STGOD: DAS: Main Game Thread.

[White Haven]

The mental downlink suddenly erupted with a simple, yet memorable flavour. It was, however, mostly the flavour of salty butter. This is what we recall of it. The Ambassador seeks more knowledge of this situation, however. Do these creatures seem hostile to you, or merely drones? They seem quite inert against threats, responding instead to the presense of minerals.

The League grouping mulls the taste over for a short while, its observation of the events in-system faltering in the mean time. Snatches of psychic chatter spin off from the exchange, finally emerging into a consensus voiced back towards the Wanderer presence, /I believe that was better left lost to history. Perhaps its use would be appropriate as a punishment? In any case, there are so many minds converging in that area, I can't get a firm feeling on them. In any case, our speciality here isn't on long-distance work.\

[Imperial Overlord]

Between Sol and Mercury

As the space monsters advanced on the combined Centrality-Polish fleet, the Archer class missile cruisers retreated towards the rear of the fleet. Graser fire was being poured into the alien monstrosities and as they closed the range, the short range missile launchers being to launch in rapid fire mode.

[SirNitram]

/I believe that was better left lost to history. Perhaps its use would be appropriate as a punishment? In any case, there are so many minds converging in that area, I can't get a firm feeling on them. In any case, our speciality here isn't on long-distance work.\

We are unsure of it's true usage. The hivemind replied. We do not have trouble with large numbers of minds, merely the prolific use of jamming, counterjamming, and other attempts to disrupt their command/control unity. They are.. As animals, truly.

[Redleader34]

Earth Inner Sphere
Sol System


Now the Mothership unleashed its full firepower, its powerful phaser beams striking the living rocks with atomic-striking force. The Battlecruiser’s railguns tore into the rocks, while the Battleships fired their torpedoes, and Phaser arrays at the ships, the combined arms tactics of the Trans-Genetic Alliance Space Fleet helping out with the extermination operation. “Phaser arrays to power, check out forward shields, and have the Battlecruisers go into Gamma-Delta-Omega Formation!” Dan shouted through the fleets coms, the Battlecruisers flying through in their dance of devastating power. The Rescue Transport was still hanging back, waiting for the techno-organic beings to be defeated. “Try to capture one of their ships” Admiral Cody shouted to a battleship “We want at least one of them for research and development!” The Mothership’s Tractor arrays went online, as they attempted to slow down one of the suicidal vessels.

Collation HQ
Poland
Earth

The Diplomat would sigh “Well then, you must show us how to set up your shield arrays, because our own shields may not be up to your specs. Have your engineers, meet our engineers at our Consulate. We will have them, work on this problem. I thank you for your time. He took in a breath, and started again “Now on the criminal affairs, we have assembled documents, and captured a few computer data terminals, but we don’t have much, We suspect, they might have snuck aboard a tramp freighter. Since you will serve as their lawyer, we will escort you to the base that we are holding most of them.

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

Sol
Between Mercury and Sol (aka Bloodbath Central)
Bridge of battleship Saber

"Admiral! The bugs are closing in fast!" a sensor operator cried out as she saw a wave of enemy contacts sweeping down her screens at a distressingly high speed; at the rate they were going, the bugs were going to close with the combined Polish-Centrality fleet in only a matter of minutes. The current performer of the CCS fight anthem had changed from Linkin Park to Weezer in the meantime.

"Recalculate all targeting solutions and fire off another missile barrage!" Vice Admiral Kawasumi shot back. "Also, change the fight music! I wanna listen to some Rammstein! And when you're done with that, put Weezer back on!"

"Acknowledged, ma'am!" a comms officer replied as she broadcast the order to the other CCS ships and started digging through the ship's playlist. With a few keystrokes, the refreshing sounds of Rivers Cuomo singing "Hash Pipe" gradually faded into the distinct booming, subsonic delivery of Till Lindemann belting out "Du hast" as another volley of nukes was sent screaming towards the Worldeater swarm, followed by another coilgun and laser barrage.

"Admiral, the frigates have run out of missile ammo," another comms officer announced immediately after the first salvo was launched.

"Order them to keep firing their coilguns and lasers!" Vice Admiral Kawasumi called out. Suddenly, a stray beam shot from a Worldeater ship impacted on the Saber's shields, directly in front of the bridge. "All available power to weapons and shields! Make sure the bugs can't get to us unless they're in pieces!"

Two flights of Worldeater fighters that had miraculously gotten through the Polish-Centrality defense screen without a scratch found themselves fragged by the combined efforts of the Kirby Morrow and Kelly Sheridan. Two bug frigates that had similarly gotten through relatively unscathed were blown to bits by the Heero Yuy and Zechs Merquise. "Even with the preliminary missile barrages, there are still plenty of them out there!" a sensor operator cried out. "Most of them are being stopped by the Poles and Logosians, but some are still slipping through!"

"Patience, my dear Ensign," Vice Admiral Kawasumi said reassuringly. "We have the advantage of superior range and firepower. We can easily kill a hundred or so of theirs for every one of ours lost."

[White Haven]

We are unsure of it's true usage. The hivemind replied. We do not have trouble with large numbers of minds, merely the prolific use of jamming, counterjamming, and other attempts to disrupt their command/control unity. They are.. As animals, truly.

/Oh, no doubt a <flash-image of a human figure standing on the outside of a ship's hull and hurling light outwards> grouping would be able to tell you m ore. <Flash-image of a white-hot needle approaching a human eyeball> is...specialized elsewhere. Hmm...this conversation is awfully public, with all the crude psonar arrays scattered around, not to mention the odd psion here and there. If you happen to find your way to Warsaw, we should speak further.\

[Academia Nut]

Coalition HQ
Poland
Earth

"Very well then, once the engineers aboard the Ariklu are no longer concerned with the gigantic swarm of monsters in space they will consult with your people, and I will accompany you to see the prisoners."

Pausing for a moment, Felsith hems and haws until he finally says, "The... interaction will be... perhaps a bit strange. This is because our culture is not based around the same deep control mechanisms as Terran cultures. Most Terran cultures are either shame based or guilt based. Straltoc culture is loyalty based, if that is the word to describe it. In the Lisbizif stage our minds are completely open to others while we still retain our identities. It rapidly becomes impossible to feel either shame or guilt in a meaningful sense the way humans would describe it. Thus we have developed a loyalty based culture. To those we have given our loyalty, to break such a bond is... your language does not have the proper nuances to describe the feeling, but the closest description would be along the lines of 'your fiancee catching you ass fucking your mother while giving your father a blowjob'. Obviously there are hierarchies of loyalties and ways of politely ending a relationship, but as they are still citizens of the Federation a bond still exists between us despite the fact that they are criminals. I foreworn you of this as the transcripts will be... peculiar to your sensibilities, of that I can assure you."

Frowning in abundance, Felsith adds on, "Incidentally, that is no doubt why the mercenaries had so little trouble killing your citizens, aside from the fact that they are sick by our standards, is that they had no ties to their victims. They owed them no loyalty, even as fellow citizens, and thus they were psychological incapable of feeling shame or guilt over their actions. Curiously, even mercenaries such as them would have felt some flicker of emotion if the Federation were allied with you, as then they would owe you something."

Secret Sector Investigations HQ

escapeescapeescapeescapeescapeescape...

The entity that was once Karl Richards was growing more more confused and panicked by the moment as the alarms began to sound, triggered by the phaser fire of the pair of guards that had tried to kill him. He had dropped down out of an airshaft looking for something, what he wasn't quite sure at the time, and met the two. They had been so surprised that one of them had accidentally discharged his weapon. Karl had responded by leaping at one of his attackers and forcing his way down the ocelot's throat before either could respond. Sitting in the lungs, he then punched his way out in a shower of gore and latched onto the lemur's terrified face, crushing the life out of the Otherkin. Driven by some instinct, he then devoured chunks of the dead guards, a mass intensive process that resulted in a temporary loss in intellect while he processed the new material, leaving him feeling feral and animalistic until the process completed.

When it was done though, Karl was smarter than before, although this just meant that he felt the pain in his mind on a deeper, more intellectual level, and his internal need to flee was greatly sped up.

Dredging up memories from his fragmented mind, Karl read the signs and quickly discovered that he was near a secret prototype aircraft hangar. Moreso, he remembered working on the project once, and the codes to the doors. And the codes to one of the prototypes.

Grabbing one of the phasers, Karl slithered along the ground faster than a blob should have been able to, hiding in the shados when security teams rushed past as the base went on increasingly high alert as the various bodies were found. Ironically, this moved guards away from the non-critical hangar towards the detainment cells where security expected the next attack to occur.

When the three door guards were smoking corpses on the floor, Karl extended himself up into the air and began entering the door code with rapid-fire psuedopod strikes. With a buzz and a green light, the door slid open to reveal the Storm Sworder prototype long range strike craft. He had much work to do, and not a lot of time to do it before someone found him...

[Dahak]

Sol, between Mercury and Sol

"Sir," Lietuenant Agasaki called from the sensor department, "the alien fleet is running towards the Logos and Polish fleet."
"I see it, Pavel," Fleet Admiral Toranaga answered him. Indeed, he did. He was watching the battle unfold not only on the holosphere before him in the Pit but also through his neural interface.
"Change target solution for the Wall ships. We will put a wall of fire between the bugs and the attacked fleets. Antimatter warheads, full spread. And pull the screen closer to the Wall. I don't want a suicide run on us..."
The solution was put into the fire control systems, and the next missile volley from the Wall ships targeted the space where the alien bugs would have to cross through.

The behaviour of the alien craft was peculiar to say the least. Their formations were so perfect, so organised. In a way, it was beautiful. But still, he wanted to know what these things were made of. He just hoped that there was enough left after battle to salvage some information.

[InnocentBystander]

Earth – Free Egypt
Cairo Archology

Deep in the bowels of the Cairo Archology is the Egyptian Black Market; largest on the planet. Anything here can be bought – for a price.
Schmuel’s Pawnshop
A well dressed Egyptian looking man entered the store with a briefcase and data pad. The little shop keeper had been informed of this visit a few hours earlier by his compatriots, and was especially pleased at the sight of a briefcase. He could smell the credits. The man was an Egyptian, or possibly from some other North African country. The man did not, however, wear the suit well. He was obviously a courier for someone else.
“You’re here on business?” the Egyptian nodded and was waved into the back room. “So, you’re interested in our services – are you?”
“Of course, we’ve heard that you’re information is good.”
“The best!”, the small portly man interrupted. The Egyptian nodded and handed over a data pad.
“My employer is extremely interested in this, I believe it is something you people offer?”
Schmuel smirked, “What you want, we can provide it. But what you ask for is not cheap, “his eyes fell upon the briefcase.
“Yes, my employer is willing to pay handsomely for it – assuming you can deliver.” He opened the briefcase, it was full of unmarked solar credits. “We can pay this much every month.”
“This is a start, yes. However what you are asking is not cheap, and of course will require more than a little work on my part to… setup.” He looked over the data pad once more and nodded, it was not a cheap order to fill.
The two argued back and forth for some time before reaching an agreement, “Yes, I think my employer will agree to this price – assuming you deliver.”
“We always deliver.” The Egyptian handed over the briefcase and headed towards the door. “Expect your first report by the end of the week.”


New Zion is a regional power in the northern outer core of the sphere. Established in the aftermath of the religion wars, it has thrived and grown into a successful interstellar nation with a powerful trade consortium behind it. Hundreds of Zion merchant vessels travel to and from New Zion territory to various spots around the sphere. New Zion buys and sells many things – even information if you know where to look for it.

ooc: Portugal is stepping up monitoring of fleet movements in and around the NGTO through information brokers.

[consequences]

Drakol System

Due to a combination of luck, and canny assesment of the situation by her captain, Chorus of Heroes had remained essentially undetected, despite her close proximity to the system in interstellar terms. At the range she arrived, she was just another of the thousands of faint sensor ghosts at the edge of detection that would require an armada beyond imagining to run down without a developed system's sensor array actively radiating.

Because of the need to maintain operational security as long as possible, the invaders were confining themselves to passive detection only. Because of the purely psychotic levels of resistance shown by the Imperium's forces, the sensor net, even after weeks of quiet rebuilding by the new owners, still had massive holes in it. As a result, after the immediate need to disable ships attempting to flee the planet had passed, the Defilers had taken up dispersed positions throughout the system.

In orbit, there remained a single battleship and three cruisers. This more than sufficed to meet the increasingly rarer demands for orbital fire support, and also guaranteed that even should an absolute maniac attempt to break into ftl from the close proximity of the planet, they would be doomed to certain failure. This hadn't stopped six such attempts in the past week alone. The sensors on the cruisers more than sufficed to locate the cobbled together stealthed vessels that had attempted to breach the blockade.

Further out, a loose shell of attack craft maintained a watch over the planetary area. Three times, they had been forced to disable merchant ships that had been taken outside the inner blockade shell. Rigorous interrogation and integration of the few survivors of those attempts had revealed that entire crews had abandoned ship before being closed upon in the initial attack, and had floated, nearly invisible, waiting for a vulnerable target to approach closely. After this was uncovered, a full sweep of the system was conducted, revealing no less than 173 other groups with the same idea. The controlling node for the system simply swept them up, adjusted its projections, and sent to the Coordinator above it for more materials and reinforcements.

Englobing the star, three covert cruisers and three carriers sat, mathematically placed to provide the maximum possible sensor coverage without resorting to active systems. Each had four ships assigned to its zone, a pair of cruisers and destroyers, extending their coverage still further. Beyond that, an extremely thin shell of attack craft kept watch.

Things had settled into a routine, faith in validated projections producing the complacency that boredom would have engendered in a more individualistic group. This was immediately shattered by the detection of a small, but solid, ftl trace arriving in-system. Predictive nodes rapidly eliminated possibilities, narrowing down the section of space it could have arrived from, as local systems strove to locate the intruder without giving their own location away. A series of tight beam communications pulsed to the ship farthest from the likely direction of the interloper. That destroyer then sent its own message back towards Home. As expected, the message met the next convoy enroute, resulting in the attached cruisers detaching, increasing speed and looping in an arc designed to hopefully bring them well behind the source of what, to a 97% probability, was a short ranged sub-unit of some type. The possibility of an imperfectly cloaked ship accounted for the majority of the remaiining probability.

For the moment, the fleet in-system held silently in place, knowing that if the new arrival transmitted or used active sensors, it would pinpoint itself, and possibly narrow down the possible area that could contain its source.

[Thirdfain]

Drakol System

The short-range FTL parasite PS-03 entered the system with little fanfare, above the ecliptic and positioned, hopefully, away from immediate pursuit. Only ten meters long, the vessel's crew of three immediately got to the business of examining the vast tapestry of contacts and objects their passives detected.

The most obvious and important object in-system was Drakol itself. An industrial world would be a hive of noise, FTL transmissions, radio signals, and the buzz and pop of moving starships. The asteroid fields would be positively radiant with the movement and communications of miners and industrial swarms. A planet like Drakol would have dozens of transports and personal craft in port, all transmitting their own noise.

In comparison, what greeted PS-03 was deafening silence.

And then there were the images of Drakol itself. At four light-minutes out, a telescope's image would be blurred and inaccurate. However, the Russian mercenary scout had entered at an angle calculated to give a good look at the planet's night side.

Vast sections of coast which should have been lit were black and lifeless. Other regions which should have been dark were red with the blooming forest fires and the nuclear glow of orbit-to-surface bombardment.

Even before the orbiting battle group was detected, the crew of PS-03 knew that the Imperium of Drakol was dead- an industrial nation, a beacon of Rim independence from Sol and a local hegemon, snuffed out silently and quickly with narry a word.

Even as the picket-ships closed, PS-03 risked a pulse of active Flidar. The waves of subspace disturbance picked up debris-fields, and a half-dozen objects which might have been moving warships.

The invaders could not miss the burst. Nor could they miss the wide-range FTL-comm which had preceded it. A coded transmission, it's contents were almost immediately clear before the cryptographer-sentiences could begin their work. It could be nothing else but a report back to the mother-ship.

[consequences]

Drakol System

Flush the food back to the nest

The closest half-dozen attack craft lit off their drives, and began converging on the scout, as the closest two cruisers brought their jamming and interdiction fields online, and focussed them to bear on the interloper while beginning to close the considerable distance. At the current range, it would still probably be possible to punch additional signals through, but most likely only by focusing the signal enough to grant a reliable bearing to the mothership. Of course, turning about to attempt to enter ftl remained an option, but the additional ships and small craft going active and revealing themselves in a steady pattern expanding from the contact at little more than light speed would entice the foolhardy to attempt to remain in contact to gain more information.

Meanwhile three cruisers that had been steadily passing the system at a distance separated, and accelerated to maximum speed, their sensors probing ahead of them for the true source of the incursion.

South of the Drakol System

"Confirmed Commander, the heavy escorts have left the group. We've got at least ten minutes to work with before they can make it back, and we'll see them coming"

"Initiate."

It had taken time for the few remnants of the Drakolian Imperial fleet to rendezous without giving themselves away. It had also taken time to identify the convoy route the unidentified invaders favored, and postion themselves to lay in wait along it. Fortunately, that time had been put to good use cobbling together a limited interdictor from the available resources.

The cut off and garbled signals from other ships, coupled with the ominous silence form the homeworld had managed to overcome the normally aggressive nature of the Drakolian fleet, as had the fact that the smallest escort force that had passed by had had at least three times their ships' weight of metal. The commander of the flotilla had resigned himself to waiting yet again when the cruiser stength signals had suddenly accelerated away from their charges.

The interdiction field came with no warning, yanking the dozen transports and lone remaining escort out of ftl abrubtly. Still, the formation soon sfell into the complete lack of order that was the only real defense in these conditions, the lone escort driving forward towards the loose formation of attackers, as the transports took a dozen widely divergent headings.

The escort quickly succumbed under a withering storm of fire, but the Drakolians need to remove it quickly and without loss forced them to engage it with their entire squadron. In dying, it bought sufficient time to allow the attackers only a single interception each.

As the four closest targets were swiftly disabled, the other eight ships reentered ftl, pulsing details ahead as they cleared their attackers' jamming. Of course, this was mostly a moot point, as the attackers themselves had broadcast a widebeam message in the clear from a comm buoy left well away from the attack.

"This is possibly the last transmission of all that is likely left of the Drakolian Imperium. An invading force, apparently but not certainly from the Galactic South, has taken possession of our system. We are currently engaged in a desperate action to gain more information about the attackers. We ask that all free nations take steps to protect themselves, lest the same happen to them."

On detecting this transmission, the two closest cruisers in the Drakol system immediately departed, as other forces converged from Their other holdings.

[Crossroads Inc.]

========================
SGN Broadcast
========================
This, is SGN, Sector Galactic News. Bringing the News of The Sector to the Galaxy and news of the Galaxy to The Sector

“Good Evening, I’m Jahan Lostella”
“And I’m Frenn Wrenn. We begin tonight with an update of the developing crisis at Sol.

“That’s right Frann, ever since the arrival of what many in the press have dubbed Space Monsters in the Sol system, those of us in the Sector have been on the edge of our seats wondering what would happened. As many of you in our audience know, these swarms of organic starships have attacked the Sol system as well as dozen of Human starships from a wide range of StarNations.

Borders into The Sector were closed on the news for fear of any of these “Space Monsters” invading our own space. All UISC Home fleets have been put on High alert until further notice.”

“And now, on the topic of our Home Fleets, President Jonathon Andrews made a rare appearance today to speak about a bold new Defence initiative. He spoke today through his Trathalan translator.”

Our Home Fleets we’re built to ensure our defence, that we could be safe from outside threats, but it is increasingly clear that we cannot keep these forces forever at home. Our power must project elsewhere to ensure our safety . To this end, as detailed in an early report, the UISC Military has drawn up plans for an extensive broadening of all Planetary Defences and fortifications.”

“The president added that much of the new technology would be designed by the Sectors most popular, and enigmatic celebrity, our loveable RUDI In a rare on screen interview, we have RUDI with us live via Network.

RUDI, how did you come to design the new Planetary Defence networks?”

“[spoken in synthetic voice modulator]”
“Frenn, may I call you Frenn? It has always been my purpose, since the mingling of Quatoni and Tejlini computers that created, for me to preserve and defend my creators. Now I’m the last person to be doing something directly with the military, normally I help in charity works, relief efforts, and using my immense intellect to help poverty and various forces that harm those in the Sector. But such efforts can only go so far.

In these times, we all want to be safe, and something as important as planetary Defence is something that many feel we cannot trust to the bureaucracy… I am sure we can both imagine if the same group that have been in charge of building the Studibaker we’re put in charge of this project, it might never get done!

[Slight chuckles from both]

“Thank you very much RUDI, That was RUDI AI on homeland Defence.”

“One thing mentioned, the Immense Starship Studibaker long the butt of so many jokes, including our own, seems that it will be finished. Shipworks at the Military yards at Galacticus have announced that they have all but completed the mammoth starship and that it shall be ready for Space Trials within the end of the month.”

“In a final note on our News Brief, Three Trathalan dignitaries, including the respected Kentara Lontimanolla, have gone missing for more than a week. For days there has been no word from Trathala itself on the disappearances.

[Channel Changes]

[Thirdfain]

Drakol System

PS-03 shuddered momentarily, jump-drives registering the sudden baleful glare of enemy interdiction devices. A FTL-scout of the cheapest design, PS-03's drives were barely capable of launching the vessel more than a few dozen lightyears- and were certainly incapable of breaking free from a powerful military interdiction beam.

There were no options left. The small craft boosted it's comm to it's highest levels, punching a fatline signal directly back towards the Chorus of Heroes, a message containing all the information gathered in the active scan.

Inside, the crew hurried as they activated the small thermite charges on the sensitive equipment and computer cores. In a matter of moments, all that remained of the expensive gear were smouldering masses of molten metal. The four men and women on board waited in the small, dark space of the now dying scout for the inevitable arrival of the enemy.

Lightminutes away, the Chorus herself gunned her drives. For a few moments, Their sensor networks were brilliant with the emissions of the vessel hitting off her FTL-drives at full power. The mercenary vessel made best speed for Rai, home, and the massive booster antennae which would spread the news of what had happened at Drakol to the nations of Sol.

[consequences]

Drakol System

The closest Demon and the two escorts from that sector shut down the interdictor, and punched directly into ftl on a pursuit course following the transmission. Noting the power spike and rapid drop-off, the second nearby Demon cautiously closed, as the approaching fighters began decelerating into a stationary interception course.

As the rest of the system defense force began shifting to provide coverage to the newly created gaps, the inner sensor net was brought up to limited active status. It was entirely possible that this entire operation, along with the attack on the convoy, had been designed to draw forces out of position for some form of major counterattack.

The approaching Demon carefully closed to just outside the maximum plausible range for a single burst directed suicide device, and detached a pair of shuttles. As it carefully scanned the conveyance down to the finest possible level, the two shuttles took up position on opposite sides, maintaining careful watch against any power build-up that might signify a self destruct device. The possibility of a non-powered self destruct was accepted as the simple cost of doing business.

The first shuttle gently docked, and amped its generated gravity field to three times that generally considered acceptable by the humanoid modeled life forms that had a 68% probability of being in command of this vessel from its design characteristics. Its boarders departed, moving slightly sluggishly in the field, and began attempting to cut through to gain access to the interior, atmosphere bubbles emplaced to prevent explosive decompression from claiming the bioforms before intelligence could be extracted.

Almost as an afterthought, a terse surrender command was transmitted in the Drakolian language.

Meanwhile, well to the side of and below the system, the three cruisers redlined their drives, diverging their courses still further in an attempt to hopefully box in their quarry.

[Nephtys]

Sol System, Bloodbath Debris Field

They kept coming. An engagement of hours passed, with many of the smaller ships along the outer perimeter of the combined human fleet now wrecked hulks against massed fire and suicide runs, or even stray debris moving at high velocity. But there were still so many...

The focus of the fire on the greatest of the creatures had taken a heavy toll of them, with over 80% destroyed in a brief period. But the confusion had let smaller forms move in, heavily damaging several of the nearest warships, and destroying others with reckless abandon. The strange ships seemed to have no self-preservation instinct, driving down to ram or attack ships en-massed, lacking defensive maneuvers in such tight quarters.

All until at last, the core 25% of the formation was all that remained. Space bubbled and warped as it attempted to engage it's drive back to the system primary.

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

Sol
Between Mercury and Sol (Bloodbath Debris Field)
Bridge of battleship Saber

"Ma'am, we're detecting a massive spatial distortion centered on the remnants of the bug fleet," a sensor operator chimed in. "It looks like they're trying to jump into hyperspace."

"Trying to leave the party early, huh?" the vice admiral mused. "Order all ships with interdiction field generators to activate them, and issue a request to the friendly fleets to bring their own interdictors online. Let's keep the pounding going on for a little while longer."

"Acknowledged, Vice Admiral Kawasumi," a communications officer replied as she broadcast the order to any and all friendly ships capable of receiving the message.

The resistance put up against the human fleet by the bugs was, for the most part, ineffectual. The vast majority of their fighting strength had been sapped significantly by the initial salvos laid down by the Terrans; while they managed to claim a few hostile ships with kamikaze charges, the bugs were incapable of taking down anything larger than a destroyer. Resistance against the humans was futile, and the remaining bugs realized that in their efforts to evacuate themselves from the area. The CCS would have none of that, however, as the Saber, Ichigo Kurosaki, and Rukia Kuchiki powered up their interdiction field generators; Vice Admiral Kawasumi hoped that the rest of the allied fleet would assist in their quest to thoroughly scour Sol of the Worldeater presence.

[Thirdfain]

ORP Kampania Wrześniowa
Cisvenusian Space
Sol System

A fast battleship of the Powstanie Warszawskie-class mounted fourteen 2-meter bore multipurpose railguns in two triple mounts and two quadruple mounts. Each one could hurl a multi-ton projectile and c-fractional velocities, guided by a FTL/STL target designation suite which, with certain ammunition, was accurate against moving capital targets out to lightminute ranges. Porucznik (Lieutenant) Zosia Marekanka was tasked with commanding the organization and firing of D battery, the second of the large four-gun batteries which gave the Kampania her prodigious firepower.

The port gun control pit was a dark and quiet place, a cramped chamber nestled twenty meters beneath the vast armoured bulk of D turret's four heavy railguns. The only sounds came from the click and tap of control panels and muffled sounds of the herculean autoloaders.

Zosia's attention was focused single-mindedly on the screen in front of her. A corticle shunt plugged into the base of her skull linked her directly into the gunnery net commanded from the bridge deeper within the hull. Orders for targets arrived in her mind forcibly and unpleasantly through the crude military-grade cybernetics. A product of four years at the Gdynia Fleet School and two years of active service in the colonies, Zosia had commanded a gun-crew before. She'd had targets marked, directed proper ammunition loading, and winced as the magnets blasted their deadly payloads into the void.

She'd never seen anything like this.

The contacts seemed to fill the screen. Usually, the filters for the main guns would ignore targets below a certain size, leaving the fighters and incoming missiles for the serried ranks of PD turrets and countermissile tubes. However, literally seven thousand contacts rated at cruiser or capital size were hitting the Logosian fleet, blasting through at high speed in a whirling, disorganized mass, seemingly intent on the Polish fleet carrier formation which was arrayed behind. The four fleet carriers and four light carriers of the First Fleet Corps represented almost half of the Republic's battlefleet; losing even one would be a devastating blow for Polish space power.

Zosia's vessel, and the others like it, were a thin line deployed behind the massed Logosian war fleet. They would be the catchers, holding off those lucky Worldeater ships which pushed through to threaten the flat-tops.

The Logosian line held, it's formation spread over hundreds of thousands of cubic kilometers. Horrible energies rent and tore at the whirling, un-coordinated mass of living machines. Entire phalanxes of the Worldeater vessels were consumed by accurate, well-directed fire. The return blasts were innacurate and sparse, and many struck vessels were able to fall back to safety before taking major damage. An occaisional plume of fire would erupt as a suicidal liveship would find it's target with suicidal intent.

Zosia's eyes widened. A column of swirling vessels ripped through the Logosian formation. It did not push aside or destroy most of the defenders- it simply endured the withering crossfire, ignoring mounting losses to make a run at the Polish formation.

Over three thousand capital contacts and countless others made it through to the empty space which stretched between the Polish wall of battle and the Logosians.

Working with frantic speed, gun-crews lept to Zosia's commands. Medium-range shells, each one equipped with minimal tracking devices and powerful warheads, were cycled into firing position. The capacitors for the massive electromagnets hummed with pent-up force.

"Fire."

Among the advancing wave of liveships the rounds erupted. Waves of intense heat and radiation buffeted the machines, tearing vast bleeding chunks of flesh from their biomechanical bodies. A follow-on wave of bombers hit seconds after, spreading chaos and death amongst the enemy. Great sculptures of flash-frozen blood tumbled through space, only to be sudenly liquified by the horrible wash of energy from fusion initiations. The worldeater assault became ragged, blasted now from behind by the re-orienting Logosian warships.

"Fire."
"Fire."
"Fire."

Space between the Logosian and Polish fleets became a charnel house, marred by the glittering counter-fire which stabbed at the still-holding shields of the Poles. Armour ran like water under sustained fire as the
Kampania began to take hits, her shielding fluctuating under the uneven assault. In her armoured womb, Zosia could barely feel the impacts.

The next volleys were bombardment rounds. Each shell contained a bundle of independently guided kinetic kill rods, designed to provide multi-target fire support from orbit. Against the poor ECM of the massive worldeater fleet, however, they became viable antiship weapons. The shells split a thousand kilometers from target, each individual rod igniting low-kiloton propulsion nukes to slam them into the charging enemy ships like javelins. Matter became energy with the kinetic force, and still more of the worldeaters died.

The dual-purpose guns of the escorts joined in, nuclear tipped shells and high-powered lasers carving into the enemy. Torpedo tubes released their fish, each one dodging and twisting to end it's semisentient life within attack range of a worldeater vessel. Where they initiated, the torpedos ripped the comparitively fragile living ships to shreds.

The mass of contacts was much sparser now, and Zosia keyed the autoloaders to the short-range pure kinetics. Firing on full speed now, the railguns fired solid rounds. Each one was little more than a cannonball, a simple bar of metal accelerated to murderous velocities by monopole magnets powered by the most advanced reactor technology known to Man. Where they struck home, Worldeater vessels vaporized instantly.

The vast sea of contacts became still weaker, even as blow after blow rocked the Kampania and her sisters. Zosia's attention wasn't even on the thing which killed her- the forwards third of a cruiser, tumbling and lifeless after recieving the tender ministrations of half of "F" battery's masers. IT struck the already weakened port shields like a hammerblow, largely organic mass converting quickly to burning gas against the fluctuating energy of the screens. The horrible suicide projectile's remains erupted over the hull in a vast plume of swirling plasma. "D" turret erupted spectacularly taking a massive chunk of the Kampania's hull with it.

Fires burned on all decks.

Even as the Kampania Wrześniowa fell out of formation frantically radiating SOS, the Worldeater assault died. A few smaller escorts had met worse fates than the crippled battleship, but accurate fire was precisely fileting the increasingly panicked liveships, which now felt their orders to retreat countermanded forcibly by the projected force of interdictors.

The Battle of Mercury was over. Poland had suffered one destroyer and 3 escorts lost, and the Kampania would be in drydock for months, with a turret gone and her hull breached in a half-dozen places.

The threat to Earth, for now, was over.

[Crossroads Inc.]

This is IS-NPT, Intersteller National Public Television.
[Kssssshhhh]

"And stocks in The Sector plumeted within the last standard cycle on fears of a Space Monster attack"
[Kssssshhhh]

The UISC President, incresingly buffing the standard 'figurehead' role of his position turned out to inagurate the newly contructed--
[Kssssshhhh]

Trade within The Sector grew by 15% within the last month as contact with 'Sol' based systems dropped off--
[Kssssshhhh]

"Which if true, means doom for us all...
[Kssssshhhh]

[Tanasinn]

K.R.S. Forethought
Cisvenusian Space
Sol System

The scarred Shultakk captain of the K.R.S. Forethought silently examined the main tactical display, High Diplomat Chul at his shoulder.


"Report," he grunted at the sensors pit in something resembling disbelief.


"The enemy forces have been reduced to roughly a quarter of their forces. Scans confirm that they are attempting to engage their warp drives for a retreat. Preliminary scans are showing 3 interdictors belonging to the CSS are attempting to prevent this retreat," the speaking sensors officer sounded at least as surprised as the captain himself.


High Diplomat Chul spoke, "A most fortunate outcome for all involved, wouldn't you say, captain?" The question was rhetorical. It was more than merely fortunate that the defending forces had not been obliterated. The political officer continued, "Captain, see to it that we tractor in debris from destroyed vessels. If at all possible, try to find samples from different classes of those vessels destroyed. Following that, return to Earth and signal a freighter so that the collected samples may be returned to the home system. I imagine there will be many scientists back on Nalthar that wish to study these strange forces, even if they are apparently much more numerous than they are dangerous, but there will doubtless be issues to attend to on Earth best handled personally."


The captain gave his orders.

[InnocentBystander]

Sol – 3rd Battle at Mercury

BB-18 NIS Nossa Senhora da Gloria - Command and Control

A wave of fire washed over the Portuguese fleet, a pair of destroyers were caught by a few too many hits from the enormous two mile long monsters and had to pull back behind the main line, fires spreading through multiple decks.

The Fleet Admiral looked over his formation carefully; Cruiser Group Center was down two ships already, now hiding behind the massive Portuguese battleships they had a chance to nurse their wounds with little to fear of being shot down while trying to disengage.
“Cruiser Group Left, send two of your escorts to replenish group center.” The admiral’s eyes were fixed on the tactical map. “What are they doing..?” no one on the bridge had honestly ever seen anything like it; the monstrous mass of lifeforms began to split up, half charging the Portuguese or the Logosians and the other half heading straight for the Portuguese.
“Admiral, Sir, alien ships are closing. Half the group is coming straight for us. Your orders?” the Admiral gazed quietly at the tactical hologram, looking for something. Thousands upon thousands of these… things, charging in like wild animals, they obviously had no regard for their ships, or lives, or whatever you’d call it.
“They’re animals, wild and stupid. Maintain formation, order all ships along this course, “he motioned his hand across the tactical screen, a yellow holographic line followed. “ We’ll create a kill zone between the Logosian and Chinese fleet. Keep the fleet aligned, I want them charging straight into my guns.”

The Portuguese Wall was motionless, but no ship in the wall ever stopped moving. The ships flowed, maneuvering to and fro, while the ships weren’t close to each other, they were plenty close to given even the most modern fire control sensors trouble picking up a target. To lower quality equipment from these distances the Portuguese wall was am amorphous cloud thanks to the state of the art electronic warfare equipment onboard Portuguese destroyers. Without breaking formation the fleet moved itself into a more ideal strategic position, counting on fire from the Logosians, Chinese and maybe even some of the other solar powers to create a deadly crossfire.
As the swarm closed distance fire from the Portuguese fleet fleet became more intense, it didn’t take much to destroy the Worldeaters. As the aliens approached medium range the fire intensified greatly as destroyers and frigates opened up with their 67cm quick fire rifles. Losses mounted and their numbers began to noticeably thin. Of the many thousands that started few had made it into short range. A small one managed to connect with a Maria class destroyer, breaking the ship’s spine and splitting into in two. Several more managed to inflict damage on two of the Portuguese cruisers.

BB-18 NIS Nossa Senhora da Gloria - Command and Control

The Admiral continued to watch the fight unfold; the monsters were losing – badly. Their weak armor and lack of shields meant that even the fire from a frigate was a meaningful addition. He had set his pieces in place, and could do nothing but watch the action unfold. The cruiser groups were taking a pretty bad beating, but they were well escorted and their crews top notch.
Suddenly a change, “Admiral, it looks like they’re breaking off the attack.” On the tactical map the small clouds of the monstrous creatures began to change course.
Without missing a beat the Admiral slammed down on his communicator, “Full interdiction – NOW!” the two Parada class cruisers of the fleet, which continue to hide in the shadow of the mighty battleships activated their huge gravity wells. Huge industrial power plants on both ships powered a massive array of FTL interdiction projectors. “Order all ships to peruse without breaking the wall; I don’t want a single one of these things escaping.”

Losses:
1 DD
2 FF
Heavy Damage:
1 CC - Rear section completely destroyed
2 FF – Fire damage to numerous system, multiple hull breaches.
Minor Damage:
2 CC – Overloaded shield generators, minor damages.
1 DD – Minor damages, fire control system significantly damaged.

[Dahak]

Sol, Between Sol and Mercury

Fleet Admiral Toranaga gazed almost dreamily into the Pit below him. The battle hologram was as beautiful as any abstract art piece, with all the lights and lines.
A wall of fire and destruction was laid in the path between the Aliens and the Polish and Logosian fleets. The massive battleship shuddered almost imperceptibly as another volley of missiles roared from its launchers.

"Fascinating," he said to his Chief of Staff. "They still concentrate on them, and fly through the Kill Zone without further thought. They are either mad or crazy."
"Or very resolved, Sir," Hieronimus Chang said.
"True..." Toranaga chuckled.

One by one they died, suffering casualties beyond belief. Very few Solar craft died, almost always lucky hits. The aliens tried to flee, but the Interdictors prevented them. And then, suddenly, it was over. Just like this...

He scanned through the holographic representation of the battle field. There. A big lump of alien ship, almost intact, off the main debris fields.
He ordered a small task force to salvage it. This would give the R&D guys a field day, he was sure...

[Redleader34]

The Mothership's Tractor beam wrapped up the Alien carrier, its FL drive damaged from blasts of phasers and nuclear torpedoes. While the rest of the Earth Fleet was sweeping up craft, several Shuttles were heading towards the carrier. The Teams shuttles attempted to land inside the biomachine, the investigations agents all wondering what the ship was.

As the BattleCruiser Enterprise-D and Starlftmoved back to the New Mombassa Heights Station, the ships minimal damaged in the battle. The Antares however had suffered a slight failure to its fire control systems, and as such, needed to be rewired, which wold take a few weeks to do. The Mothership was slightly battered, damaged by a few suicide craft that had got through a hole in its shields, but the damage was cosmetic. The TGA fleet had been spared, and they had a new prize, the first Alien Space Monster Ship captured by truly sentient beings.

Losses

Antares Out for rewiring


The Uche was looking upon thee battle information from hiss hotel in Poland, the battle seeming to have been a great success for the TGA, "At least there is some good news" he thought, as the TGA worked on restablising thee African region

Colony Ship

[Thirdfain]

Gubernatorial Palace
First Landing City
Wysoka
Roman System

In traditional Polish fashion, the Governer's Palace was situated in the city center, across the broad landing-field from the tall spire of the diocese seat. The lights of the city illuminated the low clouds. A shuttle was rising from it's launch pit on a pillar of violet fire, blast contained by the civil screens. The neon frontages of spacer bars could be seen around the grand square, though the hubbub of the early evening did not penetrate the mansion's thick windows. First Landing was a small city, a colonial town through and through with few buildings more than a few stories tall. A half-million men and women made their homes in what was the planet's only major settlement.

The Spaniars were seated before the remnants of a chic meal in the current cosmopolitan style- small servings of food served heavily garnished on large plates. The Governer sat with them, along with a bevy of functionaries and dignitaries.

"Well, de la Vega. It seems you have made contact with civilization at last. What are you planning to do next?"

[Dahak]

Sol
Jovian System

The alien ship (or what remained of it after the battle) was towed by a small tug towards the small rock with the unremarkable name of Beta-6-Chi-Station.
The station was nothing more than a very small moon of Jupiter, which had been positioned near the inner Jovian system. What was remarkable about it was that it was secured within several layers of mines and battle satellites, all covered by a shield globe enclosing the whole structure.
It was one of the Hegemony's R&D centres for the more exotic cases. Should anything happen, escape or try to break in, it was designed to handle it. And in the very unlikely event something should go terminally wrong, well, it had a antimatter warhead right at its centre.

The alien ship was slowly moved through the boundary shield and put into a small specially constructed holding structure. The reserachers were already eager to wrench every little secret out of it.

****

From: Hegemony of Heavens, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
To: The Co-operative Trans Genetic Alliance
Subject: Alien ship in orbit

The Hegemony has observed the the Co-operative Trans Genetic Alliance moving an alien ship from those recently invading Sol space into Earth orbit around your skylift.
The Hegemony demands that the ship in question be brought away from Earth into a safe facility. The Hegemony does not feel that it is a good move to put some unknown craft without understanding it into Earth orbit, and into striking distance of the Mother World.
If the Co-operative Trans Genetic Alliance refuses, the Hegemony of Heavens reserves the right to act accordingly.