[i][b]ACT I – The Long Way Down To Hell[/i][/b]
[b][i]2410 AD, Earth, Geneva Supreme World Court, Trial Case Robinsong vs United Federation of Earthen States[/b][/i]

[img]http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/ae147/Ultimate88_photo/RP%20stuff/Final%20Frontier/1782_zpsd407ab90.jpg[/img]

James Robinsong sat accused of the most severe crimes one could possibly be accused of, and he knew it. High treason; conspiracy to commit treason, collaboration with separatists, conspiracy to commit terrorism, to Robinsong, it was made clear the politicians of UFES had lost patience with his wayward colony. If he lost this battle he would be executed. And he knew he was going to lose this battle.

His lawyer, some Mr. John Ash was not helping in the slightest... In fact he suspected he may even be sabotaging his case... Not that it mattered. Robinsong sighed, knowing that his case was unwinnable from the moment he was arrested. It was just as the anonymous, faceless I.B.E.I* agent had said in the prison. 

“We warned you that the I.B.E.I will ensure justice is done swiftly Mr.Robinsong. Do not pretend you have any hope of escaping. Give us what we want and we will make sure you may go”. Robinson had simply glared at him, refusing to speak. The I.B.E.I agent was careful not to show his face, but he knew he was making the agent irritated by his persistent silence.

“Your defiance in cooperating with the I.B.E.I is making your court case potentially biased in its disposition. If you continue with this course of action, you may force us to act further”. 

More silence from Robinsong. The man looked down at his watch, stood silent for a moment and then spoke in a harsh whisper.
 “Earth and the safety of its citizens are not equal to the life of two potential terrorists, a women and a girl on a far-off colony. If you continue to test our patience in this futile attempt of rebellion, their safety cannot be guaranteed”.

Robinson had been close to attempting to strangle the man for that final remark, however he remained silent. The agent left shortly after, and now here he was, in an armoured vehicle being driven to his first trial hearing. He was thankful he was at least allowed his usual business attire rather than a prison suit. He would have thought after raiding his family home in Britain, Manor on Dacyira and his bank accounts deposits they would leave him no dignity left.

He also wore a ballistic vest and even had some form of small robot connected to his neck which if he remembered correctly injected nanomachines into the bloodstream to repair damaged tissue. Darkly, he realized the nanomachines would also be used to track him if he somehow succeeded in escaping. The vest, nanomachines, armoured vehicle and heavily armed guards protecting him supposedly was not to stop him from escaping but rather to stop Earthist paramilitaries from attempting to pull a vigilante execution on him. Popularity in the colonies was usually measured in contrast to notoriety in the inner worlds after all, so he had some inclination to believe there are those here who would like to see him dead (Why they did not just wait until a guilty verdict though, he had no idea)

Once the vehicle stopped, a virtual small army of police and other security personnel assembled to escort him to his trial. Robinson walked unafraid of any form of ambush: He knew that until the I.B.E.I either had no further use from him or gave up trying to blackmail him into giving what they wanted, he was the safest man on the planet, if not in the entirety of human space, trial or no trial.

Robinsong looked across the familiar sight of Earth. Even here in Geneva, Switzerland, little remained of nature or culture, just endless metropolitan sprawl and waves of orderly drones who called themselves human. On his short walk to the Supreme Court building, he passed another collection of drones, and another small army, this time of journalists, camera drones and reporters carefully vetted by the I.E.B.I (Else he figured they would have been blocked any access to him), there would be no incident here except a mass of questions being thrown at him. In particular he noticed one Amy Turner, the same reporter who had the luck to announce his arrest to the galaxy before anyone else. 

Upon entering the building, Robinsong was confronted with the plastered smile of his Lawyer. “Ah! Mr Robinsong, you have arrived, good... So shall we begin?”
Robinsong simply nodded, and so as they waited for the trial to come into action, his lawyer went over some final preliminary details of his defence, all of which Robinsong knew was meaningless... All of which Robinsong knew his lawyer knew was meaningless.
This farce was already over; it was simply a matter of how long until Earth realized he would not back down.
With this in mind, he entered the court room.

=============================================================================================================

[b][i]Dacyira, High Orbit, UES Clinton (Liberator-Class Battlecruiser)[/b][/i]

[img]http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/ae147/Ultimate88_photo/RP%20stuff/Final%20Frontier/1202_zps81e9d5af.jpg[/img]

“Captain, we are entering Dacyira’s orbit” Reported a young helmswoman, Chloe Barm...? Barns..? Whatever it was, her surname was lost to Captain Pavlov. Just awakening from cryo it felt like but minutes they had left the edge of Sol. A new command, a new planet and of course, a new crew... Pavlov knew what the high brass was doing, you didn’t get sent out this far to “PROTECT THE VITAL TRADE LANES” of the infamous ‘Devil’s Garden’ unless you fucked up.

And he fucked up. He lost his whole god damn ship and crew to repairs for his otherwise victorious conquest against pirates four years back. Disrespectful louts, the lot of them. High brass orders him to fight a suicidal battle against seven pirate vessels led by some crazed Warlord augmented with military grade weapons and then reprimands him for actually winning. 

“Very good, communications please send a memo out to the other captains that we are having a joint meeting in five minutes. Make sure the local fleet gets the message” Pavlov grumbled. The little blue and green world was now a massive globe stretching across the bridge’s monitors (only an idiot would actually have windows built into a bridge). The navy and army alike had good reason to call this death trap the Devil’s Garden. Hell on the surface filled with dark jungles and some kind of lizard natives, hell in space; filled with yet more god damn pirates. Pavlov swore if he ever became Admiral the first thing he would do is enter Edwardina and glass every single world that had a pirate on it.

“Local fleet in sight captain” the other helmsman, some cocky youth (Always cocky!) stated. The local fleet apparently was now also moving into orbit of the planet, likely they had been away from this area patrolling in the outer reaches of the Natu system.

“Very well, I have a meeting to attend to. Commander Wallace, you have the bridge”. Pavlov stiffly stood up, and still recovering from cryo awkwardly limped back down the hallway to the conference room.

“Aye aye, sir” Wallace replied. In Pavlov’s eyes, Wallace was a professional careerist, proper but a bit too ambitious to be fully trusted. Pavlov reached the elevator and descended. “ARDA, respond. Are the other captains connecting?”

“Affirmative captain, besides yourself, only Captains Laurance and Yamauchi are still absent from the meeting”. The synthetic voice responded. The only trustworthy entity on this vessel, the Ship’s Military AI nearly never changes from ship to ship.

Pavlov entered the conference room and sat down in front of a desk facing a blank white wall. “ARDA, activate screen”. 

The wall lit up, showing the faces of the other seven captains now in orbit of this godforsaken hellhole. Captain Acker; Captain Laurance and Captain Laskowski of his own group of ships alongside the colonies local military vessels represented by Captain Yamauchi; Captain Macbay, Captain Shou and Captain Hale, each of the eight faces started at each other, sizing up who they would be working with for the next six months. Pavlov was at least secure in his knowledge that technically for the duration of this mission he was now unofficially made a Commodore, so he had authority in this room even if only nominally.

“Well, gentlemen...” Pavlov spoke first, then remembered his fellow Captain Edyta Laskowski was a woman, not so common from his homeland of Phobos, much more so apparently everywhere else. “And lady. It seems from the reports I have acquired, this planet is a complete and utter mess; even worse than as per usual. Can anyone here please fill me in as to why?”

The local captains looked at Pavlov, silently communicating until Captain Yamauchi, an old Asian man who from what Pavlov had briefly read of him in the report was a woefully under ranked naval genius of some sort who was repeatedly denied promotion decided to speak on behalf of the four locals. “Your assessment of this world would be correct commodore. We are understaffed, only have four ships to do the impossible task of policing this entire system and are drowning in pirate threats” The old captain then looked over to his side, obviously indicating for another captain to speak.

“Whenever we get reports of pirate activity on the outer edges of the system, another pirate vessel is always waiting to catch a ship and loot everything” the man known as Hale spoke. A moment of silence and a cough later, he continued. “We suspect in fact it is actually a single ship doing this, a powerful ship that has been preying on the mining haulers of the Astani Corporation in particular”.

“A single ship?” Pavlov asked in disbelief.

“A single ship.” Hale confirmed. Pavlov merely rubbed the bridge of his nose and allowed them to continue speaking.

“The ground is worse off, natives have become increasingly aggressive, colonists are ATTACKING each other in all out wars and we just witnessed proof that some kind of unidentified object, most likely a xeno ship landed on the planet. Earth’s only response to our request for aid is to arrest one of the most unifying figures of Earth’s administration here and instigate civil unrest across the few legitimate Earthist colonies ” Yaumachi rasped.

Ah yes, the James Robinsong case, yet another case of typical Earth bureaucracy. The big shots back home could have at least waited until his taskforce had arrived at this world before throwing it into the fire. “Is the magistrate dealing with the unrest adequately?” Pavlov hesitantly inquired, once again preparing himself for a barrage of bad news and incompetence.

“The colonists have mostly calmed down since the initial announcement. General Alvarado and Colonel McCarron have been instrumental in coordinating the local military to work alongside their own Earthist reinforcements. We believe so long as the Robinsong trial remains in status quo the issue will not escalate further”. After Yaumachi concluded his analysis, it was Pavlov’s turn to decide on a course of action. 

Drumming his fingers across the desk, he sat contemplating a course of action. After a minute of thought, he had drafted a basic strategy in his mind. 
“Right, first we will need to network between the different colonies and bases aligned with Earth” Pavlov immediately turned away from the screen and turns a small holographic emitter. “ARDA, please tell Wallace to send out hails to each colonial magistrate, I need everyone on this rock on the same page” The small emitter briefly came to life, showing the AI was now present.

“Affirmative, captain” ARDA replied in her usual monotone.

Turning back to the captains Pavlov continued. “We will need to get in contact with that Raeche colony eventually, the fact that the entire colony are made up of Blue’s** makes the place invaluable should anything come up”. Concluding the matter of unrest and angry mobs, Pavlov turned to the actual issue, the elephant in the living room... and his absolute nemesis in all things.

“The Pirates, when did they last strike?” Pavlov said with loathing. Everyone here knew Pavlov’s reputation as a pirate-hunter.

“Very recently, the Astani Corporation was once again robbed. They aren’t telling us anything and we have no means to acquire more information so we assume they were carrying new technology and don’t want us snooping into their business secrets” Yaumachi responded, Pavlov sharing his annoyance with these corporate dogs, they were just as obstructive as Earth’s bureaucrats.

“Well then my fellow comrades, I think it is time we deal with this “single ship” for good. I will not stand being in the same system as a pirate as full of themselves as to stay in the same location for so long” Pavlov then begun smiling, he always loved this part. “So, we smoke them out. If these pirates are worth their stripes then they have been monitoring us the whole time and as such will be leaving this system shortly, they can’t possibly hope to fight eight warships at once, nor can they avoid us”.
Pavlov smile became a grin, and he continued. “But by God, Earth and Alien Space Jesus, I pray that they are stupid enough to have not been monitoring anything but the trade lane. If these are just lucky rookie’s, then right about now they sho---“

Pavlov’s and the other captains laughing were abruptly cut off by the appearance of ARDA’s holographic form, the small red woman on a pedestal making a polite “Ahem” noise. 

“Captain, the bridge is reporting movement behind one of the planets in this system. The vessel is not pinging its identification, which by the Space Affiliation Act of 2211*** is illegal. The ship at its current course will reach Dacyira’s orbit within ten minutes and the Trade Lane in an hour and twenty minutes” First shocked, the captains looked at the AI and realized that the universe had decided to throw their prey straight at them

“Speak of the devil” Laskowski muttered under her breath.

“It looks like my prayer has been answered. ARDA, tell Wallace to turn this ship around. When the ship passes into range, we’ll ambush them right here. Fellow captains, I think we will be dealing with this pirate threat sooner than later”. The captains appeared eager to finally take these pirates out and so the captains disconnected shortly thereafter. Pavlov walked back towards the bridge, fairly eager himself to slaughter more pirates.

Upon entering the elevator, ARDA appeared again on the elevators consol. “Captain, Commander Wallace is reporting that the target ship is of a capital ship design, from heat scans I have extrapolated it to be a Cruiser of either Lionel or Crusader class”. This surprised Pavlov, it was rare to find pirates with serious firepower beyond Edwardinia or Karastova. No wonder these pirates were hanging around a single star system, they had the firepower to fight off most patrols easily.

Emphasis on most Pavlov thought. One cruiser against six alongside a heavy cruiser and his own battlecrusier, this battle was over before it had even begun. “ARDA, tell Commander Wallace that I want visual and target mapping, tell him to launch probes if he has to, we need to see them before they see us”.

Just as Pavlov was walking off the elevator into the bridge, the general alert was sounded. “BATTLE STATIONS, ALL CREW TO BATTLESTATIONS! I REPEAT, BATTLE STATIONS! 5 MINUTES UNTIL INTERCEPTION!” ARDA’s voice was no longer monotone, almost eagerly she announced over the intercom with gusto comparable to any true human warrior (Pavlov had to remind himself that Artificial Intelligence was not merely a program). Entering the bridge, Pavlov looked around and saw the entire room was filled with people busy preparing for battle. Wallace upon noticing him stood up, saluted and returned the captains seat to him. It was time to wage war against god damn, stinking space rat coward pirates.

“Activate turrets 1 through 8, charge the Excalibur cannon, aim all point defence towards potential assault trajectories for fighter and bomber squadrons, and prioritize shield strength to the bow”. 

“Activating turrets 1 through 8, sir” the chief gunner replied, Pavlov watching on screen as the main guns sprouted out of the hull

“Captain, our probe is getting preliminary data; enemy vessel is of Crusader-class, five main guns, fifteen side arms, fifty point defence and two hangar bays” ARDA reported in.

“Excalibur cannon at 30% charge, captain!” The support-gunner announced. Everything was set, time to begin phase two. 

“Right, beginning-“Once again cut off, this time by a ringing noise coming from the communication officers console. 

“Sir... I have a message from the surface; one Major Isaac Jenkins is requesting assistance from all Earth forces in the system...” The communications officer stated hesitantly, as if unsure of what she was seeing.

“What is the problem done there?” Pavlov asked quickly, concerned as the target ship rapidly approached them.

“He and his men are surrounded inside their barracks by a mob of colonists, sir”. She said, now confused. Pavlov raised his eyebrow at this and almost laughed.
“What nonsense, tell him to report to General Alvarado. Begin charging main turrets 1, 2 and 3. Tell the rest of the taskforce to follow suit”. Pavlov was now utterly focused on this ship. If he timed it right, the probes would spook the pirate ship and they would hastily raise their shields in the wrong direction. One volley of shoots from the taskforces main guns and the UES Clinton’s spinal cannon would obliterate the ship before they could return a shot.

“Captain, the target has noticed the probes; they are activating shields and charging weapons, two minutes to interception!” ARDA spoke; everything was going according to plan.

The battle was about to commence, everything was set up... until that annoying ringing noise from the communications console begun again. “What does this Major Jenkins want now...?”

“Sir... He is stating that he can’t connect with either General Alvarado or Colonel McCarron, hence he is sending out a general distress call to all Earth military frequencies”. Pavlov was now generally confused. What the hell was Alvarado and McCarron doing? From what he knew, Alvarado is probably drunk somewhere, but “Mad Dog” McCarron? 

“Tell him that we will send some men to break up the riot once we deal with this pirate ship if no one comes to help him, sit tight and lock down the base”. Pavlov said slowly, musing that perhaps the magistrate could have selected a better high command. Turning back to the screen, he could now see the enemy ship, a tiny dot only viewed through high level magnification from the ships Optics. A nice, smooth long-range engagement, they called these your typical “Sniper Duel” back on Phobes Military Academy. Doesn’t matter how good a military strategist you are. Even a fool with superior numbers could defeat a genius in this kind of engagement, and Pavlov was no fool.
“Main guns ready to fire! Excalibur cannon at 70% charge!” The chief gunner was ready to fire. It was time to begin.

“Fire.” Pavlov spoke followed by a swish of his hand.

The main guns launched a collection of rapidly accelerated shells directly at the tiny spec in the distance, followed by Laskowski, Acker and Laurance joining the barrage. It took him a brief moment of confusion to realize both that the enemy ship was still accelerating towards him... and that only three other ships had opened fire.
“What the hell is the meaning of this!?!” Pavlov shouted while standing up from his seat.

“Captain, the UES Yamamoto, UES Kentucky, UES Griffon and UES Monroe have failed to fire their main guns at target, unknown error in firing mechanics, scanning for possible sabotage of local fleet” ARDA announced and then disappeared in the comparison of a human wandering off to look at something that caught their interest.
“This is ridiculous! Do they not have maintenance crews!? [b]Идиот! Дурак! Сын блудницы!”[/b]

 Pavlov continued ranting while at the same time moving towards the chief gunner. “Prepare mid-range weapons! This has become a mid-field engagement...” Calming down slightly, Pavlov continued. “Four ships seem to be useless, but we still have the numerical and tactical advantage, if need comes we can use those four local monkey’s as cannon fodder”.

Mid-range weapons were being prepared, missile pads, plasma torpedo’s, particle cannons and yet more electromagnetic rail-guns when that. Annoying. Sound. Came again. 
“What does Jenkins want now!?” Pavlov barked. This was absurd. 

“ Sir! Th-e, uh...” The woman gulped. “The mob has guns sir!”

“What of it?!” He barked again.

“A-and Jenkins has lost contact with Military bases, uhm, C1, C2 and D1”

“TELL MAJOR JENKINS TO ROLL OUT TANKS AND DEAL WITH IT THEN!” Pavlov paused, turned towards the enemy ship, now clearly visible. “Cut off that link with his base, we have our own problems.” Pavlov had never dwelt with so much bullshit before in his life from anywhere except the High Brass and Earth’s bureaucracy. He had six months of this hellhole... He knew he wasn’t going to be leaving this place with any hair left on his balding head.

“Captain, incoming hail from the UES Warsaw, it appears to be Captain Laskowski on a private channel”. ARDA sent the hail to the main screen. 

“Connect”. Pavlov saw the middle-aged spectacled woman again, now appearing almost genuinely worried. 

“Commodore! My ships intelligence suite intercepted a transmission from the fleet! [i]IT IS GOING TO THE PIRATE VESSEL![/i]” Pavlov simply looked at her with an expression of blank incomprehension. Wallace however seemed to pick up on something and begun walking backwards towards the elevator.
While Laskowski was still on screen, that helmswoman, Cloe Baunch or such suddenly yelled. “Captain! The Kentucky is turning! Collision cause in forty seconds! “
“Move this ship damn it!”

“Captain, the Kentucky, Yamamoto, Griffon and Monroe are breaking formation, they are turning their vessels”. ARDA spoke while Laskowski silently deactivated the channel, a face of sudden enraged determination disappearing. 

“Captain! The Kentucky has weapons back online! They are charging cannons!” The chief-gunner yelled

“Oh god! What is happening!” Screamed the helmswoman And then the ringing noise. 
At that Pavlov cracked. “Who the fuck is doing this!? COMMUNICATIONS, I TOLD YOU TO CUT THE CONNECTION WITH JENKINS!”

“S-s-ir it-it isn’t J-Jenkins. It’s coming from the Magistrate Building” Her eyes were widening at whatever she was reading. Another ringing noise. Then another. And another. In just ten seconds there was at least thirty different ringing noises going off in the bridge drowning out the crying of the helmswoman and Wallace slowly opening the elevator door and backing into it.

“Captain, the Yamamoto and Monroe have restored weapons and are charging their main turrets” ARDA’s voice spoke, raising her voice’s volume to speak over the ringing noise.

“Communications just play the damn message!” Pavlov was nearly screaming at the girl who looked like she was also about to break down crying.

[b][i]“ALL EARTH FORCES! I REPEAT! ALL EARTH FORCES! WE ARE UNDER ATTACK! IMMEDIATE DEPLOYMENT OF ALL RESERVES! CODE OMEGA-221! WE ARE UNDER ATTACK BY HEAVILY ARMED FORCES! I REPEAT! ALL EARTH---“ [/i][/b]

“Captain, the pirate vessel is hailing us, it is an open transmission. Analysing...” ARDA was almost selectively ignoring the now panicking bridge crew, pretending everything was alright. Pavlov was too shocked for words and had stopped ranting; now just looking blankly at the ‘pirate’ cruiser as it came into view, the words “ICS Defiant” of the separatist fleet proudly displayed on its starboard.

“Analysed, the ship is the ICS Defiant, a cruiser of the Grand Interstellar Army for the Self Determination of Colonists, its captain, Engelbert Einsenberg is requesting our immediate surrender or we will be destroyed. What is your response captain?” ARDA spoke with still more false calmness.
Before Pavlov could respond, ARDA suddenly spoke again. “The Kentucky is turning its guns towards us Captain”
“It’s a trap! Yelled the chief-gunner

“Captain, from my analysis I believe we have become a victim of a military coup instigated against Magistrate Billy Frankston by local military forces” ARDA replied, returning to monotone.

[b]“трахаться”[/b] Pavlov breathed.

“Captain, all ships are charging weapons, the Warsaw is breaking formation, Commander Wallace has also abandoned his post and is located in Escape Pod Bay 3, do you wish me to lock the Escape Pods?” ARDA asked innocently.

 “Turn this ship around! Distribute guns between targets and lock Bay 3’s door and launch the pod while the coward is still in the bay!”
“Captain, I can not intentionally harm crew members of this vessel, if I can would I advise to simply turn the bay into a temporary brig by sealing him inside?” ARDA spoke in a questioning tone. Pavlov ignored her and watched as suddenly the top section of the Kentucky exploded into thousands of tiny bits of debris. The Warsaw had opened fire...

[b][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp8w9cnm-JY&playnext=1&list=PL498E8898A36E815D]And all hell broke loose.[/url][/b]

[img]http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/ae147/Ultimate88_photo/RP%20stuff/Final%20Frontier/Battle_zps77d22551.gif[/img]

“All guns open fire, if they want to fight like a mugger in an alley way, then lets FIGHT LIKE A MUGGER IN AN ALLEY WAY!”**** Pavlov yelled
The Clinton opened fire at the damaged Kentucky while the Kentucky returned fire, their physical shells bouncing across the shields and flying off into other vessels shields. From such close range, the plasma and particle weapons strength were at such levels that the shields were quickly drained mutually, allowing shots to rapidly smash through into the armour and hull.

“Critical damage on decks 7 to 9, emergency blast doors locking” ARDA announced.
The Griffon and Hector engaged each other, the Yamamoto fired on the Warsaw and both the Monroe and Cape Town moved to assist either the Kentucky or Clinton respectively. 

“Critical damage to main guns 4 and 7, major damage to engine 3 and 2, blast doors on engineering and stern decks activated” ARDA continued
The space around the orbit of the planet was quickly covered in flashes of hundreds of beams of particles, plasma and explosions of kinetic weapons. Shrapnel and debris floated around now in hundreds of thousands to millions of tiny (And not so tiny) pieces, obscuring targets and deflecting kinetic shots off their primary targets.
 “Captain, the Defiant is opening fire on the Warsaw”. 

ARDA’s announcement followed by the “Pirate” cruiser launching an all out barrage on the Warsaw’s shields. Luckily its distance was still just entering mid-field, forcing it to rely on kinetic weapons for accuracy and speed, giving the Warsaw shields time to take the hits. The Warsaw continued pounding the Kentucky, a few medium guns firing on the Defiant.

“SIR! THE WARSAW HAS CHARGED ITS EXCALIBUR CANNON, IT IS FIRING!” The chief-gunner yelled followed by a wave of panicking of the bridge crew. 
“What the hell is that bitch thinking?!” Pavlov cried out as the beam of energy shot across the battlefield, the intense light and heat frying the bridges sensors, optics and blinding the crew. Pavlov was lucky enough to avert his eyes in time, others not so lucky. He heard the screams of not only the helmsmen/woman as their eyes were fried but ARDA’s too, a bizarre mechanical scream followed by what seemed like binary. The bridge’s lights went out, the screens disappeared and a number of consoles exploded with their controllers still on them.The only information they had on what happened outside was the chaos of what was apparently (very large) pieces of debris from the Kentucky flying into the Clinton, launching crew across the bridge like rag dolls. 

Energy came back to the bridge finally half way through another collision with debris as the bridges Emergency Redundancy Generator came online. The bridge screen came back to life as the system realized the optics were fried and activated the spares. 

The place was a complete and utter shitstorm. The Kentucky was in tiny exploding piece’s floating across the battlefield as a new asteroid field, the Warsaw was being hit by missiles from the Monroe and various ordnance from the Defiant, both the Griffon and the Hector were burning up in Dacyira’s atmosphere, the ships tearing themselves apart as they fell, still firing at each other. The Yamamoto was limping back towards the Clinton to engage it while the Cape Town seemingly wandered off to nowhere, its engines apparently flying it aimlessly as pieces of its hull floated off behind it, perhaps a thousand years from now the pieces would crash into one of the other planets of this system.
Fighter squadrons had been launched by the warships that had bays, but most of them were being mercilessly ripped to shreds by TINY PARTICLES OF DEBRIS. A swarm of strike craft from the Defiant and mobilized towards them, then veered off as they realized the battlefield was a death trap (All except one, whose pilot was insane enough to drive in, and good and lucky enough to survive).

“Sound off!” Pavlov yelled in the dimly lit wreck the bridge now was. A collection of half alive replies responded, the Chief-Gunner was still alive but bleeding badly, and that Helmswoman was now sobbing on the floor and permanently blinded. The communications officer was apparently crumbled up against the back wall with numerous broken bones and screaming. It was good enough.

Suddenly, one last voice responded, in binary. “010010010010000001100001011011010010000001110011011101000110100101
10110001101100001000000110000101101100011010010111011001100101001011000010000001100011011000010111000001
11010001100001011010010110111000101110001000000100100100100000011000010110110100100000011011010110000101
10100101101110011101000110000101101001011011100110100101101110011001110010000001100010011100100110100101
10010001100111011001010010000001100011011011110110111001110100011100100110111101101100011100110010000001
10000101101110011001000010000001101100011010010110011001100101001000000111001101110101011100000111000001
10111101110010011101000010000001100010011101010111010000100000011000010110110100100000011100100111010101
10111001101110011010010110111001100111001000000110111101110101011101000010000001101111011001100010000001
11000001101111011101110110010101110010001011100010000001010000011011000110010101100001011100110110010100
10000001100100011011110010000001101110011011110111010000100000011011000110010101110100001000000110110101
10010100100000011001000110100101100101001011100010000001001001001000000110010001101111001000000110111001
10111101110100001000000111011101100001011011100111010000100000011101000110111100100000011001000110100101
10010100101110” *****

Complete nonsense to Pavlov, he at least knew ARDA was still functioning, mostly. “Anyone still alive, commence firing on the Yamamoto, that treacherous bastard Yaumachi isn’t living this battle alive! EARTH TRIUMPHANT!”. A half-hearted cheer came from the bridge crew followed by a wild spurt of binary. 

The Clinton and Yamamoto began a broad-side action, a rare occurrence usually only seen in very large battles where capital ships survive all the way up to being directly beside each other, although this form of battle has been eternally memorialized by fiction. At least he would be going out in such an unlikely form of battle. The Clinton’s portside and the Yamamoto’s starboard side were peppered with holes and craters by the time the two ships passed each other, just as another bright flash erupted across the screen and sensors (Thankfully weaker and farther away), the flash from the thermo-nuclear explosion of the Hectors reactor exploding in the atmosphere of Dacyira, taking half of the Griffon with it. 

After that moment, Pavlov knew the final moments of this battle had come.
The Clinton and horrifically gutted Warsaw versus the Yamamoto, Monroe and cleanly undamaged Defiant, Pavlov knew he was unlikely to win. But he was no fool; he always kept one last card in play.

Apparently so did Laskowski, after a volley of escape pods ejected from the vessel, the ship flew directly into the Monroe, the two ships carcases mangled together in space like a deformed tree in the process of combusting. The insane dangers of knife fight combat should never go understated.

Now with the battle being just the UES Clinton Battlecrusier against the UES Yamamoto and ICS Defiant cruisers, Pavlov knew this was the final moment. The Chief-Gunner was back on his seat, the seat and console now covered in the man’s blood. “Chief-Gunner, fire the Excalibur directly at the Defiant’s engines” Pavlov said calmly.
The man half-dead and bleeding out looked painfully at Pavlov with an expression mixed between confusion and pain. “Sir, firing that thing now would rip half this ship apart, I don’t think we’ll be able to survive it” 

“We’ll have to take the chance; we are all going to die either way. I say we take the one who likely arranged all this with us to hell”. Pavlov was determined; none could call him a coward. Surprisingly the man also gave a determined nod. If they survived this Pavlov was making sure he learned the man’s name and caught him a medal.
The blind helmswoman and now bled out helmsman was no use, so Pavlov himself sat in the pilot seat, turning the ship to face the Defiant at an angle. The Yamamoto was unleashing a volley of shells into the stern of the Clinton, and just as Pavlov succeeded in positioning the ship, the last of the engines were gone.
“It has been an honour serving with you all”. Pavlov saluted.

[b]“FIRE!!!!”[/b]
=============================================================================================================
[b][i]Dacyira, Atmosphere across the planet[/b][/i]

[IMG]http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/ae147/Ultimate88_photo/RP%20stuff/Final%20Frontier/1861_zps7ad2051c.png[/IMG]

The sky rained fire across the world as the ashes of a madman’s battle concluded. The bodies of thousands rained down and were incinerated in the air. A nuclear explosion was felt across Dacyira as some even had the misfortune of witnessing the blast... But all saw the skies fall.

Thousands of pieces of debris. Sections of decks, sections of turrets, the remnants of fighter craft and the back half of the UES Griffon cruiser fell from the sky.
Dark, dangerous days were following for the people of Dacyira, and no longer were the natives the only beings who feared what fell from the heavens. 

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[b]WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO OTHER PLAYERS:[/b]
-Lots of flashy lights and the sky is falling, time to pray to alien space Jesus harder. (Natives)
-A coup just happened and the patrol fleet just blew itself up, seriously wtf! (Earthists)
-Earth is fucking nuts and needs to cool down (Colonists)
[b]EFFECTS:[/b]
-An asteroid belt of debris now orbits Dacyira
-A whole bunch of Debris is falling down to Dacyira, about to impact with the surface
-An atomic explosion just went off in the upper atmosphere, destroying unprotected electronic devices in a section of the world.
-A whole bunch of shit floating around in space for pirates to loot or at least check out
-Civil war amongst the Earth-aligned colonies
-A serious head ache for every single sentient being on the planet.

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[hider=Terms used in this post]
*: I.B.E.I, or Internal Bureau of Earthen Intelligence, representing Earth’s internal counter-intelligence. Despite their position, the I.B.E.I have been known to dwell in the E.E.C’s (Earth Espionage Corps) and even S.R.I.O (Special Reconnaissance and Intelligence Operations) area of expertise and are infamous for interfering in various projects. The I.B.E.I are however highly efficient and dangerously competent at their jobs overall and are renown for foiling many separatist plots during the first and second separatist wars.

**: “Blues” or “Bluecoats”, an analogy to the ancient American Civil War which has been used by many civilian and military analysers to refer to the fanatical pro-Earth loyalist colonialists fighting against their brethren “Grey/Greycoats” in the Outer Colonies. In comparison, separatists refer to loyalist outer colonialists as “Royalists” (Despite the lack of a monarchy), another analogy referring to the American Revolutionary War. 

*** The Space Affiliation Act of 2211 was a law enacted by the United Federation of Earthen States in retaliation to the unprecedented rise in space piracy in the middle and other colonies. If a ship did not openly ping its identification on a public and open broadcast either in transit between planets, while entering a star system or in the presence of Earth authorities, the ship would be boarded for potential crimes or destroyed if they refused to comply. In 2277 during the first notions of separatism, the law was greatly expanded to also force ships to reveal the number of passengers on board, weapon armaments, birth certificate of the captain and history log of interstellar jumps that did not use Earth-mandated Jumpgates.

**** “Fighting like a mugger in an alley way” or “FLMAW” is naval jargon referring to “Knife fights”, extremely dangerous and unnaturally close space combat usually occurring around the orbit of a planet or due to surprise attacks and ambushes from FTL jumps. Infamous for high casualties, massive collateral damage and chaotic formations, knife fights are generally preferred mostly by guerrilla forces, pirates and fleets that are drastically outnumbered by their enemies.

***** Yes this is real binary, no auto-translating it wont work because I had to make spaces to fit it into the page. Remove the "" and the spaces.
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