The Art of War
Posts: 4291
  • Posted On: Jan 7 2006 5:46pm
It was as the ship groaned and shook that Ion got an idea - a mad, ridiculous idea, but it just might be the answer.

"All hands! Brace for futher impact! Lieutenant? Angle our ship up - I want us to grind our top level into their lower section until friction holds us together! Abandone the top decks of any sections in contact with the enemy ship - NOW." He grabbed the rails.

As the two ships traded fire, 003 angled further and harder into the Judicator, twisted metal grinding into twisted metal until finally the two locked together - and the 003 covered the fighter bay. "Right." said Ion "Now cut thrust - we're just going to try and match the enemy's speed and direction from now on, okay? We're staying locked on, so fire at will."

Inside, the vaccum was quite suddenly stopped as the 003's hull sealed off the bay. Yakabe groaned and hoped this would be the last time he'd have to pick himself off the floor. "Are we all okay?" He shouted as he got to his feet. Most replied with groans and nodded affermatives.

Yakabe's mind was racing. The vaccum and the collision probably shook up the whole ship, giving them a little longer before the enemy could enter the hangar bay. All enemies in the hangar bay were no more, wheras the vaccum suits of the Coalition forces had provided some measure of protection - not to mention the timely collision. "I want someone up in the control tower right now - Ulric? Take a few with you and cut the blue command redirect systems to give us total control of this area."

"Right." said the lanky man, who brought a few soldiers over to a jutting tower portion of the hangar, slicing a blue set of wires visible from an exposed panel before climbing up to take control.

"As for the rest of you, I want the tripod gun we brought set up in the - " Yakabe didn't even notice the scream as Ulric hurled an enemy soldier hiding in the tower straight through the window of the command tower " - space just in front of the door in here. Once we have control of the cameras and doors, I want us to be able to launch from there for a ship takeover. All soldiers take up squad positions and prepare to sweep the ship on my command."

There was a sparking sound from up above. Ulric looked on as the screens hummed back to life "We've got incoming." he shouted "They were knocked about a little, but enemy reserve units coming. Weird..." He looked closer, before shouting "They look a little low on grunts, to be honest. We didn't see any ships on the way in, did we?"

Yakabe realized that was true - the enemy shuttles had already launched. "You're right. That means we must be facing a diminished force. All right, Ulric? Open the blast-doors just a fraction for us, will you?"

The Knight and the men with him worked on the system for a minute or so, cutting wires and fiddling with electronics until finally finding the right command. The blast-door opened just a fraction, which was enough to poke the nose of the unit's e-web gun out into the corridor. Spurts of fire combined with shrieks of pain and panic from outside. After several bursts, Yakabe gestured for Ulric to open the blast-doors fully. The E-webber stopped firing, and Yakabe dived into the corridor beyond, scanning the hall with his rifle.

"Advance!"

Outside the ship, the battle had taken on a strange tone. With the two capital ships stuck together, it was difficult for most of the guns on either ship to fire on each other. That didn't stop many from trying, however, and the space between them was burning with fiery death.

That also meant the remaining fighters had little to do but fight each other. As their deadly duels continued above, the mechanoid suits once again recieved signal strength and - once again- joined the battle.

The gargantuan machines were twenty meters tall, large enough that they had to sit rolled up to fit in a hangar bay properly. It was a strange sight, like twelve giants climbing on top of the two stuck craft to bring their weapons directly to bare on the enemy ship - even going so far as to walk right up to the hull. Fierce enemy fire kept them from simply walking all over the Judicator (literally) but clinging to the sides, through the shattered shields, they were a serious threat working their way towards the command bridge.

Ion looked out on it all, sighed, and said "This is one weird battle."