"No, sir, I don't have any questions!" replied Jon. Of course I'm not going to have questions! thought Jon. Oh wel,l as long as I'm taking commands I'll have to say that.

"Men, come with me, we're going to have a few extra friends come with us." snarled Jon, luckily no one noticing because of his helmet."Time to go!"


There is the area Second Lieutenant Fuller wants us to capture, it seems safe. Well, of course, it's never what it seems.

You two, take a squad of clones and provide cover with me. Then you men go in once we clear it, and then we'll come in shortly after, any questions?" asked Jon realizing he just said something he hates.

"No sir,"was the reply Jon was waiting for.

The plan ignitiated, instead of only a few droids in the area there were hundreds that Jon was suppose to destroy. Good thing he had the relief wave waiting to help. After minutes of fighting and only one trooper getting shot the battle was over.

"Any sasualities, men?"asked Jon hopefully.

"No sir, one man got shot, but it didn't get through the armor."replied the squad medic.

"Part two ignitiate!" hollered Jon to the relief troops which ended up being the attackers and the previous attackers ending up to be the relief troops. Part two went through clearly, but...

Explosions blossomed upon the Gorgon’s rear shields, showing that the Starflares had at least exited hyperspace before hitting their mark or being destroyed before their mark. The first salvo of Starflare missiles failed to pierce the Gorgon’s shields, but that was only those from a single ship. It was a test.

“The first warheads didn’t pierce. Their shields seem to be at optimal levels as well.”

“Very good Lieutenant,” replied the Commodore, “We’ll have to soften them up a bit first. Let’s try the Sunflare slash.”

The Kashan cruisers began to accelerate towards their opponents. While the Seraphs aligned themselves in their classic high diamond formation, the two operational Havens had paired up behind the medium cruisers. Swarming about those ships, the Deathsabers continued their screening action. As they neared their opposition, the firing computers of the cruisers gathered more data about the opposition, improving accuracy. Corise knew that by the next time the Starflares were fired, they would exit hyperspace practically on top of their opponents.

“We’re in the range. Initiate and fire.”

The cruisers and their starfighter consorts slowed down as the cruisers presented their broadsides to the battlecruisers and began to fire. While outside of typical turbolaser range, the Seraph’s weaponry was uninhibited by such a distance. The emerald bolts of the turbolasers and sapphire bolts of the quad ion cannons began to lance forth at the Gorgon. The Havens themselves had situated themselves amid the bombardment vessels. Their weapons were in the flak mode, ready to shatter any opposing starfighters that entered their range.

The Sunflare Slash was a Kashan maneuver devised at the planet’s war college. It allowed the Seraphs to maximize most of their weapons to fire upon their opposition out of range. But more importantly, it kept the ships moving around their opponents in a similar fashion to how a ship orbits a planet. Thus, by the virtue of the Coalition cruisers superior speed, they could continue to keep the current distance between the opposing ships by simply enlarging the loop as their opponents edged forward.

Meanwhile, in the missile rooms of the Seraphs, another volley similar to the first was being prepared. Their target was Basilisk’s engine blocks. Navigation data was becoming more precise as the time to compute it was increased. Currently, they would emerge about a kilometer away from their target. All of the tubes released their missiles, for a total of 32 warheads.

Dark shadows surged from the gray ships before vanishing into hyperspace. Unfortunately for the Kashan ships, the circular motion of their path made the missile’s drop-point less precise; they emerged a kilometer and a half directly behind their target before moving at their maximum velocity at the Vendetta. The sensors aboard the missiles noticed the ion engine exhaust from the ships, making slight course adjustments ensuring that the missiles wouldn’t be exploded by the exhaust.

The whole "Starflare Slash" maneuver agitated Green, because he knew that his opponents were now practically untouchable, their own turbolaser bolts coming in at a range just beyond their own.

On the bright side, at that range their fire wasn't very accurate, and the Vendettas shields had no problem recharging between strikes. Fortunally, they didn't have to deal with Ion Cannons, which could penetrate shields, because of their lack of tight beam accuracy, limiting their range.

But Green was a hammer who saw problems as nails, and wasn't about to give up trying to chase them down.

It was at this moment that the enemy Starflares came out of hyperspace behind the Gorgon.

At the moment, the ships drives were on standby mode, pumping out considerable amounts of radiation, thermal energy, and plasma in a tight beam. But these "considerable amounts" were still minuscule compared to the drive output at full power.

Ready to chase the Seraphs down, he had the helm put the throttle to the firewall to the Vendetta's flanking speed of eighteen MGLT's.

And suddenly the drives outputs increased fivefold, and then another fivefold on top of that. The Starflares had adjusted their courses to stay on the fringes of the exhaust trail in standby mode, where they would be hardest to detect by the Vendettas rear sensor suits. But they hadn't counted on the drives suddenly powering up, and were consumed by massive plumes of plasma that suddenly emerged from it's drives. It was so hot that they didn't even detonate, they were simply vaporized.

Green, nor any of the crew on the Gorgon, were ever even aware the incident ever happened.

As the ship charged forwards the other two Vendettas set off on courses of their own, the Manticor at emergency max- 22 MGLT, though it's weapons had to be discharged- two the position their opponent had just occupied to keep them from looping back, and the Basilisk] to the position their opponent would occupy in approximately twenty seconds at full flanking speed to cut them off.

The Gorgan charged towards a position they would occupy in ten seconds, where they would meet at the exact same time.

This left Green's adversary two possibly fateful courses of action: They could stop right in space where they were and become surrounded by the ships, where they would most certainly be destroyed by the enemy's superior firepower, They could speed up and run smack dab into the Basilisk, which could hold them off until the Gorgon and possibly even the Manticor arrived. They could turn around and run smack dab into the Manticor, which could hold them till the Gorgon arrived, or they could jump out of there into hyperspace.

The only option that didn't involve getting surrounded was to extend the size of the loop to go around the charging Gorgon and Basilisk, and Green had a solution for that, too.

Not a whole lot of options, and not one that didn't benefit Black Sun.

On a collision course with the Kashan ships, both the Gorgon and Basilisk were now in range, and unleashed a full power turbolaser salvo at their opponents, and a swarm of missiles that would run right into them in exactly seven seconds.

The barrage was going reasonably well. While the turbolasers didn't have pin-point accuracy at that range, it was still reasonable enough to hit. Moreover, the ion sheathing technology of the weapons allowed more energy to pass through and hit the actual hull. The quad ion cannons were also long-range weapons, albeit their range was a little lower than that of the IX-7. If the Kashan vessels could just keep up the bombardment, they would win via attrition. But their opponent was smarter than that.

"Sir-"

"I know. It's interesting. All ships to jump and home in on Greywind Ten. Slave our navigation over to the Seraphs."

"Aye sir."

The warships approached each other. At last, both sides fired, sending bolts of a myriad of colours between the hulls. The flak from the Havens was able to take down a few of the missiles. But that was inconsequential as all of the Coalition ships made the jump away from the two charging cruisers and innumerable weapon's fire to Greywind Ten.

Greywind Ten was a Deathsaber of the same ill-fated squadron that had suffered two losses from an Imperial STL. Yet again, the squadron had been the ones escorting the shuttles for their inspection run. Scattered in a multitude of directions by the Vendettas, the starfighters had maintained their escape positions mostly to help provide targetting data for the cruisers. Now, Greywind Ten was acting a navigation beacon for the entire Coalition Fleet.

Kashan Defence Industries was primarily noted for their innovative weapons and material science. However, one of their more useful innovations was the Kashan Integrated Battle Computer, capable of networking entire fleets with data from all of their ships. Using the navigation/homing feature of system, the ships had made an intra-system jump to Greywind Ten, which was situated about fifty kilometers from the original position of the Vendettas in the Manticore's direction. That also produced a fair amount of distance between the other Vendettas and the Coalition fleet. Thus, the enemy would have to back track to get at the Kashan manned fleet.

Starfighters and cruisers of the Coalition fleet flashed back into the vastness of space around Genon. The ships were for the most part unscathed, having escaped the majority of the Black Sun's attack.

Far off away, the badly damaged Haven's engines were working again. The ship began to head out of the system. Engineers aboard the ship reported that the back-up hyperdrive was now operational. Thus, Corise ordered the ship to exit the system for repairs.

"The closest target is the Manticore."

"All weapons are clear to fire. Set us up for more Sunflare slashes. I want navigational data that will put us circling all of the cruisers."

"Aye sir."

The Coalition ships, still in the original formation, began to rotate 90 degrees which would allow them to put a broadside directly into the Manticore's aft. Smarting from the failure of the previous Starflare attack, gunners set new courses that would make the attack converging. Thus, the missiles would come in from a multitude of disparate directions and angles. Still, they needed more navigation data to be computed in order to allow for a better attack. Meanwhile, the Seraph Mk II-class Cruisers beam weaponry began to bombard Manticore.

Green had to admit, his opponents little micro jump trick was certainly a clever one, and would be useful if his own ships were equipped for such. But by using the little trick his opponent had made a critical mistake- he had placed himself twenty five kilometers into Genons Gravity Well, meaning he couldn't use the little trick again, unless of course he made a dash to the edge of it.

Now, with both sides ships locked within the gravity well, it was a showdown. Mobility, a key asset and the only reason the Seraphs were still alive at this point, was now of second importance. Now it was firepower that mattered.

Not that Green had a problem with this. It was under these conditions that his ships were designed to fight- a big gun duel, not a race across the battlefield.

By sacrificing his own advantage of mobility for temporary safety, microjumping to a point roughly in between the three Vendettas, though a little towards the Manticors , Mr. Lucerne had just cost himself the battle.

For a few moments- at least twenty seconds- the Manticor was all but out of the fight, her energy weapons recharging after all power had been diverted to her engines for that last mad dash behind the enemy ships. But her missile launchers still worked, as did her hangers, and a salvo of missiles shot out of her launch tubes at the same time as the Basilisk and Gorgon launched massive turbolaser and ion cannon and missile salvos at the enemy flotilla.

From the three Vendettas hangers, the squadrons of Star vipers that had been held in reserve launched, along with the Skipray Blastboats each sheltered.

Locked in the Gravity well, surrounded by enemys, and most certainly outgunned, things were looking worse and worse for the Coalition, and better and better for the Black Sun.

Bolts returned from the Black Sun vessels, striking the cruiser’s shields with a brilliant show of light. Occasionally, one would pierce the shields and be absorbed the armor underneath and sent directly back into recharging the shields. There were missiles too, but few of those hit the shields being intercepted by starfighters and flak bursts from turbolasers. If it was to be a simple slugfest, neither side would likely win, as they were about equal in terms of total combat prowess. The Black Sun vessels might have a slight advantage in terms of overall firepower, but the Ultrachrome plating on the Seraphs lent the Coalition a defensive advantage that negated many beam weaponry shots. As the fight continued, the Kashan Commodore let out an exasperated sigh.

“We can’t win like this.”

“Neither can they.”

Corise nodded. “All vessels will scatter according to the Omega Code. However, the code will not yet be completely carried out until I give the order to retreat if I deem it necessary. Keep all starfighters with their respective mother vessels, launch a volley of Starflares to cover our retreat.”

“Aye sir.”

A series of Starflares emerged from the Seraphs, charging forth with their jammers engaged at the closest enemy targets, whether they were capital ships or StarVipers. Still fighting, the Coalition vessels slipped parallel to the planet’s orbit, using the planet’s gravity to help slingshot the Kashan cruisers away from Genon (including its gravity well) and the Black Sun fleet. As putting distance between the two groups of ships was Corise’s primary concern, the Seraphs moved at their emergency speed, which was faster than that of the Vendettas, while the Havens still moved faster yet at their average cruiser speed. Thus, while the Seraphs couldn’t use their long-range turbolasers, they would put a fair amount of distance between the craft. When the Vendettas would likely show up, the Kashan turbolasers would likely fully be charged up. All in all, the ships diverged into a formation that resembled a blossoming flower.

More happily for the Kashan ships, the shields had only been damaged, and those were recharging. Corise guessed that the Black Sun vessels would be in similar shape. Thus far, they had made the distance, now it was the question of what and how their opponents would react.

Are you thinking that we can then bombard them from range?”

Corise shook his head. “Our opponent has learned that little trick of ours; he would have to be incredibly stupid to stand there and get chewed the bits. Thus, he will have no other choice but to pursue us unless he wants to get bombarded from range. No, I imagine that he will single out of our ships and attempt to chase it down.”

His XO squinted. “If he does chase it down, it will be destroyed.”

Corise snorted. “Not quite. Notice how our routes still keep all of our own vessels within our long-range turbolaser fire? If the ships chase it down, we spring the trap and continue to bombard him. And in order for those cruisers to keep pace with our own, they will likely have to divert power from either shields or weapons; in either case, that means they will either lose their ability to attack us or their defenses. Either case is less than good for them.”

“But the objective isn’t to destroy the enemy fleet, but to secure the planet, so what if they move back towards the planet and out of our range?”

“They’re still in range of our Starflares and moreover, we could move back towards them and start another Sunflare Slash.”

The other officer shook his head. “This looks very close to a draw.”

Corise stared into the black expanse of space, dotted with brilliant flashes of turbolaser fire between the fleets. He turned back towards the other man.

“It is.”

(OOC:Not done yet.)
Jon was getting anxious, the new fighters that had previously been relief troops had not issued him and his squads to come in yet.

"Come on, men. It's time." motioned Jon to his troops.

They all rushed in behind Jon. It was completely dark in there to the naked eye, but luckily the troopers had their helmets. They slowly went forward through the halls in a hushed yet paced walk.

What Green realized as they fought at close range was that he didn't have to win, he just didn't have to lose. So as his opponents pulled away to a higher orbit 300 kilometers away, he pulled his three Vendettas further into the Gravity Well, only a few kilometers above Genons atmosphere, where they would be safe against enemy Starflare attacks and could prevent an enemy move against the planet.

To stop enemy missiles, they'd moved to a stacked formation, the Gorgon in the middle, the Manticore on top, and the Basilisk on the bottom. That way, their fire would converge on any incoming threats. They'd already stopped a missile bombardment in this way.

Well outside of turbolaser range, even the extended range of the Seraphs weapons, the two sides simply orbited parallel to each other, neither making a move.

Seraph, Kashan Flagship

Commodore Lucerne stared out of the Seraph's viewport at the sandwich of ships in lower orbit. He had taken the lull of the storm to transfer over to his normal command, as well has having the starfighters reload their payload along with repairing some minor damage to the Havens.

“They’re not moving.”

Corise just shook his head. “That solves most of our problems.”

“What do you mean?”

“They’ve lost the initiative of attack. By doing nothing, they are defeating themselves. If the Vendettas stay in orbit, they accomplish nothing; They aren’t hampering any of our ground operations. Fuller has reported that they have secured the entire facility already. For all intents and purposes, the planet is ours and is under blockade. However, our troops have enough food supplies to last them several months; and by that time, I think we could at least get a few more ships to remove the Vendettas from orbit.”

“Still, they are stopping us from making any use of the planet right now.”

Corise nodded, tapping a few buttons on the command chair of the Seraph. “That’s true; but they’ve also made their own ships useless as well. I doubt Black Sun can keep them there for days on end. Still, I would like to move forward. Begin the jamming and launch the attack.”

The Kashan vessels turned to face their Black Sun opponents. Starfighter and sub-capital ship grade communications jamming began to flood the immediate area. Jamming was a tactic that was often a double-edge sword, but the Kashan Defence Fleet pilots were trained to work and attack enemies while it was in effect. Hopefully, for the Deathsabers, this would allow them the first strike capability on their enemy undetected and then allow them to systematically destroy the uncoordinated Black Sun starfighters. The first Deathsabers were almost in place, only awaiting the signal, in the form of explosions, to enter the enemy lines.

“Fire.”

A successive volley of Starflares surged forward into hyperspace at the cruisers. Starflares could stay in hyperspace within a gravity-well for up to two seconds, as the effects did not harm the missile, whereas the effects would harm a ship by killing its crew. The missiles reverted mere kilometers from the Vendettas. But the Vendettas weren’t the targets: the StarVipers and Skiprays were. The missile emerged out of hyperspace directly into the bulk of the Black Sun starfighter formation. With electrite crystal warheads, they began to explode within the enemy formations. As the weapons could vaporize anything within a 50 meter radius, Corise doubted that most of the Black Sun starfighters would henceforth be intact. Moreover, little could be done to stop the attack; even if they intercepted, by starfighter or otherwise, they would explode.

Then there were the Deathsabers. The infiltration craft moved in after the explosions, beginning hit-and-fade strikes to further confuse and antagonize the enemy; all of the other S9s with the interceptor/superiority load-out started a converging attack from various directions, only adding to the confusion that plagued the enemy ranks. Meanwhile, the S9s in the bomber configuration awaited to launch from their home vessels.

As the confusing fighter melee began to take place, the gray Seraphs, weapons and shields fully charged, stormed forward in a manner similar to the phalanxes of old. As they entered their extended firing range, the cruisers turned to port, making a 45 degree angle to the Vendettas. This in turn allowed the Seraphs to present both their forward and port fire arcs to their opponents. It also pointed the ships’ direction that would allow them to encircle the enemy in another Sunflare Slash if they so desired. The Havens were also present, albeit behind the more massive Seraphs.

“Focus all firepower on the Manticore.”

“Aye sir.”

The fifty meter blasts from the Starflares were certainly effective against Starfighters. One could rip a fighter to atoms before the pilot even knew what was going on. But there was one big problem with the Commodores attack strategy.

There was nothing to attack.

Green had no plans to sit idle until his opponents got bored or called in reinforcements. He was not by any means a fool. Instead, he was going to send his fighters to do the dirty work. By watching his opponents fight, he had realized a possibly fatal weakness in their forces.

The lack of anti-fighter armament.

And so his own forces were off, heading towards the enemy ships, before the Kashan Starflares came out of Hyperspace. But they weren't out of their range, and several missiles, after a quick scan for the targets they'd been sent there to get, headed off after then, blasting a squadron of Starvipers to atoms and damaging another, forcing them to return to their carrier vessels. But fortunally the Skiprays, which Green was counting on, managed to survive unscathed.

They were upon their enemies almost before they knew it.

72 Skiprays. Each carrying three times that number of Medium Ion Cannons, for a grand total of 216 of them, more firepower than an Imperial I class Star Destroyer carried.

And, more firepower than the all Kashan vessels put together, increasing the Black Suns firepower drastically.

With the Seraphs guns aimed at the Manticor, no massive volleys of Turbo laser and Ion cannon fire greeted them, just a swarm of S9 Deathsabers, which the Starvipers immediately engaged while the Skiprays flew straight through the melee, blasting the occasionally S9 that revealed itself with the Quad laser cannon mounted above the cockpit. Moments ago the two fighter forces had been equal, but now the balance was shifted slightly in the Black Suns favor.

With the S9s possessing stealth and the StarVipers maneuverability, speed, and firepower, the fight inevitably turned into an every man for himself brawl, with neither side able to get the other hand, since the Star Vipers could simply roll away when targeted- their shields absorbing the few blasts fired at them- but couldn't find any targets.

The Skiprays didn't stop for that, however, they continued on. On to the capital ships.

The Havens were commanded by Corise to guard the Seraphs against fighters, but with no anti-fighter weapons, they weren't very good at it. They lashed out at the Skiprays with turbo lasers and Ion cannons, but only occasionally did a Skipray fall -their heavy shields able to take it- and when one did, another one surged forward to take its place.

Medium Ion cannons were powerful weapons, powerful enough that some considered the Skiprays to be light Capital ships. And in the massive numbers like they possessed now, they had the firepower of a larger ship. Their bolts passing straight through ships shields, they would make short work of the Havens, and sooner or later, the Seraphs.

Ion Engines at full blast, the Skiprays continued on to their targets.

"Bring us into firing range," he ordered the Vendettas helmsmen, "Now we've got them. Unless they pull another goddamn rabbit out of their hats, we've got them."