• Nobles of Null is a forum based roleplay site where sci-fi and magic collide. Here, Earth remains fractured and divided despite humanity reaching out to the stars. Worse still, the trans-human slaves of one major power have escaped, only to establish their own Empire, seething with resentment at abuses of the past. Even the discovery of aliens, though medieval in development, has failed to rally these squabbling children of Earth together with its far darker implications. Worse still, is the discovery of the impossible - magic. Practiced by the alien locals, nearly depleted and therefore rare, its reality warping abilities remains abstract and distant to the general populace. All the while, unseen in the darkness of space, forces from without threaten to press in. For those with eyes opened by insight, it is clear that an era is about to end, and that a new age will dawn.

Opfor: Atlantica

Uso

Administrator
Staff member
Wiki Moderator
Sol System,
SLE station 1, (Formerly Pluto)
Port Elysium
Jan 2nd 2321


“I hope you enjoyed your new years gentlemen, but there is no rest for the wicked.”

The briefing room was filled with brass. Captains, XOs, the command staff of half a dozen statesmen class starships, marine support units, and embarked combat wings. The stadium seating and closely packed seats made it look more like a classroom than a high-security room deep inside of one of the American Union’s most important facilities.

The woman standing up front was 175 cm tall, looked to be in her late 20s, maybe early 30s, with short reddish-brown hair and blue eyes. She clearly had some curves on under her suit jacket and pants, though from her rather hard gaze and powerful voice it was clear that she wasn’t just there to be eye-candy. The heavy lanyard she had on was showing off dozens of access keycards and badges indicating just how well connected someone like her must be. Being pulled behind her was a rolling suitcase, over-filled with binders, documents, and electronics.

“The incoming administration has already signaled it will approve a fat operating budget increase for ISOC, that means the war against the Magnetic Assembly will go into full swing after the inauguration.

You gentlemen will form the first wave.

As you know, our ships don’t have the range to reach the Hawking System AND fight a battle against the Assembly. We will need to recapture and repair the SLE in the Atlantica system before we can take the fight to them.

Your battlegroup will arrive in system through use of both the Pluto SLE and support from an FTL ship being hired out from the Kingdom of Vice and Virtue. Once in system you will proceed to Atlantica Proper to secure the infrastructure around the planet and the support of the local government.

It will be two weeks before further reinforcements will arrive, but time is on our side here. The Magnetic Assembly can not match our numbers. The long trip to Atlantica will even things out a bit, but we expect that their side will exhaust long before ours does. While in-system you will have operational authority but we recommend not engaging their forces unless you have at least a three to one advantage in numbers. Rest assured that those numbers will be marching through the Pluto SLE as fast as we can send them.

Now do you have any questions about the overall strategy here or can we move onto the specific intelligence we have regarding the Assembly and Atlantica?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Colonel Dick Richardson, Captain of the Huey Long, said, raising his hand. “Now, aah’m sorry if aah step on yur toes, in all, but do we know fur sure that we can outnumber the Assembly’s forces? From muh reading, they do a lot of modifying of civilian ships to fill out their fleet.”

There was a clear look of exasperation that washed over the woman’s face as she heard the man speak, “By the Charging Bull’s COCK do they not teach you how to speak at Johnson Space Center?” Her voice making her objection to his tone quite RIDGID. She was looking right at him, that exasperation quickly being formed into a burning anger as if it was a tungsten lance being dropped from orbit “It doesn’t matter if the Assembly has 20,000 ships. They can only send a small number at a time through their SLE into Atlantica. For each of their warships that go through the SLE we will be sending a Statesman. We’re both have the same limitations in numbers because of the SLE… however we have hired a fold-ship from the Kingdom of Vice and Virtue. They will be bringing additional supplies that will allow us to bring additional Statesman in right at the start. Furthermore: We have shipyards around Earth, Jupiter, Mars, and New Texas producing ships with the full backing of the American Union’s military-industrial complex. The Magnetic Assembly only has their facility on Rotislav. When it comes to the homefront we outmass them greatly. We can be certain they will run out of ships to send before we do.”

Dick looked like he was chewing on a lemon, but managed to say, “Yes, ma’am,” without letting his annoyance get the better of him.

Baron Roberto Virtù stood in his black, white and gold captains uniform watching over the briefing his pair of guards and his fox eared assistant standing behind him and to his sides. He listened but didn’t say anything and nodded internally that the deal was being adhered too.

“If there are no other questions about overall strategy...” She said, pressing a button against the wall to bring up a projection of the Atlantica system. “The Magnetic Assembly’s forces have been focused around the system’s SLE. That whole place is a wreck, and it looks like their strategy has been to hold onto the SLE’s remains so that we can’t rebuild it. They are probably hoping we’ve lost the will to fight. We will be inserting from the other side of the system, far away from their forces. This will give you time to assess the situation and decide how to react. Communication with Atlantica proper has been spotty at best, but you should have a clear shot from your entry point to the planet. We will be giving you broad authority to take whatever action you see fit once you arrive in orbit. The Foldship on loan from the KVV will be heading back as soon as it finishes dropping you off and restocking your supplies.”

Their hostess would wait for a moment, and seeing that there were no questions she would continue.

“The Magnetic Assembly is largely using S4 series ships. These things are basically civilian freighters Descent acceleration and range. Unarmored, but lots of redundant systems. On approach the main guns of a statesman, or even the point defense systems, should be able to shred these things once you get within range. We’ve seen them outfit these ships with containerized weapon systems. Typically that means missiles and lasers. They will have the advantage in missile number, and they will have the advantage in range with their laser systems. You have your own missiles and point defenses to deal with their missiles. We’ve also put another meter of silica aerogel armor on your ships to help with the lasers. The thick armor of a Statesman should be more than enough to keep your ship functional while it gets into gun range.

It is important to note that we’ve been reviewing the results of the battle with the 6th fleet. They lost an entire ship to do electronic warfare and your ships have been outfitted with additional E-war systems for protection against electronic system intrusion. You’ve got Cyber-experts onboard so don’t ignore them if they have something to say.

Finally, your onboard marine compliments don’t have heavy gear like tanks or mecha to back them up. If you need that you’ll have to procure them on-site on atlantica. Our boys know how to drive M-216 Paxton Tanks, so don’t expect them to know how to drive an Atlantica AM-120 Berger Tank on their first day planetside.”

“These marine attachments, are they familiar with Atlantica’s terrain and do we have a plan once we can secure landings for them?” Horace asks.

The Baron looked at the battle map and both understood it yet it was a very alien concept to him. He had arbitrated many vendettas but none were on a scale like this. There was little rhyme or reason to this form of fighting, just throwing ships at eachother like children in a mudpit. Then again what should he expect from these barbarians. He was professional enough to not let his emotions leak onto his face though the fox eared assistant did take a step back and away from her master.

“These are New Texas’ Finest, pulled from local marine groups. They aren’t familiar with Atlantica’s Terrain but they have plenty of experience from a high gravity deathworld. Your individual Marine Group commanders are responsible for telling you what they’ll need when they are on the surface. These men are all motivated type-As so expect them to want to be self-sufficient. Despite being driven, remember that they are still light infantry, meaning they aren’t bringing their own tanks or other heavy gear. They’ll need support from above in a real fight.” She said, pausing for a moment before pivoting to talk about their intelligence on the Magnetic Assembly, “The Assembly doesn’t have ground forces on Atlantica as far as we can tell. At least, not officially. If they had something like tanks then the local government would have spotted them already, and we’ve got nothing to indicate that they snuck heavy equipment to the planet before the war. The Magnetic Assembly did develop naval vessels in cooperation with Atlantica Electromotive before the war, but last we spoke with the local government all of those hulls were accounted for at their naval yard. That leaves the local population, sympathizers, and other troublemakers to deal with when you arrive. Also keep in mind, Heram Wazu kicked off this whole thing, and that man is known to pull off large operations using scraps. Don’t expect a cakewalk here. Dig in your heels and drag it out if you have to. We don’t need a win here but the current administration won’t survive a loss.”

Colonel Richardson nodded, making notes on his datapad, apparently happy to go into a battle of attrition.

“Right then, good luck out there…”
 

Uso

Administrator
Staff member
Wiki Moderator
Atlantica System,
System’s edge
CIC Of the AUS Huey Long
Jan 15th 2321




“CAPTAIN ON THE BRIDGE!” One of the younger officers shouted, causing the officers in the CIC to face the door and salute. A statesman was a large vessel, hundreds of people lived and worked onboard, and from here their efforts were all organized. Two of the ship’s pilots were perched up against the Navigation and plotting table, various 3d displays showing the ship’s position and course among the fleet as well as the Atlantica system itself as it slowly came into view through the CIC’s primary window. Space out side looked to be an eerie black that was fading away into a seat of stars as the ship began exiting the last FTL wave sent from the SLE on Pluto.

“At ease,” Dick said, waving everyone back into their seats as he floated over to the navigation station.
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“We’re clear of the last SLE wave, and have no more scheduled from Pluto. Turning over Navigation of the ship to the STL Navigation Team.” One of the pilots said, stretching his arms out over his head as he officially wrapped up his last 12 hour shift of shepherding the craft into the target system.
The ship’s crew were well trained, already a fresh pilot was moving in to the Navigation table. The young woman at Ops would already be calling out, “Status Report, How are we and where is the fleet?”

“Damage Control is Go. No problems reported.”

Weapons are go.”

“Cyber is go.”

“CAG is on standby.”

“Marine group is on standby.”

“Navigation is Go. Five minutes until our first sweep is ready. The Robert Archbald and Budd Dwyer are right behind us as expected.”

“Good tah hear,” the Colonel replied, taking a glance at the still populating navigation table, before kicking off and floating over to the window to look out at the star system. “Wonder what will find down dere,” he muttered.

Attaway paces nervously around the navigation table occasionally glancing over to see if anything new pops up. He mumbles to himself “Five minutes? Well it’s only five minutes till we figure out what’s lurking in the dark...”

Everyone in the fleet felt as if they were being pushed through honey as the foldship and all the statesmen docked too it started groaning.

“Prepararsi per l'ingresso nel sistema.” Came over the common ships communication followed by a feminine voice repeating “Prepare for system entry.”

The entire fleet seemed to bend and warp as the thrum of the foldships drive dropped off the subspace pulse and the fleet dropped back into normal space. The sensation of being dragged through honey left to be replaced with a sudden jolt. With the remnants of the subspace pulse passing by them and out of the system the ships scanners began functioning again revealing the system.

“Well, dey know how to make an entrance, hmm?” Colonel Richardson said, looking at the foldship as it maneuvered.

The CIC of the Huey Long was full of activity. Nearly everyone at a station was doing their best to relay critical information at an appropriate volume, keeping it just low enough as to not overpower anyone and raising their voice when they thought something was a bit more critical.

“Fuel and Reaction Mass reserves are at 52%.”

“Wake the Marine Group Commander and his XO staff, you can leave the rest of the marines in the freezer for now.”

AUS John Mitchell reports Superluminal Event completed. Refueling Completed. And preparing to disengage from the fold ship.”

“Begin recalibration of targeting sensors for weapons in sequence. Make sure our trip hasn’t degraded their performance.”


“DRIVE PLUMES, Starward, 86 Thousand Miles away.” Navigation called out. It seemed that someone had been waiting for them to arrive. As per their training, navigation would be quick to call out the remaining information. “Accelerating at near 2g. Estimated intercept in 10 hours.”

One of the intelligence officers was already crunching the numbers, “Based on exhaust and mass profiles, it looks like four S4 class freighters. Likely full load of weapons and 72% fuel remaining.” She said, making some basic assumptions it was extremely easy to make such calls with incredible accuracy using only basic math.

“Form up and prepare everyone to intercept the Assembly fleet,” Colonel Richardson said, before looking over to his XO. “Lieutenant Colonel Attaway, please call the foldship and ask when they can jump out of the system. I don’t want to be worrying about it any longer than I have to be.”

Horace nods his head “Yes sir.” and walks over to the radio terminal “This is Lieutenant Colonel Horace Attaway radioing to the Until Dawn. Can you give us an estimated time till you can jump out of the system?”

The same femine voice replied back, with a few slightly louder voices popping up in the background. “This is the Until Dawn I speak for the Baron who says he will be ready to leave as soon as required.” She goes silent for a moment as a slightly louder voice seems to talk at her, the audio seeming to come from a poorly adjusted headset. “He would also like to inform you the Until Dawn will not be interfering in your vendetta.”

“Roger that, I’ll notify the Colonel.” Horace turns to Richardson. “They’re ready to leave as soon as required but they seem to want to observe from higher orbit rather than leave right away. What’s the plan sir?”

“Aah’d rather they just leave so aah don’t have to worry about them,” Dick said, shaking his head as he floated over to the navigation table, gesturing at the different fleets’ positions. “Well, the plan is to get into knife-fighting range ASAP. Until we can secure a local supply, the only missiles we have are the ones in the box launchers. So, we burn to get into the effective range of our lasers faster, which will send us along our way into the inner system anyway, fire five hundred missiles or so just before we get into range, then let ‘em have it.” He looked up from the table at his XO and asked, “Thoughts?”

“Sounds like a solid plan sir. The sooner we kick out the Assembly the quicker we can secure Atlantica and it’s population. However, I worry that if we rush headlong that there might be an ambush set up for us. If we bleed too much of our fuel we’ll be sitting ducks and easy pickings. I’d say advance a little bit forward and see if the freighters continue to advance. If they are then it means they’re itching for a fight, if they stop it might mean that they’ve gone too far from something that they’re trying to protect or they’re out of reach from something.”

“Hmm,” the Colonel muttered, before asking his junior officers, “Any asteroids or anything that look out of place, when we compare them to our charts?”

The pair at the Navigation table would take a moment to check their figures, “Nothing out of the ordinary and nowhere to hide. There is nothing else out here besides small specs of dust,”

Attaway shrugs “Then I suppose these freighters are just itchin’ for a fight so let's give them one.”

“Let’s do so,” Richardson said, nodding as he floated over to his captain’s chair. “Navigation, plot quickest intercept course with the enemy and prepare the fleet to engage.”

“Yes sir!,” The woman at the navigation table said, pressing a button on her console, “All hands general quarters, brace for acceleration.” There would be a brief delay as the crew started to buckle themselves in. The ship’s RCS firing and starting the slow turn to orient the ship towards an intercept of the incoming S4 freighters. This was followed by the ship’s main engines igniting, slowly increasing acceleration to 1g.

It would be another hour before the next event, and with the increased speed there would be less time until intercept. “Four hours until contact,” The navigator said, “It looks like the S4s have deployed missiles and drones. 2,560 missiles and 336 laser-armed S5 drones. From the mass profile I expect this is half their total complement of weapons.”

“Hmm,” the Colonel muttered as he stared at the numbers. After a few moments, he popped his knuckles and said, “Well, looks like firing a mere five hundred missiles doesn’t amount to a hill of beans ‘round here. Alright, Tactical, throw out the old fire plan. We’re going to use the one advantage that our ships have, our super-luminal engines. Once we’re either within an hour of intercepting the enemy or thirty minutes of the enemy missiles intercepting us, we’ll start activating our SLEs and jump at an angle to the enemy, far enough so we won’t run into their missiles, but close enough that we can still get into our effective laser range before we pass them. Then we’ll launch our missiles and have ‘em hit the enemy just before we get into our effective railgun range. At that point, we’ll clean up what’s left as we fly by.”
“Let’s hope this works. If we can finish this fight quickly then it means we have plenty of time to secure our foothold.” Attaway says while adjusting his uniform.

The ship’s navigator would lay in a new course, and the rest of the ship’s crew would start seeing to the captain’s orders as they got the ship ready for the upcoming fight. It wouldn’t be long now, and a ship wide count-down timer started to let everyone know when to expect the maneuver to take place.

“Have engineering begin charging our SLE.”

“Gunnery crews are standing by.”

“Wake up the rest of the marines, get them ready for damage control just in case.”

There was little to do for the Captain and the XO now, just the long term waiting and the slowly growing tension as they all got closer and closer to the fight. Except to hit the head, of course.
 

Uso

Administrator
Staff member
Wiki Moderator
~2 Hours Later…

“Preparing Superluminal Jump.” The Navigator called out, the ship’s PA system announcing that everyone should prepare for combat. “Triggering event in 3….2….1…*CLICK*”

The navigator triggered the engine, the other statesmen following suit, a massive wave of energy being released from the ships while their STL engines powered up at the same time, moving the fleet rapidly towards their destination. The stars to the sides of the ship starting to dull while the stars in front glowed brighter for just a few seconds. The overlapping waves from the SLE would push the statesmen slightly out of formation over the relatively short distance they traveled.

Soon, the Navigation and CIC tables updated with new locations.

The original missile-swarm had now missed completely, and was moving too fast to turn around and give chase. Instead it would re-orient itself towards the Foldship from the Kingdom of Vice and Virtue.

The tables would also show the S4 class ships from the Magnetic Assembly splitting in half, as well as launching more missiles.

*PING!* … *POP!*....

“Assembly ships are lasing us,” The soldier at the Damage Control station reported. The statesmen had already been rolled over, pointing its heavily armored ‘top’ towards the S4 class ships and keeping the ship’s CIC behind the entire mass of the ship. “Looks like wide-area heat ray. Armor is holding up well, but they seem to be trying to be aiming for our Railguns.” The high pitched pings that were coming through the hull were from small sections of the armor on the other side being vaporized and exploding, sending small shockwaves through the ship. Despite the massive laser-banks of the S4s, they would take hours to effectively cut through all the armor on the statesmen.

“Assembly ships are launching more missiles. It also looks like their drive sections are disconnecting from their cargo sections and are moving to intercept us.” The ship’s navigation officer called out, “Enemy missiles are headed directly at us this time at their full thrust.”

“Launch the missiles and railguns are fire at will,” Dick said, his smile turning predatory as he felt the AUS Huey Long start fighting back. “Engage in evasive maneuvers.”

“They’re desperate. This is their last play if we can avoid the majority of the missiles this battle is finished,” Attaway said.

The crew was once again a flurry of action, as the various officers started acknowledging their orders. “Starting Random-Walk.” Called out the navigation officer, the crew could already start to feel the varying acceleration from the ship’s engine, occasional random adjustments working to throw off the enemy’s aim.

“Missiles away, focusing on anti-missile fire,”
“Point defense guns engaging incoming missiles,”
“Lasers engaging incoming missiles.”
“Main guns targeting enemy ships.”

From the primary display, The captain and XO could see thousands of dots and lines on the screen representing the absolute torrent of metal being flung out from the ship’s guns as well as the increasingly large cloud of weapons being deployed from the Assembly ships. The weapons officers sitting along the back wall of the CIC were now entirely focused on their jobs of selecting targets for the weapon systems.

The ship’s radar could show the projection of the missile swarms reaching the midway points, as the weapons from the Statesmen and the S4s began to intercept one another. With half their missiles already gone, the S4’s missile swarm only numbered 2,688 to the statesmens’ 3,072 which was much more favorable. The main display table would also show the incredibly fast moving projectiles from the ship’s main guns impacting the S4’s weapon and drive sections, but they would only see a general colored outline of what was happening without any real pictures to go with it. The high-powered lasers scratching at the Statesmen’s hull were blinding optical sensors, burning them out completely and making it impossible to get a real look at what was going on. To make matters worse, the Statesmens’ missiles were rapidly disappearing from the radar display as the laser systems of the S4’s drone swarm began targeting them.

The soldiers at the Damage Control table started to speak up, “We’ve lost half our laser emitters to enemy action. Targeting sensors on guns 3 and 4 are down.” There was then a sickening crunch that echo’d through the ship’s hull, “... Point defense cannon 1 is down, probably thermal stress from their lasers…”

“Have the fleet focus their railguns on the laser drones,” Richardson said, frowning as he saw the number of outgoing missiles drop. “We need those missiles to finish off the ships.”

“Hmm so far so good. Once the drones are out of commission if we can target the enemy's lasers next, that will be a great step as well. If they keep taking out our sensors like this we may lose all visual. Any issues with the rest of the fleet?” Attaway cracks his knuckles nervously while looking at the status of the optical sensors and slowly seeing the count go down.

“The rest of the fleet is reporting similar problems: They are blinding our sensors fast, and all ships are reporting some damage to their sensors and external weapons.”
 

Uso

Administrator
Staff member
Wiki Moderator
“Battle damage assessment on enemy ships is being forwarded to your screen. Enemy laser capability is down 60%.”

“Missile swarms have reached each other. Our hit rate looks to be about 90%. Forwarding battle damage assessment to your screens.”

“Retasking main guns for enemy drones.”

Actually seeing what was going on outside the ship was still quite difficult. The radar data was being overlaid with images as they became available. Still images of the S4 class laser-modules were being placed over the radar data. It looked like the main guns of the statesmen easily pierced right through their targets, knocking huge holes into the side mounted laser arrays on the S4s and generating large debris clouds as the rounds kept on going. The ships themselves were starting to glow a dull red from the excess heat, but their laser systems seemed to keep working even with large sections of the array completely destroyed. The disconnected drive sections of the ships were still headed right towards the statesmen, and now the missile swarms were passing through one another. In the span of a few seconds thousands of missiles slammed into one another, but that left 225 still on route towards the American Union’s fleet along with steadily decreasing number of laser drones. That still numbered in the high 200s.

The Damage Control officer didn’t waste any time, “ALL HANDS BRACE FOR IMPACT.”

Dick tightened his seat restraints and took a deep breath. “Come on, Huey, hold it together,” he said under his breath.

It suddenly felt like the ship was being hit by aggressive hail. The first of the incoming missiles were getting struck by the point defense systems, sending small clouds of debris into the Huey Long’s hull. The numbers were slowly starting to turn in the AU’s favor. With the missile swarm split up between the 6 ships they only had to deal with 36 missiles and 48 laser drones. One volley of fire from the guns and that number would be down to 32 and 42, 28 and 36, 24 and 30…. The amount of space between the swarm and the ship steadily decreasing until.

*BAM*

The entire ship seemed to shake for a moment,

Then the rest of the missiles hit.

The CIC switched over to emergency lighting. The display boards blanked out briefly, and it seemed that the ship’s electronics were restarting.

“NAVIGATION DOWN!”
WEAPONS DOWN!”
“BATTLE DAMAGE ASSESSMENT DOWN!”
“COMMUNICATIONS DOWN!”

The damage control board was still on, and it was lit up like a christmas tree. It seemed that the heavy armor of the statesmen had saved the ship, as there appeared to still be a ship. The officer at the damage control board was already ripping open the emergency compartment in the table to get the hand-radios. “You, get to engineering and get eyes-on with the reactor. You head to the gunnery deck and find someone who knows what’s going on.”

Streams of glowing metal could be seen off in the distance, through the statesmen that were still shooting were thousands of kilometers away, still moving in formation. It was impossible to tell what was going on with just the naked eye, but the brief bright lightbulb-flash indicated that there was probably one less statesmen in the formation now.

Colonel Richardson unbuckled from his seat, grabbed a pair of binoculars from under his seat, and kicked off to the window, using his binos to see how many ships were still fighting. “It’s like we’re back in the age of sail,” he muttered, trying his best to focus on his own ships.

Attaway groans from the impact before snapping back into focus. “Right first things first. Can we get an ETA once weapons and communications are back on?” He unbuckles and floats over to Richardson. “Well the good news is that we’re still alive...”

“For now, at least,” Dick said, still looking at the battlefield. “Can’t wait until I can get some actual details.”

Outside the battlefield the fold ship started whining as the fold drive powered up. “Prepare for Fold.” The baron spoke over the internal speaker, he had seen enough of this battle and with the stray fire coming towards the fold ship he decided it would be best to return for the second load, and within moments the foldship vanished from the Atlantica system and reappeared in sol.

“I’m working on it,” The damage-control officer shouted out, barking something else into his Radio, “The reactor is in emergency shutdown mode. It’ll be 15-20 minutes to get it restarted safely. Damage reports are coming in, but I expect everything on the business-side of the ship has been sandblasted off.”

The door to the CIC opened up, and one of the 7 foot tall Epsilon-class soldiers floated in. The Marine eager to get started on his work and not wasting any time with saluting or decorum. Instead they’d grab ahold of the bulkhead nearest the Captain and XO, “Hey, the Marines are wasting everyone’s time sucking down the ship’s air. Our landers can make it to the planet. Let us get going so we can get started on killing people and breaking things.”

“We could use the marines for damage-control.” The Damage control officer shouted out, still trying to manage things over the radio system, getting reports and updating the status of equipment manually.

Colonel Richardson looked at the Marine, smiled and said, “I like your spirit, Group Leader Kowalski. Killing people and breaking things is my favorite part of the job too. Unfortunately, we don’t know if there are more Assembly ships in the system. So, I’m not sending you and your soldiers into the fray without backup. Report to the damage control officer and get this ship back up and running. The faster we fix the Huey, the sooner we can go and get back to our favorite activity, killing people and breaking things. We clear, Kowalski?”

“Sir, Yes sir,” The marine replied, clearly unhappy with the answers he was getting. The marine would push off towards the Damage Control table and begin talking about what they could do to help.
 

Uso

Administrator
Staff member
Wiki Moderator
Atlantica System,
System’s edge
CIC Of the AUS Huey Long
Jan 16th 2321


Power had been restored to the ship, and damage control was progressing smoothly.

“Sir, we’ve got our reactor patched and restarted. This report contains an extensive list of the damages. We haven’t been able to vet our landing ships yet, or most of our internal systems, but we are down to 15% reaction mass. Enough to limp to Atlantica. Weapon systems on the underside of the ship are still intact but everything on the business side has been sandblasted. That leaves us with two of our main turrets and 6 PDCs. We’re still cataloging all the holes in our main armor plate and frankly it is a miracle we got the reactor patched at all.

It looks like the assembly used different attack strategies on each ship.

The John Mitchell is lost with all hands. It looks like they were rammed by one of the S4 drive sections during the attack.

The LBJ and William Tweed’s forward sections are intact, but everything aft of the CIC is gone and the ships are in a pretty bad spin.

The Budd Dwyer has almost been cut in half, work spaces and CIC are gone. Weapon section and reactor are still mostly intact but the crew is struggling to control the ship.

The Robert Archbald is in the same situation as us, enemy missiles detonated before impact, sandblasted their upper side.

We’re still getting damage reports in from survivors.”

“Hmm,” Dick muttered, looking at the reports. “Could have been a lot better, could be worse. Thank you for the report, Lieutenant. Contact the Lady Bird and the Tweed, sort out which one is more damaged.”

Sending the damage control officer off, the Colonel gestured his XO over to deliberate. “Well, can’t get out of here even if we wanted to,” he said with a shrug. “So, here’s what I’m thinking. We lash the non-functional ships to the working ones, then do a super slow burn to get onto the orbit of Atlantica. Then while on route, we sort out what can be saved from the LBJ and the William Tweed, get the Budd up and running, then spread out the remaining weapons and armor between the three resulting ships. Hopefully the MA haven’t fully raided the 6th fleet’s munitions and we can use them to be somewhat up in fighting shape when the next wave comes in.” He chuckled as he continued, “And hopefully ISOC won’t beach me for not just losing three ships, but ruining the remaining three by slapping stuff to them. Anyway, what do you think, Attaway?”

Attaway looks at the projection of the destroyed John Mitchell and sighs. “I don’t see any better options. We need time to re-organize and that’s all we can really ask for right now. If we can liberate Atlantica, maybe we can get the anti-orbital’s online for the next engagement. I just worry that if we get too close we’ll discover that those weapons are in the hands of the MA.” Attaway looks around to check if anyone else is listening in before whispering “Sir if I may, this engagement nearly cost us our lives and sent the John Mitchell to the stars. I worry that if we continue the fight we’ll all end up in the same predicament.”

“Well, there’s a couple of things to say about that, but I think it’ll be more efficient if I just say it once, Lieutenant Colonel,” Richardson said, patting his fellow officer’s shoulder before kicking off to his chair. “Get ready to send a general message to the fleet,” he said, putting his feet in straps as he adjusted his uniform.

Once everything was ready, Dick cleared his throat, gestured to start the broadcast, then started speaking into a camera. “26th Fleet, this is your commanding officer, Colonel Richardson. Before I explain what the plan is going forward, I would like to go over two things. First, let us hold a moment of silence for those who’ve lost their lives in the last engagement.” At that, he bowed his head and closed his eyes.

After a minute or so passed, the Colonel looked back at the camera and said, “Thank you. Second, I want to congratulate you on a job well done. Officially, we’re the first Union forces that have won an engagement against the Assembly. Part of me would love to take the win and return to the jump point exit, to wait until reinforcements show up before pushing on. However, we can’t turn back now. We can not let Assembly forces further entrench themselves in the system, in sovereign American Union territory! We must show all of the human race how the Union fights and wins its wars. We will not go gently into the night. Instead, we will rage against that night and we will be victorious!”

Attaway slowly begins clapping in response to the speech. He doesn’t look entirely convinced as he floats over to his seat but it seems like the speech has calmed his nerves. “Right then, let's continue with the plan.”
 

Uso

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Atlantica System,
Atlantica Orbit,
CIC Of the AUS Huey Long
Jan 25th 2321


“This is AUS Tashtego - Actual, Welcome to Atlantica.”

PHBQPdYOVRtO8CHN8HXFnS86JXvBtJsVThLPtTQ3Hr_I3sSLof8UpgJZNLqjWEvtZP1qdjJdAmJmUwrQkpkeLRakpnKkXssyhuOcBuWl5FF1r692tW-HSt9VDTB1V2kwWIjsvkkv


As what remained of the fleet approached a parking orbit above the planet of Atlantica, they were greeted by the local government’s two defense monitors, the AUS Tashtego and AUS Daggoo. These two monitors had heavy armor and lots of guns.

After more than a week, the damaged ships had been scavenged for parts, and the American Union’s 26th fleet was now made up of the AUS Huey Long, leading the AUS Robert Archbald and the AUS Budd Dwyer. Some of their weapon systems had been restored, and some basic repairs had been carried out. The ship’s marines were still assisting with repair work, and the crew that survived from the three destroyed ships were now either helping out, or in cryo-sleep so that the ship’s life support wasn’t overwhelmed.

Kowalski, the ship’s marine group leader, was already eager to get started, “We need to get on the surface sir. We’ve got enough landers to get all our remaining marines onto the surface if we take minimal equipment. I recommend we start landings around Newestyork immediately so we can secure the Capitol, The 6th fleet’s former facilities, and Atlantica Electromotive’s shipyards.”

Colonel Richardson nodded to the Group Leader and said, “Go get your troops ready, Kowalski. I’ll send you the info on the lay of the land once I get it from the locals.” Turning from the Marine, he keyed his comms and said, “Thanks for the welcome, Tashtego. I’m Colonel Dick Richardson, CO of the 26th fleet. We’re here to help clear out your Assembly infestation. Do you have any info on enemy positions and strengths?”

The AUS Tashtego would respond, “That sounds like a question for the politicians.” There would be a bit of a delay as they figured out what they were going to say, “Lots of people down there aren’t happy with the Union right now, but no one’s openly working for the Assembly. We-*zzzzt*”

The transmission from the Tashtego cut off suddenly.

“Looks like the Tashtego’s reactor has been scram’d. Ship is dead in the water right now.” The sensor officer called out.

“Doesn’t look like a weapon hit. I suspect cyber-attack.” The intelligence officer called out. “Looks like a lot of interference is coming from the surface now too. Probably re-purposed civilian communication and networking equipment. Looks like local news is reporting widespread power outages too.”

“They are up to something down there. We need to get on the surface,” Kowalski said, quickly heading out of the CIC and getting on his squad Radio, “EVERYONE LOAD UP! TIME TO BREAK THINGS!”

“I’m with the Group Leader,” Dick said, frowning as he floated over to the window. “Tactical, do everything you need to do to get a read on the situation. I want our railguns ready to support the Marines’ ground assault. Be careful around civilian structures, but at the end of the day we need to get the 6th fleet and the shipyard’s stores if we’re going to have a chance at securing the system. Some civilian casualties might be unavoidable, especially if the MA is using them as cover. Lieutenant Colonel Attaway, a word, please.”

When his subordinate came over, Richardson was frowning as he looked in the direction of the Tashtego. “First, let me know if I’m going too far in not worrying about civilian casualties,” he said, shaking his head in frustration. “I don’t want to cause more deaths, but I am worried about the timing of the Assembly’s attack. It could be their agents panicking at our having survived the attack, but I think they would have tried something earlier if that was the case. We weren’t exactly subtle as we came in. Worst case, another wave of MA ships might be on their way and we don’t have a lot of time to prepare for them. Second and kind of related question, what should we do about the monitors? My first instinct is to direct some of our Marines to board them and make sure they haven’t been taken over by the Assembly, but then I’m reminded about the mutiny that happened during the Battle of Reiss. I don’t want to send soldiers into the grinder of boarding hostile craft if I can help it, but I also don’t want to have to worry about them potentially shooting at us while we’re focusing on the ground battle. What do you think, Attaway?”

“I think the best course of action is trying to minimize every advantage the MA has against us. Right now if we’re thinking about the worst case and another MA wave is on it’s way we need to try and get the numbers evened out and the ground battle finished with. No matter how small those monitors may be they are still able to cause a distraction. I see no other option but to send a boarding party.”

“First instinct it is,” the Colonel said with a smile.

“Sir, our Marine Group is… one moment… there’s a lot of yelling.” The intel officer sitting at his console said, listening to the marine channel, relaying the captain’s orders about boarding the Atlantica ship, and parsing the dialogue coming from the Marine group. “Kowalski says the marine group can make landfall without orbital cover… says we should keep the ships away from the planet for now… There’s a lot of profanity but he seems to think the Assembly waiting to start until we got here and that has him quote, ‘Fucking Sus’. He’s having two squads of Epsilons suit up for EVA, wants to send the marines down to Newestyork and one squad to each of the Atlantica ships. Says if we’re gonna board one we’re gonna need to board both.”

“Sounds like a plan to me. Stick around, try to give Kowalski all the intel we can give him, but stay out of weapon range of the planet,” Dick told his subordinates. “Start getting some of the crew out of cryo, we got the life support to spare now. Also, get a list of people that would be needed in the case that we need to put a prize crew together. Hopefully we won’t have to, but who knows what’s going on over there.”

“Worst case,” he said, looking over to Attaway, “If one of their captains is a casualty, you want to take command of one of them? Not trying to get rid of you, thought I should offer it though.”

Attaway shrugs. “Sure, I don’t see why not. But hopefully it won’t have to come to that though.”

“Same,” Richardson replied, looking at the two stricken monitors. “We need all the help we can get.”
 

Uso

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Atlantica System,
Atlantica Orbit,
CIC Of the AUS Huey Long
Jan 25th 2321


An Hour Later…

Despite the Huey Long having taken enough damage to scrap an Assembly ship several times over, it was a flurry of activity. Their one-way Landers had already been deployed, and were taking a rather safe approach towards the capitol of Newestyork where they would drop down from orbit and close the distance with a slower approach closer to the surface.

At the same time, a pair of breaching pods had been sent to the Atlantica Monitors. These heavily armed but ‘only barely a spaceship’ pods were meant for getting soldiers onboard a starship one way or another.

The ship’s CIC was getting video feeds from all of these craft.

On one display, the video from one of the Huey Long’s marines was being shown as they boarded the AUS Tashtego. The ship’s emergency lighting was on, and the crew seemed to be working using hand-signals and space suits. The readouts showed that the air onboard was still breathable, but the O2 content had dipped, undoubtedly the suits were further precaution against problems. “Yellow-team Actual. The Tashtego looks like its down, but the crew is fine and working to right the ship. Damage looks consistent with cyber-attack. We’re moving to secure the ship’s CIC and Reactor rooms now.” The Tashtego was a much smaller ship on the inside when compared to the Huey Long. The marine’s void-suits used up a lot of the hallway space, and they would have to push past the crew as they made their way to the armored door protecting their targets. Without a working internal communication system, the Marines had to use more physical communication methods.

“Sir!” The ship’s intel officer seemed eager for his attention, pushing off from her console and floating over to the main CIC table. Much like most of the soldiers she seemed well put together, red hair packed away tightly in a bun, lanyard full of various IDs but still clipped to her green uniform jumpsuit to avoid it flying about during maneuvers. “I think I’ve found what they are after.”

She would quickly put up a picture of the Atlantica Electromotive Dockyards. “This was a picture I took of the dockyards two days ago,” She said, highlighting a number of ships, “And here it is today.” There seemed to be quite a bit of activity around the ships, and one of them seemed to be missing entirely. There also seemed to be a lot of damage around some of the nearby structures and gatehouses. “Communication and power is down all over but it is safe to assume that the Assembly is after the ships at Atlantica Electromotive. These are actual boats meant to go into the water, not spacecraft. And the missing ship looks to be a submarine. We’re going to need to have the marines physically get us access to the records down there to figure out what is being taken, but I think I can speculate.”

She quickly pulled up an image of a white-paper written a few years ago, “This is a research document that outlined strategies for surface to orbit defense strategies based around naval weapon systems written by Heram Wazu. We know the Assembly has worked with Atlantica Electromotive in the past. We know that they are after a Submarine. And we know Heram Wazu, a Magnetic Assembly Member, has worked on designs for surface to orbit energy weapons that work in the naval platforms. I think they want to use the boats on the surface to shoot down our assets in space.”

Attaway sighs “It’s always one more problem with the MA isn’t it? Is firing our railguns onto the docks an option? We wipe out the docks easy enough and send in the marines to clean up. ‘Course we’re gonna have to track down that submarine now as well...”

“What I’m worried about right now is our landers getting shot down by this sub or other material they have,” Richardson said, frowning as he looked at the picture of the dockyards. “Were the dockyards high on the list of assets we need to keep intact?”

“We need to keep the-” The intelligence officer started to say, only to get cut off by one of the soldiers manning the weapons station.

“I COULD SHOOT THE TACOS OUT OF A TACO STAND FROM HERE! JUST SAY THE WORD AND THOSE SHIPS WILL NO LONGER BE SEAWORTHY!”

“.... We need to keep the 6th fleet’s base intact. Their storage should have everything we need for ship repairs. Atlantica Electromotive is a large industrial yard which could have some use but we don’t need the ships themselves.” The intelligence officer finished.

Kowalski was listening in on the conversation as best he could, there was quite a lot of noise coming from the landers as they fell through the atmosphere, “Don’t worry sir, one way or another we always reach the ground!”

“I would rather you get on the ground intact and ready to fight, Group Leader,” Dick said, smiling as he shook his head. “I know you said you can shoot pretty well, Tactical, but until we have clear targets, let’s go for harassment instead of damage. Aim for the water by the boats, keep ‘em bottled up in the shipyard. But do not take a shot that might hit the warehouses. Like Intel said, we need all the material we can get if we’re going to stand a chance against the next wave of Assembly forces.”

“Yes Sir!, getting creative Sir!” The weapons officer shouted with enthusiasm. Selecting targets, the still functional turrets on the underside of the Huey Long would rotate to aim down towards the planet below and silently start firing off rounds.

It would be another grueling 15 minutes of just waiting as the Marine’s landers started touching down. Near their objectives. Kowalski seemed to be threading the needle between ‘safe’ landing spots and ‘aggressively forward’ landing spots. Marines looking to secure the former 6th fleet’s facility were landing on the base’s landing field directly, while those looking to secure the government buildings were landing in the ocean nearby and gliding along the waves towards the coastline. Those looking to land near Atlantica Electromotive were making the same ‘safe’ landing… although Kowalski’s group was trying to land even closer than that, their shuttle closed in on the entrance to Atlantica Electromotive by flying over the city.

“SIR! Ships in at Atlantica Electromotive are launching missiles!” One of the sensor officers called out.

Kowalski’s shuttle immediately nosed down and dove to the ground, crashing into the streets to slow down as the missile closed in, airbursting right over them and tearing large chunks out of the shuttle itself.

The ship that was firing seemed to be eagerly firing off its remaining stock of missiles, aiming for power plants and the 6th fleet’s base.

“Fire lasers to intercept the missiles, Tactical,” Colonel Richardson said, mentally kicking himself. “Redirect the railguns to kill those damn ships.”

“Missile Defense being set to Automatic, returning fire…” The weapons officer called out. The meager laser weapons that were left on the fleet were turned towards the missiles on the surface, prioritizing the few that were headed towards their troops, while the railguns mounted on the other side of the ship started coring the ships below.

Kowalski’s video feed would end up on the CIC, the Marine was busy liberating a car near the shuttle crash site, yelling profanity at the other marines who were also busy stealing as many cars as they could get their hands on. Despite the crashes and explosions, the epsilon team’s matte white armor seemed to be holding up well. “CAPIN’ GOT SOME CASUALTIES, SENDING THEM TO THE LOCAL HOSPITAL.” The Marine shouted, pulling out his sidearm and blasting out the windshield of the vehicle as he and a few other marines closed the distance. On his video feed everyone could see the local police force and their burning vehicles near the gates to Atlantica Electromotive. Things would shake again, and the lights along the street would go out, “ALSO IF YOU’RE GONNA STAY IN LOW ORBIT WE’RE GONNA WANT DIRECT CONTROL OF THE FIRE SUPPORT! WAITING FOR PERMISSION MIGHT GET US KILLED!”


“Fair enough,” Dick said, before nodding to the Tactical station. “Give Group Leader Kowalski control over one of the railguns. Just be mindful that there is a delay for the shot to get down to you, Group Leader.”
 

Uso

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”Great, one moment sir, gotta go to work!” Kowalski called out over the sound of gunfire. It was hard to see exactly what the marines were shooting at through the video feeds, but it was clear that they liked to move fast: Using smoke grenades to cover their approach through the main gate, and then fanning out inside of the complex, blowing past local security forces to engage their enemy.

The orbit of the AUS Huey Long was starting to take them away from the city below, but the AUS Robert Archbald was now moving into position over the city. The AU fleet was spread out enough to be able to provide continuous coverage over their marines.

Luckily, it seemed the fight would be over quickly.

“Looks like we’re fighting wind-up soldiers down here.” Kowalski called out, sending one of the other marines to send up better video. Their video feed would show the Magnetic Assembly ‘soldiers’... little more than a data-pad hooked up to some basic servos, cameras, and metal bars for arms. They looked like ultra-budget robots that were pierced together with supplies from the nearest electronics store. Some had legs, others had a more johny-5 look with treads, all seemed to be armed with basic guns. “We’re having no problem with these guys, local weapons can barely-”

The feed cut out suddenly. “Data-link with the Robert Archbald is down,” The communication’s officer called out.

The intelligence officer was quick to cut in, “Likely one of their surface to orbit weapons...” She would bring up a display of the Robert Archbald and overlay it with live images being taken from the Huey Long’s cameras. Parts of its hull were glowing, and electric arcs were sparking across the hull.

“Must be that anti-orbit sub,” Dick said, frowning at the display. “If that thing is throwing around enough watts to do that amount of damage, there has to be a huge amount of thermal bloom from the laser, right? Can we track the path to where the sub is?”

“We’re not above the target anymore and the Robert Archbald’s radio antenna must have been fried.” The intelligence officer said, waiting for a moment before yelling at the communication’s officer, “GET THEM ON LASER ALREADY!” The command crew was doing their best to try and get their sister ship on comms, and soon it would be firing on its own towards the surface. It seemed someone onboard the ship had the same idea, and the strikes on the surface of the planet would end up killing the incoming beam burning away parts of the ship.

“Guess we’ll narrow down where the sub is when it fires at us,” Colonel Richardson muttered, looking down at the planet. “Really wish we knew when it left at least, could narrow it down somewhat.”

“I’m… mmn… I’m not an expert on naval-ship-technology. I’ll check our personnel records and start looking for whoever has the most experience.” The intelligence officer called out.

Kowalski would jump onto the radio next, “Sir, we’re marines. We’ll figure out how to kill a submarine. Spaceships are just going to get chewed up!”

“Hmm,” Dick murmured, looking away from the planet to his tactical officer. “Could we launch some satellites so we can still look down at the planet while we turn the ship over so our armor is between us and the enemy?”

“Yes sir, There should be additional stocks at the 6th fleet’s base. Should I coordinate with the Marines to see if we can get those in orbit too?”

“For the future, sure, but for now, I want some eyes that can look for the sub while we’re doing our best to not get shot out of the sky,” Colonel Richardson said. “I want to be able to track where the sub is firing from so we can roll over and return the favor once it’s safe to do so. Can we do that in this orbit?”
 

Uso

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“I’ll get those deployed right away,” The intel officer said, taking control of that particular situation and co-ordinating with the launch crew to get some probes out around the surface. For the moment, it seemed that the submarine had managed to sneak away...

“Well, I don’t like this one bit,” Dick said, drumming his fingers on his chair’s arm. “How’re the Archie and the Monitors doing?”


------

Atlantica System,
Atlantica Orbit,
CIC Of the AUS Huey Long
Jan 27th 2321


“Sir, new readings on long-range. Looks like our reinforcements are here ahead of schedule. Light-speed-lag has communications on a 5 hour delay, but it looks like they sent out a tight-beam when they entered the system, putting it on screen now.” The bridge crew worked quickly, there were lots of concerns on the surface certainly, but if they lost their starships then this whole endeavor would be over.

“This is AUS Thatcher Actual, We have just arrived in system with the second wave and will be proceeding to Atlantica. Hope the cult hasn’t been giving you boys too much trouble.”

“Thatcher Actual, this is AUS Huey Long Actual,” Colonel Richardson said to his comm, “The situation is mixed. We’ll be sending along a report with this message, summing up what has happened in the last couple of weeks.” He paused the recording, looking around at the bridge officers. “Anything we want to bring up immediately?”

“I suspect we have 2 days until the next enemy wave shows up.” The intel officer reported. “If they head right to the newly arrived ships then the fight will take place in deep space away from Atlantica. We should have plenty of time to decide if we want to get involved in that fight though.”

“Have that intercept at the ready,” Dick said, “Unless the Assembly sends an overwhelming force, it’ll be better for us to meet up and not be beaten in detail.” Taking a breath, he unpaused the recording and said, “We’re expecting the Assembly’s next wave of ships to show up in the next two days. Once they do, we’ll coordinate our response. Huey Long Actual out.”

Stifling a yawn, Colonel Richardson grabbed his cup of coffee from it’s cradle. “Have we found a suitable ship for Project Hurricane?” he asked the tactical officer.
 

Uso

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“We’re launching what we can into space for repairs and reloading, but the 6th fleet’s base has been pretty badly shot up and Atlantica Electromotive is non-co-operative. The marines report that people are just showing up for work. Getting the assembly facilities together down there is like pulling teeth between power outages and people rioting.” The tactical officer called out. “We’ve got the Archie on laser, but it is like talking with flag signals. No idea how big a help they are going to be in a real fight. The Monitors aren’t doing much better. Mobility is up but their computer systems are struggling.”

“Better than nothing, I suppose,” Dick said, shaking his head. “Could we send over more personnel to help with those issues or no?”

It would be the Intel officer that spoke up next, “We have a whole spare crew from the Willaim Tweed. We could send over their technical staff.”

“Do it,” Colonel Richardson said, pulling out his datapad. “Focus on the Archie, but try and get help for the Monitors as well. I got a sneaking suspicion that we’re going to need all the help we can get.”

------

Atlantica System,
Atlantica Orbit,
CIC Of the AUS Huey Long
Jan 29th 2321


Right on time, the next wave of ships from Hawking would arrive, another trio of the S4 Series Starships carrying what was undoubtedly a payload of missiles along with a single statesmen. The ship used to be the Lord Palmerston, but it had been renamed the ‘MAS Henry Cluney’.

This new Statesmen class ship would remain at Ur, getting resupplied by MA assets already there while the three S4 series ships would turn towards the newly arrived American Union ships, preparing to intercept them as they made their way towards Atlantica. The 26th fleet was serious about retaking the system, and had sent another 6 Statesmen MK2s into the system along with 3 of the cheaper MK3 Statesmen that had better weapons but no FTL system onboard. This new grouping of statesmen MK2s had to keep their own engines running for two weeks to make the journey, so they were now coasting towards Atlantica as much as possible to let their systems cool down so they could be as ready as possible for an upcoming fight.
 
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