|
Post by Logan Shivers on Sept 12, 2017 19:46:19 GMT
Carlac Continued…..
In from the cold….
Aboard the medical ships on the outskirts of the Carlac system proximity alarms started to go off as 12 JM-5000’s slid to a halt around them after coming out of hyperspace. The alarms on the Scorekeepers Grace went silent straight away, recognising the fleet as friendly, however as it did not carry Pitch Black identification the fleet of gunships was not recognised by the other ships.
On hearing the alarms, Quia strode out of the small quarters she had been allocated whilst she was on this babysitting duty, ensuring that Logan did not leave his tank, and looked around to see if she could spot the trouble.She found a screen and tapped in her access codes and it was not long before a groan escaped her lips. She put a call through to the Chief Apothecary and waited patiently for him to answer.
“Quia this is not a good time…” “Not worry… much, friends outside not enemy” A short silence ensued and then Gene was back on the line. “Is this something to do with Logan?”
“She nodded her head emphatically, causing Gene to roll his eyes in exhasperation.
“What now Quia?” “Secret bodyguard squad, angel people, come get him, track him with thing in his arm”
Gene thought about this for a second and then replied in slight amazement.
“Are you telling me Logan has some sort of tracker implant linked to a rescue squad of some sorts and they have come to get him?”
Quia nodded with a smile, happy that she had been able to get that across so easily. Talking this common language was hard.
About five minutes after arrival, one of the gunships had docked and a solitary female Diathim stepped out onto the hangar deck. Gene was there to greet her and had to admit to himself that the creature was utterly stunning. Her long golden hair appeared almost as if it glowed, as did her folded sheer white wings. The contrast provided by the figure hugging black leather bodysuit overflowing with weaponry was quite stark. Her movements were gracefull and measured as she approached Gene with a genial expression on her face.
“Greetings, I am Alsten Richardson and I am here to collect Logan Shivers, please take me to him straight away.”
There was no malice in her voice, not even a commanding tone, she was just making conversation which Gene found possibly more unsettling than either of the other two options. There was just something about her that made you feel…. Well, he was not sure how he felt..
“You are welcome to come with me and see that he is in good hands and safe, but not in good health. I cannot permit his release…”
“Doctor, we have a constant live feed of his vital signs as well as an accurate location for him. I have neither the need for you to guide me to him, or for you to tell me he is not well. His vitals show that he is recovered enough from his recent incident to survive out of a tank with no danger to himself other than slower healing to the remaining injuries. Mr Shivers would not have activated the recall signal if he did not wish to leave the location he was in and could not for some reason. I appreciate fyour good intentions but this is not open for debate.”
Quia nodded to Gene and ushered Gene towards the hangar exit.
“Logan tell them nothing get in way, if get in way kill, Doctor not get in way, Angels not talk about it”
Quia had been around when Logan first created his Guardian squad. She knew that the members had been chosen ot just for their abilities but for their undisputed loyalty towards Logan. Only this Diathim was known to Quia as a member, and potentially she was the only one that anyone other than Logan knew about, the remaining squad cloaked in secrecy. If any were to be seen in active duty, they kept their features covered at all times and made every effort to keep their identities hidden. This had major benefits when infiltration of any kind might be required at some stage.
The three made their way to a lift, and up to the first medical deck. Gene led them to a medical room near the rear of the ship where two Trandoshan soldiers stood guard. On seeing Alsten both stepped aside and allowed all three to enter without challenge.
Logan, floating in his tank with nothing but his birthday suit on was grinning like only a reptilian can.. all teeth and malice! Gene entered his access code to the panel of the bacta tank and began the shut down process in order to drain it and remove Logan. Several alarms went off, warning that the healing was not complete but he over rode all and carried on, muttering gently to himself. It was not long before Logan was able to step out, and back into his beloved armour suit that was stored next to the tank.
“Gene, thank you for your hospitality, but there is too much at risk for me to sit around here licking wounds. Time to heal later.” “I understand but cannot condone this course of action. My oath and my ethics mean my patients are my only priority.”
Logan held his hand up to stop Gene, then put his hand on Genes shoulder, the enormous three digit appendage gently squeezing.
“You have done your job, I will heal from this. Now let me do mine and help stop you from getting too many bodies to work on, that is MY priority.”
Gene sighed, but accepted the inevitable.
“Logan, have this. Keep yourself pumped up at all times whilst in Carlac, at least do me that favour.”
He handed Logan a box full of bacta rich stim packs that he had concocted especially for Logan.
“They wont make you immune, but it will make it a hell of a lot harder for any infection to take hold, including the force propelled virus. Gives you a chance at least if you get hit again.”
“Thanks Doc, don’t need any excuse to hit up some stims, you should know that much`!!”
Logan stuck himself with one of the stims and breathed in deep, his eyes snapped open wide, then slowly closed, a look of peace taking over his face.
“Whoa…. Doc, that is some ride… have to give me the recepie one day.”
With that, Logan walked onto the waiting gunship, followed by Quia and Alsten. The gracefull Diathim turned around and bowed deeply and respectfully to the Chief Apothecary, letting him know that despite here actions, she respected his role and his actions. She pivoted on her heel, stepped into the ship and the door hissed shut behind her. The JM lifted off and exited the hangar bay, quickly joined by the others and headed in to the system proper.
Within half an hour Logan had been updated on the situation. The space battle was on a razors edge, could go either way at any time and it was spread all around the system, but the ground battle was doing worse. One of the nests had completely annihilated all the AMC forces assigned to it and was en route to join the big-ass one by the city. Logan had enough of being briefed, he patched a call through to Max.
“Hey fuzzy features, I’m out and ready to play, where do you want me? Got some new friends with me too to….”
He stopped short when he saw the look on Max’s face, and the chaos of fire and smoke in the background.
“Boss, you ok? Got me 10 JM gunsips I can bring your way if you need?”
“We got trouble everywhere Logan.. good to see you up and about. We are en-route to the Behemoth aswe haven’t been able to raisethem for the past half hour. Got heavy resistance, think you can get through your side?”
Logan had not even responded and the fleet of gunships changed their course to intercept the Bahemoth. Logan could see that it was in the centre of what looked like a furious battle between it, two Arquittens and four of the Darkness ships. Plenty of fighters seemed to be buzzing around too but it was not a strong position for the MTC with Shri onboard.
“On the way Max, ETA seven minutes and change.”
Max nodded his thanks and terminated the connection, he had so much on his plate there was no time for prolonged gratitudes and farewells. His own MTC had almost been boarded twice and it was receiving a heavy beating from two enemy ships at present, with only fighter support and the distinct golden YV-666.
|
|
|
Post by Logan Shivers on Oct 3, 2017 21:24:40 GMT
Battle of the Bahemoth
The giant MTC was almost dead in the water. Its engine rooms were all full of flames, smoke, blaster fire and enemies, both the arachnid kind and the fearsome humanoid masked soldiers with the light whips. They appeared to be in control of the arachnid creatures and spent most of their efforts in herding them and directing the battel, but when they engaged they were lethal..
The huge hangar bay had been lost to the enemy and the corridors and rooms in most of this ship were either under heavy attack, or overrun by the enemy. The bridge had held its ground and had a perimeter of secure corridors and rooms around it full of AMC troops. Likewise the battle room was secure however it had lost all but one corridor as far as a perimeter was concerned and the battle was not going well, the remaining AMC troops fighting gallantly but far outnumbered by the enemy.
The thick smoke, mingled in with blaster fumes in the enclosed areas of the ship did not help the AMC troops, effecting their targeting and forcing much more close range battle and hand to… pincer battle than they would have otherwise liked.
Shri was in the battle room and with all his external comms gone he had absolutely no idea what was going on outside of his besieged ship. For all he knew, it was the same story everywhere and the AMC was about to be wiped from the face of the galaxy. He could have become dejected, he could have lost hope, but that was not the Shri way… not the Bacca way and not the AMC way!! The only thing Shri had written all over his face was grim determination. He, like all others now was in full battle kit, ready to join in when it became time. For now, he was managing to keep some semblance of organisation within the ship and ensure that his devided forces were kept as informed as possible about the situation that was changing on a minute to minute basis. Since divdrting his attention to the on board battle, things had started to stabilise and it was through his tactical expertise and his troops sheer determination that they had managed to secure the areas they had. Problem was, there did not seem to be enough of them left to go and secure the engine rooms and that could mean all was lost. He was busy considering his options when a comm link went live.
“Sir, we have 312 able bodies here, 52 seriously wounded that cannot be moved without medical assistance and about 45 that are wounded, but capable of bearing arms in defence of a position if required, not confident in using them for an attack though.”
Shri thought about his options. It was really quite pointless in holding a bridge, if they were soon to lose power to the ship. The battle room had its own emergency power supply that would keep it going for a number of hours, but they barely had enough troops to hold out. The engine rooms were almost as far from the bridge as you could get on the damned ship.. so sending a contingent from there would most likely fail, or at least be very heavy in losses. But what other option did he have? He doubted there was more than a couple of handfuls of troops in the engine room area fighting in pockets of resistance, they would not hold out long.
And almost as if in answer to his thoughts, the lights flickered and went out, as did all the power to the battle room. A mere two seconds later, it was restored as the back up power kicked in. That was it, his mind made up.
“Shrag, come in, you still hear me?” “Yes sir, got a decent energy level on the power suit so comms are good.” “Leave a total of 100 defenders using the 45 wounded in that count. Diminish your borders to make things easier for them to hold out, just keep corridor A21, A23 and A24, using ajoining rooms as defence points. Booby trap the current borders and as much of the area between your current borders and the diminished ones. Make those damn things pay for every inch. Rest of the able bodied troops head straight to engine rooms…”
His instructions were interrupted mid sentence by Shrag,
“Sir, we could come to you first…..”
“Soldier, do not interrupt!! You will head straight to engine rooms, you will go the shortest route which means you will NOT come anywhere near this battle room. That is an order.”
“Sir…”
“You mean yes Sir, I did not give a suggestion ut an order soldier”
Shrag had enough, he lost his temper and shouted through the intercom.
“Father!! Will you listen… It makes sense, we can join forces, we can…”
“NO!!! you will do as you are told soldier.”
Shri softened a little and carried on.
“Son, we have such a heavy force surrounding us that you would likely lose many more troops getting to us than we could replenish, we are less than 200 all told and most are carrying one sort of injury or another that would impede any movement to another location. If we cannot secure the engine rooms, we are lost. It simply HAS to be done, and only you can get this done at present. Gods be with you.”
The light on the comms unit on Shrags suit went out, leaving him plunged in darkness. Flicking his visor display to the night vision setting he took a deep breath and went about organising his troops. He had been in charge of the ship defence troops and felt that this was all perhaps his failing.
Shrag was far from correct in his thinking however, his quick and decisive action had stopped a complete and utter disaster when the second enemy ship had attached itself and boarding parties had started to poor in from all directions. He had managed to organise a steady retreat in most areas of the ship, allowing his forces to defend smaller areas and thus be more effective, rather than be spead around the giant ship in small pockets of resistance that could be over run more easily.
It was barely a quarter of an hour later, and Shrag stood at a T junction on corridor A43, one of the booby trapped positions that was going to be released. He and his engine room liberation team stood ready to move. He could hear the raging battle in the dark ahead of him, only just visible in the flickering light of the several fires and knew he had to time this just right. His entire liberation team would have to charge through the current battle front, a bottleneck in a crossroads with corridor B13, and collect the defending squad currently entrenched there on their way, blast through the enemy lines and keep going as if they were running for their lives, whilst at the same time keeping organised and able to defend their rear.
The time came, one of the grenadiers up front laucned a devastating barrage of shrapnel explosives, followed by a wall of fire layed down by two heavy weapons specialists with flame throwers. Shrag screamed his battle cry and ran around the corner, his troops following suit.
The large force tore through the enemy ranks, screaming and growling all the way. The scene, lit only by flames and smeared in smoke was nightmarish. In the flickering orange and red glow, the enemy arachnids looked truly horrifying, the shadows they cast taking on a life of their own in the chaos. The sheer force of their attack, as well as its suddenness clearly took the enemy by surprise and Shrags force broke through to their rear and just continued to plough ahead at full tilt as planned.
It took a full half an hour of gruesome close quarter battle to clear the entire task force and then, finally, it all went quiet. They had managed to get ahead of the enemy and it would appear that for the moment, they had lost interest, directing their attention back to the bridge for now. Shrag found it odd that not one of the whip wielding herders was spotted, and wondered where they all where. Keeping a fast pace, the force jogged through anandoned and burning sections of the ship, having to divert in places where their path was completely blocked by wreckage of one kind or another. Shrag lost count of the amount of bodies and enemy carcasses he saw lying around and his stomach was starting to protest at the stench of blood, guts and sh……
Shrag realised a body he had just ran past was one of his scouts that he had only just sent ahead to clear their route. He did not have time to stop himself from rounding the next corner, apart from anything else he would just be slammed into from behind by everyone else, but he did hav time to go around blade first.. his vibro sword infront of him he slammed into a rather large figure, the vibro blade going straight through its stomach. Shrag and the surprised enemy herder hit the deck in a jumble, and before he even had time to think about it, Shrags honed battle skills kicked in, twisting the blade and driving it upwares to the enemies chest cavity. He may not have known what sort of being this was, but it looked humanoid so it had to have some form of vital organs in its chest cavity surely.
He was right, the surprised look truned to a pained look, then to various degrees of agony and disbelief, before settling on a glazed over decidedly dead look. A massive stroke of luck it has been for Shrag, as those things had proven to be lethal in a hand to hand fight, but his luck also continued in that when they both fell to the ground, the mass of arachnids that charged went over both figures, piling into the troops behing Shrag who had a split second longer than he to react.
Another firelight lit battle ensued, most of which Shrag spent pinned on the ground by the heavy carcass of a scorpion like creature, but he managed to cut his way out and stood, covered in blood and gore looking like the visage of death itself, and slammed both blades hilt deep into the last arachnid that was with its back to him, fighting his men in the confined area. It shuddered and lost its footing, which was all that was needed as an opening for a large Abbysin fighter to get his battleaxe through and slam it into the creatures head, cleaving it in half.
A semblance of calm returned, and the force was off running again, led yet again by the crimson covered Shrag!
|
|
|
Post by Shri Bacca on Oct 3, 2017 23:38:02 GMT
Waaargghhhh!!!! The Glory and Honor of the Baccas in Battle.
Awesome Chapter Logan!
|
|
|
Post by Logan Shivers on Oct 27, 2017 20:38:07 GMT
continued... Battle of the Behemoth
The 10 JM gunships flew hard and fast, blasting away with all their weapons at the Darkness ships in their way. Not staying still for even a split second. The sudden onslaught causght two of the enemy ships off guard, enough so that the two dozen or so fighters left in the area managed to use the distraction to destroy one, and severely damage the second. With the enemy ships diminished, Logan and his JM’s left the fighters to finish off the damaged ship, and headed right for the MTC that was currently drifting without power a mile or so away.
The powerful and fast gunships spun around the MTC, pounding the two Darkness ships that were attached to it mercilessly. The ring of defence broken, one of the two ships engaged with Max and his incoming fleet made the mistake of breaking off to assist the boarding ships. The JM’s turned on it immediately and with the aid of three Aggressors that appeared out of nowhere, quickly incapacitated it. With this done, the final two defending Darkness ships were quicly overwhelmed by the combined forces of the AMC and Pitch Black. A small victory in the battle, and one that would hopefuly mean that this whole mess could turn in their favour.
Logan organised the fighters and all the gunships apart from the one he was in into a spinning globe formation around the drifting MTC, their lasers pounding into the darkness vessels attached to it. Four DX dropships emerged from the oncoming MTC, a strike force sent by Max to help clear the decks of the stricken ship and Logan joined them on their perilous attempt to get into the hangar bay. Lasers blasting, they sped in towards the opening, at a speed otherwise far too great for comfort. Two of the tentacle projections from one of the darkness ships let go of the MTC and swiped at the incoming ships. Logan winced as he saw one of the drop ships split clean in half and a second one lose its entire front to the strikes. There was no way anyone in those ships survived. A blink of an eye later and the JM was screetching across the hangar landing pad, sparks flying and the pilot battling hard to stop the ship before it ploughte into the fast approaching opposite wall. More screeching and a jarring, ear splitting crunch later, and the gunship had come to rest in a slightly crumpled heap against a bulkhead of the MTC. The remaining dropships faired a little better, managing to stop before any such collision.
A grin broke on Logans face, not a happy one, but a feril, blood lusting smile.
“Lets go kill some bugs”
Before Logan could step outside however, he was barged out of the way by an enthusiastic Quia, her massive bulk briefly filling the exit door space and then vanishing with a howl into the dark, firelit hangar bay. Logan shook his head, he should know better by now than to get in her way. Four Diathim sleekly shimmied past him and jumped up, taking flight into the dark void of the hangar heights. They quickly vanished in the darknes, only visible to Logan in his infrared spectrum vision. He stepped out and surveyed the scene around him.
The place was crawling with bug like creatures of one kind or another, lit by the fires and electrical sparks that were abundant in the wreck of the hangar. In his native vision the scene was clearer, being able to see just how many of the things were crawling all over eah other to get to their new prey… him and Quia and the quickly gathering troups from the dropships. Their entry into the hangar had quite literally cut a path through the things, decimating their number in hundreds.
Rykk blade in one hand, a vibro axe in the other, Logan stepped forward and entered into the fray, standing next to Quia who was already splattered in gore, her axes slamming down repeatedly onto the carapace of a large arachnid. Logan took one of its legs off with his Rykk and slammed his own axe into a smaller bug that was skittering across the ground towards him. The thing got stuck to his blade, but as he swung it up and down again onto the next target, the remnants of the little bug flew unto the air. The two were joined by the heavily armoured AMC shock troupers and forming a wedge, they pushed, battered, sliced and shot their way forwards towards an exit hallway that would lead them to the battle room. The four Diathim appeared from time to time, taking timely sniper shots at targets that might pose an unseen threat to Logan and Quia at the head of the wedge. Logan was also getting directions from them as to best direction to proceed. The flying warriors were amazing scouts as well as lethal snipers.
Slowly but steadily the wedge moved forward, taking light losses by the completely disorganised bugs and inflicting utter carnage and spreading death on every step forward. It took them the best part of an hour, but they finally found themselves standing outside the sealed door of the battle room. The Diathim now stood flanking Logan as he happered the hilt of the Rykk against the bulkhead.
“Shri!!! You in there you hairy faced growler?”
Logans booming, gravely voice echoed around the corridor and was met with a short silence.
Inside, Shri’s ears perked and he silenced the entire room. There were not many who would dare call him names, dare to be so insubordinate…but… was he not reportedly in a bacta tank and out of action? He walked to the sealed door and replied in his own stong dialect, knowing that if it truly was Logan, the crazy Trandoshan would not have a clue what he said, whereas an imposter might fail to spot a trap…
“That you out there lizard brain?”
“quit jibberjabbering at me growler and open the damned door, the troups are getting bored of killing bugs out here.”
The arrogance and flippance of the reply confirmed to him without doubt that it was indeed his old friend Logan standing at his door! He released the locks and the heavy armour plated doors slowly slid open, revealing Logan and Quia, grinning like idiots and surrounded by a gore covered AMC shock squad or two, or three perhaps? And a somehow imacculately clean quad of Diathim, all particularly stunning females. Logan certainly knew how to pick his company!
“your ugly face is a sight for sore eyes Logan, I don’t know how or why you are here, but thank you. Now come in before we get another wave of those things come and force their way in.”
The pair locked forearms and exchanged a quick embrace, but it was quickly down to business. Once all were in and the blast doors shut and locked again, Shir gave Logan an update on the onboard situation, including the fact that all internal comms had been lost with Shraggs attack party. Having confirmed that the battle room was fully secure and there was no sign yet of the enemy being able to infiltrate, a plan was suggested by Logan to go and assist Shraggs party. The heavily armed and armoured shock troups would be better equipped to deal with the situation and the long journey through corridors filled with enemy than the onboard security troops that Shragg had with him..
Logan demanded that one squad remain with Shri, accepted no argument and slapped on his heavy battle helm. With an unseen grin he saluted Shri, perhaps a first ever from Logan, and headed out of the door once again to hunt down Shragg.
|
|
|
Post by Logan Shivers on Oct 29, 2017 18:37:42 GMT
Battle of the Behemoth – a last stand
Four hours had passed since Logan left Shri behind in the Battle room. The Wookie had tried to come along, but listened to reason eventually… Logan was battered and bruised, his armour was scratched, dented and actually torn in places where the immensely powerful bladed appendage of a bug had gone through it like it was cloth. That one had been a close call. His command, the AMC shock troops, Quia and his three remaining Diathim now found themselves standing outside a sealed blast door, the only way to get to the vast engine rooms at the rear of the shi apparently blocked. Two engineers from the shock squad had set to work straight away with cutting lasers and were not too far off from making an entry. The remainder stood on high alert, waiting for any flanking attack, or for a full frontal assault from whatever was behind the door. The wide corridor they were in was almost in pitch black.. just how he liked it. No fires, only the steady red illumination of the laser cutting torches. Then the light snapped out, leaving a dull orange glow from the superheated metal they had sliced through. The engineers both shoved hard against the large section of blast door they had cut and it slowly began to tilt outward, gaining speed until with a deafening booming crash, it fell onto the deck and left a gaping hole.
None of them expected to see what they did. A mass of bugs, floor to ceiling and wall to wallin the large entry room to the engine rooms. The vast majority had their backs to them, their attention clearly taken by whatever lay ahead of them. No professional soldier would let up such an opportunity. Without hesitation, the shock troop launched an assault with heavy weapons, firing grenades, flame throwers and even a couple of rockets at the tightly packed creatures.
The attack caused instant and utter carnage. Limbs, gore and who knows what else sprayed out over them all and the remaining bugs turned and ran at them with incredible speed and ferocity. The charge was met head on and the shock troopers, still led by Logan and Quia, sliced, crunched and shot their way forward once again, inch by inch. The enemy was being bolstered by more creatures coming into the room from the engine rooms area and the entry room was quickly packed out again. Their stupidity was perhaps the saving grace for the vastly outnumbered, and quickly tiring force. More grenades where launched deep into their mass, decimating their number in the flash of light and fire. More crawling beings still poured out and they too were met with the same tenacity as all the rest.
At one point Logan felt an unexpected sting in his neck, followed by a rush of fresh energy and a buzz of power. He turned to find a shock squad medic slamming stims into every person he could find an exposed body part to do so. He smiled and threw Logan another one, motioning to Quia… he clearly had no wish to risk jabbing her!! Logan grinned and slammed the needle right into her butt cheek that was hanging out from her ruined armour suit. She growled, looked at him through the corner of her eye and said something along the lines of sitting on him until he couldn’t breathe… but she continued to fight on, with a certain amount of extra energy.
The stim bolstered force forged ahead, finally breaking through into the engine rooms. Finally, they saw what remained of the attack force led by Shragg. The group seemed to be diminished to no more than a dozen or so, heavily battered and bloodied soldiers. A Wookie stood proud amongst them, using a severed limb from a bug to hack at his opponents. In the corner of the large room that was barely illuminated by an emergency light and occasional sparks from clashing weapons, Logan spotted two cloaked figures. They stood still but their attention was pinned to the new arrivals and havng clearly decided that this was a larger danger, released their light whips and headed over to attack, led by creatures of all shapes and sizes first. They drove the bugs like a herd towards Logan and his soldiers.
Logan did not like to do this, it felt like cheating in a fight, but, in this case he decided on an exception… he erected a force shield around him and headed out towards the two figures. He was the only one in the room able to confront force weilders head on so that was going to be his task. The expected force attack came at him, but his shield was strong, something he had been practicing for years now. He then lashed out with an attack of his own, a little trick he had less practice with, and was not as strong with, but it was none the less effective. He swung his Rykk, no longer shiny but dull with scratches and gore and with chunks missing from it. He channelled the force through the blade and released lightning through it… It spread in a shimmering arc, like a dancing whip of his own and hit the two oncoming figures. Logan did not hang around to see the results of that attack. His capability with lightning was not stong yet and he knew this would only stun them… but it was enough, it let him get closer and that little margin helped him push his battered Rykk hilt deep into the one whip weilders chest. He turned his attention, and his axe to the remaining enemy Just as he regained his footing and sensibilities fomr the lightning strike. Luckily for Logan the whip had been knocked out of his hand and he only held a large, rather nasty looking hooked knife.
The two faced off, wearily circling with quick jerking attacks to test and get a feel for their opponent. Logan quickly figured out this was a fast and agile creature, whatever it was under that cloak. Their blades screetched against each other several times before the hooked knife made it past Logans defences in a blinkingly fast strike and cut deep into his exposed thigh. Logan went to one knee, using the fall to lunge forward with a surprise of his own, slamming the spike in his shoulder plate hard into the enemies leg. A satisfying scream was heard just before Logan finished the job by slamming his axe into the figures head, embedding it deep enough that he then could not get it back out without kicking repeatedly at the body to release it.
He turned, looking for his Rykk and noticed another two cloaked figures on an attacking run at him. He noticed far, far too late.
Shrag was exhausted, he had lost count of how many he had killed with this appendage he was wielding, let alone altogether. It seemed like he had been hacking away at the gods forsaken giant insectoids for ever… he had lost all track of time and with no way to reference it, had no idea if it was even daytime hours or not… it was just now. That is all that existed to him, the present. Swinging his lead heavy arm just one more time to stab, slice or hack at the next monster that came their way. And them repeat, endlessly until…. Until what? Perhaps he was already dead… perhaps this was what some called hell. Perhaps the afterlife was one endless battle against these creatures. Plenty would revel in the thought of eternal battle against their enemy.. but the reality of it was not quite so grand he thought. It was just pain. Mental and physical pain, it was a tiredness above and beyond anything he had ever had to endure before.
His force had been slowly cut down, hour after hour, to the point that only a couple of dozen remained, in a ring around him, their last stand forced upon them by numbers of the enemy they had simply never dreamt of in their worst nightmares. The only thing that had let them carry on for so long was that the enemy dead had formed a sort of barrier wall and it took great effort for the enemy to actually reach them, and they could not only do so a few at a time, as they crawled over their own dead, not caring what damage they did. He suspected that more than he were about to give it all up, go for that one last mad attach and die in the so called glory of battle, when loud explosions had echoed across the engine rooms. The creatures swarming around seemed to pulse with each sound of detonation and by the time the eights or ninth one came, it also brought with it light and fire. It took his tired mind a while to grasp the concept of help arriving, but eventually it did and he gave a battle cry with more power in it than he thought he still possessed.
“Our brothers arrive to help! Fight with courage, fight with determination, we will beat these creatures yet! One last stand my loyal souls!!”
With that he surged ahead, the sharp bladed insect appendage he was using as his weapon cutting out a path in front of him, a path to possible salvation, his loyal men and women doing their best to stay on their feet and follow suit. The small force must have looked a grim sight. What was left of their armour was encrusted with gore, the exposed parts of their body torn and bloody. Few carried their original weapons, and those who did, carried dented, nicked and bent blades, so heavily battle damaged they would be no more than salvage at the end of all this. Quite a few of them carried sharp limbs from their slaughtered enemy, claws, stingers, one had even found a spiked tail he was using as a mace. They looked like the devils own coming out to play.. and were once again wreaking havoc amongst the enemy, their vigour renewed by the arrival of friendly forces.
Seeing that Shrag was leading his troop towards them, Quia pushed the shock squads hard to meet up with their struggling AMC counterparts. The sea of insectoid creatures between them, illuminated by firelight, the orange glow glinting off their black eyes, shinning on their sharp, bladed appendages, narrowed until it was just a fes creatures wide, and then, just like that it was gone. The AMC shock troops formed a protective ring around those they had rescued, allowing them their first break in who knew how long. Almost to a one, they collapsed with exhaustion to the ground.
Shrag lent on his blade like insectoid appendage that he had been using as a weapon and wearily looked Quia up and down.
“If you were not so ugly, I might hug you…”
Quia smiled a huge, toothy grin,
“You so ugly me like to…”
She made some lewd motions with her hips and licked her lips. Shrag tried to chuckle, but all that came out was a moaning sort of rasp. At that pokknt, a sharp blue light illuminated the engine rooms and all eyes, all eyes that were not focused on killing bugs anyway, turned to look at the cause. It had been too quick to actually see what it was, but whatever it was had come from Logans direction, the crazy Trandoshan doing battle with two hooded whip weilders. Three flying shadowns suddenly descended and attacked a further two of those same hooded figures, two that Logan had clearly not seen and that were heading his way. Quia wasted no time and also headed that way, she was annoyed that she had let him out of her sight like that… she had got carried away with battle lust again… Shrag too saw what was happening, and with a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach lurched that way himself. He had seen the terror those things could unleash… and how fast they could do it.
Elite soldiers though they might be, the three Diathim were more attuned to assassination and shadow fighting, so once spotted, the battle between them and the hooded, humanoid enemy was short lived. They got snatched out of the air by the light whips and slammed to the ground, ugly burn marks where the whips had touched them. The first had been unlucky enough to be caught by his throat, the light whip curling around his neck and burning almost clean through before its weilder released it. The second managed to block the attack with his arm, the whip coiling painfully around his bicep and burning all the way through before its weilder let go, He collapsed to the ground writhing in agone. The third had managed to get much closer whilst the two enemies were busy attacking his bretheren, close enough to graze one with the tip of his poisoned knife. It was not much, but she knew it would be enough. The second enemy punched a jagged blade of its own through her back, the split tip bursting out of her chest right where her heart was. She died quickly but with a smile on her too pretty face.
Their attack had slowed down the whip wielding attackers. It had given Logan time to defeat the first two and to turn around to see that he had two more descending upon him. It had also given time for Quia and Shrag to catch up and just as the enemy launched their attack on Logan, they hurled themselves at the humanoids. Quia and her considerable bulk hit the first one with such force that it lost hold of its whip and its ferocious barbed dagger and fell sprawling on the ground, Quia ontop biting and punching her axe into him repeatedly until she could not feel any resistance.
Shrag on the other hand was too slow. His effort was valiant, but his sheer exhaustion was his undoing. He hit the second humanoid and ineffectively bounced off it, just barely making it stagger. He did however swing his bladed weapon at it, earning him some attention. The hooded figure let out some form of pulse attack that knocked Shrag sliding back about four hundred paces across the floor, clearing a path as wide as his body of carcasses and slamming him into a ceiling high wall of dead bugs at the other end of the room. The clear patch of floor seemed to shine in the firelight, like a giant finger pointing at him nestled amongst the foul smelling dead insectoids.
His attack however had not failed. It had done something invaluable. It bought Logan time, and that is all he needed. Fuelled by the rage he felt at seing Shrag tossed aside like a rag doll, he tore at the enemies head with his bare, clawed hand. His nails bit in deep and he wrenched out a chunk of the creatures throat, tossing it aside before slamming the axe in his other hand down into the creatures shoulder so hard that it carried on going until it came back out again just above the creatures waist, severing the arm completely. The last of thw whip weilders collapsed into a bloody heap on the ground and the cavernous engine rooms seemed to come to a complete standstill.
The insectoid creatures, still numbering in their hundreds seemed to lose the will to fight. Without their masters to herd them into battle it seems, they had no interest in in and slunk and skittered away, vanishing inot the shadows and leaving the bedraggled groupf of AMC fighters alone.
Logan was not the first to get to Shrag. A shock squad medic had spotted the body and appeared to be tending to it when Logan arrived.
“The furry one ok?”
The medic, a Wookie herself, turned to him with a concerned look on her face.
“Alive, but unconscious, I cannot raise him at all. Stable, will get him to the medical ships, somebody there should be able to help.”
Logan nodded, being alive was the main thing, the rest would come in time he supposed.
|
|
|
Post by Shri Bacca on Oct 31, 2017 2:37:04 GMT
Shrag...nooooo....!!!!
|
|
|
Post by Shri Bacca on Oct 31, 2017 2:37:25 GMT
Awesome story so far Logan.
|
|
|
Post by Logan Shivers on Nov 28, 2017 13:45:08 GMT
A treaty is born?
Nimm stode out of the grand Palace in Carlac city and took in a few deep breaths. The past few hours felt like days, but it all looked to have been worth it. The ruling government had shown willing to enter into talks and an initial agreement of military support in exchange for trading privilidges and military training areas on the planet had been agreed. And so they had the full cooperation of the sentients for now which would make things so much easier. Nimm patched a comms channel through to Enox.
“General, we have full military freedom on this planet to act against the Darkness forces. We no longer need to respect civil boundaries or avoid armed forces within the city. Do what you must to secure the planet, more so, do what you must to secure the safety of this city.”
“Understood Nimm, good work, I guess the full details can wait until later, but good to know we have the natural borns on side.”
Enox wasted no time in repositioning the Y head directly over the centre of the city. Hewanted to be able to get the best all around angels. He also sent over 200 officers down to the city to help organise the city militia. Road blocks, sniping points, traps, anything that might help if the worst happened and the damned bugs made it into the city. He then patched a line thought to Oquan and waited patiently for him to respond.
“Yes General, receiving you now.”
Oquan had found a relatively quiet spot amidst the carnage of the latest attack. A ring of AMC troops surrounded him protectively, allowing him the time to communicate with the General.
“We need to protect the city at all costs. An agreement was struck. What is the situation there>”
“Tenuous. Two more of those ships have come in to add their numbers, we are barely able to hold them back, the troops are exhausted, the stims will not work forever to keep them going.. I hear a third ship might be on the verge of defeating its allocated forces and so may make its way herer… I don’t have to tell you…”
“Understood Oquan. I hear that since Adde came down on the Black Dragon, the Pitch Black forces have managed to wipe the floor clean in their allocated battle region. They are packing up their gear and waiting for reassignment. I will send Adde over to you, stabilise the situation and we can work on securing the city.”
Oquan breathed a sigh of relief. He did not mind admitting that things were getting too close to the wire here. The addition of some slightly loopy reptilians to their efforts would be a massive benefit.
What seemed like days later, but was in fact a merer two hours, a looming shape cast its shadow over Oquan and his men. The Black Dragon, in all its shattered glory hung overhead like some sort of demon, a dull thrumming hum the only noise coming from the large ship. On her flanks two GR 75’s and an Action Class freighter flew, separated and settled behind the line of battle Oquan was holding. Troops poored out of the two Gallo’s and from the converted Action a host of droids emerged. All formed ranks and awaited orders within a matter of minutes, a finely tuned war machine indeed.
From the belly of the Black Dragon a growing cluster of dots emerged. As they got larger and larger Oquan recognised them as troopers with jetpacks!! Squad upon squad was descending upon the enemy, from above and landing on top of the seething insectoid hoard. A figure circled by twelve others separated from the descending rain of troops and hovered above Oquan briefly before descending the final distance to land noisily around Oquan and his close support team. Adde Dima and his Black Squad had made their entrance. The Black squad adding their might to his own personal guard. Trandoshan fought shoulder to shoulder with Wookie and made space for the two commanders to greet and organise their now combined forces.
“Looks like you night need some support on your flanks, close to being over run.”
“You have no idea how close Adde. It is good to see you, yes, flanks need desparate support.”
Adde nodded and sent two quick communications via his suits comms panel. In the distance behind them the ranked Pitch Black forces split and made their way at pace to the flanks of Oquans forces. The remaining droids and infangry awaited command. Adde had a visual link up from the Black Dragon, still looming overhead and hada clear birds eye view of the battle. He patched it through to Oquan as well and the two commanders werer able to better direct their forces to renew their attack on the enemy with ferocity and precision.
The sun was rising on a scene like no otherer. In the distance stunning scenery gave way to the horrors of the carnage that resulted from a now four day long battle, but it had been a battle that had laid a much heavier toll on the Darkness forces than on the AMC legions. Hundreds of thousands of insectoid creatures lay dead across over four miles of land, in a line that curved dangerously inwards at the edges. The plains did not allow for terrain to be used to protect flanks and so the AMC forces had a hard time controlling the vaster numbers of the enemy and stoping them from running flanking manoeuvres. The early hours of this, the fourth morning brought a strange stillness. Even carrion birds could not be seen, the smell of the rotting flesh of the insectoids apparently repulsing even them.
A slight mist arose from the ground, curling around the carcasses and giving an etherial feel to the whole scene. Adde and Oquan stood on a wooden platform that had hastily been erected as a spotting tower and critically scanned the horisons.
“I don’t like it, feels wrong, feels like a trick”
“Yes, but we must move, this might be our only chance.”
“Adde, once we start loading thoses ships, we are open to attack, an attack that cannot be repelled if all of our gear and troops are mid transport. We would have a two hour long period at least of complete vulnerability.”
“No Choice. And we can use a Pitch Black tactic Logan came up with… bit unorthodox but…”
Oquan laughed,
“Why would anything Logan came up with be orthodox in any way?! Tell me what you are thinking.”
And so an hour later the five GR75’s and the Black Dragon formed a line, nose to tail across the battle lines. They opened fire at nothing in particular, just laying down heavy covering fire whilst all available droids took point positions ahead of the line of ships. The ships then settled, crunching down on the rotting carcasses of the insectoid hoard. All efforts had been made to remove AMC corpses but there were no guarantees that some had not been missed across the sprawling area.
Grenadiers stood directly behind the droids, their weaponry at the ready. Behind the line of ships, the troops simply grabbed whatever was closest to them and hurled it into the open hangar bays of the ships and ran in what appeared utter chaos. In actual fact, the “grab and run” was very effective at quick exits. Being organised and orderly had its place, but when haste was required, Logan had found that there was no better action than…. Well, haste. Simply grab what you could and get to where you needed to be. Orgnaisation could come later.
The expected attack from the enemy did come, it was met by a barrage of heavy laser fire from the ships, blaster fire from the droids and a hail of grenades and explosives that tore them appart. The shock of the heavy defense sent the hoard back for a few minutes, but that was all the time required. The grenadiers launched their last remaining explosives and ran back to the ships, now powering up and ready to take off. The remaining forces, comprising of droids only continued to lay down fire until a flight of Torrent fighters swooped in low nd laid down covering fire with concussion missiles and their own laser fire. The droids folded up into crates and went inactive, remaining where they were but being slowly covered by the debris of torn apart carcases from the blistering Torrent attack.
Just 20 minutes later, the ships were in the air. What was left behind on the ground looked like an abandoned camp. Exactly what it was as it happened. What was going on IN the ships was complete chaos. The hangars were piled high with weapons, power packs, armour, and bodies. Not dead odies, but those of troops that had simply charged into the large spaces of the ship and dove ontop of each other to make room for those behind to get in. All that had mattered was getting in, then they could sort themselves out. So now, in the air and safe from the critters, they began the process of untangling limbs and hardware from each other and trying to restore some kind of order.
Mirth spread across the troops, the evasive maneuver having amused most who had never done it before as something lunatic in nature. The elation of being away from the front line combat for a while combined with this mirth to help lift spirits and soon laughter and song could be heard in all the hangars, as the somewhat tedious task of restoring order was slowly taken on.
As the ships moved away from the site of the enemy mother ship, they formed up with other retreating AMC ships. In total, 46 Gallo’s, the Black Dragon and 22 Mechanised Assault modified BFF’s formed into a flotilla, protected by heavy fighter patrols and headed to the city of Carlac.
From his command post aboard the Y-Head Corvette stationed above the city, Enox coordinated the flotilla into new positions, preparing the massed force for the defense of the city that as to come. They knew now that the enemy wanted this prize above all others, and so knew they no longer had to take the battle to the enemy, they could lure the creatures to a battleground more suited to their forces.
Up in the depths of space that surrounded the planet, similar plans were going ahead. All the ships left in combat condition were slowly untangling themselves from their individual battles and ammasing in a protective cordon around the planet. Their battle would be to not let any more enemy ships descend and reinforce those already on the ground. It would be another major battle front, and one that could not be lost.
|
|
|
Post by Logan Shivers on Dec 6, 2017 21:01:15 GMT
The scene is set…
It took the better part of the night to accomplish, but by the first light of dawn, the AMC forces around Carlac city had accomplished the impossible. The entire fleet of landing ships, the Gallos, the Bulks and a vast array of smaller landing craft such as the raptor assault frigates and the DX dropships had been strategically placed to form an irregular barrier around the entire city. Not enough in number to form a complete wall, even with the earth works that had been raised, they instead formed strategic choke points, sniping and bomnarding platforms and dead ends that would end up as mass killing fields.
The ground between the ships had been butchered. Enourmous ditches had been dug by the Carlac citizens and their earth moving equipment, then covered over by weak timber slats and camouflaged. They were deep enough to trouble the enemy, not enough to stop them though once they fell in. Injury and chaos was their goal. At irregular intervals some ditches were shallower, with jagged spikes prodtuding from the base, again, those would only affect the first few creatures to hit them, but every little helped.
Other obstacles and barriers, including high earthen walls and makeshift blockades littered the areas between ships in an apparent haphazard manner, but it was far from that. Enox, Oquan and Adde had been hard at work planning this out, forming a battle ground that would not allow the enemy one giant front to swarm and attack with, but would force them to break off into smaller, more manageable groupings that could be tackled more efficiently.
The AMC troops were mostly at rest, grabbing what sleep they could before the Darkness forces came to bear upon them. Already stationed where they were required, and armed and armoured, they simply slept at their posts, ready to enter battle at a moments notice.
The rising sun brought with it a vision that was really like no other. In the distance, far enough not to be easily visible with the naked eye, a black shadow stained the surface of the planet. Viewed from above, as Enox had the displeasure of doing, it looked like a ring around the city. The enemy had done some maneuvering of its own over night. Hundreds of thousands of the insectoids formed a broiling ring that was now starting to constrict. As it did, it got thicker and thicker and by the time it was less than a mile out, it was almost 200 metres thick. Above it, menacingly hovered the remaining darkness ships, their tentacle projections swaying rhythmically at their sides and propelling them forward at the same pace as the insectoid army below them. It was a scene from most peoples nightmares.
By this time the AMC forces werer up and ready. The sun was halfway to mid day and it was showing like it would be a got day. Not a cloud in the sky could be seen, as if the heavens had cleared to afford gods a clear view from above.
Oquan looked up into those clear skies as he awaited the chaos of the oncoming fight with nervous energy. He could see the tiny dots that were the AMC fleet, now gathered in orbit and providing a barrier against any further enemy ships from coming down to the planet. Four of those dots were gradually getting larger as he watched. He guessed it was the four remaining Strike Cruisers he had been told would be helping battle the approacheing hoards. As they got closer, Oquan began to see yet more dark dots around those ships… good, it would appear that their compliment of fighters was also able to assist, some good news at last. Although, from what he had heard things in the space battle had not gone so well so he was not sure how these ships had been spared from the orbital defence effort.
A shrieking whine announced the arrival of those fighters. The nimble ships dove at the slow moving enemy ships with great speed from above, raking them with laser and ion fire. Simultaneously, the remaining fighter squadrons that had already been engaged in the ground battle leapt into action, straffing across the approaching hoard and blasting dozens of the insectoids apart. The impending hoard did not falter, its inoxerable march moved on ever closer to their final defensive position around the city. Oquan gave the ready signal, not that he really had to… Adde followed suit, across the other side of the city where the same scenario was unfolding.
The four Strikes got within range at the same time as the front lines of the hoard hit the defensive perimeter. They opened fire with all their might, adding to the blistering bombardment the fighters had been providing. On the ground the day briefly appeared to become brighter, before the hoard slammed into the defenders and a cloud of dust and blood rose u to obscure the sky.
Explosions ripped through the oncoming enemy as grenades and concussion missiles rained down on them. But it made little visible difference. Their number was simply so great, and their onward march, now more of a rush, was so determined that the pounding they received just did not seem to be doing anything.
Amongst the maze created by the AMC landing ships, squads of small Buzz Saw droids suddenly emerged. The droids had been provided by the Carlac army, apparently a new toy they had been developing and had not long gone into production. The droids proved to be lethal in the closed quarters and took down ten of the enemy to each one of them that was finally crushed to incapacity. The pits took a few more casualties, as did the merciless pounding from the heavy lasers atop the GR 75’s and the Black Dragon.
The hoard pushed on, their progress slowed but not stoped. Those that found themselves in dead end passages got blasted apart by explosives thrown in by troops atop the Gallos, quickly replaced by yet more and more, and each time the dead creatures simply got replaced by more until the mounds of the dead insectoids matched the height of the ships blocking their way and they poured over.
Here the second line of defense stood. The AMC mechanised assault force stood their ground and blasted away, ripping through even more of the enemy ranks, thinning their number down ever so slightly more, slowing their progress marginally. But more came on. In front of the Black Dragon, the Pitch Black Mark II Assault droids stood up well, smashing the enemy ranks at a ratio of 20 to one, but even they got overwhelmed in time.
In the space of less than half an hour, the enemy had hit their defensive formation and torn through to come up against the final two obstacles. The attack had been quick, it had been deadly, but it had also been costly to the enemy. Their ranks had been halved in number, not that this seemed to give the mindless creatures any pause for thought.
Oquan stood with his men, waiting for the vile darkness spawned creatures to break through the final droid battle lines and land on them. From behind him blaster fire rained down onto the enemy, supporting the droids in their efforts. His riflemen were not standing idle.
Above, an enemy ship suddenly tilted sideways in a slow, amost graceful manner. The ship had clearly taken too much damage and it sank to the ground. It looked to Oquan like it had done so in slow motion, but the resulting shudder of the ground beneath him, and the ear splitting boom and shriek as it broke apart told a different story. The destruction of the ship had proven to be a double win for the AMC as it landed on its own forces, crushing hundreds under its mass, the flailing tentacles slamming into even more of its own, tearing them apart.
A cheer rose up from the AMC troops and emboldened by this, they rushed headlong into the oncoming enemy, blasters firing and blades of every kind imaginable bared, ready to taste yet more enemy blood.
|
|
|
Post by Logan Shivers on Dec 8, 2017 20:16:44 GMT
The Orbital massacre
The dark space around the Carlac system appeared to have gone quiet. Any close observer though would see that it was just the quiet before a storm. Dark specs against the background of the blazing star denoted a gathering force of enemy ships. Every single ship that could move, limped its way to that solitary gathering point with what appeared to be infinite patience.
Likewise, against the backdrop of the planet itself, all remaining AMC vessels were gathering. The sheer volume of debris now floating around the system was untrue. There would be parts of ships from both sides falling to the planet in blazing streaks for years to come, not to speak of the volume thatwould be grabbed by the stars greater gravity well and sucked into that over the next few decades. Of course, it this all ended with the AMC being victorious, then it would provide work for scrappers for years to come, if the AMC failed… well, who would care? The system would become another danger zone avoided by all but the bravest, stupidest or most desparate.
The massive fleet was being re-destributed. Shri, Max, Ichiru and Logan took command each of one of the four segments the remaining ships had been split into. Ichiru would hold the largest portion of the fleet in orbit directly above Carlac City, at the point all had decided the most likely for the bulk of the oncoming attack. Shri would take a smaller fleet to the direct opposite side of the planet and orbit there, waiting for an expected attempt to get ships to ground that way.
Max would have the second largest cluster of ships, arranged in a wide orbital pattern to allow for the remainder of the planets orbital areas to be moitored.
Logan then, had command of a smaller force, but intentionally a fast attack force. The fastes remaning ships in the fleet were under his control. Their task to hit and run where required, to provide emergency support in locations the enemy may appear in unexpectedly, to seal any breaches in the orbital shield they were trying to form with their battered fleet.
Protecting a planet was a deceptively difficult task. The sheer size of the area that needed to be covered was almost beyond imagining, yet it did not look so great to the simple observer. But to simply try and put one ship per square mile, would take hundreds of thousands of ships, even for a small sized planet. So to provide a protective net such as they were now trying to provide too strategic thinking and planning. That was where Max, Shri and Ichiru excelled. The mechanics of such a massive undertaking would not phase them, it may challenge, but challenges were there to be overcome.
So when the time came for the inevitable, the Darkness forces found themselves facing an enemy that was well prepared for them.
During the Lull in the fighting, the huge MTC’s had been able to build large minefields with hundreds of laser mines they carried as part of their arsenal. A large number had been damaged during the course of the war so far, and so some of the floating mines were nothing but decoys to draw fire from the enemy, some only partially functional. But the mine fields proved lethal non the less.
As the enemy approached, their reason for gathering became clear. Instead of attacking as a mass of individual ships, they had clustered up. The most damaged ships placed in a net of the tentacle like projections and linked to other, healthier ships forming a larger, super ship so to speak. The largest cluster seemed to be ten ships joined together and it slowly but steadily made its way directly towards the main AMC fleet. A few smaller clusters of four or five ships escorted it, and then multiple double or triple clusters went around the flank in a wide trajectory that would see them try to avoid the main force.
Max spotted this pretty quickly and set his spread out forces accordingly, requesting Logan set his fskirmishing fleet into action and head out towards the enemy. If he could pick off any of them before they came into range of the planet it would be a huge boon.
And so yet again the first blows were cast by Logan, but not exclusively with Pitch Black vessels. This time it was a mix of all the fleet. Ardents, Crusaders and gunboats such as the PES, Gats and Aggressors formed his fleet. They went screaming into the first cluster of ships, weapons blazing and tore chunks out of the two ship cluster. Not stopping, they continued on to a larger, four ship cluster and ripped into that. The clustered enemy ships had lost in speed and versatility what they had gained in power. They could do little to defend themselves agains the fast attacks and could not give chase, although some tried. Logan and his fast attack skirmishing force harassed the enemy flanks time and time again, picking off the smallest clusters until it eventually seemed to dawn on the enemy that this plan was not working. The clusters began to break apart and the enemy descended onto Ichiru and his defensive fleet in a rain of black, hellish looking ships.
Surprisingly, they decided to put almost every ship they had into this one mass assault. Shri, around the rear of the planet found himself greatly out numbering the poultry dozen ships that tried to get past him and destroyed them without much trouble. He decided against holding so many ships back from where they may be needed and sent most over to join Max, who in turn re-destributed his larger force to deploy reinforcements to Ichiru. Logan split his force into spears, one cruiser, two gunboats and twelve fighters per spear. They carried on harassing the enemy flanks, causing distraction and destriction.
But it was not all plain sailing. The initial phase of the enemy’s attack they knew would be the easier part. After all, the enemy had no long range weapons, only the tentacles to attack with so their true destructive power would not come until they physically hit the AMC fleet.
Whilst Logan had done his part on the flanks, the mine fields did their job in the great central mass. They lit up the darkness with the green laser fire as they relentlessly attacked the intruding ships. The damage was great but the enemy ploughed on, tearing through the minefields without slowing their inexorable march towards the planets orbit.
And finally it came, the clash of titans. The darkness fleet was amongst the AMC and the tentacles began their destructive work, the close quarters fight forced now upon the AMC who had done their best to avoid it for as long as possible, wanting to run the battle to their benefit and keep it long distance.
Once again the skies lit up with laser blasts, explosions, exhust plumes and huge sparks from the lashing tentacles hitting metal hulls. With no real flanks to speak of, Logan instead got his spears to run in and out attacking solitary targets, spotting friendly ships in trouble and diving in to help. Max and Shri both realised quickly that there was no other force, this was not it, the final battle and they could either sit it out and watch, or they could get stuck in too. Well… there was only one decision there then.
Within two hours of the attack beginning, the battle had become a concentrated ball of fury, the entire fleet of each force fully engaged in a roiling battle that spun around itself like a twisting spherical cyclone
|
|
|
Post by Logan Shivers on Dec 27, 2017 18:53:49 GMT
Hell came to Carlac, but was sent right back to where it came from
Adde had holstered his blasters some time ago, the power packs a long time dead, spares all used up. He was standing in the midst of utter carnage, his ring of Black Guards around him like a durasteel fence keeping the nightmare at bay whilst he took a minute to take stock of the situation and direct his forces. The battle had proven ever changing, the enemy trying various methods of attack to get them through the ranks and into the city. The allied forces knew this happening in any area would be a disaster as it would allow the rampaging creatures to tear through the city and attack the remaining allied forces in their flanks.
Spotting a weakening in their lines, he got onto his comms and arranged for a squad of JX40 ground assault vehicles to move in and help shore up the line. He got frustrated though as he could not see as much of the battle field as he would like from this vantage point. He spotted some higher ground, the bulk of a Gallo that had the enemy roiling around it. He motioned to his men.
“Black Squad, there, wee need that high ground”
Adde had information feeding through to him from General Enox, but nothing was as reliable and real life as what he could actually see. His ring of steel moved with him, Adde wielding a battle axe efficiently as he helped carve a path through the enemy. He slammed his axe down onto the carapace of a particularly large scorpion like creature, cracking it open near what appeared to be its head. A stench worse than rotting flesh poured out, quickly followed by a slimy greenish grey mass. The creature convulsed and dropped dead. Adde had to fight to get his axe back, having managed to get it lodged so deep into the carapace, but he did and just in time to land a back hand blow to the next enemy, the blunt rear side of the axe doing little but to knock the creature back. That brief stagger however was all that was required as a Black Squad member stepped in and stabbed the thing repeatedly with his sword.
The melee continued for a good half hour before Adde and his Black Squad made it to the Gallo, where they found stranded AMC soldiers making a tough stand. Combined, the two groups managed to push their way to a point where they could enter the cavernous Hangar of the Gallo and slam it shut behind them. There was an eerie peace inside the large ship, interrupted only by the hellish sounding scraping of thousands of claws on the outside of the vessel. There was no crew inside other than the gunners, who were in the operations room busily firing at the enemy ships overhead, or the hoard on the ground, who knew, there was no lack of targets.
Adde made his way to the bridge so he could get a good view outside. The high position gave him almost a birds eye view of the battle ground in all directions other than right behind the ship. He decided that was not good enough so he popped a docking hatch and climbed out onto the very top of the ship. He slowly spun around surveying the scene. The huge ship mounted weapons were blasting away at the enemy about ten metres away from him, it was an awesome sight.
Adde saw what he feared. The lines were going to break apart and there was no way he could shore up every weak point. The sheer volume of the enemy was pushing the men appart into tight fighting groups. He made his decision, opening several channels on his comms at the same time.
“General Enox, the ships have done their jobs, but letting them sit there motionless is now a waste, we are about to lose integrity of our front line. I request that you return the pilots to the ships, along with a heavy weapons team on each one. Let them set up on the open hangar bay door and fire down on the enemy as the ships hover above, use the ship weapons primarily to hit other enemy ships. This wil give our ground troups a chance to regroup and shore up.”
“Oquan, you copy? How is your situation?”
A short silence followed, then Enox came online.
“Adde, there is a sound principal to that strategy, approved, make the required arangements to escort the pilots to their ships.”
The channel already open, Adde instructed his remaining reserves to get the Assault vehicles loaded and moving. Heavy troop barges also got loaded up and pushed their way into action. The enemy seemed to catch on to the change in tactic pretty quickly though, and the enemy ships closed in to try and concentrate on this new danger.
Whilst all tyhis was going on, Adde’s comm unit bleeped with an incoming connection. It was Oquan finally coming back to him.
“Adde, was in the middle of a melee when your comms came through, did I understand correctly, you plan to get pilots back in the ships?”
“Yes, use them to crush the enemy under their weight, take the skids up and land them over and over ontop of the hoard. Use the weapons to continue scouring the sky against the enemy ships.”
“Now that is what I cann a nasty attack…. Your time with Logan is having an affect on you, like the idea, will get onto it.”
Adde could almost see the smile on the Wookies face. He was right of course, unorthodox battle was Logans speciality, it was clearly rubbing off.
Back on the ground and in the thick of it, Adde was holding the front line with his men when the pressure against them changed. The press of the oncoming hoard seemed to bulge, then relax for a second or two, before pressing on again. The pattern repeated along the front line. The ships were taking off, creating voids amongst the ranks, which were quickly being filled by both sides. Of course, this thinned the AMC allied forces ranks down quite considerably, but they hoped the ship attacks would counterbalance this.
The first Gallo slammed to the ground a mere hundred paces or so in front of Adde, a red mist violently rose into the air followed by a not so pleasant noise of crushed insectoid carapace. Adde and his men pushed hard as the Gallo took off again, weapons fire from its hangar bay shredding through the enemy. Then barely a hundred paces further out the great bulk of the ship slammed down again onto yet more of the enemy. Smaller ships were following suit, and other Gallos could be seen in the distance bouncing up and down relentlessly.
The enemy ships noted the change in attack and made a concerted effort to take out the larger Gallos’s but being met with fire from all angles, most got damaged badly enough to crash land, taking out yet more of the enemy with them. Unfortunately two enemy ships crash landed on the city borders, killing several hundred members of the Carlac Militia that was busily mopping up the creatures that had managed to push through the front line over the course of the battle.
Within an hour of this new tactic, the enemy forces werer decimated to the point that the tactic no longer worked. What was left of the enemy was tangled up amongst AMC allied troops all around the city perimeter and so safe from the crushing death from above.
But this massive success had given the ailing troops a boost and from out of reserves most of them did not realise they had, they pulled out all the stops and pressed on their attack to the bitter end, until there was not a single arachnid, insectoid or whip wielding creature to be found moving.
Once Enox had seen that there was little use for him where he was, he ordered his shop down and poured out with his crew to add their weight to the final slaughter. The pilots and gunners from all the landing ships came out with whatever weapon they found to hand and gave all they could too in order to finish the enemy off.
And when it was done, there was an eerie silence that surrounded the city. Thousands of troops stood milling around, in slight shock at the sudden lack of anything to kill. A heavy cloud of dust mingled with blood miist hung all around making visibility poor, and making the battle ground look even more hellish that it was which was saying much. The quiet only lasted minutes though. As realisation began to dawn, cheers started going up. Few at first, but the volume grew until a deafening thunderous roar of uninteligeble noise poured out of the city perimeter. A noise that could be heard for miles. A noise that was not ominous, but full of cheer, full of releaf, full of release of tensions and release of fear.
It was a happy sound, if a sound can be called that. Thousands upon thousands had died to accomplish the win, and they would be given all the honours required of them in time, but for now, the exhausted soldiers of the AMC began a celebration, elation pushing their bodies past their limits one final time before eventually collapsing with smiles on their faces to the ground inside the city to sleep, nurse wounds or for some, to clean weapons.
In the skies above them though, on the borders of space, things were not going as well.
|
|
|
Post by Logan Shivers on Dec 28, 2017 20:48:18 GMT
The brewing storm
What should have remained a relatively organised space batte, had become an unorganised, manic and brutal brawl in the orbital regions of Carlac. The ships remaining in the raging battle were just as likely to fall foul of a wreck as of being struck by enemy weaponry. The area was chaotic.
Ichiru, Max, Shri and their supporting commanders all tried desperately to keep what semblance of organised resistance they could, but the enemy was not playing their game. Their tentacles lashed out atwrecks, catapulting them towards AMC ships, they intentionally did their best to ram any ship that got close enough and seemed to have no care for their own survival. The effort of simply staying out of their range was enough to keep most pilots in the fleet seating and swearing, the effort of hitting enemy targets and not their own was in turn keeping the gunners wired. The fleet had been in a constant state of battle for far too long, with very little respite. Even though crews did their best to rotate, rest was not something that came easy when on a battling ship. Mistakes were becoming more and more common place and if this was kept up long enough, the AMC fleetwould start to come apart of its own accord.
Nobody felt that more than Logan. His flirt with the Scorekeeper had taken its toll on him, the intensive treatment revived him somewhat, but as it had been cut short, his body was still trying to repair itself whilst experiencing a complete lack of rest. An almost lethal level of stims floed through his bloodstream and his mental clarity was severely affected.
Too tired to remain on the gunship he was on and be of any use, Logan had jumped onto the Arquitens “Corosion of Sanity” and was doing his best to lead the gunships and fast attack fleet from there. His crew was down to about skeletal level. They had been boarded twice and managed to repel the attackers, and had been hit numerous times, casualties mounting up. The strong ship though was holding itself together admirably.
The same story was to be found repeated on almost every AMC ship. The enemy did not seem to have the need for rest, they just continued on robotically without faltering in their relentless attack. Eventually, and to no great surprise to anyone, two enemy ships broke the blockade and headed down towards the planet. Immediate repeated instructions werer issued by all commanders to let them go and concentrate on not letting more through, two was bad enough, they did not want a floodgate to open.
A message was sent to Enox who immediately gathered his fighters and the great Y head and began to ascend up into the skies to meet the oncoming enemy. Exhausted crews manned the large Gallos to be prepared to aid should they be required, but held their position for now in order to provide covering fire for the ground forces as their priority, should other enemy ships make it through from other directions.
Back up in the orbital battle a shift was becoming noticeable. By the time a tired Max realised what was going on, it was too late. The enemy ships had been slowly moving into a cohesive block defensive formation and now slowly condensed into a tight, almost solid block. It suddenly became abundantly clear what their plan now was. Having failed to battle through, they were now going to batter their way through.
In order to achieve this formation they had pulled back slightly, to allow some breathing space and room to manoeuvre. Their tentacles extended out the mass began a complicated joining, slowly dragging themselves together the final distance. The AMC fleet was slow to respond to begin with, but once the immense danger was recognised, action was quick to evolve. Every single ship that was capable of launching concussion missiles now emptied their magasines on what was an unmissable target. The fighters bussed around just out of reach of the tentacle projections and peppered the mass with laser fire, attacking the tentacles in particular, trying to weaken the joins, or disrupt the movement of the mass. The massive MTC’s placed themselves directly in the flight path of the mass and the remaining larger ships clustered around them, using every weapon they could to slam into the lumbering but steadily oncoming mass.
Nothing was slowing it though. Its progress was painfully slow, its huge bulk barely moving, but as it got closer the pull of the gravity would no doue help it pick up speed even if its weird tentacle drive could not. But in desperate times, desperate measures have to be taken. After a very brief consultation with each other, Max, Shri and Ichiru all decided it was time to unleash the unused proton torpedoes. Their feared affect on the enemy ships, causing the force wave that had almost killed Logan in the initial stages of the battle and infected untold numbers of pilots had to be ignored. The planet had to be saved. Instruction was sent to the fleet to disperse at full speed and get as far awas from the enemy as possible as fast as possible. All appart from the proton capable ships. So from as great a distance as they could, the Arquittens and Gat gunboats, the R-41’s and N1’s all emptied their magasines as they flew away at full speed. The blue tails of the hundreds of proton torpedoes twinkled as they sped off, their immense target impossible to miss.
The Corrosion of Sanity had lost all comms ability due to a tentacle slamming into the array on its hull, ripping dishes off and crushing delicate receptor arrays embedded into the hull plating. But Logan had no intention of letting something like that get the better of him, neither did his remaining crew. They had spotted something interesting in the enemy ship formation, the rear of it was fhollow. The block was solid at the front, but there had not been enough of the enemy ships left to complete a full cube, so the rear was open ended. The tentacles however were entwined together to keep the ships in place, so it gave a completely clear run at the mass. He and his crew got the Ardent right up close, then inside the middle of the cube mass and were happily blasting away at the ships with every weapon they could bring to bear. Their hope was that on noticing what they were doing, others would join, or that they would weaken the link between the ships enough to break the block back up. It was pure chance that his pilot spotted a blue twinkle in the void of space and thought to give it a second look.
“SIR!!!! INCOMING PROTONS!!!!”
Even through his utter exhaustion, Logan did not need timie to think of his order,
“Pull our, give her everything you have, shields full power to rear, weaons stop, move power to shields. All crew to move to forward compartments of the ship, get as much metal between you and that mass as possible…”
The fast attack cruiser had some speed to her, but she could not compete to that of a proton torpedo, nor could it outrun the concussion of its inevitable blast.
The space around them light up like they had just been swallowed up by a supernova. The ship raced on but was shortly caught up by the shockwaves travelling stealthily through space. As they made contact with the substance of the ship and the air within that substance, the silent menace got its voice and the ship kicked forward like a giant hammer had hit it from behind. The engines collapsed in on themselves, causing explosions to rip through the rear part of the ship. The hit sped the ship up well past its capable speed and it rocketed through space uncontrolled, beginning to spin as it went headlong into a collision course with the Carlac sun.
The only saving grace of that immense hammer blow was that it pushed the ship to a speed and distance that the slower force shockwave that followed could not keep up with. That secondary and far more lethal shockwave finally dissipated, having managed to catch less than two dozen trailing AMC ships. The soul wrenching task of destroying those ships was undertaken without complaint by the survivors of the space battle.
The plight of the Ardent had not gone unnoticed either. Shri had seen the ship spinning out of control towards the sun and sent the fastes tractor beam capable ships to help. The deception of space soon became clear though, and he, along with many others at this point watched in horror as the Ardent, travelling much faster than any ship could under its own power, sped towards the sun.
A couple of escape pods were noted soon afer, but that was it. Repeated attempts to raise anyone on the ship were unsuccessful. Despite all the losses taken in the battle for Carlac, this potentially last one was the most painful. Not because any one person mattered above the rest, but because they all had to stand and watch it happen, painfully slowly, and completely incapable of doing anything to stop it. For over an hour the fleet watched first by visual displays, then by sensor feeds as the ship went in closer and closer to the sun. The end of the battle seemed to go unnoticed by all.
Eventually, the ship vanished into the corona of the sun, their scanners no longer able to penetrate the radiation to keep track until its final demise. The escape pods had contained nothing more than burnt corpses, their much weaker hull and shielding not able to protect the inhabitants even at a greater distance to the sun than the ship had then travelled to. All crew were noted as killed in action.
|
|
|
Post by Logan Shivers on Dec 28, 2017 20:51:27 GMT
I hope you have all enjoyed reading this as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
Apologies if I did not get everyone covered in it, my plans all got lost on my last laptop and I ended up having to write the last half seat of the pants style lol...
but there it is... THE END
|
|
|
Post by Max Ameeno Bacca on Dec 29, 2017 2:21:04 GMT
This has been inspiring! Excellent work Logan and it provides a fitting backstory for your new life. From the ashes you rise...
Hail the Victorious Dead!
|
|