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Post by Logan Shivers on Mar 11, 2017 16:55:53 GMT
Coming soon.......
Please bear in mind that this is very loosely SWC related.. I have used a lot of my own imagination to make it up so don't get all offended that it is not sticking to canon!
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Post by Logan Shivers on Mar 30, 2017 17:33:09 GMT
Oquan Tangin Bacca was addicted. He was addicted to the search for new, unexplored and uncolonised star systems. He had been living in his ship for months, staring into the vast, empty void that took up most of the galaxy. But these past few days his sensors had been picking something up, a signal that should not have been there… After sending out several drones to triangulate, he had managed to obtain a location.
With no recognised hyper lanes in the region, he was reduced to doing carefully planned short hops, but he was getting ever closer. That last hop had brought the star into visibility and he was able to get his sensors to pin its location down exactly. He was that exited he almost forgot to actually tell anyone!! He had set the ship on its course, sticking to sublight speed as he did not wish to risk another hyper jump so close to unknown gravity wells and was about to go and get himself a celebratory drink, when he realised he really should tell someone!!! “Major Oquan Tangin Bacca reporting in” Despite his excitement he was trying to keep professional, “Major, we are receiving you, this is Comra Central.” “Comra Central, patch me through to a secure link with the leadership please.” A series of clicks, bleeps and a high pitched whine ensued, then a distant sounding voice could be heard. “Oquan my friend, it has been a long time……” He had lost his control of his patience and calmness.. “SHRI!!! I’VE DONE IT!!! I’VE DONE IT!!! ITS BEAUTIFULL, OR, WELL, I HOPE IT IS!!” Shri Bacca had been on duty and so received the secure call from Oquan, but it was the middle of the night in his timezone so his head was perhaps not as clear as it could have been. “Oquan, calm donw, what have you done?.... wait, you mean….” “YES!!! FOUND A NEW STAR SYSTEM!!! HEADING IN NOW!” Shri was as alert as he had ever been now… this was amazing news, and it was also news that required instant action.
“Major, stay connected, I am waking the council up, we need to get protocol Eureka activated. This comm channel is going to get busy, keep listening and keep us informed.” Shri had his hands dancing over the small comms unit he carried around with him. Secure messages and alerts were being dispatched to senior commanders all across the AMC, starting with the High Command and working its way down a pre-determined list for the Protocol. Every ship captain in the fleet would get notification of the Protocol being activated. They would open a secure, coded message that provided the code to a built in safe in their private quarters. In turn, they would fine an encoded data pad for which a second encoded message would provide access, once combined with their personal encryption codes. The information on the data pad would provide instructions for them to prepare their ship and their crew. The fleet commanders would have slightly more detail in their comms, including a deep space location to gatheir the AMC flotilla.
All across the Prefsbelt and Leaar sectors ships came to life, crews were recalled from leave. The starport on Leafar and on Comra became hives of activity as barges full of material and personell started to make their ascents. On multiple locations across the two planets several smaller landing pads saw similar levels of high activity.
The Pitch Black battle group, part of the AMC fleet and under the command of Logan Shivers and seconded by Adde Dima, was in deep space in the Prefsbelt region undertaking training in the form of war games. As soon as the first in the series of messages came through to Major Logan Shivers private, secure channel he started cascading down orders. The previously manic activity outside, with hundreds of fighters flying around battling ships started to calm as the orders filtered down.
In their place, organised chaos erupted in all the hangar bays. As the fighters were coming in engineers swarmed over them to get them changed back to full operating capacity. The ships had been placed in traning mode which disabled the weapons, instead simply using light beams to score hits in their battle simulations. With just over five jundred fighters in the battle group, this was going to be one huge task and it was being pushed forward with real zeal.
“Comra Central, are you receiving my telemetry? This is not good.” Oquan had lost all the excitement in his voice, his tone had become flat and to those who knew him well, disheartened. What he had found upon closer inspection of the new star system was enough to bring shivers down any intelligent sentients spine. He had patched through the visual feed from his sensors to the secure link being maintained by Comra Central.
The screens that the Triumvirate council were by now watching showed a dark, ominous visage. Huge, black ships of unknown classification could be clearly made out in orbit around the planet. Not many in the Galaxy could claim to have ever seen these ships and survived to tell the tale, but their legacy was evident on various planets around the Galaxy. This was Darkness…. A largely unknown evil that infested planets with a yet unknown disease of sorts. It made them completely unuseable for colonisation purposes as any living being that remained on the planet for too long would end up as a raging, rampaging madman. Likewise, any animal life on the affected planets became extremely hostile and aggressive.
After the Darkness infestation had been completed, the ships would leave, never to return, unless the planet ever got scoured clear of their pestilence. They could somehow sense this and would return, destroying anything in their path to re-infect the planet.
There was silence whilst the council took in the telemetry. After a short while Max Ammeno Bacca responded directly to Oquan.
“Major, get out of there right away. Head back to your battle group and ensure their ready status.” He turned to his fellow councillors and after a short, quiet conversation a decision was reached. They had an opportunity here to attack during the initial stages of infestation. To their knowledge, nobody had done this before so it was an opportunity that could not be missed. And, it might just save an entire planet from eternal hellish damnation.
A faction wide communication went out shortly after, informing all that the AMC was now at their highest alert level and all personell, infantry, medical, space command, engineering, shipyard workers, planetary defense staff…. Even the administrative staff in the various training academies and offices were being recalled. A broadcast was also made to all senior commanders that included the telemetry from Oquans ship that clearly showed the deadly black ships.
What had been heightened activity, now changed to another level, cities across Comra and Leafar flooded with sentients heading in the direction of their various callings. Barracks started to fill with infantry, security staff poured out into the streets to assist with the movement of personell and vehicles, and the skies filled with barges, light freighters and many other ships that were being used to move such huge amounts of sentients and equipment around at such short notice. All non faction traffic was grounded and the Leafar and Comra systems were both closed off to non faction traffic.
Logan watched the scene on his comm panel screen and hissed out a curse. The last thing he ever expected to see was the vile Darkness taking over in AMC space! He did not waste time on barking out further orders. He simply set the battle group alert to “RED 3”, got up and stood in the middle of the Black Dragns bridge.
The ambient lighting on the entire ship turned red. Every light panel now showed three pulsing red stripes instead of the usual blue-white ambient lighting setting. A brief, but loud alarm sounded, lasting only ten seconds in order to notify all of the change in alert status, then a calm electronic voice announced:
“Alert. Threat level escalation to RED 3.”
After a full minute, the alarm sounded again, followed by that same notification. This would subsequently repeat on the hour, every hour until each and every ship in the Battle Group reported ready. Logan suspected it would not take more than one hour. The spot where he stood illuminated to a ghostly blue glow as the holo emitter fired up.
Across every ship and military facility Logans image now projected out from every single holo projector through a master override.
“Listen up maggots, this is no test. This is no game. Whatever it is you are doing, it is not as important as what you are about to do. Rumour may have reached you that our Alliance has discovered a new system within our controlled space. It is true. What you will not have heard is that it is currently under attack by the forces of Darkness. We cannot, WILL NOT accept this on our territory. We are going to do what no other dares. We are going to take Darkness on head to head. Speed is critical. Every able bodied soldier will be required for ground operations, every sailor, pilot, gunner, mechanic, navigator, chef, scullion and damned sewer rat must now report in and do so at the double. Our fleet, by luck is already in one place, assembled and preparing for action. The Pitch Black training Academies and Barracks at Saarn, Comra and Binquinaros will perform a full muster. AMC Gallion Class ground assault ships are already on their way to Saarn and Binquinaros, ETA 12 and 16 hours respectively. Our own GR-75 is on station over Comra and on a descent to the planet. The Scorekeeper is watching, we WILL do her proud, we WILL keep her busy! That is all.”
The emitter deactivated and the bridge returned to a red glow. Two aides already stood patiently awaiting the chance to report. Logan noded for them to go ahead.
“All fighters have been retrieved, fleet is maneuvering into position for hyper travel.” “All ground crews have reported in, conversions to full battle readiness on all fighters is underway, estimated completion is four hours.” Logan noded his acknowledgment to both aides, then asked the first, “Time to Carlac?” “Six hours 43 minutes”
Logan turned to his helmsman and the comms operators. “Jump to hyper as soon as the Battle Group is in position. Inform Comra Central of our arrival ETA. Flight crews to Mandatory rest, report back with one hour to arrival unless situation changes.”
Logan left the bridge and headed to his ready room. He had some work of his own to do.
The AMC main fleet, consisting of several battle groups was quickly forming in the Comra system. A separate battle group under the command of the head of ISS, Ichiru Hanabusa was also gathering its might just outside Leafar system. In addition, the Bacca Consortium was gathering ships from its mighty inventory outside of the AMC to help bolster the power base for this unprecedented attack on Darkness.
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Post by Logan Shivers on Apr 4, 2017 19:36:21 GMT
The vanguard attack
The shimmering lights of hyperspace subsided as the Black Dragon rapidly slowed to its sublight speed on the outer regions of the Carlac system. One by one the Pitch Black battle group appeared around the Command Flagship. A trio of Corona Class frigates, headed up by Adde Dima’s Corona, the Hunters Blood. These were flanked by two Arquittens class light cruisers.
The Coronas opened up their hangar bays immediately and poured out their contents of just over 400 assorted fighters. 120 Aureks formed into spearhead formations and quickly hit their top speed, escorting the Pursuer Enforcement class gunboats into an early fast attack. Quickly following behind them were 60 Y-Wings, 4 GAT gunboats, a squad of Aggressor gunboats, 180 N-1 fighters, 120 R-41 fighters and a trio of fast attack ships, the Ardent Class Corosion of Sanity and two Crusader class Corvettes, the Necromancer and the Necrophile. 120 T-wings formed a shield shaped formation between the advancing fast attack fleet, and the slower moving heavy hitting ships.
Behind the Corona carrier group, the Black Dragon was being flanked by a Marauder on each side, a Dreadnaught Class heavy Cruiser above, and a Neutron Star class bulk Cruiser underneath. A swarm of 60 Toscan’s and 24 Vortex fighters formed a protective shell over the 10 ships.
Finally, at the very rear of the battle group, the Nebulon-b class medical ship Scorekeepers Grace was escorted by a squad of Vipers, a squad of Cloakshapes, one of Toscans and a squad of Star-Saber MKII’s. The powerfull DP-20a gunship Wickerman and the Tri-Mark gunship Vermillion finished up its protective escort.
As the battle group travelled towards the planet of Carlac, a solitary, large black entity disengaged itself from orbit and made its way towards the invaders in what appeared to be a leisurly manner. With all scanners linked to the Command Flagship, Logan saw this happen on the large viewscreen on the bridge. The advance ships sending back slightly clearer images, although as the distance closed the more powerful sensors of the larger ships picked up the images and relayed them even clearer. What Logan, and everyone in the battle group could now see chilled him.
The approaching entity was not a ship of any known configuration or classification. It was huge, probably close to the size of an SSD and roughly oval in shape. It was a sort of shimmering black in colour and appeared to have some form of tentacle type appendages along its sides, in a single row that formed a circumference on its longest axis. They waved in unison as the ship moved closer, making it look as though they were enabling the ship to swim through the void of space. As the entity got closer, it became apparent that the thing was pulsing. A slow, rhythmic movement along its lower hemisphere that made it look as though it might be breathing. That, is what was giving Logan chills down his spine, was this some sort of hellspawned creature rather than a ship?
As they all watched, their horror grew as the slow pulsing became an expanding bloating of the lower half, and then in a slow eruption it appeared to burst, vomiting out a dark cloud of… what? Whatever it was, it organised itself into separate spheres and surrounded the “mothership” like planets clustered around a star, or better, like an asteroid belt around a star….
“Comms, make sure this is being relayed to the AMC flotilla, they need to see this…”
It was almost mesmerising, in a terrifying way. Logan noted quite a number of the bridge crew had stopped dead and were just staring at the view screen and he shook himself out of his stupor.
“Everyone BACK TO YOUR STATIONS!!! This is NOT the time to get sloppy. Control, report time to first engagement. Comms, shut down all non essential feeds of this, I don’t want distracted crews.”
Logan swept his hands across his own panel and clicked open a direct channel to Adde Dima on the Corona-class frigate he so loved.
“Adde, make sure your fighter crews are not in a stupor, that…. THING, seems to be capable of some sort of mesmerising trick. Keep your crews alert and cut all non essential view screens off from the feed. Tell all pilots to engage freely and heavily, no quarter.”
“Whatever that thing is, it had better watch out, Pitch Black is coming to show it a true fight! All crews are alert, we noticed the odd effect when a couple of the lead Aureks went off the grid for a while.”
Adde had proved to be an excellent commander for the carrier group that formed the core of the Pitch Black battle group. His tactical prowess showed through, and Logan hoped it would truly shine now.
“Ten minutes to contact sir”
The control team, who were monitoring all ships in the battle group and were able to report their positions to any commander withint the group reported in to Logan.
It was coming, fast.
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Post by Logan Shivers on Apr 11, 2017 18:40:41 GMT
Contact! Contact!
The leading edge of the vanguard attack hit the approaching, bug-like entity at hight speed. The Aureks and Pursuer Enforcement ships did not slow down as they strafed it with their lasers. Ti was a blurringly fast first engagement and actually appeared to take the creature by surprise. Most of the laser blasts seemed to get absorbed by the spherical clusters orbiting around it, each one diminishing in size ever so slightly as it took a hit. The shots that did make it through seemed to hit the surface and briefly sizzly before vanishing, without leaving any apparent mark.
Just four ships were lost in this briefest of encounters, they got too close and the tentacle like protrusions swiped at them, tearing them apart with brutal, efficient strength. This was spotted by a number of pilots who reported it back to the Black Dragon battle command and so instructions were issues to stay clear of the tentacles.
Within seconds of the strafing attack, the GAT gunboats launched their proton torpedoes, wasting no time and spending their entire load in one huge volley, this was followed by a volley of torpedoes from the Y-wings and the N-1’s. The 300 strong torpedo volley hit the entity at the same time as the returning Aureks, back for a second high speed attack. The result was nightmareish. The orbiting spheres could not seem to stop the torpedoes and all hit the entity itself, and seemed to penetrate it before exploding within. The whole black entity shuddered, then tore appart with explosive force. Over 20 Aureks were instantly shredded by the flying debris, dozens more damaged. One PES was hit by a flailing tentacle and although not attached to the entity, it wrapped itself around the ship and squeezed like a giant serpant, crushing the ship with all onboard into unrecogniseable space junk.
But what was worse, far worse was the effect this had on the hundreds of pilots in the near vicinity. Some sort of mind warping wave of horror swept outwards in a ripple and tore through their brains like an storm. It sent several instantly insane, turning their ships to attack their comrades, others simply went numb and seemed to blank out in some form of stupor. Others seemd to experience horrendous pain, but then be able to clear their heads once the ripple went past and get back to the job at hand. Those were the poor sods who found they had to shoot down their own friends who appeared to have gone insane. As the ripple worked its way out in a concentric circle, it slowly dissipated, its effect becoming negligible until it dispersed completely. The skirmish between friendly fighters was resolved swiftly through overwhelming numbers and slowly, painfully slowly, some sort of order began to be brought out of this initial engagement. The remaining fleet had now caught up and formed a protective bubble around the battle zone. The ships with unresponsive pilots where dragged back into hangar bays with tractor beams, their pilots removed and shipped to the Scorekeepers Grace for attention. Damage repair crews went to work on returning ships, and any that could be sent back out with fresh pilots went immediately.
Half an hour after first contact, Battle Command demanded Logans attention.
“SIR! – we show six of those… things, breaking orbit and heading our way….” “Calm yourself and concentrate. Organise battle group for long range attack.”
Logan clicked his live link to Adde,
“Adde, how are those fighters doing?” “Almost all operational fighers are back out with fresh pilots where required. We have 86 assorted fighters in hangars undergoing repairs. We should get half of them at least operational within the hour.” “Good, get every misile or torpedo capable ship go to maximum range, launch and get the hell out of there, pick one target at a time, not all six. All other fighters hod tight until we see the result and subsequent actions.” “Yes sir.”
Logans comms panel bleeped, signalling an incoming encrypted message. He ran the necessary codes through the system and Proconsul Max Ameeno Bacca appeared on his screen, his face showed a look of concern.
“We have been watching all your sensor feeds Major, we do not like what we are seing. This is an unknown entity like no other we have ever come across. We cannot risk leaving you out there unaided until the full flotilla gathers. Proconsul Shri Bacca is heading out now with two MTC’s loaded with gunboats, his ETA is 36 minutes.”
Logan smiled,
“that is good news boss, got six of those things heading over, Shri will arrive just in time to see the fireworks and join in the fun.” “What is your assessment Major, is this battle winnable?”
Logan remained silent for some time, considering his answer.
“yes, think so, be close though”
“good enough, keep those feeds coming Major and good shooting.”
The connection cut off, leaving Logan to his thoughts. He did not have long before he was interrupted.
“Sir, the Grace reports all injured souls are either aboard, or on her Sprints. She is moving back out of the fleet with her escorts.”
“Battle Group into Hard Shell configuration, prepare for snare and get all marines ready to repell boarders. Do not move us in, let them come to us.”
The orders got relayed and the battle group moved into its new configuration, a vast, vertical disc shape with the larger ships forming a ring, the centre filled with all the remaining fighters and gunboats. The idea was for the enemy to hit the centre of the disc “shattering” it – the smaller ships dispersing in all directions whilst the larger ships tightened the ring whilst being able to fire broadsides toward the enemy. The fighters and gunships would then slam back in, adding their firepower to the assault.
Logan had a sudden thought.
“I want all personell to inject bacta right now, followed up with a stim shot.”
The demand had gone through the battle group wide comms he had available to him so was heard throughout every ship and on each figher. Not surprisingly, his chief medical officer was on his comms panel within moments.
“Sir, that is ill advised, Bacta is a powerful…..” “I know doc, want to try something out, see if it can help stop whatever that thing did when it exploded having such an affect on us.”
Having had a further thought he went battle group wide again.
“All personell not currently using breathing masks, hook yourselves up. No exceptions.”
Logan put on his heavy battle helm and sealed the join, setting off his own in built breathing system into action. He checked on the oxygen levels of his suit and on the two refil cylinders he carried strapped to his thight. All set, he returned his concentration to the incoming enemy.
The six entities had just reached the outer limits of the proton torpedo range and dozens of blue flickers started to appear as ship after ship launched its payload. Shortly after, the orange red flicker of concusion missiles could be seen as they too reached maximum range. It became obvious very soon after the launches that Adde had not quite followed his instructions, but Logan liked what he saw. Adde had told the pilots to target two entities, one with protons, the other with concussions.
The fighters and gunboats had all turned tail and were heading back to the fleet at full speed, not waiting to see the results of thte attack. All six of the incoming entities did that horrible vomit like manauvre and were being orbited by spheres by the time the proton torpedoes hit their mark. Once again the entity exploded violently, but this time it seemed to direct its “wave” of effect right at the battle group in a concentrated beam, rather than the concentric ring from the previous explosion. The second entity then got hit with the concussion missiles and that effect was astonishing. The missiles seemed to explode on contact with the outer shell or with the spheres, rather than manage to pierce the entity before exploding. The effect was an implosion that seemed to crush the entity in on itself. A superheated sphere formed for a mere second before exploding with tremendous force. The remaining four entities all flew straight through the explosion and actually appeared to have taken damage from it.
The remaining four entities however seemed no longer willing to fight at a distance and increased their pace. Their tentacle like propulsion system picking up speed and pushing them forward at almost twice their previous speed. They hit the centre of the battle group formation and stopped dead, their tentacles flailing around smashing any ship that was too slow to scarper into pieces. “ATTACK!, close the ring NOW!”
Logan braced himself as his ship, along with all the others closed the gap with the entities, all weapons firing.
Luckily for them, the beam like projection from the first exploding entity had fizzled out before hitting them so they had avoided any ill affects. But who knew what close quarters combat would result in now…
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Post by Logan Shivers on Apr 13, 2017 20:51:05 GMT
A close call, first of many?
The Pitch Black Battle Group was in a close quarters space combat situation like no other. The four remaining Darkness entities were amazingly agile, and their tentacle like appendiges blindingly fast when in attack mode. Any fighter that got too close was likely to get ripped appart in one lightning fast slash, and far too many had suffered that fate. The larger, less agile ships of the battle group were unable to avoid the tentacle attacks, and all sported long dents in their outer hulls where they had been struck. One of the Arquittens cruisers had a huge tear in its lower hull where a tentacle had ripped right into the ship, narrowly missing vital engineering areas that would have crippled the ship entirely. The heavy, ongoing laser and ion fire appeared to be having some effect though, and the entities now had almost no spheres of defense in orbit around them.
Logan had tried to get the Coronas to disengage in order to be able to replenish concussion missile loads on the fighters, but it was almost like the entities knew his plans and they were concentrating heavily on those particular ships.
Standing on his bridge, the noise of warning claxons and groaning metal all around him, smoke and escaping steam from who knew where blurring his vision, Logan brought up Adde on his comms panel. A rather dishevelled figure greeted him, the image unsteady and fuzzy.
“Sir, we are taking heavy damage….”
A tremendous booming blocked out the remaining part of Adde’s sentence. Having only recently heard that ear splitting noise first hand, Logan knew it to be a direct hit from a tentacle on Adde’s ship, the sound over riding all other noise on the communication channel. A short moment passed in silence, then background noise increased drastically just as the sound of Adde Dimas voice came back.
“Another hit sir, that one was close to breaching the hull. We cannot take a lot more punishment like this.”
“Hold tight my friend, cavalry is coming”
He did not take up any more of his fellow commanders time, instead he turned his attention to his helm.
“Pilot, take us right up close and in between those things and the Coronas. Comms, get the battle group to copy. We have to free up at least one carrier.”
The Black Dragon turned and forced its way through the crowded space to its new battle front. The weapons batteries fired non-stop at the two closest entities who seemed to ignore it, until it got into place between them and the Cerberus, the carrier with the vast majority of the concussion missiles onboard. The black entity closest to them lurched violently as it changed direction and launched itself directly at the Black Dragon. The two would have collided had it not been for the pilots quick reactions, and the glancing blow dealt by a Crusader class frigate to the underside of the entity.
Janev had been taking his Crusader, the Necromancer, to the new defensive position provided to him by battle command. He had not seen the entity suddenly change direction as their fire was being concentrated on another. The glancing collision shook his ship violently, throwing Janev and anyone else not strapped into their chair onto the deck. Alarms blasted out their warnings and only increased in tempo as a deafening boom vibrated through the ship. The entity had taken a swipe at them with one of its tentacles as well as it went past. “DAMAGE REPORT!!! And keep those lasers firing at ALL times!”
Janev scrambled back onto his seat and scanned the reports flying into his console. Judging by the fires in the bridge and hallway beyond, there was work enough to keep all busy right now. He noted four hull breaches, one on the underside of the nose of the ship, right under the bridge itself! The other three were in a jagged line running down the body of the ship, made by the tentacles direct hit on them. Fires had sprung up all over the place and they had lost one laser cannon. That was not too bad. Force fields were in place to avoid atmospheric loss in the breaches and power was steady. Only losing one cannon was lucky. And the fires would be under control in no time. These ships were built to take a ridiculous amount of punishment and just keep going. You had to hand it to the Mandalorians, they knew how to build a warship!
The Black Dragon thundered and groaned in protest. Metal shrieking at the limits of its endurance and bulkhead rivets popping, blasting across romms and hallways like blaster shots. The damned thing had tried to slam into them! Luck, and quick reactions had saved them from the worst of it, but the black entity had still scraped right across the top of the ship, slamming four of its tentacles down repeatedly whilst the remainder continued to provide its propulsion. Four laser turrets and one ion battery were ripped off their mountings and the ship visibly buckled at its centre before the Darkness entity moved out of range and continued its hunt for the Corona Logan had tried to defend. For long moments the stricken Strike class cruiser seemed to just drift, perhaps having had its death blow dealt. But a mere minute after the impact, power to its sublight thrusters had been restored. Not long after that, the gassy clouds of venting atmosphere stopped as the atmospheric shielding kicked in to seal the hull breaches. The remaining weapons found a target, rotated and restarted their constant stream of laser and ion fire. Slowly, ever so slowly, the heavily damaged ship joined the Necromancer in its attack on the second entity, hoping to at least limit the number of these things going after the Cerberus.
As the battle progressed, it became clear that there was little the Battle Group could do to win. The four entities still appeared to be going strong, with little visible damage and Logan was beginning to wonder just what it would take to turn the tables. “SCOREKEEPER BE BLESSED!!” One of Logans crew on the battle command console exclaimed.
“SIR, multiple incoming, sensors show two MTC’s, 80 firesprays and same again with GAT’s! They are hitting those damn things hard!”
Just then, Logans comms unit bleeped on his console. He answered the call with a swipe of his hand, but was too tired to bother to speak.
“Major, are you there?!.... Logan?... listen here you lizard brained slug eater, I have NOT come all this way to rescue your scaly ass, only to find you dead. Now ANSWER ME dammit!”
Logan smiled inside his helmet, he liked to hear the Wookie get all emotional about him..
“Don’t wet the bed just yet Proconsul Bacca, those tentacled….. things have not got the better of me just yet.”
On the battle command display, over two hundred blue dots appeared…
“Shri, please tell me you have not just launched all those protons at the damned tentacle ships?!”
Four powerfull explosions answered that question, followed by the concussive wave of rippling energy that seemed to follow from proton led destruction of the ships. Being in close quarters, every ship in the battle group, along with several of the AMC gunboats got hit by the multiple ripples. Logan felt the ripple hit him and pass through. He immediately bent over double, fighting to remove his heavy battle helmet and got it off just int time, letting it roll across the deck as he vomited thick, black blood clots. He remained on his hands and knees for a few minutes, allowing his head to stop spinning and making sure he was steady enough to move, then lifted himself until he was kneeling upright. He scanned the room around him, feeling weak from all the sudden blood loss he had just endured. Nobody else appeared to have had that same reaction, nobody seemed to have gone into a vacant zombie state, but one comms officer had clearly been affected and was fighting all around him. Thankfully, he had been jumped on by others before he could draw his weapon. Logan had a moment of immence pride in his people. Even in the face of this strange and unknown foe, they seemed to be able to stay focused and attentive to their surroundings.
Logan retrieved his helmet and put it on his console chair, wanting some time out of the confines of that tin can whilst the tentacle ships were not in proximity. All scanners showed the system cler of enemy entities other than the ones in orbit.
“Reoprt in, I want full damage reports, battle reports, casualty reports. I want them in my office in ten.”
Logan made his way to an adjoining room at the rear of the bridge, his secure command office and sat himself behind the huge wooden desk. He slumped onto the table with his head in his hands. Taking a deep breath to again steady himself, he opened a secure link to Proconsul Max Ameeno Bacca.
“Major, you look…. Ill, are you injured?” Logan let out a sardonic laugh. “Injured? I am not, no, but my ship has almost been split in two. But even that is not the worst news I have. Max, are Master Aranyos and Master Taarn around?” “Yes, both have joined us in our time of need, they are with the main fleet….” “Send them in the fastest ship you have, send them now Max. Those damned tentacle ships use some sort of force powered wave to project the virus out….”
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Post by Logan Shivers on Apr 19, 2017 20:00:01 GMT
Help arrives!
The Pitch Black battle group had taken the decision to pull back a little from the vicinity of the planet. They remained close enough to monitor the situation, but left enough distance to ensure they would have plenty of warning from any further attacks from the tentacle entities. Battlefield repairs were being hastily carried out, fighters being replenished and crews swapped over. Proconsul Shri Bacca had placed the two MTC super carriers between the heavily damaged ships of the battle group and the planet, the gunboats all running constant sorties in patrol of the region and in perpetual readiness for action. Shri had also been in contact with Max and had seen Logans last transmition to him. On an encrypted channel, the Council of the AMC discussed these new revelations and their potential concequenses. Whilst this was going on, Director Ichiru Hanabusa was already making his way to Carlac with a small fleet of his own. He was joined by the two Jedi Masters friendly to the AMC and by the High Apothecary Gene Scott Sackins. The decision was quickly reached that Logan should be taken off active service until both the Jedi Masters and the High Apothecary had been able to check him over.
As luck would have it, the fleet pulling back seemed to stop the Darkness entities from attacking further, however there was growing concern of a pending attack as greater and greater numbers of them were appearing in orbit, clearly rising from the planets surface. Either their work was done, or, hopefully interrupted by the actions of the AMC. If it was the latter, it was anyones guess as to how long they had before the growing number of entities attacked in force.
Aproximately ten minutes after Logan sent his message to the Proconsul, he was found by his Sergeant at arms Quia, slumped at his desk. In her usual, casual manner she swatted at him thinking he had fallen asleep and received a slight shock to see him fall into a heap on the floor from her slap. Quia hit the wall comms panel by the door hard enough to crack its screen, “Medics to Captains Quarters stat” She studied Logan and having found an area on his neck open to her, she jabbed a healing stick in and depressed the plunger. There was no reaction, but she hoped it might be helping whatever was going wrong with him. He had no visible injuries, but then again he was inside a heavy battle suit so who knew… She was considering trying to get him out when the door slid open and a team of medics poured in. Quia left them to it, instructing them to get him transported straight to the Scorekeepers Grace. She then fiddled around with the comms panel and managed to get hold of Adde Dima, the second in command of the Pitch Black battle group. “First Lieutenant Dima, Logan is down, not know why. Going to med frigate, what to do?”
The look of shock on Adde’s face was shor lived. He was an utter professional and knew that duty came first, personal feelings second. He considered his options and took a quick look at the state of the fleet. He nodded to Quia, thanked her and then made a general announcement. “This is First Lieutenant Adde Dima. Major Logan Shivers is reported out of action. Control of the Pitch Black battle group has therefore been transferred to myself. The Black Dragon has taken extremely heavy damage and as such, I am temporarily transferring flagship status to the Dreadnaught Class Heavy Cruiser Hellmouth. Please make the necessary changes, I will be onboard in half an hour.”
Adde left the busy bridge of his beloved Corona, leaving his own second in command in charge. Escorted by his ever present Black Guard, he collected his “ready bag” – in truth a sled piled with crates – and they made their way onto a Delta class transport. Adde refused an fighter escort, they were in no immediate danger for the short journey and it was not as if there was nothing for fighters and their crews to be doing at present! He had quite literraly just set foot on the Bridge of the Hellmouth when the ships sensors alerted them to several new ships arriving in their vicinity. It recognised them and categorised them. Adde let out a small sigh of releaf. Amongst the Directors fleet of Katoth Cruisers, Dreadnaughts and even a Y-Head corvette, there were two ships he knew would be muc h needed. The ultra modern, recently re-fitted medical frigates the “Call of Hermes” and “Kerukeion”. He also saw with greater satisfaction that his own chief medical officer had already organised for Logan to be sent to the Kerukeion, where the High Apothecary would be stationed.
A Sprint class medical shuttle docked in the hangar bay of the Kerukeion. Gene Scott Sackins stood in anticipation, flanked by Master Ember Aranyos and Master Taarn Clawfire. His start white attire was in contrast to their dark brown robes, but all three figures appeared serenely calm, despite the current situation. Logan was brought out of the shuttle, already in a bacta tank and being transported atop an anti grav sled. Genes staff took over, and Logan was transported under his close scrutiny to their main medical bay where Gene held his own practice and had his most experienced staff at hand. As they settled Logan onto a scanner bed, Master Clawfire gently grabbed Genes arm and led him aside.
“High Apothecary, I am about to divulge to you a secret that we have held in trust for some time. I do not see any way to keep it from you under the circumstances, but would ask you to keep it to as small a circle of your staff as possible.” Gene looked perplexed, but agreed without hesitation.
“Medical staff under my command still operate to strict patient confidentiality rules, for both ethical and practical reasons. We will not deviate from that.”
“I appreciate your high ethics High Apothecary, but I will still insist that it is kept to as small a circly as possible. I will be brief. Major Logan Shivers is force sensitive. He has his reasons, but he has kept this a well guarded secret for years, I am sure he will wish for this to continue.” Gene was not as shocked as Master Clawfire thought he may be.
“It makes sense. I have seen no other reports from the Pitch Black battle group of similar reactions to the ripple effect. I will of course keep this confidence, but it may no longer be a secret that CAN be kept. Far too many will be analysing the results of this battel in years to come…” “We can worry about that in good time. Now please, do not let me keep you further from attending to the Major.” Master Aranyos was already doing his own investigatory healing on Logan when Gene joined him. Only two of his staff were currently in attendance and he called no more, but his newest medical droid was standing by as well.
Outside, the newly re-enforced vanguard of the AMC fleet was taking new shape. Director Ichiru Hanabusa had joined Proconsul Shri Bacca aboard the MTC “Regime Changer” and control of the growing fleet was taken over from Adde Dima. On the colossal ship there was a room the size of a powerball pitch dedicated to battle array maps. Complicated holo projectors displayed in great detail the entire system of Carlac. On arrival, the Dirrectors ships had began lacing the system with satelites and all their feeds led to this room, along with the sensor feeds of every AMC ship in the vicinity down to the smallest fighter. It was all digested by the rooms battle display supercomputer and projected as a coherent image that could be manipulated at will, enlarging certain areas, ships or even single missiles. It was accurate enough for Shri to be able to see the damage to the Black Dragon in clear detail. He enlarged the image and blew out an appreciative whistle.
“Those Strike class ships are tough cookies to break, almost any other ship would have collapsed with that amount of damage.” Ichiru cast a look and nodded in agreement, but went back to his study of the greater map.
The three medical ships now sat right back on the edge of the system boundaries. A small fleet of Sprint class shuttles at their disposal. Their escorts had been removed, instructions were that if they came under attack they were to hit hyperspace and only return once commanded to. The fleet could not currently afford to leave battle capable ships inactive. Floating in an unmoving formation, the heavy hitting Dreadnaughts, Crusaders and Neutorn Stars formed the front ranks, closely followed by the Kaloth, Coronas and the Y-Head. The two MTC’s then loomed over all, with the heavily damaged Black Dragon nestled between them. The fast attack Ardent was amongst the Firespray gunboats, forming the head of their spear formation on the high left flank of the fleet, the DP-20a gunship and two Tri-marks formed the head of a second spearhead formation of GAT- 12H Skiprays on the High right flank of the fleet. Low right was a spearhead formation of Aggressors and R-41 fighters, led by an Arquitens Cruiser. Lower left flank saw the fourth spearhead formation, made u of PES gunboats and N-1 fighters, they too led by an Arquittens Cruiser. Amongst the leading Dreadnaughts lay squads of Y-wings and Aurek fighters, between the second rank of ships, amongst Neutron Star cruisers and Crusaders lay squads of Toscan fighters. Finally, amongst the Corona’s floated the remaining Cloakshapes and Torrent class fighters. Tension was rising, the fleet was as ready as it could be but not willing to make a move just yet. The main buld of the AMC flotilla was not far off and if they could delay just that little bit longer….
On the holoprojection of the system, Ichiru was keeping a close eye on the planet and it was him that first spotted the change. The Darkness entities were grouping together in orbit, no longer dispersed around the planet, they now seemed to be clustering at the point facing their fleets direction. Having noted Ichiru’s study of the movement, Shri came over and stood next to the Director.
“I make that at least forty entities….” “43. Over twice our initial estimate.” “That is troublesome.” “That, is an understatement.”
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Post by Logan Shivers on Apr 26, 2017 22:22:38 GMT
Just in time?
Proconsuls Max Ameeno Bacca, and Matthew Little had been keeping a very close eye on the goings on at Carlac, not wanting to miss out on any situational changes and updates. Both sat in the Battle Operations Command Room based upon a Strike Class Cruiser, the Formidable. With them stood other high ranking members of the AMC, Generals Enox La Bacca, Joshua Little and High Chaimberlain Timi Forepacca.
The Formidable was travelling in hyperspace at the core of the largest flotilla the AMC had ever gathered together in one place. Every single available ship they could call upon was included making a total of ten capital ships, close to 100 frigates and corvettes and thousands of fighters secured within their hangar bays. Close behind them was the planetary attack force comprising of dozens of the versatile GR-45 Galion Class Battle Frigates, loaded with troups and land attack vehicles, converted BFF freighters that acted as the delivery vehicle for the Droid regiments, and their numerous gunship escorts, including DP-20a’s, Tri-marks, Pelagia Duplex and even an Lancer Class Frigate to anchor their air support during land operations. Max turned his gaze towards the gathered members of the High Command.
“As you are all aware, we stopped receiving clear telemetry from Carlac 49 minutes ago. At that time we know the AMC forces in the system had been under attack by the Darkness entities for 32 minutes. It would appear that a sustained effort is being made by the Darkness Entities to block all communications both into and out of the vicinity. We will be arriving on scene in….”
Max quickly checked the timer running on one of the panels in front of him,
“8 minutes 49 seconds, so I will keep this brief. Altough possible, it is not efficient to try and run the entire flotilla from one command room. So a network of six command rooms has been set up. Proconsul Shri Bacca and Director Hanabusa are running the active centre at present, myself and Proconsul Little will remain here to run the main hub. Geleral La Bacca, you have to Battle room on the Invincible, General Little, you have the Indomidable, High Chaimberlain, you have the Victorious. Prime Executor Nimm Proga is aboard the Prince of Prefsbelt and will control the planet side operations battle room there, with Major Oquan Tangin Bacca on the ground. As planned, on arrival we will split the force into its two elements. The battle fleet will attack en masse, whilst the ground attack fleet makes their way to the planet itself. Once the initial attack run has been made and the fleet is fully engaged, your individual commands will go active. You have your breakdowns of the ships under your command, their captains know who to report to and all comms channels have been preset and tested. This will be a hard fight, let there be no doubts. 5 minutes 13 to arrival, please make your way to the hangar bay and board your awaiting shuttles. By our calculations you will have less than three minutes of sublight travel before we make initial contact. Fleet is in tight formation, your travel time should be less than two minutes. Good luck all, fight well, long live the AMC! Dismissed!”
Aboard the Prince of Prefsbelt Nimm and Oquan had been watching the speech. Once it was done, they returned to their tasking, preparing the largest landing force they had ever coordinated. They had the particularly tricky challenge of having to scout the planet in hostile conditions before being able to fully formulate their attack plans. For this reason, nearly a hundred possible scenarios had been set up, in the hope that most aspects would be covered by them and elements from one or many could be used when the time came.
The moment arrived, the massive fleet exited hyperspace and immediately sprang into action, fighters erupting from hangar bays and the entire fleet directing its tight formation to an intercept course for….. What greeted them held even the veterans amongst them in a shocked stillness for a moment. Every ship larger than a gunship seemed to have one or more of the tentacle ships actually attached to it, the tentacles wrapped around in a vice like embrace. Fighters could be seen zipping around firing at the entities whilst being swiped at by the remaining floating tentacle ships. A stream of six was heading toward the Med-Nebs and happened to be directly in the path of the emerging flotilla. The comms channels suddenly sprang to life again, whatever had been blocking the transmitions obviously not even trying to breakdown in system comms. Max was snapped back into focus by the clamour of the new transmition feeds. It would appear that all ships were under attack from boarders, and by the sounds of it, and from the few interior feeds he could now see, there were some gruesome battles raging within those ships as well as outside.
As planned, the AMC flotilla punched into the chaotic battle. Led by a wave of 20 Arquittens light cruisers, Crusaders and Coronas, closely followed by the four Strike Cruisers, the remaining two MTC super carriers, then the heavy hitting Dreadnaughts and Neutron Star’s. The small but not insignificant Westonian fleet could be seen amongst the massive gathering, the gold coloured YV-666 leading them clearly visible to all around.
The sheer volume of laser and Ion fire that light up the system was so bright, that it actually set off the anti glare viewscreen settings designed to kick in when viewing a star in close proximity. The attack was brutal and consistant and the battle spread out to encompass almost the entire northern hemisphere of the Carlac system.
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Post by Logan Shivers on May 3, 2017 19:58:41 GMT
A medical interlude.
The High Apothecary stared out of the large glassteel viewscreen at the chaos spread across the Carlac system. From this distance it looked like a pretty light dance, with flashes of red, blue and green dancing across the vastness, fogged in areas by clouds of vapour. The scene was mesmerizingly pretty until he thought about all the death it entailed. Death of people he was sworn to look over, people he likely knew. It was horrifying. His somewhat gloomy reverie was interrupted by a gentle pinging alarm on his desk comm panel. Walking over he retrieved his rather large datapad from a side pocket of his medical robe and made himself comfortable in his leather chair. The labs had been busy running tests on Logan, on the blood clot he vomited up shortly before passing out, and on a few other subjects that had either died from the Darkness attacks, or been affected by them iin some way. He knew this would take a lot of reading and analysing, but he also knew there was very little time to get it done. He sent on copies of the reports to collegues in medical stations across the galaxy to get more brains on this vital information. He had however, not sent any of Logans information on in fear of breaking his oath of secrecy. So, he decided to look at those results first as nobody else would be. Nearly an hour later, and after several checks and double checks, Gene put a request in for an emergency conference call to the leaderships six command rooms. The request was promptly accepted and organised and in minutes he was looking at the faces of the AMC high command. “I will try to be brief without losing the value of this information. You must ask all active personell in this battle to overdose on bacta and stims. I have come to the system with huge stores of both and the Sprint fleet is currently being loaded with injectable doses for each and every person to take at the earliest opportunity. Until you get these shots, please use what you have on your ships and get pilots to inject their emergency bacta from healing stick, apply bacta patches to bare skin and take any stim shots they may have on their personal kit. When they rotate, issue them with more. Logan hit a lucky hunch. The Darkness ripple as I will call it uses the force to project a virus across space. This enables some, limited penetration through the thinner glassteel screens of fighters and much higher penetration through atmospheric shielding patching up holes in ships, or sealing hangar bays. The bacta overdose helps a bit, I would guess at current figures, gives a 20-30% chance of rejecting the virus. Low but significant. The stims heighten the natural immune system and for the races out there with regenerative abilities such as the Trandoshans, it could increase their resilience by up to 50-60%. It may have been our luckiest stroke sending in Pitch Black first, with their numbers being so heavily reptilian.”
Gene took a sip of water and let the information sink in a little, also allowing the high command to issue the orders regarding his recommendations. Once he saw that he had their attention again, he continued.
“Logan was lucky. Immensely lucky. He came under attack from both the force, attacking his mitocondrians, and the virus attacking his system. The amount of bacta he had injected, along with the ludicrously high amount of stims he seems to have used, combined and boosted his immune system and his regenerative system. His body physically removed all infected tissue and he excreted it via vomit and… other avenues. What he vomited up was not blood, but living tissue from his body heavily infected with virus and behond repair. It was so instant only due to the drugs he had injested. He is currently conscious and in a bacta tank under observation. On a side note, if anyone has any leverage over him, or influence… please help me to keep him there. He is trying his best to get out despite doctors orders. Master Taarn is spending his entire time here controlling him and keeping him in the tank. Logan is… well, rather large and physical restraint is going to be hard… I dare not subdue him as it might also subdue his immune system. Anyway, apart from that side note, that is all, I will be in touch again should any further useful information come out of our research.”
Gene watched the connections drop, the high command going back to running their battles. He had noted how tired they all looked and made an additional note for more stimulants to go to the Battle Operations rooms to help keep their minds functioning sharply. As he looked up from his desk and out of the viewscreen, he spotted the first two Sprints heading out towards the battlezone. Those pilots would have their work cut out making those deliveries, but it was what they were trained to do. And it would mean they could bring back several dozen injured at the same time to ease the pressure on ship medical rooms and let his staff pick up the strain. He noted a bleep on his comm panel and the face of a female Gamorrean appeared on his screen. “Oquan say Logan being bad. I come back on Sprint, keep him in tank for you.”
The Gamorrean gave him a rather large, toothy grin and ended the call. He had not met her before, but he guessed this must have been Quia, one of Logans closest friends. He had heard a lot about her… and was a little bit concerned about how exactly she might keep him in order… not a problem he had time for right now however. He got his thoughts together and went back to the task of analysing results to try and gain any other insight.
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Post by Logan Shivers on May 10, 2017 18:45:59 GMT
Another complication.
The ground attack element of the AMC flotilla was making its way through the raging battle. The GR-75’s they used as powerfull landing craft were at their most vulnerable stage of the operation. The ships were notoriously slow in sublight travel and were like huge wallowing targets at present.
They were however escorted by a dozen Chela class fighter squadrons, as well as three Tri-Mark gunships, The formidable y-head corvette and of course, had their own weapons to use when required.
Prime Executor Nimm Proga had guided the fleet at the direction of General La Bacca, threading it through the path of least resistance and they were currently on final approach to planetary orbit. The nerves were running high as this was the closest they had ever come to the newly found planet, and nobody knew what awaited them. A Comms officer interrupted Nimms train of thought at that moment.
“Sir, five minutes to orbital status, General La Bacca has relinquished operational control to you and General Tangin Bacca.”
Nimm nodded,
“Very well, send in the Longprobes as planned, spread the fleet out in loose formation over full orbital span.”
Nimm selected a direct channel to Oquan and hailed him.
“Major, its our turn now, are the troops ready?”
Oquans furry featured face came into view on the small console screen and he smiled a toothy smile.
“As they always are! The droid element is ready for beach head operations, all other elements are reporting ready. The troops are getting itchy for a fight, listening to all the reports… they just want to have their turn at Darkness. May be worth noting… the Trandoshan element are… particularly agitated after hearing about Logan… any news on that front by the way?”
Nimm shook his head,
“No, the comms channels are all very busy, such things don’t filter through and I doubt time would be wasted on well being reports at this time, even for Major Shivers. Lets show them….”
His message came to a halt as an extremely axcitable sensor operator came running over, tripping up the step to Nimms command console and almost landing in Nimms lap. He was positively trembling with nervous energy,
“SIR!!! THE PLANET IS INHABITED!!! THERE ARE CITIES DOWN THERE!!!”
The high pitched, screeching voice of the Bith carried right across the bridge and silenced every other conversation. The room went still. Nimm recovered from the shock first and quickly headed over to the sensor display consoles and saw the incoming streams from the Longprobe scouts. He swore under his breath, this was NOT something they had counted on, perhaps rather foolishly.
“Contact Battle Command, high priority comms with Triumvirate and High Command required. Pinpoint the locations and annotate the facts as they come in as briefly as possible. I want Darkness activity noted in relation to its proximity to any habituated areas.”
Nimm again called up his channel with Oquan,
“Are you seing this Major?” “Yes, not good, that is a complication we could have done without.” “I am suggesting geosinc orbit above the largest settlements.. hmm, it appears potentially only one large enough to be classed as a city, others seem smaller. The planet appears to be very undeveloped.” “Agreed, I am dispersing the fleet accordingly now, I assume we halt descent for now?” “No, descent to atomospheric orbit. The inhabitants are most likely terrified already, seeing a few more flying things cant do any more damage. We need to be ready to act, not staring down from this height.”
The conversation was halted as the High Command conference came through. Nimm gathered his thoughts, quickly scanned his eyes over the incoming reports and took a deep breath.
“Sirs, the planet is inhabited by sentients. Several settlements have been spotted including one large enough to be classified as a city. As I speak, reports are coming in of nest like craters adjacent to all the noted inhabited areas, we are not yet certain but I am confident these are related to what the Darkness entities were doing on the surface.”
Max lifted a hand to stop Nimm’s report.
“I apologise for interrupting, but even this news has to be kept brief and acted upon quickly, this is developing into a worse and worse situation ever minute. Looks like we put you in the right place Prime Executor. Take a SMALL delegation along with security, get to that city and do your thing. General La Bacca, make your way to the location to offer what support you can from airborne Darkness entities. Sorry have to be brief, that is all, keep reports coming in.”
The connection was cut off. Nimm was not offended, he knew things were going from bad to worse and events unfolding at incredible pace. He would not want to he holding the responsibility that High Command would currently be holding, the weight of it would be crushing. But diplomacy, now that was HIS area or expertise!
## On the Dreadnaught Hellmouth ##
Adde Dima was busy directing the Pitch Black battle group operations in Logans absence, but his attention was torn away by a high priority call coming through from the High Command. Director Ichiru Hanabusa appeared on the viewscreen.
“First Lieutenant Dima, I understand the Black Dragon is heavily damaged. I think it is time to take her out of the fight. That ship being destroyed would further demoralise the Trandoshan element.”
Adde did not like the thought of that one little bit. In fact, it made him angry, very angry, but he did his best to control his temper.
“Director, if you think that our flagship retreating will be found acceptable by ANYONE in Pitch Black…” “Caom yourself First Lieutenant. I am not in the position I am in without full knowledge of the inner workings of all elements within the AMC. I am not suggesting any sort of retreat or withdrawal. I want you to move command of the battle group to me. I want you on the Dragon along with the Black Squad, I want you planet side as fast as you can get there. General La Bacca is also heading that way and will be escorting you with another Strike class cruiser. No arguments, it is an order. The Pitch Black troops need morale boosting after hearing of Logans potential demise. Get moving Adde.”
The directors slip into informality at the end was intentional Adde realised, it was his way of saying “sorry that had to be done so bluntly”. Adde knew the Director made a good point though so he notified the battle group of the new chain of command, handed back the ship to the ships commander and made his way to the hangar bay. The Black Squad formed around him flawlessly and the gathering made its way to the Black Dragon in their Delta Shuttle.
Approaching the heavily damaged ship, Adde was actually in awe at its ability to still function. He hoped it would remain in one piece for long enough to actually land, but if not, he would make sure he aimed her at the place he could do the most damage to the enemy!
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Post by Logan Shivers on May 17, 2017 19:09:38 GMT
Landing party!
Major Oquan Tangin Bacca stood in the cavernous hold of the Gallo class lander. Their ship, amongs dozens of others, was currently in a rapid descent to the planets surface. They were not coming under fire, but the speed of their descent was rattling the great ship around like a tin can balanced on a vibroblade.
He SHOULD have been on the bridge… but he would be damned if his soldiers were going to face this unknown without him amongst them. He did not lead from the back, it was simply not his style. Like all his fellow soldiers, he was in standard issue AMC powersuit armour, upgraded from the Corelian blueprint and in his case, with a full comms array as he was patched into the bridge communications hub so he could keep an eye on the various landing locations and how the pending battles progressed.
The ambient lighting turned red, signifying five minutes to touchdown. He ran through his checks, got the sergeants to do theirs and report in as their crews in turn reported to them. With one minute to go, the netire battalion on the Gallo had reported in. He imagined the same process happening on all the other ships and as he did so, the heads up holo display in his helmet visor scrolled a series of ready messages from the other landers. All green, all ready to go. Oquan was on the Averoff, the lead Gallo in a massive landing party of ten, their destination the huge “nest” situated on the outskirts of the one major city spotted on the planet. It also happened to be the largest nest and so General La Bacca and Oquan had appropriately allocated it the largest welcome party!
The ambient lighting flipped to natural daylight, adjusting their eyes to the ambient light outside the ship, this signifying ten seconds to land. Like almost every sentient on every ship, Oquan counted down in his head. …..5….4….3….2….1….. The Averoff did not quite slam down onto the deck, but it was not far off. Had it not been for the assistive tech in the powersuits Oquan had no doubt some of the battalion may have ended up on the floor from the shock of impact. As it was they all stood ready as the massive bay doors slid open.
The scene that greeted them was odd. The quiet sounded deafening after the rumbling noises of their descent, and the roar of the exiting battalions from their ships faded out almost instantly. The nest was infront of them, the city about four miles behind them. But the nest appeared still. From this angle Oquan could see that it was a huge mound of earth, about five or six hundred metres in height. And completelys still.
Seasoned in many battles, Oquan was not one to let his guard down. He sent orders out to arrange troops in formation and prepare defences. He ordered a trench be dug around the nest, with the soil piled up on their side to form a wall. This to then be re-enforced with pre-formed duracrete sections. None of this of course was done manually, or it would have taken days. No, in his command he had a couple of hundred engineers and their various vehicles. They set to work under the protection of the ten thousand troops and completed this mammoth task within five hours. The mound had still not moved and similar reports were coming from all other landing sites. Oquan had waited long enough, they could not afford to wait until dark, not with a completely unknown eneby. His troops were fresh NOW, they would not be LATER.
“General La Bacca, what are your thoughts on stirring up the nest a bit?” “What do you have in mind Major?” “Can you send in an air strike, one squad of fighters to pepper the mound until we get a reaction?” “Things are a bit tight, but I will send a pair of Y-wings to each location. I suggest that once they start, the Gallos open fire from their positions as well. If that does not work… well, we wkll see.”
Oquan smiled, he hoped it WOULD work! He sent updates to all the ground commanders and readied twin vibroblades in anticipation. Two dots appeared in the clear blue sky, his visor display quickly flagging them as the two inbound Y-Wings. Moments later they made their first strafing run, lasers on the way in, ion blasts on the way out. At the same time all ten Gallos opened up. The barrage shook the nest and soil started to slide down from the top, revealing a shiny black surface. A metallic black surface… Realisation hit Oquan a split second before all hell broke loose. It was one of those tentacle entities, an enourmous one, but beached in a crater!!!
Thanfully, it did not appear to have any tentacle appendages though , but it did contain a rithing black swarm of.. what? Oquan tried to make out what the black tide that was emptying out of the ship and heading their way at speed was. His visor amplified the image, and he wished it really had not. He had never seen sentient beings evolved from arachnids, not until now. Hideous creatures with six or eight legs scurried down the mound, some with huge claw like pincers and curved, spiked tails, others with a more upright posture and able to weild bladed weapons in smaller, pincer ended limbs.
The riflemen divisions wasted no time in opening fire, the force of five thousand bowcasters, two thousand DLT-20a’s seeming not to do a lot to diminish the oncoming tide. As they got closer, the entire ten battalions opened fire with their blasters, ranging from K-23’s to ELG’s. Again this seemed to do little to slow down the charge. Even the continuing fire from the Y-Wings and the Gallos had nominal affects. There were hundreds of thousands of the things, all in an apparent race against each other to be the first to attack. The specialist melee combat troopers readied their bladed weapons, axes, swords, pikes, a huge variety of sharp metal edges glistened in the sunlight briefly, before being hit with a black tide of crawling limbs, bulbus hairy bodies and stinging tails, pincers and slicing black blades. Oquan was right amongst his battalions Melee troopers and had his vibroblades out and ready when it hit.
“LONG LIVE THE AMC!!!!!!!” He bellowed and got stuck into the thick of it, ten thousand voices joining him in their own battle cries.
A particularly large creature with a spiked tail, eight legs and an additional pair of huge pincer appendages reared up in front of Oquan. His trained fighting reflexes overtook his initial shock at its size and he managed to block the sharp clawlike pincers. His left vibroblade cracked loudly against one, managing to slice through about half of it before getting stuck, his right blade swung heavily against the other claw and sliced it off at the first joint. With one blade trapped Oquan had no choice but to try and defen himself with his other one, leaving him at a bit of a disadvantage due to the creature being nearly twice his size and weight. A laser blast sizzled past his shoulder and right into the creatures face, and a vibro axe slammed into the claw trapping his blade. The claw shattered and Oquan and his axe wielding aid hacked at the carapace covering the body of the creature until it was spewing out slime and gore. The thing collapsed, finally unmoving to the ground.
But there was no time to rest, or to take pleasure in the kill, the second it fell, more took its place and the tidal attack surged on. For the better part of three hours the battle raged on. Laser fire, screams, screetches and howls filled the air which was thick with dust and a blood mist that never seemed to settle. Eventually however, Oquan heard something that did not quite register to begin with. His blood rage was fully on and the only thing that truly existed was the next kill… but once he found himself without a target he registered the shouted exaltations he had not computed so far. “They are retreating” was the one thing he heard time and time again, amongst many other shouts from all around. Oquan stood there, blade still in each hand, soaked in gore and in a powersuit that could do with some serious repairs, and stared at the retreating forms of the black creatures. It appeared that they had had enough and were scuttling back into the mother ship or whatever the hells that thing was. The scene around him was stomach churning. Everywhere that he looked there was a carpet of bodies, lying in a soup of gore. HE was knee deep in who knew what, and far too much of it belonged to his soldiers.
But they had prevailed, for now.
“Organise medical crews, set sentries and begin reporting in losses. This is not over, I can feel it. Regroup, take on liquid and food, pump youselves full of stims and bacta and lets sit tight for their next move.”
He moved back towards the Averoff and once clear of the carnage, removed his helmet. The stench that hit him made him vomit instantly, his full breathing kit having blocked that particular nastiness until now. He replaced the helmet and breathing kit and sat heavily on the ramp of the cargo bay. An efficient comms officer brought over an oversized datapad and handed it to Oquan. It displayed all the reports from other sectors on the planet. It would appear all had been in hard fights, and all had suddenly found themselves facing a retreating enemy. The timing worried Oquan even more and he contacted General La Bacca to discuss. They needed to plan, but what were they planning for? What was the next move?
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Post by Logan Shivers on May 30, 2017 21:10:24 GMT
The Golden Ram!
Julio Weston stood on the bridge of the WADF C01, a YV-666 that he was proud to call his own. It was not easily missed, with its exterior being a metallic gold colour, chorme and red highlights, it certainly made an entrance in any space port around the galaxy.
Luckily, or unluckily depending on which way you looked at it, the distinctive ship did not seem to attract any more, or any less attention from the darkness entities than any other ship within the AMC flotilla. Julio had ordered his two squads of ETA-5’s launched the moment they had left hyper and the ships had been in the thick of things ever since. Having found himself in a brief period of no hostility directed at his small fleet, he ordered the ETA’s back in for a refuel and reload. It would be a fast paced turnover, those fighters were a vital part of his fleet defences.
“Sir, new orders from command have just come through”
Nyholm was not only the pilot, but also an excellent communications officer and he was patching through the new orders to Julio as he spoke. Julio took a look on his datapad and nodded to himself. They would just about have time for that refuel.
“Nyjolm, confirm receipt and acceptance of orders. Set a course for intercept with the Black Dragon, latest position is…. There, have highlighted in gold. Two Strikes we need to join up with ASAP.”
Julio had manipulated the sensor data to show the Black Dragon and its partner Strike as gold collourd blips on the displays, making them easy to follow should they change course.
“Nyholm, try to establish contact with the Strikes, either ship. Just want to make sure we are expected, don’t want any crossfire incidents, its damned busy out there!”
A few brief moments later and Julio saw a bloom of other gold dots, fighters supporting the two strikes it would appear.
“Sir, General La Bacca confirmed on the Invincible as the second Strike. They have four squads of Torrents and four Aggressors as escort. The General reports that the damaged Black Dragon is attracting a lot of attention and urged haste.”
“Push those engines then, I would rather risk damaging them than arriving too late. Get the fighters out soon as they are ready and keep me updated on timings.”
“eight minutes 38 seconds ETA, first squad, down to ten fighters, ready in four minutes, second squad, down to 11 ready in five. With immediate launch their ETA is 6 minutes 38 and 7 minutes 38 respectively.” “Advise General La Bacca. Get the two spare ETA’s crewed and out there. No time to be saving them for emergencies.”
The Gold ship made its way at a considerable pace, cutting the distance down as rapidly as its engines could manage. The two fighter squadrons, fully refuelled and with some showing patchy repairs, made their way ahead of it and engaged with the four Darkness entities that appeared to be attacking the Invincible and the Black Dragon.
The addition of the Westonian ETA’s and their replenished stores of missiles gave the beleaguered cruisers and their escorts a boost. The attacking entities got pushed back, showing signs of damage. One of the four got hit in a coordinated attack by two squads of Torrent fighters and the remaining weapons on the Black Dragon and it collapsed in on itself in an implosion before the void of space ripped it apart into a spreading orb of shattered pieces.
The remaining three entities regrouped and pushed a hard attack in a spearhead formation. The two outer entities shielding the third and seemed to be indifferent to the damage inflicted upon them. Julio could see their target, it was clearly the Black Dragon, the damaged ship for some reason proving to be an irresistible target. His YV-666 would arrive in time to assist, but he did not have any serious fire power so he was not sure what…..
Julio noticed his friend and pilot alter his stance on the pilots seat. The concertration was now clear to see, along with a look of sheer determination.. Some quick glances at the viewscreen, the pilots console and his own display told him a story he did not like the look of. Nyholm had changed course and unbelievably managed to wring some more speed out of the screaming engines and was heading into a collision with the enemy spearhead!
“Nyholm!!!! What are you doing? Those ships or whatever they are are two or three times our size, you will wipe us out!!!!”
He had always had a mad streak but this…
“She can do this sir, trust me.” “DO WHAT!?”
The ship screamed in protest at the increased speed, then went oddly silent as Nyholm switched all power from the engines to the front shields and braced himself. Julio watched in horror as their screen filled with the image of the central entity and then…
The YV slammed right into the first tentacle appendage, right where it joined the body of the entity. It sheered it off, slicing through another four before loosing the built up momentum. The noise inside the ship was deafening, the sound of the ships panels bending and buckling under the immence pressure of the impact almost made Julios ears bleed. The force of the collision itself threw him and several of the crew around like rag dolls and the sudden deceleration sent vehicles and equipment in the hold crashing forward.
Nyholm had managed to retain his seat and the instant the manoeuvre was complete he routed power back to the engines and pushed the throttles to maximum to get them out of there as quick as he could. Luckily, although massively damaged, their ship had come out of the ramming attack intact. Julio was furious, until he saw the results of the incident.
The central entity had been unbalanced by the unexpected attack. It not only missed its target, only managing to hit the Black Dragon a glancing blow as it veered madly past, but it also spun right into the path of its flanking entity on the right tangling the two up, the long appendages winding around each other in a tangles mess. The third entity moved off in time and left on its own, became easy pray for the combined power of the Torrents and the ETA’s.
The Invincible turned and made an attack run of its own at the tangled entities and Julio screamed to anyone listening,
“FIRE ON THOSE DAMNED THINGS!!!”
The blow to his head from being flun across the bridge had somewhat muddled his usual professional demeanour. The YV swung around ahd its weapons opened fire, adding to the hammering the two entities were already getting from the Invincible. Helpless due to their appendages being out of action, the two entities soon succumbed to the firepower of the two ships and went still.
Julio’s comm panel fizzed, crackled and them came to life part way through a message “…. Dima on the Black Dragon, is everyone on the WADF ok?” He reached over and replied to the message, earning himself a light shock in the process.
“This is Julio Weston, crew are much better than the ship I think, scratches and bruises, nothing that wont heal. My pilot might encounter a worse fate soon though….”
“We would rather you thanked him. That was a crazy move, but one that has saved thousands onboard here, I think you and your crew have earned some gratitude.. I just warn you agains ever receiving it. Logans crew… well, they have rather special means of showing it. But my personal thanks none the less. Will we see you planet side?”
“Negative, new instructions just came in, after we see you to orbit, we are heading off with Major La Bacca to aid Proconsul Shri Bacca, his MTC is under concentrated attack and they need a boost it would appear. I will warn my crew.. but I think I know the “Shivers principal” – and they wont mind being forced to drink until they pass out, not after this battle… fare well, speak soon I hope Mr Dima”
The link broke and Julio set himself to assist with damage control. Several fires had broken out and his sparce crew was spread thin. Under any other conditions, this ship would no longer be called battle ready… but in THIS battel… it certainly had to be. He would just have to assist his mechanics as best he could while Nyholm and the weapons officer took care of the bridge for the remainder of this escort duty.
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Post by Logan Shivers on Jun 4, 2017 18:47:45 GMT
Punonnie’s story
Punonnie had been a loyal AMC member since the very beginning, since before the beginning, she was also once the loyal wife of Shri Bacca. But all that had come crashing down around her when she had been seduced by a conman, and as it turns out spy. A Gamorrean with a much higher than she believed possible intellect had come into her life some months ago. Gulk had appeared during one of Shri’s prolonged trips away from home, busy as usual with running the Mercenary faction. Punonnie did get lonely during these long periods apart from her beloved, and even more so since their son had joined the ranks and tended to be away on his own missions. Thus she had been slowly reeled in by the ever so clever Gulk, who slowly crept into her life more and more, filling the gap the Shri left behind. Before she knew what was what, he had persuaded her onto a luxury yacht and they were travelling across the stars in apparent bliss. But all was not as it appeared to be. Gulk started to act differently the more distance they put between them and the AMC held areas and it was not long before Punonnie caught him with his guard down.
He was on the bridge of the small yacht talking on the comms console to who knows who. But what she over heard was enough to put chils down her spine, and more importabtly, to wake her up from the stupor he had put her into. He was in contact with some form of pirate group and taking her to them, to act as a highly prized blackmail subject.
Her first thought was not for her own safety, her first thought was that the AMC was in danger. She would hope that Shri would not be easily blackmailed, but what if she was not the only one being abducted? She had to find a way to get back and ward the faction, even if she put her own life on the line to do so.
Punonnie managed to use her own wits to turn the tables on Gulk. Within 24 hours of hearing his conversation she had rigged the door to the bedroom suite to only operate from the outside. She waited until he had made his way in and simply locked the door electronically from outside. She had used her technical knowledge to remove all circuitry from inside the cabin and completely isolate it from the rest of the ship, a task easier that it otherwise may have been by the sheer fact it was situated at the nose of the yacht and with the exception of the one wall with the door, all other walls, including floor and ceiling were glassteel. It was a magnificent room and it was like sleeping amongst the stars. It had played a large part towards the final seduction, and now it would play the role of a prizon. There was only one other crew member, the pilot. The chef and the two othercrew were both slaves and she doubted would be any hassle. She found Gulks trunk in the hold and rummaged around until she found what she wanted. A large knife, almost a sword really, but it fit into her hand nicely and had a good balance. Punonnie made her way to the bridge, knife hidden up the wide sleeve of her robe and quietly stood there watching the Gand who was piloting the yacht. She had already spotted and memorised access codes, a habit of hers in any situation and so had no need to keep him alive. She calmly walked up behind him on the pads of her bare feet and in an almost loving motion, grabbed the top of his head, tilted it back so he was looking into her eyes as she loomed over him, and slowly dragged the knife across his throat.
The whole thing had taken a matter of seconds. Too fast for the absorbed pilot to really register what had happened until it was too late. His hands left the controls and shot to his neck, trying desperately to staunch the flow of his life blood. He would have done better to grab for a bacta patch, but he was not battle trainied it would appear, or if he was, not to the standard of the AMC tranining. He used the last remnants of his strength to rise out of his seat and make a completely innaffectual lunge for her. She casually stepped back, allowing him to topple over onto the deck. His boddy twitched for a while and finally went still. Punonnie dragged the corpse out into the confined corridor and then into the pilots quarters. She closed and sealed the door behind her. No need for his stench to pollute the ship.
Making her way to the controls, she took them out of hyper, a risky move in itself not knowing where they were but it panned out ok, the sleek yacht glided into the void of deep space without any issues. She turned her around and waited until the ships instruments had caught up and placed their location. From there she was able to plot a course back to Comra and put them back into hyper immediately.
Punonnie put the controls onto auto and made her way to the ships galley where she knew she would find the three slaves. She had after all locked them in there with the same trick she had used on Gulk. She opened the door and confronted three cowed slaves, the poor soles probably wondering what they had done wrong to be locked up like they were. She calmed them and explained the situation, taking great care to note their reactions. There was nothing of concern there and when she told them that provided they gave her no trouble, they would be released on Comra to live as free citizens all three immediately changed demeanour. One cried, one stared at her in shock, but the oldest, the chef, smiled and asked a gentle question.
“That is kind mistress, but how are we to live without possesions? Without credits, without anything but what we wear? It is no kindness you do us I fear.” Punonnie smiled.
“There are enough rich trinkets aboard this flying palace to buy the actual ship three times over. I think that should start you off. The AMC rule on Comra, a chef is always needed for the ships of the fleet if that is your chosen way of life, the catering core will welcome two more recruits too. Or, you can get yourselves a small ship and fly off into the wonders of the Galaxy. I will set you up, after that your life is yours, just like any free sentient. Do with it as you wish.”
This brought more tears from one, a smiling stupor from the other and a broad grin from the chef who picked up a meat cleaver.
“In that case, can I go carve up that filthy Gamorrean who has been…. Abusing my girls for the past three years?”
It only dawned on Punonnie then how similar the three looked. The chef must have been the father of the two female waitresses. She dreaded to think what Gulk may have been doing to them but she shook her head.
“I wont risk him getting loose, not now. Once we are in Comra… There may be time to turn a blind eye for a while.”
He seemed satisfied with that and put ythe cleaver down.
The week long journey back to Comra had been pretty uneventfull, Gulk had ranted and raved loudly enough to be heard for the first day or so, but he went quiet after that and the video feed into the suite showed he spent most of his time sitting on the oversized bed staring at the door with hatred in his eyes. No food or water had been sent in to him but he had the en suite to get water so he would not be in danger of dying, no, she wanted him alive to face the AMC with.
The three slaves had spent the time crating up the ships trasures and dividing it equally between them. They had decided to try and buy a small ship that they would turn into a mobile catering hub and if that did not work they would each have enough left to see them by until they found other employment. Pnonnie had found the keys to their slave collars and removed them and the four had gotten along very well indeed for the week.
However things started to get serious once they got to Comra and Punonnie heard the news about the ongoing battle at Carlac, a new system that had apparently been discovered within AMC held territory. She knew it must have been a hell of a battle as nothing but a few system defence ships had been left behind, something the AMC would not have done lightly. She told the three that she would drop them off at the Comra starport, the most likely place for them to find what they needed. She knew that the chef had managed to find his way into the suite and carve up Gulk on a number of occasions which she had ignored, so he did not kick up too much of a fuss about not being given his promised time with him. They said their goodbyes, Punonnie promising to check back on them when she could and she left, taking the yacht back into hyper and straight to the coordinates given to her, Gulk still held prisoner in his glassteel cage at the nose of the sleek yacht.
What she saw on dropping out of hyper made her jaw drop. She had not seen such a large scale battle before, it was utter bedlam and it was spread right across the system with AMC allied ships battling agains what looked like giant black space monsters. What in the hells was going on?! Gulk too had taken notice and was staring wide eyes out of his glassteel cage at the raging battles all around them. The nimble little ship seemed to go unseen amongst the chaos and so she flew it nervously around until its limited sensors picked up the ship she was told Shri was on, a giant MTC supercarrier. To her horror she saw that it appeared to have one of those black things attached to it like a barnacle! She tried repeatedly to hail it, finally managing to get through to a private channel with Shir, one she and he had set up years back…
He growled at the sight of her and almost turned the comms off, but she pleaded for him to wait. “You pick the wrong time to come grovelling back woman, go away and…. And… just go AWAY!!” He roared the last in utter rage. But Punonnie insisted he listen, and managed to gain enough time to provide a rushed description of what had panned out in space. She had not made any excuses, not wasted time trying to explain her actions, just told him about the intended blackmail and the interest of a pirate group in destabilising the AMC. This calmed him somewhat and he looked at her with an odd expression on his face she could not quite read. He calmly spoke, “Thank you for the warning, now please leave this place and if fate permits, perhaps we will talk again back home, but I am busy and you are not safe in that stupid yacht.”
He cut the connection and at the same time sent her two Toscan fighters to act as escorts for her while she left the system. But she had noticed the raging battles in the background and knew deep inside her that the crew on the MTC were under duress and she was being boarded. She also knew that had it been under control, Shri would not have cut her short like that irellevant of how angry he was at her. No, things were bad onboard. And she doubted they would get any better if that second black entity that was heading right for the MTC latched on… and there appeared to be nothing much left standing in its way….
Punonnie gritted her teeth, she would not see her husband die, would not risk him as she realised she still loved him more deeply than she could bring to words. She steered her ship towards the black entity and hit the throttles. She had no weapons, the pathetic floating palace had none installed, so she only really had one choice. It would be her penance. Her repayment to Shri for abandoning him, for failing him, for failing their son.
Her determination was bolstered by the view of Gulk cowering in his glassteel cage. He would be the first to die, and he would see his death loominhg closer and closer in a panoramic view… so a smile came to her lips as she rammed her ship into the belly of the black entity.
The nose crumpled in and Gulk was crushed to a pulp before the rest of the ship pushed its weight through and into the tentacle ship. The engines continued to push it until it was firmly embedded and then further, further, until it almost tore out of the other side. The huge amount of damage caused by the ramming manoeuvre overloaded the ship systems, fires erupted and spread like lightning across the ship. Mercifully, Punonnie had been in the cockpit and the ipact had killed her instantly.
The black entity spiralled around, completely out of control due to the yachts engines pushing it in a direction it was not designed to go. The initial impact caused a huge amount of damage but after that, for almost a minute nothing seemed to happen. Although out of control the tentacle ship appeared to have withstood the ramming.
But then the fires reached the engines and fuel cells and the resulting explosion tore the two ships apart in a violent ball of flame. It bloomed like a small sun and then vanished just as fast, the void of space sucking away any oxygen for the fire to feed on. All that was left of the two ships was scattered debris spreading across the system.
Shri had seen the whole thing on the giant viewscreen. He was shocked into inaction. His emotions in turmoil. He had hated her, he was sure he had… but she had saved them, no doubt about that at all. Had that ship latched on they would have been overwhelmed. She had made the ultimate sacrifice. And no, he had not hated her… not ever.
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Post by Shri Bacca on Jun 6, 2017 0:05:59 GMT
Tears are in my eyes...Punonnie's death was one a wookiee would be proud of. Her name will always be honored in my heart.
Logan, retrieving and repairing the on-board logs Punonnie left from the debris from the battle of Carlac was a monumental task but you have compiled the truth and given me peace.
Thankyou my friend...I am ever honor bound to you for your loyalty.
Waaarggghhhhhhhh!
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Post by Logan Shivers on Jun 29, 2017 13:18:38 GMT
Mechanical Animal!
The AMC did not just have sentient soldiers for battlefields. A vast army of droids could be called upon to bolster any situation. Two droids formed the bulk of that force, the Gladiator Class battle droid, an older but still very potent droid that could be deployed in almost any situation, and the Spartan Class battle droid, a much newer, faster and more agile droid. T-1 and X-1 probe/recon droids accompanied them to complete the package.
Whilst extremely effective once deployed on the ground, the delivery of these battalions was still a little temperamental. Currently relying on modified BFF freighters, the droids were vulnerable in flight, and sometimes slow to deploy. This was the case in this battle. The fleet of modified freighters had skirted around any skirmishes in the ongoing space battle around Carlac to try and avoid any confrontation with the Darkness Entities. This had proved mostly successful and the escorting Tri-mark gunboats had been able to mostly defend them. Two ships had been lost however, taking with them two entire battalions of the droid army. The remaining ships however were able to join the Black Dragon in her descent to the planet surface. Deployed across the various locations of “nests” the modigied freighters began to unload their cargo.
Oquan watched with some elation as three bulks landed in clouds of dust and debri and disgorged their contents. This would be a much needed relief for his troups in the coming battle. Wasting no tyime at all he sent a swarm of T-1 probe droids ahead and into the Darkness entity. He wanted to try and get as much information as possible about what was inside those things to aid in their attack planning. He then ordered the two battalions of Spartan Class droids and one battalion of Gladiator Class droids to form rank and place themselves in front of his troups positions. They would form the initial shield onf any further attack by the darkness creatures. He had already re-arranged his troups, placing wounded but still functional soldiers in sniping positions with long range weapons. He increased the number of infantry with A280’s and had placed them on platforms at the rear of the troup formations, providing heavy cover fire. Noting that vibro axes had been the most effective bladed weapon, all the melee troups had been re-equipped in this vein and stood directly behind the mechanised forces, ready to fall upon anything that got past them. Finally, a smaller number of ELG wielding infantry lay between the melee troopers and the A280 weilding infantry. If their position became compromised, the A280’s would be dropped and replaced with Bowcasters to allow for closer fire support.
It was all planned out, but how it worked would very much depend on what happened next and whatever information the probe droids could bring back might just give them an edge.
Across the planet, armies deployed in similar configurations around their respective “nests”. The minutes passed and slowly an eerie silence spread around the battle fields. The Darkness entities seemed to have gone inactive, and the AMC forces were waiting with baited breath and on high alert.
Out of over 200 probe droids that had been sent in to the enemy entities, only one managed to actually report back, the remainder were not seen or heard from again after their entry into the nests. But the imagery that the lone droid did bring back was enough to spread a ripple of fear around the AMC command, not only the ground based leadership, but the entire High Command.
The images confirmed that the entities were indeed mechanical based ships and not some form of enourmous space flight capable being. The technology seen was far beyond the understanding and comprehension of those in a position to view the footage. Inside, there appeared to be a large, main chanber which could only be described as some form of hangar bay. It contained the masses and masses of insectoid attack creatures that the ground forces had encountered. Around this large bay area were corridors leading off to other parts of these ships. The droid had managed to travel down a few of these corridors in rapid journeys that showed a network of corridors and rooms lined with mechanical and electrical conduits, panels and lighting, but it also seemed to indicate some sort of biomechanical capacity. But what the droid transmitted back before being destroyed that caused so much concern, was images of what appeared to be medical experimentation in vast laboratories, of what appeared to be viral and bacterial work going on in highly sophisticated environments. Recogniseable sentient beings from across the galaxy trapped in cages, tabks and strapped to tables all clearly dsplaying signs of abuse, distress and of experimentation of some sort having been undertaken upon them. Those areas appeared to be under heavy guard, but not by arachnoid or insectoid beings, but by some sort of bipedal, potentially humanoid creatures. Their features were completely hidden by a black and emerald green body suit of some type that gave little hint to any features, but their weapon of choice, carried by all the droid had managed to capture, and also the weapon that destroyed the droid, was of greatest concern.
A blindingly bright, emerald blue light whip curled out and sliced through a droid in the room before another such flash was seen directed at the solitary successful droid and then all went black.
A light whip? Not a weapon ever seen before, but it held significance. It meant that the weilders were all force users, and it meant that their abilities in the force were great indeed if they were able to command something as intricate as a light whip. Lightsabers took skill yet however potent a weapon, they were basic in their construction and control. The force users amongst the ranks of the AMC shuddered at the thought of trying to control the power of a fluid light weapon.
The images had barely been digested when the ground forces were attached with renewed vigour. Masses upon masses of the insectoid forces poured out of the ships and charged the AMC ranks across the planet. The mechanised assault forces drove into the charging hoards without hesitation, their shielded and armoured frames able to withstand heavy punishment. The surge slowed dramatically and Oquan ordered the melee forces to engage, supporting the droids in their efforts. Heavy cover fire from the GR75 gunner crews, the A280 armed infantry and the snipers was also doing a lot to slow down the attackers progress. Over an hour of battle later, with no sign of the insectoids breaking through the AMC ranks around what was now being hailed the mother ship, and Oquan dared to believe they may just push the tide back a second time. From his position in the thick of battle he ordered a big push ahead.
Ember Aranyos and Taarn Clawfire landed in a Y-Wing just outside of the battle front and wasted no time in seeking out Oquan. Battling their way nimbly through the chaos they reached his side just as he ordered the big push.
“Greetings Major Tangin Bacca. The High Command thought it prudent to ask us to assist you in this battle, considering the footage witnessed. Has there been any signting of one of the humanoids as yet?”
Ember, as always was calm, collected and polite, his speech un-hurried by the chaos around them. Oquan was about to shake his head in the negative when something tangible changed in the battle around them and all looked up to the top of the mother ship.
A force of at least twenty lightwhip wielding humanoids had appeared and was herding the insectoids into more effective, formation based attacks.
“Well, I guess that answered your question Master Aranyos!” Oquan wasted no time in sending instructions to all snipers to target the humanoids as a priority. He was about to continue his conversation with Ember only to find a small arachnoid in his place when he turned around. He slammed his vibroblades into it point first, driving both right down into the creatures body up to the hilts. Dragging the blades free, he spotted the two Jedi making their way towards the humanoid enemy figures.
“All long ranged fire, concentrate on supporting the two Jedi, they may be our best hope against those….. two legged damned whip wielding things!”
The two Jedi plowed into the whip wielding sentients with the full force of their skill and experience. Supported by a huge barrage of blaster fires targeted with pinpoint accuracy by over two hundred AMC sharp shooters, the enemy sentients went into a hasty retreat. Several were cut down and in their efforts to push the attack both the Jedi found themselves right on the lip of the hole from which the enemy forces emerged from. What they managed to witness first hand would change the tide of the battle in time, but right at that moment, they had to put all their efforts into not being swept into the mother ship by the retreating insectoids.
The second battle at the mother ship location had also been chalked down as a win for the AMC forces despite heavy casualties. In other locations across the planet however, things had not gone quite as well.
The 52nd, 23rd and 113th infantry divisions had been all but wiped out. Their battles had not been bolstered by any droid reenforcements due to the battalions assigned to them having been destroyed in space. Their already weakened positions got annihilated by the enemy forces and the very few remaining soldiers scarpered into the unknown wilderness of the uncharted planet. In time of course they would find their way to other battle locations, their loyalty to the AMC unwavering even in this defeat, but the pain of the heavy losses would take a long time to heal. Exacting casualty reports were impossible, but it was suspected that in those three locations alone close to three thousand AMC soldiers lost their lives in the second ground battle on Carlac.
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Post by Logan Shivers on Jul 25, 2017 18:17:34 GMT
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