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Post by Acruan on Feb 8, 2016 23:47:05 GMT
Andromeda
Undisclosed Acruani System
The Acruani Hive Queen Seleste 02, and its two sister-ships 01 and 03, were currently in an Acruani system. The three ships being the pinnacle of current Acruani technology, shining with their white Beldarix armors in space. Swarming around them, there were nearly a thousand Acruani Capital Ships, most of them armored with dull white Acturium. The ships were all fully powered and ready for combat, and a similar scene could be seen in hundreds upon hundreds of Acruani systems. The only difference in this particular one were some of the inhabitants of a particular Hive Queen.
ACHQ Seleste-02
Acruani Collective Hive Queen Seleste-02
Though like any other of its kind in more structural aspects, Seleste-02 had the most unusual crew in certain ships it was currently housing. Firstly, it had the Nightmare Company, the best commando troops by Archene's current standards, and lastly, it had Archene himself with them. In his opinion, the troops were naturally some of the best. They were Dothvalians and Humans of the best quality, in regards to training and experience to say in the least. Their leader was a survivor of Confederacy's first incident with Invaders, a hero to his own troops and a good commander all around. Their equipment, be it the armors or the medical supplements, were the best available. Their weapons were mostly adapted to increase their fighting prowess against Abyssal troops. And they were not going to be alone in this mission.
It had been less than 2 hours since they departed, nearly as long they have been waiting in the Acruani system, and nearly as long since Archene excused himself from Carver, going to a room which was locked soon after, allowing the ship with the commandos to depart to the Hive Queen that had been around their planet.
There was nothing from Archene until he contacted Carver through his comm, "Carver, this is Archene. All preparations have been complete, and allow your troops to know that the Acruani with them will do the utmost to make sure that the mission is completed and they remain alive. Current assessment concluded that they are all in acceptable to optimal conditions, both mentally and physically. Their equipment is in perfect condition, all flaws during the reinforcement and upgrade process were taken care of, We predict that the chances of something breaking on its own or due to environmental effects is near nil currently." There was a brief pause before a map of the Milky Way appeared in his HUD, "We will be jumping to our assigned system in 30 minutes," A small red target appeared over a point in the Milky Way, before several other similar targets appeared grayed out. Lastly, a small label appeared by the grayed out targets, naming it Defense Line Maria, "It is expected that combat in space will begin immediately, and that if possible we will be able to land on our target within an hour. With an immediate landing being possible, I recommend that such possibility is announced to your troops before we jump to the system. It remains unknown if we will be require to land on a planet or a station as is. I am required to finish certain tasks before we depart, I will come to you before we depart, Sergeant."
(OOC: This has been posted in the correct Galaxy. As the events that this will focus on will happen in the Milky Way.)
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Post by The Governor on Feb 9, 2016 3:40:14 GMT
"Understood. I'll make the announcements," Carver replied simply. He then said over the unit command comm, "All troops, we'll be departing shortly, less than half an hour. Be ready for anything. And on that note, we're not sure yet whether we're landing on a planet or a space station. Either way, all of you remember atmospheric insertion protocols. Transport down to upper troposphere, then we use rocket packs for the rest of the descent. Plus this is the old Colonial Defence Line, so unless the Invaders really did a number on it, then we can expect heavy resistance. Point is, when the doors open, we enter, and we kill everything that moves. Have faith in yourselves, and don't be afraid. We're the best soldiers in the Confederate Military, and we've done everything we can to improve our chances on this mission. We also have Archene with us, so that should even the odds. No stimulants yet. I want all of you focused, and no heroics this early in the mission. And we stick together. I'm not having another Pluto on my watch. So now we wait. Combat will begin as soon as we exit the FTL jump, and the space combat to allow our insertion will take up to an hour. But then we deploy, and we see if we can frighten the darkness."
The rest of the unit nodded, their faces hidden by their visored helmets. They knew what was ahead, and they were ready. And so the commandos waited.
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Post by Acruan on Feb 9, 2016 6:34:46 GMT
True to his words, Archene returned to Carver's side 25 minutes later. He was in the usual clothes, probably meaning that the Acruani was going down there in those very clothes. Attached to his belt, there was a sword with a golden handle in a white-gold sheath. Considering the mission, having the Blessed Sword of Lightning, Hamiel, was the least that he could do. Strangely, however, he had a gauntlet on his right hand that seemed to be made of a very reflective metal.
After looking at Carver and the troops more personally, Archene said, "We will be jumping in 5 minutes. There will be several simultaneous invasions, so they should not focus on our system specifically unless there are extraordinary circumstances. Acruani FTL is instantaneous, so be ready."
And 5 minutes later the thousand Acruani ships jumped away. As did the other hundreds of thousands ships at several other Acruani ships. All of the fleets targeting a different system. All systems Acruani were estimated to be in Defense Line Maria. Given the possible inaccuracy, any fleet that jumped into a system without Abyssals would attempt to jump to the system of any fleet that did encounter Abyssals and could still be contacted. (Even though such would still take 5 minutes due to the cooldown for the Jump Drives.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2016 7:51:48 GMT
As soon as they jumped in their systems, the Acruani and the Confederates soon realized that there was something wrong. Something really wrong. The planets... they all looked dead. Dead and cold. Covered in thick, white layers of something that looked like fog, the entirety of their atmospheres being covered by that, some of it leaking even in the orbit, seemingly stopping all communications between space and those planets. That fog was clearly going to create some problems for the allied forces, in their attempted invasion. If they would have asked for information from the Colonials first, who already had a vague experience at attacking behind enemy lines, they would have found out that the strange for like thing was called by the Colonials "der Nebel", and was present on all planets conquered and annexed by the Invaders.
A couple of moments after they jumped, all Acruani and Confederate forces were detected by the Invaders. Invader dead fleets, made up as usual from their mostly resurrected equipment, appeared in front of every last Acruani fleet that had jumped in. The presence of various Colonial wrecks all around indeed ensured the Acruani at least that this was Defense Line Maria- the first Colonial Defense Line who had been practically wiped out by the Invaders, only a couple of weeks after their first appearance. But even if it was so far away from the main front, it didn't seem that the Invaders were ignoring defense too much.
The Invader fleets entered formation in front of their enemies, and without waiting, opened fire with their large, superlaser cannons, followed by waves after waves of kinetic strikes. Xenomorphic fighters also started to be launched in waves like usual. The Second Battle for Line Maria had begun.
Strangely enough though, if the Acuani would have communicated between themselves, they would have realized something. The system that contained Archene and his ships was hosting a far larger number of ships than any of the others.
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Post by Acruan on Feb 9, 2016 9:37:37 GMT
Being detected within a few moments was certainly within the plans, being immediately attacked by Invaders was also very clearly within their expectations, but having too many planetary targets was not. The knowledge of the fogs would have been previously obtained if the knowledge regarding the fog was more actively distribute by the ones who know about it. After all, what is the meaning of uniting forces against the Invaders if you don't share what you know about them. The Acruani capital ships started moving around the three Hive Queens as the Hive Queens themselves began releasing waves upon waves of Heavy and Light Fighters. Something that was also done by a number of Capital ships as they formed nearly a sphere.
As the super lasers hit the Acruani shields, the shields seemed to hold perfectly well, and when the following kinetic strikes hit them. While a number shields did go down. Most of them seemed able to perfectly hold up. Damaged ships slowly moved deeper into the Acruani formation to be sure to avoid enemy fire with more ease.
The Acruani didn't take long to return fire, several beams were continuously fired from the capital ships, several focusing at individual Invader ships to ensure the destruction of a few rather than the mere damaging of some. Even then, Acruani optical sensors were used to scan each planet, hoping that one of them would stand out more either for the density of the white fog or for some other factor. Standard scanning was also done at the Invader ships, so that they would not overlook them at least. (It could be safely said they would attempt to scan anything save the sun, as long as it was within their sight.)
Though the Acruani didn't know that their system was more densely populated, certainly the made attempts of various kinds of communication, both between ships of that individual fleet as well as between ships in the varied systems.
ACHQ Seleste-02
As soon as the first wave of attacks hit the Acruani ships, Archene said, "It seems that they have a considerable number of forces in the system currently, it is slightly beyond the expected, but nothing beyond what we have been equipped to handle." On their various HUDs appeared a simple star-map of the system showing the relative position of the Acruani forces, the planets as well as any detected Invader ship, "We are currently scanning the planets to see which one holds our target. We don't have precise information in regards to fog surrounding the planets, but considering demonstrated Invader abilities, we don't expect any ability to communicate with space. The ship that will transport you to atmosphere will be equipped to leave the planet as well as send a more visual signal to atmosphere if required."
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Post by The Governor on Feb 9, 2016 23:41:15 GMT
"Understood," Carver said simply. He could see a sensor projection of the friendly and enemy forces in the sector, and focused on the target. The target was the planet below, and it would take the Acruani some time to clear a path for transports. Carver said to his troops, "Everyone get ready. The system is defended a bit better than we planned, but a path will be made for us. When it is, we are dropping to one of the planets below. We probably wont have to drop, we can probably land on the planet. So keep your rockets off unless we absolutely have to jump in high atmo. But get ready. We land on the Invader planet soon enough.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2016 21:45:17 GMT
The Invader forces, although lightly taken by surprise at the beginning of the battle, entered formation, and their waves of xenomorphic fighters started to engage the enemy fighters in the space between the fleets. Even if the Invader fighters were weaker than the average enemy fighter, they were made from the same strange material as most of the Invader equipment, so they were really hard to destroy, easy to repair, and much more important, even easier to create, allowing them to simply overwhelm their enemies in most of the cases, each fighter being a unique combination of metal, organic and xenomorphic tissue.
Noticing how effective the enemy shields were against lasers, the Invaders immediately choose another tactic, once again showing off their incredible capability to adapt to any situation. In groups, they started to synchronize their attacks, each group attacking one enemy ship at the time. Firstly, they fired their superlaser cannons together, into one point, before attacking with synchronized kinetic weapon attacks in the same ship. While the first attack was intended to weaken the enemy shields, the second, with the high explosive shells fired by the kinetic guns, were intended for the kill. This tactic was soon adopted by most of the Invader fleets in the sector that were fighting.
Strangely enough though, it seemed that the Invaders were starting to focus their attacks closer and closer to the ship Archene was in, as if they knew something...
While scanning, the Acruani would soon find... something strange, to say at least. A planet, that at a first look, wasn't so different from the rest of the planets in the sector, except from probably, the fact that it was orbiting in a binary star system. Even so, the planet's atmosphere was full with the white foggy substance, and by full, 80% of the planet's atmosphere was containing it. Not only that, but the planet was also emitting a strange energetic signature... something that didn't match any Colonial or Invader signatures...
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Post by Acruan on Feb 11, 2016 22:38:53 GMT
While Acruani light fighters were at most slightly above the xenomorphs and less numerous, the heavy fighters were always with them to give them a certain edge. While all the fighters would use laser weaponry against the other fighters, the heavy fighters intermittently activated gravity generation devices in them, to disturb enemy flight as well as kinetic weaponry, self-propelled or otherwise.
The change of tactics was very much expected, and a proper way to counter such tactic was already on its way. After the first few ships were shot by the lasers, which somehow even with the quantity didn't seem to even damage the ships armors as much as they should, the kinetic weapons truly did the job in regards to those ships. The destroyed ships seemed to break apart after a minimal explosion deep within them.
The tactic however began to not work as effectively as other Acruani ships close enough, seemed to move towards each other as they activated the Gravity Well Generators, the ships speed increasing exponentially as they barely miss each other. Most of the time the ships at most being mildly damage as their before their shields come up again... strangely quickly.
The Acruani did notice the attacks focusing more and more at Seleste-02, but that was good enough. It is to be expected that an enemy that can bend reality to find where they were... Ships however seemed to vehemently be sure that even stray damage didn't get to Seleste-01.
As soon as the 'target' was found. The three Hive Queens accelerated, with the formation as a whole, towards the planet. Simultaneously, the Hive Queens began to change shape slightly, from what could be considered a thorn to a lotus. Visible charging was taking place as at the center of the said lotus shone a bluish light. The Hyperion Lasers were charging.
The only thing unexpected was that the 'target' didn't have an Invader signature... troubling, but there was no retreat among the options.
"The enemy seems to be getting hold of our position, however we also have our main cannons loading to open a path towards our main target. We, along some decoy ships and ships with our reinforcements, will be catapulted towards the planet. The bulk for the ship with detach from us and go in collision course with the ground, hopefully helping us in avoiding any welcoming party they may have ready." There was a pause before he continued to announce.
"Lastly, the signature on the planet is of an unknown source, expect something unusual in our enemies. Also, should you find yourself alone among enemies with little ability to continue fighting, it is recommended that you allow the Acruani cores in your suits to self-terminate when you believe is more appropriated, be it in life or death. The blast radius is slightly inferior to 5 meters, however the shrapnel, considering the trisilviate, will remain very deadly even within 25 meters. It shouldn't be a problem if you are more than 10 meters from another commando, however."
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Post by The Governor on Feb 11, 2016 22:56:44 GMT
"Understood," Carver said evenly. He then said to Nightmare Company, "Everyone get ready! Fast approach and hard landing coming soon. No telling what's down there, so be ready. When we land, exit the transport and secure the area. And be ready for anything." With that, the commandos nodded and decided to wait, knowing they could do little until they had landed on the planet.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2016 7:56:21 GMT
Even if the Acruani fighters started to use their gravity generators, numerically wise, they were still in a clear inferiority, so the Invader fighters managed to face the losses without losing ground. Their fierce fight continued, while, without the knowledge of the Acruani, the Invader bases started to prepare for the launch of the Cataphract Fighters.
Meanwhile, the Invader ships once again noticed how successfully the Acruani ships were adapting to their assaults. Well, it wasn't as if the Invaders weren't expecting that to happen. Every time, the civilizations of these galaxies proved to be more than annoying in certain situations. Changing the tactics a little, the Invaders started to use their old kamikaze tactics, accelerating and crashing into the enemy ships, trying to disrupt their formations.
Noticing the change of the Acruani Hive Queens, three Invader superbases jumped in to intercept them, placing themselves between the strange planet and the Acruani ships. Loading their supercannons, the giant Invader superbases seemed to be ready to fire as soon as the Acruani fired, letting their superlasers and the strange Acruani blue lasers collide in the middle. The Acruani weren't going to reach that planet so easily.
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Post by Acruan on Feb 12, 2016 9:07:12 GMT
Happily, the Acruani fighters used their generators and general group tactics were able to maintain group, they expected to be immediately pushed back. Such thing could only mean that either Invader were even worse in space than expected (and somehow the Colonials couldn't manage just that), or there was more to come. Believing the later to have a higher probability, they remained alert however without much change in actual strategy. When dealing with the unknown, it is easier to react than plan ahead.
If the Invaders had not noticed how the Acruani were ready for a defensive fight, the Acruani would be disappointed with their knowledge and insight. Or would consider this just a trap.
Kamikaze was a very readily available option when you had enough ships, filled with enough selfless troops, or the next better alternative. Certainly something within the scope of expectation. While the first attempts got some Acruani ship head on, it seemed more as if these were simply making sure that the path for other kamikaze would be far too hard to continue. Quickly adapting to the situation, the Acruani separated into small groups, minor formations within some probable greater whole as they all seemed to remain working in some resemblance to harmony.
As ships tried to crash into them, Acruani began showing some considerate amount of teamwork, simply attempting to destroy engines, or other visibly critical points, rather than destroying the enemy ships, as they used their superior maneuverabity, coupled with the Gravity Wells to attempt to only obtain glancing hits from the kamikaze attacks. Something that while not always working, was effective enough to greatly reduce the impact of the attacks.
If there is an obstacle, must be the right way. Either that, or a trap. It can always be a trap when it comes to Invaders. The Acruani lasers finished charging, the ships moved very slightly not to shot in direction of the lasers on the bases in an attempt to overpower them, and rather directly at the bases to destroy them more quickly... regardless of the price to pay... before firing their Hyperion Cannons They were going to reach that planet as fast as they could.
There was a small tremor inside the ship with Archene and the others. Their HUDs clearly showed a flight path to the 'target' planet, and a timer that wasn't moving. At least, however, all was ready. Other than a minor detail Archene was going to take care soon.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2016 15:05:08 GMT
Strangely enough, the Invaders started to lose ground. They simply didn't seemed to be able to organize themselves, and slowly but surely, they started to lose. Seeing that the kamikaze attacks simply had to major effect, the Invaders returned to a more defensive formation, trying to maintain their ground, and keeping the Acruani off as if they were waiting for something, relying more on their fighters to protect them, while continuing their combination of superlaser shots and kinetic artillery barrages to keep the enemy ships away. Any normal person would have considered that the Invaders were simply trying to delay the Acruani, waiting for something, or that this was a trap. Well... they were going to see.
The bases on the other hand, sensing that the Acruani Hive Queens were approaching, opened fire with their superlaser cannons, aiming directly for the Hyperion Cannons...
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Post by Acruan on Feb 13, 2016 0:54:00 GMT
Seeing the situation of the enemy forces, it being a trap or not, they began tightening their formation, slowly going around the Hive Queens. While the path towards the planet was devoid of Acruani ships, that was at least, the only direction the Hive Queen would be hit for now. The Acruani fighters, despite their self-destructive nature, began work more conservatively in an attempt to increase the kill-death ratio even more in their favor.
As the super bases fired, the Acruani Hive Queens fired their Hyperion Cannons in return. The Acruani could only wait for the lasers to hit to see whether or not the enemy shields would be up, if they were the laser's frequency would change until it got to the most adequate one to disable the enemy shields, when or if there were no shields, their color would change to violet as it became far more matter-destructing laser.
With the enemy lasers hitting the the Cannons, some rather shiny silverish show of lights happened around before the colors of the laser flickered but remained working, the bases rather quickly changing the direction to focus at the enemy lasers before firing several dozens of little silver thorn-like projectiles. Some being slightly bigger than the larger fighters while others were even as big as medium sized transport ships. The various thorn-like ships went at incredibly high speeds towards the bases and the space surrounding them, almost like some kind of scattergun.
A few moments before such... ships... were catapulted towards the enemy ships and the planet, Archene's sword Hami, otherwise known as Hamiel, suddenly disappeared from his waist, appearing in the hand of a mobile unit in one of the ships. The ship with Archene and the commandos themselves also going towards the planet.
Among the several ships catapulted towards the planet, while there were several ones simply loaded with some unstable materials, ready to explode upon contact, some were empty, others were filled with the Acruani land units (which far differ from mobile units) and a very special ship whose only special feature was the presence of Archene, Carver and the Commandos inside.
Most of the ones loaded with explosives were shot towards the superbases, but the others were all meant to reach the planet. Should they all or any reach the atmosphere, the ones loaded with explosives would suddenly turn their engines up to speed up their descent in an attempt to destroy any enemy they may encounter on the ground. Meanwhile, both the duds and the other ships would begin slowing down, an ended of the 'spikes' being shot down before the ships tilted around and began slowing down their decent.
Lastly, the Acruani ships transmitted from this system to the rest, if such was even still possible, notifying the immediate success of the first step.
"Carver, we are off." Suddenly the countdown on the commandos HUDs began to decrease, clearly written above them, 'Time Until Landing', "Should something happen while we are at the atmosphere, be ready for your backpacks." The ship seemed to tremble slightly more briefly before it was shown that they were rapidly going towards the planet.
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Post by The Governor on Feb 13, 2016 5:40:34 GMT
Carver smiled at the prospect of landing as the transport detached and began its journey. Once again, he would be doing what he had been trained to do, a mission covert, quick, dangerous, and difficult. He hadn't done a real op since Tau Volantis, and hopefully this one would go better. Carver certainly hoped so.
He said in an excited tone over the squad comm, "Good evening, all. This is Sergeant Carver. Rockets on, be ready to jump. The Acruani are going to try to land on the planet, but if they cant, we jump. Stand by for further orders."
The calm and commanding words did little to hide the exhilaration Carver and the rest of the unit felt. They were ready to strike back at the Invaders, and with Archene and their new weapons, they were more ready than ever to do so.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 14, 2016 12:16:01 GMT
The enemy lasers collided with the lasers of the superbases right in the middle, but unfortunately, the lasers of the bases were no match for the Hyperion lasers of the Acruani. Deflecting the Invader lasers, the Hyperion lasers hit the Invader superbases. The Invader shields initially resisted, but soon enough, they somehow seemed to fail, leaving the superbases defenseless. A couple minutes later, the superbases were destroyed and in flames, failing and collapsing. The way of the Acruani to the planet was now clear. Their real mission could begin.
The ships catapulted towards the planet soon reached the heavy white fog like substance in the atmosphere. Strangely enough, there were no other Invader military forces around. Their way seemed to be completely clear. However, as soon as they entered die Nebel, all communications were lost. Not only with the Acruani ships in the orbit and in the system, but also between themselves. Most sensors failed. They were now both blind and deaf. The true difficulties began only now. Blind, and without the possibility to talk with each other, all the ships in the atmosphere had to land somehow. Initial information they had about the planet from the human archives in the Andromeda showed that the planet had only one large continent in the middle, and the strange energy source seemed to be somewhere in the middle, surrounded by a large, circular mountain range.
Finally though, most of them reached the altitude of 1000 meters, and that's where they finally started to have some visibility again, just in time. They were crashing over a large city. A large dead, empty, quiet city, that didn't exactly have many places for them to land in...
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