In front of Mon Cal Shipyard #2
The Sith Battlecruisers had already finished their maneuvers by the time the ORS ships rapidly crossed the expanse of the mass shadow gunning straight for the Imperial formation.
Three Fire Class Light Cruisers suddenly found themselves in a hail of fire. Though they saw the enemy ships crossing the distance, they waited to see what they would do.
A Corellian Corvette broke from their formation heading toward the
Argoth.
"We hold here and give our people time..." the Captain of the FCLC fleet (Captain Marsh) said. "We've time to target our weapons..make them count!"
"Aye sir..." and their targeting computers began to pinpoint specific areas.
"Ready maneuvering engines. Engine Room? Hack? Prepare to give me every bit of thrust the 'lady' can give."
"You'll have it.. just watch who you throw around up there.."
The weapons glowed bright red on the enemy ships and Captain Marsh bellowed, "Evasive and Fire!"
Shots lanced out from the cruisers, 18 triple Ion cannon batteries trained at the bridge of the ISD. Their combined 18 turbolaser batteries hammered at Turbolaser and ion targeting control systems of the ISD as their evasive maneuvers moved them beneath the ISD.
However, in order to get the first shots off toward the bridge, the cruisers had to hold a bit longer than Captain Marsh would have liked.
The sheer number of lasers firing at them was more than they could dodge (even at 70 MGLT).
The shields absorbed a bit of shock from the enemy causing moderate damage as Marsh felt the tiny cruiser jerk under the assault.
"
Pericles and
Nestor are with us... also relaying damages!"
It would have been worse but they had 112 TIE Devils providing a screen that played havoc with the enemy's automated targeting computers. Being between the FCLCs and the enemy, the Devils swarmed not shooting but providing a screen so that the automated targeting systems would see them, attempt to lock on, and fire. But the Devils were just too damn fast.
"Load our launchers now!" he shouted, their weapons preparing for another volley as the the end of the underside of the ISD came running up.
Group 1
"Tractor beams holding!"
Shipyard #2 was moving, albeit slowly into a higher orbit, but moving in the direction of its orbit...toward shipyard 3.
It began to rotate slowly, the TIE Devils moving to the rear to provide a screen.
Group 2
Shipyard #3 was the farthest away due to it being the last yard in the line.
Using the yard's orbit it was moving and slowly rotating to put it's side to the planet, the TIE Devils providing a screen to the rear.
Group 3
Entered Shipyard 1 from behind.
The SBCs scans confirmed their target and quickly covered the distance. The target were certain portions of the shipyard.
Two SBCs, via their tractor beams, connected while a third began to fire around the entrance creating an obstacle course of debris while holding it in place with it's tractor beam.
The beams were solid and connected the Imperial vessels preparing for premature decompression with systems in place.
Everything was done by the book.
"Scan the yard one more time.."
"Done sir!"
"Go! Go! Go!"
And from three different points, the Imperials began pinpoint firing at specific areas.
The specialized atmosphere (contained in the yard facilities allowed Mon Calamarian people to work their tasks in relative comfort and ease) began to vent into the vacuum of space.
The artificial atmospheric loss was cumulative as more strategic shots lanced out. The shots themselves were adjusted so as to not cause that much damage to the yards themselves (as with a view to destroying them), but rather, to create a rather sizable venting of gasses.
The force of the venting coupled with the force of the tractor beams under the slow mounting acceleration of the ship's engines, and using the yard's own orbital inertia, caused the yard to begin to move (albeit somewhat slowly) into a higher orbital plane.
Group 4
While the ORS task force was engaged with the FCLCs, several shots, misdirected by the TIE Devils, while missing the FCLC fleet overshot into the mine field and beyond.
The massive gaps in the mine field behind the FCLCs cruisers allowed for most of those shots to go clear to the SBCs trying to get between Shipyard 2 and 3.
They were hit.
SBC 17, in the last position, had it's engines hit and the ship began to tumble as it cleared to the rear.
SBC 16's shields flared and a chunk broke away from the side of the cruiser. It was venting atmosphere and crew members and the ship began to list.
"Mayday! Mayda---!" the message garbled as it too passed the shipyard tumbling toward the planet like SBC 17.
SBC 14 and 15's shields held...but the crew was rattled.
They moved behind shipyard #2.
K405
Cloaked.
Maintained it's watchdog status beneath Shipyard 2.
K406
Cloaked.
It was monitoring the action happening on it's left as the ORS fleet moved against the FCLC fleet and struck against the SBCs nearest when it noticed the Corellian Corvette that broke away.
It turned to follow the ship toward the
Argoth
K407
Cloaked.
With weapons armed it was still monitoring the action between the newcomers as well as the ORS fleet when Imperial signatures began registering.
Reinforcements!
The game was afoot indeed.
"Sir. Intercepting a transmission! It's Admiral Kraken."
"Who?" the Captain commented, frowning. This was a surprising turn of events. "General Ming's flag has yet to be received which makes the Admiral the ranking officer."
He sighed.
"Send an encrypted text message to Admiral Kraken. As ranking officer, the attack is his discretion but we would ask that he smash the ORS ships attacking us.
Then move our position Z-minus 500 meters."
"Aye, Sir."
K408
Cloaked.
"Sir the Fire Class Frigates are being fired upon!"
The Captain snapped too immediately.
"Engage the engines and put us on a wide circular course to bring us around the rear of the attacking fleet. Max thrust, NOW!"
That the ship, with weapons ready, moved.
Attack Sphere Argoth
The outside of the ship looked very dead but the inside was very much alive... if not with technological life.
People were running here and there attempting to secure areas of the ship that were left open due to the system outage.
From the stores, emergency batteries and generators were pulled to keep the lifesupport systems from failing.
General Ming watched in admiration as the organization of a crew of thousands unfolded.
There were accidents. Emperor knew how many but his people were trained and trained well.
Hell, he had had a hand in training them at the Academy on Carida.
Every crewmember was armed from the stores and a makeshift medlab was started as search parties found injured crewmembers caught unawares by the ion cannon blasts.
The Emergency Computer Control equipment was set up in a central location and the secondary AI came online. Not to bring weapons, shields or engines online.. that was next to impossible for now but to maintain lifesupport systems. Areas of the ship were cut off to necessitate no overtaxing the generators and batteries.
Still, it was getting cold throughout the Sphere.
"The hangers, the loading docks and the airlocks are critical areas. They are what connect us to what is going on outside."
"Ensign, that means the hanger is a top priority. For us and the enemy. It needs to hold." General Mings voice cut through the fear the Ensign displayed and a few hundred crewmembers moved off to move beyond what the Argoth's security and military compliment had secured.
After a ways, the Ensigned called a halt. "Everyone into their envirosuit now!" The gravity is off from this section, onward.
"Two levels down is the hanger. Careful with those!" he cautioned those soldiers with RPGs and rocket launchers.
Floating greatly increased their movement and soon they were through the emergency forcefields and blastdoors keeping the vacuum out.
The massive opening that was the hanger was ominous as the Ensign noted stars beyond the hole. They were the only thing casting light (in addition to the light reflecting off the planet) inside the hanger.
"Spread out. Check for anything we can use. We need to secure this area.."
People began to float over to different areas.
And that was when a ship appeared.
An enemy ship.
It angled straight towards the hangar bay of the Argoth, and due to the ship's lack of shields, it was wide open. The Corellian Corvette, angled itself inside,
"FIRE! Bak! Get your group up here!!"
Several groups of soldiers fired their basters at the corvette coming inside but to no avail..
..fired a few shots into the hangar bay first to ward off any resistance and to clear a landing path for the ship.
The Ensign looked in horror as several groups of soldiers were burned to a crisp from the corvettes weapons, the glare against his helmet causing him to glance away. The soldier's bodies were floating lumps of blackened flesh.
"BAK!" he screamed out inside his helmet, "We need you now!"
He glanced at his impotent blaster dumbly when an answer came...
"Get down crackerjack! You're in my way!"
"Bak?" the Ensign looked around blankly knowing that there was no gravity.
"GET DOWN!"
The Corvette settled down easily.
The Ensign pushed off and floated away and Bak's group fired two rockets.
And it's cargo bays exploded...With droids...
The droids were packed inside it's small frame, and hundreds of them were streaming out of the ship through added ports..
...bursting open and exploding gaps that left the corvette a smoldering wreck inside the hanger.
Droid bodies and parts went every which way in the vacuum.
Soldier Bak was issuing orders through his suit's com. "Secure the area.. secure the area!
Some of the droids may still be functional!"
Soldiers were floating into the hanger.
OOC Damages
ISD: Bridge systems rendered inactive from ion barrage. Shields weakened around weapon targeting areas.
Corellian Corvette: Disabled. Most droids wiped out.
