The Rebel Faction

(I believe I have a chance to defend myself...?)

When the convoy reverted to realspace before the countdown timer had reached the halfway point, Commander Etherway knew something was wrong.

Ahead of his small fleet were two warships, none baring and codes or markings, but already firing at the convoy ships.

"Shields up!" He screamed at once. Evidently someone had already thought of it - it was not often that ships emerged from hyperspace so unexpectadly, and it was more often than not a trap.

Hostile starfighters were buzzing around outside, dancing away from fire spat by the escorts in their direction. The convoy ships began to shrink back towards the much bigger shape of their fifth escort.

OOC: LFX Manifest

2 Warrior Class Gunships

OOC:I didn't think, that since it's just a convoy, no actual ships being lost, that it mattered, but ohwell.

"Sir, the convoy has a huge escort. More then enough to defeat us."

"They're consentrating fired on the Nebulon-B2 Frigate."

"Pull out. All craft retreat. Bring down the gravity well generators, jump towards Jump Point Alpha Omega Zero."

The Interdictor Cruiser dropped the gravity well generator and commenced the run towards hyperspace, since there were no mass shadow's to stop it. The Nebulon-B2 Frigate did likewise.

"Sir, they are launching fighters."

"Release a salvo cover fire for out fighters."

Turbolaser fired, ion cannon fired and laser cannon fire jumped from the Nebulon-B2 Frigate and the Interdictor Cruiser. They did not aim for an enemy, they just placed fire inbetween the B-wings, X-wings and the enemy fighters. The XJ X-wings and B-wings let off a couple shots, before completely turning around and fleeing towards hyperspace. Now, the question was, would they make it???

(OOC: 2 more posts escaping should be fair, don't you agree?

Also, i assumed you had 2 squadrons of each type of fighter.)

The matriarch charged on oblivious of the minimal tirade of enemy fire that was visited upon them. The two advancing ships began to turn as if to withdrawn, but were still extremely close to the gravity wells of the surrounding planets to make the original jump. As the Nebulon B frigate began its slow yawing turn in space, it lingered in the eyes of the Hapan behemoths gunners.

"Intensify forward firepower. Target all our octets on that escaping cruiser, advanced torps. Have our Miy'Tils hit the Bs, Storms taking the X Wings. We're faster and pack more of a punch, herd them away from the missiles flight paths."

Astarta watched as targeting indicators sweeped across the 'space horizon' tracking the slowly turning Interdictor. Its white hull gleamed in space, providing the gunners a perfect target. Suddenly the veiwport could see missiles in banks of eights firing out. The octets launched in standard barrage pattern, the first 25 banks firing, followed by a crushing second volley by the remaining 25 banks. The second bank pulsed out, another 200 missiles ejected in a startling display of firepower. Each 8 missiles from each bank could be easily distinguished by the fact that they clustered together.

Meanwhile the scrambling Storms and Miy'Tils lept on the raiders fighters just as they launched their desultory missile volley. The fighters ignored it, knowing that the flettchette launchers would destroy the majority. Instantly they broke up the raiders formation, the Hapans maintaining a massive superiority in both numbers and overall craft design. The slower B Wings were mauled by the Miy'Tils, their heavy armor barely able to withstand the initial hail of laser fire. Against the more advanced Storms, the X Wings faired no better, breaking off into a standard 2 pair dogfight formation that was no match for the swarming storms.

As the fighters engaged, the Matriarch Class' turbolasers were pounding the Nebulon, the fleeing craft having surrendered most of its attack power in its attempt to flee, and the ship was duly punished.

The constant pulse of turbolaser and ion cannon fire initially broke the main shields at the crafts bow, the backups kicking in. As the craft remained turning, it continued to receive pounding, backup shields buckling and causing intense ripples of flame to lick the ships hull. Engineering sections were hit, damaging the ships hull integrity and shutting down power to engines. The ship simply began to drift as more accurate rounds of laserfire began to target the few turbolaser batteries that maintained power.

The pounding continued, Ion cannons now only, causing the ship to rapidly lose power. It was dead in the water.

Captain Astarta felt proud inside, continuing the traditions of her ancestors in the destruction of piracy. Pausing in thought, she quickly spoke up.

"Launch an assault crew of Marines and Cyborgs. Lets recover some info on that derelict ship."

(OOC: @#%$ @#%$ @#%$!!! lol

I just lost my entire post by accidently clicking back.

GODDAMNIT! Ok, so this post is going to be @#%$, but i'll just lay down what i'm Doing.

Anyway, yeah its fine that you're going away.)

The 400 missiles shunted the fleeing interdictor, destroying its sheilds in the first barrage, the second utterly obliterating the cruisers engines. It too was disabled.

Another pair of assault transports were launched and two others were prepared with combat engineers, although they were not immediately launched.

As the missiles impacted, the matriarch forged ahead, a few of its ION cannons remaining focused on the Neb to ensure that it remained drifting as the the transports zoomed in. As the big ship increased speed the enemy fighters came into range of the big quad laser emplacements on the ships hull. They instantly fired, ripping up the remenants of the ships sheilds allowing the attacking fighters to become potential capture targets. Instantly the Storms and Miy'Tils activated their triple pulse ion cannons, a few volleys being all it took to disable the slower and more damaged craft. Within moments all enemy craft in the sector were disabled by the combined firepower of the matriarch and the fighters.

Astarta activated her comms, calling for a open frequincy to the other ships.

"Pirates, surrender your craft now and you will all be repatriated to your home planets as soon as possible. You cannot possibly escape, and you are do not have enough escape pods to flee. Any attempt at combat or escape will be met with lethal force, does anyone read me?"

(OOC: No problems. About the damage, I would, but honestly, 400 missiles. And the entire purpose of my craft engaging your fighters was to distract them away from missiles. The chance you had to destroy the missiles was in your post after i launched them. You didn't. You can't try to engage them once they've impacted.

The interdictor itself could have stopped it, but the Imperial Daggar design of Imperial ships precludes, for the most part, the ability for fire backwards, which you obviously would have had to do since you were escaping. Hence, theres really no you escaping that damage.

Next time you'll know, theres always room to grow at least!

And yes, we also did capture alot of fighters! :p

Perhaps next time we might meet under better terms?)

As the the Cruiser advanced upon the stricken Interdictor it lashed out with its massive bulk of Ion Cannons, the torrent of firepower lashing the ship, sending blue bolts of energy coursing through its hull. Underneith the laser stream the assault transports advanced, quickly clamping onto the ships hull. The marines landed in the main engineering section, the Cyborgs assaulting the bridge. The bulk of the crew in the engineering sector threw all they could at the marines, but the few weapons they could use were not enough to stop the advance of the marines, whose precission training was the reason they were aboard the Hapan Flagship.

Meanwhile, on the bridge, there was no resistance. As soon as the assault troops had broken through the ships hull, the Cyborgs weapons activated, cutting down the crew instantly. Shot with the mighty Gun of Command, the crew simply stood there. One of the Cyborgs advanced, his dark black armour trimmed slightly in a ripple of gold, contrasting deeply with the gunmetal colour of the Cyborgs many inner workings. He reached the Captain, who stood stock still, a zombified look on his face.

"Captain. Order your crew to surrender and evacuate ship." Then the cyborg shouted. "But the rest of the bridge crew must remain."

The entire group nodded, the Captain reaching for his command console and sending out the boatwide siren for evacuate ship. Immediately the rest of the crew stopped what they were doing and made for the banks of escape pods that were prepared on each level of the ship. The cyborg waited for a few minutes while the last escape pod fired. As the last pod was launched, he ordered the crew to stand in the dead ground surrounded by the rest of the troops.

As the moved, he walked stiffly back towards the hull break that lead to the Assault Transport. Approaching a null cable node on the ships enterance, the Cyborg quickly attached himself, knowing he could only communicate with the Song of War through the assault transport, and not the disabled cruiser. Humming for a second, the cyborg activated its encrypted send codes before sending a message.



//
//Open holonet connection; 203.230.54.34.234 324
//.......................................
//Connection accepted

//Login: CM2389470
//Pass: ********
//......................................
// Login accepted, welcome CM2389470

//Begin encryption databreak Hex 2314AH9023W
//Encryption accepted

//Begin transmission

Astarta,

We have secured the craft to your liking. The ship has been voided of life and bridge crew have been captured. We can shackle them in any way and have full access to the ships computer systems.

Moving to capture contingency alpha, standard ship security. We require 2 more transports, one to recover the prisoners, the others with engineers to get the ship up and running. I suggest you send out a recovery signal and inform the Fleet of what has happened.

//Message Summary

-Ship fully secured
-Requesting exfil for prisoners
-Requesting reinforcements
-Requesting engineers

//Message saved; database HMS Orion
//Encryption coding recorded
//Saving
//..............................................
//Saved

//Message sent
//..............................................
//Message sent

//Logging off
//..............................................
//Logged off

//Goodbye CM2389470
//Connection terminated 23.54.654.324.543.12\\


Astarta recieved the message as soon as it was sent, immediately ordering reinforcements to both ships totalling 2 crew ships to be used as penal ships once its troops were landed and 2 Engineering ships to allow the craft to be repaired.

"Begin recovering those fighters.

We've got to get our aquisitions back to Hapes..."