--Praser/Full out assault--



"Our main objective is to get inside that station before anyone else. Everyone should focus on it. Gentlemen, we will all participate in this. There will be casualties. This is unavoidable." As Nova gave his speech the Mjolner's entire fleet of craft ships left the large carrier, the faster ships would soon be upon the station. Meanwhile the relay drones all sprinkled across various parts of the asteroids floating near the station. They acted as ways to find stealth ships, considering they were spread out it would be impossible to kill them all at once. And if one died the others could triangulate the area in which the fire came from. But Nova doubted he would really need them.



All Nova would need would be a positive mark on the, no doubt, ships near the base. Nova's plan was quite simple. Alex's faster ships would go into direct combat before the three battleships. Once enemy ships were sighted, Both the Excaliburn and the Ragnarok would fire upon them forcing them to the other side side of the station, or to take the hits from both Nova's and co.'s entire fleet. While the ships were maneuvering away from the fire (or getting pegged by it) the Mjolner's craft fleet would both simultaneously attack the ships and quickly board the station en masse. Even if the ships managed to get a boarding crew aboard the station, the Mjolner's assault crew would quickly overwhelm whatever resistance they would have. It would only be a matter of time. Already the relay drones were closing in upon the station.


"To answer your question Alex. yes and no. Wait for your cruisers to assist the Coyote before directly attacking. The relay drones shall be upon them. While we, the slower battleships are gaining on the station (and taking fire from these other bastards, which I assume the Celestial can take) they Mjolner's fleet will assist and board the station. Your job is to tie up those bastards. Our job is to shoot at those bastards. the Mjolner's job is to get into that station at all costs." Nova's message was not just transmitted to Alex. It was transmitted to all ship's including Hadrox's.


Speaking of "other bastards" in the wake of the ISA appearing the Demetrios sent out a message to the small fleet. "Attempting rescue efforts. Possible known enemy sighted within station parameters. We will fire upon this enemy company, but not upon any other rescue forces" the Demetrios knew the message probably would not work, but it would do something: buy the fleet some valuable time.


"We're all heading straight in. As soon as any enemy is sighted, fire on them to your content. Just follow the plan. Nova out" Nova finished and got up. Taking his usual position near the front of the bridge, his hands crossed behind his back, a wild grin across his face.

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*WHAT I THOUGHT I'D DO WAS PRETEND I WAS ONE OF THOSE DEAF-MUTES*

-NTC, Asteroid Station-

In his chair, Sigmund looked through the data and images passing on his screen. "Damn, something hit them hard. And disabled their powerful sentry guns and the station. Very powerful, and or it had an advantage. Stolen codes perhaps. Keep the scanners on, might as well try to gleam a little from the wreckage and turret designs." Before he could continue his orders, his officer at the Scanners spoke up.

"Sir, we've detected a faint SOS from one of the frigates. It appears to be still intact. Relatively."

"Confirmed. Hm... we are on a rescue mission. Longspear, begin preparations to board the station. Begin piling your droids into the transports. We're investigate the frigate. Use any and all means to enter that station and find what is inside."

"Roger, Commander. What should we do when other bastards start showing up?"

"Come on Captain Wilfried. Do I have to explain projectile trajectory and velocity to you?"

"Very funny. Protect the transports and fire on any ships flagged enemy?"

"Yes. And try to keep them as far away as possible." The two ships got to their missions. The Aegis moved towards the frigate, sending some hails and scanning the location of the signal on the ship. The Longspear loaded up two transports full of combat droids the ships carried for staging and repelling boardings, with a small number of human controllers. They left the Longspear's hangar and attempted to dock and enter the station.

_________________

-Asteroid Belt-

The Kissaki Frigate was in bad shape, several holes melted through the armor in almost every deck. Whatever crew that was inside the ship probably had only seconds before decompression killed them all. However, lights in one of the sections seemed to have people inside it. Whatever survivors that were inside must be holed up in that tiny room. Scans indicated that one tiny compartment managed to stay intact and at least one survivor was located here. The distress signal apparently was coming from a damaged SOS beacon inside the compartment as well. Any hails probably would be unanswered since the beacon had no way of receiving messages.

The Station on the other hand was relatively intact. On of the airlocks was open ajar, giving ample space to enter. Most unusual, the airlock had an red coloring on the walls, some of it look liked it was blood. The interior of the station was also intact, and devoid of any atmosphere. It seemed that whatever happened happened quick, decompression throughout the entire station probably killed everyone in mere seconds.

The only thing that seemed to be alive were the camera systems and the security droids. They started firing as soon as the first NTC droid came in, reducing it to scrap. Automated defense systems activated all over inside the station, ready to kill anything moving, organic or non-organic.

_________________
- Join the HUMP LEGION. Leading the Humping and Bumping since time began...*humpa humpa humpa* -

Note to self. Pg541

"Engines to full!" Anderson shouted over his deck, Hadrox made the same mental command as the two IWAR vessils lurched into life and began closing on the station "Deflectors online.. Anti missle and ship grid recoordinated for mineral targets.." All the Ragnaroks weapons charged, The celestials defence grid had already started throwing out waves of laser fire on anything that passed thorugh the Rock reflector shield, blowing anyhting bigger down to size with her mass drivers "IP blocker originating from point.. zero.. its coming from near the station" Hadrox rubbed his hands together.. "All the more reason to go rescue them Captain anderson.. full speed ahead.." He turned on the comms "Nova, get your commander and your ships to follow in our wake.. then you don't have to mess around with getting through the astriod field.."

Floating dark within the asteroid field

"Sir, their fleets have just moved into position."

(Bonus for interrogating Ronin crew.)

"Good, activate the codes now. Set the mines to only attack units marked as hostile. Final Dawn the mines around you are now set to seek you but not detonate, the same goes for the Relentless. All ships proceed to waypoint alpha and lay the second wave of mines. Belvadere keep the asteroids off of the Relentless. We can dodge them well enough to keep our shields up, but they have to plow through every single one. You have clearance to fire, all of our mines are following us. Make sure to only fire in front of the ship though.

Near the enemy fleets, a host of Kissaki mines disguised to look like asteroids suddenly come online and immediately track the ships. The minefield completely surrounds the ships as Lancet waited for them to enter the center of the field before activating them.

An explosion rocked the Celestial “What it fucks name was that..” the main defence gunner was looking at his screen, then back to Captain Anderson with a look of utter bewilderment “I.. I don’t know sir, laser battery three fired on rock cluster alpha one seven.. Rocks don’t just explode like that...” Anderson relayed this information to Hadrox and the young captain turned his guns to the same rock cluster, with a few shots in a hit and miss the Ragnarok struck gold, hitting another ‘Exploding rock’, “Anderson theres something more than just rocks in the field.. or some mighty dangerous rock clusters.. I’m tuning in the scanners to look for electronics…Send out a probe” A defence drone sped out of the shield, Shocking any rocks that the scanners flagged as having a high metal content.. until it found something with circuitry.. obviously this rock was booby trapped and exploded, taking the drone with it..

“Hidden in the rocks.. Anderson, reroute power..” The Ragnarok dropped in behind the Celestial, and began streaming Ion energy into her shield, allowing the fortress shield to operate without the Celestial’s power.. the Celestial and her sister ship then opened up with all their weapons, clearing all the rocks around them for a thousand feet.. Then they began to move forwards.. this sight looking like a bolt of fire slowly erupting towards the station..

--Eon 1st/busy near asteroid belt--




"You hear that Alex? Follow in the Celestial's wake, her shield will take all those rocks." Nova said, transferring the message over to his fellow commander. They were all making good progress, and would probably be there soon. They Mjolner's craft fleet would be there sooner then the actual ships, in fact they were just now moving into range of the station.


"Sir, we've detected a large group of incoming mines, they were disguised as asteroids, we've only barely identified them!" As the aid spoke the great group's of "rocks" near the Nova's and Hadrox's fleet began to home in on the fleet. "We've also identified to other corporations already within the mission parameters. Both set's of fleets have been identified as: Amherst and NTC. The NTC ship's are near our side of the station. Amherst is coming in at an odd angle from us, suggesting they got here not to long ago. The ship's marked as Relentless and Final Dawn are still trailing some mines."


"I trust the craft fleet skipped the Amherst mines?" Asked Nova.

"Yes sir, none of them have taken any damage yet. The drones are well with-in jamming distance"


"Well jam all enemy communications then, we don't want them to be able to communicate with their ship's. If it doesn't stop them entirely, it will make communications slower. Analyze the signal they are sending to their mines, if we can get a good read on it we can use it against them."

"Roger that sir."

"Set the ammunition on all gun's except the MAC gun to high explosive. Use the data from the Demetrios and the relay drones to figure the distance at which the are to explode. Have the forward batteries fire at those mines both of those ship's are trailing. Fire at the one farthest away from the ship, because if we shoot close and the shield's will pick up the shell. Dis-engage the tri-system as well. We'll just have to use the MAC gun."

No sooner did Nova express his orders then did they get done. The crew in the Exacliburn quickly changed ammunition to the high explosive rounds. These things did almost no damage to ship's but they decimated craft ship's (at a reasonable range) and other small targets, i.e. mines. But these were not the only thing's firing. The Excaliburn's entire armament lit up. The MAC cannon focused in on the Aegis out near the station, the round would reach the ship before the craft-fleet would.


"Send enemy information out too all fleets. I want Hadrox to know where every single mine is. And I want Alex to get to attack that bastard, Sigmund's, fleet before the craft take to much damage. Bwa ha ha ha!

"In the works, sir"

An all-points-bulletin then went out to both sets of commanders relaying the data the drones (in combination with both the Coyote and the Demetrios) had picked up. All known enemies, mines, fighters, ship name, was sent out in this neat little package of information, cutting down the communication needed between ships down in half. The space around the fleet lit up as all the guns fired at the different mines homing in. When one round would go off it would fill a space with a huge explosion that was more heat then pressure, making the mines in the blast radius literally explode melt into an explosion.


Meanwhile the Excaliburn's forward batteries targeted the Final Dawn out in the distance. After a moment to allow the computer to finish tracking they let loose on the mines. Using the data from the relay drones the chance for a successful hit was just under 84%. While the smaller forward batteries fired the huge 30m dual gun aimed towards the Relentless. Doing much the same the huge gun aimed and fired out at the ship in the distance, not hoping to hit the Relentless, but hoping to hit, in the least, near one of the mines to produce a domino effect.




While the large ship's fought a large glob of craft might of speared on the NTC ship's screens. An entire attack force consisting of fighters, bombers, and assault transports hurdled out of the asteroid field. But before they reached the ships a B-class MAC shell came hurdling out first, flying towards the Aegis. In the MAC shell's wake the fleet attack both the station and the NTC ship's simultaneously. The fighters went directly for the enemy fighters still examining the station, the bombers dove in on the larger ships, the pilots fingering the button, only a few seconds away from firing, even through the thick light-sow that was the NTC ship's anti-craft fire. Meanwhile, the assault transports had come at a little bit wider of an angle, away from the brunt of the anti-craft fire. They were counting on both bombers and fighters to buy them some time. About 4 managed to fly into one of the unoccupied station docks, providing them with a minor amount of protection from the fire-fight outside, and quick route inside. The rest of the transports would have to do it the hard way. 26 ships were minutes away from slamming into the exterior of the station, drilling into the inside. It would only take them a few minutes to gain access. The other 20 ships went around insertion group A, to dock in on the opposite side of the station, it would take them a little longer to get inside the station, but due to the angle at which they were going they would be protected from the ac fire, at least, if the ship's didn't move around. Each transport held 30 men, all armed with weapons and trained in breach and attack scenarios. Entering a ship.


Meanwhile the some-odd 120 men hurried around near the dock. After a short delay in which they had to shoot out a host of sentry guns placed on the walls (and kill some security droids), in which 13 died, the men all hurried up to the dock doors. Normally they would of expected the doors to be locked, but they were all wide open. A quick look down the hallway made it evident that the station's internal defense system really was still active. Thus the squad attempted to fight it's way inside through the station's docks, while the rest of the fleet either attacked the NTC ship's outside, or were busy gaining access to the station.

_________________

*WHAT I THOUGHT I'D DO WAS PRETEND I WAS ONE OF THOSE DEAF-MUTES*

-Battle in the Asteroid Belt, near the Kissaki Base-

A short signal came from the station, activating the web of sentry guns clustered around the station. Red navigation lights glowed as they activated and started firing at anything not generating a Kissaki Syndicate signal. Anti-ship missiles zoomed out of their pods while gun turrets fired at the assault boats, fighters and bombers coming from all directions.

It came as a big surprise for everyone already inside the belt and near the station, as explosions ripped apart several assault transports that managed to fly into a nest of sentry guns. Anti-ship missiles impacted the NTC ships while laser cannons flashed everywhere. The sentry guns were no ordinary guns but rather self-contained ships fitted with weapons. They darted in and out of the rocks, firing to kill and flying to avoid the return fire. Some of the sentry guns closer to the station concentrated on the assault boats attempting to board the station, scoring hits…

Inside the station the automated defenses began firing wildly, firing at anything that moved. Pressure doors closed and security droids fired at the invaders. They were standard Kissaki security equipment, meant to keep people inside rather than out.

_________________
- Join the HUMP LEGION. Leading the Humping and Bumping since time began...*humpa humpa humpa* -

Note to self. Pg541

"Commander Lancet the Eon Fleet just opened fire on the Final Dawn."

"Who do they think they're shooting at? There's a thousand kilometers of asteroids between us and them. Tell the Final Dawn's Captain to perform basic evasive maneuvers on the off chance one slips through. All ships increase speed and move out of the asteroid field, all mines are set to stop tracking us and the resultant loss of cohesion will send them into the enemy's path. I hope they don't think that shooting this last batch will save them. I guess we'll find out. Open a frequency with the NTC ships."

All of the Amherst ships abruptly made a turn towards the station but the mines kept traveling to their calculated destination.

"The Eon fleets seem to be jamming us, but the interference from the minefield is playing more havoc than they are (Electromagnetic fields are a prime culprit in asteroid field development) , we will have to get a bit closer, sir."

"Have the Relentless launch all of it's strikecraft and engage the formations targeting the NTC ships. They should arrive a little after the Eon fleet's. Have the marine groups ready for insertion."

"Sir, the Eon fleet is scanning us heavily."

"What are they after? Didn't they get a good enough look at this ship last time?"

"We think they are trying to hack the code for the mines, that's what all unknown AI inquiries and data lines have been about."

"You've already locked them out correct?" Lancet said

"Yes sir, the signal we were transmitting to the mines will be useless to them unless they can figure out the eight hundred thousand line security lockout codes that have been reactivated."

"The Kissaki sure are thorough." The Commander said impressed

Hadrox’s eye lit up, “Anderson.. set scan range.. Immediate..” the scanners of the Ragnarok and the Celestial swung into action, not powerful but able to detect what they needed.. “Electromagnetic radiation detected.. Its in a cloud around us, Range is zero.. “ Hadrox thought for a second and his ship obeyed, the Ragnarok setting her Ion flux arc to a wide beam setting, “Nova.. don’t go out of the shield..”

There was a blast of electrical energy which flooded into the nearby space, an uncontrolled ion cloud.. it began to charge the field around her and began to short out all the electronics in the area, however the Ion based Fortress shield converted this charge back into power and so the Eon fleet was unaffected. After a few seconds the field began cackling visibly with electricity, the mines starting to explode randomly as their systems overloaded.. “Its aright nova... nothing’s getting through this without losing power.. Full speed ahead I think...”

-NTC, Asteroids-

"Well, this is all going to hell rather nicely. Evasive maneuvers! Longspear, try to keep those srikecraft off us and transports off the station. Aegis, let's pull off a rescue and then keep those bastards off us. Strike team, hurry!" Sigmund and his crew went to work trying to manage all that was happening. With some finely controlled shots, plenty of thruster work and a lot of work, the fleet managed to get some smaller rocks and broken Kissaki fleets between the Aegis and the MAC shell. While it punched through this tiny shield, by the time it hit the Aegis' own shields absorbed what little energy it had left. It launched a few small transports with a handful of droids and some crew in space-suits out towards the frigate, where they tried to bring aboard anyone still alive on the Kissaki frigate. The Aegis itself stayed mostly in place, rolling to avoid what it could and taking what it could not, returning fire on the attacking turrets. Hopefully they wouldn't be overwhelmed before they recovered the handful of living Kissaki crew and got what they needed from the station...

The NTC strikecraft already out quickly turned around towards the Longspear. On the way, the automated fighters began fighting the enemy strikecraft. While the enemy had numbers, the NTC had cold, calculating AI with great efficiency that slowly started coming together, operating even better in pairs or trios. Inevitably most of the small handful that had been launched would be lost, but they didn't care, seeking only to destroy as many enemies as they could.

The Longspear itself opened fire on the incoming strikecraft with it's plentiful anti-strikecraft batteries and FRAG round, quickly filling in a space between the asteroids with scrap metal, the FRAG shards cutting up the attackers and leaving behind the shards and destroyed strikecraft to make navigating strikecraft even more dangerous. It began moving around the side of the station, towards the EON fleet transports. Once it entered range it fired on them as well with FRAG rounds, seeking to stop more from entering. But it also tried to hit those already docked, trying to sever their way off. After all, with no way off they might just lose morale inside and break the boarding attempt off.

Inside the station, the strike team progress slowly but steadily. The droids in front and controllers behind them, they advanced with a combination of linked-AI teamwork, integrated weaponry, high-explosives and plasma grenades. Anything shooting back was located by it's trajectory from cover, blasted to pieces and fast as they could, and doors were blown open more often than not. Hopefully it wouldn't take them long to try and find whatever was inside.

_________________

-[Eon 2nd Fleet/Following the Celestial]-

"Roger that Praser, I'll play follow the leader for now."

Alex said into his earpiece. He turned to a techie and gave his order and had his ships fall in behind the Celestial, the cruiser in column and the Coyote to the side. He was doing nothing now, but once they were through these mines it would be his time to shine. He toyed with his earpiece, accessing the the fleetwide commsystem, specificall the pilots quarters on all his ships.

"Alright flyboys! Gear up and get to your birds, it'll be time to play soon!"

_________________

--Eon 1st/Here We go--

"Fire!" Nova screamed. The Excalibur, along with the rest of the fleet had finally arrived at the station. All gun which had been focusing on the mines now momentarily halted to switch ammo. Most of the Excaliburn had not taken damage from the mines, but a few had gotten through and damaged her, especially her bow. The damage was noticeable, but nothing that compromised the integrity of the ship.

As the large battleship came upon the station it engaged it's MAC cannon. Within such a close range a shot hit was almost guaranteed. On the Excaliburn's deck all of the guns, except for the laser cannons, fired at Ship's on all sides. Both Amherst and NTC. The hail of miniature MAC shells hurdled to their targets, guided by the Demetrios, which sat close to the Celestial for protection. Even the seldom used plasma cannons along the sides of the Excaliburn began firing. The battleship in itself was alight in fire in every direction. Not one gun had stopped firing. The one thing Nova was making a point not to hit was the station. As such he was not shooting at the Other NTC ships on the other side of the station.

"Bwa ha ha ha!" Came the loud laughing over the fleet intercom.


The transports had taken minor damage from the destroyers. Mainly the ones on the opposite side of the station had taken the brunt of the damage. the Transports nearest the Aegis had not been damaged all that much, if they had been shot the NTC troops inside might have suffered some damage from the explosion of the transports, damaging the station. Speaking of troops, the 100 or so men at the forefront of the insertion team continued to fight their way inside. They quickly came upon the backs of the NTC forces as they had come up much the same way. The Eon troops fired at the NTC troops as each side battled it out in the cramped hallways. All around the station various indicator lights turned green. Of the 66 assault transports, only 26 had made it. All 780 men rushed the doors, falling out into various forms of fire from both sets of enemies. The Station defense system was simply overwhelmed as crowds of men piled into various hallways. The station was literally crawling in the Mjolner's invasion force. Any straggler left by the NTC were simply eaten up by the Eon assault crew, turning hallways men screamed out as turrets cut them down, only for the same turrets to be filled with holes as five men pulled up to replace the one that just died. they were not so much cramped as they were numerous. Men simply ran through the hallways, shooting anything that shot at them. Anything blocking there way was blown off it's hinges. As the NTC forces fought the first Eon insertion teams,men appeared from hallways that had been empty. The NTC robots were deadly as they were smart. But the assault teams were busy blocking them in. The Eon invasion force only need to buy some time. The backup behind them, and in other corners of the station would be going for the objective. Anyone near the NTC troops would be attempting to stall them, everyone else was busy blowing off defense turrets and doors.

Meanwhile bomber and fighters weaved in and out of the fire from the fleets, much of their number had been destroyed by the AC fire, but with the Mjolner here, emergency repairs could be made. Transports empty of their human cargo disconnected with the station and slowly drove back to the Mjolner. they would dock, and repeat the process of invading the station if need be. The Demetrios sat waiting for the exact second the troops with-in the station found whatever it would be. If the troops could not secure it and leave the station in one piece a scan would work just as well.

_________________

*WHAT I THOUGHT I'D DO WAS PRETEND I WAS ONE OF THOSE DEAF-MUTES*

-Battle in the Asteroid Belt-

It was mayhem as ships from different firms fought each other. Already the two OSEC destroyers arrived having blown the SpaceTech ship to atoms. They came in fast and with guns blazing, firing at the assembled ships and strikecrafts flying about. They seemed to be heading towards the Station as well. Their trajectory placed them heading towards the large hangar on the station.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

-Inside the Station-

Whoever was controlling the station defense’s sure was quick and competent. Gravity plating increased and decreased at random causing both NTC and EON soldiers to stumble and float around. The station’s defense systems fired until they ran out of ammunition or were destroyed. The Kissaki security droids took up defensive positions around the stations, making the EON troopers pay dearly for every inch.

When EON troops entered the main personnel habitat areas, the entire compartment was pressurized and gravity plating active. When the last security systems were blown up, the entire deck’s gravity plating deactivated. Doors from an adjacent room opened and a single droid armed with a rocket launcher fired on the windows, causing a violent depressurization. Air rushed out from the massive hole caused by the lone droid and several troopers were swept off tumbling into space, never to be seen again.

Several corridors had some nasty surprises, as flammable gases were pumped into the confines of the hallways and ignited, incinerating EON troops in their suits. One corridor had built in traps, still stained with frozen blood by their previous activation.

The station was fighting back, although loosing at that. Whoever was controlling the defensive systems was certainly not human.

_________________
- Join the HUMP LEGION. Leading the Humping and Bumping since time began...*humpa humpa humpa* -

Note to self. Pg541

Hadrox Span his ship's into position, there was only one ship on his scanner that was worthy of his attention.. The EM field dropped as the Ion flux arc stopped and began charging once again, Now the mine field was cleared the celestial turned her weapons as well, all pointing at the NTC flagship..
The brilliant blue flash cut through he space as the Ion flux arc brought her deadly stare down on the Aegis's bow.. intentionally aiming for where the shields were strongest, even with all the fire coming down on her the operators would see her shields quickly climb to 100% power.. then carry on. The ragnarok and her sister ships other weapons firing in a brilliant cluster, shooting at anything that would provide the flag ship with cover, ripping apart asteroids and loose bit of ships that could have hidden her from its lethal lashing..

-NTC-
"Sir, shields are hitting 101%. This Ion weapon is going to blow our systems out."

"I see it. Reroute all the power we can out of there. Redirect it to storage and emergency systems. Put all backups on standby. We'll blow those first, if we have to. Concentrate fire on the enemy vessels. Use excess energy to boost the comm over their jamming." As soon as all rescue teams were on board again, taking the Kissaki crewmember on board with them, flanked by security droids. Turning slightly, the Aegis' began heading for the station. "Bastards are destroying cover. Plasma batteries at full power, see if we can start scorching." Finding no lack of energy, the entire broadside opened up the enemy, primarily at Excalibur and Ragnarok. While they were at the distance, at full power the NTC plasma batteries held surprising power, blue plasma washing over energy shields. It tried to aim outside the protection of the fortress shield, if any opening occurred.

"Comm at max, sir. We'll have to switch to backup shield emitters soon."

"Right. Patch me through."

"To the Longspear sir?" (Note: Long pointless speech ahead.)

"To everyone. All comms on all ships in the area. To all attacking fleets, this is Commander Sigmund Seiter of the Novus Technological Corporation. We were attempting a rescue and search operation when you began entirely unprovoked attacks. Rather then attempt to contact us or aid any survivors of the Kissaki station you began opening firing haphazardly inside the asteroid belt. Not only that, you've continually put your own employees into reckless harm, and I encourage everyone on or about to enter the station to reconsider and ask yourselves how much they're paying you to be worth death. As of this moment we will be forced to destroy any and all transports attempting to enter the station, both to stop your impeding of our rescue forces and because our droids are attempting to bypass the numerous dangerous and seemingly bloodthirsty defenses onboard that station without loss to other human life. Or at least we were until your interference. I advise each of you to speak with your comannding officers about the clear insanity of their orders and at least demand addition hazard pay. To all soldiers currently aboard, I can other no options but to lay down yours arms, run, and hide. To all enemy commanders I will simply inform you of the injust nature of your actions, and your IDs have been sent back to our High Command for dimplomatic discussions with each of your respective corporations. We've also sent records of your actions to the ISA ship just outside this area and remind you all to respect your local ISA authorities. Have a nice day, and see you all hell. Novus out."

Slightly longwinded perhaps, but Sigmund was trying to distract them. The whole thing was blasted through as many non-NTC/Armhearst comm and speakers on their ships they could tap into. The EON combined fleets however got something extra: a slightly modified tone, barely audible, designed to work with and make Sigmund's voice sound sound even more annoying, if they weren't already unable to take his excessive speech. With his speech finished, the Aegis finally found something to hide behind: OSEC. While it was vevy much larger, it had enough distance from them and the Ragnarok to make a slight shield out of them, using them to break the ION weapon off them for a second. Quickly pummeling the destroyers' weapons enough with plasma to give them a short break, they switched several systems and shield emitters. While they took some damage during this time, it gave them valuable time.

The Longspear moved around the station some move, still firing away at any transports entering or leaving. Massed groups of shells, missiles and laser fire slammed into them, annihilating anything it could locate. As it moved over area's of the station, it tried something new: lasers and smaller cannons opened fire, primarily at windows and other weak points along the outside of the station. Their targets weren't so much the station as it was the EON troops inside: Wilfried was sure that being burned up by anti-ship lasers at even below full power was a nasty way to go. Besides this, it also cleared a path for some of the NTC droids as best it could without digging too far inside. It was certainly beginning to scar the station, however. It launched another patch of droids, heavily guarded by strikecraft, and a empty transport that hit by too many shots from the warring fleets and crashed into the station. Unloading some at the hanger EON had been using, it also released some onto the surface of the station, where they crawled in through holes the Longspear had blown open.

The droids on the station fought on. Most had magnetic grips on their feet or undersides, locking them to the floor during gravity shirts, though it still forced them to adjust for sudden weight displacements and trajectory changes. They gave up rooms when necessary, for the moment backing into more defensible positions to better kill EON troops. As the secondary wave showed up, often behind the enemy, NTC pushed forward. Having let them be roughed up by the defenses and having been taking plenty of potshots at them, the controllers in the field were fairly sure they could push ahead, or around if need by, to get further into the station. They were all assured the Longspear would keep enemies off the station....

_________________

-Battle in the Asteroid Belt-

The OSEC destroyers took damage and disengaged from the fight. They veered off into the asteroid belt and hid behind several rocks.

In the meantime, the lone Kissaki crewmember, sole survivor from a ship with a crew of 200+ was in no mood to talk much. Only his short but interesting statement made some sense to what happened to the Kissaki base. According to the crewmember and the data storage devices on him at the time of his rescue, it seemed that the Kissaki Base suffered a station wide systems failure and the sentry guns activated and slaughtered any Kissaki ship that happened to be there. The Kissaki fleet guarding the station apparently were using navigation shields, useful in preventing small rocks from hitting but utterly useless against ship killing weapons. What happened next probably happened fast as the crewmember declined to elaborate. However what he did mention that the Kissaki Base had an extremely advanced A.I. unit running the base.

The crewmember also mentioned something about a ship. An extremely advanced ship.

_________________
- Join the HUMP LEGION. Leading the Humping and Bumping since time began...*humpa humpa humpa* -

Note to self. Pg541

Hadrox's calculating eyes already swept over the battle, The ship they had tried to hide behind was already disengaging giving the Ragnarok full view of the NTC flag ship once again, "Celestial divert power to shields" The Sister ship at once stopped firing, the fortress shield glowing brighter as the plasma weaponry began to impact against her. The NTC broadcast had been blocked, as soon as it was began to play the audio was muted.."Ion flux arc has hit stage two.. enemy has rerouted power to non essential systems...this is it boys.. they have let us it.."

All at once the Ion flux arc seemed to pulse with energy, Its steady setting now flowing large amounts of energy down the line.. The power hit the shield and immediately crackled onto the hull, with the flagships systems rerouteing it the Flux arc could take advantage, flooding their internal systems with blasts of energy which damaged circuits as it passed, going from their Shield emitters to their capacitors, flooding backup energy stores and causing them to ignite in a blast of Ionic energy..