Letter Bee GM PostThe next day, the Xuanzang took off from the Galactic Bazaar and into the Wormhole leading to the Garden Route, after which Natasha began using the ship’s FTL/Spacewarper drive to begin transit to Maiden's Reach. The crew of the Xuanzang thus had their first day and a half filled with more opportunities to connect with each other, get used to daily life aboard ship, and pay attention to each other’s issues and problems. Ashton and Flame helped out around the ship as much as they could, while Natasha grew used to the presence of children aboard her craft.
But this idyll ended in the middle of the second day, when the Xuanzang finally emerged in Maiden’s Reach’s orbit… And found themselves in the middle of a large battle between two bona fide
fleets, one of them unmistakably the latest models of Ascendancy warship, while the second was more ambiguous - They were composed of ragged, obsolete, Ascendancy military craft and models which can be most easily described as ‘pirate’. The latter seemed to outnumber the former, but there was no sign of either side giving way.
Nevertheless, this was a nightmare for the Xuanzang, which will have to go through this fleet battle to get to their destination...
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((Alexander’s Battle Scene - Collab between Letter Bee, Conscripts, and Landaus Five-One.))
It's choreographed chaos.
Once the sensors and radars had detected ships moving in from the north, the mission was on. Ship crews scattered to their stations. From outside glance it might seem like a horror scenario from a disaster movie, but in fact everybody knew what they were supposed to do, where they were supposed to go and where everybody else was supposed to go. From the lowest of soldiers, to the highest of officers were aware of this.
"The innermost observatory ships also detect ships incoming. 14 ships in total, consistent with other reports."
"They're going to attack soon. It's time we move out." Captain Carina, speaking from the bridge, standing next to her Grand Admiral, addressed the ship navigators.
"Move to point A4. We will rendezvous with the Basilone and their group." This shall create a wall to box the enemies in from behind. Not exactly revolutionary, but it would serve them well here. They would not expect a column of military-grade warships coming at them from the back.
"Looks like they did team-up with poachers." Last time Alexander knew, they only had 10 ships. They either built all 4 ships by themselves using wildly unknown means, or they teamed up with local pirates, whose ships specification had already been noted in local government's database, and they all matched the 4 additional ships detected.
"Seems like we'll be cleaning up two messes in one go." 14 enemy ships to be destroyed. He only had 9 on his side, but at his disposal were the air capability exceeding a purpose-built carrier. And that was only operating at half-capacity. He wasn't given all the spacecraft he requested yet. Its striking power would exceed all carriers in existence once it's finished, but spare funding was going into the so-called President's Plan instead. He didn't know what sort of plan that was, since he wasn't close enough to the higher-ups for it. It would surprise him if anything useful came from it. Last time his grand plan was given the greenlight, Alexander had a bunch of angsty teens to babysit.
'I haven't done this in a while.' All 14 enemy ships on the other hand were merely corvettes and light cruisers, with only two heavy cruisers in the mix, but the numerity still gave that sense of battle that he was familiar with. Standing on the bridge, commanding the battle personally, watching as the ships go at one another in a malicious firefight death battle, and most importantly, feeling that sense of danger around him, the sense that he could very well go down with the ship if he wasn't careful. And it actually felt good. His mother did say he is audacious sometimes.
"All squadrons have reported in sir." In record time. It might still be early, but the Deilos fleet had already reached the outer parameter. Their attack would begin soon. The sooner the spacecrafts could be launched the better.
"Launch the first wave." Firm and decisively, Alexander passed the order.
"Roger! Squadron 113, 114, 115, 116, 238, 376 and 381. Take off when ready and proceed to your targets."
Upon the order, two large doors slid up at the mid-area of the supercarrier, a door on each side of the ship. From within the door, sixteen state-of-the-art starfighters came to life. Eight were attached to the floor of the hangar in double columns looking towards the exit, while eight were strapped to the ceiling in the same fashion. Their pilots had just gone through a life system check, and now they are ensuring their starfighters are well-strapped to this mechanical lock on the white lines that lined the two columns.
The light in front of the door flashed green. The signal prompted the first four starfighter pilots of the column to turn up their engines. At the same time, the locks that bolted the fighters to the floor and ceiling accelerated, thrusting the vehicles along the white lines. Once they were close to the door, the locks stopped and detached the departed starfighters, now free to roam the vacuum of space. The light switched to red before switching back to green moments later. Twelve more fighters were catapulted within the next 15 seconds, making for a full squadron.
“Squadron 113, maintaining present course!”
“Squadron 114, standing by for next instructions, over.”
The other side of the ship also completed their takeoff flawlessly. That is now two full squadrons in motions. Within the next two minutes, two more squadrons joined courses, repeating until all seven squadrons were out in space, charging toward the targets.
By the time the Xuanzang noticed a sleek stingray-looking spacecraft lurking around in the area nearby, they would find all their communication machines, including radars and Omni-tools with communication features unable to work properly. Signals become weak to the point that connections are almost impossible.
Then, coming in from field of vision, 16 starfighters were flying toward the ship in tight formations. Almost immediately after, another 16 appeared, in the same formation. Then another 12, this time bombers instead of fighters. While there are no strangers among the former Ascendancy turned-rebels of the sight of military spaceplanes, their formation and the numerity at this point was something they would have rarely seen. They did not seem to notice the Xuanzang’s presence, however.
Passing by the Xuanzang, the fighter formation split in half, with one squadron moving sharply bending right to the side of the fleet while the other flying up while gliding a little bit left, heading straight for the center. Once they emerged into vision range of the targeted ships, the two only heavy cruisers of the Ascendancy remnants, they split in half again, with eight attacking each target. Gunners on the ships, having noticed starfighters coming from behind, panicked for anti-starfighter guns, but by now it is far too late. The front four fighters wheeled sharply towards the ship’s broadside. Before the ship guns could open fire, all four unleashed a hailstorm of a total 80 rockets, covering the entire midsection of the ship in explosions and instantly demolishing over half of their shield capacity.
Before the ship crews could process what unearthly terror had unfolded onto them, the second strike of another four starfighters poured in, decimating all shielding capacity in the section, and pulverizing several anti-starfighter batteries. However, the true nightmare were the bombers following in hot on their tails. With shields down and confused crews, the bombers had an easy time lining up their drop, even when some anti-starfighter batteries finally came online. The proton bombs tore a huge gape in the heavy cruiser, killing everyone close by and sucking the poor fools in nearby quarters out to space. In a span of less than a minute, the heavy cruiser had been crippled.
Having delivered their payload, the planes sped up, dove beneath the remnants until they were out of range of the fleet before turning back for their home carrier. The other half of the squadron had less success with the other heavy cruiser, having a couple of their bombs hitting the heavily armored turrets, but they nonetheless damaged a few thrusters, leaving the ship in a difficult situation. The other starfighter squadron that had veered to the side also performed their attack run, crippling a corvette at the side and incapacitating another ship's batteries.. Anti-starfighter fire had now intensified, but the lack of communication between ships meant focused fire between ships was impossible. Several of Alexander’s starfighters were damaged, but all managed to slip back to the carrier.
Meanwhile, on the Heavy Cruiser, Akriem’s Razor, flagship of the ragtag fleet of
‘Deilos.’ The Captain of the Ship, is Elaine Solarie Jensen the younger sister to Berkeley. She noticed everyone on the blasted ship is terrified of the outcome of running into Alexander Kherol of all people.
”Good bloody lord, can you stop being such idiots. All day I have to deal with this. I know you all would want to die like my cowardly older brother who killed himself during the Battle of Proxima. But you all rallied around me because of the reason I am a Jensen.” She spoke holding her hand to her forehead. As well, she sighed since they couldn’t really negotiate with Alexander Kherol even if they tried because of how bloody the 11th Fleet was. If anything, it would be better to die glorious than die like her brother’s cowardice. It annoyed her how pathetic her crew is compared to the great Berkeley’s Butchers of old.
”How much can we maneuver to give that bastard what for? Also, fire on anything that moves. I don’t care if it is a civilian ship, all that matters is it’s destroyed.” She spoke with an highly annoyed look on her face.
The Navigators look at their captain, who was a scary woman compared to others. “We can still move much faster than the other Heavy Cruiser. But these Carrier tactics are going to get us sooner before we can get into range.” One of the navigators said, nervously.
Elaine sighed at hearing that the sister ship to the Akriem’s Razor is badly damaged, but it cannot be helped. Since they can’t really communicate with their ships because of the blasted ECM.
”Ah, at least some good news to the bad. Move as fast as possible to reach where the fighters came from then.” She spoke with a slight annoyance in her voice. The Arkiem’s Razor started to move away from the formation at the fastest possible speed, since it’s better to close the distance to get their main guns firing. The Reckless Nature of this charge felt a bit insane to say the least, since they would be sitting ducks nonetheless with fighters and bombers taking them out one at a time.
For the Xuanzang, their danger was yet to pass, as yet another 44 planes would appear in the same fashion ten minutes afterward. They were to attack in a different vector from the last, but coincidentally also in the direction of the Star Marines.
Natasha was not pleased when the ECM began interfering with internal comms, but had managed to send a hurried message to the crew (including Star Marines) saying,
Bridge. Now! This ought to call them and the crew to where she needed to assign them their duties now that she can’t just instantly message them. To Avelyn, she gave her first orders, “Remember what you said about heating up scrap metal and venting it to confuse thermals? Well, begin doing it - We’re going to be needing a surprise. Phi, Trajen, Flame and Ashton, man the ship’s guns - We have four turrets secretly tucked underneath the ship’s surface. Laurey, Samuel, try and get communications working. Amy, your ability to tap into the minds of people who can
hear you… Does it work through speakers?”
Ashton interrupted, “I know the rules of enchantment, Ma’am - Even if it normally won’t, by having Iris enchant our communications devices once Laurey and Samuel get it working, we can temporarily transmit a mental suggestion to the people in the starfighters to not notice us or let us go. It’ll require a lot of magical energy, though, but Samuel and Iris are literally magically stronger together. And of course, Samuel himself can control electromagnetic forces, which would actually make us resistant to the electronic countermeasures that the starfighters are using.”
Flame added, “I have a second plan to buy us more time - Ariel, you can talk to Ghosts, right? Find a recently deceased spirit and find out what this battle is about. If I’m right and the Ascendancy forces are commanded by ー”
“It’s Kherol,” Natasha said. “No one is as fond of starfighters or as good at using him as he is. I dunno the opposing side, though.”
Ashton nodded and said, “Ariel, can you find out who Kherol is opposing and which of their two Heavy Cruisers are their flagship? If they are ‘relatively innocent victims and potential allies’, I have a plan. If they are
worse than Kherol, however, I have another plan. Either way, I will need Finbarr, Tarak, Nero and Mr. Abbadon.”
Narvia arrived at the bridge, like everyone else, which was in a bit of shock to hear Kherol’s name. One of the people, who her godfather respected the most, which seems to be fighting remnants. However, she remembered a specific thing from her godfather’s letter that was inside of deciphering her omnitool. It talked about Berkeley’s Butchers remnants, other things, but specifically that their old leader Berkeley R. Jensen is dead. However, she wouldn’t really know who would be leading them now after the Battle of Proxima. She decided to interrupt what was going on, by speaking up.
”U-Umm.. T-Those ’remnants’ are from Berkeley’s Butchers, the 11th Fleet. A-At least, Berkeley is dead, he killed himself at Proxima. D-Don’t like the fact he still has soldiers loyal to him after all this time though… I have no clue who could be leading them now… but no one is good in that fleet that Alexander Kherol is fighting. If you are wondering how I-I know that… is because of the Decipher completed on that O-Operation that Nikolas’ gave me.” She spoke with an inclination of fear in her voice because being reminded of Berkeley or anyone in his fleet is terrible. Some relief was in her voice too since the one who led them is dead at his own hands. However, these plans were very interesting and it would be nice to get rid of the fear in her heart.
”I-I will help you in whatever mission against Berkeley’s Remnants, I want to no longer feel afraid any longer…” She spoke with resolve in her voice.
Natasha looked at Ashton and said, “What plans would those be, literal genius?”
The boy continued, “We will put up a distress beacon to mark us as neutrals - Say we’re a trade ship who failed to get the memo too late and flew into Maiden's Reach by sheer coincidence. We will then ‘accidentally’ fly close to the Berkeley Remnants’ flagship’s bridge, then have Finbarr, Tarak, Nero, Mr. Abbadon, and Narvia too, because of her revelation, portal in and attack.”
He then took a deep breath, “Now, the next question is: Why would we ever want to help Kherol, and by extension, the Ascendancy? Simple: To test our strength against weaker opponents before taking on the big ones. If we cannot even beat the people Kherol is curb stomping, then we definitely cannot beat the Ascendancy.”
Natasha nodded at that and said, “We’ll do our plans in parallel, then. Samuel and Iris, begin using your control of electromagnetics and enchantments right away in tandem with Laurey to get comms working. Those assigned to the turrets, go to them at once. Ariel, begin the seance while Fin, Tarak, Nero, Narvia and Abbadon, prepare for a boarding action - As for Avelyn, she’s to heat up scrap metal and superheat it in preparation for venting just in case we need that distraction after all.”
She then turned to Ariel, “Do a seance anyway - We’re still going to need information on the Ascendancy that only
Berserkerley and Kherol’s officers would know. Then give us a full report of everything you find.”
Narvia nodded towards Natasha, she wanted badly to get rid of the agony of fear from what Berkeley said all those years ago to her. When he was beating her for being a child and using her magic to try it out.
”T-That nickname fits what Berkeley was… a monster.” She spoke in agreement to being one of the ones who will defeat her demons. This will be one of the hardest things she will have to deal with, to end the Butchers once and for all.
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