As the majority of members from each of the factions are away for vacation there havent been much done as of late. I certainly hope everyone is enjoying their summer. I myself wont be back home till later this week. However i have managed to complete (somewhat) a story line regarding the confrontation between TEC and the Advent which will fit into what we are doing here. (Ofcourse anything in the story its subject to change)
I also have a story regarding first contact between the Advent faction and Vasari faction but it is now under further revision before it will be posted here for everyone. I've got one more story to write up after that and once its done i will finish the comic book style versions of the factions and their battles/conflicts.
Anyway, enjoy, ill continue to make revisions as i look it over a few more times as its by all not a final draft. Any comments, suggestions, opinions are always appreciated.
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<Trader Space --- Juniper System --- TEC Observatory Outpost>
Sitting on the border of the Juniper system lies a solitary outpost manned by a crew of two scientists. They have two objectives out here in the middle of no where, study stellar anomalies and report sightings of enemies.
Ryan- “You know, once I get back home I’m going to ask that girl out.”
Miller- “Sure you will, you say that every time but when ever you see her you chicken out and act like a moron.”
Ryan- “Hey, its how I work the ladies”
Miller- “Ha, with statements like that I’m surprised she or any girl even talks to you”
Ryan- “Oh shut up, make yourself useful and get me the sat readings in sector 7”
Sliding over in his chair to the main console examining the data gathered, Miller noticed a strange fluctuation that seemed to be expanding.
Miller- “Hey, come here and check this out. Something is off about the readings”
Ryan- “Its probably the satellite malfunctioning again. Honestly these things spend more time being repaired than gathering any data. Reset the satellite and run a diagnostic on it”
Miller- “Umm, cant do that”
Ryan- “Why is that”
Miller- “We’ve lost signal with the satellite…its just not there anymore.”
Ryan- “That cant be possible, check it again”
Checking all the system panels, both Ryan and Miller noticed another satellite disappeared off the network and that the strange anomaly is getting closer.
Ryan- “What the hell is going on here, this doesn’t make any sense. Signals don’t just bounce off of empty space”
Miller- “Ill report this to headquarters”
Before Miller was able to transmit their findings, a ball of plasma fire smashed into the outpost destroying it. Multiple ships began to uncloak sailing past what ever remained of the observatory outpost. They were Advent ships and they were on approach to the Juniper system, their first target.
The fleet had arrived on the outskirts of TEC territory, more specifically a section of space that contained three solar systems with planets housing valuable resources called the Trident. The planets there are apart of a TEC resource network, clusters of mining facilities and refineries that supply the core planets. The Advent fleet had arrive to destroy these facilities to interrupt the supply lines in this sector. The fleet comprised of three Radiance Battleships, two Rapture Battlecruiser and one Revelation Battlecruiser as well as several Disciple vessels and Purge Vessels for support. This particular fleet is commanded by a Hierarch Chosen, Vera Rey. She is a veteran commander that is of pure advent blood and prefer to be in the front lines commanding her fleet with the Revelation Battlecruiser as her flagship. She is feared by her enemies and her crew due to her reckless and ruthless actions, taking enjoyment in death and destruction of anyone who opposed the Unity, especially those of the TEC.
Vera- "Mmmm...finally we are here. I can sense them, going about their lives unaware of what is about to happen to them"
Valeron- "Disciple vessels have taken out their perimeter satellites plus an outpost. We are approaching the first of the planets, there are no signs of resistance, your orders?"
Vera- "Kill them all, bring up the main screen so i may watch the destruction with my own eyes"
The fleet quickly moved in on the first set of planets catching the colonies off guard. It didn’t take long for the Revelation Battlecruiser and Purge Vessels to orbit the planets one by one, blanketing them with plasma fire killing and destroying everything. Vera had been tasked to recruit anyone into the unity on these planets, but it was not a priority and as such she simply ignored it, preferring to kill everything and savored the fear and agony she sensed off them.
Vera- "Ahhhhhh....such a magnificent sight isn’t it? I can feel all of them, suffering, dying, hiding in fear. Its such a wonderful feeling to behold"
She closed her eyes taking it all in, the more fear and agony she inflicted on her enemies the more pleasure she felt. It was all a drug to her, an addiction to be exact.
Valeron Crew- "All ships report the planets have been cleansed, we should prepare to mo-"
Vera stood upset, moving to the Valeron that had angered her smashing his head into the console in front of him, killing him instantly.
Vera- "How dare you interrupt me in my time of bliss!, I will tell you when we will move!"
Her hand tightened against the back of the Valerons skull crushing it as she continue to smash his head some more. Closing her eyes and composing her self she walked back to her chair gracefully sitting down with a smile on her face.
Vera- "Replace him and chart a course to the next system, I’m bored here."
The fleet lined up in position, the Rapture ships entering slip space first followed by the rest of the fleet minutes later. Leaving behind nothing but death and destruction.
Meanwhile......
<Trader Space --- Taela System --- Planet Nexium --- Space dock VX-667 --- Kol Battleship, The Paladin>
Walking down a crowded corridor on the space dock, the captain of The Paladin, Jake Mayfield headed into the local bar, rugged and tired he took a seat and ordered up a scotch. His ship had been assigned to patrol this section of space to combat against pirate raids but there had been little or no pirate activity in the area for months.
Jake- "Another day, another boring freaking day out here in the middle of no where."
Taking a sip of his drink, with a sigh he turned towards the crowd of merchants and traders strolling through the corridors, selling and bartering random goods. Taking a seat next to him is his tactical officer, Emily Alenburg ordering up a beer and giving her captain a hard punch in the shoulder to shake Jake out of his boredom induced trance.
Emily- "Hey!, zoning out again are ya?"
Blinking a few times, Jake looked down at his drink and then over to the young tactical officer sitting next to him. Emily had been assigned to his ship a few years back fresh out of the academy. At first her upbeat and tomboyish attitude annoyed him but he had begun to see her more as his little sister. With a smirk he gave her a swift punch to her shoulder in return.
Jake- "Stalking me again are you?, You know you could find better things to do around here besides hanging out with me in this bar"
Emily- "Oh yeah? Like what? Hanging out near the toxic refineries? Or how about the shady marketplace selling all sorts of slimy and withering creatures? Or maybe i should hang around those perverted traders in that corner over there? So many fun things to do here indeed!"
Jake- "Alright, alright, you made your point"
Emily- "Homesick feeling again captain?"
Jake- "Yeah, sometimes i wonder why i let them assign me to this quadrant of space."
Emily gave Jake another punch to the arm, this time much harder.
Emily- "Well look at the bright side!, We only have another week before our replacements arrive and we can head home!"
Raising a brow at that punch by Emily, he didn’t mind her punching him in the shoulder once in a while but that last one kinda hurt.
Jake- "Ha, i only wish i had your sense of optimism"
The station warning lights and blaring warning signal kicked in over the speakers all across the space dock.
---Alert! Alert!--- Unidentified, Unauthorized Slip space Entry Detected! --- This Is A Type 1 Alert! --- All Ships Capable Of Combat Prepare For Launch --- Alert! Alert!---
Jake- "Type 1 Alert?, Pirates have gotten themselves a lot of ships this time. Come on Emily, we gotta get back to the ship"
Downing her beer in one swig she hopped off her stool and ran through the corridor towards The Paladin.
Emily- "Looks like were going to get some action before we leave this space after all."
Several ships launched from the space dock followed by The Paladin. None of the ships were loaded with many offensive weapons with the exception of the Kol Battleship but since they were going up against pirates, one capital ship supported with civilian ships will be more than enough. The ragtag fleet of ships formed a perimeter around planet Nexium. Sensors had detected a ripple in space in the area which was a sign of an incoming slip space entry near the planet. All the weapons on each ship were ready and prepared to fire on any ship that would emerge from the slip space rupture.
Jake- "Are all the ships here?"
Mali- "Seems so, all the cowards had already left and headed in the other direction"
Mali, the pilot of The Paladin, originating from the same academy as Emily. The best pilot there is, recruited by Jake noticing his skills as a pilot.
Jake- "Typical, always acting tough but when this get hairy, they turn tail and run"
Emily- "Maybe they know something we don’t, I’ve never heard a level 1 alert given for a pirate attack before"
Mali- "I agree with Emily, something just doesn’t feel right"
Jake- "Don’t worry about it, we have the element of surprise"
Emily- "Ship re-entry is being detected, two ships emerging from slip space!"
Jake- "All ships open fire!, Give them everything you got!"
A pair of Rapture Battlecruisers were first to emerge out of slip space and were also the first to receive a volley of weapons fire from the ragtag TEC fleet. The Rapture Battlecruisers shields flickered with every impact and was caught off guard. The first of the two Rapture Battlecruiser took a significant amount of damage to its port side shutting down half of their anti matter cores and its weapons.
Emily- "Captain, one of the ships has been disabled and the other has taken moderate damage.....but ..they don’t look like pirates to me"
Jake- "Holy shit, those are advent capital ships! Quick, have all ships fire on the disabled one, aim for its engine ports!"
The civilian fleet focused their fire on the now weakened advent ship in hopes of destroying it quickly. The second Rapture Battleship took quite a bit of damage having lost half of their weapons, but it didn’t take long for it to be back online. It began to turn towards the attacking civilian fleet firing upon the smaller ships first, utilizing its Vertigo ability to disrupt their weapons to give the other Rapture Battlecruiser time to recover.
The volley of plasma fire from the second Rapture ship quickly reduced the number of civilian ships leaving the ragtag fleet with just a handful and The Paladin.
Emily- "Were losing ships left and right here, they just cant stand up to the weapons of an Advent capital ship. Our targeting systems are being disrupted by the enemy, we can only fire manually"
Jake- "Transfer me the controls for the weapons. Mali, move the ships in closer to the first advent ship, ill take care of this"
Without missing a beat, The Paladin maneuvered closer to the disabled Rapture ship to compensate for the Vertigo effect. The captain fired the gauss guns at point blank range into the ship until its shield flickered red and disappeared. Taking advantage of a shieldless enemy they fired another concentrated burst at the damaged engines creating a chain reaction through the Rapture ship, the explosion ripping the ship in half.
Emily- "Direct hit! Enemy ship is down. I also managed to re-route the targeting and long range systems, it should be online in a few seconds"
Jake- "Good job, set in a heading towards the other advent ship and concentrate all weapons at it"
The ragtag civilian fleet now had an advantage against the remaining Rapture ship. The Vertigo effect soon wore off and another wave of weapons fire hit the remaining Rapture ship. The ship returned fire picking off a couple more of the civilian ships but did little damage to Kol Battleship. The shields on the Rapture ship had weakened further from the constant fire and had begun to break away from the engagement. The Kol Battleship, having destroyed one advent ship, fired up their engines and gave chase leaving the backup of the civilian ships behind.
Jake- "Mali, fire up the engines and follow it, we are not letting it go that easy. Have the other ships remain around the planet."
Mali- "Course set, are you sure its wise to go ahead without support?"
Jake- "I’m sure, our ship is barely damaged and operating at full capacity, their ship is damaged and trying to escape. Odds are in our favor"
Ofcourse the decision to charge ahead to finish off the fleeing advent ship was a critical error in judgement. Just as The Paladin closed in on the Rapture ship, several slip space ruptures opened up and out poured a swarm of Disciple Vessels and Purge Vessels which instantly overwhelmed the civilian ships near the planet. Another slip space rupture opened up just in front of the Kol Battleship and emerged three Radiance class battleships. The Kol Battleship had to pull a full stop and take immediate evasive action to avoid running head on into one of them. The Radiance ships quickly opened fire on the Kol battleship causing wide spread damage disrupting their weapon capabilities. TEC capital ship had managed to narrowly avoid collision but now had no offensive capabilities. To make matters worse it detected the Revelation Battlecruiser already in position over the planet supported by Purge Vessels.
Valeron Crew- "Enemy engagement detected, minds on one of our Rapture ships have grown silent. The other has been severely damaged and is being pursued by a TEC capital ship"
Vera- "These creatures dare to attack my glorious fleet!?"
Valeron Crew- "What are your orders?"
Vera- "We shall proceed with the purge vessels and bombard the planet, i wont waste my time fighting that thing. Have the three Radiance ships remove that speck the TEC call a capital ship from existence."
The Revelation ship powered up their weapons and fired a volley into the planet below, followed by all the purge vessels. The Radiance ships made their way towards the Kol Battleship charging up their main plasma cannon.
Emily- "Our weapons are down! Ship damage is at critical. We've also detected ships sieging Nexium!"
Mali- "The Advent ships are comming about for another attack, I recommend we get our asses out of here right now, we are completely out numbered"
Emily- "We cant run!, What about the innocent people on the planet! We are not going to abandon them!"
Mali- "Emily! Look at what is all around us, our weapons cant stop that massive capital ship, what more can we possibly do!"
Jake- "ENOUGH!, set a course for the advent ship over the planet."
Mali- "Captain, are you seriously going to engage that ship? Were out gunned here, its suicide!"
Jake- "I realize that, that’s why you and the rest of the crew will evacuate the ship now"
Emily- "Evacuate? You cant be serious, don’t tell me you plan on.."
Jake- "Yes, I intend on taking this ship and running it into the advent siege capital ship"
Emily- "But..."
Jake- "There is no discussion about it!, You will obey my command and evacuate the ship with the rest of the crew now!"
With that, she stood along with the rest of the crew of the bridge and saluted the captain. Walking out they all headed to the escape pods heading off the ship.
Alone, surrounded and outnumbered, the sole Kol Battleship had to make a decision and instead of retreating it turned towards the Revelation Battlecruiser and set a collision course in an attempt to destroy it and buy the planet some time to evacuate. Transferring all of its power from its weapons to its anti matter drive the ship charged forward to its target. Taking plasma fire from all directions The Paladin closed in on the Revelation ship.
Valeron Crew- "Enemy capital ship is on a collision course with our ship, shall we divert fire from the planet and at the TEC ship?"
Agitated by her crew member she waved off the enemy ship as not a threat.
Vera- "Stop pestering me with questions, keep firing on the planet and if you ask me another stupid question like that I will kill you. The enemy ship will be taken cared of."
The captain of The Paladin sat back on his seat watching the advent ship come closer and closer, pulling out a worn picture of his wife, giving it a kiss he placed it back into his chest pocket. When it seemed collision was imminent a brilliant beam of light punched through the stern of the TEC ship destroying the bridge effectively stopping it in its tracks setting off multiple explosions within the ship. Falling apart it drifted away joining the wreckage of ships that littered the space around the planet. The crew in the escape pods could do nothing but watch the ship be turned into wreckage with their captain onboard. Emily, inside an escape pod screamed with tears running down her cheeks watching the event unfold.
With all threats now removed, the fleet returned their focus on destroying everything on each planet unopposed, while quick repairs were being made on the damaged Rapture ship.
Valeron Crew- "Hierarch, we have received a communication call from the Miyuki, from Hierarch Chosen Setsuna"
Vera- "What does that non pure blood want with me this time"
Setsuna- "Report in on the status of your mission"
Vera- "Thats none of your concern, this is my mission, why don’t you focus on your mission"
Setsuna- "Must i remind you that i out rank you and that you are ordered to report to me when requested, Now submit your status report now"
Grumbling she transmitted all the information she had from the first two attacks.
Setsuna- "You managed to lose one of your ships, why is that"
Vera- "Losses are unavoidable in battle"
Setsuna- "That’s not acceptable, you will wait at your current position for further repairs and reinforcements."
Vera- "Nonsense!, Why do we need further reinforcements!"
Setsuna- "New Intel suggests heavier than anticipated forces at the last location, You will require further reinforcements"
Vera- "My scouts Intel is all i need, i do not need your help or your stupid Intel. I will proceed as planned"
Disconnecting the call she immediately ordered her crew to prepare for slip space travel to the last targeted system. The Thera system they were heading to consisted of mostly asteroids and gas planets with a pair close orbiting habitable planets. Her scouts Intel suggests that these planets housed a training facility and a major refinery hub dealing mainly with anti-matter protected by a couple of patrol ships.
As soon as the fleet exited slip space they came to realize that the initial Intel was wrong. Instead of a refinery facility and a training facility, there were two military facilities that were heavily fortified with defense platforms. To top it off there were three Dreadnought ships and three Kol Battleships supported by Cobalt and Javelis Frigates. The twin planets were already heavily fortified but it had recently been reinforced with Dreadnought ships, not to face off against the advent fleet but to defend something important that was being built there, a Novolith Cannon.
Valeron Crew- "Multiple high class enemy captial ships detected! They have detected us and are moving in to attack"
Not wanting to admit that Setsuna's advice was right she ignored conventional thought to fall back to wait for reinforcements and ordered an all out attack on everything they had.
Vera- "Have all ships engage the TEC scum! Attack them with everything we got"
The Dreadnought ship named The Pavalion, commanded by Arthur Kingsboro was first to detect the advent ships arrival and was the first to engage the advent fleet taking on the Rapture battleship. The other Dreadnoughts, The Maverick and The Valor followed suit and bombarded the Rapture battleship with missiles causing severe damage and immediately destroying it. One of the Radiance ships unleashed a powerful beam through the cluster of Frigates burning away any that were too close to it. The beam hit dead on one of the Kol ships tearing a large section of its right side setting it adrift, hit by laser fire from the two other Radiance ships finishing it off.
Captain Arthur- "Damn it, we lost one already...., Gardner, Delgado take your Kol ships with me to engage that Revelation Battlecruiser. That’s our biggest threat"
Captin Gardner- "Gotcha buddy, ill be on your six"
Captain Delgado- "Hell yeah!, Lets kick us some advent butt!"
The Pavilion and two Kol Battleships moved away from their formation engaging the Revelation ship exchanging fire as they neared. Ship versus ship the Revelation was at a disadvantage taking considerably more damage than it can dish out in return.
Valeron Crew- "Heirach Vera! Were under attack by three TEC ships, we have no support!"
Vera- "Focus fire on the Dreadnought ship and get the Ethereal Reavers to provoke hysteria on one of the Kol battleships."
The Revelation ship managed to somehow inflict hysteria upon one of the Kol ships causing it to stop firing and float there as the crew within began themselves.
Captain Arthur- "Gardner! Why did you stop firing! Report! What’s going on over there!"
There was no reply from Captain Gardner except noises of screams and gun fire through the comm. Soon one crewmember went as far as to initiate selfdestruct that destroyed the ship causing a portion of it to crash into the other Kol battleship creating a huge hole on its port side.
Captain Delgado- "We've taken severe damage from the collision, we've lost power to the ship and were venting atmosphere."
Captain Arthur- "Evac your crew immediately, Ill move my ship within range to receive everyone"
Captain Delgado- "Don’t worry, i got it covered, you just focus on taking care of that advent ship"
The Pavilion moved in front of the damaged Kol battleship firing a salvo of radiation bombs into the Revelation Battlecruiser overwhelming its shields and damaging its systems. A barrage of missiles followed shortly after hitting the Revelation ship causing huge chucks of the ship to be blown off anti-matter.
Vera- "No! This cant be happening! I can not and will not be defeated!!"
Damage was ship wide and was beginning to fall apart piece by piece. Most of her crew had died from the bombs but she was unaffected by the radiation. Crawling out from the bridge she headed towards the ship bays looking for a craft to escape in.
Captain Delgado- "Wooohooo! Nice job Arthur, good to see your old self still got the skills"
Captain Arthur- "Hold your celebration, we haven’t won just yet"
Once The Pavilion managed to retrieve everyone off the Kol battleship it headed towards the wave of Purge Vessels heading to the planet. Firing all of its weapons in a desperate attempt to keep them from reaching the planet.
The Radiance ships cleansing brilliance weapon is a devastating one and it proved so, managing to destroy a Kol battleship in one hit in the previous battle. While one direct hit of this weapon deals a lot of damage, being hit with three beams would tear almost any ship apart within seconds. As so was the case with the two Dreadnoughts that went to battle against the trio of Radiance Battleships. The Dreadnoughts, The Maverick and Valor were able to lure the Radiance ships within range of the gauss platforms which gave them a significant advantage as the advent ships are now outgunned.
It seemed the TEC had an edge on the Radiance ships with their shields almost depleted from multiple direct gauss cannon fire. It would be short lived however when their cleansing brilliance weapons were charged and fired upon the two Dreadnought ships. The three beams burned through The Maverick as if it was made of paper. The second Dreadnought, The Valor managed to pull away avoiding a direct hit but the immense energy from the beams disrupted its anti-matter cores leaving it a sitting duck for an attack.
The Radiance ships now turned their attention to The Valor, but before they could fire the Dreadnought managed to launch all of their incendiary and radiation bombs in front of the Radiance ships detonating them causing a paralyzing cloud of fiery anti-matter that choked the anti-matter drives on the advent ships disabling them. The crew on The Valor they didn’t have long before the advent ships were moving again. Having expended all of their missiles and bombs in that last move and the other Dreadnought ship occupied in picking off purge vessels there was nothing left that could destroy all three of the Radiance ships in time. Except the TEC did have one weapon they could use, the still under construction Novalith Cannon.
The captain of The Valor contacted the crew on the cannon in a last ditch attempt to destroy those Radiance Battleships.
Captain Vaughn- "This is captain Vaughn of The Valor, i need you to ready that cannon immediately and fire it on the following coordinates"
Weapons Administrator- "The weapon isn’t ready, if we fire it now it will fall apart on us"
Captain Vaughn- "I don’t care if its not ready, get it ready and fire it at the given coordinates or we are all dead!"
The tech crew scrambled to get the weapon powered up to fire one round. At such a close range it would be a risky move to use an incomplete weapon. It could very easily disintegrate upon firing, destroying a very expensive weapon or the round could detonate on impact and cause fallout to fall down on the two planets resulting in severe casualties.
Connecting every possible coolant conduit onto the weapon, the technicians re-routed all of the generators from the facility into powering the weapon. The facility that housed the cannon engaged its thrusters to "aim" the cannon into the direction of the advent capital ships.
It took a long time to ready the gun and as a result it caught the attention of a wave of disciple vessels. Explosions set off all over the facility housing the cannon on each passing wave of disciple vessels. Another wave approached, but this time they were on course to crash into the cannon destroying it for sure. With nothing but a couple of gauss cannons on the facility, they were unable to stop the squadron from closing in. Just before the disciple vessels could collide into the cannon, the Dreadnought ship The Pavilion that had been fighting off Purge vessels managed to pull between the disciple vessels and the cannon taking the full impact of several disciple ships destroying the Dreadnought, sacrificing itself to protect the cannon.
By then the Radiance ships had started to power back up and began to engage their engines to escape being targeted by the Novalith Cannon. However it would be too late for the advent ships, the cannon was fully charged and ready to fire.
With no hesitation the order to fire the cannon was given and the cannon unleashed a round at the Radiance ships. The cannon jolted violently nearly breaking the facility and the cannon itself apart. The round tore through all three ships effortlessly shredding them into molten pieces, each ship exploding in quick succession as their anti-matter reserves came exposed to the immense heat of the rail round.
All of the advent capital ships were now destroyed and what remained were only disciple vessels, which without the support of their capital ships were easy pickings for the gauss platforms and the Cobalt and Javelis frigates. The TEC had succeeded in stopping the advent fleet but suffered heavy casualties plus the loss of many capital ships. They quickly began to reorganize what ever defenses they had left and recover as many bodies as possible to be given a proper burials.
The Novalith Cannon survived its first shot but is very unlikely to survive another. The only remaining capital ship left is a Dreadnought class ship but they are barely battle capable as it is. Only 30% of the frigates survived the battle and only 25% of the gauss platforms are stand operational. The radiation and anti-matter pollution in the space above the planets prevented any long range communications to be sent or received. The TEC command here had sent out a request for more reinforcements prior to the battle but they were unsure how long it will be before they would arrive.
As things were calming down, several slip space signatures began appearing near the planets once again. Is it TEC reinforcements? Are they more Advent ships coming to attack? Could it be the Vasari taking advantage of the situation? The TEC in this region of space now had no choice but to do the best with what they have left and await their fate.
