@Darkstar @Fawx @Zendikarofthewest @KrankysFirebrand48
Red eyes beheld a room.
They beheld and observed the only moving entity inside of it.
And they beheld its laughter.
[...] You seem to be under the impression that you have any recognisable justification for your current actions, allow me to dispel this falsehood. You are scum. You are not some blessed people exercising their god given right, you are a miserable disease spreading its vile taint across the stars. [...]
In front of it was a large hologram, showing a dim-lit room containing a throne-like chair in which a tall, greying Vaiaelon was obscured in ominous lighting. It's voice was rough, oddly-accented and aggressive, sparing no effort in underlining the surety of it's words, and the fury they would be carried out with.
It's answer was the laughter of a psychopath, manic and smooth. It was the voice of a master-manipulator and infiltrator. And the voice of the most powerful individual in the Beldt, and (as much as the very thought was the highest of treason) arguably more-so than even the Kotsar himself.
[...] On my honour, you will be ground into dust and scattered to the uncaring void. There will be no negotiations, there will be no treaties, your kind shall burn. That is all.”
The recording stopped, having reached its end, and the sole active voice in the room called out.
"Again! Again! HAHahahahahaha!"
The recording rewound, and the Mans laughter began anew.
“To the detestable blight that dares to inhabit the same star as my fleet, this is Vifen Re’Izar, Patriarch of Clan Izar and member of the Vaiaelon War Pact’s High Council. [...]
"THIS, is your savior?" It howled, turning away from the hologram to gaze into the eyes of the skull in its left hand.
"LOOK AT HIM, this- this high and mighty IDIOT which has deluded itself into thinking the evolutionary mistake that is your species, will survive the Kotsars decree?" It turned the skull to face the still-playing hologram, to stare into the obscured face of Vifen Re’Izar.
"They must be thinking their worthless technology will allow them to ignore the fool Kuznetsawe's fleet, and that you haven't been conditioned to be incapable of considering another as your 'saviors'." It turned the skull back to face it, staring into the skull that formerly belonged to a live newborn that he watched be dissected in view of its mother.
"Hm? Whats that you said?" He suddenly acted as if the skull had spoken, despite there being no trace of living tissue left on the charred bone. "We should let them try and land en-masse on the planet before crippling the engines of their big toys?" It grinned as his hand tightened.
"An excellent plan, me." It watched the skull smolder and crack under its augmented grip, before it's malicious gaze turned to the paused holographic visage of Clan Izars Patriarch.
"I look forward to hearing your screams." The Datelsar of the IIG's Werfündt Intelligence Service (WEIS) whispered.
But then It's gaze tilted, and focused on something else, something invisible to normal sight.
A quick application of will sent into the local network by a mind that had discarded the weakness of flesh was all it took for the holographic scene before it to morph into the sensor-feed of a Øzpfervingnet-class 4th-Fleet stealth-infiltrator, showing a detachment of 11 Bastonian vessels coasting in formation along the shadows of the systems outer-most gas-giant, and in clear sight of only the stealth-ship.
"Ah, there you are. Ignorant fools." It mused as the sensor-feed was also fed directly into It's demiorganic brain.
"Let's see here, a cruiser, modernized, what looks to be a spiffing-new carrier of sorts, two escort-destroyers, three frigates and four corvettes, 11 vessels in total." It's eyes narrowed.
"Hmmm, thats a pathetically small number." It smiled. "Are they overestimating their own strength?"
"Or, do they perhaps have some more comrades we do not yet see?" It's eyes turned to the calculated trajectories of the ships and the sensor log of every local Ruvostali vessel for the past hour, running internal calculations as to the whereabouts of the Bastonian fleet judging by their current velocity.
"Hmm, it wouldn't surprise me if they have one of their stealth ships nearby, but then the question becomes; has it found us?" It smiled maliciously as it's gaze took in the Øzpfervingnet-class' surroundings.
"Have them send a drone to tail their fleet." It ordered. "And just in case, ready the ship for complete destruction."
There is no reply, but the red eyes follow its intent nonetheless...
KrankysFirebrand48
The HMS Phantom continued to watch, ready to quickly charge up its artillery and unleash havoc at the stealthed ship as it no-doubt processed all the passive data it could gather of the GBE fleet, waiting for any sign of hostility, be it the launch of another stealth-missile, or a stealth-torpedo for the heavier targets. But none of that happened, and neither did it move to follow the GBE fleet.
Instead its surrounding drones were the ones to begin movement, firing miniscule amounts of hidden RCS thrusters as one of them seperated from the rest who moved to close the gap left by it. The drone then, when clear of it's brethren, used its RCS units to put it on a course that vaguely followed the GBE fleet while staying hidden within the gravity-field of the gas giant, and the shadows of it's moons.
It didn't take long for the drone to move out of the Phantoms effective sensor-range and it's sophisticated stealth-systems hid it completely from passives.
What do they do now?
Fawx
The "Geramofve Netchidt" was being harassed by birds hidden by tricks of the light, each one trying to make it bleed for it's transgressions against sentient life. But for as much as the absence of light giving sight of their hunters was a massive handicap to the Ruvostali's effectiveness, they did not yield, and they did not stop. Even as the "Geramofve" drunkwalked as best it could, intermittently sending salvoes of hypervelocity flak towards where the Vaiealons briefly appeared to spit hypervelocity shells at the IIG Frigate or its Escorts (though the Sakepetriyvs were much more adept at suddenly evading their fire than the 4 times larger Hesmudt), even as the trio of vessels weaved grids of heat towards every barest sign of hostile presence.
Again, again and again, the Vaiealons hurled shell after shell at the small squadron and though many did not make contact (or only hit locations too armoured to damage, or whose worth was null), being swiped away by particle barriers, atomized by repurposed AMM, rendered useless by plates of hardlight, turned to slag (of insufficient velocity) by seconds of exposure to several PD lasers or (rarely in the case of the Hesmudt) outright evaded by responsive and energetic RCS. And even when they could not evade, they manouvered to put the incoming shots where they would be spent most uselessly, impacting thick armour, overpenetrating redundant components or empty spaces, or penetrating nonvital areas of larger components.
Until the "Geramofve" had no more non-vital areas left to bear the Vaiealons punishment as what heavy armour it had was slagged into uselessness and every redundant system was reduced to the point any further damage would impair their vessels ability to function. Until they would have to lessen the output of their fusion drives to avoid overheating with their radiators lessened effectiveness, widen the pause between their coilguns firing flak with the lessened availability of capacitors, and all manners of increasing degradations of the Ruvostali's rugged effectiveness.
It was a death by a thousand cuts, and shell after shell cut into ever more unignorable spots, slagging capacitor, breaching maintenance halls, crushing a Laser-PD node, detonating a coilguns ammunition line and opening a hole where before there had proudly stood a double-barreled Coilgun turret, or directly hitting one of the Frigates four-barreled Coilguns. Ruvostal engineering being the only factor preventing the turret from being cored, and leading only to the turrets upper portion and two of its barrels being turned into a wreck.
It was a slow death, and a completely one-sided one, the Vaiealons newest generation of Taroka, hiding like cowards behind a veil of near-complete stealth, was close to impossible for Patrol Squadron 12 to meaningfully damage and destroy, with the Hesmudts low-grade Gravimetrics and Magnetic-Anomaly-Detector being the only sensors the Vaiealons could not hide from, yet lacking in enough truly effective range to permit the Hesmudt and its escorts to fully utilize their purpose-built weaponry. The only hope the Ruvostali’s had of slightly turning the table, was for the Vaiealons to make a mistake in position, and so they could only wait as the war pact vultures steadily picked them apart, before finally they had their opportunity.
For one of the Vaiealon fighters had gotten slightly too close, approaching the range they could utilize their hypervelocity cannon to more decisively land a hit at some critical part of the Frigate without it being instead directed toward some much less important component. The fighter had been allowed to close without being harried by the "Geramofves" laser PD until the fighters magnetic and gravimetric signature had gotten much clearer to the Squadron, at which point they pointed a whole 47 Hypervelocity flakbarrels in the Vaiealon fighters direction, and fired.
47 rounds of hypervelocity flak cut through the lightseconds distance between them, and then proceeded to fill hundreds of cubic kilometres with thousands upon thousands of hypervelocity fragmentation, more than enough cast wide enough to ensure the direct hit of several against the Vaiealon next-generation fighter that dared think itself able to oppose the Honored Warriors of the Ruvostal Beldt.
A simple price to pay, to learn of your enemy's base capability
MAKE IT COUNT
Zendikarofthewest
What is, a torpedo? In ancient days, when civilizations were limited to their homeworld and its orbits, a Torpedo in its first widespread usage was that of a self-propelled underwater munition typically launched by a surface- or subsurface-vessel like a destroyer or submarine. At first they were little more than unguided cylindrical tubes with a propeller and stuffed with explosives that would detonate on contact or in proximity of the targets sea-worthy hull. In an age where Battleships ruled the waves as kings, the ability of far smaller vessels to carry munitions capable of heavily damaging the largest of surface-going warships was revolutionary for ocean-warfare.
And as ages progressed, suddenly those torpedoes were able to be guided, first by simplistic rope or programming, and later radio or wire, eventually even guiding themselves by usage of passive or active sonar until the only defense against them was countermunitions or not being seen at all. Of course one can see that a much more fulfilling answer to such a question needed much more depth, to delve into the words usage and its conceptual evolution across countless civilizations.
But this question is not meant to merely look down into the history of a planetside Weapons system. But what the terminology means in the realms of Interstellar Warfare is a whole different thing entirely. Without any clear differentiation based on operational environment like over the water or under the water (unless you count the Sehraya, but the deployment of Torpedoes via that mirror-dimension is not something everyone has access to, or utilize commonly) one must instead turn to the classification of guided munitions.
To which one must ask, what differentiates a torpedo from a missile in this context? Both platforms are utilized to deliver an explosive payload (be it exotic or conventional in nature) into direct proximity or impact with an enemy warship with devastating results, and which are needed to carry sufficient measures to ensure they are capable of penetrating said enemy's countermeasures or take enough effort for another platform to succeed.
And without delving into more exotic alternatives or methodologies, one can settle on defining the difference between a Torpedo and Missile to be one of scale and role. A Missile in this case would be the most numerous, delivering a small yet potent payload unto a target that could be swapped for a more supportive payload designed to heighten the effectiveness and ability of other Missiles to impact the target. While a Torpedo would both feature a much greater payload as well as its own supportive systems heightening its effectiveness in penetrating the targets defenses and increasing its effective range of engagement at the cost of being much less numerous than missiles.
And it was 52 such highly-potent Torpedoes that were fired at the lone patrol squadron 18 in the outer-system of Mor'it at what was practically a much shorter range than the Hesmudt-class Frigate "Andrichova" of the IIGs 2nd Kosmoflödt der Saludаvn would have preferred due to the squadrons extreme velocity directly toward the suddenly appeared NGD battlefleet and the rapidly approaching Torpedo salvo. It was a level of overkill no captain would ever desire to be subject to, but it was one the "Andrichova" was subject nonetheless, and with full understanding of their impending doom they could only do something desperate.
It's first order of business was to turn and burn in the opposite direction of the NGD and fire every single AMM and ASM aboard the trio of vessels with the Hesmudt-class Frigate being the primary supplier of the overwhelming amount of munitions. With more than a hundred ASM firing off toward the NGD fleet prioritizing the lighter escorts in a staggered wave, while the swarm of impactors that were the Ruvostali AMM settled inactive into a loose cloud behind the Squadron towards the incoming Torpedos.
And with every guided munition both defensive and offensive ejected out of the squadrons internal magazines their engines cut out and the trio of vessels turned around to face the approaching volley which were nearing the effective range of the Ruvostali coilgun batteries Anti-ship function, and then fired again, again and again at a tremendous rate far above their intended rate, unleashing hundreds upon hundreds of flak rounds upon the torpedoes general vicinity.
And the torpedoes, subject to a hail of thousands upon thousands of explosive hypervelocity fragments, are forced to spread and evade much earlier than their internal adaptive programming had initially plotted. And though it is only a bare fraction of the total sent their way, the occasional impact serves only to crater and slag portions of their ablative armoring, with a steady increase in successful impacts as the Torpedoes closed to the squadrons most effective Flak-range, resulting in several Torpedoes being destroyed by penetrating hypervelocity fragmentation compromising their structural integrity, a rate that would skyrocket upon their entrance into the Patrols optimal flak-range.
Halved both by judiciously applied amounts of flak or atomized by the occasional direct hit by unexploded flak rounds, the Salvo of torpedoes were further culled by the cloud of loitering AMM ejected by the squadron overwhelming what little PD remained on them absent destruction by grazing fragmentation. with only 13 Torpedoes remaining, the trio's Laser-PD finally join in, superheating and detonating 9 of the anticapital munitions, leaving only 4 on final approach.
Desperate for the metaphorical light at the end of the tunnel hailing the possibility of survival , the "Andrichovas" twin Corvette escorts threw themselves onto the remaining Torpedoes, shielding their charge from two of the munitions at the cost of their own material existence, turned into plasma from the direct collision of twin anticapital payloads, leaving only two NGD torpedoes with badly damaged yet still mostly intact armoring, turning away whatever lasers managed to land for what would have been long enough for them both to impact the Hesmudt-class frigate and atomize it, shields or no, just like what was done with many of the natives vessels, both civilian and military.
EXALTATIONS THEY CRY, FOR REVENGE THEY BAY
The only way out was the usage of their coilgun batteries but almost every single barrel had melted their electromagnetic coils unleashing a barrage of flak at the incoming volley of Torpedoes, leaving only a bare trio of almost-melting barrels mounted to two dual-barreled turrets to turn towards the incoming torpedoes, each almost close enough that a premature detonation would inflict extreme damage unto the frigate. An antiship-shell atomized the head of one torpedo, detonating the primed payload into a blinding sphere of plasma that would in 1.2 seconds dissipate beyond sight, a period of time that might as well have been 10 days with how short it was, and how little time there was before the second torpedo entered lethal range of the Ruvostali frigate.
Unfortunately for the Ruvostali, such little time, and so quick an event, is poor position for a almost defanged warship absent the barest tolerance for the most miniscule of mistake. And one such miniscule mistake, would be the premature detonation of one torpedo at so close a range, with so many sensors fuzzed, melted or disrupted by the detonation, even with few others still untouched the second turret fires upon the second torpedo with the slightest of deviance.
THE DEAD DENY YOU
The second Torpedo is impacted by a ruvostali coilgun-shell, not directly unto the head, but instead grazes into the Torpedo's engine, atmozing its entire rear and slagging all it's more sensitive electronics, triggering the warhead and sending it careening.
But it is too late for a redirection, and it is too close yet too far for a delayed detonation to do anything but make the damage worse. And so, for 1 second longer than the first, the second spins hundreds upon hundreds of kilometres past the metaphorical line past which the "Andrichovas" doom is assured. And finally, it detonates, sending a wave of superheated plasma across the Hesmudt-class frigates hull, scouring away all armouring and every exposed component into superheated particulate soup and releasing the chained sun at the centre of the ship, unleashing even more destruction upon what little would have remained.
UNMADE IN TOTALITY, AND YET MORE REMAIN
Unfortunate the NGD could only take a grim satisfaction at witnessing Patrol Squadron 18 be turned into drifting particulate by their anticapital torpedoes, but having to contend with more than a hundred ASMs was a minor price to pay, with each ASM bearing little sophistication and only bearing the advantage of cheapness permitting vast swarms to be launched by larger fleets at the cost of each being easier to destroy due t othe absence of any supporting munitions. Though it could be that any greater Ruvostali formation also bore significant amounts of less destructive, but no less dangerous when part of a swarm, guided munitions.
