The Dividing Line - Space

[Rule 34]

The Dividing Line was built in the orbit of Viridis, a remote jungle planet on the very edge of Alliance space. The green orb frames the station as it hangs there in space, making it look all the more desolate. The spherical shape can only be guessed at this point, large parts of its formerly white hull removed and broken, entire decks completely without protection and exposed to the emptiness of space. By some miracle, the all-important solar panels are still largely functional, but the arm they sit on lie largely in the station's shadow by now. No member of the Alliance races have set foot on the station for years now, and it just goes to show what lawlessness and neglect can do, even to an object the size of a small city. To think that a small team could repair this station was ridiculous. Beyond imagination. And yet it needed to be done, for the security of the system, the cluster, yes the entire galaxy.

Space bubbled near the station, announcing the arrival of the group's ships. And, seemingly as a response, things started to stir within the station as well.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: The Dividing Line - Space

The Deadly Mist exploded out of hyper-space, the window temporarily masking the cause of the sudden energy distortion. As soon as she had emerged, the ship became invisible, her cloaking device active. A quick scan told Draven that, unless there were another cloaked vessel, he was the first to arrive. Deciding to wait until a confirmed friendly arrived, he set his sensors to passively scan the immediate area, and maintained radio silence.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: The Dividing Line - Space

The Concordance arrived next, the station coming into view as she re-emerged from subspace. "Guess I got too much of a lead, huh." She commented to herself, noting the sudden activity on the station, and sending updates down to the cargo bay. "Looks like we're the first here. No ships in space, but something's on the station, so that may change in short order. We should be fine." She sent down, noting that the capacitor for her MAS was fully charged. She sent the reactor power she had been using to charge them into the shields, just in case, and remained in position until they were all there, drifting forward slightly so the arriving ships could use her for cover.

 

[Chibichibi]

Re: The Dividing Line - Space

Maria's ship bubbled and stretched as it slowly appeared. She took a deep breath in relief that her ship had held and began thinking of ways to thank Fletch for fixing her her baby. "You did good, pretty girl." she cooed at her ship.

Jeff came up from his room and placed a hand on her shoulder, "She did good. I'm sorry I even considered replacing her."

Maria smiled, "If it wasn't for Fletch we'd be on a different ship right now anyway. You were only worried about me and that's fine. You can be worried any time you want to be," she frowned then, "Until that station is cleared, I want you to stay here with full shields up. I may need to treat anyone that gets hurt on board but,"

He cut her off, "I understand. Don't worry, Little Miss. You're not going to lose me too."

She smiled gratefully at him and then turned to watch the viewport and wait for the other ships.

-------------------

The small, shrimp-like Gorchak vessel blinked into existence and immediately moved off into space near the Concordance. Taavan and Deelin, troubled by the size of the station kept quiet and stared through the eye-like windows. Deelin wrapped his arms around Taavan, and nothing even needed to be said at all.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: The Dividing Line - Space

The silence was suddenly broken by an incoming message to the three ships.


"This is Draven Naros aboard the Deadly Mist, can any of you hear me?"



Despite the words coming through, none of the ships would be able to figure out where he was broadcasting from.

 

[Chibichibi]

Re: The Dividing Line - Space

Deelin was the first to the console, "Deelin here aboard the Galaxy Wanderer. We have no idea what's down there so keep quiet and don't draw their attention to us until the others show up!" He cut the comm off and slammed his fist into the arm of his chair. "The damn fool is going to get us killed." he muttered to Taavan.

----

Maria heard the exchange between the two ships and privately agreed with the Klarr.

 

[Aust_Nailo]

Re: The Dividing Line - Space

At two different points, both The Haven and the Edelweiss entered out of hyperspace, moving in slightly different directions. Each pilot was looking at the situation rather differently.

----
Meera looked at the station with a bit of shock. How could the humans let such a valuable station fall into such disrepair? Their own team was rather limited in members and resources and they were expected to fix this? It would require hundreds of man hours with dozens of workers to even get this to the proper functioning level. Regardless, Meera could not offer her two cents. She was a scientist after all. Her concerns started when the ship was clear. Until then, she'd leave the fighting to the soldiers.

----
Annika however was a little more impressed. The station was a relic, sure, but it was a relic worth saving. Weapons to upgrade, hulls to repair, shields to improve. So many things that could be tweaked and fixed and repaired that she was almost giddy with anticipation. Heck. She knew she was going to enjoy repairing the exposed sections of the ship. Seemed like a worth while project for someone like her. Seems like her and Fletch would be working overtime on this. As she jumped in with that other Klarr ship, she heard the chatter over the coms. Seems Draven didn't know how to maintain radio silence and he was reminded swiftly by one of the Klarr. Good on them. All she could do was wait now. Her ship was a single fighter craft. Not a very imposing threat. She'd have to wait till the appropriate time.

 

[Rule 34]

Re: The Dividing Line - Space

It seemed the Ingrali's indiscretion (or Deelin's answer) was enough to provoke the current inhabitants of the space hulk before them. Everybody's motion sensors flared up, and they could see them after a moment, moving onto the exposed parts of the space station. Tall figures in dark green suits. They were too far away to make out any details, but given the briefing they didn't need the incoming message composed of nothing but clicks and grunts to identify them. Nnyarthall. A lot of them.

The figures on the exposed parts of the station didn't bother running towards the hangar. They simply took a few steps back before breaking out into a sprint, launching themselves off the steel girders into the emptiness of space. It seems the group had poked into a Mantis nest. Dozens of signals showed up on everybody's sensors, and in no time at all the first volleys of bullets flew into their direction.

The other ships better hurry.

 

[Chibichibi]

Re: The Dividing Line - Space

"Fuck!" Maria threw her engine in reverse and backed away from the station, throwing up her shields to full power in the same motion. "I'm a sitting duck out here, I've got no weapons and could use a little help!"

-----

Deelin let out a long and convoluted curse detailing exactly what Draven, his mother, and his decedents could do to themselves in complex, impossible terms; then he flung his own shield up and started firing on the Nnyarthall headed his way.

Taavan headed to his station and hailed Maria, "We're coming, just hold in there," he hit the ship in reverse staying in front of the old retired Axe the whole time. Had the situation not been so tense, seeing a shrimp in front of an axe head would have been hilarious.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: The Dividing Line - Space

((On a secure channel they picked that up? Interesting. I'll roll with it)).



A hiss unlike anything they had ever heard filled the channel which was still open, and then suddenly the channel closed.

Moments later a sleek, powerful looking ship simply appeared from the vastness of space. It would take a moment to sink in that she'd been there the entire time, just invisible to all sensors and the naked eye. Energy coursed through her systems now, a buildup of energy detectable. Shields flared into being, the ship gracefully weaving about, small flashes of light erupting from her underbelly as something was launched. Anything that came near them that had a physical mass would trigger an explosion of plasma energy, for these were plasma bombs.


At the same time, the ship would veer close to the other two, the initial volley of bullets seeming to splash off the shields. Then, as she veered back away, triplet blue beams of energy flew from her weapon ports, firing back at the source of weapons fire. Once they had, the ship suddenly became invisible again.

((Not sure if those ones that threw themselves into space are coming AT them, or trying to get away. If they are coming, good luck coming through a small minefield at that speed. If away, then I just wasted a few bombs. So much for secure channel links being a staple.))

 

[Shrike7]

Re: The Dividing Line - Space

(( no idea, but a 'secure channel' is something of a logical fallacy, anyways. ))

Caitlin let out a small groan as she caught sight of what was causing the commotion in the station, Nyantharl coming out of the opened sections and weapons fire starting to come that way. "Turn on some mag boots, or grab onto something." She sent down to her passenger in warning, the Concordance shifting in space again, spinning to put her broadside towards the station and moving to put itself between the Nyantharl and Maria's ship, moving forward just about to the place Draven had swung by to drop mines, giving the ships behind the largest safe area behind her as possible.

The targets were too small for her MAS cannon, and with the angle she'd likely damage the station with it in any case, so she started bleeding power from the capacitors into the shield as it took hits, her point defense cannons spinning up as the ship started to barrel roll in place. She didn't have shield quadrants, but once the shots wore through that, the spin would let her spread damage around more evenly, and let all her turrets take turns firing and cooling as their sides faced towards or away the station.

 

[Unknown Squid]

Re: The Dividing Line - Space

((Since the jump arrival was supposed to be pretty much simultaneous and all, I'm hoping it's fair enough to post this just ahead of Tomaito's actual arrival post.))

Appraising the situation upon arrival, Kars is immediately presented with a scene of approaching Mantis and wastes no time in detaching from Talen's ship and readying for combat.

Disengaging the magnetic landing gear, the fighter-craft performs a small mechanically powered hop from the larger craft, and drifts away silently. He loads AP and APHE rounds into the guns, and begins locking targets. "Jumping into a fire fight. Sounds about right. You have the guns squirt. Focusing on evasives." He says to Ko via the ships inner coms, said calmly, but putting on a focused frown as his blacked out eyes scan rapidly over the information being presented to him. He doesn't bother pointing out that their targets were a swarm of Mantis suits, knowing that they'd grab Ko's attention plenty well regardless.

"Rodger!" Ko replies, locking as many targets as possible into the targeting systems and prioritising them. "Ah..." sounding a note of realisation when she notices what they were facing up against, but quickly resolving not to make a fuss about it, and putting on an equally businesslike frown. The sight of a Mantis suit again, sent a chill through the young spacer and brought out a ghost pain in her legs. But at the same time, this was her chance for payback.

A short sharp burst of engines would mark the separation of the front and rear sections of the craft, with the rear section drifting back away from the confrontation, whilst the combat section of the Hell Strafer would glide in towards the approaching fight, not braking any of it's momentum from the jump so to take it straight up along side the front line fighters. Both sections maintain their sensor masking deception devices. Kars and Ko waiting for the last possible moment to reveal their presence amongst the newly arrived vessels in order to get the best possible opening volley on as many Mantis possible, aiming to take full advantage of the larger ships point defences drawing the majority of the Mantis evasive efforts.

 

[tomaito89]

Re: The Dividing Line - Space

((Two facepalms for me for not noticing the new thread until just now))

As soon as the "Laughing Rogue" reached the "Dividing Line," her proximity sensors went off. Before them, a full-scale skirmish was unfolding.

"Confirmed. 'Hell Strafer' has disengaged. Targets identified as: Nnyarthall. Initiating combat protocols."

Without missing a beat, all four of the Rogue's laser cannons fired into the approaching wave. All four beams easily hit their targets, something only an AI would be able to pull off. After the initial volley, Reno redirected power to the shields while Talen contacted the rest of their merry fleet.

"What the hell happened? I thought we were waiting for everyone to arrive, then attacking?" Talen didn't like surprises. Especially the "massive wave of hostiles" type.

 

[Chibichibi]

Re: The Dividing Line - Space

Deelin's angry voice crackled over the comms, "Someone," he hissed, "Decided to ignore the 'radio silence' directive and in my anger I reprimanded him. It is likely that our combination of comms alerted them to our presence. I should have kept my mouth shut, but then, he should have too." He took a deep breath and rubbed his forehead trying to calm down, "Either way it doesn't matter now. They're here, they're awake and I hope to all the gods of the universe the rest of our people get here soon!"

Taavan went to stand up from his station but Deelin waved him down. "I'll be fine. Keep firing. We have a pacifist to protect."

Taavan nodded, "You got it."

 

[Rule 34]

Re: The Dividing Line - Space

Several of the Mantis suits got caught in the explosion of Draven's plasma bombs. However, the Nnyarthall weren't mindless brutes - well, they WERE brutes. As evidenced by the fact that they quickly used the body parts of their fallen brethren to clear the mine field, paying not an ounce of respect to their fallen. The suits weaved up and down at erratic patterns, giving automatic lock-ons a hard time. During their approach, many of them had their guns mounted to the back, but as they got into combat range they dislodged their organic-looking weapons from their back sheaths and took them in their hands, adapting an upright posture. If they weren't so fierce and merciless, there would be something to admire in the agility they showed while they dove around between the much larger ships, evading the slower projectiles coming their way. When they did get hit by the ship weaponry though, the results were often fatal. The smaller suits just didn't have enough shield power to handle more than a few hits.

As not one, but TWO ships were protecting Maria, they quickly figured out that The Shining Star must hold something valuable. Perhaps they mistook her for a freighter. None the less, a tight cluster of Mantises swept out of the swarm and rose up, using the relative safe zone of the Concordance's underside to bypass her. They were coming closer and closer towards Deelin's ship, evading the slower shield bubbles with ease.

Something came over the intercom, broadcasting both to the group and the Nnyarthall alike. No words were spoken. Instead, somebody broadcasted a sound that only film fanatics would know. It was the sound of an old Terran truck horn. And at the same time it sounded, a red blur sheathed in blue rammed right into the assaulting group of Bugs, splattering them. "ROAD RAGE, MOTHERFUCKERS," Fletch roared as he engaged his windshield wipers for comical effect. "The Klarr can go ahead and engage, I'm covering Maria. Lock them down good."

"An unusual approach to combat," somebody said right beside Maria. Vlado had entered the bridge, as quiet as a shadow. Hands folded behind his back, he looked out the front window as the Mighty Quinn took position in front of them. "Though I can't help but admire his chivalry," the Garik added as the wings of the Quinn started spinning once more, creating an additional layer of shields around both of them.

 

[Chibichibi]

Re: The Dividing Line - Space

Deelin whooped and punched it, heading back into the firefight trying to incapacitate as many as he could.

---

Maria flashed the Garik a grin and settled back in her seat, "My hero!" she called out to Fletch over the comm, "You keep rescuing me like that and I just won't know what to do. You trying to make me fall in love with you, cowboy?" Then she turned back to Vlado, "He's just fantastic!"

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: The Dividing Line - Space

((LMAO RULE. Road Rage? I fuckin love it.))


Draven had to begrudgingly respect these bastards, they adapted quickly. With more ships arriving again, his ship decloaked again, this time her hull plating glowing with energy as the weapons seemed fully primed. Anything that presented itself as a target now would have plasma beams shot at it, the ship weaving in and out almost as if the pilot were drunk, but there was an 'elegance' to it.

 

[Rule 34]

Re: The Dividing Line - Space

"Arghlbaghbagargl" was Fletch's first reaction to Maria's transmission. Luckily, he didn't have his finger on the comm button. He had a feeling that if Lemmy had eyes, he would roll them right now. "Hey, I just fixed that piece of junk. Ain't nobody messes with my work, ma'am." Meanwhile, Kars tiny ship was getting ganged up on by Mantisses. They obviously mistook the smallest ship for the easiest target. One devilish bug in particular kept diving out of harms way to spray the Hell Strafer with load after load of sharp-angled scrap out of something that looked like an oversized version of a shotgun, if somebody wrapped a shotgun in carapace.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: The Dividing Line - Space

Caitlin let out a bit of a growl as the fight continued, the agile Nyantharl working their way around her impromptu barricade in rather short order. Her guns were effective enough against the lightly shielded assaulters, but they were keeping away from her as much as possible, and not wasting shots against her ship, focusing on the weaker ships in the group. In short, it wasn't working.

There wasn't much else the Concordance could do in such a situation, but she did have another option. Spending a moment to alter the power flow to keep the capacitors charged again, not needing the power for shields as much as she thought, and opened a channel to her hangar again. "Krell, I need you to go into the elevator and pop open the emergency hatch on top for me. I'll be popping through it in a moment, a catch and toss would be helpful." She sent, tweaking a few things with the cruiser to set it without her constant guidance before disconnecting and floating free, hitting the emergency open button for the elevator door and pushing herself down the open shaft at a decent speed, faster than the elevator usually goes.

If Krell obliged, Caitlin would appear through the opening a half minute or so after he opened it, reaching a hand out to catch his shoulder and slow herself. "Fight outside is going well enough, but Bob here is too big to keep up with all the small fighters around." She explained, reaching an arm out to point at the fighter class ship he had been sharing the hanger with. "Give me a toss at Albert there, then get in the elevator, or seal your suit. The hangar is pen to the vacuum while the doors are open."

 

[Caulder]

Re: The Dividing Line - Space

Krell floated about the hangar through the fight, grumbling to himself as it dragged on, until the woman asked for his help, to which he obliged, floating towards the elevator and opening the hatch at the top, smiling as she grabbed his shoulder. "Miss me already?" he says, grinning as he turns and pushes the woman towards her fighter craft, fussing with something in his armor and pulling out what looked like giant black sock, sliding it over his head and sealing it with his suit, pressing a button on his wrist and speaking to Caitlin via the built-in communicator. "Good luck out there. I'd help but I'm a bit too big for this kinda stuff."