Ambrosia Software Web Board: Battle of Sol comm. frequency - Ambrosia Software Web Board

Krvtz stood proudly on the bridge of the battleship O.S.N. Thorned Branch, flagship of the combined Woven Armada. "All units report in."

"Branch one, wing two, fleet three, black four, all units in formation. Carrier Battlegroup, Gunship Squadrons one through eleven, Cruiser/Fighter Squadrons Alpha through Gamma, all fleets ready to go sir!"

"Commance the Attack on the perimeters!" Krvtz ordered as the huge alien fleet passed Pluto...

------------------
It's all fair and good to say everybody's equal, everyone's innocent untill proven guilty, but as the UNS learned so painfully at the end of the Audemedon Wars, there are those who will take advantage of that system and bring massive destruction upon others.
-High Commander Gerald Z. Levt
United Earth Confederacy

"What, starting without us?" suddenly came over the com system.
"This is Darkk of the DEF, and Spann of the UNS. We're here to lend firepower and expertise. The UEC is just as much our enemy as yours."

Krvtz was taken aback. "How did you get our frequency, let alone our plans?"
"With this kind of security, you're lucky Levt hasn't won yet. A friend tipped us off. We refuse to leave, so you might as well count us in."
"Unacceptable. This..."


Suddenly 5 X-19 gunships dove in on the Obish fleet, firing a salvo of missles at Krvtz's ship. At the last second, a salvo of LRMs from the DEF blocked it, and converted the gunships to molten scrap.

"Maybe you can help." A quick poll of the other leaders indicated they would except the offer of the UNS and DEF for now.
"Dang right, I've got a score to settle with Levt, ruining a perfectly good secure base like that. We can discuss further arangements in DC."
"You want a crack at his station?"
"Sure."

The LRM batteries on Escapade fired and fired, until the ammo reserves were exhausted. The hastilly re-rigged defenses on the station were utterly annihilated. Escapade, its only major weapon exhausted, left the system. The DEF forces came up right behind the Salrilian forces.

"Ahoy Srith'nama! Haven't seen you since the First Battle of Thasero, so long ago."
"I'm cooperating with you only temporarily, human. Don't push it."
"Well, once you win here, no more prophecy, no more threat, eh?"
"What do you want?"
"You can do the honors on the shipyard. I've heard about those warheads from some smugglers old enough and good enough to survive watching a test run."
"You are most annoying, but you are right. We will extract our first vengence on their ship."

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

Darkk's DEF forces currently numbered 7 gunships, 5 carriers, 7 cruisers, and his HVD.
Spamo had the Mariposa, 3 defected Rackers, and a small flotilla of various defected crafts.

By comparison, the Salrilian forces included 34 carriers, 22 HVDs, and a large number of cloaked cruisers and gunships. The Cantharan forces were several times as large.

Darkk knew the tenuous alliance between the DEF/UNS and the Weave might not last long enough to reach DC. He thought the Gaitori might take his side, and maybe the Obish, but the Cantharans and Salrilians were rather intent on slagging the planet.

He had to not let defeating the UEC mean crushing humanity.

No matter what the cost.

"Alright, DEF green and gold squads, let's wake up those bunkers over Io! Blue and red, you're with me!"

------------------
Formerly-Rampant Human-Coded AI

[This message has been edited by Fleet Admiral Darkk (edited 03-01-2001).]

A pair of Obish Battleships sized up the shipyard, and were just as quickly torn apart as the defensive X-19s launched their salvos of guided missiles.

[url="http://"http://www.slugsoft.f2s.com/Images/X-19s-vs-Bship.jpeg"][Image][/url].

A pair of UEC destroyers came from the other side of Mars, firing their longbolt cannons and unloading their dozens of long-range torpedos. They were quickly overtaken by the swarms of Salrilian fighters, but before crippling three of the attacking carriers. The wings of fighters proceeded to lay assault on the heavily-fortified bunkers, losing half their number in the process. The Attacking fleet brought their cruisers in for support fire, covered by the missile fire from the backing carriers.

Thirty more X-19 gunboats hovered between the missile fire, unloading their guided heavy rockets through their swivel launch pods, then turning to return to the planetbase for reloading. By exposing their vulnerable backsides, the Gunboats invited the attention of twenty simultanious Carrier Bolt Rods. There was a spectacular combined explosion, one which only half the gunboats flew out of alive.

The Battle was going well for The Woven.

------------------
It's all fair and good to say everybody's equal, everyone's innocent untill proven guilty, but as the UNS learned so painfully at the end of the Audemedon Wars, there are those who will take advantage of that system and bring massive destruction upon others.
-High Commander Gerald Z. Levt
United Earth Confederacy

The DEF and UNS were doing quite well.
Most of humanity's better officers had refused to side with Levt, and thus he had to rely on conscripts, zealous fools, and people who ... came with the ships. Darkk considered them all much worse than his pilots.

A pair of X-19s shot at him, but the missles couldn't turn fast enough, and a fuselade of magneto pulses tore through them, smashing them to bits. A destroyer tried to get the drop on gunship group beta, but they fired and superlighted out as soon as they saw it coming, and the crusiers from group alpha superlighted in behind the destroyer and took it out.

Darkk shook his head, and muttered "Poor fools." Levt's forces weren't so tough, he had decided after the base raid. They needed numbers, and they needed the attacker's advantage. Divested of both these advantages, forced to defend against a foe outnumbering them, they weren't much better in his mind than the Gaitori's moraleless patrols during the Ares War.

They had some nice ships, though. Where they came from was still a puzzle to Darkk. He hated it, because it didn't make any sense, no matter how he turned it. Levt couldn't have built them, couldn't have bought them, couldn't have found them... shouldn't have them at all.

Ah well. Once they're all destroyed, it really wouldn't matter.

"Srith'nama! There's a destroyer on your tail!" called out one of the DEF carrier pilots.
The Sterlizer turned hard to dodge the shots and fired its scatterband T-bolt, catching the destroyer and vaporising it.
"Even the Oracular Net was surprised by your assistance."
"The enemy of my enemy..." replied Darkk.

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

"Spamo, you there?"
"Yeah Darkk, this is one heck of a fight though."
"I've figured out a way to keep Earth intact. It's rather risky, though."
"What do you mean, 'risky'? There's no way to do it!"
"Remeber what I said to Srith'nama."
"Both ends against the middle? You are a psycho. I'll think on it."
"I'll see if I can come up with a safer plan. Maybe they'll be reasonable, and we can talk about it."
"I hope so, but it doesn't seem likely."
"I hope so too. But I'm a little too cynical to believe so."
"Let's just not be foolish or evil."
"I'll try to be reasonable. I just hope they'll listen. I doubt that even with the Gaitori here, they'll be willing to hand us Earth without us asking."

------------------
Formerly-Rampant Human-Coded AI

"Enemy ships in Sector fourteen!" The Gaitori captain of the hapless Carrier was only given a moment of horror before his carrier was crippled by a massive, green blast. The entire outer hull and a good portion of the inner hull as well as the shields were simultaneously annihilated before he could warn the rest of the fleet.

They wouldn't care. The Alien Armada was apparently caught up in the mood, even the few Ishiman War Guilds displayed a bloodlust and savagery, a hatred for all humans. Slowly but surely, the UEC Defense fleet was systematically overwhelmed. It was all too fun.

"Sir! The Sterilizer is reporting enemy contacts approaching. I'm counting nine.. ten... over a hundred signals!"

"What?!" Darkk exclaimed in horror.

"The Stradolator reports sighting a massive quasispacial wave! All jumpgates are inoperable!"

Darkk saundered up to the window. And looked out. The UEC Defenders seemed to be falling back.... Another fleet was closing in on them... "What are they doing...?" He murmured to himself.

"We're picking up UEC activity in orbit over Mars! The Battlestation we crippled was obviously protecting something intelligence somehow missed. We need backup now!"

Darkk recoiled in horror as did every member on the bridge. "It's a trap!"

------------------
Time is the best teacher, yet it kills all of it's students.

Darkk had suspected this. It's always a trap when they leave their capitol undefended like this.

Darkk enjoyed being inside traps. Long ago, he'd relized traps only gave the attacker 2 advantages: 1) they made the battle occur on their terms, and 2) they knew what was going on and you didn't.

Divesting people of the second advantage was his specialty. It was what enabled him to beat the Sals again and again.

An 11km long object had emerged from the battlestation, and was practically MELTING ships with some sort of tri-mounted turreted beams. Darkk opened a channel to the Sterlizer."Srith'nama! Gimme a detailed scan, please, and consider using your main weapons on it."
"I don't take orders from humans, but for this case, I'll make an exception. Here's your scan, and the Oraclular Network agrees we should fire the missles at it."

Sterlizer rotated gracefully, and fired a missle. It was the size on an HVD, and shot out faster than any missle anyone there had ever seen before. It detonated 20km from the UEC monstrosity, sending out a gigantic shockwave. The beams fired in unison, deflecting the shockwave as it spread around the ship, incinerating all ships, no matter who owned them, within 13000km.

One part of Darkk's mind considered the aesthetic beauty of the explosion, while another was trying to think of what to do now, while another annihilated a UEC Destroyer that got to close with a flurry of photopulse shots. Srith'nama wasn't waiting for a new plan, and fired his other missle. This one was shot down while in route. Darkk would bet money the Sals were furious. The Cantharans and Gaitori had waded in, but couldn't seem to hurt it more than it hurt them.

Darkk considered his options. The aliens were engaging the large ship for now, and most of his forces were near Earth, most of the defenses were engaging the main Woven fleet...

Escapade reentered the area under superlight, and quickly moved up to the nearest orbital stardock. The shields of the Stardock and the giant ship touched, crackled, and merged as Sarah matched shield phases. Anchor lines were fired.

But these wern't just any anchor lines. From the ends, smart nanofibre tendrils extended, cutting their way into the station systems LAN. As it was only accessable from inside the station, it wasn't secured too heavily - 128 RSA. In seconds, a self destruct sequence had started. Escapade demerged its shields, and moved away as one of the largest shipyards in the UEC space imploded.

"Well, ladies and gentlemen, we won't be able to do that again." Sure enough, the other stations had modulated their frequencies and were prepairing for the increased power drain needed by frequency hopping. No chance of doing that again.

"Sis, any idea how to take out the big guy?"
"UEC Vengence, if its nameplate's right. No clue. It seems like its internal bracing was supposed to support a planetary mass of armor, and its shields are quite powerful. I think it's a revamp of some more powerful design, but I'm not sure when it was designed. It's definatly human, and of the same design beareu as Levt's other ships. That's all I can say. I'd guess the best way to beat it is, well, the same way you beat anything 11km long with as much shields as half the Salrilian Navy and firepower enough to wipe out whole fleets."
"And how DO you beat those?"
"Find an exhaust port."
"Not very funny."
"I try. Seriously, I'm not sure there is anything we can do."
"There's definatly nothing you can do. Get clear!"

Escapade began rocketing away in superlight. It would take a long time for it to clear the interference field, but nothing on the board would be able to catch it. Besides, Sarah wouldn't need to stop until she was on the other side of the jumpstream.

William considered his options. Time to break some deviousness records. Then again, he'd set them in the first place. NO opponent couldn't be defeated if you were sufficiently more skilled.

------------------
Formerly-Rampant Human-Coded AI

Wizr was shaken from his meditation by the rapid clipped chatter of his pilots over an insistant ponging from the cockpit. He opened his eyes, and looked out his window to see the walls of the jumpstream pulseing and shifting red. Just as this registered in his mind, there was a flash, and the walls were gone, leaveing several freighters and four HVCs alone in deep space.

"What the hell was that?"

"Subspace interference from Sol. The jumpgate couldn't hold the stream, and had to drop us into normal space. Hold on, I'm getting the full data now... Here we go, it's too much interference for the freighters, but ISN 1470907 is in the area. She's an older gateship, but they say they could put four HVCs through to Sol one at a time."

"Are you sure that's wise?"

"You're the one who wanted to see what was happening. Don't worry, look at what we're flying. We have a cloaking device, and what we can't outfight we can outrun. We're going for it. All ships report in."

He turned back to his console, and began talking to the other ships. Ahead, wizr saw the smallest jump portal he had ever seen opening ahead of the ship. One of the other cruisers dove in, it's engine nacelles barely clearing the edges. Wizr cringed as his HVC dove in at full speed.

------------------
Faris eck Vaenar Maletena-Wizr, Trey'ish of the Ishiman reestablishment comittee.
"I don't think I'm alone when I say that I'd like to see more and more planets fall under the ruthless domination of our solar system."

The flare of weapon fire lit up the bridge. The monstrosity that took up a significant part of the sky hung on the main view port of the Mariposa. Spann shook with rage at Levt and himself for falling into this trap. The Mariposa burned down another UEC warship as hit sped through the fight. One of the ensigns spoke up.

"Sir, we're recieving requests for orders to attack that thing."

Spamo stopped for a moment. "What?"

"Yes sir. Darkk just superlighted away, and several of the captains are in favor of distracting that until Darkk can do whatever he's doing."

He's not running away I hope.
"Give the orders. Harass that thing as much as possible, and make sure that they stay away from those cannons!"

"Yes sir. I've a message from Darkk."

Spamo read over the message quickly. "Attack speed ensign. They're going down today."

With that, the Mariposa leapt foward into the fray.
Damn, this means the Ishiman aid won't be useful now.

Then all thoughts were on surviving the fight ahead.

------------------
Ne Cede Malis Sed Contra Audientor Ito

oops... wrong thread...

[This message has been edited by Captain Pharris (edited 03-07-2001).]

Levt grinned. Today all alien resistance would be crushed. The Rebel Aliens will either flee or fight to the death. He knew his foes all too well. UEC Losses were significant on the frontier, but the three fleets arriving as reinforcements had not only trapped the aliens, but was breathing down their necks. The Vengeance was nowhere near completion, but it's shielding system was fully operational, and it's primary weapons were online.

Four UEC Destroyers led by a battleship cut deep into the weave armada with a deadly and stunning efficiancy not even the salrilians could even predict. Soon they were nearly crippled by the combined firepower of the fleet shooting itself in the heart, but the small battlegroup had done significant damage.

Levt's moment of evil was interrupted when a voice stood out from the usual bridge chatter of battle. A sensor officer from one of the crewpits was obviously nervous about something. "Sir! We've got an incoming fleet approaching from the South in omnispace!"

"Them!" Levt clenched his jaw in irritation. "Lincoln said he had contained the XenoHumanoids!"

"ETA forty minutes."

"Bring the Vengeance about. Charge the array." Levt's fists were like steel. "Soon the Dominus Fleet will be no more than a bad memory."

------------------
Time is the best teacher, yet it kills all of it's students.

The Obiards had been doing one of the things they do best: destroying stations.

Gaitori seem to rely exensively on Habitat stations when not in the range of a planet, so for a long time Obish ships had specialized in decimating them.

Now the tactic was brought to good use.

One by one, the Obiards took down the orbital stations, removing little by little the UEC's home field advantage.

------------------
What others can travel so far into so many universes yet remain so deeply rooted in their own?

The four concussion missiles converged on the X-19, and their combined explosions converted the hapless gunboat into a sprinkling of shrapnel and debris, which lit up the Flamewave's shield as it flew through.

Mag watched as another Cantharan carrier that happened to be in front of the Vengeance mysteriously dissapeared in a bright golden flash. The colossal Vengeance had been the main force behind what looked like it would be a UEC victory.

Something had to be done with that ship. Mag took a few microseconds to scan the ship with infrared, and noticed a heavy weakness.

"Comm, send a message to our contact, this Darkk person. Tell him I have a plan. It won't do much to anything but the Vengeance and any ships near it, but it might be all that we need."

"Aye aye, sir!"

[Darkk, I'll bring this up with you on GR.]

------------------
"I am the supreme dictator of the universe, it's just that nobody knows about it yet."
"Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow."

[Well, since you weren't on, I'll go with "my" previous plan.]

William watched the monitor as he superlighted towards the Vengence.
Sarah and the Escapade had cleared Uranus's orbit and was almost out of the interference.
The new fleet was regestering as yellow - unknown. Long range scans indicated they had a great deal of firepower, and were crewed by semi-human creatures.
Spamo was attacking the little fish of the UEC armada with fury, to keep them away from William.

But that wasn't the issue now. The issue was not being violently ionized.

The DEF fleet dropped out in precision formation in the engine trail of the Vengence. They quickly got between the plasma streams, to prevent being incinerated. Then they began to fire.

The armor on the back of the Vengence was light, and there were no turrets that could hit them - nobody thought anybody was crazy enough to fly through the engine exhaust. William was more than crazy enough to.

The carriers, fighters, and gunships, unsuited for this, were harassing the Battleship, and had almost got its shields down.

Wind of Blades and the cruisers were putting dents in the heat shield between the massive engine bells.

On the Mariposa...
"Sir, we're recieving a transmission from the new ships. They say they're Phylydien, or something." said one of Spamo's aides.

------------------
Formerly-Rampant Human-Coded AI

[This message has been edited by Fleet Admiral Darkk (edited 03-08-2001).]

[Well, I was gonna have the Sals do pretty much that, so that'll do.]

The DEF forces were forced to leave the rear of the Vengeance as a large number of UEC ships closed on them. They hadn't done enough damage. Not quite enough. They needed one little extra boost...

Mag linked himself to the intercom, and gave an order. Soon, all of his crew except him and his piloting officer had exited the ship, and had donned EVAT suits, and were heading for the nearest friendly ships to be picked up.

"All right, ensign, get the ship ready."

"Aye, sir. Setting autopilot controls, lowering shields, and arming concussion missiles. Setting for self-destruct upon collision, and... we're ready."

"Activate the autopilot."

"Autopilot active."

"Let's get off this thing."

Mag and the ensign (a Gaitori) ran down the corridors as fast as they could. They were soon at the airlock, and the ensign donned an EVAT suit. Mag prepared his zero-gravity thrusters, meant for repair work on ships too large to land or dock. The airlock was opened, and they were sucked out of the ship as the air left.

Mag watched as the Flamewave rocketed towards the rear of the Vengeance. It impacted, and the resulting explosion shattered the remaining shields and dented the primary engine, as 200 concussion missiles and self-destruct charges all went off.

An Ishiman transport came by, and Mag and the piloting officer got on board. The rest of the crew was assembled in the mess hall, watching the battle out the window. A Salrillian carrier, one of the ones with the high-power bombs, began moving into position behind the Vengeance, but the Vengeance's superior speed got it away before the bomb could be aimed. Mag tuned in to the comm.

"Damn! We need a plan, people!" was Spamo's voice.

"Allow us to be of assistance, human," came a Cantharan voice. Mag looked out the window, and saw a large number of Cantharan cruisers decloaking all around the carrier.

"What the?!?" asked Spamo.

The cruisers set their pk beams to low frequency constant fire, and began cutting away at the carrier's hull.

A Salrillian voice, "What are you doing to this vessel?!?" It sounded as if the great prophets had not predicted this.

No response came from the Cantharans. Soon, deep notches were sliced into the hull, and the cruisers slid their keels in. They widened their shields, holding them firmly onto the Salrillian carrier.

"Now, let's get those humans!" came an excited and bloodthirsty Cantharan voice. The cruisers thrusted, and hauled the carrier along with them! Soon, the carrier was rocketing faster than neither it nor the Vengeance had ever been meant to travel. Soon, they were behind the Vengeance, and UEC ships began swarming in to scare them away. They began firing, but the Cantharans didn't care. The carrier was much too large and well-shielded for them to be able to do anything very quickly. A few UEC ships made the mistake of moving in front of the carrier/cruisers/heavy cruisers, and found themselves ripped apart by the massive antimatter pulse fire.

"How long until you can fire?"

"Aiming... lock aquired."

"Fire!" It was Spamo.

A brightly glowing object shot out of the front of the carrier, and travelled into an engine. The cruisers turned the carrier away, and accelerated as much as possible. It was just barely enough. The ensuing explosion engulfed many ships, and few of them made it out. The carrier shot away from the explosion, being propelled now by the cruisers' superlight boosters.

As the Vengeance exploded into the largest fireball witnessed by anybody, human or alien, cheers went up on the comm frequency. The cheers soon subsided, however, as the UEC dove into the Woven fleet with increased fury, and wrenched along with unbelievable efficiency. Even with the "Phylidiens" fighting the UEC ships, the battle was looking grim...

------------------
"I am the supreme dictator of the universe, it's just that nobody knows about it yet."
"Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow."

A massive amount of damage had been dealt to the rearside of the UEC Dreadnought. All quasispacial and SuperLight Drives had been overloaded by the Salrilian blast, and it's maneuvering capacity had been cut down to sixty percent. It seemed suicidal Salrilian Carriers were able to severely damage StarLance-class dreadnoughts.

On the bridge, Levt's face grew ill-tempered. The Vengeance had not been nearly up to par with it's mentor, with the machine that waited on the other side of the Hatares Rift, watching. He eyed the Phylydian Refugee Fleet. He had not expected them to even have the capacity to reach Sol after their defeats at Dominus. He knew full well that their prescence could change the outcome of the battle, and tip it's favor towards the Rebel Scum and the Aliens.

The Vengeance may have been immobilized, but it was cornered and wounded. Such animals are the most dangerous on Earth. He heard the Phylydian voice crackle over the StellarComm. "...Earth Fleet, you have four minutes to submit to the sovereign authority of the Phylydion Imperium. Repeat: This is Drion Nerec of the command ship Phylydia III..."

The Phylydians sure loved their command ships. They had much in common with the Confederate fleet, including their mysterious and instant arrival. The Command ship was heading full speed towards the Vengeance, head-on. If one thing, these Phylydions were arrogant as hell. That would be their undoing as the approaching fleet was unaware of the UEC gun being charged, trained on them...

------------------
Time is the best teacher, yet it kills all of it's students.

[This message has been edited by Slug (edited 03-09-2001).]

"Steady as she goes." ordered Spamo.

The Mariposa cruised past one of the UEC carriers that was still alive, delivering the beleugeurd ship massive broadsides. The Mariposa passed around the backside of the carrier leaving the port side a smoking ruin. As Spamo's ship passed around the stern, the UEC carrier's engines died under turret-fire, and the massive ship began to drift. Escape pods shot off in random directions, a few flying into the seething firefight to be vaporized.

The Vengeance was canting upwards, exposing its underbelly to the massed Woven fleets, the remaining UEC forces pressed up against the great ship.

"Alright, they're crippled and dying. Let's push this knife home!"

Hundreds of ships pushed the UEC into a huddled mass. The Cantharans fought with a fury borne of vengeance for humanity's victory over them. Now it was their turn to a punch back.

"Captain Spann, we're getting numerous unknown contacts. IFF is unresponsive. There's a wideband communication coming from them."

"...Earth Fleet, you have four minutes to submit to the sovereign authority of the Phylydion Imperium. Repeat: This is Drion Nerec of the command ship Phylydia III..."

Spamo thought on this for a moment. During that moment, a pack of UEC gunships plowed a path open for a battleship. They were pounced upon by Gaitori picket ships, but not before the Roaring Voice of Doz and four Cantharan warships went down as burning hulks. The Mariposa helped dispatch the last of the gunships while the battleship was disabled and boarded. Meanwhile, the Phylydion ships were arraying themselves in an offensive manner. Towards the UEC. Their communication... those ships...

"All Woven, do not engage the unidentified ships. Repeat, do not engage."
Let them rip up the UEC. Maybe they'll be weaker. I have a bad feeling about this...

The main viewscreen darkend to dampen the flare of light coming from the Vengeance.
Spamo stared in amazement at what had just happend.

------------------
Ne Cede Malis Sed Contra Audientor Ito

Wizr stood in the cockpit, between the holographic displays that surrounded his pilots, looking out the front ports of the ship. He had only heard the most tentative intelligence on the Phylidions, whose empire was on the border of the Galactic arm, and who kept very tight control on their borders. This was the first time anyone on this side of the Spiral arm had seen their ships in action, and the three other cloaked cruisers were captureing the action from several different angles.

Wizr just continued to stare at the huge battle that was rageing before him.

------------------
Faris eck Vaenar Maletena-Wizr, Trey'ish of the Ishiman reestablishment comittee.
"I don't think I'm alone when I say that I'd like to see more and more planets fall under the ruthless domination of our solar system."

Mag and his crew were watching the battle out the mess hall window when a frenzied Ishiman ran into the room. "The UEC... has... a squadron of... X... 19 gunboats... headed this... way!" the Ishiman said, occaisionally gasping for air.

"Do you think your pilot can dodge those missiles?" Mag asked.

"Maybe, but... not... for long."

"Let me through!" Mag's pilot yelled, as he raced past the Ishiman up the corridor to the cockpit. Mag ran after him.

When Mag got up to the cockpit, an argument was going on.

"What, and leave our lives in the hands of a human?!?"

"It's the only way we're going to get out of here alive."

"He's right, sirs. Let him take the controls, he's run from X-19's before."

"Listen, -droid, human- this is our ship, and we're not going to take orders from two inferiors."

"Get out of your seats, now," Mag said, holding a laser cutter set to maximum power against one of their heads, "or we'll kill you and drag you out of your seats." The Ishiman jumped out of their seats and ran out of the cockpit.

"All, right, sir, let's dodge some missiles!"

Mag was thrown against the wall as the transport shot off, with all available power transferred to the engines.

------------------
"I am the supreme dictator of the universe, it's just that nobody knows about it yet."
"Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow."

What appeared as a tiny spark flered at the tip of the Vengeance, now pointed towards the flagship of the Phylydian fleet. The Spark seemed to twist and flip as shimmering energies flowed into it from the massive points at the front of the dreadnought. The spark grew to a flare and the flare grew to a fireball. Emitting immeasurable amounts of energy, the singularity grew brighter and brighter, untill all that could be made out was a boiling whirlpool of light!

The focusing arrays spread from both sides of the Vengeance. The glowed briefly, then suddenly the singularity collapsed, spreading a large shockwave of gravatic energy. From the center, a massive beam shot out, whisps of rogue energy and imperfections in the focusing swirled about the beam, which screamed towards the Phylydian Command Ship's sistership, the Phylydia.

The Beam impacted.

Time slowed.

Time froze.

The chaotic energies engulfed the Phylydia, dissolving it's outside and gushing inside. Time became unglued and resumed, yet the difference, a whole universe's difference in the timeshift, was all focused on the hapless Phylydia. A huge, blinding flash lit up the night sky, and as the glow died down, where the Phylydia once was, an expanding cloud of smouldering debris placed.

The explosion was devastating, the flash was blinding, and the resulting shockwave tore into the Phylydian Fleet, thinning it's numbers. Nerec narrowed his eyes to slits. "No turning back." He said. "We either destroy that abomanation or it destroys us. Full speed ahead!"

------------------
Time is the best teacher, yet it kills all of it's students.

Octicate Nerec clenched his fists and growled under his breath. "Assume attack formation. Drive into their fleet. Get those Kiojeas up front! Let's show them the full might of the Phylydion Imperium."
"Sir, fifteen large, unprotected troop transports are flying away from the battle a few hundred miles to port. They're UEC, and they're running up the white flag. They contain many important UEC civilians and they request passage out of the battle zone." Nerec snarled.
"Target them with our dorsal turrets."
"Sir?"
"Fire. Now." The gunnery officer hastily complied, and the transports were pounded to space dust by the Phylydia II's main dorsal turrets.
A squadron of Kiojea heavy battlecruisers plunged into the UEC fleet, scrapping similarly sized ships, and the Phylydia II launched mighty salvos at the battleships. The other ships of the fleet formed a cone in front of the Phylydia II to protect her from the fate the Phylydia had met.

A flash distorted space as fifty Kiojeas dropped out of Omni right on top of the UEC fleet. They pelted it with compression fire from long range as Garrion Retoe contacted Drion Nerec. "Octicate Nerec, pleased to be of use."
"Good to see you, Commander. Get inside the UEC fleet and destroy everything you see, be it military or non-military. We'll cover you at medium range. Some of our fore ships will then drive straight into their heart. When the smoke clears, go right for that flagship's throat. Good hunting."
"Thank you, sir." Nerec closed the transmission. "All right, take us in. Go into their fleet tight, then expand and destroy. No prisoners, no disables." The first officer quickly conveyed the orders to the battlegroup, and they plunged into the fray.

The two Phylydian Fleets had changed the outcome of the battle dramatically. Once the smothering and invincible force, the UEC Fleet was slowly in recession.

Levt grinned. The ChronoKinetic Cannon had completely annihilated one of the strongest ships in the Phylydian fleet. That demonstration of intimidating power had made the Weave Armada keep it's distance from the UEC Dreadnought, making it virtually untouchable. Yet that display of sheer force didn't impress the Phylydians.

Nerec Sneered.

"The rest of the fleet is to distract the UEC. The Phylydia III will join us to take down that dreadnought."

"Yessir."

The two massive capital ship broke away from the rest of the Phylydian fleet and headed on a direct course to the Vengeance.

- - - - -

"Sir, the two remaining Phylydian Flagships are on a direct intercept course for us."

"Order the fleet to attack and destroy them."

"They can't sir! All units are tied up by the combined Phylydian/Woven Armada."

Jerry chewed at the inside of his cheek. "Load all torpedo tubes and inform me when they are in disruptor range." He still had one trick left up his sleeve.

------------------
Time is the best teacher, yet it kills all of it's students.

Darkk's mind was whirling. These "Phylydians" were a little psychotic for his taste - blasting civilian ships to dust left and right. At least he disabled them, boarded them, and let the civillians off first.

Time to consider options. He had no intel, and neither did Spamo, on these Phylydians. Maybe Wizr would. Darkk wouldn't be fooled by something as simple as a stealth field. 4 enhanced Ishiman HVCs entering under a tiny jumpgate had to be Wizr. Darkk was amazed he would come personally. He'd be a major political asset. Maybe with his powers of rhetoric, William's, Sarah's, and Spamo's, they could convince a majority of the woven to let the UNS govern Earth.

No time for that now. Two X-19s attacked him from each axis, and he was surrounded by missles. The turret zapped some, William magnetoed some more, and the afterburners carried them outside the sphere of death. He promptly whipped around and dispatched the X19s with some photopulse shots while the gunners shot down any missles gotten off at them.

DEF carriers Yalta and Paris had come under attack from a UEC Viking Battleship, but they held their own, with help from 2 gunships and a cruiser vectored in by their fight coordinators.

Darkk watched the Phylydian forces screen their command ships with lesser vessles. At least these guys aren't incompetant. I wish they were nice, but that's a little too much to hope for.

Time for another quick talk with Spamo.

------------------
Formerly-Rampant Human-Coded AI

"The Phylydia III is in range, Admiral."

"Right." Levt once again grinned. "Fire torpedo tubes one through twenty, starburst formation. Ready disruptor nacelles."

"Torpedos away!" A large salvo of guided torpedos shot out from the edges of the screen, scrambling towards to huge Starship. It's turrets swiveled to meet the torpedos. They continued to approach. "Executing maneuver, Admiral."

Suddenly the torpedos all swerved in random directions, spreading out and away from the Phylydia III. It's turrets followed as did it's shield grids to track the torpedos, inadvertantly opening a huge gap in it's defenses! "Fire!" Levt screamed. All three disruptor nacelles fired in unison towards the Phylydia III in the brief moment it had let down it's defenses.

The three green beams simultaneously impacted on the naked hull of the Phylydia III, searing it's heavy armor plating and vaporizing a good portion of it's forward turrets! Onboard the Vengeance, Levt was chuckling to himself. These battle-headed Phylydians were childsplay. So predictable.... they wouldn't fall for that trick again anytime soon, and that too would be a new trick.

"Re-load torpedo tubes one through twenty, prepare all remaining tubes to fire starburst again."

"Torpedo tubes ready sir."

"Fire!" Again, a huge salvo of torpedos shot out towards the now-cindered Phylydia III. The massive ship's turrets, this time, did not follow the torpedos when they spread, but remained aimed at the Vengeance, ready to shoot down any disruptor bolts. "Fire Disruptor Nacelle one." The disruptor beam bolted out towards the Phylydia III, but was easily dispersed by a flurry of compression-cannon shells.

The explosion blocked the view between the Phylydia III and the Vengeance for the longest time, and scrambled sensors. The Captain of the Phylydia III believed he had survived that second round and mentally patted himself on the shoulder. He would have made the imperium prou- a huge explosion shook the ship! Consoles exploded, pipes burst, fires raged throughout the ship!

The Disruptor bolt had only served to distract the Phylydia III while the torpedos came about, slamming full force into the rear of the masive Phylydian Capital Ship!

"Sir the Phylydia III is spinning out of control!" Levt's sensor officer said in astonishment as the enormous Phylydian Ship, on fire and trailing debris, began drifting away from the Vengeance.

"Finish it off!" Levt was grinning an insane and maniacal grin, one which startled even his sturdiest opponents. A Chronokinetic glow emanated from the front of the Vengeance.

Soon the Phylydia III had joined it's sister, the Phylydia.

Two down, one to go. Now only the Phylydia II remained, Drion Nerec's command ship. Levt was looking forward to the final showdown between the two largest remaining ships in the galaxy.

All eyes turned as the two dreadnoughts approached each other...

------------------
Time is the best teacher, yet it kills all of it's students.

[This message has been edited by Slug (edited 03-13-2001).]

(Slug, I'll say it again: THERE IS NO PHYLYDIA III!!!!! EDIT YOUR POSTS!!!)