Ambrosia Software Web Board: The Next Wave - Ambrosia Software Web Board

As the UNS fleet got in range, Admiral Toyren talked into the intercom. "All missile frigates, open fire."

The cruisers and gunships parted, revealing the previously hidden missile frigates. They all opened fire with dual concussion missile launchers, sending several hundred missiles towards the scattered pirate forces. Most of the faster ships made it, but almost all of the gunships and carriers were devastated by the attack. While the pirates were finishing dodging the last of the missiles, the UNS carriers warped right into the middle of them, and the rest of the UNS ships headed straight for the carriers. Fighters poured out and began annoying enemy ships, and the carriers did some precision turning and formed a fortress with the missile frigates inside, firing away with the carriers to protect them. The rest of the ships began to engage the scattered pirate forces. The heavy destroyers began to chase the pirate forces towards Jupiter, and that was when Admiral Toyren decided to surprise the pirates again. "Now."

Many assault transports rocketed out of the planet, and headed straight for the pirates. The fired all of their concussion missiles in a few seconds, causing the pirate forces to take heavy damage. They continued to charge, and the pirates, seeing utility ships as the weakest kind, immediately engulfed them in a cloud of cruisers. That was when the UNS did it's next trick.

The assault transports launched all of their EVATs, which all began firing on nearby ships. They used their propulsion systems to fly to nearby ships, and managed to take many of them over. Unfortunately, the few EVATs that didn't manage to board a ship were killed very quickly by the superior fire from enemy ships.

One last trick. "Issue a message to UNS Headquarters: Activate the Manhattan Defense."

Nearly a hundred cruise missile launchers previously hidden under metal plating on the Earth's surface rose out of the ground, and targeted the area the battle was taking place in. The UNS carriers transferred all available power to shielding, and the UNS ships flew in to take cover in the carrier fortress. A technician pushed a button, and each cruise missile launcher fired all six cruise missiles, and went back underground to be reloaded.

The pirate ships noticed the incoming cruise missiles headed for certain points in space, and moved so that none of their ships would be in the path of these missiles. Their fleet looked a bit like Swiss cheese. The missiles went into the various holes in the fleet, and made nuclear detonations. All ships near any of the holes were completely wiped out, and they scattered in confusion. The next wave of missiles hit, but most of the faster pirate ships had already left the areas where they detonated, taking no damage.

"Sir, the UNS Franklin and the UNS Calcutta are taking heavy damage."
"Very well, ensign. Order them to postpone the next salvo and rotate the fortress."

The carrier fortress slowly rotated, and the pirates discovered why. They swarmed in around the weakened carriers and took many out. Feirce fighting took place, and soon ships of both sides held equal ground in the fortress. It was falling apart.

"The fortress is failing!"
"Get our ships out of there! It's Darkk's turn."

The UNS ships immediately activated their superlight boosters and headed back to Earth, and the Nijayias ships came in.

------------------
"Oi, oi, oi, me got a hurt n here
Oi, oi, oi, me smell a ting is near
Me gonna bosh and me gonna nosh
An da hurt'll dissapear"

The Riaxxes, Hieqks, and Kiojeas roared in throught the dispersing whisps of the nuclear blasts. The pirates were once again under the hammer of the Lerekks, which were now taking out the pirate ships weakened by the nuclear blasts like fighters near a hostile flack drone. The ships split into 3 groups moving thorough the now totally disorganised fleet like knifes through flesh, and having a similar effect.

The intense fire of the fluctuation guns, compression cannons, and hardrad cluster launchers was practically melting the pirates, almost none of whom had intact shields now. Disruptor missles fired from StormBreaker were preventing the heavy ships from getting to the fight and mopping up Darkk's forces.

Pharris was in his element. The Andalusa was shattering pirate vessles almost at will, the new equipment allowing it to positively dominate in the battle.

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"Lind, *嵘 it, get that superlight working," shouted Wurp, the captain of the HVD. "We don't want to be left behind."

"Just a little ... OK, got it."

Pirates did few things well, but bypassing lockouts was one of them. A group of 11 HVDs had rigged manual superlight control and were ready to use it. Pharris was well ahead of his group, and would pay the price if the pirates had anything to say.

"All HVDs, GET THAT GUNSHIP NOW!!" Wurp shouted, correctly surmising Pharris was the one who had done the most of the terrorising. Killing him would restore the force's confidence.

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Pharris watched as the gunners shreaded the sole lumbering carrier that had managed to make it out this far. Suddenly, the ECM screen flashed: 11 HVDs directly behind with hot weapon.

"Helm, get us out of here or we're ƒ¨ç°ed!" The helmsman was prepairing to superlight, but it would take too long to charge.

Suddenly 6 of the ships vanished in the shockwave of something coming out of Omnispace with too high a deceleration speed. A sleek, sharklike vessle appeared in their place.

"Pharris, this is Ahdriadd, commaning barrage destroyer NPM Lenkk. Need any help?"

Ahdriadd didn't need to hear the answer. The upper and lower slow-rate flack cannon turrets put some holes in HVDs left, as did the tacyon turrets mounted on the sides. A cloud of fighters somewhat too close learned the next weapon in its arsenal: multimissle pods.

3 Boxy objects were pushed out and flew towards the fighters on thrusters. The front covers flipped off, and a cloud of anti-fighter missles emanated forth from each. The fighters and some of the cruisers behind them dissapeared. In the meantime, the rest of the gunships had caught up with Pharris. The pirate force was collapsing under its own size, the incompetance of its leadership, and shear fear. Flack cannons had been regarded with near supersition by most pirates, and a ship with flack artillery (even if with decreased rate of fire) was causing massive fear among the pirates. The new missles weren't exactly comforting either.

[I think it's Pharris's turn.]

------------------
*Error: target is violating the laws of physics*
*Error: target is locally exceeding c*
*Error: unable to determine if target exists or not*
*Error: target cannot be hit*

The Andalusa rocked again, as the light hardrad launchers spat out another load of flak. Pharris was smiling, seeing the canister break open and slag onto the side of the HVD as the Andalusa swung by, firing her swivel mounted guns at the Destroyer, careful to avoid her turrets as they made their pass. The Riaxx Gunships, were making short work of the enemy destroyers now that they were able to concentrate their fire, and they were doing a good job covering for Ahdriadd's destroyer, which was becoming a target for the swarm of pirates, who couldn't stand up to the well organized pairs of gunboats, which were split between wrecking the remaining pirate destroyers and covering the Barrage Destroyer.
The Pirates were having extreme difficulty concentrating their forces. The trained Navies were working hard to keep the Pirates surrounded. Unfortunately, they didn't have the forces to completely surround the Pirates, and many unlucky pilots found themselves surrounded in the pirate fleet, where they could press their numbers.
Carm, in what could have been cowardice, had hidden his huge ship at the center of his fleet, forming a large blob of captured Nijayais ships around him. However, now that there were confirmed reports of Pharris and his ship, he couldn't resist, and cruised his ship out towards the Andalusa and her flight group of gunships. It was clear that Carm was greedy for revenge. The huge gateship carved a trail through its own fleet, crushing any ships unlucky enough to be in the way.

"Skipper, you better check screen four, trouble is inbound, and he looks pissed!"

"Holy ****… What is he doing?"

The huge gateship was lumbering towards him, trailing debris, as well as several dozen carriers, bearing down upon the mixed Phylidion and Nijayais group. Pharris keyed the command channel, connecting him with both the fleet commanders, and his four gunship wings that were spread out, encircling the enemy fleet.

"Carm is closing on 84 mark 19 mark 37. Requesting all ships lend assistance, We're gonna take down this gateship."

He keyed off the command line, and ordered the two nearby gunship wings to regroup. They amassed around the Andalusa, then swooped down on top of the gateship. Many took heavy hits, but they were moving quite fast, and were doing a good job of avoiding the point defence guns. As they came off the rear of the gateship, the gunships found themselves in the group of carriers that was following Carm. The gunships didn't hesitate, but just sped by, raking them with phase buster fire. By this time, the three remaining gunship wings had collected, and altogether began laying waste to the carriers, while the Gateship struggled to turn around and help defend the carriers.

The gateship approached the edge of its fleet, but continued out into the Defence fleet, unintimidated by the HVD's that had been left alone by Pharris's rush for the middle. The HVD captains were anxious only for a moment, as soon Stormbreaker, and the rest of the Nijayais Fleet was there to reinforce them. The Phylidion fleet came next, and finally, the UNS fleet joined in on the swarm of the Gateship.

Carm's mistake had suddenly become apparent. His fleet was still spread out, but he had allowed himself to get trapped out in the open, surrounded by enemy ships. He cursed, then cursed at his communications officers to order his fleet to come to his defense, but many were panicked, and either didn't get the message, or didn't care. However, the fleet was still huge, and the ships that responded gravely outnumbered the defenders, however, most of them still had no hyperlight, so they were closing the distance slowly, so the defenders continued their assault on the Gateship. However, as the faster ships began to arrive, Darkk came back on the line.

"All ships, fall back to 2nd tier defensive positions, we've done enough damage for now."

The humans, Nijayais and Phylidions cleared out at hyperspace. They fell back behind another grid of mines, which they activated behind them. Shuttles and tugs swarmed over the fleet, reloading missiles, and helping emergency repair teams patch major leaks.

The Huge gateship, now battered and scarred, but still fully functional, kept on cruising forward, now more cautiously, with its escorts now in a much more tightly knit formation around it. Carm was not experienced, but he was not dumb. He would not be caught out in the open again.

Finally, the support crews finished reloading the tubes, and Darkk was back on the line

"Toyren, are your ships ready to launch a few salvos?"

"I'll do better than that, The planetary batteries on Mars and Luna are waiting to get in on the action. We're waiting on you."

"Then fire at will."

The defending fleet let loose a tremendous stream of missiles that sped through the minefield and out into the open, closing rapidly on the pirate armada that was approaching.


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

Darkk really didn't expect the planetary nukes to finish Carm. Old-model Nijayias gateships were much tougher than they seemed, with multiple arrays of backup shields. The missles closed, as Carm diverted all power to the 2nd of 3 shield arrays. The mass assault had totally overloaded the capacitors for the first array, but this one was on.

The nuclear missles slammed into the fleet, rocking the gateship back with their fury as its shields glowed bright blue. Dozens and dozens of missles repeatedly slammed in. The ships grouped near it were annihalated. Space filled with wreckage and energy and all scanners except the massive ones on the human gateship and StormBreaker read nothing. Finally the onslought stopped as the missle batteries ran out of amunition.

Carm was fine. The 2nd layer of shields had broken at the last second, but Toyren was out of tricks and Darkk seemed to be. The advance held as the gateship collected the remains of its fleet, still outnumbering the defenders and with the stupid ones weeded out. Ahdriadd had taken the Lenkk back with the other ships, having amassed a very nice kill count, but needing reloads no freighter there could provide.

Darkk would have to play his last card.
>>cc.1024.openchannel(flagship)
>>command accepted
"Carm, I am the one you've always wanted vengance on. I commanded the patrol destroyer that shot down your brother. I ordered the firing, I gave the comands, I was captain. You want me."
"And I will have you. You're outnumbered. I've got a gateship with unbelieveable firepower. You haven't got a chance."
"Maybe, however, if you kill me with your fleet, you'll feel, down in what passes for a heart among pirate overlords, that you failed and could not take me on honorably."
"Are you proposing a duel?"
"1 AU above the ecliptic from here. I'll enable your gateship's superlight."
"You will pay, dog-official."

The 2 massive ships pointed up, engaged superlight, and did battle alone to the astonishment of their fleets. Darkk had a great stroke of luck, and he would not waste it.
Darkk opened with heavy hyperkinetic missles, knocking Carm around. Carm superlighted forward to bring Darkk in range of his turrets, but Darkk pulled back and hit him again. Carm had won many duels between pirate ships, usually frigates, but gateship duels were something else entirely.

Darkk let loose another volley, and another. Carms shields were collapsing. He opened a jumpgate to bring in his fleet to save him, but StormBreaker jammed it, fired one last salvo, and the gateship was holed.

"Carm, you were a murderer and a fool, and you are dying like one."
"Darkk, you ruined my victor..."
The gateship exploded rather spectacularly.

Darkk contacted the second in command.
"Carm is dead. I request your immediate surrender."
"We still outnumber you. We aren't about to give up yet. This is to the finish."

The pirate ships surged towards the Earth wing, diving through the minefield in the wake of a curtain of fire. The Nijayias/Phylydion ships dove in behind and lit them up like firecrackers, but there were still too many. Suddenly they began exploding.

A line of Eleejeetian ships - cruisers, gunships, carriers - decelerated through the cloud of warships, devastating ship after ship. Throughout the UNS and NPM fleets a cheer went up. It suddenly stopped. On the plot, a "performance evaluator" window left open by Darkk to see how well the pirates were organising gave a readout on the Eleej fleet to all the defenders, showing the words "forfit formation".

Forfit formation was a term used by NIN and NPM instructors for when a fleet decelerates into another fleet and manages to allow the enemy to get on the tail of all their ships. The only hope now was that the Eleej could break the formation in time, with help from the defenders.

[ASCI diagram of forfit formation:
ledgend: * is bad guys; + is good guys
+* +* +* +* +* (all ships facing left)
Notice how it is a bad thing.]

------------------
*Error: target is violating the laws of physics*
*Error: target is locally exceeding c*
*Error: unable to determine if target exists or not*
*Error: target cannot be hit*

[pic of my ship:]
[http://www.angelfire.../metamorph.jpg]


This was NOT good...being surrounded by pirates, Piemur1 had no choice but to use his last line of defence...he gave the order to his XO who then toggled a switch which started horns blaring and red alert status lights went on throughout the ship. Outside the ship, several fighters and destroyers were ganging up on the ship, mostly behind where they thought they were safest. Piemur1's ship activated and disappeared from sight. All of a sudden, a small bright sphere appeared where it used to be and it expanded to engulf the nearby enemy ships. After growing to a point, it suddenly flashed and was back to normal space, with nothing inside. Then, in another instant, Piemur1's ship was back in place. "That'll take care of them!" XO said wearily, "I don't think I would like to try that maneuver again anytime soon..." The rest of the crew inside the bridge heartily agreed.

Piemur1 spoke up, "Now, lets get rid of more of those pirates." He toggles the comm, "Weapons? What's our torpedo production status? Did anything get damaged in the Fold-Over-Flip?" "Negative, sir" "Good, target that cluster of large cruisers over there" He pointed at a group of cruisers that was trying to surround Darkk's ship. "Now make sure you dont target HIS ship!" Targeting the unorganised fleet of swarming cruisers was not an easy task, but in a few minutes it was done. "Set torpedo initiative to only detonate outside blast radius of Darkk's ship and try to knock out shields in as many as possible per torp. That way, Darkk would only need to shoot at shieldless and softened cruisers. Send unneeded torps to target the ships under what he calls 'Forfeit Formation'. Do it!"

Several torpedoes were launched at once and they seemed to dance and dodge among all the fire around it. Some veered off course only to come continue on course a few seconds later in a different trajectory. The mass of torpedoes seemed to come from all directions. But many didn't hit, they looped around and seemed to enjoy torturing the helpless pirates. They didn't make the connection that they were too close to Darkk's ship. Several ran thinking that the torpedoes knew that they were dead and wanted to wait. They didn't make it. The rest broke and ran in a large cluster. They were annihilated more by Darkk's ship than the strangly acting torpedoes. The rest of the torpedoes went to help with the Eleejans (or however you spell it), but they were too few to help much.

"Well, lets help out with the Eleej fleet! Weapons, toggle to Pulveriser and Heavy Blasters. Lets get there as fast as we can! And take as many of the pirates as you can as we get there!" The ship blasted off using sublight and opened the ramscoops. "Salvage as much debris as you can along the way, we can analyse the material and find out more about this universe. Tech Lab? Materials on the way!"

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Umm, is Iced Tea supposed to glow like that? Last day of school near locker #173

[This message has been edited by Piemur1 (edited 12-05-2000).]

The Alecto sat a short way away from the battle. 8 Lightnings surveyed the combat. He watched the missiles hit the fleet. He watched the gateship explode. He sat watching the rest of the battle.

8 LightningForce was about half a lightyear out of the system. He could call them; join in the fight. It was only squashing a bunch of pirates, after all. But somehow, it seemed that the time should be spent in other ways.

He called the fleet to have them wait for his arrival. The Archangel flashed into hyperspace, knowing that Carm's fleet would die without further assistance.

------------------
8 Lightnings
Fleet: Lightning 1, Surge, Eagle, Endurance, Voltare, Alecto, Magaera, Tisiphone
"CRUISER DESTROYED. 91 remaining" -Ares, chapter 9, Hand Over Fist

"Open fire on all missles!"
The HVCs and frigates had been reloaded again, and a withering volley of fire sailed towards the ships harrasing the Eleejeetian fleet. The missles were now set to area mode, converting their momentum foreward into momentum outward and portions of their mass into energy. The large flares did far less damage than simple direct hits, but knocked the pirates off the Eleejeetians' collective tails. The Eleejeetian fleet turned, and it was all over. The furious rain of onas pulses and newoo beams, as well as the fire of the Human, Phylydion, and Nijayias ships was overwhelming them. Panicy surrender transmission messages were sent, and the fleets disengeaged.

Darkk watched the surviving pirates (a very small number) being pushed by the guards into the prisoner transport for Earth, rapid lepton gun on a tripod nearby to prevent anyone from getting ideas. Admirals Toyren(UNS) and Xee(Eleej) were with him.
"Thank you for your help, Toyren, Xee. It appears great tragadies have been prevented through our cooperation."
"Darkk, another Cantharan occupation isn't going to be permitted. We've had quite enough of servitude." Toyren said.
"I must agree. The Eleejeetians are still isolationist, but we are willing to look beyond immediate concerns, to look to the future of the galaxy and ensure it is stable and prosperous."
"I am grateful for your support. I would like to discuss some purely adminastative matters now..."

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Later, aboard StormBreaker

"Piemur1, step foreward." Piemur1 steps up to speak with Darkk. "You have done very well, and I thank you. I heard you are a dimensional transplant, like my ship. Therefore, in addition to a healthy credit bonus, I've arranged for you to recieve 10 reasonably intact ships salvaged from the pirate forces."

[Pharris, you can write your epilogue. I'll give you quite a bit of money, and some sort of medal.]

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NPM Losses:
0/1 Gateship
0/1 Barrage Destroyer
0/25 Frigate
7/15 HVC
19/50 Gunship

[The reason for the low losses is the fact that the pirates were unable to focus their fire effectively, and the NPM ships were more modern and quite well shielded. The frigates didn't take losses because they never engaged directly.]

Carm's Losses:
EVERYTHING
He's dead and his fleet surrendered.

------------------
*Error: target is violating the laws of physics*
*Error: target is locally exceeding c*
*Error: unable to determine if target exists or not*
*Error: target cannot be hit*

Mag stepped forward, and stood before Toyren and Darkk.
"Here is a cred stick for 152,874 credits, in correspondance with your performance at the battle," said Toyren.
"And here is a medal fo-" said Darkk, but Mag cut in.
"I don't want any medals. I did it for the money, and would prefer not to get any more attention than I have to."
"Well, very well, then," said Darkk, a bit confused. "Here's an extra 100,000 credits for working with the NIN, then, I suppose."
"Very good."

The little Audemedon droid that was acting as captain of the captured gunship scuttled forward.
"Well, I've never decorated a droid, before," said Toyren. "What would you like for your great help in the battle?"
"I would like some money, as our gunship could be outfitted to be much more efficient."
"Very well. For your outstanding and surprising performance, here's 102,365 credits."
"Thank you, sir!"
"Here's an extra 100,000," said Darkk.
"Thank you, too, sir!"

"We'll just be off to the celebration, then." Mag and the droid walked away from that room in the spaceport, and the Rogue and the stolen gunship, which the droids had named "Repellant," (Mag didn't understand why they had chosen that name) soon took off and headed for the bar.

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

My losses:
0/1 UNS Scoutship
0/1 Salrillian Gunship

------------------
"Oi, oi, oi, me got a hurt n here
Oi, oi, oi, me smell a ting is near
Me gonna bosh and me gonna nosh
An da hurt'll dissapear"

[This message has been edited by Mag Steelglass (edited 12-05-2000).]

Garrion sat back in his chair. "Glad that's over. Those Nijayias ships weren't bad for antiques." The sensor officer looked up.
"Not over quite yet, sir. I'm picking up two very faint blips on extended long range sensors. Being on the outskirts of the battle, we're the only ones that could've picked them up."
"They sure picked the wrong ship to be the only one to see them. Pursue, maximum speed."
"Aye, sir." The Slightly battle-weathered Kiojea rotated and engaged its engines, and another accompanied it. The blips on the sensor grid took shape. "Sir, they're not from Carm's group, or any of the species that were fighting against it. They're old ships, sir, but they've been very heavily modified. Looks like old Phylydion design, sir."
"Close to weapons range. Don't let them engage whatever interstellar drives they may have."
As the ships closed, a turret that appeared to be an octahedron with three holes in one face rotated towards them. "Old-type burst cannon turret, sir. She's definitely Phylydion." The turret rapidly spat its white plasma bolts, scoring several hits on the ship's bow shields.
"Return fire." The Kiojea's right compression gun fired, and the hyperaccelerated projectile hit one ship's shields, penetrated them, and ripped part of the hull apart. The leaking atmosphere disappeared as an emergency bulkhead door was closed.
"The ship has been disabled, sir."
"Fire on the other and destroy it." Two more compressed projectiles sped out and struck the ship, ripping it to shreds. The Kiojea pulled the crippled ship in.

After interrogation, it turned out that the Phylydion rebels who had helped tale over Nijayias space remained in small numbers. They would be hunted down.

(A note: This weekend the Phylydia II will finish its repair time in the orbital shipyard in which it was built. It will be fully operational again and will proceed to the Bar, where there will be a celebration. I invite you all to the bar.)

Piemur1 was looking at the schematics of the new ships he was just given with his engineering and intelligence crew. "How do they expect us to work with these?" the head of engineering said, "We only have experience with our own ships!" "Have any idea what this part of the ship does?" Piemur1 persisted in asking these types of questions. "HOW DO YOU THINK I KNOW? DO I KNOW EVERYTHING?" engineering snapped, "WHY DO YOU KEEP ASKING THESE QUESTIONS?" "Just so that you find out!" Piemur1 snapped back. "And make sure you find out!"

He went back to studying another set of diagrams he had taken from intelligence of other ships within the battle. "hmm, gateships, mobile jumpgates...I just had an idea i could do with one of those...engineering, where are the schematic modules of the stargates?" The engineer was surprised at the question. "I think Darkk would be very surprised with what i could do with one of those, mixed with some of our technology..." he continued...

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Umm, is Iced Tea supposed to glow like that? Last day of school near locker #173

"Which do we board first?"

"Go for the mobile dry docks. They're probably empty. ECM, scan them for life signs before we land the EVATS."

The Andalusa was helping Darkk return the huge stations to Ferapont. Stormbreaker had fabricated a set of subspace beacons, and was useing them as anchors to form the massive Jumplink back to Ferapont. Stormbreaker had pulled in a dozen Assault Transports as well as the remaining Riaxx wing to help take back the stations. They had made short work of the few fighters left to defend the base, and were now making their way through the giant fleet of docks, dropping off crews to fly the ships back to Ferapont.

After a few hours, the EVATs had cleaned out the stations, and disengaged the tractor moors. The drydocks powered up, and used their tractor beams to tow the massive docks into the jumplink. Finally, all the stations were out, leaving Stormbreaker, Pharris, and seventeen mobile drydocks in the system. Stormbreaker closed the massive gate, and opened a much smaller one that connected back to one of the Sol Jumpgates.

"I'm running low on power guys, get through the rift. Let's go home."

The Andalusa followed the drydocks through the link. Once they were a safe distance in, Stormbreaker followed, zipping the link shut behind him as he went. In ten minutes, they were back in Sol.

"I have to go pick up Darkk, Have fun salvageing."

"Yeah, like that's gonna happen."

The massive Drydocks opened their doors, and began moving slowly through the fleet. Six of them were dedicated to picking up debris, five were moving to pick up The crippled carriers that had survived intact, and the rest were to pick up as many of the medium sized ships as they could hold, and return them to the various Stardocks for refurbishment or scrapping, depending on their condition. It was a long task, and it would take days to clean up all the mess. Pharris Landed the Andalusa at a major orbital colony near Jupiter, basically a gigantic floating city.

He gave his crew two weeks leave and their latest share of the ship's earnings, which was quite a lot considering the last time he had divided the plunder had been months ago, when the Barbarossa had stolen off from Cicion's bar and stolen off for Salril Prime, carrying the late Admiral Slug.

He locked up the Andalusa, leaving several hunter/killer droids on the bridge, just in case.

He left the hangar, and caught a Taxi to the airport. If he was lucky, he could catch the seven oclock shuttle back to Earth. It would be nice to go home, even if he'd been gone fifeteen years. He hoped somebody would remember him in his old neighborhood. But reminiscing about his old neighborhood could wait. He had more than a few state dinners to attend first. He hoped the zero g suitcase wouldn't wrinkle his Tuxedo.

[Let's remerge this with "the conflict" seeing as the battle is over and all]

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Sure.