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Post by Aya D'Ordinii on Dec 18, 2014 9:01:05 GMT -8
The tension was rising with the Coordination Team.
-Taung Three eight seven at forty & falling. Several splash breaches detected.
-Human Weapons I'm not getting reports from two of the independent turbolasers & one of the battery control stations.
-Human Female Frigate increasing speed. Collision trajectory detected.
-Human Lead We need to kill that frigate now. Shift all fire to it, including the point defence.
Back on the cruiser, the third round of enemy fire rocks the ship much harder than the first two. The impacts of the enemy fire was able to breach the shields in several places before the shields stabilized. Two turbolasers had taken enough damage to be put out of the fire, one breached into space & the other taking a direct hit & being reduced to a crater. The silent turbolaser battery was technically unharmed, however the control room for the set of eight linked turbolasers had taken a direct hit. Backup crews were already working to contain the damage in though & several other places. Another crew was working to reroute control of the silent turbolaser battery to another station. The response fire on the enemy frigate included the standard wave of ion, batteries & then the independent, however this time the entire wave was studded with the much weaker but far more numerous point defence fire that was temporarily ignoring the remaining fighters.
The particle shields on the Lucrehulk finally fail, giving a clear path for the enemy gunboats to attach to the much larger ship.
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Post by Aya D'Ordinii on Dec 9, 2014 17:07:21 GMT -8
Back with the Coordination team.
-Human female Fighter containment failed. Low chance of re-establishing.
-Human Weapons Gunnery control, point defence change. Discontinue fifty percent target, fifty percent control. New allocation, full target.
-Taung Sharp drop in nine two oh shields. breach eminent. Three eight seven shields at sixty & falling.
-Human female Energy surge in enemy frigate, likely shield boosting tactic. The battle is beginning to turn against us.
-Human lead Not yet it isn't. The frigate will fall. Once it does three eight seven will have time to recharge their shields. If the cutters attach to nine two oh, all we have to do is have it drop shields & let three seven eight cut them off with point defence. This looks more like pirates than corporate sabotage. They are looking to capture, not destroy. Be ready with system lock downs & have the crews stand by to evac.
Halfway across the galaxy, at roughly the same time, the cruiser weathered the second round of fire. Returning its own fire moments later. Any attempts at containing the fighters had been abandoned & the point defence began the much more difficult task of picking off the fighters one by one. Inside the doughnut of the cargo ship, one section of the shields was edging closer & closer to failing under the fire focused on it. An experienced crew would be able to literally see the shield fluctuating under the blasts & know that it was close.
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Mondder
Dec 9, 2014 11:21:57 GMT -8
Post by Aya D'Ordinii on Dec 9, 2014 11:21:57 GMT -8
Had his shield been deployed the tactic would have worked flawlessly, Standing in the middle of the door, every one of the turrets focused on him, allowing his fire team to pick them off without triggering another mass detonation of the mines. Each of the remaining little turrets went down in a single shot, while the E-Web only took three. The breach only took two & a half seconds.
The Dragonskin armour NCO was wearing had been personally designed & built by Admiral Z'har D'Ordinii. It was relatively light weight & easily capable of handling light arms fire despite its flexibility. The integrated Beskar plate in it would also help to protect the wearer's vitals against heavier fire as well. There where exactly three suits of the armour in the galaxy. Each one fitted, built, & personalized for a single being. It could also, if needed, be integrated into heavier suits of armour to function as a body-glove. It was, in short, some of the best light armour that could be made. It was not, however, designed to take the full brunt of an E-Web cannon being supported by nine light turrets with an output roughly on par with a combat blaster pistol.
That being said, the armour did hold up for an impressive second an a half. Much of the surface of the suit was literally vaporizing off the now exposed armour weave core, making it look like the entire front of the suit was smoking. Several of the Beskar plates had been exposed under the assault, but had held, most likely saving the life of the wearer. Much of the electronics had been melted or fused from the generated heat. All in all, the suit would need to be nearly completely refitted before it would be serviceable again & the wearer would be spending at least a week in a bacta tank to heal from massive second degree contact burns & several small blaster holes through none-vital portions of his body. Fortunately, there where several medics on hand to keep him stable long enough to get to one of the several hospitals nearby that had Clan D'Ordinii ties.
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Post by Aya D'Ordinii on Dec 4, 2014 11:11:17 GMT -8
A rapid double tone played over the Strike cruiser's internal comms. Despite their lack of real world combat experience, the crew was trained well & all immediately braced for a shock. A moment later, the first wave of fire from the Interceptor reached the Happy Thoughts. There was a slight tremble as the turbolaser fire splattered against the cruiser's shields, followed by a much harder shock from the torpedoes. Even as the tremors from the last blow was ringing through the cruiser, another tone sounded & the crew quickly got back to work. The tactic meant that for a moment the ship wouldn't be able to react or fire, but it did prevent many of the secondary injuries that often crippled crews during stand up fights.
-In a room very far away-
A group of four beings sat around a holowell displaying the battle over Kinyen as a collection of icons & coloured lines. Each of the beings had assumed a different role as soon as the engagement had been assigned to them. A female Taung was keeping an eye on the shields & power levels of both the MMC ships in the fight. A male human was keeping track of the various weapon systems on the Happy Thoughts & coordinating directly with the gunners. The female human in the room appeared to be little more than watching the holowell, but was carefully watching the pirate force, trying to figure out what they would do next or spot any traps they might try to spring. The last in the room was the male human that was directing the bridge crews of both ships. The four beings were talking back & forth constantly, & despite the clipped way they talked they almost seemed bored with the entire process. Only the focused look shared by all four revealed that they were taking this seriously. They knew that people were dying behind the shimmering veil of light they watched. They knew that more would die if they lost.
-Taung Shots fired on nine two oh. Shields down by two percent. Three eight seven shields down to eighty percent. Run time under current conditions is three more minutes. Suggest removing enemy fighter support for extension.
-Human Lead Copy. Agreed.
-Human Weapons Gunnery control, point defence change. Discontinue twenty percent target, eighty percent control. New allocation, fifty percent target, fifty percent control.
With that order, the point defence guns switched from only a fifth of the gun actually trying to hit the enemy fighters to half of them trying to score hits, with the other half still trying to push the nimble little fighters into better positions.
-Human Female Enemy support attempting to attach to nine two oh. Particle shield stat?
-Taung Holding. Several more hits required before they will be able to breach the shields & attach.
-Back over Kinyen-
Moments after trading the first blow with the enemy frigate, the cruiser launched its second wave. If he had been in charge, the captain would have broken off his attack on the Interceptor to go after the Guardians when they started firing on the Lucrehulk. However, he was not in command, nor had the Coordination officer even bothered to inform him about the shots. As he didn't actually control any part of the ship, only issuing commands, he was effectively doing little more than watching the battle. He couldn't help that his mind was currently replaying every story he had heard of Coordination Officers sending ships to their death for 'the mission'. It was with good reason that despite the respect deck hands had for the Coordination Officers, many saw them as soulless monsters that would do anything for victory. The captain really, really hoped that he wouldn't end as yet another story for another captain to remember.
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Mondder
Dec 2, 2014 11:16:04 GMT -8
Post by Aya D'Ordinii on Dec 2, 2014 11:16:04 GMT -8
The grenade went off with a satisfyingly larger than normal boom, along with several secondary booms. A quick glance, or sensor, poked into the doorway would reveal that several of the mines had gone off due to being placed too close to each-other, taking out three of the smaller turrets & apparently damaging the rotor assembly on one of the E-webs. a large number of mines remained active in the hallway, however. Sal returned a few moments later, while the cannon was missing she was carrying a metal orb roughly the size of her head & sporting an evil grin.
-Sal Look what I found. It is a pinball mine, not sure what the real name of it is, but close enough. One of the shiny boots was seeding these around the entrance. When it goes off it shoots out lots of little pinballs. It probably won't due much for the turrets, but I bet it will clear up the mine problem. Only problem is we need to keep the turrets from shooting it long enough for it to go off.
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Post by Aya D'Ordinii on Nov 25, 2014 9:45:40 GMT -8
The failure to respond was response enough to the Coordination Officer. The Interceptor reached firing range at roughly the same time as the Happy Thoughts, meaning that the two began firing at nearly the same time. MMC ship directed most of its fire on the TIE fighters. A 'standard' configuration Strike-class did have some point-defence weapons, but not enough for a dedicated anti-fighter role. The Happy Thoughts on the other hand had been refitted at some point, replacing half of its ten turbolaser batteries & twenty independent turbolaser cannons with point-defence weapons. This made for a veritable wave of fire launching itself from the Cruiser. Most of the fire directed at the fighters however wasn't aimed directly at the TIEs, instead it was aimed in a framing pattern to 'push' the fighters into kill zones.
The remained of the cruiser's weapons, being too large to effectively target the TIEs, returned fire on the Interceptor. Even stripped down to an anti-fighter role, the cruiser still packed a serious punch. The opening salvo was the ten ion cannons, seven of which had line of fire on the pirate ship. A moment later the three turbolaser batteries that could fire on the Interceptor did so, hopefully the ion cannons would weaken the enemy shields enough for the turbolasers to crack them. An instant after that the 2 independent turbolaser cannons fired.
The Coordination Officer wasn't too worried about losses yet. The Strike-class was more than twice the length of the Interceptor, & several times the mass. The real annoying part of the fight would be the Guardians, as they were small enough that the turbolasers would have trouble hitting them & large enough that the point-defence weapons would take time to chew through their defences. At the moment though, the smaller ships were focusing on the cargo ship.
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Post by Aya D'Ordinii on Nov 20, 2014 9:44:21 GMT -8
The sensor officer on the Happy Thoughts reacted nearly immediately to the four ships jumping into the system so close. She triggered the standby alert linking the ship to MMC Operations Control. That by itself wouldn't mean that one of the coordination teams, or more likely in this case, a single coordination officer, would step in to command the ship. It did however make it much more likely as it would flag the current operation as needing attention as opposed to the vast number of other operations currently going on that could be handled perfectly well with just the on-board crew. When the new ships began powering up their shields & weapons, the sensor officer hit the primary alert. The chances that they wouldn't have at least a coordination officer dropped to nearly zero.
MMC was usual in regards to most military groups in that it didn't like to put talented officers in the way of harm, such as on the bridge of a warship. Unlike most military groups, MMC recognized that some people who had great skill in commanding ships & general tactics, had a very poor grasp of over-arching strategy. That was why most of the crew on the company ships, military or otherwise, had a junior crew. Once a crew member possessed the recognized level of skill, they were transferred to one of the several heavily fortified Operations Control stations. From there they would remotely direct various battles & skirmishes. As the officer grows in skill, the threat assessment teams would assign more challenging engagements. This system had the benefit of allowing the most experienced & most suited officers to command in any engagement needed, instead of being suck in a single location. The main drawback of the system was that if too many engagements were happening at once, it would fall to the relatively inexperienced crew to handle the situation.
-Operations Command SSNB-SCMC-387 "Happy Thoughts", this is Operations Command. My team is now taking control of the engagement, confirm.
-Captain Fuliyard. Operations Command, this is SSNB-SCMC-387 "Happy Thoughts". Control confirmed.
With that exchange, most of the ships systems were rerouted to the private Holonet system owned & maintained by MMC. The shields of the Strike class had been on before the other ships arrived, but at minimal levels, they were quickly powered up to full strength. The weapon systems on the Happy Thoughts were primarily suited for anti-fighter work as the mission hadn't expected to run afoul of any heavy attacks. The point defence systems began to power up as the TIE fighters began to break free from their carrier ships. The TIEs & the Guardians would be fairly vulnerable to the massed light fire, but the Interceptor would likely be a much tougher target to crack. Unfortunately the enemy must have know this as the Interceptor was escorting the TIEs into the fight while the Guardians tried to loop around toward the transport. Fortunately, the Lucrehulk had already closed the cargo bay doors meaning that the Guardians would have to either blast or cut their way into the ship. Unfortunately, the Lucrehulk couldn't jump away until its cargo was secure, & the Happy Thoughts couldn't leave the local installation unguarded against the pirates. This meant that running wasn't a valid option, on the other hand a Rapid Response Fleet was already being dispatched to the system, one way or another the fight would be over in ten minutes. The weapons on the Happy Thoughts would be charged before the enemy would cross into range, so it was time for the last warning.
-Operations Command A warning to the captain of the inbound fleet. Stand down or be fired upon. This is your only warning.
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Post by Aya D'Ordinii on Nov 13, 2014 11:32:34 GMT -8
The Lucrehulk drifted slowly in orbit. The last of the surface to orbit transports had already unloaded its cargo & returned to its docking station inside the massive ship's cargo holds, however the cargo unit it had carried up was still being secured in preparation for departure. Kinyen was one of many worlds that MandalMine (a member corporation of the MandalMine Collective) maintained farm operations on. The Lucrehulk was just one of the multitude of Cargo-Variant models used by Blue Shift Transportation (a member corporation of the MandalMine Collective) to transport goods across the known galaxy. The Cargo-Variant design doesn't have any weapon emplacements nor is it very fast in real space, it does however, have impressing shields & hyperdrives.
It like all the others of its kind was primarily automated (using droids & control commands issued remotely from MMC command) & had a crew of under a hundred. The Lucrehulk doesn't even have a proper name, just a system ID number: LHCV-FRB920. LHCV-FRB920 has exactly one thing of note about it. It was currently roughly halfway through a list of eight planets that had been growing an experiential crop. The crop, if successful, could increase net gain from the food producing sites by nearly two percent.
It was for that reason that a single strike-class medium cruiser from Starfire Security (a member corporation of the MandalMine Collective) had been assigned to escort LHCV-FRB920. The cruiser, SCMC-387 "Happy Thoughts", was currently drifting in a parallel path to the much larger Lucrehulk.
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Mondder
Nov 6, 2014 15:44:30 GMT -8
Post by Aya D'Ordinii on Nov 6, 2014 15:44:30 GMT -8
To describe the room beyond the entrance as somewhat hostile would be a very, very large understatement. As soon as the door opened twelve turrets began to pump an unholy amount of fire at the newly opened gap. While ten of the turrets seemed to be the pest control type from before, the last two appeared to be modified E-Web emplacements. Additionally, several dozen small slots opened on the floor, walls & even ceiling pushing outward roughly a centimetre. The HUD of NCO's suit was advanced enough to spot & immediately paint each of the slots as sensor strips for explosives. The entire room, which was more of a long hallway of death, immediately filled with dozens of overlapping bubbles of 'trip-wires' for the explosives as the HUD mapped the trigger range of the mines. Fortunately, there was plenty of room for the Mercs to duck back away from the door & back onto the 'porch'. Watching the hail of death coming from the door, Sal turns & starts walking back toward the main group of troopers.
-Sal On second thought, I think I'm going to go get my cannon.
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Post by Aya D'Ordinii on Nov 6, 2014 9:19:06 GMT -8
Unfortunately, the system in question was too low tech to gather much info. It would seem that either the door was on a separate system from everything else, or that none of the systems in the bunker actually linked up with each other. Slick did manage to get the door codes, making blowing in the door unnecessary.
Due to the fact that neither Sal nor Chrick were wearing helmets, their comments could be heard over both the comm channel & the mando's external audio feeds.
-Sal Oh, goody. More bucketheads.
Chrick's only reply was an amused chuckle like sound.
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Mondder
Nov 4, 2014 12:48:29 GMT -8
Post by Aya D'Ordinii on Nov 4, 2014 12:48:29 GMT -8
During the time that NCO & the duo were resting & preparing for the final push, the Troopers fanned out through the compound & began to secure it, mainly by making sure that the downed droids were inactive by hitting them with ion bolts & checking the remaining storerooms.
At the entrance to the bunker, NCO was soon rejoined by Sal & Chrick. Sal had stowed her cannon somewhere & was fiddling with the dials of a blaster rifle that still managed to look far too large for her.
-Sal My heavy tech isn't much good in small spaces. I've still got that stun grenade for the target, otherwise this is your show. Hang on a sec & let me sync up our comms.
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Mondder
Oct 30, 2014 14:52:44 GMT -8
Post by Aya D'Ordinii on Oct 30, 2014 14:52:44 GMT -8
Within moments of being declared clear, the LAAT that they rode in on swung above the tree line & came to a stop over the compound. The droids were not even close to being capable of handling an assault transport, mainly as most of them were designed for combat in the first place. Within another half a minute, the remaining droids in the compound found themselves in pieces. Once the surface had been confirmed as clear, the LAAT settled down near the middle of the compound. No more than a glance inside of the open deck of the ship was needed to confirm that Aya wasn't aboard the ship. A Platoon of thirty troopers quickly dismounted the Ship. One of the troopers quickly approached the Mercs. NCO's HUD marked him as Lieutenant Gruuber of SS Defence. As he got closer, the single four-pointed star on his left shoulder & Anvil icon on his right shoulder served as a visual matched for his designation. A quick scan of his HUD would show that Gruuber was the highest ranking Trooper in the area, a point highlighted by the floating 'crown' icon indicating overall command of the area.
-Gruuber Lieutenant Gruuber. I'm in charge of holding the compound once you three finish securing it. The only thing left based on scans should be the central structure. The scan suggests roughly ten rooms, but it could be anywhere from nine to twelve because of counter-measures. One last note, CEO Aya asked me to remind you that MMC would prefer the target taken alive.
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Mondder
Oct 30, 2014 6:19:05 GMT -8
Post by Aya D'Ordinii on Oct 30, 2014 6:19:05 GMT -8
-Sal Everyone's a critic. Chrick, give me a boost.
The large wookiee fell back the the Sullustan's position. A moment later & the diminutive female found herself flying through the air. With a surprisingly graceful & light step, Sal landed on the top of the thin metal wall & immediately tripped her cannon's tractor lock system. Seeing the smoke pouring from the third auto turret, she immediately spun & fired a pair of shots into the last corner of the compound. The first shot was only a glancing hit, bouncing off to explode in the ground outside the compound. The second shot however was a direct hit that reduced the turret to slag. As the droids turned to fire at the 'new' highly prominent target in sight of nearly everyone, Sal deactivated the tractor lock & let herself fall backward. Chrick had been waiting at the bottom of the wall for just that & easily caught the smaller female, cannon & all.
The first two shots of NCO's carbine proved underpowered for the task of damaging the durasteel gate frame. The third however hit with the power of a small cannon, instantly melting a fair chunk of the top of the frame & raining half-melted slivers on the droids still heading for the invading trio. Despite the gate missing most of its top third, & the number of droids taken out by the liquid metal, the remaining frame remained standing.
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Post by Aya D'Ordinii on Oct 28, 2014 12:04:00 GMT -8
While the fighters didn't change course, they did slow down enough to speak with the new voice.
-Fighter Pilot Be aware Juvex control, The unidentified shuttle has displayed several conflicting IFF codes.
A moment later, a second new voice joins the discussion, this one a female.
-Operations Command Juvex control, This is MMC Operations Command. We have been directing this encounter since first contact was made in orbit. Logs of all encounters are kept, regardless of outcome. Next time if you want to fly something under our scopes, don't have them burn lines across our front yard. Thrak, you are to return to base. Mission is Complete.
-Fighter Pilot Understood, returning to base.
The four fighters broke off their attack run & headed back toward the base at a much slower speed than before.
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Mondder
Oct 28, 2014 7:05:34 GMT -8
Post by Aya D'Ordinii on Oct 28, 2014 7:05:34 GMT -8
The Sullustan called out from behind the dubious safety of cover.
-Sal One, maybe two. It depends on if my last shot managed to hit.
While the hack droid wasn't able to completely gain control of the local droids, it was able to switch the targeting data for at least three, who began to fire into the other droids nearby. However, their earlier reduced accuracy still hadn't been corrected so they were of only minor help. Only roughly ten more of the droids had been taken out of the fight, including the three converted droids.
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Post by Aya D'Ordinii on Oct 28, 2014 6:56:31 GMT -8
Four IRD-A fighters receive orders to launch & intercept a possibly hostile shuttle. They managed to intercept in time mainly due to the shuttle flying nearly directly toward them. As the fighters closed at top speed they attempted a final attempt to forestall a fight. If it failed, the pilots would have time for a single attack before having to cut speed & swing around to fall in behind the shuttle
-Fighter Pilot Shuttle, you are order to land immediately. Failure will constitute a hostile action. We are authorized to bring you down by force if required.
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Post by Aya D'Ordinii on Oct 28, 2014 6:50:59 GMT -8
Copy that, Shuttle. We do what we must at times. It may sound odd, but good luck.
The Scout began to pull up & away from the Shuttle. Returning to its original flight plan for the system. The next part wouldn't be nearly as peaceful & the Scout wasn't really built for combat.
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Post by Aya D'Ordinii on Oct 23, 2014 13:22:58 GMT -8
The change in IFF did not go unnoticed. For one thing, most ships that had an IFF only had one. While it wasn't impossible, or even illegal, for someone that works on the fringes of major factions to have several, it was rather rare. Worrying that he might have started a mess for nothing, the pilot has the co-pilot exchange data packets with expected arrivals to the base.
-Pilot I'm reading a change in you IFF. Forget to switch it over before you jumped in? Regardless, what is your business with the local base? I'm not showing any third party arrivals listed for the next three days at least.
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Post by Aya D'Ordinii on Oct 21, 2014 16:40:15 GMT -8
Copy that, try to be more mindful of restricted flight paths in the future. Do you have a system fault? The zone should have been broadcast as soon as you got within a hundred thousand kilometres of the planet.
It was putting him a little behind schedule, but it was still something that needed to be cleared up.
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Post by Aya D'Ordinii on Oct 21, 2014 16:26:31 GMT -8
-Scout Pilot Do you always red-line your engines or is today special?
Now that the other ship wasn't racing straight toward the outpost, the pilot's tone was much more relaxed, but there was still a bit of edge lurking in his voice. On the surface of the planet below, the fighters stationed on the planet were put on alert. While they would be waiting in their cockpits ready for a quick launch, the hanger doors hadn't been opened & their weapons remained powered down.
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