others. The Quad-Laser cannon operators were already in the deck, being needed to fend of the enemy TIE fighters, but as the Atrus neared the enemy fleet, Eric and the other turbo laser operators would be needed. He found his gun, and strapped himself into the seat. Grabbing his headphones, he put them on, linking up to the frequency in which all of the other gunners would be on. He leaned back in his chair, making himself comfortable before flipping a switch. Almost immediately, his console flickered to life, and to test the system, he pulled his joystick to the right. Out his viewport, he noted that the large barrel of the cannon followed his movements, his chair swivelling around as he did so. He sighted the enemy fleet in the distance, more specifically, the large Allegiance-class Super Star Destroyer. Allow his fingers to click his trigger, he fired off a few test rounds. To his glee, the shots went of without a hitch, and he was ready for battle.

"Alright Gold-deck," called his commanded over the gunnery frequency, "Quad-Laser cannons, do as you were doing. Take those TIEs down. Turbolasers, follow the targeting information sent to your computer. Now sound off."

"Gold-1 ready and standing by," said a man over the radio. Eric knew him to be an expert gunner who never missed a shot, which was why he was the Executive Officer of the deck. After several more sound offs, it was Eric's turn.

"Gold-5 standing by," he calmly stated into his headset.

Once the sound off was completed, Gold leader enthusiastically shouted into his headset, "Let's rumble, Gold deck!"

And that began the action.

Eric swivelled around in his chair, following the barrel of his gun as he practiced aiming.

Everything seems normal. The aim is fine. The power output is fine. I'm ready to go.

"Hey Stendar," a high-pitched male suddenly called out on the radio, "I bet I can get more shots than you within the next 20 minutes."

Eric sighed when he realized who it was. Ralph Trombley. Ralph was a cocky man, who thought he could do anything in the world. Which was why Eric wasn't surprised by this taunt/challenge. It wasn't that Ralph wasn't good, it was the opposite in fact, but Ralph could only talk about himself and how good he was. It annoyed the hell out of Eric and everyone else.

"Oh come on, Eric," a knew voice called over the radio, a man named Philip Ovkar, who Eric knew as a friend. "Show this ass hole who's boss. I'm sick of hearing about 'how good he is'. Put him in his place." Eric laughed at the straight forward comments made on the public channel. He cracked up even more when he heard Ralph's squealing little voice.

"Hey! Gold leader! Ovkar just called me a-"

"I know what he called you, Ralph-hole, not shut up and do your job!" yelled a more masculine voice, shutting Ralph up for the time being.

"So will you do it, Eric?"

Eric sighed. It was inevitable if his friend was asking, but then he felt that he really had to do it when the rest of the gunners joined in, one of them being Gold Leader.

"I guess," he said, reluctantly agreeing. "But if I win, you can't talk about yourself anymore." Everyone liked that. The other gunners cheered and wished him good luck, but stopped as the first enemy turbo blasts hit the ship.

Eric instinctively checked his screen for targeting information. At the moment, there was none, which meant shoot freely and at will. He pulled his joy stick to the side and his chair swivelled around, following the large barrel outside his viewport. He aligned his cross hairs (a computer generated one) with the Allegiance ship in the distance and fired. As the burst exploded out of his cannon, he followed its progress and nodded when he saw that it hit the ship.

"Got one," he taunted over the radio, but it wasn't long before Ralph replied back.

"Got one, ass-hole!"

"Hey!" yelled the deck commander over the radio, "No swearing!"

"But Ovkar called me-"

"Shut it!"

Rechecking his targeting computer, he noted that they were to all hit the front of the Allegiance ship. Not for damage, but to drain the shields. Which meant to fire a more energy intensive blast, not a more explosive one. He reached his arm forward and quickly turned a dial, waiting for a moment for the charge to build.

Once charged, he aimed a clicked the trigger, sending the large bolt hurtling toward the enemy ship.

"That's two, bantha fodder."

"Gold leader," Ralph squealed out, "Eric just sw-"

"Once more peep about swearing out of you, and I swear, you'll be the one being fired out of that cannon."

That shut Ralph up immediately.

The contest continued, each racking up a point one after another. For awhile, Eric couldn't get a shot out because he had to recharge, and he wondered if Ralph was actually charging up his blasts for "energy intensity." Or maybe he was keeping them low powered, so he could fire more off. Either way, Eric was true to the Vast Empire, and his duty came first before this "stupid" contest. If Ralph was cheating, he wasn't cheating Eric, he was cheating the Vast Empire.

"Hey Phillip?" Eric asked, "How many minutes has it been?"

"Oh, I'd say 19. You've got one more minute."

"What's the score?"

"Ralph: 34, You: 30. You better get some quick, Eric, but I have faith in you."

Ralph snorted over the radio. "That's right Stendar! I'm in the lead you ass...I mean: as I was saying..."

Time to woop this cocky son-of-a-nerf into Tague!

Viciously, Eric began to pump rounds as fast as he could into the enemy ship. He paused briefly to recharge before getting back to the fight. Blast after blast smashed into the Allegiance ship, exploding into multicolored plumes of fire on impact.

Me: 35. Cannon-fodder: 36.

He checked his clock. 20 seconds.

"Got one!" Ralph called out, smirking his evil, obnoxious grin. Eric would have to make up for two shots fast!

15 seconds.

He quickly aimed at the side of the ship and fired, but to his sudden dismay, he had used up all of the power! He would have to wait to recharge.

10 seconds.

With the gun recharged, he fired another blast off, now at equal scores with Ralph.

5 seconds.

"Got another one, dweeb," Ralph victoriously called. Eric would have to get two more to win! In 5 seconds. Acting faster than he ever had before, he pulled his barrel around and fired accurately, the blast smashing straight into the side of the ship.

2 seconds.

He rapidly aimed at another target, and clicked his trigger.

1 second.

The blast was on its way, but would it make it? Would it make it in time to shove Ralph into his place? Would it make it in time to make Eric the hero of Gold deck? All of these thoughts spun around in the head of Eric at an overly rapid pace. It was the slowest blaster bolt ever in the history of time and space. Well, at least to him it was.

It wasn't until the explosion actually ended when he thought he had won the competition.

"You did it, Eric! You did it!" Phillip cried out in triumph. Eric threw his hands in the air yelling for victory. The other gunners also congratulated him wildly, but it wasn't a time for celebration. Soon they were ordered to get back to work, and the battle continued as if nothing happened.

But Eric knew something happened. He felt victory. And it felt good.

OOC:
Word Count: 1,312. The second post of the day, and the longest one. Its an NPC post about a gunner and his little duel he has with one of the other gunners.

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DMG-CTRL Officer/CPO Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran/mSSD Atrus/TF:A/1Flt/FC/VEN/VE

TO/CPO Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran/PLF Cappadocious/VENA/VEN/VE

[SoA] [NAR] [CAR] [MC2] [BWC] [HNS] [MC1] [SWC] [=*ENG*=]
{VehM} {SfrM} {HypM} {Astr} {LogS} {Shut} {Gunn}

Ryn
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Ryn
 
[VE-NAVY] Petty Officer 2nd Class
 
Post Number:  52
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
March 15, 2012 9:13:39 PM    View the profile of Ryn 
Ryn grimaced as she watched Ryuno fall into formation on her wing. The pilot had broken off in the middle of a battle, which alone broke every protocol they had learned in the academy. To add insult to injury she requested to leave her wingmate completely and go off with Beta flight. The lack of duty had Ryn fuming in her restraints.

The frustration she was feeling needed an outlet and that came in the small frigate that had completed its emergency maneuvers to come clear of the Allegiance-Class SSD that looked frozen in space.

"One, permission to engage target baring six-six-niner."

The Zygerrian’s curt response came after two missile locks were obtained and evaded by the alpha flight pilots. "Approved Three."

The squadron commander had been following an erratic flight path since they launched. The battle had sent her into some kind of a frenzy where the word, formation, seemed to be more of a suggestion to her. She would frequently jerk her controls off several klicks to take out a fighter then return to the squadron. The skill was undeniable in her flying but the discipline she expected from others apparently didn't apply to herself.

"Four, follow my lead and direct fire to the shields they should come up on your targeting computer."

Something in the audible sigh Ryn heard made her muscles twitch in preparation. "Ryn, shouldn't we assist Elix?"

Ryn grunted as she evaded a spray of bolts from her eleven. A flight of three TIE interceptors screamed passed her canopy on their way towards one of the smaller frigates at her six. "Uno, I'm really not sure why you are assisting the squadron that was launched to assist us. I get the impression they wouldn't like that. Check your mission log if you don't believe me. Although I don't put it past Hades to try, he probably hopes there's a way he can climb into one of the Avengers in orbit."

Ryn twisted her controls into a loop then, at the highest altitude, turned suddenly to give herself a better position on the strike-class cruiser. The slower velocity gave her good firing position on the ship, but it also left her vulnerable to the lasers and tractor beam.

An alarm filled the cockpit as the tractor beam attempted to get a lock on her TIE interceptor. Her location and lack of exit vectors made their success an inevitable consequence of her impulsive need to get the maximum number of bolts on the hull.

Ryn was working hard against her controls when the Zygerrian’s TIE shot into view, along with a well placed missile from her battery. It scored a direct hit on the generators of the strike-class cruiser giving the ship a jolt and shutting down the tractor beam.

"Thanks one." Ryn muttered into the comm. She received only a click in response as her squadron commander was already moved on to a new set of small targets acting as support for the cruiser.

"Okay Four, lets get to work on those shield generators."

OOC:
WC: 509

AAR: Decided to have Alpha flight engage a Strike-class cruiser on the field of battle. Ryn makes some tactical mistakes and almost gets herself tractor beamed, but her SC came to her rescue. Oh and I gave Ryuno a new nickname, she can decide if she likes it or hates it in her post
FM/PO2 Kathryn 'Ryn' Kerdi/A-3/S:26 "Tuk'ata"/W:58 "Javelin"/SSD Atrus/TF:Aurek/1FLT/SFC/VEN/VE
{VM} [MC2] [MiD] [MC1] [CBV]
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Echelon
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Echelon
 
[VE-NAVY] Chief Petty Officer
 
Post Number:  315
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
March 16, 2012 4:39:44 PM    View the profile of Echelon 
"I've got to save her!" Echelon cried out, emotion overtaking his body.

"Echelon," Keplar empathetically replied, trying to calm him down, "She's probably fine. So what if the ship is getting hit hard there?"

Echelon stopped his foot in anger. "Those shields are going down 10% a minute, I don't have much time to get her, and the rest of the people for that matter, out of there."

"So just call for an evacuation up here."

"Frak it, Kep! You don't understand! I want to see it personally that I get her out of there! You don't understand how much...how much she means to me!" With that final burst of anger and emotion, he stopped out of the Defense Room, on a course towards the turbo lift. It wasn't long before he heard Keplars voice over the loud thumps of his angry footsteps.

"Echelon!"

He turned around, looking at the woman straight in the eye.

"Be careful."

Expecting to be yelled at, Echelon was surprised at the gentle comment, but every wasted moment, the shields were coming down; there was no time to lose. He nodded to his commander, and turned back around, proceeding into the turbolift. He pressed a button and immediately, the little capsule sped down at tremendous speeds. Then, after a few quiet moments to himself, the silence and suspense got to him. He sank to the floor as a wave of emotion over came him.

Helen Yitka was a love interest of Echelon, and the relationship and bond between them was strong. It had happened a few weeks ago when Echelon passed Helen in the hallway, which led to them eating dinner together, which led to a deeper and more meaningful relationship that Echelon had ever encountered. When he realized that the Administrative Department was being bombed, he knew Helen was in danger, for she was an administrators assistant. The thought of her dying and being lost was the worst thing in Echelon's mind. His eyes welled up with tears, and his stomach began to turn and tumble, feeling the nervousness of a possibly forthcoming loss.

Now sitting down against the wall of the turbolift, he began to sob uncontrollably. Helen meant so much to him, more than anything else in the world. She was so nice, so happy, so pretty. There wasn't anyone else like her, and she made his dull day on the Atrus a happy one.

Suddenly, the doors slid open. He had lost track of how long he had been in the lift, only thinking about Helen. He wiped the residual moisture from his eyes and stepped out into the hallway. He pulled out his datapad, and began walking briskly down the hall, not wasting anytime. With his datapad, he pulled up the Damage Control Program and selected his portion of the ship. Observing the readouts, his heart skipped a beat when he saw the shields readout. 3% remaining. It wasn't the number that surprised him, it was the amount of time it took to get to that number. He hadn't been in the elevator that long. Had he? No, something was definitely fishy about the shields at this section. He was very suspicious.

Breaking into a run, he turned into the main hallway of the Administrative section. Echelon checked his datapad again. 1% remaining.

Helen's office is only a few more hallways away...

Suddenly, a ginormous force pushed Echelon from behind, throwing his dankly body down the hallway. He tumbled through the air, before finally landing on his back. Dazed and confused, he pushed his sore body up and tried to figure out what the "frak" had just happened. The entire hall was filled lightly with heated smoke, and he could swear he felt a draft. Yes. He could feel a draft. Funny though, it was getting stronger and stronger.

"Oh feth," he cried out to himself, "there's a breach in the hull!" He immediately broke into a sprint, trying to reach the nearest blast door where he could seal it off. But as he continued forward, the pull got stronger and stronger. As he turned around a bend, he located a large red button on the wall. A button for a blast door! Though, it was only 20 feet away, the pull was immensely strong, and he had to fight hard to reach it.

Almost there! Just a little bit further...

With a last minute dive, he leaped forward he pressed the button. Almost immediately, a thick metal door closed behind him with a large thud. Relieved, echelon fell to the floor, panting rapidly. Behind him, he heard footsteps as people realized what was happening, trying to flee.

Got...to get...to Helen...

Forcefully, he yanked his body up, and began to hustle down the hall, hoping the best for Helen. As he turned around a corner, he almost ran into another administrative assistant, but it wasn't Helen.

"Have you seen Helen?" he asked, his voice weak with exhaustion, "Helen Yitka?"

The lady nicely replied, "Yeah, she said she had to gather her things before she evacuated. She's a few rooms dow-" She never got to finish her statement. A large explosion rang out, throwing her and Echelon against the opposite wall. Once again dazed and unaware, he attempted to get his bearings. All he could notice was thick smoke everywhere, and a large ringing in his ears. Though, he was mostly unscathed except for some minor bruises and burns.

I've survived two explosions today...but I don't care about myself...I've got to reach Helen...

The smoke soon cleared up, and he could see the damage. The entire area was charred, him included, and one of the hallway's walls was melted and disfigured, most likely where a thermal missile hit. The lady beside him was stationary, and a pool of blood was slowly oozing out of her chest. Under a closer examination, Echelon saw in disgust that a large piece of metal had torn through he torso. He cringed uncontrollably.

Got to get to Helen...

Regaining energy and strength, he pushed his charred, bruised, and burnt body further down the hallway. A minute later he was at an entry way, and inside was a young woman, a head of auburn brown hair flowing out of her scalp. He smiled at the man in the doorway, and the man smiled back. It was Helen.

"Oh hey, Finbar," she said, her lovely disposition seeming to mend Echelon's wounds, "I was just finishing up here before evacuating."

"Helen," Echelon cried out, exhausted. "We don't have time! Its worse than you think!"

She chuckled, but to Echelon, like everything else, she did beautifully. "Its not like the entire Allegiance ship is firing at this one positio-"

Suddenly, an explosion rang out.

OOC:
Word Count: 1,124. The second post in the series: When Love is Lost. Still, not some of the best writing. I'm not sure what it is. These past few posts haven't been to great.

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DMG-CTRL Officer/CPO Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran/mSSD Atrus/TF:A/1Flt/FC/VEN/VE

TO/CPO Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran/PLF Cappadocious/VENA/VEN/VE

[SoA] [NAR] [CAR] [MC2] [BWC] [HNS] [MC1] [SWC] [=*ENG*=]
{VehM} {SfrM} {HypM} {Astr} {LogS} {Shut} {Gunn}

DeepSix
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DeepSix
 
[VE-DJO] Journeyman
[VE-ICS] Pirate Swabbie
[VE-NAVY] Chief Warrant Officer
 
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
March 18, 2012 4:56:31 PM    View the profile of DeepSix 
The arrival of the Vast Empire reinforcements, led by Captain Mihawk, was no doubt an event that did not go unnoticed - by either the oblivious VE forces already engaged in battle or by the Imperial Dominion for that matter. "All units, expect sudden changes in enemy tactics. Keep an open eye out for any sign of weakness and be sure to exploit it should it present itself", was DeepSix's message to all other pilots in Javelin wing. The man already knew that Drac's arrival would force the ID to divert some of its forces to deal with the new threat. The thing was - no matter how well trained an army, or in this case navy, was... individual hesitation or downright mistakes were bound to still happen.

Only a matter of noticing and doing something about them, the Onderonian believed, his Defender already surveying the battlefield in search of opportunities. Finding and killing enemies was hardly a problem given his craft and level of skill, the trick as far as the blond human specimen was concerned was to deal heavier blows instead - blows that would end up causing further disruption in the enemy ranks. The butterfly effect at its finest, with one individual causing small ripples that could under the right circumstances become fearsome tidal waves... Such were the thoughts occupying a great deal of Seth Qorbin's mind. Thoughts that the man couldn't wait to turn into valid strategies - successful ones hopefully.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

No discipline. No sense of direction. No proper combat instincts, Tuk'ata's CO thought as well, but not of the enemy. The socially awkward alien didn't really think much of the Imperial Dominion forces either, but her thoughts were nonetheless directed at the members of her own squadron. She despised their lack of skill, but that at least she could try getting over by means of classic excuses such as "they're still green", "they'll yet learn", "they might get better in time".

Their choices and attempts however - those the Zygerrian found positively inexcusable. She had almost an entire flight trying to provide back-up to the more advanced TIE Avengers and their more experienced pilots, when their efforts could instead be better suited playing the role they were meant to - grunts, small fry, bait if needed be. She knew damn well this included her as well but the knowledge hardly affected her however. So long as she was given the chance to fly, hunt and kill she was content.

On the other hand she had the remaining two members of her own squadron trying to accomplish equally difficult and inappropriate tasks. One pilot thought about sharing in the faux glory Beta flight was pointlessly seeking. This the Zygerrian didn't really mind as much. If the pilot in question just wanted to rack up kills then she was free to do it. Heck, this the former slaver even encouraged. To hell with teamwork and regulations - it was the number of destroyed ships that truly counted at the end of the day... Granted it may not have completely accurate, but it was however what the SCO was most interested in.

Then there was the remaining pilot trying to take on a whole cruiser in her tiny little fighter. This actually amused the Zygerrian female. It was by all rights even crazier than Beta's attempt, but the audacity of it all rather appealed to the alien. Enough to even spare a missile to save the reckless Ryn in the process. Then again that was all the Squadron Commander planned on spending on her behalf. If the Human girl wanted to take on the big ship then fine, she was free to try it. Sayree however knew that even should she manage to do enough damage to the capital class vessel, its destruction would almost certainly not be attributed to the efforts made by the little guys. Most likely some other capital ship would manage the final shot, be it a powerful missile blast or a supercharged turbolaser bolt. To Kazhos such a thing was unacceptable - to be robbed the glory of a worthy kill...

About the only pilots the woman had no bigger problems with were the ones in Gamma flight. The three remaining pilots there seemed to be content just keeping quiet and minding their own business. They were average pilots for the most part but at least they were content doing that which was expected of them. Sure they lacked ambition and would likely remain unnoticed in the grand scheme of things... Upon some more consideration Tuk'ata's SCO realized that she actually despised Gamma's pilots more than first believed. The only thing worse than doing something bold and possibly stupid was never attempting it... Never trying to rise above their station... Never attempting to seize a chance...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Interesting, Qorbin's eyes narrowed as he realized the Dominion also planned on taking advantage of Drac's arrival. Plenty of larger ships and small fighters turned to counter this new threat but there were also a few groups of tiny blips that appeared to instead form up and push forward. It was a sound a strategy as any other given the circumstances. After all surprise wasn't the only emotion that could end up being exploited. Eagerness and enthusiasm were equally dangerous to an unprepared pilot, and just as the ID was bound to have such individuals so too the VE was likely to have its own.

They push a K’lor’slug forward then, Seth thought as he compared the small incoming enemy bomber wing to a classic dejarik piece. "Sending coordinates to incoming bombers. Tuk'ata Squadron, move to intercept. Elix, deal with any escorts they may have. Bha'lir, carry on with your current assignment but be prepared to deliver assistance if needed. Blackguard and Varactyl, what's your status? Razors, gradually form up on my wing. We'll have the Dominion acknowledge our presence here soon enough..."

Strider moves to intercept. Monnok also prepares its move. Now for next round, Javelin's WC continued comparing his own tactics to the moves one would make in a simple game of dejarik. In a way this was precisely what this whole battle was - a game. A deadly and expensive game, one that would be paid for with the blood of thousands as well as millions of credits worth of equipment. The players however did not seem to care about the number of moves or the amount of sacrificed pawns... The only thing that would matter to the two factions was the obvious matter of whom would win it all. Vast Empire? Or Imperial Dominion?
OOC:
WC: 1103
AAR: Short post acknowledging the arrival of Drac's reinforcements, the many things Tuk'ata's SC doesn't like about her pilots (still keeping them all to herself however), and Qorbin's taking this whole battle as a game of dejarik.

More importantly however you have new orders. Three of the NPC squadrons will continue doing what they were told, but Tuk'ata is now supposed to intercept and deal with some bombers. Elix will try dealing with their escorts. Meanwhile the Razors are slowly gathering, planning to cause some serious mayhem. More and improved action to come!

WC/CWO DeepSix/A-1/S:412th Razor/W:58th Javelin/SSD Atrus/TF:A/1Flt/SFC/VEN/VE [=*TG*=]

TRN/JRN DeepSix/DJO/Training Sect/VEDJ
Echelon
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
March 19, 2012 7:57:26 PM    View the profile of Echelon 
Heated air, fueled by a massive shock wave, rushed into Echelon and the adjacent surroundings at tremendous speeds, hurtling him backwards. His course ended as he hit a wall, falling down to the cold floor, its surface littered with dust and black ash. Dazed, and utterly shocked by the sudden blast, he lay there silently, feeling the air currents shift and whip around his bruised, injured person. For a moment, he heard nothing but the monotoned ringing radiated from his ears, but soon it faded out, presenting his auditory awareness to the carnage and devastation engulfing around him. A second later, he coughed violently, spitting up a bloody splotch of phlegm and guck, his lungs temporarily compressed by the sudden, but brief shock wave.

The air was still only for a moment, as the expanding pressure from the explosion equalized with the nonexistent pressure of space, their interactions allowed by a small three by three foot hole pierced into the hull. A millisecond, at the most, later, the vacuum of space won the pressure battle, beginning to tug and pull on anything and everything in its grasp, including Echelon. As he slid down the hall toward the hole in Helen's room, his hands instinctively begin grabbing at the air, hoping they would catch onto something solid. The suction, tripling its force every second, sped Echelon faster and faster along the floor, his weak body collecting the dust and particles that lay on the metal ground. He would have to grab onto something fast! His eyes opened and his heart began to pump more rapidly, relaying hormones and vital chemicals to his muscles. He didn't feel weak anymore. The doorway to the room was coming fast! It would be the only thing he could grab! As he passed it, his arms yanked out, his fingers extending beyond their normal reach, and to his sudden relief, his left hand fingers just barely snatched the frame, slowing him down enough to grapple it with his other hand. He was saved, at least for now. As long as the breach in the hull wasn't sealed, there was a possibility of him dying, something he didn't want.

But wait, there was someone else. Someone he had came down here for. Someone he loved. Helen! Was she alright? Was she safe? Did she grab onto something?

Using all of the minuscule strength in his muscles, he pulled himself out of the room, and into the hallway, where he would have a better hold. The ripping air pulled and tugged viciously at his vulnerable feet, and he had to fight hard to keep himself from flying into space. Exactly ten seconds since the blast near Helen's room, he succeeded in his task, pulling himself into the hallway. Now having a stronger foot and hand hold, he quickly looked into the room, to see of Helen's fate. Echelon's hazel eyes darted around, scanning the room for any sign of his lovely lady. His heart dropped and he uncontrollably twitched when he realized he could not locate her stunningly beautiful body.

"Helen!" he cried out, he voice being drowned out by the rush of air. His eyes began to water up when he heard no response. "Helen!" Still nothing. His brain, trying to comprehend the loss that was at hand, shut down, and he became limp. The only functioning parts were his hands, tight around a door frame, and his heart, which, as he thought, had been broken by the sudden and traumatic loss.

Then, suddenly, against his doubt, he heard something, his brain listening just enough so he could hear the difference in pitch. He listened intently for a moment. There it was again! He stuck his head in the door frame, wondering what the noise had come from. Could it be Helen!

Then there! He saw it! A slight movement from under the table! It was Helen, her thin, tan hands holding tightly against the legs of the table, which, to her luck, had been bolted to the floor! He smiled, and laughed a little bit, relieving himself of the aforementioned stress and despair.

"Helen!" he once again called out, the joy and happiness in his words standing out from the bleak and hopeless situation at hand. "You're alive!"

"Yes, Echelon!" she replied back, her smile warming Echelon's dead body. "But you have to do something quick!"

"What do you mean?!" His brain, slightly dazed and misguided by the traumatic and powerful events, didn't recognize what was wrong with that statement.

"You're a Damage Control Officer! There is a hole in the ship! Do something quick!"

Then Echelon realized what she was actually asking him. She was asking him to shut the room's door, so the breach in the hull would be quarantined. It was a simple enough task but the consequences were severe. The thought sent shivers down his spine, and he cringed at the thought. If he closed the door, the pressure in Helen's room would become equal to that of the space outside. It would kill her instantly, and there was no way to save her. However, if he didn't close the door, the pressure of the floor would be lost, and doors would have to be shut elsewhere, thus killing the people who hadn't made it out.

"What!" he cried, "If I shut the doors, you'll die!"

"Echelon! If you don't, people will die!"

"I can't kill you! No, I can't do it!" Tears began running down his face, but they became dry quickly thanks to the rushing air current about him.

If Helen died, that was one thing. Of course he would be emotionally devastated, and depression would soon set in, but if he killed her, that was another thing. If it was his actions that caused her to be lost, he could never forgive herself. The thought of doing something seemed so...so altering. So disturbing.

"No...I can't do it! I can't kill you!"

"Its too late for that now! Echelon, you have to! It is your duty! I love you, but...I can't let this happen!" It was silent for a moment, but then Echelon jerked as he realized what was happening. Helen seemed to be loosening her grip, and taking deep breaths.

"Echelon. You're a great guy. And I love you. I'll always be with you."

"Helen!" he screamed, his voice finally making the never ending wind seem quiet. "Helen! Frak it! Don't do this!" But she didn't say anything. She released her hands from the table, and her body was immediately pulled by vacuum of space. The last thing he saw was her blowing a kiss, and then, she was gone. Out the hole in the ship. Out into space.

It seemed so sudden, so quick, so unreal, that Echelon's brain didn't believe it. Then, after a second of thinking to himself, he did realize that it was true, and that Helen Yitka was really gone. He screamed at the top of his damage lungs, his throat rasping with despair and trauma. He was so preoccupied with his loss, that he didn't realize himself pulling out his datapad and swiftly shutting the door, ending the outgoing current of air. Though, he was still screaming, he was still feeling the pain, and he couldn't believe it was true.

Instinctively, like a primordial being, he curled up into a little ball, sticking his head in between his knees. From there, he just sat int the corner.

No battle could describe the pain was feeling.

The pain of When Love is Lost.

OOC:
Word Count: 1,225. That conclude my When Love is Lost trio. I hope you all like it, and this last post is the best. I do really think I did a better job at this post. I really thought about it, and tried hard to write this. Echelon is now emotionally and physically (from the explosions and stuff) changed. He looks at death and love in a different way now. Its mainly a CD tale.

Hope you all like it!

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DMG-CTRL Officer/CPO Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran/mSSD Atrus/TF:A/1Flt/FC/VEN/VE

TO/CPO Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran/PLF Cappadocious/VENA/VEN/VE

[SoA] [NAR] [CAR] [MC2] [BWC] [HNS] [MC1] [SWC] [=*ENG*=]
{VehM} {SfrM} {HypM} {Astr} {LogS} {Shut} {Gunn}

Serpent
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Serpent
 
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
March 20, 2012 10:10:47 PM    View the profile of Serpent 
Captain Alexander Rauthrin stood on the bridge of the Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer Countenance, and gazed at the carnage before him.  Through the reinforced transparisteel viewport, the fifty-year old native of Coruscant beheld the furious exchange of firepower between the two Super Star Destroyers at the heart of the colossal Battle of Abrae.

With his pale grey-white eyes, which on a lesser man would have seemed sickly yet on him just seemed focused, Rauthrin saw his fellow ships of the Imperial Dominion.  TIE starfighters of every make and model flew about, engaging their Vast Imperial rivals in high speed chases, darting in and out of the massive capital ships that should have been the focus of the high-stakes engagement, but were not.

The VE’s SSD Atrus exchanged brutal turbolaser barrages with his side’s own Allegiance-Class Super Star Destroyer Loyalty.  And yet Rauthrin knew that the ASSD was outgunned and needed help, and that was where his own Countenance came into play.

“Lieutenant Detus,” Snapped Rauthrin.  “Bring us into firing range of the Atrus, and stay out of the Loyalty’s firing solution!  Once within range open fire with our turbolasers, siphoning off energy from the ion cannons as needed to sustain a focused assault on the VE ship’s starboard shields.”

“Yes, sir!” Said his XO, and swiftly began relaying orders to the helm and gunnery crews.

Just then, a voice piped up from the crew pits.  “Captain!” Announced the Scanner Chief, “There is a Vast Imperial Star Destroyer on an intercept course!”

“Trying to guard their precious flagship no doubt,” Mused the Coruscanti.  “Show me!”  He said, crossing to a hologram of the battle.  The enemy warship, highlighted in red, zoomed in and magnified, suddenly showing the vessel’s transponder and other data.

“The Halcyon Warrior!” Said Rauthrin, a smile spreading over his tight face.  “That’s Mihawk’s ship!”

“Sir?” Asked Lieutenant Detus, back at his side.

“The VE’s Mon Calamari Chief of Naval Warfare,” The Captain explained to his First Officer.

Detus, hardly a handsome example of the human race, only looked even more loathsome as his face twisted with contempt.  “A fish head commanding an Imperial vessel?  These Vast Empire scum are disgusting, sir.”

“Indeed,” Agreed Rauthrin, “Yet ‘Drac’ Mihawk is as clever as he is alien.  Obliterating that ship and killing him will be a great blow to our enemies, and a great boon to us.  It has to be done right, though, no rushing in.”

“He’s just a filthy Mon Cal, sir,” Said Detus.  “He can’t be that dangerous.”

“Use your brain,” Snarled Rauthrin, angered by the other’s words.  “Aliens are inferior, yes, but that doesn’t mean helpless or stupid.  One does not command an Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer by accident!”

Detus blanched at the rebuke, mumbled, “Sorry, sir,” And hung his head.

The Captain did not notice.  He was too busy staring at the image of the Halcyon Warrior.  “I will not underestimate you, Drac,” He said softly to the hologram.  “I am going to kill you...

-----

Pherik ‘Serpent’ Zail had never been so busy in his entire career.  Rushing from one side of the bridge and back again, it seemed that everyone on the command deck of the Halcyon Warrior required the XO’s attention.

There was no time for the doubts and hesitations that often plagued him, no time to second-guess or question himself.  The Alderaanian just acted, responding to the moment by moment changes and challenges of the battle, and the myriad demands that at crew of thirty seven thousand required of their leaders.

Finally, their approach was complete, and the helm announced, “We are now within firing range of the Countenance!”

“Gunners, fire at will!” Commanded Zail, and turned towards the bridge viewport to witness the bright green turbolaser fire that blared suddenly in the void between his ship and their foe.  Looming large before them, however, the Imperial Dominion warship, identical in design to their own, returned just as much fire.

The Halcyon Warrior rocked under the return fire, but not with enough force to cost Serpent his balance.  The deflectors of the ISD were strong and a junior bridge officer reported instantly that the forward shields had only been reduced by a couple of percent.

Still, a couple of percent from just one barrage is serious, especially in a battle of this scale, he mused.

At the front of the bridge, Captain Mihawk watched the approaching rival Star Destroyer.  “She’s coming about to port, trying to broadside us!” He announced.

“Understood, sir!” Replied Serpent, quickly comprehending the counter to the tactic.  “Helm, hard to port!  Reserve power to starboard shields!  Starboard gunnery crews prepare to retaliate!”

The two colossal warships glided smoothly past each other, their movements slow yet graceful compared to the furious and frantic darting TIE fighters that swarmed around them both.  As the two wedge-shaped behemoths passed each other, a storm of energy blasts shot between the two, swallowed by shields that blared brilliantly in the black of space.

“Starboard shields down eight percent!” Called the Defence Officer, Ulyssa Vicacro.

A pretty basic pass and exchange of fire, mused Zail, what does that gain our foe, though?

As if in answer, another junior bridge officer piped up from the crew pit, “Sir!  TIE Bombers!”

It was Captain Drac himself who whirled about and demanded clarification.  “Where?”

“Half a klick, sir!” Cried the officer, and then the Halcyon Warrior shuddered, as something slipped past the shields and tore into the hull.

“Hull breach, deck 17!”  Called a damage control officer.  “Multiple proton torpedo impacts!”

The Mon Cal Captain held his anger in check.  “The Countenance waited till it was passing close and then launched the TIEs right on top of us!  The Bombers fired so close they ripped through the shields!”

Zail listened, stunned by the bold risk that the enemy captain had taken.  Effective, but deck 17 has no critical systems.  Deck 19 does, however, and no doubt that is where they were aiming.  Lucky for us!

Drac set about giving orders to the helm to reposition the Warrior, and then order in some TIE Interceptors to deal with the Dominion Bombers that were even now coming about for another close-range pass.  That left Serpent to deal with the hull breach.

“Close all bulkheads on deck 17, sections Jenth and Krill!” Ordered the XO, rattling off the sections labelled in the Aurebesh alphabet.

“But sir, we still have people in those sections!” Protested the damage control officer.

Zail knew that.  He also knew that if it was left unattended, the hull breach could decompress the deck and they would lose even more crewmen.  It was the lesser of two evils, and as painful as the choice was, he knew the one to make.

“Close the bulkheads now,” He ordered, managing to sound a lot calmer than he actually felt.

“Yes, sir,” Said the other, and complied.

Serpent learned later that they lost fully twenty six people in the damaged section, though how many were from the torpedo impacts and how many were from being trapped on the wrong sides of the closing bulkheads there was no way of knowing.

Zail had no time to dwell on it.  He would save his anger and regret for later.  For now, they still needed to deal with the Countenance.

OOC:
  1217 words.  The opening post clearly mentioned that there are (or at least have been) Imperial Dominion spies in the VE, so I figure that our foes would know something of the reputation of ships like the Halcyon Warrior and her commander.  And then I decided that a competent enemy CO would want the honour and glory of taking out such a renowned foe!

AAR:  Captain Rauthrin of the Imperial Dominion ISD Countenance wants to engage and destroy the Halcyon Warrior, knowing it to be the ship of the famed Captain Mihawk.  The two Star Destroyers pass by each other, exchanging fire, and the Countenance launches TIE Bombers right on top of the Warrior.  They quickly punch a hole in the VE warship with their torpedoes, but fail to hit any critical systems.  Still, it kills several crewmen, and then Serpent must sacrifice several more as he seals off the damaged sections of the deck. 
FO/MCPO Pherik “Serpent” Zail / ISD II Halcyon Warrior/TF: Besh/1Flt/FC/VEN/VE
[SoA][MC2][LoM][NAR][E][HNS][SWC][CBV][VC:S][SoV][MiD][=*Eng*=]
Echelon
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Echelon
 
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
March 22, 2012 9:24:59 AM    View the profile of Echelon 
The ship the Vexor, embodying the sleek, fast design of a Tartan patrol cruiser, gracefully slipped forward a few hundred meters, seeking to intercept the incoming Imperial Dominion TIE fighter squadron. As the fighters came within firing distance, the Vexor’s twenty laser cannons spewed out red plasma blasts towards the small ships, all but one being ripped to shreds by the vicious attack. However, before that one fighter could do any damage, the Tartan patrol cruiser soon caught up with the fast moving craft, and ended the pilot’s life in a quick, one-shot blow. This was the second squadron the Vexor had massacred indefinitely, and the Imperial Dominion was starting to take notice.

=====

“Admiral!” a communications officer shouted out, “We just lost Redlock squadron!”

The Admiral, an older man who’s grey hair reflected the years of experience and work he had gone through, strode over to the communications officer, intently thinking on what he had said. He and the officer were aboard the flagship of the Imperial Dominion fleet: the Allegiance-class Super Star Destroyer, Loyalty.

“Where was this squadron going?” he queried.

“They were to attack a Victory-class Star Destroyer on the left flank of the Vast Empire.”

“Didn’t we already have a squadron over there?”

“It was destroyed.”

“What on Coruscant is destroying them?!” he shouted, anger beginning to swell up in his voice.

The bridge officer leaned backward at the sudden outcry of the man, replying, “I-I believe it was a Tartan patrol cruiser. An anti-starfighter ship that must be guarding the Victory-class Destroyer.”

The Admiral scratched his chin, building up a plan. Year of experience and knowledge swirled around his head, trying to come together to create a plan. If he could destroy that Tartan cruiser, he could have TIE bombers destroy the Victory-class destroyer. Thus, opening up the Vast Empire flank. Thus, giving him a chance to win the battle. But how would he destroy the cruiser? All of his major capital ships were busy fighting other battles, which was why he didn’t have one attack the Victory-class. Unless...

“Communications officer!” he blurted out, “Do we have any extra craft? Perhaps reserve?”

“One moment.” The bridge officer turned around in his chair, working and operating the console in front of him. Only a moment later, he replied, “Sir, we have two Imperial-class II frigates. Both are slightly damaged and are in our reserve line.”

“Excellent. Call them forth immediately. I have a special task for them.” The bridge officer nodded, immediately beginning the Admirals task, and immediately beginning the conflict which was about to come...

=====

Aboard the aforementioned Victory-class Star Destroyer Canter, Captain Morf beckoned and commanded his crew with a powerful charisma and intelligent tone. Those were mostly likely the two reasons he got to where he was today, he thought. Out his viewport, a field of stars lit the backdrop for several combating ships in the distance. Each blasting away at each other, trying to fight for some differing opinion that they thought was “right”. There was no “right” in war.

“Lieutenant,” he called to his Executive Officer, “Go see how the Vexor is doing with my task.”

“Yes captain.” A minute or two later, the young First Mate arrived back, saluting to the captain as he came. “The Vexor has let no TIE squadrons through, and is completing its task marvelously.”

“Brilliant. As long as we can keep this flank, the Vast Empire fleet will have a sound chance at defeating the enemy.”

“Aye, sir. But what if the Vexor is destroyed? Then bomber squadrons will be able to attack us.”

The Captain chuckled, realizing the fault in the statement. “No, no. Whatever attacks our little friend over there, has to face us as well.”

The Executive Officer nodded, wondering why he would ever question the Captain’s intelligence. “Good plan, Captain. Good plan.”

Though, there was one fault to that plan, and they were about to find it out.

=====

“Captain Heygard, Captain Gorlet,” greeted the Admiral, his voice breaking through the static of the frequency. “I have a task for you two.” There was silence on the other end. Strange silence. Hostile silence. “What is it? Why are you two silent?”

“Because, Admiral,” Captain Gorlet replied, “Captain Heygard is an ignorant fool who has no place by my side.”

“Oh, quiet, you imbecile,” Captain Heygard responded, disgust and hatred in his tone, “Its you who has no place by my side. They only gave you that frigate because of your loss at the Battle of-”

The Admiral interrupted, becoming angered by the petty squabbles. “Quiet, you two! This is no time for rivalry. What you two do may affect the outcome of the battle! I need both of you to do this!” The two captains apologized, each muttering under their breath afterwards. “Alright. This is my plan. Listen carefully. On the Vast Empire flank sits a Victory-class Star Destroyer. I need this destroyed so we can side-attack the traitors. However, you two do not stand a chance against this ship. It out guns you. But, if we can get TIE bombers in there to help you, we might have a chance. I’ve tried to do this already, but a pesky little cruiser keeps destroying them in seconds. Captain Gorlet, you will be in charge of dispatching this little cruiser. It should be an easy task. Captain Heygard, I will need you to keep the Victory-class Destroyer busy, so it doesn’t interfere with Captain Gorlet’s task. Understood?”

The captains replied with an affirmative, and the Admiral soon left the frequency, leaving the two Captains to perform their tasks.

“I don’t trust you, Heygard,” Gorlet taunted, “Don’t get used to working with me.”

“I don’t think that’ll be a problem. They keep the idiots, like yourself, away from the real commanders, like me,” the other captain snarkily replied. In anger, the two commanders left the transmission, preparing their ships for battle.

=====

Aboard the Vexor. Captain Sar stood valiantly on his bridge, feeling confident about the battle playing out in front of him. He called over his First Officer, who was also his cousin, and patted him on the shoulder.

“It was only a few days ago, Tim, when they upgraded me to this ship,” he said, calmness engulfing his tone. “And I’m liking it a lot.”

“Well, we did take down two squadrons within seconds. They’ve seemed to have backed off now-” The serenity and stillness of the moment vanished as a sensors officer yelled.

“Two Imperial-II class frigates heading in our direction!” Surprised by this sudden event, the Captain proceeded toward the viewport. Ahead, as the sensors officer said, two large frigates were traversing head on with the Vexor. The sleek, small ships slipped silently, coming closer and closer to the Vexor.

“What’re we going to do, Captain,” his cousin asked, looking up to Sar. “Our guns are for starfighters! Not capital ships!”

“Alert the Caster that we have company! And direct power toward the engines! I have a feeling we’re going to need to move soon.”

With that, his bridge crew obeyed his orders, scurrying about, all for one goal.

For Protection of the Caster.
OOC:
Word Count: 1,218. This is the first post in my series of posts: Protection of the Caster. I hope you’ll all like the story arc.

AAR: The ID Admiral sends two frigates to dispatch a Tartan patrol cruiser and make way for TIE bombers to attack a vital ship on the Vast Empire flank.

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DMG-CTRL Officer/CPO Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran/mSSD Atrus/TF:A/1Flt/FC/VEN/VE

TO/CPO Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran/PLF Cappadocious/VENA/VEN/VE

[SoA] [NAR] [CAR] [MC2] [BWC] [HNS] [MC1] [SWC] [=*ENG*=]
{VehM} {SfrM} {HypM} {Astr} {LogS} {Shut} {Gunn}

Trykon
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Trykon
 
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
March 23, 2012 8:36:41 AM    View the profile of Trykon 
The Surprise leapt forward, accelerating past her two sister ships rigged as troop transports, and aimed her dagger-like bow toward the thickest fighting in the system: the scrum surrounding the two dueling Super Star Destroyers.  Wyl Trykon stood calmly in his customary position up at the foremost viewport on Surprise's bridge, and he stared out the reinforced transparisteel at the distant warships, both so large that even kilometers away their geometric shapes were plainly visible against the starscape, and both so powerful that their ponderous movements were discernable to his naked eye, even across the astronomical distances involved, as the two behemoths each jockeyed for a superior firing position.

"The Battle of Abrae," he remarked, even as a flight of four TIE Interceptors screamed past the bridge on their way from Surprise's hangars to join the fray.  To his side and slightly behind him, his Executive Officer shuffled her feet uncertainly.  "Imperials versus Imperials," Wyl continued softly, "winner takes all."

"Yes sir," Michelle Blondeau dutifully replied, though her tone betrayed some confusion.  Wyl fancied he could almost hear her thoughts as she privately wondered why her captain was stating the obvious.

"Study History, Ms. Blondeau," he said wryly.

"Sir?"

"When successor states clash, one of two things happens," Trykon explained.  "Either one of the two triumphs, in a victory that sparks a Golden Age for that civilization, or else they both destroy each other completely, and neither is able to restore the glory of the past."  He glanced at the young woman next to him, a personification of the Vast Empire's chances, its weaknesses and its hopes.  "History is watching us closely today, Ms. Blondeau, and we had best make a good impression."

Her expression hardened.  "Yes sir.  So far, so good.  Shock and Awe are screening our task force, with Smash in reserve.  Trenchant and Acrimonious are in formation astern, and a wolfpack of corvettes are on their way to us.  The Halcyon Warrior is two klicks ahead of us, engaged with a Dominion Star Destroyer, the Countenance.  If we adjust course, we can avoid that mess, and-"

"Stay on target," Trykon interrupted.  "Bring us along a course that will take our task force just slightly behind the Countenance, trapping it between us and the Warrior.  We'll engage them from their rear quarter while they trade broadsides with Drac."

"Yes sir," Ellesmere replied automatically, before her brain had even fully thought through the maneuver.  Her thinking quickly caught up, though, and she added: "But, sir, won't that expose Acrimonious and Trenchant to at least some return fire from the Countenance?"

Trykon nodded his head, frowning.  "It's an acceptable risk.  Signal both transports to stay farther back from the target than us, when we make our pass.  And have those corvettes screen them as well.  Our orders are to get Acrimonious and Trenchant alongside the Loyalty so they can dump their boarding parties; our two sister ships don't get to sit out all the fighting entirely."  He softened what could have been a callous remark with a grim smile.

"Aye sir," Ellesmere nodded, and for the first time Trykon saw the trace of a smile tugging at the corners of the woman's mouth as she turned away on her heel.  Soon, her voice was ringing out with confidence and command presence, relaying his orders to the relevant bridge officers.

Trykon, for his part, merely turned back to the stars.  His people were well-trained and knew what they were about; the most helpful thing for him to do at this point was to show that he trusted them, and remain at the front of the action, a quietly inspiring portrait of unflappable belief in victory.  Even as he had the thought, though, the Halcyon Warrior flared brightly as something - perhaps a barrage of proton torpedoes - exploded against her superstructure.  As the flash died down, Wyl thought of his strained relationship with Drac, the captain of the Warrior.  Would the Mon Calamari Chief of Naval Warfare appreciate Trykon's assistance, or would he take issue with the risk to the troop transports?  With no small measure of annoyance, Wyl realized he had no way of knowing.  I'll protect the transports, Drac, until the troops can get aboard the prize, he thought, but I'll do it my own way, and like it or not that means saving your amphibious arse on the way.

OOC:
731 words.  Not my best, but had to get something up for this section of the story.

AAR: Aboard Surprise, more CD between Ellesmere and Trick as the latter orders his miniature task force (the Surprise itself, along with the troop transport ships Acrimonious and Trenchant and some smaller support craft) to rush to the aid of the hard-pressed Halcyon Warrior on their way to land boarding parties on the enemy flagship.  Trykon second-guesses his decision, after all the suspicions and distrust which have followed his "coming out" as the previous Chief of Naval Intelligence, not knowing whether this "rescue" will look good (showing he does care about saving VE lives) or whether it will actually reinforce his reputation as a cruel, unfeeling monster (risking the troops aboard the two other Strike-class cruisers in what might look like a ploy to gain glory).  He resolves to fight the way that has brought him success, and to deal with Drac and his other detractors after the Battle for Abrae is won.
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SCAP/LTJG Wyl Trykon/SMC Surprise/TF:B/1Flt/FC/VEN/VE
CNT/LTJG Wyl "Trick" Trykon/PLF Cappadocious/VENA/VEN/VE

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TRN/AD Trykon/DJO/VEDJ
Echelon
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
March 23, 2012 9:17:57 AM    View the profile of Echelon 
Captain Morf, Captain of the Caster, stood firmly in the back of the bridge as he coordinated and commanded his crew. He scratched his black beard, which came to a fine point under his jaw, and began to walk up and down the bridge, feeling the anticipation and suspense of the moment. He thought, as he did this, about home, about his career, about life in general. It was a good moment to think; most suspenseful moments were.

After a moment of doing this, he heard another set of footsteps behind his. He quickly turned around to see his Executive Officer, a young lad who was impatient as he was clever, but the Captain enjoyed him and his witty remarks. It sparked a little bit of joy to a ship that was mostly dull metal.

“Captain,” James, the XO, stated, briefly saluting, “By their courses, only one of the frigates is heading towards us.”

“Well, where is the other heading?” the Morf queried in his usually loud voice.

“Towards the Vexor, sir.”

He shook his head. The situation hadn’t turned out as well as he thought. “How far till it reaches the cruiser?”

Knowledgeable and quick, the First Officer immediately replied, “30 seconds till its within firing range.”

The Captain made a sour face. His little Tartan patrol cruiser was in trouble, and he would have to do something about it.

“Alright, then. Fire up the engines, and set us on a course towards that cruiser.”

“Sir, the other frigate is blocking our way.” The Captain stomped his foot on the ground. It would be a difficult decision, and he would have to weigh a variety of options. He could go save the little cruiser, but in turn lose his strategic position that he may or may not be able to regain, or he could stay and try and cripple the frigate, but keep his strategic position. If he was unable to regain his position, the flank of the Vast Empire would be open, and severe consequences would follow.

“Alright, James. We’re going to stay. Fire up all turbolaser batteries, and bring us five degrees up for a better position on that incoming frigate.”

“Yes Captain!” James saluted, before walking away, returning to his duties.

=====

Captain Sar nervously paced the bridge, his footsteps joining in with all of the other sounds of the frenetic command room. Officers rushed back and forth, relaying communications and ship positions, but he blurred all of it out, the anxiety and stress overwhelming him. He had no idea what to do, and the frigate was coming in fast. If he left the position where he was at, the frigate, and more importantly TIE bombers would rush in and destroy the Caster. That was the thing: the Caster could stand against the frigates, but with no one to combat with the TIE bombers, the ship would be susceptible to their powerful attacks. However, if he stayed, he would most likely die, and TIE bombers would be able to rush in anyway. And even if he stayed, he would be so busy with the frigate, that TIE bombers could easily pass through. The enemy’s plan was truly genius. Either way, TIE fighters would get through.

Then, a small, but grand idea popped into his brain, and he stopped his nervous pacing.

“Communications!” he yelled, “Do we have any ships that aren’t in use? Some that could help us?”

“One moment, Captain.” The communications officer furiously operated his control station, knowing how important time was. Exactly twenty seconds later, he turned around, and replied, “There is a Marauder-class corvette, the Metalot, and a Guardian-class cruiser, the Sky Orbitter.”

The Captain smiled, almost giggling with sudden glee. “Perfect! We need all the ships we can get. Plus, these are fast and agile. Direct them over here immediately! That frigate is coming awfully close to my-” He was suddenly interrupted by a series of brief shudders, loud bangs, and knocks. He dropped to his knees, trying to get better balance, before hearing the cry of his Executive Officer.

“We’re under fire from the frigate!”

“Bring the shields up! And begin evasive maneuvers!”

Hearing that, the bridge crew jumped into action. The Helms officer immediately flipped some switches and sent the cruiser forward, speedily darting under the hull of the frigate, which they had identified as the Lantium.

“I don’t care if we have Quad-laser cannons! Direct all fire on that ship!” the Captain ordered, finally up and stable on his feet.

Outside the slim craft, the batteries of the vessel all swivelled around, finding a target, before releasing a series of green, yellow, and blue bolts. The bolts slammed into the bottom of the Lantium, sending green ripples in the semi-transparent shield matrix.

“Where are those ships?!”

“They're on their way sir. They should be here within the next minute.”

“Excellent. Helms, bring us around to face the back of the frigate. Just keep darting around it. Keep them on their toes about where we’ll show up next.”

=====

“I want all batteries on that cruiser!” Captain Gorlet angrily called out.

“We’re trying sir,” the weapons officer replied, “But she’s too fast!” The Captain of the frigate nodded. The cruiser really was too fast. He had underestimated the abilities of such a vessel, but so far, the cruiser hadn’t caused any damage, but he hadn’t caused any damage to it. Stalemate.

“Have you tried the Ion cannons?” he asked, the anger beginning to seep out of his tone.

“Well, yes, sir. But as I sai-”

The lack of rage didn’t last long as he stopped his foot on the ground, pointing at the officer. “Frak it! How hard can it be?!”

“The ion cannons aren’t entirely accurate, and we don’t want to use up all of our pow-”

“Fire those cannons till they can’t anymore, dammit!”

“Y-yes, Captain.” The Captain, satisfied with his authority, proceeded toward the viewport. Out its thick, protective pane, he saw a multitude of Vast Imperial ships trading fire with their enemies. Destroyers passed each other, broadsiding each other with a rain of fire and blasts. Corvettes chased each other around, hoping to get a slight advantage. And most importantly of all, the two Super Star Destroyers battled for dominance, far, far into the distance. However far, the blasts and attacks of the two gargantuan ships were clearly visible. Just one of the many conflicts set on the stage of the Vectra system.

=====

“Direct all batteries on that ship!” Captain Morf of the Caster commanded.

The two Destroyers, the Victory-class I Destroyer being the larger, stood head on with each other, beginning to spray intense fire and blasts at each other. The Caster’s turbolaser batteries pumped and pumped blast after blast, each slamming into the frigate, sucking away at its shielding. The same went for the Caster. Each blast sent by the frigate pounded into its hull, eating a little bit away at its shield count. So far, no winner was in sight.

“Helms,” the Captain stated, his voice echoing in the metal room that was the bridge, “Bring us forward to broadside the Star Webber. We need to inflict as much damage as possible, so we can help our cruiser.”

The helms officer nodded, engaging the throttle, and sending the ship forward.

=====

“Nightblade leader standing by,” radioed the squadron leader. The other five members of his squadron responded with their standby’s, and the TIE squadron was ready to go. Their specialized fighters silently slipped through the vast amount of ships and vessels, weaving their way towards a specific target. With the Tartan patrol cruiser occupied, they would easily pass by and traverse without resistance to the aforementioned target.

The target was the Caster, and they were TIE bombers. The Star Destroyer’s only weakness.

To be continued...

OOC:
Word Count: 1,326. The second post in my series: Protection of the Caster. Hope you like the pseudo-cliffhanger.

AAR: The Vexor and the Caster begin to combat with the two frigates, the small cruiser using its speed advantage to avoid fire.

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DMG-CTRL Officer/CPO Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran/mSSD Atrus/TF:A/1Flt/FC/VEN/VE

TO/CPO Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran/PLF Cappadocious/VENA/VEN/VE

[SoA] [NAR] [CAR] [MC2] [BWC] [HNS] [MC1] [SWC] [=*ENG*=]
{VehM} {SfrM} {HypM} {Astr} {LogS} {Shut} {Gunn}

DeepSix
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
March 24, 2012 9:52:25 AM    View the profile of DeepSix 
"V3, check your six!" Varactyl's CO warned a member of his own flight, upon noticing a couple of bogeys lining up to shoot the latter down. The TIE Avenger squadron had already suffered one casualty thus far, but compared to the two dozen confirmed kills they scored that was well within acceptable parameters. Even by their WC's own standards, which happened to be even higher than military norm.

"Nothing to worry about Lead", the targeted pilot replied calmly. This was not the human pilot's first battle, and gods willing it would not be his last either - or so the man thought as he began evasive maneuvers, all the while just waiting for a chance to turn around and add a couple more tiny translucent skulls to his canopy.

"Blackguards, how are you holding up?" Varactyl's Commander asked after switching channels. Before an actual answer could be provided a nearby explosion drew his attention instead. "Excellent matter of factly. Just took out another CR90 and preparing a second run on the Victory-I." The smaller Star Destroyer the bomber SCO was referring to was the Lost Liberty - a vessel that already sustained minor damage thanks to the first attack run made by Blackguard Squadron.

Half the TIE Bombers targeted some of the capital ship's shield generators while the other half concentrated fire on the newly made vulnerable areas, trying as best they could to direct their rockets and torpedoes so as to cause as much possible damage in the process. Their ordinance may not have been strong enough to enable them to take out an ISD on their own but even so they could still cause some localized power failures and if lucky depressurized decks as well. The more trouble they'd cause the better - for all other allied forces currently engaged in the battle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Pull up! Pull up!! Pull... Frak it!!!" Bha'lir Squadron's XO cursed as he helplessly watched his wingmate become stardust, after failing to ditch a more experienced opponent that kept hounding him for the past few minutes. As tragic as his loss may have seen that moment, the reality of it was that things like these were bound to happen. Their foe this time around was skilled, disciplined and more importantly perhaps - experienced as well. They were not fighting ragtag pirate groups that scrambled to their deaths as soon as their initial formation was broken. They were not new recruits joining the New Republic searching for fame and glory. Imperials, regardless of the faction they currently served in, could not really be placed in the same category as the former two groups...

"Bha'lir Six's sleeping with the stars now. Repeat, Bha'lir Six is no more", the SXO reported in and almost immediately afterward a brief and emotionless acknowledgement came from the squadron's commanding officer. Rather than going after the enemy Interceptor that was directly responsible for his friend's death, Bha'lir Five instead bit his lower lip and turned to regroup with the other two members of Beta flight. He did it partly because it was VE protocol but also because he was not confident enough he could succeed where his wingmate had failed. Besides, rather than hunt down just one enemy it was safer and more efficient to stick together with his allies and deal with small groups instead. Dammit! the SXO cursed again, this time inwardly, as he tried redirecting his anger and frustration to the blasted Imperial Dominion.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Fire away!" Kolt Orzso ordered and moments later a barrage of missiles was sent flying on an intercept course with their intended targets - a group of bombers and some escorting Interceptors and Avengers. Elix Squadron's leader knew this would be the easiest way to draw attention to themselves, thus allowing the less experienced pilots of Tuk'ata Squadron to sweep in and take out some of the enemies as well.

It was a sound plan for the most part - Avengers after all stood good chances, if not the best chances, to evade missiles and torpedoes. Their small frame and agility would also allow them to run around in circles, forcing the enemies foolish enough to get caught in the game to give chase for a long time. When so engaged sluggish Bombers should prove easy enough targets for the much nimbler Interceptors. It was what Seth Qorbin likely also thought when he ordered both Interceptors and Avengers to deal with the larger force, consisting mostly of Bombers.

"Alright men, keep them busy!" Orzso further ordered his own squadron before opening a channel to Tuk'ata "You're on runts! Hit 'em fast and hit 'em hard, before they realize what's happening." The man smiled as he closed the comm channel before a reply could be sent. He was more or less confident in the skills of his peers. Green and inexperienced as some of them may have been, they must've shown some potential for Qorbin to request their transfers. Unless the blond Onderonian purposely dragged along some weaker pilots, knowing and perhaps hoping they'd die in the process. Oh, but what were the odds of that? And more importantly, what would the fellow stand to gain through such devious decisions? No, surely that wasn't the case... Surely...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Push forward", Seth Qorbin calmly ordered the other Razor Squadron pilots. The veteran flyboys previously returned from their individual tasks and one by one fell in formation with their Commander's Defender - the one that was now leading the way toward a large group of enemy fighters. "Employ aggressive tactics and stick together", Qorbin further instructed as he diverted more power towards engines and frontal shields.

With speed few other crafts could hope to match, the blond human darted straight towards danger, his squadron following close behind. It took only a few seconds before the most advanced Imperial fighters were in firing range and as soon as they were missiles and laser bolts were sent flying, many destroying the enemy ID fighters outright and if not causing them to break formation in order to save themselves. Alas there would be no salvation waiting those men and women.

"Take them all out", again DeepSix's voice was calm and confident even as he ordered the deaths of his faction's enemies. What followed could not truly be cataloged as a dogfight, or even a fight for that matter. The word "massacre" would have been better suited if not for the speed and ruthless efficiency with which it had transpired. The VE pilots flying directly under Seth Qorbin's command one by one acquired a target and quickly enough took it out either with well placed laser shots or with the occasional missile.

The enemy fighters that squirmed too much were ionized instead, thus becoming sitting ducks after their engines, shields and/or weapons systems failed them. Even if some of the ID pilots managed to elude the Defenders targeting them, more of the latter were bound to appear seemingly from out of nowhere. Enemy comm traffic was filled with orders, requests for assistance, warnings, damage reports and lists of casualties that kept getting bigger and bigger. The whole thing must've lasted a little under two minutes, by which point all targeted Imperial Dominion fighters were silenced... permanently.

"Proceed to the next group", Seth's unperturbed voice was once more heard and like before the other members of Razor Squadron formed up on their leader's wing and turned to face more of the enemy's fighters and bombers. Each and every single pilot in that squadron knew that before the day would end they'd be responsible for a whole lot more deaths and destruction...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If Qorbin's orders provided Tuk'ata's SCO with a bunch of targets to shoot at and destroy, Elix Squadron Commander's taunting also provided the woman with some excess rage that she absolutely had to vent off. Whether they knew it or not that combination would prove most unhealthy for the ID bomber pilots attempting to close in on the VE capital ships.

"You heard them", the Zygerrian almost growled as she uttered the words for the other members of the squadron to hear. Normally such a statement would be soon followed by a war cry, a challenge, an order or generally some other form of encouragement. None of these things would come however. At least not from the Near Human's mouth at any rate.

"We'll show the Avenger jocks we're just as good if not better than them", Hades pitched in as the pilot turned his craft to face the group his WC had deemed important enough to take out in order to specifically order such a thing. "Try not to do something stupid, will you?" Ryn's voice could be distinguished over the comm - the deep sigh accompanying the words at the end of the sentence also sounding clear enough.

"Do we have a plan or do we just rush in and hope for the best?" Maroy inquired as well. All things considered it was a good question, one that the SCO should've technically answered. Needless to say however Sayree did not bother with such trivial matters. The woman was after all the type to just rush in guns blazing, hoping she'd kill everyone before she'd go down herself. She wasn't stupid, nor was she insane, but she was however proud enough to believe herself skilled enough to deal with almost anything...

"A plan would be nice", Ryuno added almost timidly. Maybe between themselves the pilots of Tuk'ata Squadron would be able to formulate just such a plan. Then again maybe they wouldn't. Maybe they would just end up charging in like a pack of wild banthas only to suffer a few more fatalities in the process... Oh who could tell for certain?

OOC:
WC: 1624
AAR: Basically a short summary of what the Javelin squadrons are doing. Varactyl is still trying to keep Blackguard safe. Blackguard have managed to destroy a CR90 and are preparing to make another attack on a Victory-I ship which I took the liberty of naming "Lost Liberty" Bha'lir lost one more fighter but are otherwise going to keep on dealing with the attacking enemies. Elix is attacking the group of bombers and escorts so as to draw their attention, facilitating Tuk'ata's own task.

The Razors have savagely taken out a couple of enemy squadrons by making use of both skill and superior equipment at their disposal. They're currently trying to further add to their kill count and in the process draw enough attention to themselves to warrant some serious retaliation from the ID. As for Tuk'ata - they're basically moving to intercept those bombers. Added some brief char interactions as well - just read the few paragraphs above for more on that.

WC/CWO DeepSix/A-1/S:412th Razor/W:58th Javelin/SSD Atrus/TF:A/1Flt/SFC/VEN/VE [=*TG*=]

TRN/JRN DeepSix/DJO/Training Sect/VEDJ
Echelon
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
March 24, 2012 9:55:14 AM    View the profile of Echelon 
“Sir, TIE bomber squadrons incoming!” bellowed a communications officer. Captain Sar, aboard the Tartan patrol cruiser Vexor, turned around to face the communications officer and cursed in outrage. The situation was getting worse by the minute.

“They must know we’re busy with this frigate! They’ll be able to slip right by us!” he inferred, adjusting his Imperial cap. The Executive Officer, Thomas, roved to the Captain, placing his hand on the man’s shoulder.

Thomas sighed. “What do you want to do Captain?”

For a moment, but only a moment, the bridge became barren of any noise, movement, or disturbance as all the beings tuned into the captain’s response. Suspense filled the room as the temperature rose.

Captain Sar opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it, rethinking his plan. He was faced with two options. The first was to stay and fight the frigate, but that would allow the TIE Bomber squad to break through, damaging the Caster. The second option was to attack the TIE Bomber squad, but he would have to slow down. Thus, allowing the frigate to attack and damage his ship. He could either be selfish or selfless. And to his frustration, there were no intermediate choices.

Though it seemed hours in his brain, it was only a few seconds; he finally made his decision. “Slow the ship down and direct fire on that TIE Bomber squadron.”

“But sir!” Thomas interrupted, “We’ll be majorly damaged for sure by the frigate!”

“Thomas. If that TIE Squadron gets through, the Caster will be destroyed. Opening up the flank of the fleet! We can’t allow that! I don’t care if we’re destroyed! The Vast Empire comes first!”

“As you say Captain.” He saluted, and returned to directing the officers, leaving Sar to his hesitated decision. Then suddenly, the same communications officer called out.

“Sir!” he yelled, “The two other ships are here! And they’re attacking the TIE Bomber squadron for us!” He jumped at the news, and rushed over to the viewport where he saw the two new ships blasting away at the TIE fighters. Relieved, he sighed, and smiled at his loyal crew.

“Ah, thank the Galaxy! I thought we were really going to die for a moment. Anyway, keep darting around that frigate! Those two ship will take care of the bombers!” Sar smiled at his First Officer who replied back with a look of disgust.

“You really mean...” he quietly began, “...did you think...we were going to die?”

“Well...um....yes. I did. Oh, don’t get hung over it, Thomas! You joined the military!”

“I know Captain...its just...”

“You’ve never been faced with death before?” The young officer shook his head, bringing some redness back to his pale cheeks.

“Ah well. Don’t get disheartened. Compared to the people who survive, you have a low chance of dying.”

“Good to know, Captain.”

“Alright, Thomas. Keep coordinating our weapons crew.” The First Officer nodded shabbily, returning to his duties.

=====

“This is Nighblade leader!” cried out an Imperial Dominion pilot into his radio, “Can you hear me, Loyalty?”

One of the many communication officers aboard the Loyalty tapped into the static ridden frequency, broadcasting the signal into his headset.

“This is the Loyalty, we hear you loud and clear.”

“You said we wouldn’t get any resistance! Galaxy dammit! I’ve got two cruisers mauling down my men!”

“I’m sorry, sir. But I-”

“Get me on the line with the Admiral. Now!” The officer thought about protesting, but reluctantly agreed, calling over the middle aged man who stood at the front of the bridge. With a face of wrinkles, and a dull lip line, the Admiral wasn’t the most pleasing figure to meet. However, if you got to know the man, you would soon learn that he was as charismatic as he was intelligent. It was easy to be charmed by such a man, but easy to be tricked as well.

“What is it?” the Admiral fussed, “I’m trying to coordinate several minor conflicts and you-”

“Admiral,” the officer interrupted, “Its Nightblade leader.”

“Ah. Well then. Why didn’t you tell me before. Bring it up.” A second later, the voice of the squadron leader was crisp and clear in the old ears of the commander.

“Admiral. You said there would be no resistance!”

“Was there?”

“Yes! I’ve got a Marauder-class corvette and a Guardian-class cruiser bringing down my men with ease! I’ve got three left, and we’re fighting hard to not get shot!”

“Two more ships? How-” He stopped, answering the question for himself. His expression curdled, and he scowled. “I see. That blasted Tartan patrol cruiser must have called for help. You have my permission to back out, commander.” The other line was silent, only the quiet hum of static breaking through. “Commander?”

“Sir,” the comm officer replied, “His ship isn’t being picked up anymore. He must have been hit.” The Admiral nodded, displeased with the sudden turn of events. He just hoped those three cruisers would be destroyed. Otherwise, his efforts were useless.

=====

“Captain Greenbeard, Captain Folek,” commed Captain Sar, his voice relaying to the two new cruisers. “As you know, we’re being attacked by this Imperial-class II frigate. I suggest that we use the hit and run tactic. The ship’s gunners aren’t well trained, and we can easily use speed to our advantage. Just give the ship whatever you have. We need to win this battle! Understood?”

The two captains replied with an affirmative, understanding their goal.

“Excellent. Let’s keep our comm officers in touch. We’ll need as much coordination as possible. Follow my ship to one kilometer away where we can being our first attack run. Over.”

=====

The two Star Destroyers passed, each to the right of each other. The triangular bodies of the ships sat together, almost as if puzzle pieces connecting. The Victory-class Star Destroyer, with tens of more guns than the frigate, thought itself the clear winner of the battle, but that was not so. The frigates shields were holding well, and they maneuvered in such a way that it kept the Caster from doing any real damage. But now they were about to broadside, and damage would utterly be inflicted.

As they came within firing distance, the ships’ turbolaser cannons found targets, smashing multi colored bolts of energy into their hulls. Explosions broke out, sending debris and metal shards flying in every direction. The space in between the ships was a mess of red streaks and spinning refuse, lighting up the otherwise dark hulls. The carnage and mayhem lasted for a minute or two, each ship trying to rack up as much damage as possible, before they completed their pass. For a brief, and long awaited moment, it was silent. No cannons were fired. No explosions blasted out. The crew of the ships tried to hold the peace and serenity for as long as possible, till their commanders ordered them to commence another attack. Then the placidity faded away, bringing the slaughtering back to stay.

=====

On the Star Webber, Captain Heygard watched the screens and displays, interested in their readouts. So far, the battle between his frigate and the Caster was a stalemate. Though, his task was to stall the ship. Not to destroy it. Nevertheless, he was going to try and inflict as much damage as possible. Though, a plan was beginning to form. One “not so nice” plan.

“Operations!” he announced, “Do we have any TIE Bombers?” The Operations officer tapped on his console, replying only a moment later.

“No sir. Well, not entirely.”

“What do you mean?”

“We don’t have a full squad, but we do have one damaged one in our third hangar.”

“Get that one ready, and fill it to the brim with missiles. Get one of our pilots in it.”

“But its damaged? I’m not sure he’ll be able to control it.”

“Just tell him to-”

“Wait, sir. Are you suggesting-”

“Yes. Order the pilot to fly into the ship,” he calmly stated, not thinking anything of the taboo order.

The Operations officer stared at the captain with a putrid look of disgust. Ordering one of his own men to die! That was horrible! This was not what the Imperial Dominion was about, or any military for that matter. He didn’t care if it was the Vast Empire, he couldn’t let this happen! His captain had said controversial things in the past, but this pushed him over the edge. He couldn’t let it happen any longer.

“No,” the Operations officer calmly said, trying to hold back the anger that was swelling up in him. Captain Haygard looked slightly confused for a moment, like he had misheard.

“What did you say?” he asked, cupping his ear.

“You just ordered a suicide mission!”

“Yes. I did. The pilot will comply, as will you.”

“Do you not care about your people?!” The Captain thought for a moment, humming as he did so.

“No. I need to do whatever to win this battle. Now, send word for that pilot immediately.”

“No,” he disobeyed. “No, you foul, rotten, pig.” The Captain took a step back, his eyes locked on the officer, as his anger fueled up.

“You! Out of my ship! Now!” Haygard screamed, his voice deafening the ears of the other officers. The Operations Officer, Uliot Bameburg, stood up now, staring deep into the eyes of the Captain, Haygard’s anger fueling his own. But no. He couldn’t let this Captain be in service anymore. He would have to do something.

He stepped forward toward the Captain.

“I order you to sit down, now!” the Captain squealed, sensing the hatred in Uliot. But he didn’t stop, Uliot continued forward. “Cease! Now!” Uliot didn’t stop. Haygard took another step backwards, running into a console, and pushing over an officer. Haygard wasn’t a small man, but he was weak, and more importantly, he was a coward, having people do things for him. Hiding behind the shell of his ship. But Uliot was fed up with him. With his idiotic, selfish commands!

“Someone! Help! That officer is going to hurt me!” The bridge crew all stopped what they were doing, looking at the scene playing in front of them. Some continued back to their work, some stayed and watched, but none stepped forward to help the Captain. Not even the Executive Officer. Nor did anyone cheer Uliot on. They didn’t like the Captain, but they knew what was happening was treasonous. A crime.

Uliot grabbed the captain by his grey shirt, yanking him up in the air. The old man made a pig-like squeal before Uliot struck.

OOC:
Word Count: 1,778. Another post in my series of posts: Protection of the Caster. Yet another pseudo-cliffhanger. Hope you all like it.

AAR: The TIE bomber squadron is destroyed by the reinforcements. They begins to plan their attack whilst the Caster and Star Webber duel it out. Plus, a one man mutiny begins on board. Find out what happens next.

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DMG-CTRL Officer/CPO Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran/mSSD Atrus/TF:A/1Flt/FC/VEN/VE

TO/CPO Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran/PLF Cappadocious/VENA/VEN/VE

[SoA] [NAR] [CAR] [MC2] [BWC] [HNS] [MC1] [SWC] [=*ENG*=]
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Ryn
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Ryn
 
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
March 24, 2012 8:56:18 PM    View the profile of Ryn 
Ryn listened to the comm chatter as she unconsciously chewed on her lower lip in contemplation. She was still engaging a Strike Class cruiser, with very large guns that loved to point in her direction. Ryuno was sticking to her wing and doing a damn fine job of not getting shot down. Their squadron commander had already broken off her attack and was making impressive speed towards the squadron of bombers.

"Since our commander apparently doesn't seem to mind acting as bait, why don't we just let her." Ryn griped into the private comm she had open with Hades.

"I'm listening."

She smirked despite the turbo laser blasts wreaking havoc on her shields. Ryn and Hades, along with the majority of the squadron, had formed a sudden and cohesive dislike of their new squadron commander. She was a difficult woman to follow, but obviously skilled in a cockpit.

"We need to intercept the bombers before they reach their target, which is probably one of our capital ships. If our SC insists on going ahead, we get into a flank position when they brake to follow her."

"She'll have to piss them off right and good to get them to chase one TIE." Hades grumbled in response.

She couldn't even make out beta flight on her sensors. They had gotten separated in the battle, but the threat against any of their main fleet was serious business. So serious she suddenly realized their battle against one strike class cruiser probably wasn't going to end the battle, but a squadron of bombers making their target would.

Ryn clicked the comm, her mind distracted by plans and laser bolts pointed at her. She fired off a volley of shots that nailed the forward shield generator on the cruiser. "It's Sayree, all she has to do is say one word and they'll chase her."

"That was the squadron channel Petty Officer."

The Zygerrian's voice was dry, and lacked any humor. Although neither of those attributes were out of the ordinary for the woman.

"The suggestion is sound. Perform the flanking maneuver."

With that the comm clicked off and Ryn remembered to breathe again. The last thing Ryn needed was a demotion or any kind of leave from the Navy. She wanted to stay as far away from home as possible. Speaking to her parents and siblings on the vidcom was more than enough interaction for her tastes. The second she stepped foot on the planet they would immediately start criticizing every part of her life.

"Four, break formation and lets head to seven-seven-eight mark two. The should put us on the starboard flank of the squadron."

Ryuno clicked in response then opened the private comm. "Why are they holding formation?"

Ryn twisted the controls to avoid an opportunistic blast of fire from one of the frigates most likely coming to the aid of the cruiser she had been firing on. She glanced in her targeting computer as soon as she was clear to see that the enemy bombers were flying in perfect formation. Within seconds the Zygerrian would be firing shots into that harmony hopefully causing a wave of them to decide she was a threat worth eliminating. Still not even breaking into flights did strike her as odd, not that Ryn knew the first thing about being in a bomber squadron.

"Assume they are going after a class one target and the need to take them out is all the more important, lets do this Four."

Ryuno clicked in response and they made their way through the debris and enemy fighters towards the bomber squadron. Elix and their Avengers were helping by laying down cover fire around Tuk'ata. They must have been informed of the interceptor squadron's intentions. Regardless their aid was not unnoticed by the young pilot.

Three of the bombers broke off after the Zygerrian just as Ryn and Ryuno got into position. She could see Hades, Maroy and Scral on the opposite side of the squadron. They all clicked their comms and rained hell on the remaining bombers breaking away to choose their targets.

"Don't forget, when we are done cleaning up here, we have a squadron commander to rescue." Hades commented on the squadron channel. He must have not wanted Ryn to be lonely in the brig after the mission.


OOC:
WC: 734

AAR: A bit all over the place, but Ryn and Ryuno brak off from their attack on the cruiser to join in the attack on the bombers. The Zygerrian has gotten a few of the bombers to follow her by flying directly into their flight path and shooting at them, and being herself. We are flanking the remaining bombers.

Pick off the last 5 or so then we can all focus on the three that followed Sayree. The bombers are wicked slower than us but at least one will try to break free from the attack to complete their mission so keep that in mind in your posts, its more important to contain them and keep them far away from our capships.
FM/PO2 Kathryn 'Ryn' Kerdi/A-3/S:26 "Tuk'ata"/W:58 "Javelin"/SSD Atrus/TF:Aurek/1FLT/SFC/VEN/VE
{VM} [MC2] [MiD] [MC1] [CBV]
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Echelon
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Echelon
 
[VE-NAVY] Chief Petty Officer
 
Post Number:  328
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
March 26, 2012 5:43:42 PM    View the profile of Echelon 
The Tartan-class patrol cruiser, the Guardian-class light cruiser, and the Marauder-class corvette all hastily sped away from the bulky frigate, knowing there was no time to lose. Their blue engines glowed brilliantly, lighting their fleetly space maneuvers, and powering their capable speed and agility. The three ships traversed only for a few moments, before turning around and grouping up in a wedge formation, the patrol cruiser flanked by the two other ships. Immediately, their engines engaged, and the ships progressed forward, all at the same rate and speed. Ahead of them, the frigate sat helplessly, its guns in a putrid position to defend itself. Sure, the ship could try and turn around, but the other, smaller cruisers were fast. Too fast. Before the frigate knew it, the three ships were upon it and firing.

As they crossed the imaginary line that defined “firing distance”, the Marauder-class corvette (the Metalot) rapidly released several narrow projectiles: missiles. The missiles headed forward, a stream of particles and dust behind them, before smashing into their target, the engines of the frigate. They smashed forward into the glowing exhaust ports, exploding into flames and debris where they hit. Shockwaves rushed into the frigate, rippling and amplifying as they pierced into the pressurized hallways and rooms, devastating and destroying the areas at immediate impact. A truly destructive weapon fit for a truly destructive empire.

But was the Vast Empire truly destructive?

Such questions were the thoughts of Captain Greenbeard, the commander of the Marauder-class corvette Metalot. He stood at the back of the bridge, watching the chaos and destruction play out. Though, it was him who was causing the chaos and destruction, and for the first time ever, he was questioning it.

Sure, he had signed up for a military position, and he was granted the honorable title of captain. Thus, at one point or another, he was going to have to fight. That’s mainly what a military did, but that wasn’t what he was questioning. He was questioning the damage and destruction itself. Was it really necessary? Sure, the Imperial Dominion and the Vast Empire had its differences, but was war really necessary?

Oh look at yourself, Charles, he thought to himself, You’re a commanding officer! You’re in the military! And you’re questioning if fighting is really necessary! But is it? I mean, think of all of the people you’ve just killed with that missile barrage. They had families. Wives. Husbands. Children. Parents. They had feelings, and a personality. They like things, they didn’t like things. Was this, all of this war, necessary?

He was truly feeling awkward about his thoughts. He had performed in many battles before, he had killed plenty of people, and he was now questioning that all. Why right now? Why all of the sudden? Surely, there must be something behind this all. Something that changed his point of view.

Anger growing inside of him, he threw his hat off, and growled loudly. His Executive Officer, who surprisingly was older and higher ranked, turned to face the angry captain.

“What’s wrong, Captain?” he asked, unaware of the emotional turmoil the captain was facing.

The Captain picked up his hat, and strode over to his Executive Officer, leaning in to talk to him.

“Robert,” he began, “Have you ever thought of the...the people we’re killing.”

“Why yes sir. All of the time.”

“What do you think about it all. For the first time ever, I’m questioning it. I’m feeling empathy. I don’t know why all of the sudden...”

The Executive Officer paused. “Well, Captain. I do feel bad for the people I’ve killed, but I look at it this way. They joined the military. They know they put their lives on the line, as we do.”

The Captain sighed. His officer did make a good point. “But...is it all necessary? Do we really have to fight?”

“There is a thing called diplomacy. We’ve tried it, they’ve tried it. We just don’t agree that much.”

Once again, the First Officer did make a very fine point. The Captain was unaware of how wise this gentleman was. He wished he could see the way he did.

“Robert,” the Captain began, saddened and confused, “I...I’m not sure if I like doing all of this war business.”

“But sir, you’ve been with the Navy for ten years now! Why are you all of the sudden...changing your view on things?”

The Captain sighed, and took a deep breath it, not sure how to answer the officer’s question. “I don’t know, Robert. It just struck me all of the sudden. Seeing those missiles hit, and thinking about it from the other end...I...I...” He paused, building the suspense even more between the two men. The First Officer was a little dazed by the sudden turn of events. It was like the officer was a completely different person. He soon found his words and continued. “I resign as Captain, Robert. You are the new Captain of the Metalot. You will do a fine job at it.” With that, he took off his hat, and jokingly placed it on Robert’s head. Though, Robert didn’t feel the hat, or anything at all for that matter. He had just become the Captain of a vessel, and it struck him with emotional confusion and distress.

“I...I,” he said, unsure of what to say, “I...thank you, Cap- I mean. Thank you Greenbeard. Where will you go?”

“I will be in my private quarters, thinking about life.”

“Absolutely Cap-, Greenbeard.” The Captain then walked away, hatless and slightly saddened.

He then suddenly turned around, smiling at the new Captain Robert. “One more thing, Captain.” Robert was surprised at him being called captain. Everything had happened so fast. “I don’t have a doubt that you won’t do a good job defending the Metalot, but if she’s about to blow up, please tell me.”

“Will do Captain.” Then Greenbeard saluted one last time, return to his quarters. Robert turned around, part happy, part sad, and completely confused. He rushed to the back of the bridge where he made an announcement: he was the new captain.

=====

The Metalot continued its missile barrage whilst the other two ships darted around the larger frigate. The zoomed up and around, side to side, trying to do anything to keep their fire on the vessel, and keep the frigates fire away from them. So far, the tactic was working. The ship’s gunners were inexperienced and couldn’t keep track of the ships. Its cannons roared and attacked, but came up with nothing. The battle raged on for minutes and minutes, till the Captain, Gorlet, realized that he was losing. The ship’s shields were at a critical low and soon the hull would be vulnerable. He would have to do something quickly.

Gorlet turned to his Executive Officer, his attire of grey and black blending in with the dull metal that the bridge was made out of. He was angry, at the moment. Very angry. He couldn’t believe that his ship was losing to three tiny ships. Repulsive! How could he let this happen?! What could he do? Previously, he had ordered all of his ion cannons to fire at full capacity, which in turn sucked too much energy from his reactors, weakening the power output of his shields and other weapons. A very bad decision.

“Sir,” the First Mate said, saluting.

“What are we going to do?!” he asked angrily, his vocal cords tightening with the rage that he possessed.

“I’m not sure, Captain. Their using their speed to their advantage too much. We’re unable to stop them.”

The Captain thought for a moment, trying to fuel his anger into his insight. “We have tractor beam cannons, don’t we?”

“Yes sir.”

“So why haven’t we been using them?!” he screamed. His First Officer trembled and stepped back at the sudden outburst.

“Because they’re only operational at fifty percent. They took damage at the previous battle. Plus, we haven’t had the power usage for it.”

The Captain thought for a moment, improvising a plan that he would soon put into effect. “How much shielding power do we have left?”

His underling turned about, asking a bridge officer, before replying, “A little less than five percent. We don’t have much time.”

“Alright. Pull those ships in and direct all fire on them. Once you begin, you can take down the shields. We won’t need them.”

“Sir, if we direct fire on them, we won’t be able to use our tractor beam. We don’t have much power.”

The Captain cursed, but felt better knowing his Executive Officer was intelligent. He paused again, biting his fist and began formulating a new plan. This one more gruesome. “This is our plan. Cut all weapons systems, and pull those ships in as much as you can. Then take down the shields and put the reactor to some insane level. We’re going to cause a meltdown and blow this frigate up.”

“But sir,” the First Officer protested, “That’ll kill our crew!”

“I know, I know. I care about them, but I need to win this battle. Evacuate all non-needed personnel. Also, prepare my shuttle.”

The officer, not wanting to disobey the orders quickly followed through with them. Making sure he had a space on the Captain’s shuttle.

=====

Uliot, a bridge officer, was just ordered to send a suicide bomber to the Vast Empire’s ship! Being the caring man that he was, he couldn’t do that, and advanced on his captain, wanting to hurt him. We now find him holding the captain’s shirt, ready to strike.

Uliot brought his fist back, ready to send it into the evil Captain’s face. His hatred toward the man fueled more and more and he thought about all of the greedy, arrogant actions the man had performed. He just wanted to take all of them back.

In a single, fluid motion, he brought his fist into the Captain’s face, and threw him against the wall. Suddenly, he felt like the entire world had knocked into him, and he soon found himself on the floor, dazed and confused as ever. A security guard had tackled him to the floor, and was now intent on handcuffing the officer. Though, at first they didn’t do anything, feeling their hatred for the captain too, but once Uliot struck, they had to stop him. They were at least happy Uliot got one punch in.

As the security officers trodded off with Uliot, the Executive Officer helped his captain up, but cringed when he saw the captain’s injury. His face was dripping blood, and his front tooth was knocked out. Not a pretty sight at the least. Nevertheless, the battle would still rage on, and it needed a captain.

The Executive Officer saluted before returning his gaze to the floor. The Captain stumbled forward before taking a seat in Uliot’s chair.

“I...I...” he began, still dazed from the attack, “I...I’m disgusted in you people!” The sudden burst of anger alarmed the bridge crew, as they thought he would be more hurt than angered. “You stand there, not doing anything! I’m your captain! You will respect me! As soon as this battle is over, you will all lose you jobs! Every one of you!”

This didn’t make the bridge crew too happy, knowing they had lost their jobs. Especially shield operator Kaden, but seeing what had just happened with Uliot, he didn’t want to stand up, but he was thinking. Thinking of a plan; a way to get back at his idiotic captain. Perhaps a little “slip” on his console would work, shutting down the shields. Yes, that would do finely. Of course, there was the possibility of a engineer noticing and turning them back on, but the frigate would be damaged before that would happen.

Briefly, and without hesitation, he shut the shields off, before putting on his best voice and saying, “Captain! Our shields are down!”

“What? They were fine a moment ago!”

“I don’t know, Captain. They just...went. What’re we going to do?” Almost immediately, the Victory-class I Star Destroyer, in which they were combating with, notice that the shields were down. The Vast Empire gunners, in response, fired rapidly and powerfully, taking advantage of this sudden event. Their blasts hit the frigate unchallenged, breaching the hull and entering deep within the ship, causing devastation everywhere. The ship was a sitting duck, prone to the nuclear blasts heading its way. With the shields down, a ship was completely and utterly vulnerable. It pleased the Captain of the Caster immensely.

“Sir, we’re being hit extremely hard by the Caster!” a Damage control coordinator shouted. “What’re we going to do?”

The injured Captain sat there, blood dripping onto his shirt, staining on impact. “Keep fighting!” he called, intent on not losing the battle, “We fight until we die!” Though, as the crew would soon find out, there was no “we”.

“But sir!” his Executive Officer cried out, “We stand no chance! We need to retreat!”

“No! We stay. And prepare my shuttle.”

“You mean, you’re leaving! You’re telling us to die here while you leave!”

“Precisely.”

“No, I’m not going to stand for this. Crew, prepare to retreat.”

“No! You stay here!”

“Dammit! Crew, don’t listen to him! If you have any sense, you’ll follow my orders!” Enraged the Captain marched right up the his Executive Officer, ready to punch him. But, as aforementioned, the Captain was weak and arrogant, and he received his second punch of the day from his First Officer, immediately becoming unconscious.

“With that out of the way, you can retreat back to the Dominion fleet. Immediately!” the Executive Officer ordered, taking command of the vessel.

Then, mysteriously, the shields came back on, and Kaden definitely had nothing to do with it. Noticing the frigate was retreating, the Victory-class Destroyer stopped its barrage, and began its approach on the other frigate. It had some little ships to save.

OOC:
Word Count: 2,353. Word count record for me! Though, the writing get’s worse as it progressed, a weakness of mine. Though, in short, I think this post is an achievement of mine. Hope you all like it.

AAR: The Star Webber retreats, its captain knocked out. And the Lantium had a plan. A gruesome plan.

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DMG-CTRL Officer/CPO Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran/mSSD Atrus/TF:A/1Flt/FC/VEN/VE

TO/CPO Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran/PLF Cappadocious/VENA/VEN/VE

[SoA] [NAR] [CAR] [MC2] [BWC] [HNS] [MC1] [SWC] [=*ENG*=]
{VehM} {SfrM} {HypM} {Astr} {LogS} {Shut} {Gunn}

Ryuno
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Post Number:  29
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
March 28, 2012 6:15:03 AM    View the profile of Ryuno 
Naomi had followed Ryn against the Strike cruiser, but hadn't been happy about it. Such an assault made her feel exposed and highly vulnerable to turbolaser fire, each bolt of which was the rough size of her craft itself. Thankfully, such big cannons were also pretty inaccurate against little Interceptors ... The biggest worry was the cruiser's point-defense which wasn't quite difficult to avoid, but neither was it easy; The small anti-fighter cannons had near enough dealt with her shields, and she was thankful beyond words for a change of target. A flight of bombers that had absolutely nothing to do with this cruiser.

Ryn's voice on the squadron comms caught her attention, "It's Sayree. All she has to do is say one word and they'll chase her."

Naomi drew breath and switched on her own communicator, but the Zygerrian beat her to it, with a response in tones that Naomi couldn't interpret. "That was the squadron channel, Petty Officer."

She winced; Not only did the Zygerrian's voice send a chill down Naomi's spine, but she was certain that, in some measure, the SC could smell Naomi's fear of her. There was that and the fact that Ryn was most certainly going to catch some sort of flak after the battle. Either way Naomi was surprised, but not so, with the fact that the proposed flanking attack was deemed acceptable.

What was said next was in Ryn's voice. Naomi clicked an affirmation to the break order, and checked her sensors for the new targets. A deep, almost puzzled frown crossed the Human's face and she opened a comm channel with Ryn. "Why are they holding formation?"

The reply, probably coupled with the flurry of cannon fire that came with the arrival of a frigate to back the Strike that Ryn and her wingmate had been attacking, set a clench to Naomi's jaw as she twisted sharply to break off of Ryn's wing and send the flurry of cannon fire between their craft. Concentrating on flying, Naomi merely affirmed what Ryn was saying with a click.

She angled herself off and aligned on an intercept heading with the incoming bombers, in time to see three of them break off after the SC, at which point she spoke to herself, her words accompanied by an almost-smile. "Not even if we'd planned it..."

As soon as the Zygerrian was clear of the firing line, Naomi depressed her trigger, firing almost in perfect unison with the flanking members of Tuk'ata squadron and Ryn. Naomi's own cannons swept the solar panels of one of the nearer bombers as the formation broke into evasive tactics, and a glance between her targeting computer and forward viewport caught the bomber she'd hit, absent a starboard wing, spiraling to its demise and passing overhead as she pitched herself downward and came about for another attack run. Naomi righted herself just in time to observe the top hatch of her new friend's craft blast out of its seating, and the deployment of an ejector seat. Next came the cannons of one of Elix Squadron's Avengers to sweep the vacuum clean of the bomber that its pilot was so desperately trying to escape. Naomi felt a little sorry, admittedly, for the pilot of the bomber ... Because, judging by the pilot's proximity to the craft when it exploded, there was little chance of his survival.

Naomi's damage tracker chirped a shrill warning in her ear as Space around her craft lit with green cannonfire from a newly arrived Interceptor squadron that had come to the aid of the bombers that Tuk'ata Squadron were presently hailing fire upon. The flurry of shots weren't sufficient to actually damage her craft, having mostly overshot or glanced off of her shields at oblique angles, but the sudden intake of more power than its current allotment could handle did succeed in overloading her shield generator ... The resulting shockwave not only threw the pilot hard against her restraints and momentarily caused her fighter to spiral as she fought to regain control, but the associated console visibly shorted ... Much like a violently overloading power socket. Fortunately, this issue was rather localized to the shield control and not much else was damaged. Naomi, on the other hand, had her lap showered with hot sparks and again lost control of her fighter no sooner than regaining it, as she fought to extinguish several motes of light that had taken hold on her flame-resistant flightsuit. Thankfully, the Interceptors that had targeted Naomi had branched off to other targets ... But she was sure that, by the sudden violent spirals that her craft was undergoing, she may very well appear to have been killed.

As soon as she could recover, Naomi gripped her Interceptor's controls and righted herself ... Although she wasn't quite sure where she was as relative to the battle ... Or which way was 'up', for that matter. In fact, she was incredibly dizzy and disoriented. Drawing a deep breath, she switched her life support to pressurize the cockpit after venting the smoke that had accumulated from the damaged shield control and locking down all power to the same to prevent more problems with smoke and sparks ... Especially with the sudden oxygen feed. She then disengaged her helmet to bare hear ears to the full noise of the TIE's cockpit- Primarily the steady, high-pitched whine of the miniature nuclear reactor behind her seat. Somehow, the air in a pressurized cockpit seemed more fresh than that inside a helmet ... Although it was recycled in the exact same way, Naomi supposed that the reason was that there was more space in which to breathe.

She scowled, almost as if she realized that among the noise of her reactor, control panels- The steady beeping and whirring of machinery, and her life support system ... Something was missing. She angled her craft off and brought it about, consulting her sensors as she tried as if for her life to realize what. Naomi scanned her readouts as she brought the nimble little Interceptor into a course that would take her back into the fight, and a green, flashing light caught itself in her peripheral vision- Expanded by her newfound lack of a helmet. Had she not been so focused on holding steady, her palm might have met her forehead then and there. She'd forgotten to transfer communications from her helmet speaker ... An issue which the young pilot rectified presently, and configured one of the buttons on her control yoke to the microphone. All at once the voices of her squadron mates filled the cockpit, joining the already present noise, and although she didn't attempt to decipher what was being said, but at least a portion of it probably was directed at her.

Naomi triggered her microphone and spoke, hoping that she would be understood among the noise of her cockpit. "Tuk'ata Squadron, I'm a little banged up. Pretty sure my shields are out for the count; the console went off like a damned proton grenade ... but I don't seem to have suffered any structural damage."

OOC:
WC: 1187

AAR: The first 400 words or so basically recap Ryn's latest post from Naomi's perspective. I don't think what I did write (In length or quality) justifies the time it took to write it, but as far as getting something up to have something up, this should do. I leave open dialogue at the end. As far as the bulk of the post itself ... Tuk'ata and Elix engage the bomber squadron under Ryn's flanking tactic, but I separate Naomi from the lot for the fair majority of the post. The aforementioned Human pilot, however, does get to see what happens when a fighter pilot doesn't bail fast enough. Also, she loses her shields and ditches her helmet in favour of that fresh, fresh cockpit air.
I'm told that my mind is a restless nomad with goldfish characteristics.

FM/LCRW Naomi Ryuno/A-4/S:26 "Tuk'ata"/W:58 "Javelin"/mSSD Atrus/TF:A/1Flt/SC/VEN/VE [SoA]
[This message has been edited by Ryuno (edited March 28, 2012 6:16:21 AM)]
Echelon
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Echelon
 
[VE-NAVY] Chief Petty Officer
 
Post Number:  329
Total Posts:  546
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
March 28, 2012 4:21:06 PM    View the profile of Echelon 
“What’s happening!” Captain Sar cried out, his voice filled with surprise. Ahead of him, through the viewport, his ship was uncontrollably heading towards the enemy frigate. The large vessel loomed ahead of him, coming closer and closer. He now could clearly see the details of such a warship. The bridge. The turbolasers. The hangars. Before, he was travelling too fast to get a good look, and now, to his dismay, he would have one. Though, he did notice that it wasn’t firing its cannons. Very odd.

“They’ve locked their tractor beam on us and the other ships,” a bridge officer hastily replied, tapping away at his console.

The Captain grunted, quickly thinking of something to do. He would have to improvise. “Hold our fire and direct all energy towards the engines! We need to get away from the ships range!” The bridge officers replied with affirmatives, quickly setting to his task.

Only a moment later, the Captain’s Executive Officer rushed over, red in the face as ever. “Captain,” he said, saluting, “We can’t get away from the beam.”

“What about the other ships?”

“Same. We’re being pulled in, but they’re not bringing us to their hangars.”

“Where then?”

The First Officer shrugged. “I’m not sure Captain, but we think their exhaust ports.”

The Captain scratched his chin, perplexed by the recent events. “I’m not sure what they mean to do, but we have no choice but to go with it. Time will only tell. Cut the engines and reserve power. We may need it.” The Officer saluted, rushing away in a few brief steps.

Something was up, and the Captain didn’t like it.

=====

Solus Freedin, the Chief Engineer of the Lantium, stood proudly in the reactor control room, his six and a half feet of height giving him the sense of authority he needed. He had just received the final order of the conflict from the Captain, a gruesome but necessary order, or so he thought. It was a last minute effort to keep the Vast Empire’s little ships from winning, and he hoped it would work. The only thing he hated more than aliens were alien loving scum such as the Vast Empire. Therefore, he didn’t contest the order, and he would be sure to see it through. If that meant dying in the blast, then he would do it.

“Engineers,” he called, his voice deep and mature, “We have one last order to begin. We need to put the reactor into a meltdown and blow up the ship. Our goal is to take down the Vast Empire ship’s with us. Make this explosion big and deadly. It’s our last hope.”

“But sir,” a young engineer protested, “Won’t that kill the rest of the crew?”

“No, they’re being evacuated.”

“What about us?” another whined.

“We do whatever it takes to put this into a meltdown. Now do it!” The engineers were afraid of the towering figure and would not rebel any further. Such was a death sentence, and they preferred a quick, painless death from an explosion versus a slow, painful death from Freedin. Thus, they immediately went at their task, setting the reactor power output to overdrive, and draining the cooling liquid. Warnings and sirens blasted in the room, alerting the engineers that a meltdown was imminent. Just what Freedin wanted.

One of the engineers cringed as he saw the temperature gauge fly upward.

“Sir!” he called out, “The temperature is rising too fast! We won’t have a chance to escape!”

The Chief Engineer chuckled evilly. “Good. Go down with the ship.”

The engineers looked at each other helplessly. They knew they were about to die, and there was nothing they could do about it.

=====

Back on the Vexor, Captain Sar gazed intently through the viewport, almost as if his eyes were piercing right through the incoming vessel. The exhaust ports, in which his ship was being forcefully brought to, suddenly stopped glowing bright blue. Instead, they stood grey and lifeless. It was odd, and Sar wasn’t sure what to make of it.

“Captain Sar!” a sensors officer called out, “The Caster is en route to our position!” Surprised and confused, he rushed to sensor’s console. He chuckled when he realized it was true. The Victory-class I Star Destroyer was here to save them! “Also, Captain. The shields of the frigate have been brought down, and I’m picking up high radiation levels from their reactor.”

Suddenly, as if a giant wave had smashed right into him, he realized what was happening. The ships being brought toward the engines, the shields being brought down, high radiation levels. It was all the signs of a suicidal meltdown, and they were planning on taking his ship with them!

“They’re going to blow us up!” he yelled, confusing the crew members around him. “We don’t have much time! We need to destroy the ship before it explodes! Direct all fire anywhere on that damn ship! Actually, put all of our power towards our batteries! How much longer till the Caster gets here?”

“About one minute sir.”

He bit his lip, and hoped the reactor didn’t explode before then. He would need all the firepower he could get.

=====

The three ship Vast Empire ships released a wave of energy, plasma, and fire toward the frigate. Unchallenged by the shutdown shields, the bolts passed cleanly through the hull, igniting immense explosions and shattering metal about them. Though, to the Captains’ dismay, the vicious attack wasn’t going to cut it, for the reactor would have enough time to explode. All they could pray for was the Caster to get there soon and settle it once and for all.

Then, out of the blue (or should I say: dark), a new set of blasts smashed into the frigate, ripping hull to shreds! It was the Caster, but how did it get there so quick? A closer examination from the Captains showed that it wasn’t there at all; it was firing from a distance! The sensors officer told Sar how long it would take for it to get there, not for it to help them!

Blast after blast tore through the frigate, each explosion making the crew of the three little ships happier and happier. Soon, the entire front side of the ship was in smoldering pieces, slowly snapping off from the main part of the ship. The Caster’s blasts moved upward, targeting the bridge tower. Only a few seconds later, the tower was a charred, destroyed mess, killing hundreds of Imperial Dominion crewmembers. But it wasn’t over yet! The frigate’s reactor was still operational, as were the tractor beams! The little ships were in danger.

=====

“Sir,” an engineer called out, terrified by the moment, “That Victory-class Star Destroyer is tearing us to shreds! I don’t think we’ll have enough time to-” The engineers life was ended by Freedin throwing his body to the ground, crushing his neck with his foot.

“Dammit, people!” he called out, kicking aside the limp body, “Detonate that reactor!”

“Sir, it should meltdown within ten seconds.”

But now Freedin was really questioning if the explosion would make it. Either way, he would be dead, and he wouldn’t find out. He could only hope and pray.

=====

Ten seconds.

The Caster continued to fire its weapons at full capacity, trying to save its three little ships. The massive body of the vessel rolled closer and closer to the frigate, its blasts becoming more and more powerful.

Eight seconds.

Its turbolaser cannons fired blast after blast, each digging deeper and deeper into the hull of the ship, trying to hit the reactor in the center.

Five seconds.

The three other ships also fired away, blasts viciously ripping through the hull, the captains of the ships becoming more and more anxious as the clock ticked on.

Three seconds.

A large chunk of the ship spun off, its insane motion fueled by the powerful impacts from the blasts.

Two seconds.

Would they make it? Would they get to the reactor in time?

One second.

It was this one second that would decide the fate of the conflict, and possibly the fate of the galaxy. In this one second, the frigate would explode, destroying the three little ships, allowing TIE bombers to destroy the Star Destroyer, opening up the Vast Empire flank, destroying the Vast Empire fleet, and removing Vast Empire presence from the galaxy. Amazing what one second could do.

The reactor exploded.

But not from it melting down! Finally, the Caster’s powerful blasts broke through to the center of the ship, hitting the reactor and destroying it in a smaller explosion than what would have happened with the meltdown. Immediately at the sight, the ship’s captains and crews victoriously celebrated, hugging and cheering wildly. The two frigates were beaten, saving the Vast Empire flank!

On the Allegiance-class Super Star Destroyer, the Admiral cursed throwing his hat against the wall. His plans were thwarted! On the Caster, the Captain stood relieved, glad that his ships were saved. On the Vexor the bridge crew madly hopped up and down, cheering wildly in celebration.

The conflict ended like that. The three ships returned to protecting its mothership, and the Caster returned to the fleet’s left flank. However elsewhere, other conflicts were raging on, this only being a small one.

But an important one.

For Protection of the Caster.

OOC:
Word Count: 1,595. The finishing post in my series Protection of the Caster. I know I did a horrible job at this concluding post and I build the climax badly. But the series was a hit for me, and I hope to do a smaller capital ship conflict. The final post wasn’t good, but I really liked writing this story arc. Hope you like it too.

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DMG-CTRL Officer/CPO Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran/mSSD Atrus/TF:A/1Flt/FC/VEN/VE

TO/CPO Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran/PLF Cappadocious/VENA/VEN/VE

[SoA] [NAR] [CAR] [MC2] [BWC] [HNS] [MC1] [SWC] [=*ENG*=]
{VehM} {SfrM} {HypM} {Astr} {LogS} {Shut} {Gunn}

Serpent
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Serpent
 
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
March 28, 2012 8:16:55 PM    View the profile of Serpent 
On board the Imperial Dominion’s ISD Countenance, Captain Alexander Rauthrin watched as his TIEs launched from the belly of his formidable warship and began to swarm the rival Star Destroyer, the Halcyon Warrior.  Deployed at close range under the cover of a close-pass broadside, his starfighters were playing havoc with the ship of Captain Mihawk, the Mon Calamari officer he so badly desired to kill.

“Sir!” Said a voice suddenly at his side, that of his First Officer, Lieutenant Detus.  “We have three Vast Empire vessels closing on our rear quarter!”

“Elaborate,” Commanded Rauthrin smoothly, taking his gaze from the exchange of fire with the Warrior and marching swiftly to the hologram of the battle.

“Transponders list them as the Surprise, Acrimonious and Trenchant,” Said Detus, his bright eyes locked on the scarlet and neon-green image of the engagement.  “All of them are Strike-Class Cruisers, sir.”

The Captain studied the approach vector.  Clearly the three aggressors were coming to the aid of the Halcyon Warrior, but there was something off about their course.  Rauthrin looked harder and considered the angles.  Were they just going to pass his ship and fire as they went, or did they intend to hold off the Countenance and try to pin his ship between themselves and the Warrior?

In the end the canny Captain opted not to take the chance, but he was also loath to let up on the pressure he was putting on Mihawk’s flagship.

“Are the last of our TIEs now deployed?” Asked Rauthrin.

“Yes, sir,” Came Detus’s firm reply.  “They are now all over the Halcyon Warrior, which is now recalling its own TIEs from the larger battle to protect itself.”

“Then we need no longer hug her so close,” Said the Captain.  “Bring the ship about, keeping our starboard side facing the enemy and continuing the barrage of turbolaser power.  Loop around and position ourselves between the Warrior and the Loyalty,” He ordered, mentioning the colossal Allegiance-Class Super Star Destroyer close by, at the very heart of the battle.

If those Cruisers want to come at us, they will have to risk being fired on by the Loyalty, mused Rauthrin.  The ASSD is busy with the Vast Empire’s Atrus, but will they take the risk that it is too busy to swat some nearby flies? We’ll see.

Detus relayed the orders, and slowly but surely the massive Star Destroyer began to swing into position.

-----

On the bridge of the Halcyon Warrior, Pherik ‘Serpent’ Zail continued to be busy, trying to deal with the chaos that the Countenance had unleashed upon them.

Liaising with various Bridge Officers, he listened when he needed to and spoke with confidence when it was appropriate.  Not ten minutes ago he had ordered the deaths of several crewmen who were trapped in an area that needed sealing off, and yet the Petty Officer from Alderaan barely gave it a thought.  Zail wondered if that was another sign of his growing colder and harder since joining VENI, but such self-analysis only made him feel guilty.

I kill my own crewmen, and then feel bad for me, he lamented, how pathetic is that?.  And then, with a combination of denial and willpower that was coming ever easier to him, Pherik swept those thoughts and other distractions away.

Striding up to Captain ‘Drac’ Mihawk, Serpent reported.  “Sir, the Countenance continues to hammer us.  Their turbolasers seem to be focused on our engines, while their fighters and bombers are concentrating fire upon the bridge tower,” He said, though the second of those was obvious to all those on the command deck.  Time and again TIEs of the Imperial Dominion shot past the viewport, eagerly pursued by their own starfighters.  “Their goals must be to knock out our engines and our shield generators,” Zail concluded.

“Have our squadrons pulled back to counter?” Asked Drac, studying a tactical hologram with his large eyes, taking in every detail.

“Four of them are now engaged with countering the Countenance’s TIE complement, and while they are doing a good job, the Dominion fighters are very single-minded in the pursuit of our generators.  It’s taking a lot to deter them.”

As he reported, Zail stifled a grimace.  The attack of the Countenance was relentless and focused, clearly the mark of a disciplined crew under a commander with a tactical mind.  For the briefest of moments the Petty Officer knew a twinge of fear, but that was swiftly squashed.  When it comes to discipline, focus, and tactics, the Halcyon Warrior has no equal, he assured himself.  Whoever is commanding that ISD, he is playing Drac’s game now, and the Captain does not play to lose.

The Mon Calamari officer was about to open his mouth to give orders, when suddenly the display changed, showing the Countenance to be changing position.  It was now arcing about the back of the Warrior and coming back around.

“What the frak...?” Exclaimed Zail, baffled.  At first he thought that they were just trying to keep fire on the engines, but as the manoeuvre continued he noticed that the Countenance was now heading back towards the nearby ASSD Loyalty.  But why?

“There,” Said Drac, already ahead of his First Officer, pointing at three holograms approaching on the tactical display.

“That’s Captain Trykon’s Cruiser taskforce,” Said Zail, suddenly understanding why the Countenance was changing position.  Suddenly the human felt relieved, glad to see his former VENI superior coming to the rescue.

Suddenly, he paused in mid-thought.  I see Trick coming to the rescue, but the boldness of the move may be interpreted differently.  What is Drac making of this, I wonder?  Will his problem with VENI cloud his view of what’s going on?  Will he see Trykon as meddling in the Warrior’s battle, in a simple bid for glory?  And if the Captain does, should I be quiet, or is it my job both as XO and Fleet Liaison to Intelligence to help smooth things over?

Serpent glanced over at Drac’s unreadable alien face, and wondered what would happen next.

OOC:

1008 words.  I am really trying to work on the positioning and tactical side of capital ship combat, rather than just putting two ships next to each other and fire boringly until one is dead.  Any comments or suggestions on my efforts are welcome in the Discussion thread!

AAR:  The Imperial Dominion ISD Countenance has noticed the approach of Trykon’s 3 Strike-Class Cruisers.  Determined to continue engaging the Halcyon Warrior, Captain Rauthrin has repositioned his ship between the Warrior and the ASSD Loyalty.  On the Warrior itself, Drac and Serpent notice the arrival of Trick’s forces, and while the Alderaanian is relieved, he is not sure how his Captain will react.
FO/MCPO Pherik “Serpent” Zail / ISD II Halcyon Warrior/TF: Besh/1Flt/FC/VEN/VE
[SoA][MC2][LoM][NAR][E][HNS][SWC][CBV][VC:S][SoV][MiD][=*Eng*=]
Echelon
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Echelon
 
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
March 29, 2012 7:26:21 PM    View the profile of Echelon 
Echelon’s brain shut down.

As if all of the happiness and joy in the Galaxy had been shut off, he crumpled into a little ball, completely devastated by the sudden event. It had happened in an eye blink; she was there and then gone. Forever. His brain struggled to comprehend what had happened, thus shutting down. He heard nothing. He saw nothing. He felt nothing except the loneliness and despair the clung to his morale. When he tried to think and comprehend, his thoughts became skewered and not understandable. Almost like as if someone scrambled his thoughts and put them back together in the wrong places. He was that disoriented. The only thoughts that he could understand were the sadness and loss, but he couldn’t relate them to anything, not Helen’s death. He only felt the powerful emotions, but couldn’t relate them to anything. His subconscious mind curled him up into a furtherly tighter fetal position, trying to repress the outside world. He was on the brink of consciousness, if that was what you could call it in his case. Awake, but unaware of his surroundings. A coma-like condition due to emotional stress. Echelon’s psychological map had been sliced up, put in a blender, and given back to him; he was that stunned.

The hallway where he lay was barren of anybody or anything, the walls shaking intermittently from the bombardment outside the hull. The lights flickered, and a boom was heard far in the distance, not affecting Echelon. Though, in the Defense room, the other officers had noted that he had been gone for a very long while, too long. Therefore, they immediately sent a small search team to find him. After all, he was very important to the defense of the ship. Without him, the midsection could’ve been in ruins, but it wasn’t. Thanks to his intelligence and aptitude.

It was only a few moments later when the search team arrived, comprised of two medics and a security guard. The medics rushed in, looking for major cuts of injuries, but they found none. Only minor abrasions and lacerations. With a portable X-Ray scanner, they quickly found he had fractured his ribs and left arm. Noting where he was injured, they placed him on a fabric stretcher and quickly rushed his coma-like body away.

The team rushed through the metal labyrinth of hallways and turbolifts, making their way to the closest medical bay. Exactly two minutes and seventeen seconds later, they passed through the double doors leading to the medical bay.

The room was one hundred feet long and thirty feet wide, beds and cots sprawled down the length, filled with bloody patients. Nurses and doctors rushed about, doing everything from pushing wheeled carts to cleaning wounds. The metal chamber was filled with the echoes of moaning, crying, and screaming patients, making the area a noisy one at the least. It smelt of fresh blood and sterilizer, making even the most resisting smellers cringe. In short, it was no less than chaos, as all wartime hospitals were.

Echelon was set on a fresh cot, still firmly laying in his fetal position. The nurses, with other more serious injuries to attend to, left him. His mind was still vacant of anything, excluding the jumbled mess of thoughts and dark shadow of despair and suffering. Though, the loud noises and disgusting scents were stirring his conscience. Almost as if they were piecing together his mental puzzle. Slowly, his thoughts became more and more understandable. His coma-like condition was losing strength, and his brain was realizing things again. Then, he remembered that Helen had died, and that was the reason why he was depressed.

Without any warning, the emotion built up inside him had broken free, taking control of his body. He suddenly sat up in bed, screaming and kicking. His yells drowned out the other disgusting grunts and noises, the sound waves echoing and amplifying in the narrow room. The nurses all turned their heads to see the commotion, and a doctor was already on his way to seize Echelon. He grabbed him and tried to push him back on the bed, but it was no use. Echelon’s emotion was in control, and it was stronger than any doctor’s muscles could be.

“Someone help me over here!” the doctor grunted. Almost immediately, other nurses and doctors rushed over, forcefully pushing Echelon to the bed. Then, a nurse pulled out a syringe, injecting it into Echelon’s bicep, his veins throbbing from the psychological outburst. They held him down for awhile long, waiting for the drug to kick in, before his muscles released their tension, and he fell back into his coma-like trance. Conscious but unconscious. Aware of the pain, but unaware of his surroundings.

When he woke back up, to his and the doctor’s surprise, he wasn’t screaming, but he was tethered to the bed with improvised restraints. Now in a psychologically stable position, he felt more relaxed and calm, but there was still the nagging pain and suffering that he had felt previously. It was as strong as ever, but he knew he had more control over it now, not letting his emotions control is body.

Still quiet, he tried to push Helen out of his mind, but the thought of her kept bringing him back to tears. He refused to cry though, as he knew he would have to move on. Still, the pain and loss surrounded him and tore away at his mind, and he was suffering...

...but then, he felt something else. At first, a spark, but he felt it become larger and larger, like a forest fire growing. It wasn’t his fault that Helen had died, no it wasn’t. It was someone else’s fault. Someone had caused the rip in the hull that killed her. Someone was the reason that she wasn’t here. Slowly, but surely, his sadness and despair turned into anger and rage, until it was a full fire, engulfing his emotional being. The people responsible: Imperial Dominion. This “something else” he had felt: Revenge.

But how would he get revenge? He couldn’t personally go over to the enemy ship and kill the crew, but he would if he were able. He couldn’t directly destroy them either. All of the options were out of his abilities or regulations, but there was one other thing. Slowly, like before, the rage was turning into something else. It was becoming weaker and weaker, until it wasn’t present at all. This new thing was care. He didn’t want anybody else to go through what had just did, and the best way to do that was to do his job. To protect the people of theAtrus. He would return to his duty as a Damage Control Officer immediately, and that was how he would cope with Helen’s loss.

Just like that. The despair turned into rage. The rage turned into caring, and that caring was what would keep him going...

OOC:
Word Count: 1,165. A post regarding how Echelon copes with Helen’s death, and how he get’s back to his position as a Damage Control Officer.

This is also my 20th post of the story.

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DMG-CTRL Officer/CPO Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran/mSSD Atrus/TF:A/1Flt/FC/VEN/VE

TO/CPO Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran/PLF Cappadocious/VENA/VEN/VE

[SoA] [NAR] [CAR] [MC2] [BWC] [HNS] [MC1] [SWC] [=*ENG*=]
{VehM} {SfrM} {HypM} {Astr} {LogS} {Shut} {Gunn}

[This message has been edited by Echelon (edited March 29, 2012 7:30:20 PM)]
Maroy
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Maroy
 
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
March 30, 2012 9:23:51 PM    View the profile of Maroy 
[[Tuk'ata Squadron, I'm a little banged up. Pretty sure my shields are out for the count; the console went off like a damned proton grenade...]]

Maroy cringed. The woman probably didn't realize it, but Naomi's words echoed the final phrases spoken by countless fallen pilots the Twi'lek had known personally. The "slight damage" at the beginning of a battle always turned into a KIA report and a memorial service.

"Ryuno, stay away from the dogfighting and see if you can do any repairs. An unshielded Interceptor won't last a minute out here." From the looks of the damaged fighter, though, there wasn't much she could do. For all the power packed into them, starfighters were very fragile things. A single hit at the right angle and the entire machine would blow to pieces. Not for the first time, Maroy cursed the original TIE designers for staying economic and leaving no room for an astromech droid.

[[I copy.]]

The Twi'lek sighed. The woman wasn't required to follow her advice, of course, and there was a good chance she'd jump back in the fight, shields or no shields. If she was lucky, though, a minute or two out of the line of fire might be enough to keep her alive a bit longer.

Blinding green flashes in the viewport brought Maroy's focus back to the swirling cloud of Imperial starfighters. A Dominion bomber had just slid past her forward shields. Before she could return fire, it rolled down and out of her crosshairs, heading back along its original flight path toward the Vast Empire fleet. She immediately hit the throttle in pursuit.

-----

Cedrek Darkkin fed every little bit of extra power in his TIE Bomber directly into the engines and watched as the nearest Vast Empire Interceptor accelerated and looped around at him. He glanced over at the shield indicator to confirm that they were still going strong. It was nearly impossible to dodge Interceptors or Avengers, but you didn't become flight leader in a bomber squadron by making the enemy's job easy.

His job was to unload his high-yield proton bombs into the enemy capital ship, and that was exactly what he was going to do. If he had to do it under fire, well, so be it. He didn't need escorts to do his job.

He waited until the enemy pilot seemed sure of an easy kill, and then abruptly cut his thrust.

-----

Frak! She overshot the bomber, who took the opportunity to fire a few laser blasts into her rear shields. They didn't do much damage, which meant that the enemy pilot had shunted his power elsewhere, but the sting of being outwitted by one of the simplest maneuvers in the book hurt much more than any blaster.

She immediately looped up and around, trying to get back behind the bomber, but the ship wasn't where it was supposed to be. The pilot had immediately pulled up, and she was passing right through his firing arc.

-----

Cedrek sighed. "Stupid fighter jockeys. I can always count on you to overestimate me."

He toggled the weapons system and dumbfired a concussion missile. The VE pilot tried to pull away, but he was moving much too fast. The Interceptor plowed right into the projectile, which promptly exploded. Cedrek's shields took some damage, but his would-be pursuer's shields were severely drained. The Interceptor broke off, smoke pouring out from several spots where the hull had been scorched.

-----

That's it. He's going to die. Ditching her fighter's speed, she set her blasters to quad-burst and pulled power from the engines to regenerate her shields. She spun the ship around toward the bomber, bringing him back into her crosshairs. He immediately sped off toward the VE fleet, juking to stay out of her line of fire. She matched his speed and followed, trying to track him. She fired at him every time the targeting computer flashed green, but only managed a near-miss every time. I didn't know you could fly a bomber like that...

-----

The Dominion pilot smiled, despite himself. The enemy pilot had surrendered his only major advantage, his speed, and unless he got reinforcements there was little chance he'd score a decisive hit before Cedrek could launch his bombs.

Wait. I'm forgetting something. But what- His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a missile locking onto his fighter.

-----

Dumbfired missile, huh? Two can play at that game. As soon as the targeting computer got a partial lock, she fired. It's isn't enough to kill him, of course, but it just might be enough... The bomber seemed to sit there for a moment, waiting to see where the missile was going. As soon as the missile approached his port side, he rolled into a break-turn away from it. He was a moment too late, though, and the projectile's proximity trigger went off.

-----

Cedrek's vision went black as his bomber spun around faster than the inertial dampeners could compensate for. I guess he's not that stupid after all... The combined force of four blaster shots hit the ship for every precious second he was out of control. His vision faded back in, and he immediately corrected the spin. His shields failed, as if on cue, and all he could see through his viewport was the approaching Interceptor... and another concussion missile.

He counted his options. He could eject, and hope his life support would last through the rest of the battle. He could take his chances with this next missile, and probably get shot down anyway. Or... he could go out with a bang.

"Well, if I'm going down... at least I'm taking you with me."

He reached over to the bomb controls and primed every warhead. He didn't have time to figure out exactly who was in the blast zone. As long has he took a VE fighter or two with him, it was worth it. The rest of his squadron would just have to finish the mission without him.

-----

Maroy smiled with satisfaction as the missile neared its target. The pilot was doomed. It seemed he'd run out tricks up his-

She was completely unprepared for the massive explosion that slammed into her. The shields gave out, the ship spun and shook like a leaf in a storm, and she blacked out.

OOC:
WC:1058
AAR: Maroy goes one-on-one against one of the Imperial Dominion's bomber pilots, and just barely manages to take him out. The pilot detonated his payload right as he died, trashing Maroy's fighter and damaging several other fighters from both factions.
SC/MCPO Maroy/B-4/S:26 Tuk'ata/W:58 Javelin/mSSD Atrus/TF:A/1FL/SFC/VEN/VE (=*A*=) [GCM] [CBV] [IG] [MC2] [MC1]
[This message has been edited by Maroy (edited March 30, 2012 9:28:05 PM)]
Ellesmere
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
April 4, 2012 6:43:32 PM    View the profile of Ellesmere 
As she issued out the orders she had been given, she wondered what her CO was thinking. There was a fair risk of both the Trenchant and Acrimonious would get hit, but there was no way those two ships would come out this unscathed. Every single ship still standing will have suffered some damage by the time this battle was over, the two transports were no different.

As she watched the Surprise approach the Countenance she realized that Trykon may be trying to get into Commander Drac’s good books. While she had no idea of the full story behind the…tension between the two, she had heard that there was some distrust on Drac’s part when it came to her CO. This was just rumor however, she had  no clue of any of this was true or not, and she certainly wasn’t going to ask. Whatever was going on between those two had to be resolved in private and the fewer people became engrossed in their issues the better. Men can be so complicated to figure out sometimes…

As they closed in on the Countenance she got a gut feeling which told her something was off.  She considered informing Trykon of her current feelings but decided to keep things to herself just as quickly. He was dead set on helping out the Halcyon Warrior and so that is what they would do. She just hoped Trenchant and Acrimonious wouldn’t suffer too much damage from this .

As they approached the Countenance she ordered  Petty Officer Zark to fire at will. Mere seconds later, she watched as a salvo of bolts flew from the Surprise and hit the Countenance dead-on. They seemed to have been a little too busy to notice them coming from behind. With a grim smile, she gave a curt nod and paced up and down the deck, eager to get the troop transports to the Loyalty. Just as things started to look up, violent vibrations shook the command deck.

“Report!” She barked in a commanding tone.

“Ma’am, we’re being fired upon by what looks like to be a contingent of ID fighters, there also appears to be a few bombers along for the ride”

Great, just what we need..More complications…

“Send Shock and Awe along with some of the corvettes to intercept them, I want rid of them as quickly as possible. The rest keep on the Countenance. As well, inform Trenchant and Acrimonious to get their shields and weapons up and running if they’re not already, they’re going to have to join into this mess when it comes to saving  their hides for now, unfortunately”

“Yes, ma’am! Understood”

That done, she resumed her pacing; this time however her steps were firmer, her overall posture was a lot more rigid. She knew she had tensed up, but she was finding it hard to relax in this sort of situation. Looking over at her CO, she saw a man who seemed quite relaxed, in his element. If she looked long enough she imagined she could see the cogs turning in that calculating mind of his. After another minute of moving around, she sighed with frustration and resumed gazing out of the viewport.



OOC:
WC:533

AAR: Some CD when it comes to Ellesmere's feelings about the whole mission as well as her thoughts, the Surprise engages the Countenance however soon finds itself facing its own share of issues
SXO/PO2 Ellesmere/SMC Surprise /TF:B/1FL/FC/VEN/VE [MC2][MC1]

SCO/PO2 Ellesmere/TF:B/Raptor/VENA/VEN/VE [MC2][MC1]
Echelon
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Echelon
 
[VE-NAVY] Chief Petty Officer
 
Post Number:  334
Total Posts:  546
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
April 4, 2012 8:14:20 PM    View the profile of Echelon 
“Doctor!” Echelon yelled across the frenetic room, his voice being drowned out by the ocean of noise and activity. The medical bay was a long, duly illuminated room filled with bloody cots and moaning patients. Between these, nurses and doctor rushed about, carrying utensils and datapads, trying to help the injured. They shouted and called out, rusing carts to the operating room, and cleaning bandages. Suddenly, a large beeping noise rang out, and several doctors rushed to a patient, immediately doing chest compressions. If coming into the medical bay, one would quickly notice the strong, putrid scent that filled the room, but the doctors and patients soon became accustomed to the scent; they were often the ones giving it off. The place was a disgusting hive, and Echelon was trying to get out of it.

At first, nobody heard him, but he tried again and a nurse was quickly over to bedside. She stood tall and smiling, something Echelon found hard to believe in such an environment, and her scrubs were clean of any blood of stains, something even harder to comprehend.

“Yes?”

“Please, undo these restraints,” Echelon pleaded, “I want to get out of here.”

“Let me ask the doctor. Are you feeling better?”

“Slightly, yes.” The nurse briskly left to find a doctor, coming back only a moment later with the man. Echelon, becoming used to the nurses pleasant aroma, found the doctor hard to look at. He seemed to be the exact polar opposite of the nurse: short, frowning, an unshaven beard. Wrinkles ran through his face, some put by years of life, some put there by pure stress.

“Doctor Shrogan, this man wants his restraints undone,” the nurse said, pleasant as ever. However, the doctor frowned, looking straight into the eyes of Echelon. He scratched his beard thinking for a moment, before replying.

“I don’t know if its safe. He did scream out all of the sudden.” Echelon shook his head. It was the problem he feared. How could he show them he wouldn’t do that?

“I’m better now. I swear?”

The doctor pulled out a datapad from his grimy jacket, tapping away at its touch sensitive screen. Only a second later, he asked, “Mr...?”

“Bandoran,” Echelon answered.

“Mr. Bandoran, it says here you do not have a psychological illness. What could have sparked your outburst?”

A sudden chill of sadness and loss swept through Echelon as the doctor reminded him of what had recently happened.

“I...I...I saw my...partner commit...suicide.” For a moment, the conversation between the two men halted, the nurse watching the interaction. For a moment, Echelon though he saw the doctor look down, almost as if he were feeling empathetic, but he quickly looked back at Echelon.

“I’m sorry to hear that, Mr. Bandoran. Though usually a loss wouldn’t be that-”

Echelon interrupted. “You know, I don’t know, Doc. I don’t think I had ever felt that much sadness and despair before. I’m not a psychiatrist, but I know that whatever I experienced was enough to send me into emotional shock.”

Once again, the conversation stopped as the doctor thought about the statement. “I...I guess.” Stepping forward, the nurse and doctor gently released the harnesses that kept Echelon at bay. He moved his arms freely, swinging them in circles, trying to regain normal blood flow.

“Now,” the doctor added, “my datapad says you have several broken ribs and a bruised lung. Better get that checked out.”

“I can’t,” Echelon rebelliously replied. “I need to get back to the bridge.”

“Are you sure, Mr. Bandoran? We don’t want you to move too much. It could make your injuries-”

“No, I’m sure. I’ve got the middle section of the ship to look after, and I need to do it. I need to do it for...” He stopped, realizing what he was saying. It was almost as if his subconscious mind took control over his mouth. “...for Helen.”

“Well. Please, at least take these pills.” The doctor handed him a capsule full of white tablets. “They should help with the bruising and cuts.” Echelon reluctantly grabbed them, sticking them in his pocket. Slowly and tiredly, he pushed his sore body out of bed. Gradually, his legs began to take more and more of his weight. Until suddenly, a sharp pain rushed through his right leg, and he dropped to the floor in agony. Releasing a cry of pain, he grabbed his ankle, wondering what had just happened. The nurse and doctor rushed in, examining his ankle which was dried with blood and red with pain.

“It seems you have broken your ankle,” the doctor said, using his datapad’s xray function, “it must have been when we tussled with you in that outburst.” Echelon frowned, his day sucked. “Let’s get you in a wheelchair.” Soon, Echelon had been lifted up, and placed in a firm, metal wheelchair, its black seat as cold as it was thin. Soon, a medical droid was behind the wheelchair, rolling Echelon along. They travelled with haste, quickly making progress through the labyrinth of hallways and turbolifts. At times, the walls shook and the lights flickered, alerting Echelon that there really was a battle going on outside. He would have to get to the Defense Room quickly, so he could help save the ship.

After a few moments of feeling the stale air calmly breeze pass, Echelon, the droid, and his chair had made it safely up to the bridge level. There, at the end of the hallway was Echelon’s Damage Control boss, Kepler, and she did not look happy. As the droid rolled Echelon toward her, he wished he had stayed in the gross medical bay, and he even contemplated telling the droid to turn around, but it was too late.

“Echelon!” she yelled, but then she did something unexpected. She rushed in and grabbed him, hugging him by the neck. “Thank goodness you’re alright!”

“You...you cared about me?” he hesitantly asked.

“Of course I did. We were worried sick about you, and we hoped you’d come back soon. None of us can multitask with your section of the ship, so its been taking some...hits.”

“How bad?”

“Well, come see...”

OOC:
Word Count: 1,037. Not the best post, but it moves Echelon along. I also had to stop here because I had to go to bed, but I wanted to post. Dang it mom!

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DMG-CTRL Officer/CPO Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran/mSSD Atrus/TF:A/1Flt/FC/VEN/VE

TO/CPO Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran/PLF Cappadocious/VENA/VEN/VE

[SoA] [NAR] [CAR] [MC2] [BWC] [HNS] [MC1] [SWC] [=*ENG*=]
{VehM} {SfrM} {HypM} {Astr} {LogS} {Shut} {Gunn}

Echelon
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Echelon
 
[VE-NAVY] Chief Petty Officer
 
Post Number:  339
Total Posts:  546
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
April 8, 2012 1:53:47 PM    View the profile of Echelon 
The thick, gray metal of the Atrus shone dully in the bleak illumination of the Vectrian sun. The engines of the vessel roared with a brilliant red glow, speeding the ship forward deeper and deeper in the thick shadow that space embodied. To the right of the massive vessel hung a smaller ship: an Allegiance-class Star Destroyer. Though small compared to the Vast Empire flagship, the Allegiance-class Destroyer was regarded as a Super Star Destroyer and it could hold its own in space combat. Passing each other, the two ship’s let their armament roar outward, sending any and all attacks at each other. Turbolaser cannons blared and blasted, sending burst after burst of flaming red plasma at the adjacent ship. The attacks barreled downward, seeming to gain momentum as they travelled, before reaching their targets and dispersing against deflector shields, the lucky attacks seeping through the barrier and damaging the hull within. It had been going on like this for a half an hours now, and soon a victor was going to triumph. The Allegiance-class, though a fifth of the length of the Atrus, was holding well against its mighty attacks, but its shields were slowly withering away. Soon, it would be nothing much space debris and charred metal, but anything could happen in this battle. And anything would.

Inside the dense exterior of the Atrus, in one of the many sub-bridge rooms, stood Cor Hemorr, the leading Offensive officer of the Atrus. Despite his mere rank of Chief Petty Officer, he was awarded control of the ship’s entire armament for his extraordinary commanding during the Battle of Belgaroth. Hemorr stood silently at the top of the room, his silvery hair almost glowing in the dark room.

The Offensive Control room was circular in shape, control stations and terminals scattered about its walls with a large holotable in the middle, projecting a three dimensional model of the ship and its cannons.

“Crew,” he began, briskly walking toward the central holotable, “order our Gold deck to direct their fire on the Allegiance-ship’s engines. Also, add five percent power to their turbolasers, and tell the Helms crew to bring the ship around three degrees.”

His crew responded with affirmatives, immediately setting to their tasks. Only a moment or two later, he watched on the holotable as Gold deck began to volley at the Allegiance ship’s engines. He smiled, for his plan was to work perfectly.

=====

“Ah, so that’s how they’re going to play it,” said the Captain of the Allegiance-class Super Star Destroyer, Yal Torved as he examined a sensor officer’s screen. “Clearly, they’re going to try an immobilize us with their turbolasers. Now, what should we do?” He paced toward the viewport, his gaze locked upon the Atrus. Before, it was a free for all with each ship trying to fire as much shots at the other, but now tactics were beginning to play out, and he was ready. “Helms! Bring us over the Atrus, and tilt us ninety-degrees so we directly face the top of the ship.” His helmsman nodded, fidling with the controls. A moment or two later, the ship began to roll, rising above the Atrus, and slowly spinning. Despite the strange movements in the 3Dness of space, none of the bridge crew became sick or weasy. It was easy to get used to.

=====

“What in the Galaxy are they doing!” Hemorr exclaimed, watching the Loyalty’s movements on the holotable. “They’re trying to flank us...like that?”

“Sir, they must have realized we’re trying to destroy their engines system,” a targeting officer replied.

Hemorr cursed. His ship wouldn’t be able to fire well upon the Allegiance ship in a position like that. They were being forced to move, otherwise they were a sitting duck. “Officer Cambridge, get me on a line with the Captain.”

“Aye sir.” A few seconds later, the Captain’s wookie voice was heard over the radio.

“Captain, that Allegiance ship is getting smart. Its flanked us, and we don’t have good firing position.”

The line was silent for a moment as the wookie thought. “[We could move, Chief.]”

“But sir, we would lose our position in the fleet. The other ships could easily fl-”

The wookie suddenly interrupted. “[Do we really have a choice?]”

Hemorr went silent. “I guess we don’t.”

“[I have a plan, Chief. Be rrready to firrre.]”

“Aye Captain.” The line went silent, leaving Hemorr to his crew. Immediately, he returned his gaze to the holotable, intent on learning of his captain’s plan. Suddenly, the Atrus lurched forward, its massive engines thrusting it along. It continued forward till the Allegiance ship was no longer above it, but behind it. Then, Hemorr realized, the Allegiance ship wouldn’t be able to just back up and become over the Atrus, it lacked the proper thruster’s to do so. It would have to level itself out, and turn around, and by then, the Atrus would be in firing position again. The intelligence of the wookie was remarkable.

“Crew,” he began, forming another plan, “Do we have any rear turbolasers?”

A young female officer immediately replied, “Yes sir. Star Deck.”

“Perfect. Direct all operational power to that deck and order them to fire at the bottom of the Allegiance ship.” His lips formed a grin, he had caught the Allegiance ship in its own web.

=====

“Sir,” an Imperial Dominion officer yelled out, “We’re taking heavy damage!”

The captain, surprised, rushed over to the officer’s console, wondering what was going on. “How? That ship can’t fire at us?”

“Well, it seems they’ve pulled out from under us, and their rear battery is hitting the bottom of our ship.”

The captain cursed and threw his hat against the wall. “Dammit! Can we back up over them again?!”

A helms officer, quietly added, “No sir. We don’t have the proper thrusters. Most ships don’t.”

Fury and rage began to boil into the captain. He knew he had been caught in his own web, and he was the only one to blame. “Well turn us around now before we can get hit anymore!”

“Sir, our shields are fading-”

“Do something about it! Now!” With that, the Captain stormed out of the bridge, bringing his anger with him.

OOC:
Word Count: 1,057. A truly horrible post. The first paragraph is good, but the story, however, is not. I wanted to post something about the Atrus dueling with the Loyalty, but it turned out to be an abomination. I redid the post three times, though, so I didn’t want to waste my work a fourth time. Please excuse me from the embarrassment.

I also thought it was enough time to double post.

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DMG-CTRL Officer/CPO Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran/mSSD Atrus/TF:A/1Flt/FC/VEN/VE

TO/CPO Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran/PLF Cappadocious/VENA/VEN/VE

[SoA] [NAR] [CAR] [MC2] [BWC] [HNS] [MC1] [SWC] [=*ENG*=]
{VehM} {SfrM} {HypM} {Astr} {LogS} {Shut} {Gunn}

Drac
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Drac
 
[VE-NAVY] Captain
[VE-VEMC] 2nd Lieutenant
 
Post Number:  1842
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
April 10, 2012 4:21:42 AM    View the profile of Drac 
Dantus Wyape sat motionless, staring in silent horror at the holoscreen along with the rest of the office. When the news had started up the usual rumor mill about system traffic and military operations a day or two back, they'd all scoffed it off. Heck, he'd scoffed the loudest. This was Abrae, after all. The seat of the Vast Imperial Navy. Who would be crazy enough to attack it directly? Especially with a Super Star Destroyer guarding the place?
Now he had his answer: someone else with a Super Star Destroyer. And a big fleet to accompany it. Lecka Friarby from Accounts Payable had fainted at the sight of it and had been carried off to the couch in the break room. Now everyone else was talking in hushed voices, trying to figure out what to do. Dantus didn't join them, preferring to stare silently at the images on the holoscreen.

When the battle first began the news had picked it up immediately, and began talking it to death immediately. That hadn't lasted long, though. They were still broadcasting images, even some captioned commentary, but all audio had been taken over by a public relations arm of Navy Headquarters and was repeating loops of evacuation orders for the areas most likely to come under attack should enemy craft come down into the atmosphere. What had been a normal work day had come to a screeching halt all across the city as the civilian populace worried and fretted over the outcome of the combat above.

"What do you think, Dan? Who's going to win?"

Dantus flicked a glance over to the speaker, the mail boy Grebik, and then focused on the holoscreen again, "I...don't know, Greb. I would have thought any battle here would be a sure thing with the Atrus floating around up there. But that big ship leading the enemy forces, and all those Star Destroyers with it...I just don't know."

"But what if we lose? What if they invade Abrae?"

"Well...I don't know, Greb. We're too deep in Vast Empire space for them to invade and keep the planet...I think. If they win, they might bomb the city before they go...or they might not. I don't know."

Disappointed, the boy shook his head and sneered at Dan, "Yeah. Well, you were the one who said they'd never come. Guess you don't know much of anything anyway." Shaking his head, the kid turned around and walked off toward the break room.

Dan sighed and hung his head for a moment, muttering, "Yeah. Me and my big mouth and bluster." Lifting his head again, he rubbed at his temples and stared at the fire and destruction playing across the screen. "Maybe I oughta rethink that."

Moments later a round of cheers went up as a new group of ships flickered into existence near the battling fleets. Fighters swarmed out of them as the few freighters still in the system scrambled to get out of their path. A few moments later the view focused on the lead Star Destroyer and a caption appeared. Dan read it off, "Taskforce Flagship: ISD-II Halcyon Warrior." He looked at the pristine white dagger in space for a few moments, then nodded toward it and toward the Atrus, "Give 'em hell, boys."

~~~

Drac internalized a grimace as the lights flickered briefly. The Countenance had gained a rather effective position from which to fight, behind and above the Warrior where she could pour fire into his ship’s engines. Between that and the TIEs constantly strafing in an attempt to get a shot through to his vulnerable shield generators, his ImpStar Deuce was feeling the heat. He diverted part of his attention to Mr. Zail as the ship’s XO noted a change in tactics from the enemy vessel and, in Drac’s view, correctly deduced its cause.

And here Drac found himself with a choice. The fact that Trick had tweaked his ships’ course to rake the Countenance with fire would slow their approach on the Loyalty, somewhat endangering their main objective of capturing or disabling it. The fingers of his right hand twitched as he considered hailing the Surprise and getting the man back on task…but then stilled as he reminded himself that doing so would be too little, too late to change the outcome of Trick’s choice. And, for that matter, wasn’t it exactly the sort of initiative he encouraged his ship captains to show…the exact kind of initiative that had earned him his ship and position in the first place? Drac was many things, but he never included the title of Hypocrite among them if he could help it.

Instead he focused on the battle as it was represented on the holoscreen before him. Tipping his head pensively the Mon Calamari rotated the display, thus changing the orientation of how he looked at the battle. He flipped it upside down and rotated 135 degrees counter-clockwise, then stilled the image. The new viewpoint gave the battle a new configuration…one he could take advantage of. The words left his lips almost before he thought them, “All orders on tactical band 6. Order the Dead Gun to invert and dive relative to the plane of the ecliptic. She’s to advance into the Countenance’s rear arc. Also, order ThunderCap squadron to form up and menace the Countenance’s port flank. Darkseed is to form up and await my word. Which other squadrons are free…ah. Tuk’ata squadron is to escort Darkseed. Tell them to keep enemy starfighters off of them at all costs. And get me Captain Trykon on the line.”

Acknowledgments rolled in and the dark skinned alien nodded lightly to himself as the physical responses to his orders flowed outward like waves rippling from a pebble tossed into a calm sea. He could definitely sense them, and almost see them. Then there was a slight crackle and Trick’s image spun up on a secondary holoprojector. The man saluted, “Captain Mihawk.”

Mihawk returned the salute, “Trick. Good work distracting the Countenance. Have your ships’ fire control officers monitor the tactical band I’m transmitting to you. Be ready to fire full broadsides into the ISD’s facing flank as soon as the fire order goes through on that channel.”

“Aye, sir. We’ll be ready.”

“Carry on.”

A moment later the report he was waiting for came in. Serpent nodded to him, “Dead Gun reports being in position, sir. Your orders?”

Drac drew in a shallow breath as the deck quivered under him in response to another hard hit, “Transmit my words live on the tactical band 6: Sixty seconds after my mark Dead Gun is to fire one salvo with every possible missile tube, targeting the Countenance’s engines. Twenty seconds after my mark ThunderCap Squadron and the Surprise group are to fire a full salvo into her port flank and maintain fire so long as guns bear. Darkseed Squadron is to fire a full salvo of missiles into the Countenance’s engines fifteen seconds after Dead Gun’s salvo impacts. The Warrior will maintain full retaliatory fire throughout. Timers begin in…mark.”

A row of green lights popped up as the units in question sent automated acknowledgments. Pherik peered intently at the new orientation of ships resulting from Drac’s perspective shift and following orders. The Countenance sat near the center of an obtuse triangle with points made up of the Warrior, the Dead Gun and Darkseeds with Tuk’ata escorts, and the Surprise group and Thundercaps. He nodded in understanding, a glint coming into his eye, “We’ll keep their starboard side busy so they can’t redistribute their shielding. Then the Surprise and the others hit the port in what looks like the hammer to our anvil. Countenance’s shields will be depleted- they may even draw power out of the rear shields if they haven’t realized what Dead Gun is doing. Then when they’re vulnerable the real hammer falls from behind.”

Drac favored him with a grim smile, and gestured to each group as he replied, “Exactly, Mr. Zail. We have a fuller set of blacksmith’s tools...anvil…tongs…and hammer. Now let us test the Countenance’s mettle.”

OOC:
Okay…ridiculously long wait for this. I apologize. However, it’s up now and just about everyone should have their orders. Let’s hop back into gear and see how many things we can blow up, eh?

AAR: Drac considers Trick’s move, then creates a strategy to hammer the Countenance.
-Warrior: Continues firing into the enemy’s starboard flank.
-Surprise group: Firing into the enemy’s port flank.
-Dead Gun group: Firing into the enemy’s engines after other groups’ fire impacts.
-Tuk’ata: Flying cover for Darkseed TIE Bomber squadron.
TFC/CAPT Drac/ISD II Halcyon Warrior/TF: Besh/1Flt/FC/VEN/VE
Captain of the ISD II Halcyon Warrior
Chief of Naval Warfare
CNW|Captain Drac|NHC|VEN|VE
"Think Ackbar, but Imperial."
Trykon
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Trykon
 
[VE-DJO] Adept
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  RE: VEN: Out of the Invisible
April 11, 2012 3:05:27 AM    View the profile of Trykon 
The holoprojector sputtered into life, and suddenly a shimmering, translucent, three-dimensional image of Trykon's commanding officer came into being.  Dutifully, the Kuati snapped to attention, and saluted his Mon Calamari CO smartly.  "Captain Mihawk."

The Mon Cal returned the gesture with one webbed hand.  "Trick," he began, and Trykon relaxed a bit, noting the informality of address.  "Good work distracting the Countenance.  Have your ships' fire control officers monitor the tactical band I'm transmitting to you.  Be ready to fire full broadsides into the ISD's facing flank as soon as the fire order goes through on that channel."

Drac's tone was almost conspiratorial as he gave his orders to hammer the Imperial Dominion foe, and Trykon quietly celebrated.  Good, he thought to himself.  Drac's not letting his feelings about me impair his judgment.  Maybe he's even letting those feelings go.  Our friendship might just survive my tenure as Chief of Naval Intelligence, after all.  But all he said aloud was, "Aye, sir.  We'll be ready."

"Carry on."

Before the hologram had even faded entirely, Trykon was barking orders to his crew.  "Mr. Zark, stand by for full broadside on the Countenance!  Monitor Tactical Band 6 for the go order.  Mr. Norith, relay those orders to Acrimonious and Trenchant, if you please!  Ms. Blondeau, Thundercap Squadron is linking up with us for a run; arrange an escort for them!"

"Sir, those ID fighters are still all over the troop ships," his Executive Officer interrupted.

"Noted, but our corvette screen is going to have to handle that problem alone.  I need Thundercap to survive long enough to launch!  Understood?"

"Aye sir!"

"Execute!"

And just like that, Drac's improvised plan began to play out.  The withering fire from Halcyon Warrior seemed to surge in an impossibly brutal crescendo.  The three cruisers then joined their own full broadsides to the barrage, wailing on the opposite side of the enemy Destroyer.  The bombers of Thundercap Squadron lanced through the firestorm to launch their own proton torpedoes.  And suddenly Trykon lost sight of the Countenance entirely: so much ordinance was exploding, and so much energy was lighting up the target's shields, that it was momentarily hidden from view.  Trykon grimaced, thinking of how many sentients were trapped under that terrible barrage.  They can't possibly imagine how much worse it's about to get, he thought grimly, as he watched the Dead Gun complete it's maneuvering and slide into the ideal firing position, directly aft of the beleaguered enemy ship.

But as bad as things seemed for Trykon's foe, they were about to get even worse for his friends.

Thundercap's attack run on Countenance was a resounding success, but pulling fighters to escort the bombers had left too few to protect the two troop transports.  Even as the enemy ship's shields lit up under the pressure of the VE's barrage, the forward shields of one of these transports - the Trenchant - failed entirely, as two squadrons of Imperial Dominion TIE Interceptors pressed home an attack of their own.  The sensors officer yelled out a warning, and a moment later his voiced was joined by the communications officer relaying the desperate request for orders from the Trenchant's commander.  Drac's plan to kill the Countenance called for all three cruisers to keep firing on the ship until the Dead Gun could deliver the coup de grâce, but with the loss of her forward shields, the Trenchant was staggeringly vulnerable to return fire, for the Strike-class was notoriously fragile when shieldless.  And the assault troops Trenchant was carrying were the Vast Empire's only hope to commandeer the Super Star Destroyer that the Imperial Dominion had brought to the battle.

Trykon had no real choice.  He sucked in a quick breath, and opened his mouth to give the order...

OOC:
628 words.  A cliffhanger, kind of.

AAR: Drac's plan is put into action, but in order to comply, Trykon pulls away some of his ship's fighters to escort in a flight of friendly bombers.  The ID fighters exploit the opportunity, and press home an attack on the Trenchant that strips the troop transport of its forward shields.  Trykon has to make a choice: keep firing on the Countenance and ensure it dies, or redeploy and try to protect the suddenly vulnerable Trenchant.
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SCAP/LTJG Wyl Trykon/SMC Surprise/TF:B/1Flt/FC/VEN/VE
CNT/LTJG Wyl "Trick" Trykon/PLF Cappadocious/VENA/VEN/VE

[SoA][SoV][BWC][NSM][E][NAR][HNS][DSM][SWC][1NS][VC:B][LoM][VC:S][NC]/(=*AE*=)(=*SAE*=)(=*TG*=)(=*SCFE*=)

TRN/AD Trykon/DJO/VEDJ
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