Galaxy in Flames

[Entaru]

The wave of pulsar beams tore through the rear end of the Cask.

"We've just lost our hangar bay, boss!"

Great!  Those fighters cost me 30,000 credits...each.  Looks like I'll need to scalp a few hundred thousand for repairs and upgrades  Entru thought in disdain.  "Mr. Wall.  I want you to get my baby moving.  I can't afford any more damage"

"Aye sir!"

The Cask's engines flared to life as it began to move.  The Cask wasn't very fast but a moving target is still a moving target

Then Entaru saw the beam cannon charging for another blast.

"Mr. Wall! Get us moving! If that beam hits anything vital we're done for!"

"Doing what I can, sir!"

"All batteries!  Open fire on that blasted cannon!  I will not allow my ship to be destroyed by an inferior race!"

~Aye sir~

~Yes! Sir!~

~Aye Aye sir! ZA-HA!~

~We've got it in our sights now sir!~

The whirring of gears and machinery filled the Cask as every remaining turret turned it's attention on the beam cannon...too late.

The beam blasted through the rear end of the ship nearly severing the ship from it's engines.  The engines of the ship flickered blue then burst into red hot fireballs of plasma as their energy cores destabilized.  The blast sent the Cask careening foward at high speeds, nose down, toward the Ellan's rear.

Entaru grabbed onto his chair.  His already pale face drained of blood giving him the appearance of an old ghoul.

"CONVERT ALL POWER TO FRONT SHIELDS AND PREPARE FOR IMPACT!!!!"  Entaru roared as strapped himself to his chair.

A single thought crossed his mind just before impact.

Damn you, Issac Newton.

[Shenzii]

Blaire let out a laugh. "I warned you. You will get used to the Gs it puts on you." She put her hand on his shoulder and shouted to Val. "Prepare to dock at the nearest astro-stop. We need fuel and supplies." She looked back at Chrono and then turned slowly walking down the steps.

[KittKat chunky~]

"sir... we're taking fire..."

the gauss rounds struck a large orb like shield, ripples of energy spiralling out tracing the lines of the shield...

"energy output is at 40%... we got ten more seconds of shield..."

"get us behind one of the platforms.... when that shield goes down i want somthing between us and those guns"


{"sir... platforms tracking target"}

"good, platforms track the new target... fire..."

{affirmative sir, new targeting signature accepted"}


the six platforms turrets swivveled in thier mounts, aiming for at the human ship, pulsars flared, bright blue energy pulses flashed and blossomed from the weapon barrels...

[Asia Kali Yusufzai]

TAK 3 suddenly felt his fighter rock wildly as Delta retaliated against him, breaking through his shields and bursting against his hull.
"TAK 2, I am under fire, low on missiles and my shields are down. I think I'm done, returning to the..." As he turned his fighter to the Fires of Ellan, he saw a great explosive force, rending the frigate in two. Bursts of light running up along the hull, as it was torn apart.

"Sir, we've lost all comms, we've lost the whole back end!" cried Kimchi, as she held desperately to her console. Mika was on the floor, scrambling back onto his chair.
"Captain, half the crew have been sucked out the ship in their EVA suits." The captain stood up and strode over a door in the corner.  Pressing a single button, holding it down, he waited, until feeling a pinch in his hand. Then he spoke.
"Captain's authority Maxim 5, abandon ship." The door slid open and all across the ship, lights flared and alarms screamed. An urgent voice poured through the ship, ordering the crew to the escape pods. Kimchi and Mika stood from their chairs and moved to the captain's side as he walked through to the specialised three 'tan escape pod. Its robust door opened automatically, allowing the bridge officers to sit and clip in their harnesses. Once the pod saw them to be ready, it let out a sharp hiss as the airtight door closed. Kimchi reached out, and held Maxim's paw in hers as the pod launched itself at high speed away from the dying frigate. They drifted through space, watching the world outside through three windows; one opposite each passenger. The pod began its distress signal.





Asia called through to Gore, asking for orders.
"We're still in a fight here. Once this is over, we go to the corvette. Stay focused and fight," the bull replied.

[KittKat chunky~]

"HOLY FRACK SIR!"

"i know, i saw... Ellan is down....  platforms 1 through 6 open the frack fire on the human ships!"

{query: define frack...}

"shoot! fire! kill them you stupid machines!"

{target designated... opening the frack fire on them sir}

the captain aboard the defence corvette could have sworn the platform comupter had sounded smug....

[Gabag]

Before the ship fell apart, the human boarding party and Eph'tan defenders were still slugging it out, when a large shadow was downcast over the room, all firing in the room stopped, and everyone turned to see the figure of the Cask hurtling towards them. Before Jameson and anyone else could react the hull collided with the Fires of Ellan.

Soldiers were sucked into the vacuum of space, but with the Casks's shields still up, they hurtled into the shield only to be incinerated and quickly cooled down into skeletons. Soldier's air supplies were dwindling as the E.V.A. troops struggled to make sense of what happened, and tried to jet towards the DF before their fuel or oxygen ran out. However the DF was many ways away, and inly a few lucky souls would make it before their fuel ran out.
Jameson himself clutched to an iron spar and saw an E.V.A. trooper sliding down the floor uncontrollable, reaching out, he managed to grab the Eph'Tan's arm and slung him onto the spar. The trooper repaid him by picking up what human troops still lived and putting them on stable footing. Jameson looked back and saw Sarah staring back at him... she had been impaled on a steel spar further down... but she still lived. However he saw he vital signs fade as the breach in her suit quickly sucked the air out of her armor, and the suit fell lifeless.

Just then, Human reinforcements appeared off the bow of the Indomitable, it was elements of the 512th Fleet. Came to secure the sector against attacks. The fleet consisted of 3 Heavy Carrier ships in the center, with a few destroyers providing escort along with a large number of frigates and gunships.

"This is Admiral Amestein of the Empire's 512th, lay down your arms, and you shall be spared.. continue to raise arms against us, and you will burn.."

[Entaru]

All was quiet aboard the Cask.  Much of the crew was dead or knocked out.  The entire ship was filled with the red lights of the emergency generator.  The Cask's distress beacon blared throughout space.  A loud hissing filled the bridge as Entaru's medsuit injected stimulants and adrenaline to keep him stable.  Entaru opened his bloodshot eyes, barely alive, and looked about the room.  One of the control panels was smashed and covered in blood, probably from one of his crew slamming into it.  In the glow of the emergency lights the blood looked black.  

Entaru tried reached for his comm and winced in pain.  His arm was broken, and if the blood that was pooling in his sleeve was any indication, it was a compound break.  Entaru groaned and grabbed the comm with his other arm.

"Cask...to...Indomitable.......Cask...to Indomitable.  We...are running...on emergency power.  Unknown...amount...of dam...age and...casulties.  Re...questing pickup....repeat...requesting pick..."

Entaru fell unconcious once more.

[KittKat chunky~]

{open comms}

"this is captain Ves'tar of the eph'tan platform squadron 'heartfeld'... we will gladly lay down arms..."



{closed commsa aboard the ship}

"sir... do you really plan to do that?"

"of course not.... platforms 1 through 6 track your targets and keep firing.... we are making a jump out of the system..."

{query: is this the end?}

"stupid fracking machines"


The defence corvette disappeared with a flash, the platforms whose engines could not be used more than once stayed put, running totally on the onboard AI..... bright blue lances of ion particles sped across the void, the platforms making a suicidal last stand while the control ship made a run for it...


{this is platform 1... all other platforms fire on my target.... fracking fire  on them}

that Ai was definatly starting to sound too smug for its own good...

[Gabag]

The Destroyers focused their heavy Guass Cannons on the Platforms, firing them, the large projectiles vaporized the platforms with the force, a few frigates went into overdrive to head to the wrecks of the Ellan and the Cask, and one to the Indomitable

[KittKat chunky~]

[aboard Eph'tan carrier 'true blood' in neutral space]

"sir... we got a jump signature approaching... i think its 'carnage wing'.. those three assault frigs that where sent as reinforcements...."

"good, good... theyr back double time... musta been an easy job for 'em"

The captain of the carrier watched through the view screen as a blue flash pierced the void.... his face displayed mild shock as only a single frigate appeared, trailing smoke, falmes corruscating across its hull...

{"sir... this is carnage 3...."}

"carnage 3... where is the rest of your squadron?"

{"gone sir.... i'm squadron leader now.."}

"who is this?"

{"this is Szarda El'phan.... captain of carnage wing.... i got some bad news for you on the subject of the Ellan..."}

[Asia Kali Yusufzai]

The fighters soon recieved the message from the human forces. Gore immediately called out to every fighter to stand down, to halt firing and to only move when fired upon. He then transmitted to the Indomitable. "Get your fighters to stand down, we have surrendered." He returned to internal comms. "Right, once they stop shooting at us, everyone follow the jump signature of home. They can't have gone far and it looked like they had some solid engineers."
"Why not follow Carnage 3?" asked Asia.
"They took ages to get here and they'll take ages to get back. It would take us even longer and we'd run out of power by then. Atleast with the cats we'd have a better chance of reaching them."
"Roger that, sir."

[Gabag]

The fighters stood down. Lisa's ship was in shambles by the time she managed to limp back to a fgriendly ship, and Collins had been forced to eject or 30 missiles would've killed him.

[Asia Kali Yusufzai]

"Sir are we gonna leave the escape pods and ejected pilots behind?" Asia asked.
"We can't save them. No point joining them," Gore replied just before Shock screamed through the comms.
"Bunch o' cowards!"
"Right, everyone engage hyperdrive" The fighter jets whirred and hummed, building to a roar as they disappeared off into the darkness, leaving only the screams of Shock, and a few other ejected pilots, behind.

[Gabag]

The Human gunships, mainly the squadron 'Striker' moved in and proceded to pick up all the escape pods, some salvagers from the fallen R-20s still remained on the human ship, still not imprisoned and free to leave once the ship was repaired.

[Asia Kali Yusufzai]

Mika slouched forward in his seat, shaking his head in his hands. "Sir, did I make the right call? Shooting them first. I was under ord-" Maxim cut him off,
"It doesnt what you did, many would have done the same. What happens now is what matters." He looked out the window, watching the human ship move towards them.
"What will happen to us?" Mika asked, his eyes pleading for an optimistic answer. Kimchi decided to answer.
"It depends on who we get captured by," she said. "Not all humans are savages, they have their rules of warfare, and more often than not, they abide by it."
"Really?" Mika asked.
"If Kimchi says so, then I would agree," the captain replied. "She knows a lot more about them than I do." He felt her give his paw a little squeeze of appreciation.