The Demise (Bridge)

"In postion Sir. On your word."

Commander and Chief, Oxford paused for but an instant to recall the battle up to now. Everything had gone off as had been planned during their initial attack but, somewhere after, the tide had been turned against him. The Demise, his would-be flagship had taken severe damage to her port, ventral and forward surfaces. Two of his Stealthrays had already been lost to the target, their crews taken as well. The same had befallen two complete squadrons of the TiE Phatoms while others among their numbers had taken some heavy damage. Oxford was not pleased with that turn of events, to say the least but, now it was time for them to strike.

Cloaked, the Demise now sat directly behind the tail end of the Everything New... A Loronar Strike Cruiser that had posed no end of trouble for him. Though, he knew, destroying their central ship would likely disrupt the convoy and send the remaining ships into an uncoordinated frenzy.

Now, Oxford would have his revenge. With the fur on his neck standing on end, the order was given, "Mark!"



The Demise

As an opening curtain, the long slender shape of the Demise broke into full sight. She was poised... Hanging in space directly behind the aft end of the enemy Cruiser. No more then 300 meters seperated one ship from another.

She hung there, for but an instant, before moving into action. The pause was left for but one reason, the commander aboard Demise wanted his adversary on Everything New to know that he had been out-manuvered.

Then, with unrelenting speed and accuracy, her seven functional proton and seven functional concussion tubes lit up with the glow of impending doom. It took only fractions of a second for those projectiles to make the voyage between the two craft...

Unrelenting in their mission, the warheads hurled themselves against the aft shields of the larger ship, aiming for that soft spot above the sublight engine ports. And, so close was the Demise, so fast was her appearance, that the unfortunate crew aboard the opposing ship hardly had time to respond.

All in all, they'd manage to stop, perhaps, two or three of the warheads, the rest would easily overload the aft generators and, hopefully, tear through to the supple ION engines beneath.

No matter how it was sliced, this would spell trouble for the larger enemy cruiser.

Then, as simply as she had appeared, the Demise began to re-engage her cloak...



The Denial

Now fully cloaked, the Denial had done supurbly in her previous attack. Their repercussions had been very minor. It was clear, even to those opposing commanders, that whoever was Captain aboard the Denial knew exactly what he, she or, it, was doing.

Under the cover of her cloak, the Denial moved off slowly, seeking to take up a postion facing the weakened port-side of the Everything New.



Stealth 015

Leading the pack of invisible wolves, 015 streamed towards the unsuspecting gunship.

They were working as one. All of them and, they were being smart about it. Utterly undetectable to the enemy, the Blastboats were unveiling the tactic for which they were designed.

Each Stealthray mounted an external bomb-rack, which, though suseptable to attack, could be used in devastating fashion.

015 lowered her nose drastically, her event-horzion the long exposed top surface of the Gunships. The cylindrical nature of the Gunships left a natural weakness when the Stealthrays were applied.

With engines blaring along, the three remaining Stealthrays made their first pass over one lone Gunship. Unseen, the craft screamed along the top surface of the Gunship, so close were they that their pilots imagined they could see the faces of the enemy crew. In their wake tumbled six high-yeild explosive devices which, tumbled towards the Gunship before they could be tracked and stopped. Despite being well beyond the bow of the enemy craft by the time of impact, 015 facied that she could feel the Gunships shields failing.

Undaunted, the three prepared for yet another run...



D1 Squadron

They were cloaked, as were their brothers in arms... And cloaked they would stay. Still, however; they set up for their next runs.

Runs that would take them against those remaining defenses aboard the main cruiser of the enemy 'fleet.'



Serendipity

"Sensors?"

"Aye Captain. We're getting good readings. Direct uplink to the Denial still active. They're saving everything."

"Excellent. Do we have enough?"

"Seventy-Five of full Sir. Another few minuits and we're good."

"Good, continue scanning. Helm, keep us clear of the fray... I don't..."

"Sir! We have multiple annomalies above our ventral rear... They read like..."

Multiple explosions rocked against the hull of the Serendipity sending their captain sprawling across the command deck. A number of systems over-loaded, resulting in countless explosions aboard the Maraurder shape craft... On the bridge, two officers were instantly killed.

"Status!?"

"Something hit us Sir. Cloaked I'd say... We have multiple systems out all over the ship. Tracking sensors off-line, shields down, hyperdrive is offline and, we're down to 35% of normal sublight."

"Sithspawn! They have cloakers. Get my those cursed shields back up...Wait. What is the status of our cloak?"

"Stygium is at 100% Sir."

"Cloak, by the sith, cloak!"









OOC Losses:

3 Stealthray Blastboats
27 TiE Phantoms
Heavy Damage - Demise
Extreme Damage - Serendipity (Cloaking)

The Spy

The rear hatch closed, and the command center recompressed slowly.

“Three direct hits sir” said one of the men.

“The enemy is cloaking”

“Mark down her position, full stop on all engines. We’ll camp here and wait.”

The Infiltrator completed her loop, and slowed to a halt. The shimmering ship before them vanished underneath its cloak, and two streams of frozen atmosphere ceased to vent.

“Focus all passive scanners on that vector. If she moves, we should register a few spacial disturbances, what with this rift and all”

“Aye aye Cap’n”

*

Everything New

If it was possible for more alarms to sound, Talgum would eat his boots.

“Turn the blasted things off!”

“Sir, we have multiple hits to the aft shields, all weapons out, engines one, two, and three dead. Four is holding, but the power couplings have been severed.”

Talgum cursed, a rock like sensation forming in the pit of his stomach.

“Prepare the escape pods, try get a message pod out to Clak’dor. Do we have maneuvering thrusters?”

“Aye”

“Begin to rotate the ship, get our port side up against the freighter, we’ll let the starboard side defend us.”

“Rotation begun, the Freighter has captured us with her tractors and is assisting.”

“Fleet Status?”

“Our Phantoms are flying screening maneuvers right now, firing at any spacial disturbances they see. So far only a few shots have terminated early”

Tactical jumped in, his voice urgent.

“Two gunships have arrived, they are forming up on or bow.”

“And the third?”

“No response to hails, or LOS communications.”

“Status on starboard shields”

“80% and holding. Bow shields are reinforcing at 70%, port shields are gone. Aft shields are out, no chance at getting those back for a good while.”

“Designate one marauder to the aft, have her fire Everything on an intercept and circular pattern at any sign of weapons or de-cloaking. Same orders for the other corvette, but have her line up in tandem with the first, but two hundred meters back and down… try triangulate the fire from all our ships via computer … do we have computer targeting?”

Positive targeting link between the Corvettes, negative for us.”

Talgum slumped slightly. The damages just kept piling up.

“The starboard gunnery has been ordered to fire at anything Sir.”

“Fire at will.”

*

Bulk Carrier

Things happened so fast in battle, before anyone knew what had happened their escort was scattered, and the Strike Cruiser heavily damaged.

“Pull the Strike up to us!” Shouted the captain. “Try use our hull to protect … something!”

As the ship came closer, being manipulated via tractor beam, the captain received a flash of the obvious.

“Engines, full speed ahead!”

During the battle all engines had been going at eighty percent, no one had been orderd to cut them. Drifting toward the edge of the Rift, the combatants had not noticed how close to freedom they were.

“One minute till we are clear.”

*

Phantom Wing

Cloaked, armed and ready, the Anthos Phantoms stalked their prey.

“Anomaly, two oclock.”

“Two, five, and six get it.”

“Fire … no go”

“Anomaly, seven oclock”

“All fighters fire circular pattern”

“Definite hit on something at points 24 – 34 – 55”

“Triangulate”

“We’ve got something sir, lasers are ending abruptly.”

“Fire all weapons at 25 – 34 – 55”

Weapons fire lanced out, burning a hole in … something … The wangwangwang of rapid fire starfighter lasers rumbled in each fighter, as they swooped low, fired, and went into a loop.

“Keep it up, we’ve got something… lost it. Move twelve degrees port, let’s see if we can catch it again.”

“Roger 1”

*

The Corvette Marauder 2 slammed her engines to full, and desperately dropped in a downward spiral. Communications were out, sublight engines were damaged, top shields were severely weakened. They estimated two bombs had struck dead on, another tree exploding in extreme close proximity, with two flying over the front of the bridge scaring the crap out of everyone present.

“We’re out folks” shouted the captain. “Make for the edge of the rift, plot a hyperspace rout out of here.”

The Demise (Bridge)

"Tactical?"

It was a mess, sure enough. His primary target, the freighter, was already making good its escape. With their engines at the current level of inefficiency, there was almost zero hope for his ship to overtake the fleeing freighter and worse, he doubted that they could last through much more of a fire fight. One of the Corellian craft vectored off in an escape pattern while the rest of the damaged fleet maintained an organized pattern, very hard to break.

The Serendipity had cloaked but, going by those readings offered by his crew, she was in no position to move. Her captain's last transmission had mentioned something about another cloaking ship. In her current shape, the Serendipity could not make off under cloak without revealing herself. Wether or not the attacker knew this was yet to be seen.

Thankfully everyone else had dropped off into cloak as well.

"Sir?"

Choices had to be made.

"Get us out of here helm."

"Sir?"

"You heard me!"

Grudgingly, the crew turned their attentions to plotting an escape vector.



The Denial

She was a true predator. A raptor. Incompetence in her kin inspired a sort of thirst within the belly of the beast, that once started, demanded a monsoon before she was quenched. Watching her sister-ship preform so ineptly had been the catalyst that had confirmed her resolve.

Prey was escaping while it had been the task of her sister to strike and capture their meal. Now, the Denial would go hungry should the Demise continue to fail so horribly.

Truth be told, the Denial knew exactly what sort of ship she was. The bird understood those inner workings, that had been so expertly designed and installed, with a sort of harmony unknown to most. Aside from her, there existed only one Deception which surpassed her own potential. The original Deception... First of the line.

So, with aggravation and hunger fueling the engines which drove her forward, the Denial sought to finish what had been started, while her cloak of invisibility was up and functioning perfectly.

The cruiser was capable of speeds that similar ships could barely conceive and, better yet, under cloak it could do these speeds. It would not be long before she surpassed the running Gunship, thus; closing on the freighter.



Stealth 015

There was no escaping the agility, invisibility and, swiftness, of the Stealthray Blastboat, least of all the aggravated sort.

Still leading the formation, 015 opted for a drastic downward plunge in chase of what she saw as an escaping opportunity. In her rear, another duo of bombs dropped into position on the rack. Following behind her, 015 knew that the others were doing likewise.

This time, however; they would use a different vector. Rather then attempt a direct chase of the larger ship, the remaining Stealthrays would divert on a trajectory that would allow them to intercept the Gunship before it could break for the rift. Their bombs would be dropped from a higher and, more extreme angle... only now, they would detonate before impact. A stricken Gunship would have a difficult time even with the detonations going before their countermeasures could offer any help.



D1 Squadron

Too many hits and unable to hold their own, the Squadron, along with their wingmates, were being torn up. Even under cloak, the enemy had flight vectors planned that kept scoring hits against their numbers. Try as they might, they did not seem able to even the odds.

Someone in flight command had screwed up, badly. Every five seconds, orders kept coming down instructing them to change tactics and giving a whole new set of unexpected objectives.

As one, each pilot seemed to draw the same conclusion and, more then this, each pilot suddenly had his own set of objectives.

Flying in this manner, the thirty-three remaining fighters would prevent the enemy from seeing any formation flying. Like the true mercenary stalk each had been hired from, every pilot was suddenly all on his own and, extremely dangerous.

Phasing in and out of cloak the battlegroup broke up like a swatted at swarm and mingled into the formation of much larger ships. Here, finally, they started to score hit after hit. Some working against the turrets of the capitol ships, others preferring instead to dogfight their opponents.

It would only be a question of knowing their friends from their enemies and, hopefully, it would be the same for their adversaries.



The Serendipity (Bridge)

A large human, the captain had lived most of his life aboard a cloak-capable ship. It was, in fact, his fathers ship... Eventually making fist-mate. This new ship, however; had an entirely more sophisticated cloaking device.

He was in trouble, unless he started thinking very fast.

"Cloak status ensign?"

"Still at 95% sir," the young Chev crewman responded.

She was stuck, he knew. The Serendipity had been venting atmosphere from those hits, which meant they had a number of weak spots in the cloak that could become destabilized at speed. Sitting still, they were perfectly hidden... Provided that their invisible enemy did not know of their predicament.

As per it often does, inspiration came to the captain abruptly.

"It's an Infiltrator... It has to be. It's that, or something new..."

Confused, the crewman asked, "Pardon sir?"

"Bring the tracker cannons online..."

The Spy

“Any readings?”

“Negative Sir, continues passive signals, no readings. I’m having the computer analyze all the scanner readings we have received, we should find a hole in his cloak some where, only Stygium…” the man gestured to the ship they rode “…is relatively in-penetrable.”

A grunt was heard, as one of the other crew members obviously disagreed.

“That was atmosphere we saw there, correct?”

“Positive”

A murmur of pleasure rose from more than one throat, and the commander smiled.

“Only a matter of time then. Keep the scanners on the spacial disturbances. Start a slow bleed of power into the weapons, we might have the chance to put a few key shots in if we see her de-cloaking.”

“Aye”

“Nay”

“Do it.”


*


“Sir, multiple spacial anomalies coming in… the scanner is on the blink, can’t feed the weapons data”

“Start a blind fire pattern, do something! Just a few more seconds… Tactical, get a micro-jump plotted in. Weapons, fire all torpedoes in rapid succession on approximate vectors to where the enemy will come, detonate at random distances …”

Dying engines glowing a blinding blue, the Marauder 2 throttled up and sped toward the edge of the rift, escape the only thought.


*


Phantom Wing

“Ok, move out, we’ve lost it”

The fighters broke off their systematic fire and search, and gunned back toward the fleeing freighter, and frigate.

“Sir, we’ve got a massive anomaly trail here, something very large”

“Everyone spread out, on my mark open fire.”

In moments the invisible fighters circled, and paced the trail of disturbed space dust.

“De-cloak and open fire in a raking maneuver up, and forward on my mark … three … two … one … mark”

All twelve fighters de-cloaked in almost perfect synchronization, their weapons already spewing death. At first their shots missed, flying off into space at the speed of light. Then, as the ring of ships accelerated, they began to hit. For four hundred meters, every shot hit … something . Then, as suddenly as they had appeared, the fighters cloaked again.

“What was that?” asked one pilot.

“I don’t know, circle for another round”

“Sir, negative on anomaly trail, we’ve lost it. The rift is picking up speed again, the trails are muddling … “

A pause, then

“ Defensive positions around the Freighter.


*


Everything New

Intermittent laser fire occasionally appeared to strike something solid, but as of yet no enemy ships appeared with a hole through the hull.

“Keep your eyes out, how long until we’re clear?”

“Forty seven seconds”

“Everyone start praying.”

The Demise (Bridge)

"We have our escape vector plotted," came the report from Oxfords chief XO. His voice was layered with disgust.

The mood aboard ship was likely the same. They were running and, they knew it. Captain Oxford had ordered a retreat that stung deep to the core of the ships crew.

Oxford paused for a moment before responding, "Get us out of here."

And, no sooner had he spoken those treacherous words then did the Demise shudder as if grasped by a great hand. Abruptly and, without warning, the cloaked ship was suddenly consumed by a great ball of fire.

It started near the engines, a great gout of red-blue flame that shook the ship along her very keel. Simultaneous with first explosion, her cloak failed... Not that it was of much concern as the rest of the ship quickly followed suit. Within perhaps, 2.4 seconds, the entirety of the Demise had been reduced to nothing but a few malformed hunks of steel no larger then a mans hand. The explosion had throngs obliterated the once great warship.



The Denial

Her sister ship was dead, she knew, at the hand of her own treachery. What sadness the Denial may have felt was quickly covered by her anger at what her sister had done.

Worse yet, the Denial was now alone.

As she closed on the small freighter, quickly passing those interposing ships, countless small burns flecked her down-canted wings. Despite being under cloak, the opposing Phantoms, like so many gnats, were managing to coordinate their attacks well enough to roughly track her course.

Then, with a quick deviation in flight, she lost them... and with them went her perfect line on the freighter. Now, there was little chance she would overtake the prey.

This game was lost due to the ineptitude and failure of her sister. Single handed, the Demise had broken countless mandates laid down by President Pike... Rules that had been lain out just so to prevent certain compromises.

With a screaming call across hidden speakers, the Denial, the lone capital bird remaining, put forth the call to her flock. Run, hide, hold.

Taking her own advice she tracked back on a lazy inverted jay, the flight-path just so her form would not cause terrible eddies in the haze of the nebula. Calling an all stop, she froze as if stuck in ice and, there she held, unseen, awaiting the departure of the enemy fleet.

Everything New


“Twenty Seconds”


“Fifteen Seconds”


“Ten Seconds”


“Prepare the micro-jump vector, all ships”


“Five Seconds”


“We’re clear”


“Engage!”


With a streak, the severely damaged Strike cruiser leapt into hyperspace for a moment, before reverting with a squeal. Hull integrity was down, and the strain of hyperspace could not be supported.

But they had done it, the micro-jump had landed them far enough away from the Rift, and their enemy, that they could hide in the vastness of space waiting for escort.


The bulk cruiser, and the other ships continued through hyperspace to their destination, they would send help when they arrived. But it would be several hours, if not days before help would indeed arrive.

And so, the Everything New waited.


Phantom Wing

“One, I’ve got a deviation in trail, she the enemy just took a dive”

“Follow?”

“Negative. The fleet is jumping out.”

“Sir, the Spy has not reported in”

There was a pause, then

“All fighters, j turn. Full stealth mode, passive sensors, and passive beacon.”

“Roger”



The Spy


“Any readings?”

“Negative”

“Okay, keep watching.”

“Sir, sensors are picking up our Phantoms, they’re searching the Rift for us.”

The Serendipity

The mood aboard ship was that of sadness, fear and, desperation. On the bridge these emotions were amplified among those beings responsible for the ship and crew, the ones who understood their responsibility.

The captain was haggard, a salt long past his prime long worn by the stresses of a captains life. When he spoke, it was in a raspy, torn way... as if he were searching for his voice.

"The fleet?"

His equally discouraged XO sounded my like his captain, "The Demise is confirmed dead. We've lost the Denial. Our fighters are faring better and no word from the Stealths."

The decision had been made out of necessity more then anything else though the captain let little of this through in his tone, "Let's get out of here. Stand-by shields and cannons for disengagement of the cloak. Navigation, get us an escape vector and plot a microjump to safety..."
"I want everyone at their posts and ready. When we're visible we'll have a very short window to cover... Don't get caught with your pants down."

Almost as an afterthought, he added, "When we're visible, secure on Denial and let her know what we're doing. Hopefully they didn't forget about us."



The Denial

She could feel the smaller ship, even if unable to see her. The Serendipity was somewhere off of her bow, slightly below as perspectives went and, judging by the last communication received, the smaller ship wasn't going anywhere. Unfortunately, however; someone else had her pinned down and that someone else had a cloak.

There was only one real option available, considering the circumstances. The prey was gone and clear and, with the loss of the Demise little chance remained that the Denial would be able to catch it.

Mission parameters had effectively shifted from offensive to defensive because of one persons foolish visions of grandeur. So now, rather then move to pounce, she sat and waited. A grand bird, the Denial hung silent in space awaiting word from her smaller kin.



Stealth 015

Cloaked and still leading the same numbers, the small blastrays circled slowly below the plane of attack. With their sensors attuned above they monitored and relayed information to the number of BHG Phantoms still involved in the conflict. Acting as sensor ships, the Stealthrays did little to engage the enemy or betray their location, taking care even to fly carefully through the mists. Rather, they waited.

The Spy

“Sir, we’ve got a slight reading bearing 454, on vector 4. It’s slight, but dissimilar to anything I’ve seen in the last five minutes.”

“Watch it. How are our weapons systems?”

“We’re at 82% power, ready to fire”

“Communications?”

“Full of chatter from the Phantoms sir, they’re coming toward us, still out of range for passive communication.”

A malcontent voice spoke up from another position, its irritation obvious.

“When do we get padded seats?”

The Serendipity

"Cloak down Sir!"

The haggard captain wasted no time in bellowing his response.

"Shields, Now! Weapons!"

Behind him, they worked frantically to do as they knew they had to. The crew a frenzy of desperate souls.

With engines bursting to life, the Serendipty shot ahead even before shields could be brought on line and with the captain vigilant of his small ship, they tried to make good their escape.



The Denial

There!

A beacon in the fog, she saw her kin-ship appear from behind the marvel of her cloak. Engines running hot, the larger bird could tell the smaller ones intent. The Serendipty needed to run to survive and the Denial needed to cover her.

Doing just that, the Denial dropped her cloak and brought her engines around to drive her after the smaller ship. Her shields coming, missile after missile shot forth from her waiting bays. With no target they simply drove towards the space above the Serendipity in a hap-hazard defensive screen.

She knew that the Phatoms were falling into her wake, to provide cover and, she knew, the Blastrays were doing the same with the sudden uplink of tactical information.

“There!” shouted an excited crewman, and before their very eyes their prey de-cloaked, and began to move.

“Decloak, weapons lock on the engines, fire.” Cried the captain.

The two forward linked laser cannons spat their deadly fire as the spear-head shape of the infiltrator unvield itself. Red lasers burned holes in the rear of the yet un-shielded enemy ship.

“Target the engines!” shouted the captain. “Fire the blasters!” Four low profile blaster cannons emerged, and began to fire rotationally, searing bolts of red lancing out of the invisible craft in a continious stream causing destruction on the soft rear of their enemy.

Then, it all stopped. The firing stopped, as if it had never happened. The rear of the enemy ship was devastated, having received well over thirty horrific blasts to the sensitive engines exhausts.

"Raise the Cloak!" shouted the captain, now slightly frantic as he eyed the scanner display. The ship went into a low-belly roll, and dove underneath the now damaged enemy ship, hugging the bottom.

“Hold us there” said the captain, to the navigational droid. "And get that cloak raised!"

"We're trying" said one of the other men. "But it doesn't raise and lower in an instant"

Turning to the sensors reading, the captain examined it again, his eyes bayful.

“Analysis?”

“We’re not alone” whispered the man at tactical. “The moment the cloak went down, I detected spacial disturbances all over the place.”

“Probably just your mother” said another crewman. “Making sure you brushed your teeth this morning.”