The Rebel Faction

"No, sir, I don't have any questions!" replied Jon. Of course I'm not going to have questions! thought Jon. Oh wel,l as long as I'm taking commands I'll have to say that.

"Men, come with me, we're going to have a few extra friends come with us." snarled Jon, luckily no one noticing because of his helmet."Time to go!"


There is the area Second Lieutenant Fuller wants us to capture, it seems safe. Well, of course, it's never what it seems.

You two, take a squad of clones and provide cover with me. Then you men go in once we clear it, and then we'll come in shortly after, any questions?" asked Jon realizing he just said something he hates.

"No sir,"was the reply Jon was waiting for.

The plan ignitiated, instead of only a few droids in the area there were hundreds that Jon was suppose to destroy. Good thing he had the relief wave waiting to help. After minutes of fighting and only one trooper getting shot the battle was over.

"Any sasualities, men?"asked Jon hopefully.

"No sir, one man got shot, but it didn't get through the armor."replied the squad medic.

"Part two ignitiate!" hollered Jon to the relief troops which ended up being the attackers and the previous attackers ending up to be the relief troops. Part two went through clearly, but...

The whole "Starflare Slash" maneuver agitated Green, because he knew that his opponents were now practically untouchable, their own turbolaser bolts coming in at a range just beyond their own.

On the bright side, at that range their fire wasn't very accurate, and the Vendettas shields had no problem recharging between strikes. Fortunally, they didn't have to deal with Ion Cannons, which could penetrate shields, because of their lack of tight beam accuracy, limiting their range.

But Green was a hammer who saw problems as nails, and wasn't about to give up trying to chase them down.

It was at this moment that the enemy Starflares came out of hyperspace behind the Gorgon.

At the moment, the ships drives were on standby mode, pumping out considerable amounts of radiation, thermal energy, and plasma in a tight beam. But these "considerable amounts" were still minuscule compared to the drive output at full power.

Ready to chase the Seraphs down, he had the helm put the throttle to the firewall to the Vendetta's flanking speed of eighteen MGLT's.

And suddenly the drives outputs increased fivefold, and then another fivefold on top of that. The Starflares had adjusted their courses to stay on the fringes of the exhaust trail in standby mode, where they would be hardest to detect by the Vendettas rear sensor suits. But they hadn't counted on the drives suddenly powering up, and were consumed by massive plumes of plasma that suddenly emerged from it's drives. It was so hot that they didn't even detonate, they were simply vaporized.

Green, nor any of the crew on the Gorgon, were ever even aware the incident ever happened.

As the ship charged forwards the other two Vendettas set off on courses of their own, the Manticor at emergency max- 22 MGLT, though it's weapons had to be discharged- two the position their opponent had just occupied to keep them from looping back, and the Basilisk] to the position their opponent would occupy in approximately twenty seconds at full flanking speed to cut them off.

The Gorgan charged towards a position they would occupy in ten seconds, where they would meet at the exact same time.

This left Green's adversary two possibly fateful courses of action: They could stop right in space where they were and become surrounded by the ships, where they would most certainly be destroyed by the enemy's superior firepower, They could speed up and run smack dab into the Basilisk, which could hold them off until the Gorgon and possibly even the Manticor arrived. They could turn around and run smack dab into the Manticor, which could hold them till the Gorgon arrived, or they could jump out of there into hyperspace.

The only option that didn't involve getting surrounded was to extend the size of the loop to go around the charging Gorgon and Basilisk, and Green had a solution for that, too.

Not a whole lot of options, and not one that didn't benefit Black Sun.

On a collision course with the Kashan ships, both the Gorgon and Basilisk were now in range, and unleashed a full power turbolaser salvo at their opponents, and a swarm of missiles that would run right into them in exactly seven seconds.

Green had to admit, his opponents little micro jump trick was certainly a clever one, and would be useful if his own ships were equipped for such. But by using the little trick his opponent had made a critical mistake- he had placed himself twenty five kilometers into Genons Gravity Well, meaning he couldn't use the little trick again, unless of course he made a dash to the edge of it.

Now, with both sides ships locked within the gravity well, it was a showdown. Mobility, a key asset and the only reason the Seraphs were still alive at this point, was now of second importance. Now it was firepower that mattered.

Not that Green had a problem with this. It was under these conditions that his ships were designed to fight- a big gun duel, not a race across the battlefield.

By sacrificing his own advantage of mobility for temporary safety, microjumping to a point roughly in between the three Vendettas, though a little towards the Manticors , Mr. Lucerne had just cost himself the battle.

For a few moments- at least twenty seconds- the Manticor was all but out of the fight, her energy weapons recharging after all power had been diverted to her engines for that last mad dash behind the enemy ships. But her missile launchers still worked, as did her hangers, and a salvo of missiles shot out of her launch tubes at the same time as the Basilisk and Gorgon launched massive turbolaser and ion cannon and missile salvos at the enemy flotilla.

From the three Vendettas hangers, the squadrons of Star vipers that had been held in reserve launched, along with the Skipray Blastboats each sheltered.

Locked in the Gravity well, surrounded by enemys, and most certainly outgunned, things were looking worse and worse for the Coalition, and better and better for the Black Sun.

(OOC:Not done yet.)
Jon was getting anxious, the new fighters that had previously been relief troops had not issued him and his squads to come in yet.

"Come on, men. It's time." motioned Jon to his troops.

They all rushed in behind Jon. It was completely dark in there to the naked eye, but luckily the troopers had their helmets. They slowly went forward through the halls in a hushed yet paced walk.

Seraph, Kashan Flagship

Commodore Lucerne stared out of the Seraph's viewport at the sandwich of ships in lower orbit. He had taken the lull of the storm to transfer over to his normal command, as well has having the starfighters reload their payload along with repairing some minor damage to the Havens.

“They’re not moving.”

Corise just shook his head. “That solves most of our problems.”

“What do you mean?”

“They’ve lost the initiative of attack. By doing nothing, they are defeating themselves. If the Vendettas stay in orbit, they accomplish nothing; They aren’t hampering any of our ground operations. Fuller has reported that they have secured the entire facility already. For all intents and purposes, the planet is ours and is under blockade. However, our troops have enough food supplies to last them several months; and by that time, I think we could at least get a few more ships to remove the Vendettas from orbit.”

“Still, they are stopping us from making any use of the planet right now.”

Corise nodded, tapping a few buttons on the command chair of the Seraph. “That’s true; but they’ve also made their own ships useless as well. I doubt Black Sun can keep them there for days on end. Still, I would like to move forward. Begin the jamming and launch the attack.”

The Kashan vessels turned to face their Black Sun opponents. Starfighter and sub-capital ship grade communications jamming began to flood the immediate area. Jamming was a tactic that was often a double-edge sword, but the Kashan Defence Fleet pilots were trained to work and attack enemies while it was in effect. Hopefully, for the Deathsabers, this would allow them the first strike capability on their enemy undetected and then allow them to systematically destroy the uncoordinated Black Sun starfighters. The first Deathsabers were almost in place, only awaiting the signal, in the form of explosions, to enter the enemy lines.

“Fire.”

A successive volley of Starflares surged forward into hyperspace at the cruisers. Starflares could stay in hyperspace within a gravity-well for up to two seconds, as the effects did not harm the missile, whereas the effects would harm a ship by killing its crew. The missiles reverted mere kilometers from the Vendettas. But the Vendettas weren’t the targets: the StarVipers and Skiprays were. The missile emerged out of hyperspace directly into the bulk of the Black Sun starfighter formation. With electrite crystal warheads, they began to explode within the enemy formations. As the weapons could vaporize anything within a 50 meter radius, Corise doubted that most of the Black Sun starfighters would henceforth be intact. Moreover, little could be done to stop the attack; even if they intercepted, by starfighter or otherwise, they would explode.

Then there were the Deathsabers. The infiltration craft moved in after the explosions, beginning hit-and-fade strikes to further confuse and antagonize the enemy; all of the other S9s with the interceptor/superiority load-out started a converging attack from various directions, only adding to the confusion that plagued the enemy ranks. Meanwhile, the S9s in the bomber configuration awaited to launch from their home vessels.

As the confusing fighter melee began to take place, the gray Seraphs, weapons and shields fully charged, stormed forward in a manner similar to the phalanxes of old. As they entered their extended firing range, the cruisers turned to port, making a 45 degree angle to the Vendettas. This in turn allowed the Seraphs to present both their forward and port fire arcs to their opponents. It also pointed the ships’ direction that would allow them to encircle the enemy in another Sunflare Slash if they so desired. The Havens were also present, albeit behind the more massive Seraphs.

“Focus all firepower on the Manticore.”

“Aye sir.”