“Sir Farfalen ships have microjumped. They’re right beside the shield now.”

“Order the Ion Cannon to fire target the Shoto that seems to be giving the orders.”

“Yes sir!”

“Complete the destruction of that Zen. Then proceed back towards the planet. Assault Wedges 1 and 2 are to microjump and take up positions on either side of the Farfalen forces.”

“Yes sir!”

“Intimidator Control! Fire again. Target their picket ships again!”

“Yes sir.”

“Order the Bird of Preys and the fighters to continue attacking the Intredictor Cruisers.”

“Aye.”

“Sir, Tholatin forces have joined the battle!”

“Order them to deploy against the Intredictors. The BOPs and Fighters will micro-jump to return to their respective assault wedges.”

“Yes sir!”

The Sovereignty fleet moved into action again this time the opening shots were fired by the gunners of the Planetary Ion Cannon on the surface. A massive bolt streaked up and blasted into the Shoto that had just seconds before given the order for the Farfalen fleet to micro-jump.

Then the gunners on the Sovereign opened up, pounding the Zen class Cruiser and reducing it to a floating hulk. Some escape pods shot out of the ship with survivors onboard.

“Capture those escape pods! Stun the occupants then take them to cells.”

“Aye!”

Seconds later the Assault Wedges with the Bird of Preys and Fighters jumped to take up their position on either side of the Farfalen force. Right when they were slowing the Intimidator Cruisers fired again, targeting and destroying 7 more picket ships. While this was going on the main fleet of the Outer-Rim Sovereignty began to make it’s way back towards the Farfalen fleet. Slowly drawing a noose around them.

OOC:
Damages:
7 cutter class pickets dead
1 Zen dead
Kyric Zen-Dead or about to be captured in seconds
1 Shoto(with admiral whatshisname)-primary shields down

Bridge of the Steadfast, hyperspace.




"Ma'am, 10 seconds to reversion."


Rear Admiral Kresh could see in her minds eye the Sovereigntys Executor railing on anything the enemy launched against it.

"9."

She smirked at the thought as she ran through her mental checklist of standard engagement procedures.

"8."

"Sheilds and weapons systems to full upon reversion. Launch fighters only on my orders."

The crew replied with a chorus of 'aye ma'ams'.

"7."

This was always the longest wait she thought, idly looking at the faces of each of her crew members who had survived the painful wait for action in ORS space.

"6."

Delta-3 should be more than successful, at least early on. From then on the best laid plans of mice and men, often when to @#%$.

"5."

Ahead of her she could see something wrong. Outside through the viewport the stars were returning to their normal 'dot' shapes.

"Premature hyperspace terminus Admiral Kresh!

Interdictors!"

Snapped immediately into action by the surprise result, Laire grimaced.

"Sheilds and weapons to full!"

On her holo display sat a number of interdictors, already being harried by their allies BoPs and fighters. They were strung out in a wide anti-flanking perimeter and the Hapan fleet had arrived on one flank, opposite the BoPs.

"Move to engage, slave the Arc sheilds to the fleet weapons systems, full forward projection."

Her crew nodded as the fleet opened fire, but decided to save their torpedos for another time.

"Fighters, Ma'am?"

Kresh shook her head.

"Negative, the only thing those interdictors are good for is staving off fighter assault."

Commander Knossos nodded, returning to scrambling the few pilots they did have for immediate launch, whenever that would take place anyways.

Turbolaser fire arced out like the ravages of and angry god, savaging all of the interdictors which were in range. Kresh got an almost morbid sense of joy as they were turned to molten slag.

"Procede up the line. Is the route clear for a jump?"

It took a few moments before the navigation crew replied with an affirmative.

"Prepare for another jump. The interdictors will drag us out again."





Damages

4 Interdictors (furthest from ORS's attack) destroyed

Fleet moving up the line of interdictors to engage the rest of them.

The Imperial ships from Bespin, totalling some five captial warships and with some accompayning Defenders, arrived at their coordinates, close enough to observe some of the fighting near the outer edge of the system with magnification. And no sooner had they arrived when they recieved more orders from the governer of the Mid-Rim Protectorate. They were to proceed to a certain point, and carry out a very special mission.

Admiral Kraken noted as the aide came into his office, and told him what had transpired so far in the mission.

"I just hope that we aren't too late in acting." said Admiral Kraken as he viewed the battle.

The fighting had shifted, to either above the planet where the main ships of the ORS force are pounding the ships of the Farfalen fleet, or near the edge of the system, not too far from where the Imperial warships now sat, where the Interdictor cruisers deployed to act as a rearguard for the Farfalen fleet were being pounded into dust by the Tholatin and Hapan ships had come to assist their allies. Admiral Kraken grimaced at their sight. Both Tholatin, and Hapes are not at war with the New Order. He would have to tread very carefully here to make sure that it would stay that way.

The Devestator Missile fell out of the hanger bay, drifting amongst the wreckage with its engines off, possibly to drift away forever. Meanwhile, back on the Zen, Kyric Zen, along with an escort of soldiers moved to find a means of escape. He and his entourage had waited till the remaining survivors left before they even thought about leaving.

"Damned escape pods, none seem to be working." Zen cursed via intercomm from within his enviormental suit. The atmosphere had been lost on the Zen for quite some time.

"Well sir, if we make it to Hanger bay, even if it is destroyed we may be able to find a ship adrift in the wreckage."

"Good thinking. First though, lets find an armory." A chorus of yes sirs and ayes responded, as the men walked into a room that was only half there. The other half was looking into space, towards the planet.

"Beautiful," Zen remarked about the planet, "Now grab what you can." The ten men in total began to grab various sorts of chemical grenades and high-powered dart weapons, along with conventional laser weapons.

"Sir," Zen turned to look at the man, "The E-web?"

"Of course, grab some help if ya need it."



As the Soverignty fleet fell upon the Farfalen fleet for the second time, they were most expecting this manuver. The one mistake the Sovereignty did was not rearm their shields, like the Farfalen fleet did. The Cutters, not even a third of the remaining ones opened fire on Bird of Preys, with their advanced turbolaser systems, utterly blowing them and their crews to hell. The rest of the fleets attack was just as vile.

Each Shoto is equipted with over fifty-turbolasers and forty octets, all firing at the seven "Intimidators." As well as another third of the Cutter's fire power. Over four-hundred and fifty torpedos was aimed at each ship, with over three hundred laser bolts leading the way.


OOC:

Damages-
12 BOP destroyed
7 Intimidators near death.

(OOC: Sorry bout the shitty post, figured i had to get something up to allow the thread to move)


The ships were ripped from hyperspace moments after they made the jump, revealing to them 3 more enemy interdictors that sat in range.

"Move to engage."

That was the sum total of the effort Rear Admiral Laire Kresh would make that would result in the deaths of thousands. Behind them they could make out scores of escape pods, launched from the striken Interdictors, but the Hapans did not bother to pick them up. A number of shuttles were launched to assist in their capture.

Around the Steadfast the Consortium fleet attacked, flurries of fire withering down upon the 3 weak daggarheads, which promptly saw them launching more escape pods of their own. A slight murmour from Kresh saw another group of shuttles dispatched, although these were for another reason.

Massive washes of ion fire opened up and, following a brace of mag pulses, the 3 ships were disabled.

"Have the troops landed immediately. We hold here until we receive a transmission from Admiral Harris requesting assistance.

Methinks they should have handled the attack well enough."

As the fleet moved into surrounding positions around the 418s, fighters were dispatched to reign in the fleeing escape pods.

"Do it peacefully, all prisoners will be granted the necessary civilities."


Meanwhile, aboard the 418s, teams of Royal Marines and Cyborgs were already moving to secure their boarding areas.



Summary.

3 418s disabled, Hapes fleet surrounds them.

Troops just boarding.

“Assault Wedges 1 and 2 advance and reinitialive all shields!”

“Yes sir!”

“Sir the Farfalen forces are firing. They appear to be concentrating as much fire as possible on the Intimidator Cruisers.”

“Sir we have over 400 missiles launched at each Intimidator!”

“Activate the Elite Anti-Missile Defence System. Order our fighters to take down every missile they can find. In the meantime order the Intimidators to take up positions behind us and the rest of the main force and begin withdrawing beyond enemy range. Try to block as many of the Farfalen shots as possible.”

“Aye!”

The massive Executor Star Destroyer began to turn, bringing it’s massive bulk to bear. In what seemed to be a suicidal move it put itself directly in the way of over a thousand missiles.

“Order the Planetary Ion Cannon to fire again. Target the same Shoto.”

“Yes sir!”

“Gunners hit as many of those missiles as you can. Order all ships in the main force to concentrate all their shield power towards the Farfalen ships and the oncoming missiles . We’ll try to shield the Intimidators as much as we can.”

The thousand some odd fighters that swarmed around the main force all began to target the missiles that were incoming. At the same time thousands of small laser batteries began to fire, tracking and eliminating all of the missiles that they could. Well before the missiles even reached the Sovereignty their number was cut down to less than 200 missiles. Seconds later they began to impact against the shields of the Star Destroyers of the main force as well as a few on the last of the Intimidator Cruisers. However this much reduced volley was not even close to powerful enough to cause any significant damage.

“Fire all missiles target one of the Shotos! Order the Assault Wedges to do the same on another Shoto. Our fighters are to target 4 Shotos.”

“Aye admiral!”

“Order Assault Wedges One and Two to concentrate all conventional weaponry on one Cutter each.”

“Aye!”

OOC:
Damages:
Farfalen
17 Cutter Pickets(17 Aegis Star Carriers)
1 Shoto Completely Disabeled
1 Shoto 250 Concussion Missiles on the way
1 Shoto 170 Concussion Missiles on the way
4 Shoto 500 some odd missiles and torpedoes on the way
ORS:
Due to Missile Fire etc.
1 Executor: Shields 80%
2 Imps: Shields 65%
7 Intimidators Primary Shields: 70%

"Move us in on that Interdictor."

"Yes, ma'am."

The three Tholatin war ships moved forward in advance towards the enemy ship directly in front of them. On their flank, the Hapes ships were pounding on three others of them. The Hapan forces had come out almost directly in front and to their flank of them as the TTR ships had been moving forward.

"Within intermediate firing range."

"All batteries fire. Prepare troops shuttles for deployment. FIghters prepare for screen."

"Right."

THe ship rocked as it's guns opened fire on the almost impossibly outnumbered Interdictor in front of them. The heavy guns fired, followed by a full salvo of missiles and Torpedo's. The fighters outside moved to screen the shuttles that would take the fighters over.

"Move the shuttles out away from the ships with the fighter screens. Once those shields go down they need to move in."

Damages:
Farfalen:
1 418 cruiser at 56% shields due to laser fire.
Salvo of 80 concussion missiles on way
Salvo of 40 torpedo's on way
TTR:
Minor shield damage from incoming fire.

The Imperial fleet arrived at the original site of the destruction of the first Interdictor. Well, part of it, anyways....... One Carrack class Light Cruisers, and two DP-20 Gunships came roaring out of hyperspace, while the remaining ships stabbed deeper into the system.

Within seconds of coming out of hyperspace, all of the Imperial ships all powered up shields, and weapons, and the Imperial ships near the wreckage of the Interdictor began using their tractor beams, and sending out shuttles to rescue the escape pods. Nearby, some Shuttles from a force of Hapan warships were drawing ever closer to their site, their intent obviously the same thing. Commander Nort of the Carrack Cruiser Dominant opened a channel to the shuttles.......

"Hapan shuttles, this is Commander Nort of the Imperial Navy. We have the survivors of this cruiser covered. We will observe our non-aggression treaty with the Hapans, but if you act in a hostile way towards our forces, we will assume the treaty void, and open fire." said the Commander.

In the meantime, near the wreckage of the Zen, the remaining Imperial warships decanted from hyperspace. The Victory Star Destroyer Venom, and some cruisers, and frigates immediatly began sending shuttles to various pieces of wreckage. Within minutes, they had recovered the various personnel trapped there. The Imperial force came about, and began to speed away with the rescued Farfalen Commander, Kyric Zen, and his remaining staff..........

OOC: Manifest:
1 Carrack Cruiser
2 DP-20 Gunships
Near First Interdictor Destroyed

1 Victory Star Destroyer Mark I
1 Illustrious Fast Attack Cruiser
1 Carrack Cruiser
1 Fire class Light Frigate
Near Wreckage of Zen Cruiser Zen

Since Kyric deployed his Interdictors in a net behind his forces, when Kamon, and Dakkon destroyed one cruiser, that allowed me to slip through the small hole resulting.

The Executor star destroyer's mistake of protecting its fleet would be fatal. Not only did it provide cover for the Farfalen fleet from the Soverignty's fleet but it also took heavy damage to its shield, something that would not be forgiven. The Devestator's engines flared up into overdrive as the HFS droid brain weaved in and out laser-fire and wreckage. The artifical mind had chosen its target and its course. In mere instants of time it would be over.

A laser glanced off the forward shields, the last shot that would be gotten in before the counter-fire. The Devestator Mark III missile hit home in an ideal spot. Just beneath the engines, where the shields are the weakest on the ship. The devestator exploded, along with the engines of the SSD. The complicated manuevers that the Captain of the ship insisted on were now a burden. The internal structure of the ship stressed and buckled as the nuclear blast went off in its hindquarters, the aft power reactors went off in the explosion, sending streams of smaller explosions through the ship.




Wyvern cannons aboard the Cutter class pickets were able to pick off the handful of slugs from the Intimidators that made it through, those few that were hit, while severly damaged in parts were not crippled. The Farfalen fleet used to cover of the now dying star destroyer to slingshot around the planet.

"Whats wrong with the Rapier?" Asked Commodore Jzoks, referring to a Shoto that was not moving.

"Multiple Ion cannon shots."

"Blast. Ask the Captain to give cover."

"Yes sir." There was a pause, "Captain Olip will give us cover. While he's lost engines he still has some weapons and small shields."

"Thank you." The remainer of the fleet was moving far-side of the planet from the Soverignty's fleet in a round-about tactic.

(OOC:

Damages:
1 Shoto done for.
4 Cutters Dead (Of the 7 said)
3 Cutters 37%, 45%, 47% functioning.

1 SSD destroyed

Republic Star Destroyer HRS Taloven

"You know we can't make it."

"You have a suggestion?"

"Target X."

"Target X? You think we can do it?"

"I do, sir."

Kamon rubbed his chin.

"Alright. Drop us out."

The Admiral nodded and transmitted the order to the other ships. They dropped out of hyperspace in the middle of darkspace. There was nothing hear their location but blackness. No planets, no comets, no asteroids. It was just blackness.

"Relocate to Adumar coordinates. From there we go to Target X. Switch to Defcon 4."

"Yes, sir."

A yellow warning light signaled the switch to Defcon 4. The fleet turned and took up a new course. The ships accellerted to jump speed and Kamon looked up.

"Make it full speed to Adumar. We need to get there as fast as possible. Send a message to the Neron's and the Vondiranach that we wont be with them."

"Done."

"Good. You may jump."

"Yes, sir."

The stars outside elongated and became a mottled whiteness as the fleet jumped. Kamon settled back. They would get something done this time. Maybe not to the empire, but still to an enemy.

OOC Actions:
TTR Main Fleet moves out of course for Bakura.