Chapter IX

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(url="http://"http://www.carnotaurhq.com/webstories/roc3/ross_154_map.gif")Ross 154(/url)
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CHAPTERS:
(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webboard/Forum8/HTML/004055.html")I,(/url) (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webboard/Forum8/HTML/004071.html")II,(/url) (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webboard/Forum8/HTML/004092.html")III,(/url) (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webboard/Forum8/HTML/004119.html")IV,(/url) (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webboard/Forum8/HTML/004143.html")V,(/url) (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webboard/Forum8/HTML/004181.html")VI,(/url) (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webboard/Forum8/HTML/004325.html")VII,(/url) (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webboard/Forum8/HTML/004374.html")VIII(/url)

The time has come. Chaos reigns once more. Four galaxies are in the midst of a terrifying war, and death is everywhere.

The time has come, for the Gadzair to return, for the Prylak Divinity to show himself, and for the fate of all free peoples to be decided.

The dragons have marched - the time has come.

Reign of Chaos 3, Chapter IX

(This message has been edited by SilverDragon (edited 03-10-2002).)

Fall of the Destroyer
Sijak

From the depths of RC-006, to the galactic west of the Sijak's colonies in Ross 154, where the long lost Jumpgate 14, named the Mouth of the Dragon, lay dormant, the Prylak Starfortress Shiva entered.

Unlike the other Starfortresses, the Shiva had not required a temporal-jumpgate. Jumpgate 14 was a second route straight into Palador in Andromeda, home system of the Shiva.

With deadly grace, the Shiva made it's way out of RC-006, towards it's target: Sija, homeworld of the Sijak since they had fled their original home in the system known by them as Sirollas - and by the Prylak as Pria.

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The Mists of the Stars , known more simply as the Mist, was in deep space patrol in the Dennari I system. The Mist was the first ship to know of the Shiva's approach. It's sensors, enhanced by Terran technology, picked up the Shiva even as it entered hyperspace from RC-006.

The Mist sent a message back towards Sija immediately, and had began to make it's way out of the system when one secret of the Black Galaxy, a Prylak galaxy far away, was revealed.

A hyper-exit flicked open, disappearing quickly after, and from it a long missile-like craft. The device leapt into incredible speeds, engaging the Mist and exploding. The Mist floated, it's systems dead.

The device, like a missile yet unlike, zoomed across the system, in wait of it's carrier, the Shiva, to arrive.

But now, the Sijak knew; and they were hardly defenceless, especially since several days earlier, a convoy of ships had approached Sijak space. A convoy of Terran ships, offering their technologies in engage for a home.

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Word.

(This message has been edited by SilverDragon (edited 03-10-2002).)

The Sijak streamed out of the portals from all of the other systems, into the hearts of their territory, their homeworld, Sija. Most were there, but their were those that were still being outfitted with as much of the Terran techs that they could use, and that they wanted to use.

Among this had been the cloak, but not all the ships had gotten this. It had been installed mostly on the officers ships, but would later be installed on two smaller sub-fleets, and one larger sub-fleet, but right now they were worried about the Prylak.

Galadriel was shining in the middle of the fleet, standing still, the same size as the Avatars, but infinitely more powerful. The Sijak were still, spread in small sub fleets all about the system, oddly looking like little S patterns.

THe most important of the new techs at the moment was the sensors, but they had only time enough to have installed sensors in about 5 ships of each sub-fleet.

The Sijak waited in space, waiting for the message that would say to get ready, and waiting to see which of them, if any, would survive.

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If your looking at this signature, you need a life.

snip deleted

(This message has been edited by Espona (edited 03-28-2002).)

Quote

Originally posted by Espona:
**< snip>
**

MOD: Sorry, Espona. We're doing it one encounter at a time now; currently the Sijak one. And anyway, I don't think you have that many ships by a long, long way, unless I've forgotten something. Please rewind the tech research, if you don't mind.

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The Shiva and her escorts made their way into Sija, and found themselves up against the entire Sijak fleet - hundreds upon hundreds of fighters, laid out in an S-formation.

The Shiva and her battlefleet quickly came to a halt before the Sijak force, moving into a horse-shoe formation, waiting out the Sijak.

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Word.

(This message has been edited by SilverDragon (edited 03-12-2002).)

The Sijak stared at the Prylak, and the Prylak sat their. Finally, after no commanders gave them orders to move, they settled down, and began messaging each other with guessing games. How many missiles had was this ship holding? How many planets were in so-and-so system?

Soon the commanders sighed as the pilots stared at the Prylak, and played! They were playing! But the Sijak did not move. Their formations stayed still, all around the system, not going to give the Prylak the satisfaction of having them charge in and blow themselves on the weapons.

No, when the Prylak came forward, then would the Sijak move, their S formations swinging to the sides and to the back of the Prylak, if they could.

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If your looking at this signature, you need a life.

The Shiva's reaction to the Sijak's complete motionless was quick. Their formation was broken, and the battlecruisers and dreadnoughts swarmed forward in a seemingly unorganised reef. The Shiva herself followed behind - an enormous, lumbering war machine. It's most dangerous weapons, for which it sacrificed a large complement of it's now relatively obsolete (by Prylak standards) hunter-seekers, were that of the Scarab hunters. The Scarabs, one of which had destroyed a Sijak fighter within half a second and lived to tell the tale, were kept in reserve at first.

When the fleet charged, the Sijak fighters swung around the Prylak, coming at battlecruisers and dreadnoughts from the sides. However, the heavier capital ships blasted away at individual fighters, and death tallies began to count up at an unholy speed.

And then, as fighters swept around to the Shiva, the Scarabs were unleashed - twenty of them. They moved so fast that only the Ghost or Galadriel stood a chance at evading it. Avatars and interceptors were quickly destroyed.

The battle had begun, and it did not bode well.

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-Lyat Esponer Corsair

The Sijak's ships were destroyed left and right, and the Sijak weren't making much progress against the Prylak. The commanders were berely holding their wits together, and desperate calls constantly flew.

Finally, fiercly trying to survive, the Sijak went back into their formations, but this time right behinf each other, the large S moving forward, desparing that they would any survive, but that if they were going to go down, they were going to take the Sijak with them.

Galadriel stood shjining in the midle of the middle of the waves. As the Sijak sped forward, Galadriel sped in with them, avoiding as many weapons as it could, and targetting one Prylak at a time, shooting until that Prylak was either destroyed, or getting to close to do any more damage than the Prylak was to it. But Galadriel's aim wasn't to destroy just anything, it was to save as many of it's people as it could.

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If your looking at this signature, you need a life.

Now that the Sijak force was pressing the attack, the Prylak brought themselves to a halt, allowing the fighters to swarm them - or at least, so the Sijak thought. Scarabs reaked havoc across the lines, and thousands of particle beam turrets slashed away at fighter after fighter. The interceptors left in the battle were few and far between, and even the heavily armed and armoured Avatars were taking heavy losses. Only the Ghosts, piloted by the Sijak's elite, were able to evade fire from the warships, and that they did with infuriating ease.

And of all those that mocked the Prylak, the Galadriel was foremost. Beam turrets surrounded it with light, but few or none struck it. One battlecruiser targetted it with two seperate anti-spacial discharges, and the two streaks of absolute blackness met in space where the Galadriel had only a fraction of a second before been.

The losses on the Sijak's side were many, but the constant waves of Ghosts, firing their neutrino rockets, were sending the shields of battlecruisers and dreadnoughts to Hell and back.

Through this all, there was the Shiva, firing at no Sijak ship. Instead, the Starfortress rolled on, fighters being sucked into it's gravitational force, as it made it's way towards the Sijak's home.

A certain General Grenir of the Loki had believed in hitting the economy before hitting the military. A certain General Epeiron had quite a different belief - hitting their enemy where it hurt most, in their homes.

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-Lyat Esponer Corsair

One formation of Ghost ships saw the Starfortress, and broke off from the main battle, swarming up to the Starfortress. As the rest of the Sijak battle, these few went to see why the Starfortress did not attack, and why they instead headed unto the homeworld.

Galadriel spun around, and it's own weapon systems struck at amazing speeds. Like the Avatars, it too released it's Ghost, and was released from this weight. Galadriel, shining in the midst of chaos, seemed to be dancing the dance of death, but whose was as of yet, unknown.

The Sijak fought for their lives, mostly Ghosts left in the turmoil of combat. Galadriel was whirling out in the drakness of space with the Prylak, and a small formation of Ghosts dared advance towards the lordly Starfortress. The human quote, 'Curiousity killed the cat' would probably hold true with those few Sijak.

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If your looking at this signature, you need a life.

(This message has been edited by Kenra (edited 03-16-2002).)

A number of Ghosts engaged the Shiva with deadly precision, causing what in any other case would be considered extremely severe damage. The Shiva, however, was effected little by the barrage of weapon's fire. It continued on towards the planet at the same time, targetting individual Ghosts with it's entire firepower, one by one, instead of firing off beams at all targets at once, in an attempt to destroy them, but which would be easier for the lightning-fast fighters to evade. And still, the Scarabs were dominant, zipping around faster than the Ghosts.

Despite all the efforts of the Sijak, the Shiva came within range of the planet, it's temporal disruption beam charged...

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-Lyat Esponer Corsair

Blade frowned. "How powerful is that beam?" he asked, mostly to himself. No-one would, of course, know, but they could take a guess; and, in fact, they did.

"Knowing the Prylak, and the energy emissions..." began one other Terran, faltering slightly, "...I'd say apocalyptic."

Blade nodded slightly, closing his eyes. "I thought as much. Ahh, Earth...Terra...the human blood shed in our love for you. And now beautiful Sija, fairest of all and yet not so..."

"If you are suggesting what I think you are, know I'm with you, Blade," put in a lieutenant Blade had known all his life. "It is the very essence of humanity to die for their cause, it seems. We've lost Earth, we've lost all our homes, and now, it looks like we'll lose this one too."

"Yes," Blade managed to reply. "Luckily we still have this old boat, isn't it?" he grinned slightly, patting the console in front of him, in the red-lit helm of the last Supernova; Blade's Supernova. "Ignore Sijak command. We're taking off - there's enough time."

The lieutenant's eyes were filling with tears. "We're all that's left, aren't we? No family, just skeletons piled up in the closet. There's nothing left to live for anyway."

"The Terrans may have met their end," answered Blade sadly, "but we must put aside all our follies and meet our end with our courage..."

With that, the Supernova took off from Sija, communications switched off to the Sijak. It was not switched off completely, however.

Painfully, the Supernova rose out of Sija's atmosphere as the massive temporal disruption beam charged to fire, bathing the Starfortress in perfect white light. Several Ghosts nearby were sucked into that light, before even the beam fired.

"And thus comes the end," Blade announced boldly. "Let us hope that our end will stall the Sijak's. To whatever is beyond!"

And with that, the Supernova charged straight towards the Shiva, too far in it's charging to now engage it's primary weapon systems. The Supernova charged wit all the Terran's hopes in it's wake, raining overcharged death upon the Starfortress in a futile attempt at defiance.

And the Supernova was taken by the fires of Hell, and Sija was saved, and Blade of the Terrans was no more. Finally the end of the Terrans had come, after thirty years of losing battles. But this time at least, they had lost with glory.

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-Lyat Esponer Corsair

At the death of the Terrans, Galadriel, and about a quarter of the fleet spun about, swiftly plunging towards the Starfortress. The rest of the fleet closed in the space they left and drove at the Prylak with the ferociousness of the desperate, and of those who were blinded by rage. The Terrans had saved their planet, and they would not let their sacrifice go in vain.

Galadriel and it's now much larger 'escort' stopped, just a bit away from Shiva. In a slight calm, they contemplated how to go about it. They huddled together, a big cluster of thin little ships and a shining hope-beacon.

Finally, with desperate bravado, the whole quarter-fleet dived into the pack of Scarabs shooting wildly, just wanting to get through to Shiva, wanting to destroy the attempted planet killer. First they just had to get through the horde of Scarabs.

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If your looking at this signature, you need a life.

Quote

Originally posted by Kenra:
**Finally, with desperate bravado, the whole quarter-fleet dived into the pack of Scarabs shooting wildly, just wanting to get through to Shiva, wanting to destroy the attempted planet killer. First they just had to get through the horde of Scarabs.

**

The charge of the Sijak force quickly began to turn into a slaughter as all twenty Scarabs were let loose upon them. Despite having to return to the Shiva after unloading it's first payload, they could still rain down destruction incredibly quickly, and their two-minute impenetrable shield made it impossible for anyone to get past them.

However, the Sijak ships were fast, and they ignored their losses. Although the Scarabs were two to three times faster than even the Ghosts, temporary evasion was possible.

And then, the Sijak were upon the Shiva, unloading everything they had upon it. The Shiva's shields shimerred from the impacts of hundreds of neutrino rockets, some reacting powerfully enough to sear a hole straight through the entire shield bubble, at which point streaks of neutrino fire followed to make use of the advantage.

The Shiva was taking heavy damage, but it still wasn't enough. One; two; three; four; five - Sijak fighters were falling five to the second.

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-Lyat Esponer Corsair

The rest of the Sijak fleet, in seeing their comrades in danger, turns from the Prylak fleet and dives into the horde of Scarabs and near Shiva. The rest of the Avatars and Interceptors were quickly going down, but even as they exploded, they would shoot at Shiva with everything they had left.

Carnage rained down, and the Sijak's mind had a single purpose now, and that purpose was the destrution of Shiva. Dieing ships would throw themselves against it. They didn't make much of an explosion, but they did as much as they could. Weapon systems were full tilt everywhere. Sometimes, they would break away from the fleet, and then dive back in.

Most of the Sijak ships were huddled near Shiva's form, trying to dance around the Scarabs and shoot at the Shiva at the same time. On the planet below, dreading eyes of multiple colors looked anxiously up at the sky, through telescopes, or through the satellites watching. One silver pair of eyes wept desparingly for the spirit of death that ran throogh the sky.

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If your looking at this signature, you need a life.

It was too much. The pitiful Prylak had crossed thousands of light years to come to Sija, the homeworld of the Sijak, who had once been their slaves. And they had found that they were up against something so far beyond them that they could not even begin to comprehend it. The Sijak were not going to leave their new home. They would never let the Prylak have it.

The Prylak were learning a serious lesson in courage.

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-Lyat Esponer Corsair

The Sijak had lost many ships by now, but their bravery never wandered. They slammed against anything that got in their way. Galadriel shone through it all, a shining beacon, bringing hope back and restoring the courage of those who were losing it.

And the pilot of Galadriel knew this, and would sometimes weave through the fleet, gathering up the stragglers, and going back to throw themselves at Shiva, heart and soul. Weapon systems glowed with the energy pushed through them.

The Sijak fought, and the awesome power of the Prylak seemed to have no effect on the Sijak's minds. They cared not that these were their former masters. All they wanted was to protect their land. Death ran through them, but from their hand it fell onto Shiva.

Shiva shields and armor had fallen, and it had slowly begun small explosions. The Sijak noticed this, and they twirled around. They split off, away from Shiva and the rest of the Prylak fleet, and watched from afar as Shiva lit up with little fireworks. And then, many minutes after it had started, Shiva gave a few large explosions, and was gone.

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If your looking at this signature, you need a life.

(This message has been edited by Kenra (edited 03-19-2002).)

(This message has been edited by Kenra (edited 03-23-2002).)

I will be away the next three days; if the Shiva is finished, start on the Amun or Queztal or something.
Ciao,

-Shade

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(url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/shades_shipyard")Shade's Shipyard(/url), the source for your ship needs.

OOC - looking back on some of the posts Espona made with the battle against the Amun, he’s controlling the Amun’s movements, and it’s NPCs, a little more than I would normally let by. Since he’s also not available to post as much as some people, I’m going to write the entire conflict out from where we left off.

Edit on that - I decided to leave it there for Espona to continue. Just note, Espona, you can't command the Starfortress, it's fleet, or have any scenes in the Starfortress.

The End of the Leech War
Haorn

HC-006 was an unlikely battlefield. The Amun’s fleet remained in Dar to clear out the remaining Haorn forces, a battle which was at best only slightly leaning towards them, while Haorn reinforcements were preparing in Horon II, which, being less than ten light years from Dar, was the most useful staging point.

The Fallen Wraith, however, had been travelling in the wake of the Haorn’s first reinforcement fleet, and when a critical-status had been received from Dar’s defence fleet, the other ships had gone on ahead. And thus, the Fallen Wraith was still in HC-006 when the Amun moved ahead.

The two titans eyed each other only briefly across the stars. Some might say much later that they stood paralysed, watching each other - like time stood still. However, that was not the case. The captains of both ships knew that before them was the greatest challenge they had met yet, even if for the captain of the Amun it was only due to lack of experience fighting the Drakal.

The Amun definately had the advantage from the start. To begin with, it started by unleashing a deadly load of several hundred hunter-seekers, which seperated out to the sides, and struck the Fallen Wraith from the rear. The purpose was a veiled one - the Prylak were, in fact, testing the mass of their opponent, by calculating the distance in the ship’s forward propulsion with the myriad impacts at it’s rear. The general in command happened to be a calculating man, who saw no use in wasting any opportunity.

The Fallen Wraith was not as impressive as the Amun, but it’s spectral armour held against the first fire, and took three more barrages with limited strain before the Haorn’s flagship came into range. Energy leeches were discharged against the Amun, proving to be extremely effective at first, as the Amun’s attempts at point defence work only mad the leeches more powerful. They collided with the Starfortress’ shields violently. The damage caused was in fact tiny compared to the Amun’s shielding, but it was still an enormous amount.

As the two vessels approached primary weapon’s range, more barrages were fired at each other, this time with the more deadly hunter-killers being mingled in with hunter-seekers. Energy leeches and Prylak modules met mid-way, the leeches being charged to bursting. Yet, both leeches and modules broke through from either side. The Fallen Wraith’s spectral armour shimmered under the strain, which trebled when the Amun’s beams came into range. It’s power quickly fell, while the Amun showed no sign of stress.

In desperation, the Fallen Wraith discharged it’s sub-space emitters, sending them in a ring around the Amun, making it impossible for the Starfortress to evade. With a ring of sub-space around it, one more emitter could be fired without any risk of the Amun moving out of the way, for “out of the way” would mean into sub-space.

The emitters began sending out waves of sub-space around the Amun, and triumphantly the Fallen Wraith launched one more emitter straight into the Amun, and it was sucked into nothingness.

The Fallen Wraith was left in the system, the Amun destroyed. After several minutes, it quickly entered hyperspace for Dar, to help the rest of the Haorn fleet finish the Amun’s escorts.

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Since the Amun was believed destroyed, Horon II was entirely unprepared. It’s fleets had already moved out to HC-006 and then to Dar, so it was largely undefended. Indeed, already the word of the Amun’s effortless destruction was travelling through Haorn space.

Thus it was extremely shocking when a jumpgate materialised within Horon II, and the Amun rose out of it. Beyond the hypergate, there was nothing - not the stars seen from Horon II or from HC-006; nothing. The Amun had barely exitted the jumpgate when it collapsed, as the other side was drawn into sub-space.

There was little to call a battle. A few rift generators on various outposts were all that the Haorn had to stand up against the Amun. They were all quickly destroyed, and the planet was scoured. Barely half an hour later, the Amun left the system for Ho’Norus.

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-Lyat Esponer Corsair

Espona, that's been five days. We're not supposed to work this slowly!

I'll open up two or three others next time I talk to their leaders on AIM.

Meanwhile, Espona, POST!

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-Lyat Esponer Corsair