The Rebel Faction

Merendez grumped. It had been almost a day now since they had arrived, sitting just outside the nebula covered asteroid belt. "So they haven't made a move?" she asks her comm. officer.

The woman shakes her head, but doesn't turn toward her. "No, they've been strangely quiet," she said.

"What about the probe we sent into the belt, anything?" she says, turning toward her sensor officer.

"Other than the brief large mass it detected before lossing contact? I'm afraid there isn't much information," the girl sighed and sat back against her chair. "Either they have a strong jamming field, or the probe was destroyed." she added.

Merendez thought of both options already; she couldn't comprehend these pirates having a strong jamming field as that would generate a signature they'd no doubt detect. And a large mass would've shown up on their sensors already, "can we plot a safe course to probes last known location?"

"We could, but I'd feel safer if we knew more," Said the sensors officer, "why not send one of the shadows into there, their sensors are far more powerful than our own," she suggested.

Merendez nodded. "We can do that, Comm. tell them to make a brief pass inside the nebula, chart it for us and see if they can find anything interesting," she said. Her comm. officer nodded and relayed the message. Second's later Merendez watched as one of her Shadow's ignited it's engines and disappeared into the asteriod belt covered nebula.

"Now to wait," she said and strolled off the bridge. Her officers looking at her before going back to their tasks.

In her quarters, Merendez wondered what she would find. "It's not natural to find an asteriod belt covered by a nebula, but then again, the universe is still a vast place," she said and turned toward her desk's monitor. She entered her pass code and brought up the details of her mission, then accessed a file that spoke of activity in the area.

"Still, why would there be pirates here, plus the massive size of this nebula makes me wonder just how big the asteriod belt is..." she said, muzzing at various possibilities. "I hope the advanced fleet get's here soon, I'd feel much safer having more heavily armed ships with us than just the one's I have now," she added.

With a heavy she started typing up her daily report, it was already close to the end of day, with only an hour left before it would be tomorrow. With that in mind she decided to send the report when it was finished, peggy backed on a communications probe that would make several small hyperspace jumps before arriving at one of their outposts, from there the report would be filed and sent to Lavality, with a copy also sent the HQ.

As she wrote, her mind still kept going back to what would cause a mass big enough for the probes small AI processor to warrent an alert. "Inconcievable," she said as she thought of one of the reasons why the AI would give out an alert, with that she pushed the thought to the back of her mind and just kept writing.

Paladin

The Shadow class known as the Paladin was more than able to shifty move through the asteriod belt; it's engines were attuned to such action so it was right at home. On board the captain was sitting down just watching space, the captain preferred to see space through a viewport and not some monitor.

"A red gasish nebula," he said as he watched the static charge's dance across his ships hull. "Anything yet?"

"Nega---- wait.. sensors picking up an asteriod base dead ahead, seem's to be abandoned though, not picking up any lifesigns.." the man at sensors said, his voice bewildered at what he is seeing.

The captain was equally as confused. "Fine, send that information to the admiral... we'll wait near that base for her to arrive.. though that's odd, if the base is abandoned then where were those freighers headed?" he asked himself.

"Captains Log," Merendez started as she sat in her chair and stared out the window. She had a pad in one hand and was typing out her log, "day two of being in this asteriod belt. We've found evidence of a group of pirates operating here, sensors have located a station in low orbit around the planet. I'm awaiting reinforcements before we assault," she said.

"We know that there is most likely a moderate force operating here, so I've requested assault ships to take part in the battle," Merendez sighed and glanced down at her pad, erasing some of what she wrote and rewriting it. She attached a progress report and also a crew report and then closed the log.

Getting up from her chair, she walked over to the clossest and quickly dawned her captains uniform. Once done she left her quarters and headed to the bridge, as she walked she felt a tingling sensation dance across her skin as the ships cloaking device came back online and ghosted the ship.

"I'm telling you, those heat sinks are going to need a major overhaul when we get back to drydock!" a crewmen said to another, but the other just shook his head. "Nah man you're wrong, those sinks can take up to two weeks of built up heat!"

"Nah man, you're wrong, they-" the other said before noticing Merendez. He turned toward her and snapped a crisp salute, which Merendez joined in as she walked by.

After she had made it to the elevator she could hear the two crewmen bickering. With a heavy sigh she turned into the elevator and rode it down to the bridge, the massive circuler room was bathed in a darkish red hue, she could tell that most of her bridge officers hadn't any rest since they had arrived. "Status?" she said as she took a seat.

"Ten more pirate ships have arrived in system, advanced fleet is awaiting just outside the nebula under stealth mode. Shadow corvette's have taken residence just outside the pirate station and a couple more are pinpointing targets for our Long Rangers," the sensor officer said as she pegged several enemy ships on the sensor screen in front of her.

Merendez nodded. "Communications status?"

"Green," communications said.

"Fleet Status?"

"All here ma'am, sixty five ships, including a couple destroyers. However, destroyers will not be able to navigate the asteriod belt without blowing something up, so the fleet commander and holding them back and will be sending in the frigates and cruisers instead," comm. said. As Merendez turned toward him, she could tell he hadn't gotten any rest. His collar was soaked in sweet and he shifted uneasily in his chair.

"Very good, status on phase drive?" She asked.

"running on minimal, it'll take twenty minute's to bring it fully online. Once online, al--" the weapons officer said before Merendez gave him a cutting motion, telling him that she already knew the procedure. "Sorry ma'am, we can use the phase cloak in about thirty or so minutes," he said.

"Alright, helm, drop us behind an asteriod and then decloak us. Bring Phase cloak online, have all crew's report to their appropriate stations," Merendez ordered. Her officers nodded as the bridge was suddenly bathed in a bluish hue, alarms quietly blurred in sections of the ship as the crew raced to their phase cloak compartments.

The ship coasted behind a large asteriod belt; it's engines baffles turned dark as the engines went online. "Phase cloak coming online - estimated time until fully cloaked -" the weapons officer turned toward another screen. "-five minutes!" he shouted.

"Alright," Merendez clasped her hands and looked at the mission cloak.

Outside Nebula, SSF - Rendogen

Floating lazily in space was the SSF Rendogen, a destroyer class command ship bristling with weapon turrets. Strikefighters flew patrol paths around the might ship and it's support craft.

Hanging above the destroyer were ten Long Rangers MK 2, their hyperdrive rings jettisoned from their stations and floating in space some distance behind. As shuttles moved in to recover the rings, loading craft brought catrieges to the mobile MAC guns.

"Eight minutes," an officer said aboard the fire control center of the Rendogen. His officers had all syncronized the MAC guns to fire at once. On the targeting sensors, several ships in orbit around the planet were targeted. While they couldn't physically see the ships, thanks to the Shadow's they didn't need to.

"MAC compacitors are fully charged," another crewmen said from somewhere near the officer.

"Accuracy and trajectory errors fixed, we have two shadows in the nebula providing accurate fire control. They report a five percent chance of one of our rounds striking an asteriod," another crewmen, this one female, said.

The officer in charge gave them a nod as he watched the mission cloak.

Penitence

"Ten seconds," the weapons officer said as he watched the phase cloak online time. When it went green he made a ship wide announcement and activated the phase cloak.

Outside in space, the Penitence became an outline against the asteriod as disappeared from space. However, it wasn't completely invisible. The ship was merely made into an outline, in short, it could still be seen with the naked eye.

"Bring compartment shielding online, make sure 'no one' are wondering the corridors," Merendez said. After a minute the officer gave her a thumbs up, just as she was about to give the order her sensors officer looked up from his station.

"Two - three enemy fighters inbound," he reported as he watched the sensors screen.

"Helm, move us into the asteroid," Merendez ordered. The helmsmen nodded and brought the ships stealth drives online.

The ship slowly moved 'into' the asteriod. It's outline disappearing as the entire ship was bathed in the asteriod. The bridge crew were on-edge, while the technology was successful in non-combat situations, this was the first time the phase cloak was used in a combat enviroment.

"Enemy ships passing," the sensor officer said. Micro-camera's deployed by the phase cloak's AI watched as the three fighters wisped by their location and back toward the planet.

The crew gave a sigh of relief as the helmsman backed them out from behind the asteriod, he looked down at the integrity indicator. "90%" he warned and looked at Merendez. "Every five seconds we stay phased inside a large mass we'll lose at least a percent of our integrity," he said.

"Noted," Merendez said as she watched the fighters as they disappeared back into the nebula. "Time?"

"Two minutes before mission start," weapons said.

"How long can we stayed safely phased?" asked Merendez as she turned toward her weapons officer.

"Safely? Five minutes max, if we go over that we'll be pushing it," weapons said.

"Meaning once the battle starts we'll have three minutes of availible phase cloak left, we'll use it to get by their battle lines and behind them. Make sure to shunt availible power to forward shields and prepare straffer cannons," she said, her officers nodded.

With that she clasped her hands and watched the mission clock.

Day +5

Five days had passed since the initial assault on the pirates holdings in this system, now the Seren's had set up a blockade around the planet in question. While they didn't have to many ships, what they lacked in numbers they made up for in prevision firepower and stealth, most ships were either cloaked or had themselves attached to asteroids, utilizing their cloaking drives to actually mimic the asteroid.

Several pirate convoys had been successfully captured this way, their crews interrogated, and the ships placed on hold to be used in the final assault - which was only a few hours away.

On the bridge of the SSF-Penitence, Merendez's eyes cautiously watched the clock that was present on the lower right of her tactical display. Each minute that passed brought them one step closer to their assault beginning.

Down in the barracks, marines were getting themselves ready for what was to be a long and groeling battle. Support vehicles, including the Seren's idea of a Command Vehicle, were loaded onto the captured pirate transports which would be used to get by the pirate's small, yet formidable, anti-air defenses. Once on the ground the marines would assault and take out the central power stations that powered the defenses, which would allow Merendez and her fleet to bring their ships into the atmosphere and commit to a low strike orbital insertion and bombardment of key structures.

"Though not everything will go as planned," Merendez had told her officers during the briefing. "There's bound to be a hitch, a snag, somewhere along the line. So keep your men cool and make sure to adapt to any changes,"

Now that she thought about it; she wondered if she should've told them more about the plan. How this planet was so strategically located and isolated, that it would also prove to be the new home for their headquarters. The asteroid belt that surrounded the planet, the nebula that also accompanied the belt, and the lack of light from the nearest sun, meant that the planet and it's asteroid belt company would remain hidden for many years to come. Even if discovered, it would take an opposing force many days, perhaps weeks, to discover a way through the belt - and unlike the pirates, the Seren's wouldn't just let an opposing force into their territory unmatched.

"The minelayers are done ma'am," her tactical officer said as he turned in his chair. "They report eighty percent of the belt has been mined, leaving only a small gap for support ships to go through," the officer added before going back to his work.

Even though they hadn't won the ground battle; they still had to protect their ships in orbit in the event of TNO incursion. A sudden whine from the ships alarm system told her that it was time; she looked over at her communications officer and nodded.

"Commence Operation: Trojan," the officer spoke over the encrypted comm-line. On the view screen, various pirate transports appeared from the carriers and cruiser that hung in orbit, each one emitted a false ID that had, so far, convinced the pirates on the ground that their fleet was still in orbit.

That, and during the past few days, the pirate transports that 'had' been going to surface were piloted and crewed by Seren operatives which had done their job in accessing and transmitting vital information that allowed the operation to commence.

As she watched the transports; Merendez couldn't help but wonder just how many would die in the first hour alone.

Captured Pirate Transport 'Ulize'

The transport bounced as it descended through the atmosphere of the planet; licks of fire danced across the transports hull and high orbital winds kept on threatening to throw the transport off its course.

In the copilot, pilot Zarus fought the winds and kept his ship on course. "Stupid bucket of shitty ass bolts," he cursed as he fought for every ounce of maneuverability, his copilot and navigator glanced in his direction for a few seconds before going back to their own stations.

"Hull temperature reaching high levels," the co-pilot said as he tapped in a few commands. "We should be out of his hell hole in a few seconds," he moaned and let out a sigh of relief when the cockpit windows changed from an orange glow to a soft blue, mimicking the planets upper atmosphere.

"Well, intel boys were right.." a marine sergeant said from behind the pilots seat. "Looks like this planet is constantly covered in clouds, wonder if that's natural or because of something the pirates are doing..." he mused over his thoughts before turning to his marines. "Get ready marines, we insert in five!" he shouted.

The transport danced across the sky; through the mountains and down into a canyon. The walls began to close in on the transport before a section of the wall downwind suddenly disappeared, revealing a hanger bay inside. "Well, the pirates seem to have access to some of our holographic technology..." the sergeant mumbled and looked at the sensor readings. The transport eased carefully into the nearly empty bay, the only sign of life being a man who directed them to a landing spot nearest the cargo doors.

As the engines settled down and soon went off; the pilot and copilot disembarked and met up with the one who directed them. Some small talk was done and the man promptly left the bay to retrieve some unloading equipment, that was the cue for the marines to hide out in the packing crates. Each crate had a different destination, but they were technically headed for the same places - the defense grids power source.

Cranes and forklifts rumbled into the bay and began to unload the heavy crates; while each one had a squad only three marines, they were still packed with fake reactor coils to help keep up the façade. Once the cargo unloader’s left the bay with their cargo full of marines, the pilot and his co-pilot entered the transport and let out a collective sigh of relief.

"The next phase of the mission should start in a matter of hours," the pilot said as ran a systems check.

"The pirates located their power stations basically in one location, but separated each one so that you could only get to them via a magrail... but that becomes a mote point when you have marines in each section," the copilot smiled. Taking one last glanced out the cockpit window he wished the marines luck.

Day +9, 0500

Marine Sergeant Monerty held his breath as he felt their crate suddenly hit the ground; he knew the two hour drive on a magrail had been rough on his two fellow marines, one of which was in dire needs of a bathroom thanks to something he had ate. "Ferget it marine, there is no bathroom break during this mission - unless yer willing to take a piss on these fake coils here but if that’s the case do it when I ain't looking ok?" he said.

He didn't know if the marine had actually done anything; only that the marine now seemed a lot more comfortable so either he had gone or had found a way to really ignore the urge - either way when the transport dropped their crate it was wakeup call which caused them to bring their weapons up.

They heard several men outside the crate; some of which seemed older, while one voice was almost child-like. When the sergeant peeked through the hole, he cursed mentally at how someone could bring their child here. However, he had his orders and while he hated it, they couldn't let themselves be discovered. He raised four fingers, then made a motion with his hand that told them to switch to stun rounds for that part of the missions - his fellow marines didn't question his orders and made the proper adjustments.

When the side of the crate was opened; six muffled coughs could only barely be heard from within the crate, outside laid six unconscious bodies. The sergeant grumbled as he walked over to the young child who he had sparred from a lethal round. "One of the few times I actually violate the orders given to me, but I can't stand killing children.."

"Serge, Merendez did say no unnecessary killing and I bet she would agree on this action," one of his young marine said.

The sergeant merely nodded and took his team through a series of double doors and down several hallways, all the while eliminating threats as they went along. They had reverted back to normal rounds, only switching to stun rounds when they encountered non-combatants.

When they got to the reactor room they were amazed to find the place almost devoid of life; with only two technicians looking over the power levels. The marines switched back to stunners and quickly removed the unconscious forms of the technicians.

"Pretty simple design," the specialist of the group said as he ran through the controls real quick. Then smiled when he noticed a sudden drop in three of the other reactors that were in the same complex as the one he now stood before.

The marine looked over the controls one last time before reducing the defense grids power. He didn't need someone to tell him the results, for the alarm that suddenly sounded through the complex for several seconds told him instantly - that and the audio cue also gave it away.

"~WARNING: DEFENSE GRID IS OFFLINE!~" blared over the speakers.

With a smile, the sergeant turned around and clicked his radio four times.

Orbit

Merendez had been watching and listening in on the tactical line when she got the report she was waiting for.

"Reactor complex is offline ma'am," communications said. "Their defense grid is powered down; our operatives are reporting that at least eighty percent of the grid actually offline, the remainder is located on the other side of the planet,"

"Very good, inform the fleet to commence the third phase of our operations," Merendez said and lowered her head slightly. "This plan is going by to easily...." he murmured.

As her ship, along with her escort of cruisers and destroyers, descended the atmosphere - her cause for worry was founded when her ship suddenly listed hard to starboard, decompression alarms blared on the bridge. "Report!" she shouted.

"Deck ten breached, we're venting atmosphere!" her communications officer shouted, competing against the bridge various warning alarms.

"Stabalize!" Merendez shouted and was rewarded when the ship stopped falling and corrected itself. "What the hell hit us?!" she demanded.

"Running sensor check now, according to the data scanners, something decloaked off our starboard and then exploded. My guess is a low atmospheric mine that was equipped with a cloaking device," her tactical officer said and glanced at another screen. "Three of our ships were hit as well, but they suffer as serious damage, their shields mostly took the brunt," he added.

"Sneaky bastards.... wonder why our operatives didn't report those.." she scowled.

"Probably didn't know about those," tactical said.

Her ship stil listed to starboard though, having lost one of its engines in the explosion. "Ma'am, while we can still fire, the ship is slowly descending even though I've inputted a stand order for the other drives.. I recommend we head back into orbit and assess the damage further," her tactical officer recommended.

"Very well," Merendez growled as her helmsmen brought the ship back into high orbit, once their her engineers began to check the ship over. Meanwhile she listened as her ships began the next phase.

SSF-Ronald

"Fire!" The captain shouted. Four super heated rounds of metal spewed forth from his frigates MAC guns, hurled through the air, and smashed into the walls that had just been protecting the pirates hide out. The walls exploded both in and outward, spewing forth molten metal and anyone who had been beyond it.

Marine drop ships waited behind the frigate, waiting for the cue to enter. Even though a hole had been blasted, it was still too hot for the humans on board the transports to enter - that and the frigate had once again fired.

The four new rounds punched deep into the base and bisected a ship that had been moored in a hidden bay; the results were plain to see as fire erupted through the holes made by the titanium MAC rounds.

As the fire died down and the white hot walls began to cool, the drop ships were given permission to begin with part of the operation. They quickly entered the hole and disembarked their marine passengers, once done the drop ships moved away, despite them being armed; the frigates own short range weaponry was more than enough to repel any attacks on the landing zone.

"Now, we wait..." the captain of the frigate said. "I wonder how many days it'll take before we have this planet?"

"Well, if our operatives are correct sir - perhaps two days, since the pirates had decided to locate themselves in a central spot..." his XO said. The captain merely nodded.