Collab between [@Liotrent][@Raylah][@Sigma][@Dog][@Crusader Lord][@Irredeemable] [center][h1][u]Battle of the Sol System[/u][/h1] [img]https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/7c31aa97-2cc8-4213-b18f-f26cb10e9756/d4yhmr2-6b3170bc-f629-4afb-b678-842708967020.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzdjMzFhYTk3LTJjYzgtNDIxMy1iMThmLWYyNmNiMTBlOTc1NlwvZDR5aG1yMi02YjMxNzBiYy1mNjI5LTRhZmItYjY3OC04NDI3MDg5NjcwMjAuanBnIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.JFcIEJhqWekT4gfHKMOhEHJT6GT7_7NUPRKFoyb2qfQ[/img] [/center] [sub]Federal Union of Uston[/sub] This is not good! There are big ships coming to do harm against corporate assets. Ah, bugger - what will our humble (or not so humble) corporate mining fleets do now? Well, not too much - but there is a very small military “fleet” among the fleet. These consist of three cruisers and six destroyers (belonging to them corpo(s). Originally, they were there to protect their fleet rival corporations. Petrochemical Incorporated against Standard Agricultural while Union Chemical Industries against Petrochemical Incorporated - Petrochemical Incorporated against Union Chemical Industries while...you get the point. These corpo(s) are not all too friendly with each other. However, it appears that they must unite and fight together..for now. I ask - what is their chance of winning? Not a lot. While that might be, they might as well cause as much damage as possible. But with that? Good question there because the corpo(s) will do the best thing that they know of - cyberwafare. The bread and butter of any cutthroat mega corporations. How else would they get their trade secrets and steal away industrial technology from rivals? I do hope that the defense fleets like surprises because they’re in for a big one. Two cruisers and two destroyers belonging to the New Haven Directorate get their targeting systems breached and then quickly taken over, with their weapons turned to focus fire onto their destroyers. Likewise, the coming attack fleet experiences major breaches within their software systems. That’s not really fun, is it? No. No it is not. Sadly, two ECW cruisers can only do so much against such a massive fleet. Now, if there was a battleship with a cyberwafare suite then real damage could be done, but there was no such thing with the corpo fleet stationed at the belt. So, what’s the damage? Glad you asked because the URC’s Alamo has its targeting systems greatly messed with with the mass-cyberattack. Even with the top-of-the-line cyber-suite for the Alamo, the corpo(s) don’t mess around with their hacking prowess. Given this, all six destroyers focus their attention on tackling the smaller ships around the Alamo by firing onto their smaller ships with enmassed missile fire. Coupled with mass-branches everywhere causing plenty of issues in software, the first round of fighting should be interesting. Albeit, the corpo(s) fully know that they can’t win this battle, but they’ll put up one hell of a fight. [hr] [sub]United Republic of Columbia[/sub] The bridge of the Alamo darkened as systems began to shut down one by one. “Ugh, what now!?” Jasi groaned, the shutdown couldn’t come at the worst time. “We’re being hacked sir, several ship systems are on the fritz.” The tech officer replied, rapidly pressing through the keyboard. “Targeting, main engine, the works….working on a solution in taking back the ship…give me ten minutes to sort it out.” “Just get it done, we’re a sitting duck out here!” Jasi eyed a small indention on the left armrest, pressing down as a radio popped out. “Commander Grant, you have clearance for a few squadrons, provide cover for the fleet.” [hr] [sub]New Haven Directorate[/sub] Missiles and guns were going awry on the New Havenist front. Missiles were homing in on allied ships and guns were being fired at their own ships. The pressure was already weighing heavily on Admiral Durnham’s shoulders. “Get our ships to stop firing at each other!” He shouted, one of the crew manning the fleet monitor aboard the Resilience then chimed in, “Sir, our ships got hit by a cyber attack. We should be able to reboot all systems and prevent another one but it will take time.” Another chimed in, “Sir, NHS Dreamweaver is reporting that their systems are locking on to our allies within the Columbian fleet!” Durnham looked at the monitor and quickly turned to the Comms officer, “Send a communique to those ships damn it! Get it done NOW!” He then turned to the helmsman, “Helm, get us closer, we’re bringing the fight to them” he again turned to comms, “Tell NHS Demeter and NHS Ceres to launch all their drones. Hunt down those cheeky bastards hacking our vessels.” “Aye aye sir.” A sweat was running down Durnham’s forehead as he watched the battle unfold second by second. [hr] [sub]The Undefeated[/sub] Guardian Ikei Hamonga was standing on the bridge of the Undefeated Battleship Hyperion, looking over various screens that were showing the current status of the fights around Pluto and the Kuiper belt. The Undefeated fleet has not interfered with the fighting yet, nor did it have any intentions to do so. Joint forces of the Xandalians, Colombians, and the New Haven Directorate should have been more than enough to take care of the enemy. Hamonga was tasked to maintain a security perimeter around the Gateway to keep more hostiles from coming through. While of course avoiding intercepting other vessels, which was a peculiar task on its own. The enemy fleet seemed to consist of hundreds of small and mostly unarmed mining ships, an annoying swarm to deal with and catch every last one, but the others should have no problems fighting them. There were a few military ships that didn’t pose any larger danger. Or at least didn’t seem to. “What the hell are they doing?” Hamonga leaned closer to one of the screens, because the scanner readings suddenly stopped making sense. One of the officers pressed a few buttons to readjust the sensors and shook his head. “Uh, sir… It appears that the friendlies have opened fire against each other. I mean literally, not just at each other, even at their own ships.” Crap. Infiltration, sabotage? Or maybe just someone is messing with their systems? Hamonga didn’t believe that the Colombians and the NHD would suddenly turn against each other in the middle of the battle. “Sir, should we move in to intercept?” “No.” They had their orders. “We stay stationed around the Gateway in case these guys will be getting reinforcements. Full battle stations. Signal to the Sonne to be ready to release the fighters.” What a mess this was. [hr] [sub]United Republic of Columbia[/sub] Several squadrons of starhawks, hornets and thunderstrikes launched out of the Alamo, their primary objective being to both harass the enemy ships and intercept any missiles they could from compromised allied ships. “Wild Wings are a go!” One of the squadron leaders announced. “Naughty Angels away!” “Earth Crackers away!” The Earth Crackers, a squadron of Thunderstrike Bombers diverted their attention towards the attacking destroyers, friendly light warships under constant barrage, one of the frigates broadcasting. “This is the Rio Grande! We’re taking too much heat from the enemy, shields are down by half and our targeting systems have gone to shit! We could use some help over here!” “Copy that Rio Grande, we’re on our way.” Earth Cracker Leader said, the bombers making their way towards the Utsonian Destroyers. The Wild Wings however, were tasked on harassing the nearby cruisers, taking their attention away from the fleet. All the while, the Naughty Angels hung back as they circled the battle, ready to take out any rogue projectiles until this hacking situation was dealt with. The Alamo’s main escorts, the Cruisers Overwatch and Valiant, had split off, the Overwatch tasked with engaging the enemy cruisers. “While our fighters tag one of the cruisers, we’ll hit the other one, keep ‘em busy and divided.” Hans announced the plan to the bridge crew. “ Waiting for the moment the Wild Wings picked their target….within moments they begun to swarm the cruiser on the left. “Targets tag, engage the second enemy cruiser!” [hr] [sub]Zetan Consciousness/Gran Republic of Matuvista[/sub] Two different fleets sailed their way through the Gateway at roughly the same time, but they could not be more different. One looked sleek and scientific, but had weapons almost crudely and haphazardly attached to them. The limping remnants of the Zetan navy that had survived or been recently cobbled together was hardly an imposing force, but that was the point of sending these tattered remnants out instead of their slowly-forming new navy; they wanted people to underestimate them. They needed to project an outward weakness, to act as if they were still reeling from the war and beneath much interest before they crashed their way back into the international forum. Thus, when their motley crew formed up in the gathering armada, they signaled towards the larger, more established military ships. “Sol Division, reporting for duty. This is Naval-Speaker Tau-Hypatia, tell us where you want us.” The other fleet was anything but slapdash. A small horde of patrol corvettes surged through the gateways first, followed by three battlecruisers, well-rounded and well-armoured in preparation for anything that could be sent at them. Almost immediately their guns turned towards the firefight, their computers sending out a host of targeting requests from their new erstwhile allies so that their own guns could add to the barrage of fire. Inside these battlecruisers, marines loaded themselves patiently into boarding torpedoes. voidsuits were checked and secured, guns loaded, and sabres polished and ready for war. If they had the opportunity to seize some of these offending vehicles, they would do so without hesitation. [hr] [sub]United Republic of Columbia[/sub] The Earth Crackers are in for a good time and by that - I mean a whole world of pain. Intense anti-air (if you call space air and such) causes great damage to half of their fighter-size - only leaving six Crackers left to do the fight. Shells and small missiles spit at the Earth Crackers, filling the local space around them with debris and explosions. Meanwhile, the Wild Wings also meet heavy AA from the ECW cruisers. A wave of guided missiles approach the fighters, hoping to strike and down as many fighters that they can. At the same time, Cruisers Overwatch and Valiant are approached by the single cruiser that was meant for a standoff. A series of anti-ship guided missiles are fired, rapidly approaching the Cruisers Overwatch and Valiant. [hr] [sub]Xandalian Republic[/sub] [center][h1][b][color=green]The Xandalian Republic[/color][/b][/h1] [i][h3]Sol System, Near Pluto and Kupiter Belt[/h3][/i] [h2]"The Home's Defilement Part 2: United Front"[/h2][/center] [hr] Reports of incoming ships from other nations, other ships making targeting requests to pitch in, and a flood of news washed over the command decks of the two Xandalian Battleships. Named “Mars” and “Athenos”, the two vessels towered as the largest Xandalian vessels in the battle. From their bridges the commanders hashed out orders for their own fleet, as well as calculated statistics and processed the battle reports from their own other craft and involved allied craft. Communicators and operators and data flew about the place as things were pieced together, but out of all the new thus far...the commander of Battleship Mars felt a shiver run up his spine. [i]“Reports of cyber attacks being launched against allied ships. Confirmed friendly fire from New Haven Directorate Ships and hurried communicades of warning toward Columbian vessels.”[/color] Commander Hilthern immediately looked at the comms officer who had spoken, a sharp look in his middle aged eyes. He then joined in on the ships internal comms system, barking out with the growl of a seasoned sailor. If the enemy wasn’t going to pull punches, neither was he. [color=red]“Attention, this is a fleetwide announcement from Commander Hilthern of the Mars. I want every comms officer not dedicated to battle analysis and communication on each ship to keep tabs on the vulnerable points of your craft. Mech pilots, your alert warning system should provide ample alert should such attempts occur. I want all Xandalian craft to prepare Hard-Wall Initiative measures in case of attempted cyber attacks on our systems. That means should anything try to poke into your soft systems you hard-cut the system and switch over to the secondary hard-wired internal systems on your vessels. In such a case we will utilize designated ‘silent mode’ manners of communication within the fleet throughout the remainder of the engagement.”[/color] As much as a ship had to remain open and available to communicate with others, it was also a vulnerability. So pirates tended to use dirtier tactics in order to achieve any sort of edge. Tactics like cyber attacks and virus bombs and so forth alongside the usual ‘hit and run’ in realspace, among other things, were common enough among their kind even now back along the Xandalian-Gusb trade route. It wasn’t a full-on cyber war by any means, but generally the hybridized Gusb-Xandalian coding language was enough to slow things down and potentially give time to retaliate back home. To others it would be entirely foreign...though for now long was anyone’s guess. Could be for this battle. Could be for a whole war. Could be less and could be more. Yet this was where the The Hard-Wall Initiative came in. A somewhat more ancient idea from the Thalarite Century, and the chaos and infighting of those times, it had been kept along and revived during the war with the Gusb. Then it had lingered due to space piracy’s emergence, but not seen deeper investment yet....well, at least publicly. The concept was to cut off any external vulnerabilities, subjecting all ships to closed-system comms and computing. No way into the systems at that point...but also no way out either. A hard defense, but also one that made it harder to communicate between ships by quite a good bit. Any comms would be reliant at such a point on the means of communication listed under the fleet’s ‘silent mode’ training for all comms officers. Certain gestures from mechs, as well as signs and flashing lights and generating certain radar blips and such used in combination otherwise with them and other ships, to send messages of simpler natures at faster speeds. It was not the most streamlined system, the ‘silent mode’ stuff was basically as ancient as the Hard-Wall Initiative itself after all. So the Commander’s mere mention of it was enough to take many among the Xandalians’ comms officers aback. Though with the sudden tense air on the bridge of his own ship, as the mention of more serious cyber-attacks was enough to worry a good bit of the Xandalian forces, Hilthern stretched his neck side to side with a light ‘pop’ and ‘crack’ before the comms lit up again with his co-Commander’s voice from the Athenos. [color=pink]“I second the order! It’s a relic of an idea, but it might be what we need if the worst occurs. The moment anyone goes into ‘silent mode’ status we all do as a precaution. So move it! Further, I want observation of attacks on allied ships to be performed simultaneously by those keeping tabs on our own internal system security. Get a read on the systems of the opposition. I want the data on this sent to the Mars and Athenos ASAP!”[/color] [color=red]“For the time being, I want most of our military frame units and corvettes deployed to support smaller allied craft. Military frames should focus on point defense, and all smaller units should remain aware of their surroundings in case of further cyber attacks on allied units. Any remainder among military frame and corvette units will remain within the shield support of our own Carrier craft for the moment being for safety until the distance is closed well enough to rush the enemy vessels at as close a range as possible.”[/color] [color=pink]“All Cruiser and non-small offensive craft should utilize hard weapons and minimize the implementation of externally-affected guided munitions otherwise. I want suppressive fire laid down [i]en-masse[/i] into the enemy positions and larger craft. Force them to pay more attention to our craft and their own to try to relieve allied ships. Internal closed-guidance systems are also to be implemented should the Hard-Wall Initiative come into place.”[/color] [hr] [sub]New Haven Directorate[/sub] “Sir, reboot complete on NHS Dreamweaver, NHS Wayfinder, NHS Swordbearer, and NHS Lightbringer. Electronic warfare countermeasures have been deployed. Hacking is now unlikely on all our vessels, sir” As the report came in, Durnham looked to his comms officer, “Send this communications to all our ships. Redirect efforts against all vessels. We cannot and will not suffer another attack.” “Sir, even the mining vessels?” Durnham turned to face the comms officer, “We don’t know whether any of these vessels are capable of such a thing. We of all people should know that it’s easy enough to disguise such equipment in a mining vessel. Destroy everything unless told to otherwise by the coalition.” “Aye aye sir!” All directorate vessels turned their guns against the unarmed mining vessels and the motley fleet of combat vessels in the back, joining the Columbians in their assault. [hr] [sub]United Republic of Columbia[/sub] “Break! Break!” Earth Cracker Leader cried out as the remainder of the squadron scattered, half of their numbers reduced to scrap from point defense guns and missiles. “Regroup for another run! Activate countermeasures and dive in! Hit them with everything you got!” Back on the Alamo, the bridge crews were frantic as they all pitched in to restore control of the ship. “Almost…..done….” The tech stated as she rapidly tapped on the keyboard, within moments, the bridge was illuminated, whirling to life. “And we’re back online! All ship systems are back in our control.” “Getting reports that the rest of the affected ships regained some systems back, at least enough to stop shooting at allied craft. “Another officer declared. “Uhhh...we have another problem though…” “What could it be this time?” Jasi asked, visibly irked by this point, the whole day seemingly not in short supply of annoyances. “The New Haven ships seem to be firing upon unarmed ships…” “Oh my gods…” Jasi muttered, rubbing his temples as the battle just got more complicated. Hard enough to tangle with a foe that could hack your systems, now imagine said foe bringing in a massive civilian fleet no less. “Proceed with the attack, we’ll follow the Xandies lead, and open a channel with the New Haven Commander.” Elsewhere, the Overwatch and Valiant fell under heavy barrage from enemy missile salvos. The bridge of the Overwatch shook violently as the shields were under heavy stress, Hans falling out of his chair, Rean holding on tightly to said chair, keeping his stance. “Status on shields?!” . Hans frantically asked as he pulled himself up. “Shield’s at 40%!” One of the deck officers said. “Friendlies incoming! We got a ton of allied ships closing in.” Another officer said as a mixture of Xandalian, Zetan, New Havenist, and Matuvistan ships were all within the battle space. “Perfect timing!” Hans said enthusiastically. “Push forward with the attack! Fire everything we got before they blow us to dust!” [hr] [sub]Federal Union of Uston[/sub] The battle rages on, with missiles, railguns, fighters, and what have you being shot every few seconds in space. Commands and orders were given, ships were destroyed, and all is good in war. Of course, the small fleet of 3 cruisers and a few destroyers stood no damn chance in hell in fighting against the enmassed fleet of other nations, but they did put up a decent enough fight in the end. Once the dust settled, only the mining fleet remained. The mining fleet was quite large, albeit in reality it was a small fleet for the mega corporations. [hr] [b][u]Conclusion[/u][/b] The Ustonian mining fleet had been routed by the combined efforts of the allied forces of the colonies, the remaining mining ships and one surviving warship rerouted to the Meeting Place, taken as prisoners, followed by many Interrogations of the crew, demanding where they came from. The aftermath of the battle had presented....interesting questions for the colonial nations, chief among them being officially proclaiming the Sol System as neutral, sacred ground, to prevent any more incident as this. This proclamation in turn led to serious talks about the established of an international organization of sorts, a successor to the United Nations of Old Earth. Although most were for the idea, others had resisted the idea, some deciding against joining such an organization, seeing it as restrictive. Others however, saw this as an opportunity to bring the galactic community closer, to deepen the bonds of brotherhood among the Colonies. Regardless, it was finally put forward, the Sol United Nations was born, with the dream of a more interconnected galaxy.