---Eon 1st Fleet---




As the Demetrios came near the battle it's sophisticated search equipment quickly found and labeled all targets from Nova to see. SWACS was functioning normally, and all fighters, bombers, and gunships could clearly tell who was who in the fight.

Currently the Mjolners entire squadron of fighters and bombers were deployed. The Bombers were equipped with Ununtrium thermobaric Nuclear Torpedoes. The basic job of the bomber would be to get as close as possible to a ship before unleashing its deadly payload. Being such slow ammunition, the rockets were designed to destroy large ship's hull's, bypassing shields. The war-heads were designed to pierce hulls and using the force of their impact burrow deep into the ship, or at least deep enough to explode. Normally thermobaric nukes would be completely useless in the vacuum of space, but if the missile managed to score a successful hit on a large ship's hull, it would wreak havoc on the ship insides. For there was only one thing that the nuke needed as a catalyst to explode. Air. And so the bombers must risk life and limb to get a direct hit. With the enemy ship's shields down, bombers would find it easier to hit the ship from a safe distance, till then they would have to swoop in, in droves. As for the rest of the fleet. The Gun-ships and fighters would be tasked with the job of defending the bombers from any intercept force, that and tieing up craft once there. The first ship's to get a clear label were those closest to the Demetrios and thus easier to spot. The Demetrios silently sent the target's known information to Nova to decipher.



**TARGETS IDENTIFIED: GROUP: Amherst Laboratories, Home Base: Noah 13**
**GROUP COMMANDER: Commander Joshua Lancet AGE: 25+**
**GROUP FLAGSHIP: ALS Valus GROUP TYPE: Cruiser GROUP CLASS: Valus-Sixth Generation Cruiser ARMOR:??? SHIELD:??? NOTES: We've detected some strange readings from the ship's shield sir, it doesn't look any stronger then any other shield of its caliber, but something is amiss**
** GROUP/OTHER: GROUP: ALS Relentless SHIP TYPE: Carrier GROUP: ALS Final Dawn SHIP TYPE: Destroyer GROUP: ALS Silver Dagger **
**Regular transmission: We're under fire by those OSEC destroyers, we've also picked up some garbled transmissions from the Ronin. She may self-destruct if we get close..."

**TARGETS ARE WITH-IN MAC/LRAS LASER RANGE. TARGETS ARE NOT WITH-IN COUNTER RANGE, EXPECT NO RETURNING FIRE**

**THREE OTHER SHIPS SPOTTED, RONIN TYPE TRANSPORT, AND OSEC CLASS DESTROYERS STATUS: CURRENTLY ENGAGED IN PURSUIT OF THE RONIN**
**DATA SHOWS AMHERST ATTEMPTING TO COMMUNICATE WITH IAW FLEET**




Meanwhile back at "home base"
Praser sat in his captains chair, watching through the Demetrios's eyes, and in the middle of reading its transmission. There was a flash if light from behind the screen. Praser nearly jumped straight out of his seat.

"What was that!" He yelled at his first mate.
"Uhh sir, it appears as if the IAWRS Ragnarok fired at a target completely opposite of the Ronin. We have no idea why they did it, but it looked like it was heading to one of the planet's moon's."
Nova sat back down, his hand under his chin as he thought.
"Well send them a warning message about firing with-out orders, he'll get his hands dirty soon enough, heh heh, leave it to the kid to have an itchy trigger finger." No sooner had Praser said this, then did the Ragnarok start firing once more on her own, "Well there goes a plan I had. Oh well, looks like we will have to adjust"

"Scrap that last message and tell Viveria one thing: 'All craft are considered hostile, including Amherst. We can only assume they are here for the exact same reasons we are. Disable the OSEC destroyers, we don't need to destroy them, after you've done that help me in disabling the Amherst fleet. The Celestial should focus on attacking the fleet Amherst fleet as well (and helping with anti-craft support), but we'll have to bide our time as the Ronin could self-destruct if we board. That is all'"
"Tri-system waiting for your order sir."

"Bwa ha ha ha! FIRE!"


In the blackness of space a bright flashes came out in the distance. None of the Amherst fleet would of had enough time to gauge this surprise attack, being the LRAS lasers are faster then any MAC shell. The deadly trio, two LRAS lasers and one Battle-class MAC shell came hurdling at the Final Dawn, the Excaliburn's intended target. Both battleships would be out of targeting range of any ship beneath a battleship, but as a consequence the Excaliburn could not use her forward batteries. Anyone on the Amherst fleet's would of noticed a large force appearing on the radar. The entirety of the Mjolner's craft-fleet were the first to arrive behind the Excaliburn's shot. The Mjolner still waiting behind the shield, began firing upon the craft, all her AC batteries lighting up. The Nova's craft-force descended upon the Relentless and her own craft first, the bomber began lining up for a strike at the Relentless, they were still a few minutes away from entering shield-space. Meanwhile the fighters began engaging any enemy craft they could see. If there was one thing Nova was hoping for, was that the Celestial would help with the anti-craft effort/ship effort.

_________________

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

"Sir! The Eon fleet has opened fire on the Final Dawn. MAC shell closing."

"The commander of the Final Dawn knows what to do. Concentrate on getting us in between the Final Dawn and the Eon fleet. Our shield will hold out longer than theirs. Send a cease and desist order under the provisions of the ISA Charter. That's record 4. It will tell them that we are independently hired emissaries of the ISA"

"Sir?"

"Just do it, even if it's not true, it might give them pause. If it doesn't we'll still have it on record."

"of course, sir!" Ferguson said chuckling and moving to complete his orders.

The Commander's trust in his subordinates' capabilities were well placed. Lieutenant Commander Stevens had barely barked out the order for evasive maneuvers when his pilot activated the gas ignition pods. 3 of the pods were ignited in a direction perpendicular to the laser fire. Had the enemy Commander only fired the MAC shell he might have made a critical hit, but the warning the lasers gave as the energy signatures were detected, gave the pilot just enough time to avoid the shell. The shields flared brightly visible for a moment as the shell passed within a hair's breadth away.

"All ships down trim full speed! Get into the shadow of the moon and move to the opposite side, We were going to protect the Ronin anyhow, we might as well get the Kissaki to do it themselves, we are not letting those Eon bastards have the Ronin's cargo. I want every system flashing as hot as possible and every channel open screaming an alert to the Kissaki base as soon as we enter their sensor range. Keep that ISA recording running as well. Prepare IP drives, because as soon as we spring the trap we're getting the hell out of here. All strikecraft make emergency docking." He said before finally taking an actual breath. "Yamada get us into a shield position for the rest of the fleet. Energy expenditure is not an issue, go 100%. How long until the moon's gravity takes us out of range?"

"We can't get a technical readout of them at this time sir, but unless the ship is Dreadnought class, we should be out of range in less than 60 seconds and the position of the moon will block any fire at all less than 20 seconds after that.."

"What about their strikecraft?"

"The gravity of the moon will increase our ships' speed enough that we will be long gone by the time they are within range.

-NTC 3rd Arcis, Octal moons 15/16-
Oblivious to the combat going on around the opposite side of the planet, the Aegis and the Longspear dropped out of IP drive at roughly the same time. Quickly, they used the blackout in the Kissaki sensors to quickly scan any nearby bases and moons, and began movement to the safest spot to wait and hide.

"Longspear, follow the Aegis to the sent coordinates. We'll hide on... that side of the moon. Keep your emissions low and sensors high. Over."

"Roger."

As the two ships headed to a new position, quickly as they could without setting the engines too hot as to be easily noticed, Sigmund began looking through their sensor readouts. "Hm... there's the base, and their ships. Let's see what we can do.... Longspear, deploy some of your sensors probes, the XSH variety. Sending some suggested coordinates, standard protocol should handle the rest. Focus your scans on the base."

"Got it. Deploying our probes now." Within moments, both ships shot out what looked like nothing, almost, in the vastness of space. The probes were disguised as small bits of rock or debris, drifting through space. Their maneuvering thrusters were rarely used, and when they were they were so small as to be difficult to detect. Rather then heavily scanning everything themselves, they worked in concert. By using large numbers of them, they linked their scans in groups and looked at small areas, then slowly sent small emissions along themselves in a chain back to their ships, where the two linked computer cores of them processed it. Silently, they "debris" heading into orbit around the planet, scanning for anything of value.

"Sir, detecting energy anomalies on the other side of the planet." Said a female employee in front of Sigmund, at the Primary Sensor station.

"I see it. Hard to tell from this distance, but it looks like weapons fire..."

_________________

"Lancet... This is Captain Hadrox, We find your suggestion agreeable... however ALL ships in this sector have been designated as hostile, You have the time it takes our Ion Flux arc to disable this OSEC ship... I repeat however The IAWR Celestial is currently designated as a none-combat vessel, untill our first combat shot is fired we recommend you keep a complete no fire order on her... under the IAWR charter Any shots fired at a none-combat vessel will result in all Friendly communications being cut and a blanked kill tag added to your offending vessel... happy hunting.." The Ragnarok Opened up with her secondary large bore mass driver battery, the four cannons firing in a nearly constant stream towards the OSEC ship that was on an attack vector, aiming to destroy her weapons and shield emitters...

"Commander Nova, Commander Lancet has hailed us... i have laid out the IWAR battle charter to him, The Celestial is currently under a no Fire order, however her point defences are active and tracking inbound small targets, The Defence grid is also active, Do not worry... your ships are in good hands. Hadrox out" The celestial herself was pulling into position between her two fleet ships, the defence batteries all over her hull tracking the nearest threats waiting for a reason to fire.

"Thank you Hadrox, but it appears as though we won't be able to take out that other destroyer for you, I advise you that if you aren't with the other Eon fleet, that you retreat immediately. Just a bit of friendly advice, Lancet out."

-Orbit of the 25th moon of Octal-

The sheilds of the OSEC destroyer flared and died as the various projectiles hit home. It was confusing on who blew the ship but the flurry of weapons and tense air between the opposing fleets rendered all concerns moot. The remaining OSEC destroyer fired up its engines and fled via IP drive, only sending a blast of laser in retaliation before scurrying off like a dog with its tail between its legs.

However, the Ronin did not look like it was capable of doing anything. Venting gas and other debries from its hull the ship was in deep trouble. Having lost all engine power and thruster capability the Ronin was now in a direct collision course with the moon although its present speed gave it a chance for anyone nearby to repair the engine. A faint signal now patched through on all frequencies which the Ronin was giving all its remaining power to transmit.

"Kissaki Transport Ronin under attack by OSEC, EON, Amherst Holdings, and IWAR ships. SOS to any Kissaki ships in Octal..."

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.

-Between the 15th and 16th moons of Octal-

There was a buzz of activity near the Research base as several Kissaki warships suddenly fired up their engines and turned towards the direction of the fighting, leaving the base unguarded save for a frigate. The base on the moon was too far away but the orbital station had several cargo containers waiting for pickup. Perhaps a daring maneuver, slipping in a drone and scanning the cargo container's contents would be useful.

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

Note to self. Pg541

The Celestial's Fortress shield caught the lasers easily, then deactivated to recharge "Both ships have been declared out of action sir" Captain Richardson's voice sounded in the Ragnaroks bridge, "Aye Aye Richardson, Keep a shield pointed towards that transport... we don't want a reactor explosion messing up the paint work..." The Celestial's captain chuckled, quickly flicking the Fortress shield to Radiation and Explosion resistance instead of weapons fire and spinning so that her bow was facing the transport... the strongest part of the shield being at its front.

"Well Lancet... I didn't expect to see you running like the OSEC dogs, I will make sure to record this on the records as a 'Tactical retreat' for you" Hadrox laughed, Sending a burst of tatical data back to home dock, "I'm sure we will meet again... hopefully on better terms..."

"Commander Nova.. Coast is clear, be warned however while your messing around with the trasport i cannot cover you in the fortress shield, I repeat the Fortress shield cannot be provided.." Hadrox then closed the comms channel, sitting back in his leather chair, "open encrypted channel"

"Commander sending an encrypted message to your console."

After reading "I see. Hold here, we won't alert the Kissaki yet then."

"Too late for that sir, they are already on the way."

"Dammit. that means that the Eon fleet will try moving in sooner than they would have. I want what is on the Ronin, but more that that I want to ensure nobody else gets it. We're going to wait right here in this shadow. If all else fails we will disable the Eon fleet with Grace's little surprise."

(edit: deleted the part about going dark. didn't give slip enough time to react to the withdrawal, so I actually wasn't around the moon yet, though this post would otherwise state so.)

"Don't worry Hadrox, the Mjolner will hold where she is. I suspect that the Amherst fleet is attempting to put the blame on us as soon as we try to get whatever's in that ship."


The Demetrios was abuzz with activity. It seemed the Amherst fleet had decided to retreat. The detection-frigate silently intercepted radio signals. The Amherst fleet was also attempting to get help from the nearby Kissaki base. But what the Demetrios had that all other ships did not, was an extremely sophisticated radio communications array. The tentative craft sent a one-way message to the Kissaki base: "Amherst fleet currently in pursuit of Ronin transport. We've taken out the OSEC destroyers, but the Amherts ships "were" attempting to board the Ronin. Displaying Amherst fleet coordinates. . .---Search vessal: NHS Demetrios" The message stopped there, leaving the reason for the Eon and the IAWR's appearance somewhat ambiguous, although it did provide a more concrete reason to suspect the Amherst fleet (and also identify the Amherst fleet's where-abouts for the Kissaki warships)

Meanwhile in another section of the ship, the Demetrios's long-range scanning equipment focused in on the Ronin. If they couldn't directly board the ship, the least they could do was scan it to see what they might be holding.

**SCANNING**



"They are attempting to flee to the other side of the moon, I smell a trap in the form of the Kissaki base's ships. Both our flagships shall maneuver around the moon to get a shot at the Amherst fleet as she flees. But judging by how they are doing now, we have about one more shot at them before they can get across, so focus on the cruiser. No telling what the Kissakians will do now that we've blown the Amherst's cover. Bwa ha ha ha!"


The Excaliburn fired once more at the Amherst fleet, with the intent to hit the Valus. the MAC gun, with the LRAS all fired upon the ship. As soon as the shells (and lasers) had left the barrel the Excaliburn's engines flared up from a resting position. The Excaliburn maneuvered herself parralel to the moon and began flying to the Moon's opposite side in an attempt to cut off the Amherst fleet. Meanwhile the Mjolner's craft had caught up with the Relentless, gravity or not Carriers were known to be some of the slowest ships in terms of speed, any two-bit craft could catch a carrier, short of a carrier in engaged in IP drive. And the Mjolner's craft did not meet any interception resistance as the Relentless had docked it's own craft. the Bombers glided into position, each's torpedo engaged and ready to fire. . .

_________________

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

"Commander Lancet enemy bombers closing with the Relentless."

"Good thing the Silver Dagger's commander kept discipline. Tell him to fire a quarter barrage at the bomber formation. All anti strikecraft weaponry should already be starting phalanx fire, it will be a miracle if a quarter of the strikecraft survive, much less attack. If the enemy craft dodge the phalanx fire, the amount of time it will take them to return to attack vectors, will not only make them easy prey for the missiles, but also allow a large number of our fighters to launch."

Onboard the Silver Dagger

"Ignore the fighters, prioritize all bombers as targets. All rear ballistic and laser weaponry phalanx fire directly in their path. Fire missile barrage now! Fire phalanx in 5 seconds! "

With that the Silver Dagger let loose over 225 small warheads all independently tracking different clusters of bombers. They were fired on a preset course so that they would travel down trim before tracking as to avoid the fleet's phalanx fire. So many missiles were launched that many bombers were targeted twice for lack of a viable, unique target. The Relentless unleashed a torrent of phalanx fire from it's stern anti-strikecraft weaponry lighting up the vacuum between the fleet and the bombers.

A wall of ballistic rounds and laser fire then formed in front of the strikecraft's path making it impossible for any attack to be launched without interruption. The missiles would either meet the bombers just as the remnants made it through the phalanx fire or if the enemy strikecraft avoided the fire, the missiles would track around the no fly zone indicating the phalanx fire and strike them as they emerged around the edges.

Back on the Valus

"Sir, incoming fire targeting us 15 seconds to impact."

"Activate secondary shields, decrease main shield radius to be within the secondary shield's influence. I don't want them getting a tactical readout on Amherst's new shield technology. No evasive action, we are serving as a buffer for the rest of the fleet. We will be out of primary attack range in less than 10 seconds. Once were clear pulse the IP and standby, they shouldn't be able to sense anything but major energy fluctuations from here, because of the electromagnetic interference from the moon's pole and the bombers won't have communication with their home ship. All fighters launch and mop up what ever survives. Were sticking around a bit longer."

"Sir what about the Kissaki?"

"Prompt them of immediate threat to the Ronin by the Eon fleet, give them the coordinates. If they demand our surrender or withdrawal, patch them through to me, I will explain why they might want our help." He said grinning," The IP's should be primed again by that time and we will escape once we give them the codes, if we have to. We may have failed the mission but... " The Commander grimaced as the ship's shields took the incoming fire. "At least were all still in one piece." Then again if the Kissaki go after the immediate threat of the Eon, we might just take them all out at once and grab the Ronin on the way out. And it might turn out relatively bloodless after all.

Through the smoke and debris behind the silver dagger came a filtering light, the target painter of the Ragnarok's main weapon lining up with her engine housing "Firing.. Stage one active!" The lance of Ion flux arc cut through the space between them like the literal lightning bolt it was.. hitting her shields and starting to engulf them like a spreading disease... sparking through it.. Ironically on their sensors it would look like the shields were becoming more and more powerful.. until they began to blow the emitters.. The Ragnaroks Secondary battery turned its attention to the Amherst, laying down a rapid fire of large mass driver shots that peppered her shield like rain that didn't seem to relent..

However the fire was short lived as the angle became too thin, the Ion arc deactivating as they disappeared behind the moon "Dammit!" As quick as he could think the ship reacted, Moving into alignment with The Eon Flagship and began her charging cycle once again

"Commander!"

"I see it. Silver Dagger status."

" We have energy overload we are dumping energy as fast as possible!"

"Launch half of your remaining missiles at all remaining targets, that should buy you some time, then take cover behind the Relentless. Relentless hold there and fire weapons into dark space if you have to, dump any excess energy into the IP drive and prepare to move out on my command. The Valus is moving into position to take the incoming attack. The Eon fleet cannot hit us at the moment so were not outflanked yet."

After a moment of withering fire, the Silver dagger dove behind the Relentless as it rose into a blocking position. And soon after the Valus had slid into position blocking for the fleet.

"Sir, have a look at these readouts. Our shields are recharging!"

"They'll overload soon, even with the additional fire draining our shields. Luckily we will be out of sight soon."

"Have all craft retreat to the Mjolner, we don't need any casualties yet. We'll have to wait and see what the Kissaki fleet does."

Right before the bomber and fightters cleared the barrage of fire, a cease and retreat order was givin from the Mjolner. Immediately the bombers turned and headed back to their home-base, but not with-out 20 or so casualties. The gunships, meanwhile held there distance in the space between the two groups of ships, all five were being used as relays for the Demtrios search signals.


As the Mjolner continued to accept ships, the Demetrios continued to track the Amherst fleet. They were attempting to use the moon as a way to block any signatures. But the Demetrios was a scientific search vessel, electronic interference wasn't the only thing that could keep them from losing the fleet, there were many ways to track a ship and only one was needed. Unlike the battleships, the Demetrios had direct sight to the fleet, and if the fleet decided to move any further around the moon, the Excaliburn would be waiting.

**SENDING UPDATED AMHERST FLEET COORDINATES TO KISSAKI BASE**


The long-range radio signal sent out another one-way message to the nearby base. Commander Nova, meanwhile, sat on the edge of his seat. The Excaliburn was steadily moving across to the other side of the moon. Something was not right about the way the Amherst fleet was reacting, something was certainly amiss besides the obvious Kissaki fleet.


"Tell Commander Viveria to pull half-way around the moon, in the oposite direction that the Kissaky fleet is heading. There's somthing on the other side of the moon that we don't know about. I'm going to have the Mjolner release some relay craft for the Demetrios, if there is anything around this rock, the signals bounced off the relay ships will find something. . .and turn the ship towards the Celestial. Tell Viveria we are going in to help..."

"Roger that, sir"


As good as his word, the Mjolner released a small squadron of relay ships. These small non-combat vessel existed primarily to boost the range of the Demetrios's searching eye, they could also be used to angle around large objects, i.e. a moon. It would only be a few minutes before they would maneuver into place, allowing a clear shot at the other side of the moon. Meanhile, the Excaliburn had once again, changed directions. This time, towards the Celestial fleet. Being at a long range, it would be a few minutes till the Excaliburn would reach the group.

_________________

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

The Celestial broke off from the other two ships, Richardson ordering her to full ahead to make up with the Ragnarok.. The flag ship herself, her primary weapon now fully charged kept its sights firmly on the other side of the moon, ready to begin moving as soon as the celestial was in position.
"Received Nova, Capitan Richardson has brought the Celestial around and is coming back to my position... All weapons on this end are primed and ready.."

-25th Moon of Octal-

The relay ships launched by the EON fleet disappeared one by one as accurate gunnery silenced the probes as they made their way around the moon.


"Command was right about one thing. Someone would try to get the Ronin. You served the Kissaki Syndicate well transport Ronin, I suggest you evacuate the ship and self-destruct. If anyone dies, I will make sure your families will benefit from your hard work"

The captain of the Kissaki Syndicate battleship Tenshi sat down on his chair, klaxons going off all over inside his ship. Outside the bridge of the mighty battleship, navigation light lit up like a bright patch in the night sky as the Kissaki's Tenshi Fleet powered up and made themselves known. Hiding behind the 25th moon of Octal as soon as they came out of IP drive, they had been slowly monitoring the battle, listening to battle chatter and "advice" from the corporation ships currently slugging out here. Now its time to kill three birds with one stone. A distance off, the existing garrison fleet of Kissaki warships of four destroyers and one battleship turned to maneuver behind the Amherst fleet, targeting the ships with long range fire.


The entire fleet lit up, navigation lights, hull lights, and even engines flared up from the darkness as the battleship Tenshi, one carrier, three cruisers, eight destroyers and three frigates surged forward. Targeting the Celestial and the Ragnarok the entire fleet opened fire, laser beams, railguns, plasma torpedos and even bombers loaded with plasma bombs flying towards the three ships. Fighters flew in formations, covering the bombers as they began their dives to deliver their deadly payload. Just before they began to dive, the volley of fire from the Kissaki fleet began to impact the IWAR ships. The entire Kissaki fleet was in one neat little crescent formation (with the carrier safely behind the rest), pouring accurate fire on the two ships that managed to wander into their space.

While the Amherst fleet were behind, the three frigates of the Kissaki fleet began laying a series of mines. These mines automatically homed on the nearest hostile target, exploding with the force of a nuclear weapon. Truly deadly and evil weapons, they hid until the time was right. The Amherst fleet's current path will probably take them into the thickest minefield. One the mines denoated, the garrison fleet will swoop in for the kill.

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

Note to self. Pg541

-NTC, dark side of a 15/16th moon at Octal, running silent-
While the others waged their little skirmish at the other side of the planet, the NTC 3rd Arcis saw a nice opportunity.

"Fleets mainly gone. Good, should give us an easier time. Definitely combat over there, with how many ships left. Not our problem. Repositioning drones. The base is too far off. Moving a few to scan the frigate, or what we can without setting off alarm. Trying to hack combat chatter. Again, quiet. We could probably force our way, but it's not necessary at this time." A simple nod from one or two of the crew was his response. NTC didn't hire based on one's social skills... Was he talking too much? No, no Sigmund. You're just explaining things out to both crews, making sure everyone knows what is going on. Let's just keep focus. We need to find something to scan... His sensor expert spoke up.

"Captain. The space station nearby appears to have cargo. With the combat chatter likely to show up and their engines, we can probably afford to jet some of our probes closer." Sending the data to his screen, he quick checked it. "Hm... seems reasonable. We aren't likely to get another shot, and we shouldn't leave without anything. Activating thrusters, lets try to move close to the cargo." Three probes moved position, their thrusters running a little hotter to push them towards the base. Closing in, one stayed behind to keep the signal with the fleet strong. The other two continued on, just two hunks of space garbage that tends to build up in inhabited areas. Slowly, they passed beneath and to the sides of the cargo, scanning as best they can. If detected, however, they would most likely automatically begin as high a scan as they could and self-destruct.

_________________

The Mind of Hadrox almost seemed to react before his body.. the integration of him with the sensor arrays means he knew of the danger before his mechanical eyes could even see the pin pricks of light from the starting engines "Thrusters bank left.. Celestial cross our path.. i've got an idea" The first volley slammed into the Ragnarok's shield, not being as strong as the mighty fortress shield it started to dip.. "Shields to eighty.. shields to seventy" a cloud of missiles narrowly missing as she ducked in behind her sister ship.. her entire bow lightning up as the Ion flux arc fired..

The Celestial had taken hardly any shield damage, her Hex points dancing and shifting to block the lasers and missiles, "Hope you know what your doing Captain.." Richarson said, Inputting the calibration that he had received..

All at once a bright blue light filtered over the Celestial, The Ion flux arc slamming into the side towards the Ragnarok.. however due to her unique Circuitry and design the power flowed through to the fortress shield, all the Hexes on the other side became alive providing a massive shield against the incoming volleys without the risk of the Celestial burning out her own power emitters..
"Ion Link active and stable, Celestial supplement the shield when needed.." Hadrox watched the explosions and blasts bounce off the experimental shield system.. "Crew.. open fire.."

The celestial and the Ragnarok opened up in union, firing all six of their LBMD arrays at the oncoming battleship, the stream of shells a pure streak of metal across the space.."open channels... Nova.. strike now.. i have them occupied.."

The Amherst fleet was still in it's slingshot maneuver, the Valus on point by a good 100 kilometers now, they were going to rush to the other side of the moon and flank the Eon fleet. Everything was going accoding to plan when the Valus was suddenly caught in a deadly explosion.

"What the hell was that! Status report!"

"Shields still functioning, we have detected origin, we fell right into a minefield."

"Dammit! All ships raise trim and move out of the field, deploy any means necessary! Yamada get us out of here. Belvadere target and, GAHH!" The commander exclaimed as a small sun appeared in front of them.

"I'm already on it sir." Belvadere said a deadly serious expression on his face.

The Valus's six lasers began lashing out and destroying the mines with spectacular accuracy. When a mine began homing on the Valus form the sides, point defense lasers opened up, but somehow the computers weren't near as accurate as Belvadere. Every once in a while one would explode rocking the ship, but even this didn't phase the Ensign's deadly precision, nor was Lieutenant Yamada's evasive maneuvering hampered at all by the occasional blast. Lancet was impressed, even if they were still likely to die anyway, regardless of their skill. The secondary shield went down and the primary took over.

"Sir, shields at 20, AHHhhh, 5 percent." The Power Operations officer called out.

A final explosion ignited behind the Valus as the defense system took out the last mine homing on the Valus

"We're clear sir" Yamada called out.

"Nice job everyone. Good shooting Belvadere, I would recommend you for promotion but I don't want you leaving my ship."

"Thank you sir."

"Yamada cut engines, let the ship drift so the others can catch up. It will also give us time to recharge our shields. Damage report."

"Minimal, nothing exterior just interior damage from concussive shock incurred by the explosions."

"Sir the rest of the fleet have caught us and are making pace. We will clear the moon in approximately 60 seconds."

The Relentless shields had held throughout the field, with Final Dawn clearing the path for them. The Final Dawn's shields were just now coming back online, they were venting gas and trailing smoke from a single mine detonating after the shield was offline. It had been destroyed before it could cripple the destroyer, but nonetheless it had been close. The Silver Dagger was in as good shape as had been before, by piggy backing the giant carrier

"Increase to speed full, we have a schedule to keep. The Valus will take point and clear the path. activate the package, we won't get anyone except the Ronin, but at least we won't have to deal with them anymore."

The Ion pulse emitter went off disabling all functions on the Ronin. The Amherst fleet would have approximately 5 minutes to dock with the ship and save it's crew, but even if they didn't save the crew, they would still have what they came for. The only purpose of saving the crew was that Lancet was still soft.

---Eon Fleet/ Firing from the top/Octal---



"RIGHT BEHIND YOU COMMANDER VIVERIA!!!" The com screamed out. Prasergust Nova was standing at the ship's screen, his arms crossed. A wild grin across his face. He was here to do what he did best. Outrageous moves. Turning around Nova screamed to his crew, "MEN IT'S TIME WE DO WHAT WE DO BEST. EVERYTHING UNTIL NOW HAS BEEN SMALL-TIME. INITIATE POSITION THREE A. BWA HA HA HA!" There came screams of triumph from the crew, when a man like Nova stood at the bridge like that, one would find it hard not to think you'd win.

As the Celestial fired upon the Kissaku fleet, the Eon fleet shot out across the moon side. The Mjolner's entire fleet of fighters and bombers swooped in on the unprotected Kissaki fleet. The bombers aiming to harras the destroyers. The only resistance they would meet would be the AC fire, as the fighters from the carrier were already out-ranged, closing in on the IWAR fleet. The Demetrios followed neatly behind the Mjolner, battles were not her fortay.


The Exacliburn, on the other hand. Fired a trishot, seeming to be heading on a collision course with the fleet. The Exacliburn had side-swept the Kissaki fleet, using the moon as cover to get a jump, on the fleet who had gotten a jump. At the last moment, the Exacliburn banked upwards and turned on it's side. The ship's main armament of 15 large scale batteries all swiveled downward. From above the "neat line of ships" the Excaliburn began unloading at near point-blank range into the Tenchi. Not only did this make it easier to hit the line of ships, it made itharder to shoot at the Exacliburn, and with the close proximity of the Excaliburn, the guns would simply bypass any shield the Tenchi might have. everyone knew that ships usually kept their main armaments either at broad-side or at bow, never at vertical top.

"BWA HA HA HA HA" Came the screaming laugh of Nova has the ship banked onto its side.

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

-Between the 15th and 16th moons of Octal-

Scans indicate a highly radioactive power source inside the cargo containers. Most likely IP drive cores. Lettering on the cargo containers indicate that the cargo destination was "Shukenja Alpha". Scans also indicated an unusual device similar to an IP drive system but was several times larger and bulkier than the rest. Whatever this was...it looked very important and it looked like it can be stolen.

(Neowarrior gets +1 point for discovering a IP Blocker Device. He can now prevent ships from entering or exiting an area of space using the IP blocker. He can also force someone to drop out of IP drive prematurely. That is if he can steal it.)


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-Behind the 25th moon of Octal...near the Amherst Fleet...-

The Ronin's system went dead. All signals from it were totally silenced. This meant that the crew of the Ronin were unable to activate the self-destruct and thus helpless. However, saving the crew might yield some valuable information about the exact going on's inside the Kissaki Syndicate. Hopefully it could provide a clue to the advancements they were pumping out into the markets for the past few years.

Provided that they went quietly. The crew of the Ronin were heavily armed for this kind of encounters.

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


-Battle around the 25th Moon of Octal-


The Kissaki fleet continued their fight, only to be surprised by the incoming EON fleet. The Kissaki destroyer Kawashiro went up in flames as it took several blasts of weapons, a result of skillful maneuvering by her now dead captain to absorb the incoming fire aimed at Tenshi. Another destroyer was in a slight roll when one of its maneuvering thrusters were locked in full bore burn when a projectile impacted near the engines. The volley from the IWAR ships were bad enough but now the EON fleet was poised to turning this battle into a total rout. The enemy fighters were taking a toll on the targeting computers as well.

The Kissaki captain of the Tenshi thought otherwise. He watched as red alarm lights lit up his bridge and his crew screaming at each other as the EON flagship brushed past, firing at his ship. He watched as the projectiles ripped apart the #8 Laser turret turning it into Swiss cheese. However something was amiss...while the ship's shields had no trouble holding against the IWAR fleet's return fire, they were seemingly useless when the EON flagship fired at point blank range. Like a light suddenly turned on the captain shouted an order and the pilot nodded.

If his ship's shields were useless...so was the EON ship's.

The Tenshi lurched upward with engines full bore. Metal against metal screeched against each other as the Tenshi's hull slammed against the bottom side of the Exacliburn. Hundreds died as both ships slowly and roughly fused together. The Kissaki captain wasted no time in giving orders and the entire gun batteries that were still operational fired at the Exacaliburn's now mangled hull sections. Several turrets fired projectiles while missile batteries fired point blank. A single gun turret turned to face the EON flagship's bridge and fired two heavy explosive projectiles at it.

"All gun batteries fire at will!"

Already space-suited figures bearing the Kissaki logo armed with assault rifles began exiting the ruined hull section of the Kissaki ship and began latching onto the EON flagship. They entered through various holes, fighting against both the battlefield environment and the crew of the enemy ship. The other Kissaki ships continued their attack on the IWAR ships, switching from laser to projectile weaponry.

The captain of the Tenshi thus ordered his crew to abandon the bridge and head toward the secondary bridge. Already the secondary crew were sending fire control data to the gun batteries while the captain and his primary crew made their way though the smoke filled interior of his battleship.

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

Note to self. Pg541

“Detecting battle paradigm shift..” the Celestial AI spoke, “Switching to Orbital defence protocol alpha!” Richardson bellowed over his crew. All at once the Hex’s became wider, spreading the kinetic damage over a larger surface area “Fortress shield holding at ninety eight… suggest full combat shift Captain Hadrox..”

Hadrox tapped his chin, watching the Eon flag ship being rammed by the battleship “This is bad..Break Ion link” The Raganrok Continued to fire her flux arc, but slowly began to aim it away from the celestial’s shield and eventually it lanced past her, striking out at the already doomed pair of ships that were twisted together in a mangled shape. “Target her weapon systems first, then life support..” Hardox told the targeting computer… as the lightning washed over the Tenshi.

The Raganrok’s Secondary weapons began trying to pick off the smaller destroyers while her main weapon finished off the battleship, all firing in their pre determined sequence to give a constant volley of metal… the Celestial turned, bring her front (and strongest part of her shield) infront of her.. using the excess energy the Ragnarok had left she let loose with her own small compliment of weapons, her plasma caster firing, then her four small mass drivers started firing much like their bigger brothers on the ragnarok, every so often punctuated by the blast of their larger sibling.. The Celestial used the tracking data from the Raganrok and fired at the exact same destroyers, picking off the weakest first..

Nova's smile was wiped from his face as the Kissaki commander attempted a move of his own daring. The resulting impact could of been felt by everyone in the battleship. Various crew-members and objects clattered to the floor. Praser himself would of fallen, if it hadn't been for the support railings, which he grabbed ahold of and braced himself against the miniature earthquake. Fortunately the Tenchi had impacted the starboard side of the Excaliburn, a part that was heavily armored, and the part that most of the crew occupied. As the Tenchi struck the Excaliburn the forces generated by the enemy ship was enough to bump the Excaliburn, separating the two ships by inertial force


"Sir we've taken a moderate amount of damage from that impact just now, not to mention the Tenchi's guns, although they are being destroyed as we speak. The Tenchi also boarded our ship through the damage sir, no telling how, but they are trying to get through the armor, and holes from the mangled metal. We've sealed off all routes that are damaged, so we won't lose oxygen, and half of the crew is waiting on each door for the Kissaki, while the other half is heading through the blast-doors to get at the boarding party."

"Good," Nova said righting himself, while some of the crew were still picking themselves off the ground. He got up and dusted himself off. The status screen relayed the condition of the ship. A whole host of plasma cannons and crew members had been destroyed in the impact, the plasma cannon's had their barrels twisted out of position.
"Fire on the bridge and then increase speed, we don't want to be here when she gives"

"Roger that sir."



A gunner aimed down the sight, various signals came up on screen as he fired the massive 30m gun. It took many people to manage such a huge gun, but it only took one to aim and fire. With the usual help from the Demetrios a small red outline appeared on the guners, all gunners, screen's. The still functioning bridge of the Tenchi lit up for just the gunner to see. the other bridge did not appear do to the damage it had sustained, but this second bridge was still functioning. Letting out the air he had been holding, the gunner pressed onto the trigger. There was a flash as both miniature MAC shells hurtled towards the bridge. As the shot was fired the other bateries still focused on taking out the Tenchi's weapons, not the actual ship. Even as the Excaliburn began moving away from the ding wreckage the Batteries still fired upon the weapons the Kissaki battleship had. It was only a few minutes later that the Exacliburn had righted herself, and begun a slow U-turn, in the direction of the Kissaki carrier in the back of the burning wrecks of what had once been the Kissaki fleet. One side of her looked crumpled, but the Batteries on the back of the ship still fired upon any destroyers still about. Meanwhile the tri-system was visibly getting ready to fire once more, this time on the carrier. Along with the now righted Excaliburn came the droves of fighters and bombers, having suppled back at the Mjolner, they flew past the Excaliburn, the bombers swooping in past the carriers shields to attempt to score direct hits with the Thermonuclear torpedoes.

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

The Amherst fleet sped through the final course of it's maneuver, ripping free of the the gravitational pull of moon.

"Sir battle dead ahead."

"Belvadere you think you can make shots avoiding the IWAR and hitting the EON Battleship from here at this speed? I still owe Hadrox a favor, I'd like to not hit him."

"Yes sir! Target?"

"Good begin firing, nonstop, we're going to use the force of the mac gun as well as reverse thrust to slow down before we reach the Ronin. If you can actually hit something that small aim for the weapon emplacements."

"Oh I can hit them."

Fourteen shots later the Valus had slowed to a manageable speed and circled to latch on to the Ronin. Final Dawn, Relentless and Silver Dagger had all shot off away from the Ronin and the ensuing battle, having no way of slowing themselves effectively, they were simply waiting for the Valus to secure the Ronin and escape. Lancet could have easily escaped then, Ronin in tow, but his insistence on saving the crew gave him pause. He ordered the infiltration teams to board the ship. Grace's special forces unit would be driving straight for the bridge armed with stun rounds. As much as he wanted to save the crew for humanitarian reasons he also wanted to get information from them and he was taking no chances. The insertion teams were all carrying stun round and grenades and ordered to act as rescuers first and soldiers second. Officers would be stunned and retrieved, anybody else who resisted would regrettably be stunned and left or outright killed.

-Battle at the 25th Moon of Octal-

The Kissaki warships were either heavily damaged or badly destroyed. Nearly all the destroyers in the Kissaki fleet were wrecks and the three cruisers were busily slugging it out with the IWAR ships, unable to deal enough damage to the fortress shields.

However, while the EON flagship may have survived that daring maneuver, the Kissaki captain was not about to give up. The carrier was under heavy attack and since her fighter and bomber squadrons were returning from delivering their payloads, they could attack the fighters harassing the carrier. The Tenshi however was in a sorry state, massive hull damage on her sides and a damaged front prevented her from making any useful attack and was now reduced to firing potshots from her remaining laser and gun batteries. A shot from the EON flagship crippled the bridge but the Kissaki captain knew that would happen. As much as he would hate to see it, this battle was lost...the entire fleet destroyed and crippled, the mighty battleship Tenshi damaged beyond repair although he was proud to inflict damage on the EON flagship. Although the IWAR ship removed any possibility of escaping, he still had one last defiant gesture waiting.


"Fire all our nukes at that big boy. Set all missiles with dummy warheads to swarm." the Captain said. "The Kissaki don't surrender until we are all dead!"

Twelve large missiles loaded with nuclear warheads sped out of the last functioning missile tubes towards the Excaliburn. As soon as they got into range, they split with each missile loaded with six warheads, 2 dummy and four actual. No doubt a small number will get through but they probably deal significant damage to the hull and shields. Each warhead flew in an erratic pattern to confuse any intercepting systems.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.

The Carrier was burning, heavily damaged and her returning fighters doing all she can to stop the EON fighters from getting through. Engines at full burn her captain decided to ram the ship down the throats of the EON ship. A single thermonuclear denotation obscured the ship in a ball of fire when it exploded premature outside the shields, taking out several fighters and bombers from both sides. Bursting out of the fireball the carrier pushed its engines full bore, aiming to crash into the EON flagship. With its shields gone it looked like it could be taken out with a single hit.

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The three frigates that were absent from the battle now attacked the lone EON frigate, firing torpedoes and laser cannons at its shields.

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-At the Ronin's position-

The OSEC destroyers did a fine job of preparing the Ronin. Numerous holes and dents in her hull showed that the OSEC ships were trying to kill the crew as well as disable the ship. However the crew was not about to give up. The airlocks that still worked were guarded by Kissaki crew-members who barely were able to stand up due to injuries. Their weapons were a assortment of pistols and sub-machine guns. The Ronin was operated by a crew of thirty so probably not much resistance.

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

Note to self. Pg541

"Fortress shield is holding at seventy three.. looks like we got enough of them to stabilise the recharge rate" Hadrox smiled a broad grin, This had been a brilliant test of IAWR technology and a proud and successful mission for home base.. a shame this couldn't be said for his Eon fleet members.
The Ion flux arc carried on worming its way into the Tenshi's vital systems, "Computer switch targets, disable defence and control..i want them shut out of their own systems.." The Ragnaroks mighty main weapon swung up the Tenshi's bow, now focusing is white glare upon the command deck, even thought this primary deck was destroyed, the electricity should have been able to worm its way into the systems from there as long some circuitry was still exposed. The secondary weapons now began to focus on the cruisers, spraying them with vollies of mass driver fire.

The Celestial's main weapons carried on tracking the Ragnarok's firing patterns, laying down a thick blanket of support fire for her sister ship.