Siren-Song of the Almighty

Brank · Jan 10, 2023

Drakador_Chaos KrankysFirebrand48 Darkstar

Infront of the rebel ship, a vastness called their name. Fleets of ships seemed to be prodding at one another with communications systems before setting their own courses into that tantalizing purple void, one by one. The fleets of vessels- including the almost insignificant Truculent- found themselves immersed into a purple-blue swirling of madness. Debris zipped about at absurd speeds, and clouds spun around them, a cacophony of whispers- although not all heard them. Most likely just the placebo effect of entering a place so infamous for it's death and destruction.

The real whispers were that of the transmissions coming from down the path, more garbled or encrypted messages from Taros- mostly ones the Dawners had already picked up on. Cracking through them told the same story that the Ascendant dawn had heard- chaos, pain, infighting. None of it sounded good.

Traveling through the maw was slow, and a constant agony of staying out of the path of hyperspace debris within moment's notices. Shrapnel and chunks flitted about, one shard ripping through the bottom-most spire of a seeker corvette, spraying more debris to join in the symphony of the maw's void.

And in the distance, one chunk of debris made itself very noticeable. Surrounded by the Fifth Imperium's last remaining vessel. This ship was painted in the greys and reds of the dominion, and was massive for it's origin as a dominioner vessel. It bore the unmistakable red-gold-purple coat of arms of the dominion, and a set of text running around the three-sided toblerone of a dreadnought. The text was in high speech, the old language inherited from the Imperials- but was easily translated:

"In the blazes of war, victory is not a suggestion." it read, and was unmistakable. The old flagship of the deceased dominion, sister ship to the homeship of the seekers; The I.D.S. Harbinger.

Getting onboard or into it's systems would reveal so very many pieces to the puzzle, and could solve everything.

But there's one problem; the Fifth Imperium's ship floating around it. Maybe negotiation would be on the table? Although unlikely, due to their inflated sense of ego.

KrankysFirebrand48 · Jan 14, 2023

Brank

The HMS Sojourner was docked to the sprinter with an extended docking port as the ships stayed in the shadow of the HMS Unassailable.
’You are clearly undermining my authority, Chief Officer. You deliberately interrupted my comms message.’ Pax said as he and Lalina were walking down the compact corridors of the Sprinter towards the control room.
’This is still a civilian operation,’ Lalina said, adding: ’Captian. I spoke with the Commodore and he said he had not assigned you to the task. We are both in agreement that you were not authorized to speak on that channel.’
’You attempted to humiliate me in front of my crew. Unacceptable.’ he said in an angry but controlled manner.
Lalina wasn’t particularly intimated but she was on the verge of breaking out in a sweat. The expedition would not work without the support of Pax and his dogs. She needed to be on good terms with him. She could not afford aggravating the Ascendant Dawn but she could afford to aggravate the Fifth imperium. From her impressions, they were the kind of people who were easier to threaten than reason with. It wasn’t optimal but she knew what Pax was about to suggest next and she had to get on his good side, else the expedition be doomed.
’With the Fifth Imperium ships there, trying to stabilize the wreck won’t be possible. They will ruin and tamper our precise inputs. They have to be removed.’
’Or we could wait for our turn and negotiate who takes what.’ She suggested.
’Ha! Not even a Free Worlder would consider such an offer. Try negotiation. When it fails I already have battle plans thought out. Go ahead.’ Pax said as they both reached the bridge.
’Hail them.’ She ordered.
The fifth imperium fleet received a hail and a transmission.

// Transmission start //
’This is chief scientific officer of the Bastonian civilian vessel Sprinter. I am requesting for our expeditionary fleet to approach and investigate this wreck. For safety purposes this would require your ships to temporarily move away from its vicinity.’
// Transmission end //

Drakador_Chaos · Jan 15, 2023

Brank
Sumis observed the wreckage with concern.
It was neither the fact that they lost two scout drones on the way here, nor the state of the ship they had found.
By the regent, he could not care less that the Fifth Imperium had lost an entire ship on the way here either, in fact their very presence was what concerned him. For all he cared they could have just died on the journey here, it would have been far more convenient.
They would be hard to negotiate with, if they let them negotiate at all, in that they were likely no different than the Dawns own nobles, not surpising considering they may even be from the same descent. However, even if they negotiated, it would cost them precious time in an area that was everything but stable.
Yet, starting conflict in area like this would only invite death.

He sighed and shook his lowered head, then looked around the bridge, it would be tempting to just send in some drones and see what happened, though they did not have time for such gimmickry.
"Sir, Bastonian ship is contacting the Fifth Imperium."
He turned his head and lifted an eyebrow, perhaps the Bastonians would be useful after all.
"Request permission for a mutual commlink with the Bastonians, I think we would like to be part of this conversation, for both our and their interest.", he paused.
"Should we also contact the Fifth Imperium in the process?", the comm officer piped up.
Sumis nodded.
"Yes.", he thought about it for a brief moment. "...but not separately, do it together with the Bastonians.", he added.

"If we present ourselves as a closed front we may be able to intimidate them, they are nobles and will hardly act in our interests or acknowledge our authority, however if nothing else even the foreign nobles would like to get out of here alive."
His gaze moved back to the singular Fifth Imperium cruiser that was left. 'Especially after what they already lost', he added in his mind.

Brank · Feb 7, 2023

KrankysFirebrand48 Drakador_Chaos

"You really think we will give in to your petty request?" the noble asked condescendingly. He had a look of frustration of anger on his face. "I will kill you and everyone you l-"

He was cut off as the Dawners joined in on the transmission. He almost spoke up, then the Seekers followed suit, appearing in the transmission line, flickering onto the screen.

"You.. Bastards. Fuck," he said, exhasperated, then grunted. "Fine, My ship will leave. But dont expect this to go unremembered, Morati. Curses..."

The transmission was swiftly cut, and the behemoth of a vessel flickered to life as its thrusters turned it and pushed it forwards. Slowly, it lumbered out of the way of the temporarily-combined might of the three polities. Oddly, no transports ever returned to the Imperial ship.

"Keep a watch out for them," spoke Jameson. "It isnt like the Fifthers to just slither away like that, they have some sort of plan. We should at least land our search teams nearby one another, in case theyve set some sort of trap, then we can go our own ways."

With that, the small seeker fleet cautiously moved forwards. The destroyer's magnetic fielding flared up as a corvette was pulled around by the powerful field, turned to face behind the seekers and pulled along by an invisible rope as it kept pace with its reverse thrusters and the support of the Destroyer's field.

The Harbinger laid across the void, barely moving. One of the vast hangar bays- larger than even some of the ships present between the trio of fleets- was ajar, enough to fit a large transport. As well as this, several airlocks were visible- probably easy to break through. FInally, the observation deck was visible, and it could as well be broken into with charges of some sort.

Drakador_Chaos · Feb 27, 2023

Brank
Sumis stood silent for a couple more moments as the transmission with the fifth imperium closed then he frowned and shook his head, turning towards the others in the call.
"I, too, would be careful, they may have 'retreated' but knowing our other 'cousins' they do not seem to be the kind to see reason."
He turned away from the screen, muting himself and began to issue new orders to deploy to the ship.

A couple of minutes later a number of shuttles departed from the leading cruiser of the AD group, headed towards the wreckage, if it would've been an old imperial ship they could've probably tried to search for its floor plans but evidently it wasn't. All of the shuttles, bar one, landed in the hangar, a couple of people in EVA suits coming out, followed by what looked like some sort of automated exploration units or robots, waiting to link up with the other deployed units, most notably however, was the shuttle which broke off from the group, 'parking' in space above the observation deck and deploying a couple of drones, though rather than trying to break it open they seemed to be merely observe the inside for now.
As the various shuttles deployed the mainline ships of the AD kept their point defense active and their sensors trained on the direction of the fifth Imperium. Curiously enough, a couple of their exploration drones seemed to be standing by near the AD cruiser, sitting outside of their hangar a decent distance away from the ship but still in relatively close proximity.

KrankysFirebrand48 · Mar 6, 2023

Brank Drakador_Chaos
Pax looked upon the interaction and watched carefully as the Fifth Imperium ship disengaged. 'We're still getting into combat formation. Go ahead and land.'
Knowing Pax wasn't the one who had the position to authorize a boarding, Lalina ordered the HMS Supplenisher to close in to the wreck as Pax was going back to his ship.
'Janir, you got the deck. I'm going in with an EVA suit.' she said without protest this time. There was nothing more thrilling than going into the unknown.

Tethered to the derelict ship, multiple personers exited the Bastonian vessels and used their suites to move into one of the hatches. Two shuttles, one from the civilian ships loaded with scientists and engineers, and one from the HMS Supplenisher with marines and combat equipment. The shuttles closed in to land in the hangar bay.
Lalina heard 'Realspace actuators have recalibrated and are stable. The area is fully anchored.' over the comms line in her suit as she absorbed a soft impact to her body when she collided with the ship close to the airlock her team of engineers were working on opening safely.

Brank · Mar 23, 2023

Drakador_Chaos KrankysFirebrand48

IDS Harbinger - Hangar

Alongside the Ascendant Dawn's transports landed a few from the seekers- sleek and smooth with no visible thruster flares, as they lowered themselves to the ground, flanking a much larger transport- similar shape, but wider and with one singular fusion torch.

From the bowels of these came a tiny assembly of soldiers in sleek EVA suits, with a clattering of light, but well-covering armour bearing the markings of mostly Nautae Belli- normal marines. A few in the crowd had much darker black, red, and blue armour, with a large device on their back, and weapons who connected to the device via tubing. They bore the marks of Umbra Nautae- the seeker's equivalent to the Shadow Marines of the old Dominion.

From the larger of the transports, there was a loud whirring, as a quartet of robotic companion drones stepped out- two with sidearms and a multitool-arm, and two carrying small crates of supplies. Behind those drones, a larger metallic figure stepped out- low, on all fours, and coloured a sleek black with red markings, and a sharp face. It was four legged, and looked vaguely similar in build and shape to a vaiaelon- although close up, the anatomy was all wrong, and it was simply a beast of metal.

The Prowler drone shuddered and moved forwards into the hallways, slipping into the darkness with red eyes that flickered, and then dissapeared as it's gravitational cloaking set in.

Meanwhile, the Seeker forces integrated with that of the AD and Bastonians, and they linked their radios.

"Prowler drone will move forwards and scout things out. It ain't armed, but in a pinch it can rip a man to shreds- if it isnt turned into scrap first. We can either stick together and move forwards behind it and your scouts, or we can split and go our own paths. Your call."

IDS Harbinger - Airlock

The inside of the airlock that the Bastonians had crawled their way into were dead, and looked barren on the inside. The control panel was ripped up, torn from it's place and thrown around. The inner door was jammed, and slightly ajar, but not very broken. The grey walls were stained with a brownish-red splatter, and there was a lump of something under a tarp in the corner.

IDS Harbinger - Space

With eagle-eyes the three fleets watched the Fifth Imperium's ship retreat. But it was going slow- lingering almost intentionally. Its thrusters werent even at half their power, and it was burning at a weird angle. Almost looking diagonal to it's flight path. Then more. And more. Was it slowly turning around..?

KrankysFirebrand48 · Mar 25, 2023

Brank
The GBE attack corvettes manouvered between the wreck and the fifth imperium ship to cut line of sight. They cut thrusters and put their hulls into a slow but controlled drift towards the wreck. The destroyer, HMS Unassailable put itself into GBE effective artillery engegment range of the fifth imperium ship and activated its plasma shield.

Hangar

The Bastonians were moving with haste, setting up their boarding protocals. Bastonia had experience, albiet these soldiers looked like they were fresh from marine training. Some combat engineers deployed drones of their own. Meanwhile an officer was overseeing the deployment of cover and logistics crates while discussing with one of the civilian engineers. The military shuttle had a 20 mm autocannon turret on the top, overlooking the hangar and covering the entrences. The Bastonians deployed their own scouting drones into each available corridor.

/Comms
'This is communication officer Hendra.' said a female human voice 'This communications line was just cut from the main EM comms of our military forces on this ship. If you want to reach them, you talk to me. Our civilian personnel are handling classified information. Do not approach them.'
The were a couple of marines around the scientists computational setup most notacibly there was a larger drone eyeing its soroundings with a large qcomm array on it.

Airlock

One of the marines took a sample of the brown splatter on the door and handed it to Lalina who put it in one of their sealed utility pockets. The marine then left the airlock while the only remaining marine in it engaged his magnetic boots and attached an EM spectrum device to the inner door to scan for anything on the other side. He turned his attention to the lump in the corner and scanned that as well.

Drakador_Chaos · Apr 9, 2023

As everyone was starting to set up their equipment, the AD teams disembarked and split into three separate teams, two of them looked like they had a number of individuals with light armour, scanning equipment and a couple of heavy duty EVA suits with them, both these teams readied themselves to head off into the deeper parts of the ship. The third one dragged something out of the shuttle that looked somewhat like a small hovering comms station. As it activated a couple of drones flew out scanning the hangar they were in, looking for a map of the ship. Notably all of the armour and EVA suits were designed in a way that gave no insight into who or what was actually inside the suits. All of it was done in complete silence.

Still, moments later a voice came over the group comms.
"I am afraid we have no intention of looking over your equipment, we will stick to ours as long as you stick to yours."
It was clearly in response to the Bastonians.

In the meanwhile on the outside, the point defence turrets of the Dawn Cruiser stayed trained on the Fifth Imperium ship as it made its strange drift, in a poorly hidden attempt of some planned manoeuvre. The question was, what they attempted to do.

The sensor officer raised his voice to notify Sumis on the bridge of the Cruiser.
”Sir, the fifth imperium is…”
Sumis cut him off with a dismissing wave of the hand, the officer frowned in response.
”Yes, I can see it. I suspect they are trying to do something stupid that may get everyone here killed.”
He looked at the central screens without another motion or emotion to speak of, pulling the data and imagery onto it with a couple of blinks and then rubbed his chin.
”Send them a little present. Make sure they don’t notice.”
He looked over at the officer controlling the scout drones who nodded silently.
Moments later, with a brief burn and a cut to the engines, one of the scout drones started drifting in the direction of the projected location of the Fifth Imperium ship, though making sure its path would pass by instead of colliding. All active sensors and engines cut off moments later, making it look like just another piece of, comparatively, harmless passing debris.

Brank · Apr 28, 2023

Drakador_Chaos KrankysFirebrand48

After the stale interaction with the other two polities ended, the Seekers split into a few small squads and went down some of the hallways behind the Dawners, splitting off as soon as the pathways branched off. Not much else was said between them.

Not very deep into the hallways, drones began to go dark- down four hallways, specifically. The two Dawner combat expeditions, one of the hallways the Bastionians prepared to move into, and one of the hallways a Seeker expedition had moved down. Any followup drones went black not long after the same position.

The Dawn and Seekers quickly found out why.

/Comms - Local

“Squad going down hall D-32-4 has gone completely dark, standby and keep your eyes peeled.”

Primary Dawner Expedition

Shortly after that, the First dawner expedition started spotting glowing purple lights in a narrow corridor, not long after they began to exit from a mess-hall. As they flicked their flashlights over them, a hulking mass of white, grey, and purple revealed itself, one shining purple eye glimmering. It’s left arm rose up with a whir, and a purple arm-shield flickered to life, illuminating the corridor in a soft violet. Behind it, a few soldiers in similarly coloured armour with blue-violet visors huddled behind cover.

SHINK-SHINK-SHINK-

Powerful shots began to ring out as the metallic beast pulled up it’s other arm. The plasma autocannon mounted to it began firing inaccurately down the corridor with a vast volume of heavy bolts. It looked as if it was either terribly programmed, or it was aiming to suppress rather than kill- though the heat of the plasma still scorched armour and the walls around it.

Joint Seeker-Dawner Squad

This expedition- accompanied by a squad of Umbra Nautae from the seekers ran into a similar yet different issue. Down their hallway were the corpses of a dawner and seeker drone respectively, gutted by a series of plasma bolts. Behind them was a wide open room- what looked like an armoury of sorts- and a semi-fortified Fifther position. They had a token handful of footsoldiers, an officer in lighter armour, and a machine-gun nest with a rotary plasma cannon, laying down heavy fire down the hall, having initially turned half of a seeker UN into hot sludge, while the rest of the Seekers had jumped back, taking cover around the corner.

Airlock - Bastonians

It was evident after a closer look that the rusty substance was dried blood- especially after further inspection revealed the covered lump was a dry corpse, not allowed to rot in the absence of an atmosphere. A trio of clean holes were cut through him, leading into three more holes in the floor and ceiling- something had broken through multiple layers of the ship to do that. The door itself had a thick layer of lead to block radiation, and thus the scans were fruitless- but the door was evidently loose, and would likely be simple to open.

Space

After some time it became more obvious of the Fifther’s intent. Either they were terrible at hiding things, or their commander grew more and more impatient- as they had finally turned their hulking, gargantuan vessel to face the combined fleet. Energy spiked in the core of the ship, and the missile-cells of guided weapons batteries began to flicker open across the ship’s surface, popping from the hull like blisters of violence.

A hangar pushed itself open on the belly of the vessel, and a swathe of drone fighters began to pour out, fluttering around the vessel defensively in rat-packs of 10-30 drones each, led by much larger, ₅₀ meter long drone control crafts, each dotted with small point defense guns and missile batteries.

In response, the Seeker’s formation tightened and their weapons pulled online. Magnetic sensors flared bright colours as their magneto-field generators blared powerfully, orbs of plasma splitting out of pools and flickering around the vessel’s wings in circles, ready to fire off in beams at a moment’s notice. Cannons aimed forwards, and thrusters flickered gently.

It seems that today would be marked by bloodshed.

KrankysFirebrand48 · May 3, 2023

Brank (Drakador_Chaos)
Upon discovering that the hallway did not branch off, the Bastonians marked the location each drone had been cut off and started moving one team through the corridor, assuming that it might be automated defences. Another scouting drone was in front, checking each corner and scanning for heat through walls to keep the marines safe from the element of surprise. Another machine was in front, a wolf sized, four-legged machine with an infrared spotlight and machine gun. The Bastonians switched off their torches and used their night vision and thermal camera instead, appearing as if each soldier had four eyes with green pupils. They moved down the corridor with discretion, smart gun and shotgun wielders as the frontmost marines.

Lalina instinctively covered her mouth as she saw the corpse, but instead ended up hitting her own suit's helmet. She regained her composure and coughed before commanding the lead marines to heave open the inner airlock door, to which he obeyed.

The HMS Watcher immediately responded. Seeing as the Bastonians lacked major hangars, they immediately blared ECM and interfering EM waves towards the Fifthers, trying to throw off the drones and their mains ships targeting. Transmitting the information to Pax's ships, the HMS Unassailable began deploying its own drones in a defencive I-net in a crescent shape along itself and its three allies in proximity.
'Captain! They're moving to attack.'
Pax studied the enemy formation carefully on the holopad displaying what the Unassailable had transmitted. He looked out the window of the HMS Sojourner, drifting. The fifthers ship was hidden behind the hulking wreck, but so were they.
Those smaller 50 meters,’ he said, ’Target those with our main plasma cannons. Once the strike craft have left the protective area of their main ship, we strike with missiles against their engines.'
’We don’t yet have order to attack.’
’Typical… patience then, brethren.’

Drakador_Chaos · May 8, 2023

Brank KrankysFirebrand48
"Fire the Warp-drive."
The roder was simple, though it's implications likely terrifiying to the Fifth Imperium cruiser, would it have known of it.
Sumis looked at the the data and nodded, observing the tiny drone which had drifted towards the cruiser and was about to activate its ftl drive in an uncontrolled area in the Maw. It was as much of an attack as it was an experiment, they did not know what would happen, pehraps it would tear apart space time around the cruiser, though it may just as well be that nothing happened at all.
"Make sure to keep sensors trained on the results, I want to know more. focus point defens eon guided munitions for now."
It would certainly yield a lot of interesting data either way.

In the meanwhile aboard the ship the AD teams immediately sought cover, fast but not quite fast enough for all, given the narrow corridors, as a few members of each team got hit to varying degrees, reaching from light scorch marks on the outer armour to one of them losing an arm and dropping to the floor where they stood from the heat shock.
almost momentarily, they returned fire, handheld particle weapons firing glowing arcs, trying to disrupt the electronics of the mechanical assailants.

In the meanwhile in the main hanger, footage from both teams was displayed in a number of holo-screens above the portable comms stations, coordinators got to work, observing the situation and began trying to discern weakspots and serving as the groups proverbial third eye.

Brank · May 10, 2023

Drakador_Chaos KrankysFirebrand48

HALLWAY WITH THE WAR-MACHINE

A sound like a War-horn sounded out loudly down the hall as the machine’s shoulder shifted, a canister opening and firing a trio of thumps, smoke grenades with a purple trail behind them firing into the corridor. There was a high whine as the Fifthers’ thermal goggles clicked to life, green interlacing with their purple-white forms like six spider-eyes. The War-machine let out a mechanical shriek as it’s shield arm was rendered useless by a well-placed particle lance, rendering the electronics in that limb’s shoulder useless and dysfunctional. The thing’s eye glowed brightly as mechanics behind the camera’s light whirled in circles. If a Dawner could get a good shot in…

At the same time, some of the Fifther soldiers had been cut down, particle beams to the face or chest rendering them near-instantly dead as their hearts stopped, brains melted, and radiation caused vast internal bleeding, as well as externally from the large holes cut through them.

DAWNER-SEEKER EXPEDITION

“Looks like they’ve got a cannon down there, anyone here got any heavy ordinance!?” called out the de-facto leader of the seeker squad, after their original commander was turned into sludge in the initial barrage, his half melted corpse laying against the wall around the corner. A couple marines produced plasma grenades, but beyond that there wasnt much. The new captain turned to the Dawners, and nodded.

"You have anything in the way of explosives?” he asked, hefting one of the plasma grenades and looking over towards the bend in the corridor. He winced as a trio of rounds fired off from a seeker marine’s micropellet railcannon, their form pulling back as a wave of plasma slapped the wall where they had been peeking out. “Anything to at least force the Fifthers into a retreat.”

BASTONIAN EXPEDITION

More prepared and cautious, and the Fifther’s element of surprise gone, the Bastonians filed into a wider, brightly lit courtyard with benches, climbing rock walls, fences, and exercising equipment as cover. At the other end they quickly spotted one of their drones laying in pieces across the floor, smoldering, and Fifthers who popped out from behind some equipment. As the wolf-like robot lumbered in, its weapon laying down covering fire, an autocannon popped down from the ceiling, firing back with comparatively weak munitions- rubber bullets designed as a non-lethal way to put down riots.

One of the Fifther soldiers in ragged gear tried to run off, clearly scared- but was stopped as a commander in full body armour roughly grabbed the back of his armour, shoving him back with a crack into the cement rock-wall that was drowned out by the gunfire. The soldier that had tried to run didn’t show as human on any recording the Bastonians had taken of the incident. Were they fighting with armed slaves?

THE AIRLOCK

The inner airlock creaked open with the pain of being ages untouched. Eventually it gave way and opened up into a room with EVA suits, a high ceiling, and equipment for external repair. Some of the suits were missing, while one was impaled with a long screwdriver, torn open, but empty- no corpse inside of it. There was the symbol of the dominion etched into the opposite door, and-

Was it… snowing?

Flecks of purple-white crystals gently shimmered down to the floor, floating as if there was half a G’s worth of gravity, despite there being none on the ship itself. A welding tool floated in front of Lalina, purple crystals forming on it like ice on the surface of a lake, jagged and frozen. A soft purple glow emanated through the room. As the seconds ticked on, the glow became more powerful, ice began to form softly on their suits and the walls around them, tiny purple flecks of energy zapping between each crystal, arcing harmlessly.

Three purple dots peered down from the ceiling, and there was a gentle shimmer as a black figure revealed it’s form, still unseen by the marines as it hung from the top of the room. A silent, unhearable crackle as purple plasma and lightning formed in it’s palm and flowed across the blade of a sword they had unsheathed, forming around the blade like a second sheath of crackly plasma.

Under the helmet, the Fifther Psion grinned, ready to take her prey. She pushed from the ceiling with her feet, and lunged at one of the marines, wrangling her arms tightly around the marine as she tried to keep them from turning around and fighting. The plasma blade came close enough to the neck of the suit’s armour to begin scorching the metal, and ice began to spontaneously erupt across the marine’s suit, trying to poke through and pierce it at it’s soft points, in an attempt to expose the squishy body inside to the cold, dangerous vacuum.

“SURRENDER, BASTONIANS!” she cried out hysterically, the helmet not giving off the wide, manaical smile underneath it. “OR ALL OF YOU WILL BECOME ONE WITH THE VOID!”

She chuckled as she tightened her grip and pulled the blade closer to the marine’s throat, backing up to use their body as a meat-shield. She let her psionic energy surge as she tried to pour fake agony into the head of the marine, like alternating hot needles and cold blades across every inch of their skin.

SPACE

Everything devolved in less than a split second. The moment the Dawners opened up with swarms of missiles, particle lances, and fusion cannons- the allied forces struck back. Seeker weaponsfire wiped out a swathe of fighters and the fifty-meter corvettes out, as did the fire of the Bastonians. A seeker vessel was rendered damaged by the particle lance of the Fifthers, ripping off one of it’s star-point wings. Less than a moment later, the entire engine-block of the Fifther’s capital ship was torn into oblivion by the Dawner’s probe, cast out at hyperspace, into the depths of the maw as new debris to strike down unsuspecting explorers.

But the ship continued moving. Despite its mission-death, its weapons continued firing as it spun around in a circle, on a path to directly strike the IDS Harbinger. They needed to stop it's movement, while wiping out it's weapons.

The seekers reached out, offering touse their vessels' magnetic fields to try to slow the imperial corpse of a vessel, provided someone escort them and provide fire to annihilate the fifther's weapons before they killed the seekers. Even fighter coverage would be helpful, they concluded. It was made clear that other suggestions or plans of action were welcome, but they needed to be fast.

It seems the dawner's plan worked, but the consequences could leave the answers to the oddity they studied unfound, and their boys on the ground dead, if they did not act now.

Drakador_Chaos · May 27, 2023

There was silence in the bridge of the Ascendant Dawn ship, as Sumis watched the results of his experiment with satisfaction and a hint of sadism.
"Fascinating."
He watched the drifting and firing ship a couple moments until the first shots intercepted by the APS mildly rocked the ship, then turned towards the rest of the birdge crew, eagerly recording and evaluating all the data they had just collected.
"I think the rest falls into your area of expertise.", he addressed who was likely the actual captain of the ship who been standing by mostly idle until now. He nodded dutifully in return and stepped to the front immediately, as if having waited for permission.
"Lower weapon energies and redirect to defensive systems, Engines at full power, strafe the enemy ship and ready Rad-burst warheads!"
Confirmation returned and the bridge became busy.

As the Dawner ship begin approaching the halfway point around the Imperium ship, which was far easier now that it's engine block was literally gone, several missile banks released clusters of guided projectiles, heading around the enemy ship with the aim of detonating in it's exposed back and release a burst of penetrative radiation and disable it's internal systems.

Inside the ships, the crews were fighting with a whole different set of problems, already having been notified of the situation outside, the mobile comms station released a broadband signal able to be picked up by anyone in the ship as coordinators did their work.
"Fifth Imperium forces! Your ship and thus your way out have been disabled, surrender now and you may yet receive mercy."

In the meanwhile, in the hallway with the warmachine, the first casualites mounted, the men in the EVA suits began moving into cover, dragging two other Dawners with them, though it was uncertain whether they were dead or not, in the meanwhile the ones in light armour pulled their capes in front which turned out to impact hardening fabric, holding it's own unexpectedly well against the kinetic projectiles though the plasma ones it seemed to struggle with evident by another of the soldiers falling to the floor as one of the shots penetrated his cloak.
Then, something strange happened, as two of the soldiers seemed to tag the machine a third soldier moved his weapon out of cover and fired, however, the finetuned adjustedments of the weapon almost looked as if his armour had aimed on its own.

In the seeker expedition the Dawners also seemed to have an answer, though strangely enough, in this area it didn't come from the soldiers themselves as one of the individuals clad in heavy EVA suits stepped forward, the unit nodded in return to the question or at least it looked like a nod beneath the heavy suit and pulled a cylinder like looking object from it's backpack , rolling it down the hallway after twisting a number of rings on it to which it responded with a silent howl dampened by the lack of atmosphere. As it impacted the wall down the corridor, it opened and began arcing lightning at everything in the surroundings.
It wasn't exactly a grenade, probably usually used to kickstart or overload ship systems.

KrankysFirebrand48 · May 31, 2023

Brank
Expedition
The Bastonians retreated back into the corridor, regrouping and getting behind cover, analysing the enemy positions caught on their sensors.
'Sir! Enemy infantry at 493-h does not appear to be human!' one of the privates shouted over the gunfire. Who were they really fighting.
'Don't hold back! Fire around the corner!' the highest-ranking officer ordered above the gunfire as two marines with smart guns positioned themselves at an angle so they were only a couple of cm from being visible from behind their cover. Their bullets made a peculiar whizz sound as they made a small turn to strike at the Fifthers. However, they were low calibre and ricocheted off the robot. The Bastonians were cautious due to being suppressed by the covering fire. Occasionally they would throw grenades into the room or fire their rifles, though not having much time to align their barrels with a target.

The airlock
Lalina observed the tool hovering in front of her. Peculiar, it may be brought back for study. She put it into a jar, carefully, not touching the substance with her hands all the while the marines were getting increasingly paranoid, throwing the light from their torches around to find any sort of threat- the Psion lunged at the marine that had opened the airlock. He let out a yelp and almost immediately fell to the floor. His gun slammed against the floor. His suit was punctured before the other 5 remaining marines and Lalina turned around to face the Psion. They raised their weapons. Mostly low calibre SMGs, but one had an MR-75 rifle. Laline quickly grabbed onto the wall and hurled her way out of their line of fire.
'Drop the kid!' one of the marines exclaimed over open frequency. 'You will be dead before he dies from depressurization.'

Space
Pax leaped into action seeing the first coilgun shell emerge from the Bastonian rail. His ships leaped into actions, previously hidden by the wreckage. The engines of his two attack corvettes lit up and propelled them around the wreckage, into close range of the target vessel. Missiles of nuclear type and plasma bolts lethal at close range were unleashed, focusing on the ships weapons. The two corvettes quickly passed the enemy in an attack run, turning around for another strafe on the Fifthers surface.

Brank · Jun 7, 2023

@Drakador_Chaos @KrankysFirebrand48

HALLWAY WITH THE WAR-MACHINE

There was an unheard crash of metal as the machine's head was torn to shreds by the bullet cutting down into it's eye. The machine sputtered and crumpled in on itself, the magnetic locks on it's feet giving out while the mass of metal began floating around the room the Fifthers had holed up in.

The firing towards the Dawners relented for quite some time, with nothing happening. Just as they thought it was over, there were a few flashes behind cover, and a body- the body of a Fifth Imperium commander- began to float out in the doorway. One of the normal soldiers stepped out with their hands up in surrender, a piece of slate-gray metal from the machine held up like a white flag.

DAWNER-SEEKER EXPEDITION

As the lightning bolts zapped outwards, a pair of Fifther soldiers were fried in their own armour, killed quickly as the others hastily brought up plasma shields projected from their arms that then laid against the floor, acting as a path for the lightning to take while avoiding the soldiers. Due to needing to protect themselves, they stopped peeking out and firing at the Seekers and Dawners, giving them an opportunity to push up- of which the seeker soldiers took, moving forwards with their guns draw, prepared to jump around the corner and take out the fifthers on the left side; leaving the right for the Dawn soldiers.

BASTONIAN EXPEDITION

The fighting lasted quite shortly as the Dawner's message sounded around the ship. The enslaved footsoldiers instantly took action as they heard the call for surrender, and a struggle behind the barrier ensued, giving bastonians time to move up. The autocannon continued firing away, though it's rubber bullets continued to do nothing against the individuals in EVA armour beyond an annoying distraction.

Gunshots sounded out as plasma bolts impacted the ceiling, and a silent thud cried as the commander of the slave-soldiers was stabbed with a knife and sent flying, his body impacting the ceiling as blood trailed behind him in bubbles, followed by a few other bodies of mixed loyal soldiers and defecting ones.

On a local radio frequency, the remaining defecting soldiers called out, requesting an official surrender. Guns were cast away as the five remaining walked around the corner, their hands up.

THE AIRLOCK

There was a chuckle from the Psion, then full blown laughter, as she nicked at the throat more with her weapon.

"Me, Dead?!" she cried out, small thrusters on her suit backing her away from the marines more. "Strong words from a bunch of guys with guns and no way out of here!"

Around her, spikes of ice began to form in the void, swarmed by flurries of purple snow and zapping energy. One shot out directly towards one of the marines as she tried to slit the throat of the one she was holding onto, then letting go and kicking off of his body. Flecks of ice appeared around her, thick enough and angled to redirect the small caliber rounds. She swung her free hand towards the marines as small thrusters redirected her around the tall, expansive room; and from the hand came a bolt of scorching plasma, aiming towards another Bastonian Marine.

SPACE

The Dawner ship was peppered with fire by the Seekers, Dawners, and Bastonians combined, guns going up in explosions as the small fighters and corvette-esque craft were turned to slag. One seeker ship was sliced open by a Fifther gun and lost one of it's wings, while blobs of molten metal were accelerated by the magnetic field of the seeker's destroyer, piercing the thick armour of the Fifther ship.

Each barrage of fire pushed it more and more off course, but the large craft hadn't been put out of action quite yet. One of the remaining heavy particle cannons of the Mesmit turned towards a Bastonian Redeemer-class, firing off a powerful beam of particles moving at the speed of light. Missiles angled themselves in particular towards one of the Ascendant Dawn's escort craft, swathes of anti-ship missiles pouring from their housings like water down a river.

KrankysFirebrand48 · Jun 13, 2023

Brank
Expidition
As they rounded the corner they saw a couple of Bastonians on the floor. It was hard to tell which ones were dead or just injured. Their comrades were kneeling beside them with medical equipment and patch-ups for their suits. Two soldiers ran forward to organize the prisoners into a manageable formation while the officer eyed them up and down.
'Secure the room boys, find any stragglers.' he said before pointing at the newly captured slave-soldiers. 'So you're the type to earn medals are ya?'

The Airlock
The marine struck by the energy as if it were lightning was flung back and became unconscious. All the while another was hit by a bolt of plasma, leaving a flowing orange dent in his armour and tissue. The other marines opened fire, lighting the room up with yellow flashes. Lalina watched wide-eyed as the panicked marines fought the inhuman threat. Being a scientist though, she knew there were only few seconds until their neural links recognized the panic and introduced neurological signals to combat it.

Space
Sitting down and securing himself into his vessel, Captain Pax was thrilled to make attack runs causing as much devastation as his small craft possibly could, working in tandem with the HMS Unassailable's kinetik artillery. However he was very aware of the fragility and weakness of his ship... lightspeed weapons.
'Sir enemy is targeting us with...' his damage control officer said, checking the records of each Fifther turret as one was tracking them, 'particle cannon. Sir?'
'Damnit evade! Power to engines!' he said bringing up a manual control display.
'Unable, si-'
'All hands brace. I'm cutting the anch-' at that precise moment the particle beam was fired and Pax cut his ships connection to the realspace anchor. As if it were a ghost the HMS Sojourner disappeared. From Pax' perspective, they were launched into the depth of the maw, without the comforting presence of colossal royal hull and railgun cover.

Drakador_Chaos · Jul 3, 2023

Brank

HALLWAY WITH THE WARMACHINE

One of the EVA people and one of the soldiers exchanged looks after the strange display and seemed to argue over their comms for a couple moments as the rest of the group kept their guns trained on the Imperium soldiers.

'Are they actually surrendering?', the one in the EVA suit asked, somewhat suspicious.
'Looks like a mutiny to me.', the soldier answered, clearly in response to corpse floating their direction.
'Well, I wouldn't want to play the slave soldier either but what are we going to do with them? Escort them out?', the EVA one continued with uncertainty.
'That was probably commands plan, yeah. Don't quite trust them yet, they could literally blow up in our faces from what I've heard.', the soldier looked towards the surrendering soldiers another time, eyeing their equipment with suspicion, whether what he said about them exploding was true or not it was quite evident the opinion of Imperium split offs and successors wasn't particular high in the Dawn.
EVA shook his head. 'Well, best call command then.'

A couple of moments later the situation had been discussed and cleared up with command, one of the soldiers stepped forward and waved the former slaves through with his gun, gesturing them to move ahead back to the hangar whilst he kept a certain security distance to them. As they passed the next turn in the corridor, the team moved on, deeper into the ship towards their original destination.

DAWNER SEEKER EXPEDITION

Using the opportunitym the two soldier of the Dawner group moved up to press the advantage, moving to the right weapon drawn and shield cloaks in front, interestingly enough most of the dawner group stayed back though, providing cover fire from where they had been.

SPACE

Space flared as fire was exchanged between the ships and the burning wreckage tumbling towards the station, though the escort had a tight grid of point dfense emplacements there was only so much it could do against a ship much larger in size than itself, added to this came the fact that due to its positioning the cruiser itself was in no position to help.
There was explosion as the first missiles got past the point defense then a flare of plasma as as the reactor housing was hit, accompanied by a surge of damage reports, orders and screams over comms, in the last moments of the escort.
The cruisers point defense took over as the remaining missiles tried to move past the escort towards it.

Sumis stood on the bridge, eyes closed as if listening into the silence whilst the bridge itself was in agitation, then opening his eyes again turning towards the captain.
"Report."
There was a moment of silence as he read out the sensor feed then answered with a somber tone.
"ADRN Sentinels Vow has been destroyed, reactor breach, remaining missiles are being intercepted, minimal amount of escape pods detected."
Sumis shook his head, whether in resignation or disappointment was uncertain, though the next orders came only a moment later.
"Their main engines are taken out, use tractor beams to shove them off course and fire the Hadron cannons at their missiles banks, the explosions should do the rest to move it off course."
The captain nodded and saluted, ushering the orders to the bridge crew in loud and clear commanding voice.
"Activate tractor beams one to three to move enemy ship off path, charge and fire hadron cannon emplacements eight and nine at their missile back, prepare to intercept shrapnell from resulting explosion! Let's pay those Imperium dogs back double!"