The Drathian Civil War [IC/OPEN]

OOC: Go ahead. ^^

IC:

Drathian Space, Drathia
The fleet had been diminished by desertion and abandonment. The one proud Drathian Navy, consisting of over a thousand ships, could barely scrap up two hundred. Right now, fifty of those ships, mostly the Drathian Iron Class, were stationed around the homeworld to defend against any sort of rebel attack. Still, they were worried, the rebels had been winning unopposed victories in the border colonies, as the loyalist military was cut down too far, stretched too thin, for it to mount any sort of feasable resistance. Their only hope for victory would be to muster all their strength and take the rebel forces head on. If they won that conflict, then maybe they'd have a chance at retaking their lost territory from the broken enemy fleet. Until then, though, it was all the Fylkirate could do to hold its own and bolster its defenses before the Rebels arrived.

Admiral Borik 'Four-Legged' was on the bridge of his ship, the DSS Imp, sipping a mug of coffee. It was a human drink, perhaps. But he certainly liked the taste of it, especially when loaded with sugar and milk. With tired eyes, he watched the black expanse of space before him, dotted with the tiny, distant stars. Beautiful as it was, Borik knew that each of those stars had the potential to bring forth a rebel attack, he had to be ready for anything. A sudden beeping from his holocommunicator snapped the admiral from his trance. He took the device from his pocket to see that the captain of the ship next to him was requesting communication. He answered.

"What is it?" He asked gruffly. "Do you see anything?"

"I'm sorry, sir." The captain replied. "But Lord Serratus promised me he'd let my family live if I did this." The communication was cut off.

"What!? What do you mean!? Captain! Answer m-.." Suddenly, the Imp rumbled. Borik looked around to see flashing red alerts on the monitors in the bridge. His ship had taken a heavy hit to the flank, which had disabled his right broadside batteries. "Battlestations! All of you!"

The scene was turning ugly above Drathia. About half of the Drathian ships stationed above the capital of the Fylkirate began to fire on their comrades, who in turn, fired a counter salvo. Without any sort of formation for both sides, the entire engagement was just a gigantic bloodbath. Ships were going down left and right, and people on the same side ended up killing their allies all too frequently. The discipline of the Fylkirate crew was paying off though, and soon, it was evident that the traitors wouldn't be able to hold much longer.

That is, until thirty more Rebel ships jumped into the system, accompanied by a Drathian Cannibal.


Planet Surface, Drathia
Down below, the halls of the Citadel lay littered with the surprised corpses of guards. They were caught unaware by the traitors who had stabbed them in the back, not giving so much as a warning before murdering their fellows in cold blood. They marched confidently into the bowels of the compound, brandishing their weapons and preparing themselves for whoever decided to get in their way.

Orbit of Drathia
The sounds of battle began to die down as the last of the loyalist ships protecting the Drathian homeworld were either captured or capsized. All that remained was the rebel attack force, which, without anything to draw their attention, all shifted their focus to the Hindenburg. 45 ships, all with their weapons trained on the human vessel as the fishlike Cannibal swam through space around the gathering, teeth glittering hungrily. The Hindenburg had nowhere to run, trying to break through the formation on its own would leave the ship completely surrounded by hostiles, and they were too close to make an FTL jump safely. However, it seemed that the rebels did not want blood, not from the Hindenburg. A transmission was sent to the Colonial ship.



Drathia, Surface
The capital city of the Drathian Fylkirate, Skraela, was in chaos. Armed rebels were storming the streets as the local garrison scrambled to prevent further destruction of the city. The law enforcement of the city had joined the effort in pushing the rebels back, but were sorely underequipped for the job. Thankefully, so were the rebels. Most of their equipment was either stolen and outdated, or damaged. Air support from loyalist bases also kept the rebels from approaching the Citadel, though at the cost of civilian lives and infrastructure. At this point, Skraela was a mess, with the outer reaches of the city nearly completely leveled by air bombing and other explosives.

Grand General Cronar was among the fighting loyalists, and as the highest ground military position in the Fylkirate, gave his men a gigantic boost in morale. The rebels had no such advantage, and as their numbers began to dwindle, more and more of the attackers either fled or gave themselves up for capture.

As the starship left hyperspace, Terence Radford, Phantom 13, saw immediately that the situation wasn't as expected. There were enough Inquisition vessels to darken the light of the local stars, and this confused the agent. He also noticed the Colonial ship and other unidentified vessels. He hadn't seen an Inquisition presence like this, not since the Terror Wars. But if the Keltakens were planning to overthrow Zlasa, common soldiers would have been sent, which meant the Keltakens hadn't attacked Zlasa and ended the transmission.

Radford quickly said into his comm device, “Treason on Drathia, but not how we thought. I’ll keep you posted as I learn more.”

With that, he opened a channel with one of the Inquisition vessels, and said, “Greetings. I am Phantom Agent Terence Radford of Imperial Intelligence. We came to investigate and quell the treason on the Drathia. Would you mind sharing what you've so far learnt?”

The Colonial Military Ship Hindenburg continued to maintain Condition One, launching even more fighters, and sending a request for help, before responding to the message.

This is the Colonial Military Ship Hindenburg, temporary flagship of the Colonial War Fleet, to the TKSS Incision. Unfortunately, the Hegemon of the Federated Colonies, Julius Kingsley, is currently on the surface of Drathia. We are not involved in whatever internal conflicts the Drathian Fylkirate currently has, but we will not leave the premise or retract our fighters before the Hegemon is back, safely, on the ship.We repeat, we will not retreat before the Hegemon is returned safely to the ship.

The Hindenburg, still in the orbit of Drathia, started to open its warhead hatches, everyone in the system being now able to detect the well known energy signature of the Opilium Tactical Nuclear Warheads, the extremely destructing weapons used by the Colonies when they really needed. Under normal circumstances, this would have never happened... but the Hindenburg was in a clear inferiority, caught between the Keltakens and the Drathian rebels.

A message was soon sent to all ships in the system.

To all ships in this system, this is the Colonial Military Ship Hindenburg, temporary flagship of the Colonial War Fleet. The Hegemon of the Federated Colonies is currently on the surface of Drathia. We are not involved in whatever is happening inside the Drathian Fylkirate, but in complete accordance with the Articles of Colonization, any hostile measure that might threaten our ship, or the life of the Hegemon, will be considered an act of war against the Federated Colonies.

If any of the ships in the system would attack the Hindenburg... even if the Colonial ship was a mere Type III, it was going to fully prove to the others why the Colonial battlestars were considered to be the most resistant and difficult to destroy ships in the known universe.

Zarraka shook his head at the message and simply gave a sigh at the insufferable colonials. "Send them a reply before I am so tempted to fire on them." With that operators scrambled between setting up the main guns and setting zarraka up to give his message.

"This is a message from the Keltaken battleship Anthvora, I am chapter master Karraka of the 4th chaoter and while I never thought I would say this to a human it seems our goals my be similar in scope. I know your leader is still on that planet and as by keltaken law I am forced wither or not I like it to assist in reclaiming all world's fallen to these rebels. So long as your goal is to protect your leader and in extension ours, you will habe the support of my people...Daga will love to habe a chat with you when this is over" Karraka couldn't help but chuckle at the last bit, the pervert would love to see a human up close alien life facinates him in such a way it is sickening. 

"All main guns prepare to fire see if you can get a lock on the enemy, in truth the are lucky, I will give them a quick death Laro would have a field day slowly executing these traitors. Well he's off on another world for now so no need to worry about him. I wonder what is keeping Daga..." Karraka sighed and then looked to the confederates reply to the situation.

"The confederates confederates confound me sometimes. One way or another we will need all the support we can muster with the new Empress on the warpath we have limited resorces with which to work with outside of the chapter. It will be interesting to say the least. Send him a message and let him know that we will do our best to keep them from being blown up. So long as the Confederate stays out of the way of our guns while he is down their then he should have no problems with us. In fact..."

"Confederate operative we are going to begin out attack soon, in the resounding panick it will cause you will slip down onto the planet to rescue the darthan leadership. We will try to keep them busy long enough without resorting to nuclear weapons. Should the need arrise however and if the Darthan half of the empire's crown is no longer alive then I will habe no choice but to initiate purge protocol, the destruction of all traitor held planets for their transgressions let us hope it does not come to that."

Shortly after the transmission cut an operator spoke up, "Sir we are ready to open fire." Zarraka nodded and tapped the armrest of his chair. "Good then signal all ships open fire destroy these fools" with that the fleet began to engage the traitors trying to start a bit enough diversion that the Confederate could slip past. They would get through themselves eventually thi was quicker however and would likely save valuable time.

Orbit of Drathia
Upon the Colonial request, the rebel ships all locked their weapons onto the Hindenburg, however, they delayed in firing. It was soon seen why, the mass of Keltaken ships that jumped into the system. The third party's arrival marked certain defeat for the rebels. Not only were they outnumbered, but completely outgunned as well. Fighting for them would mean the deaths of each and every crewmember in their fleet. The only option was for them to flee.

One by one, the rebel ships deactivated their weaponry, and turned away from the Colonial vessel. Spooling up their FTL drives, they began to warp out of the system. It would be best for them to fight another day, rather than to foolishly die here, where their sacrifices would do nothing for their cause. It was sad, that they had to leave behind their bretherin on the planet below. But, ships were hard to produce, ground soldiers were not. The rebel ground troops would have to learn that the hard way.

Like that, the battle over Drathia was won.

Drathian Surface
The rebel forces in the capital city of Skraela were reduced to an unorganized mob of guerilla fighters and individual combatants. Without any orbital support, the defenders quickly managed to push the bulk of the rebels outside of the city, though at a great cost of civilian lives. Dead bodies of women, children, and the elderly littered the streets of Skraela. Especially in the outskirts of the settlement, houses were leveled, and stores all but empty, burnt out husks. The only sounds were those of pained moaning, crackling fire, and the occasional artillery shot.

Outside the city, only three rebel big guns remained, already low on ammunition. However, they had nowhere to restock, nor to retreat for a regrouping. For those still sieging Skraela, the only option was to die fighting. Surrender, was simply not possible at this point. Not for traitors.