Space Battles arrives in Stargate.

[Inquisitor Ryan]

Originally Posted by Entilza

OOC: What are these new items you've unlocked Ryan and what do they do?

OOC: The Aeonic Orb . The Warbarque is a "longer" version of the Monolith but instead of a portal it has heavier firepower. The Necrosphere (to my taste) is a construct with a "point defence" Lightning arc taken from a cap-ship. There is also the Abbatoir

[AceRaptor]

Pegasus Galaxy
Aceraptor's fleet

Pegasus was much quieter now, with the Wraith being increasingly desperate against an increasingly well armed food source. Though I noted the Ori's invasion of the Milky Way galaxy I had been unable to send my fleet to assist due to a resurgence of Wraith presense in the Pegasus Galaxy. The Systems Alliance, as the Satedan lead alliance of a dozen or so of industrialized and several less developed human inhabited worlds has come to call themselves, has been steadily expanding its area of influence, setting aggressive patrols of cruiser 'wolfpacks' to hunt for the Wraith. The SA has been rapidly expanding its production capabilities in order to utilize the technology I have given to them, assisted by my cadre of AdMech priests.

The Wraith has recently launched a heavy offensive against the SA, three worlds were under siege and the SA was gathering its fleet to break the siege. Once I received word of the difficulty I went back to Pegasus with haste. With the addition of my fleet's solid capital ships as a core of the strife forces the Wraith were beaten back.

A period of lull in combat occured after that explosion of violence. Due to the swelling of my force's ranks with the addition of the recruits from Earth I had a planetoid within the Satedan system converted into a mobile base, the construction was still on going but enough of the planetoid was converted to allow me to unload the recruits and train them in it. The orbital shipyard above Sateda had not been lax either, several new cruisers were completed and the keel were laid for some more battleships. The effort was redoubled with news of the Ori invasion of the Milky Way Galaxy.

I itched to get to fighting the Ori, but for now, building up my forces are more important.

[Entilza]

Originally Posted by Inquisitor Ryan

OOC: The Aeonic Orb . The Warbarque is a "longer" version of the Monolith but instead of a portal it has heavier firepower. The Necrosphere (to my taste) is a construct with a "point defence" Lightning arc taken from a cap-ship. There is also the Abbatoir

Awesome, and you've given us the data to build them ourselves now?

[Imperator Pax]

I would assume we've had this all along

[Thait]

Re'nek looked to Vesse, one of the Vasaran's who was working as the ships second in command, and frowned "How many did we save?"

"The vessel had taken a large amount of damage from the hit. We lost at least half the crew in the hit and following atmosphere venting but many survived." Vessen looked at the PDA "We lost two Al'kesh but that was expected when they went to cover the Ha'tak when it got hit. We have 95% fighter survivability, those upgrades worked wonders and the Gliders have proven to be beyond our best expectations here, the only ones we lost we ganged up on by multiple enemy targets and couldnt be rescued in time by others."

Re'nek sighed thinking about the Ha'tak, the ships shields had finally failed and it had taken a glancing hit from one of the main beams of the enemy leaving a massive gouge through the ship that had vaporised a good chunk of the superstructure in one area and took some out of even the pyramid. Luckily the ship hadnt blown up as the reactor's automated systems had entered lockdown mode as soon as the computer logged the damage. But they had lost two Al'kesh that had moved to draw the Ori ships attention. The Silverhand had finished off the enemy vessel in short order after that.

"And the Silverhand itself?"

"Minor damage. We'll need to overhaul the shield generators though and we completly depleted our drone stock in that fight." Vessen shook her head "I put in a request to Lady Keket and Lady Persephone to increase the drone storage on these ships but they believed the current stocks would be enough. Though their reason was that no single ship would engage in a fight like this without others backing it up."

Re'nek looked at the info scrolling across the PDA and frowned "We've been asked to get back to Vasara as soon as possible with as much enemy technology as possible and then we are to take a fleet and meet up with our Lord. He seems to be in trouble again."

"We could leave the Al'kesh to finish our recovery operations."

"Alright lets get moving." Re'nek transmitted quick instructions to the Al'kesh as the Gliders swept into bays on the Silverhand. Once the last Glider that could had settled in the ship swept over one of the more lightly damaged Ori vessels and surrounded it with the smaller ships hyperspace field. Scans had shown the vessel to have no life left on it due to it's lifesupport systems being offline and Re'nek was glad that she didnt have to think of a way to deal with a prior as it seemed even they couldnt breathe vacume. The vessel jumped to hyperspace a second later taking the ship with it.


**********


I kicked the last chunk of crystal out of my way and checked the ammo of the rifle noting that i was starting to run low. As we turned the last corner i looked down the hallway frowning at the seven crystal constructs that stood at the end of the corridor and seemed to be guarding the door. "That's the main computer core, what the hell are they doing there?"

A second later i heard the increasing sounds of conflict that seemed to be coming from behind one of the doors along the hallway. Moments after that the door exploded out ino the hall and Jaffa darted into the hallway fireing back down the corridor they had come from only for one of them to notice the seven constructs near the other doorway and turn their weapons on them.

"Damn it!" I rushed down the hallway to back up my warriors followed by the others and only hopeing that there was some innocent reason the things seemed to be guarding the main computer core.

[Nattuo]

Although the Battleship had avoided damage entirely, thanks to its solely long range weapons allowing it to sit well outside the enemies engagement ranges, and my Cruiser operating as a screen. The aforementioned Cruiser had not come off so lightly, it had taken two direct hits from the Ori's bizarre projectors, one had struck the front armour and been blocked almost entirely, the other had punched clean through the underbelly of the ship and continued until it struck the armour along the top of the ship, destroying everything in its path.

Wreckage adorned the top of the vessel, the third and final kill of the battle had been the victim of a ramming attack. The ailing ship had been struck by my Crusier, with a relative velocity of nearly four thousand kilometres a second it had been completely obliterated by the impact. The only sign of its passing was the sparse wreckage imbedded in the deformed armour across the top of the cruiser.

I quickly became aware of the multitude of damage reports in my neural net, now battle priorities had ceased. The damage was severe, not crippling, but... severe. Compartmentalisation and massive redundancy had saved the ship from being disabled, but a twenty metre wide hole running the depth of the ship was never a good thing. With a thought I shut down the conduits that were leaking into space, redirecting the plasma through some of the backup connectors.

My neural net informed me of the repair estimations, full functionality would be restored in a little under two hours, structural repairs would take nearly a week, without outside assistance. It seemed some dock time was in order.

Opening a communication channel I asked "Inquisitor Ryan, I require a lift back to the system you found me in, when you can spare the ships of course."

OOC: Haven't posted much lately, haven't been sure how powerful the Ori ships are supposed to be in relation to my own ships. Hell, not entirely sure how powerful the Covenant are supposed to be anymore. My estimations of them keep changing.

Also, what about this plan to get me in contact with the Asgard? Star Dragon? I'd also quite like to get a lift to Pegasus, I have the feeling the nature of Covenant weapons would be more effective against the Wraith than the Ori. Have to figure out a way to move into Pegasus later...

[Thait]

Originally Posted by Nattuo

OOC: Haven't posted much lately, haven't been sure how powerful the Ori ships are supposed to be in relation to my own ships. Hell, not entirely sure how powerful the Covenant are supposed to be anymore. My estimations of them keep changing.

Also, what about this plan to get me in contact with the Asgard? Star Dragon? I'd also quite like to get a lift to Pegasus, I have the feeling the nature of Covenant weapons would be more effective against the Wraith than the Ori. Have to figure out a way to move into Pegasus later...

If you want to get to Pegasus just talk to X'on. I traded hyperdrives with him that can get you there easily enough. 6 day travel time to Pegasus, three day if you want to burn the drive out by running it at full speed. My people are working on a better design to increase speed without burning out the drive at current but as long as you run it at half it's capable speed it works fine.

[Imperator Pax]

OOC my next post is going to be from Pegasus we could work it so I take you

[Nattuo]

OOC my next post is going to be from Pegasus we could work it so I take you

OOC: Okay, that sounds like a good deal to me.

Quicker than a week of travel...

[Imperator Pax]

---
Dropping one of the covenant factions off in Pegasus was a simple matter, after which my flagship and escort group moved to head towards my own space, with plans to focus on completing the Great Ward in the Pegasus Galaxy so as to keep the Ori from attempting anything.

After that was dealt with I would review in more detail lesser events that had occured in the galaxy since my last, belated, check in.

The wraith were a nuisance and little more at present I was simply contemplating pushing for there whole scale extermination through the use of Lilith's kill switch program, though that kill swith would require a rather long and bothersome hunt for all the wraith.

The half of the genii who had evacuated , and the other populous were one issue I'd have to check in. Pegasus was a galaxy of primitives and most of the population were lucky to be literate so were for the most part useless as anything more than fodder, which served no purpose for me.

It was hence why I had taken steps regarding setting up my own population base which better served my agenda while moving to integrate the native groups under my dominion and mold them to my liking... so much to do.
---

[Nattuo]

After random jumping to a nearby uninhabited system, a process which was slowed by the shipyards and defense station in tow, and placing my CCS-Cruiser into dry-dock for some much needed structural repairs, I replay the message I received through the Envoy one last time.

"Can nearest MW Necron force extend both my greetings, and invitation to the Commander to visit me in Pegasus. I believe I can set him up for a mutual benefit situation at Sateda and after getting some projects started get more clout with the Asgard. I'm confident he will find what we've been up to 'intriguing'." -Message Ident. 'Star Dragon' time elapsed since reception; 306,174.6 seconds.

Deciding to respond through both the Envoy and the subspace transmitter, that I received from Entilza, I responded "I have decided to accept your offer to visit you in Pegasus, the political situation in the Milky Way was far too... crowded for my liking," I grinned slightly as I added the next part "So tell me, what is this situation that will have me so intrigued?"

After sending off the message I settled down to wait, after all, there was still much work to be done. Repairs to be made, a mainline shipyard to build, a multitude of ships to build.

I positioned the strip mining platform I had built above a natural satellite of the second planet, it had a similar composition to the Moon, and was thus ideal for mining. It's high helium-3 composition and large quantities of semi-heavy elements were perfect for the fusion cores to reforge into ship components.

OOC: Thanks Imperator Pax.

So, I'm in the Pegasus galaxy now. What next?

[Inquisitor Ryan]

"So whats going to happen to the captives?" Jack asked as he was escorted onto the World Engine as the captured Ori ship was being drawn within one of its cavernous bays.

"What captives." I asked without emotion.

"You've got a whole Ori ship there, there had to have been thousands aboard it. Surely you captured some." Daniel said as he examined the Heiroglyphs on the wall, Jack nodded in agreement.

"No prisoners or captives. Everything with a pulse was killed." I said plainly.

"And if they had women and children on board?" Jack asked mildly sickened.

"Sensors record nothing fitting those profiles. All crewmembers were invariably male between the estimated ages of 16 and 35 with the exception of the Prior who was, by my estimate, in his fifties, perhaps sixty if he had aged well." I recited as sensor data was compared. "All targets were killed within fifteen seconds of engaging a Necron with the exception of the Prior again, who died at my hands over a period of 35.3127 seconds. 97% of launch capable craft were destroyed, 13% Structural damage both internal and external."

"Damn, you're sounding like a machine." Jack said as he looked at a wall that had been scythed through by a lightning arc.

"Reading out an after-action report filed by machines will tend to sound that way. As it was I omitted probably nine hours worth of specifics. As it is I can tell you that 63% of the enemies had blue eyes, 31% had brown and the remainder had a mix. I could then further refine the blue eyes into 5 different classifications of blue and so on." I smile and put an all-too mechanical hand on Jacks shoulder. "If the reciting sounded mechanical and boring to you then you'd probably shoot yourself before getting through half the details I have to trawl through."

We moved on into the collossal heart of the Bay where the Ori vessel was dragged, watched as the Scarabs and Tomb Spyders crawled over its hull with mechanical precision. "I guess so."

"Look Jack, I can understand any fear or reluctance towards me, i'm far more machine than man now." I indicate myself. "Humanity must be defended at all costs, the Ori and their followers cannot be negotiated with. Cannot be reasoned with."

"And if there had been women or children on board?" Daniel asked.

"I issued an order, the Necrons would have obeyed it to the letter, would I have regretted it? Certainly but that would not have changed the facts." I answered.

"Then why give the order." Daniel said, more in accusation than question.

"Because women and children aren't usually part of a Warships crew." I answered.

[Imperator Pax]

I surveyed the scans, and reports concerning issues in Pegasus galaxy. It was actually as far as things went disappointing the lack of imperial prescence amongst the SBers, but could be decidely worse if actual Imperium of Man forces decided to pop into this dimension.

Even so the lack of imperial prescence while disappointing no longer mattered I had enough information to recreate what I desired with access to STC data, and other sources of information.

Industries within my territories were growing and in time would expand further, several immense shipyards already existed in orbit in the systems of some of my lesser Pegasus systems with plans for more. Orbital factories and other such would also be on the agenda with plans for military industry even before the Ori had cropped up.

The new Ori ships were a potential worry but at the same time were also to be expected considering the Ori were supposed to be this dimensions first ones. Dealing with them would just mean preparing additional forces for space combat and increasing resource allocation to defense installations.

Right now however the Pegasus Galaxy was another issue, once the Great Ward was up and running in full I could proceed to deal with the wraith in whatever method was necessary and then turn matters back to my own buisness.

[X on]

OOC:Sorry for the fact i haven't posted in a bit, but Ill get something done in a few hours.

[Entilza]

Lord Kar sliced another crystal form in half as he fought his way toward the entrance to the main computer core. Thait's forces where retreating to a safer firing position, but he simply advanced, his warsythe bisecting any enemy which got in his way. As his force rounded a bend he saw seven of the crystal forms guarding the entrance to the computer core. With a single command his force opened fire, bringing down the creatures one at a time with concentrated fire. The last two were cut down by his warcythe. "Kar to Thait," he transmitted. "The entrance to the computer core is secured."

...

I watched as the Ori vessels I had captured were fed into the facilities in orbit of my primary tomb world. I knew Ryan was already converting a second world into an engine, but I knew I could never match him even if I tried. Instead I had focused my efforts into other construction projects. New ships loomed in the orbital facilities of my shipyards while on the surfaces of my worlds Scarabs, Tomb Spiders and Stalkers worked tirelessely building new Necron units for the coming war with the Ori. Several uninhabited systems had been targeted for destruction to allow for the construction of Aeonic Orbs, while Warbarques were being contructed on three of my worlds. Soon my army would be ready, and the Ori would know fear.

[Imperator Pax]

The wraith population was currently unknown though there were estimates it was certainly a matter I was going to have to look into while I was in Pegasus. Initial plans had revolved around hitting the slumbering hives and then beginning to target active hives with ships when those active vessels showed up, but no doubt the wraith had begun mass seeding hive vessels, which was a problem.

[Imperator Pax]

OOC what would be a reasonable population for the wraith anyway? I mean it doesn't particularly matter all that much considering Necron actually 40k owning their xenos asses anyway and probably, say very likely, that the Covies when they get numbers will start pwning them as well, but hypothetically speaking

[Inquisitor Ryan]

OOC: A: I'll do a post later. B: Well I believe there were canonically roughly 60 Hive Ships, now considering their size i'd say each has what? One maybe two million wraith aboard.

For the sakes of fairness quadruple the number of Hive Ships? (Then add a couple zeros.)

[Nattuo]

OOC: How powerful are the Wraith ships supposed to be?

Would dumping a few teratons of super high energy-relativistic plasma on them be sufficient to kill a hive?

Or have they had upgrades to make it more sporting?

[Thait]

OOC: While i dont remember exactly didnt they say there were 60 hiveships in that section of the galaxy. Oh, and sorry for not writing very much lately.


------


"This isnt supposed to be here." I looked at the panel next to the door. It was more advanced than any normal door lock system, more than even the ones on the ancient facility but i was fairly certain i could get it open. "Ressa secure the hallway."

I set to work on the doors locking system, pulling off the pad first and setting to work on it's internal crystal system. The computer created by Keket had much greater abilities than the simple PDA's we carried and had programs designed to cut through ancient codeing, built after study of the ancient facility. The design of this lock though was much more advanced, not surprising since this lock was several million years newer than the facility was. After nearly an hours work the lock system finally broke under the programs assualt and i slid the computer into the pack i had been lugging around and picked up my rifle. "Damn i just want to get what we came for and get off this thing."

The door slid open to a sight i really wished i had never had to see. There was no normal walls, floors or a ceiling. Everything was violet crystal that extended into a massive room that had to take up several floors and by the looks of corridors possibly extended into other sections. At the base of the large room, nearly four levels down, was a floating sphere of violet crystal that was filled with a swirling black substance that i could only conclude was a large portion of the energy creature that was animating the constructs. I swung the PDA around recording everything that we saw and broadcasting it back to Persephone on the Heracles.

My own scans brought back interesting information "That damned sphere is big, the cityships computer core is inside it, the thing must have eaten the core and then created this area around it." I looked up at Ressa's gasp and watched as the walls of the area began to shimmer and constructs began to pull themselves free. There wasnt just dozens of them, there was hundreds. My mind was already working quickly and i remembered what the ancient scientist had left behind as a remark, that destroying the crystal would destroy the entity. And since the ancients, an energy being far smarter than the one here couldnt split themselves i was willing to be this thing couldnt either, which meant it was somehow controlling all the constructs through the crystal. All constructs would have to be conected to that sphere and the creature that lived within.

The first of the constructs was just getting close to being free of the wall when i turned to Kar "We need to destroy that sphere. I'm certain that the constructs will stop if we destroy the sphere, which destroys the entity within it." I looked at the distance to the sphere "We can either take the sphere out now or fall back, get our people off the ruins and then blast the place with our ships to destroy the thing. Theres no way to retreive the computer core now anyway. What do you think is the best plan, this hinges on you guys as my scans picked up a shield around the sphere and yours are the only weapons that will be able to take that thing down fast and take out the sphere if we go for it now." As i watched more constructs pulled free of the walls. It was possible that if we moved quickly we could get to the sphere before being cut off but if we were cut off even the smallest delay could mean we'd be dealing with many more enemies that we had ammo for. "Just so you know either decision is fine with me." I made sure to check my PDA for the location of the nearest dropship that was broadcasting it's locater beacon.

[Entilza]

Kar thought for a moment. "My forces can reach the sphere quickly enough with my Veil of Darkness," he said as his cape billowed behind him. "The forcefield will be useless against our Warcythes. Provide what covering fire you can, we will handle the rest." Transmitting his instructions to the rest of his forces Kar gathered his Pariahs around him and, with with a brief burst of black vapor they were gone, reappearing an instant later near the crystal core.

Back near the entrance Thait's people opened fire on the emerging enemies while a living carpet of Scarabs flowed into the chamber, their claws crackling with disruption fields which they used to deadly effect as they swarmed over the crystal forms, tearing each apart while floating Tomb Spyders used nano-clouds to repair those hacked apart by crystal claws. Kar Veiled several more times, bringing several units of Immortals and Warriors down to the floor of the chamber. Gauss lightning crackled and hissed as one by one the creatures were burned and chopped apart. As more and more of them emerged however, the Necron advance began to slow. Kar and his retinue cut any creature that reached them in half, but the Immortals and Warriors were not as heavily armored or armed, and they were falling in increasing numbers.

As Kar cut another enemy in half he saw that the field protecting the core was only a few meters away. Several Pariahs fired at it, but the energy field did not fail. Cutting down three enemies who barred his way, Kar slashed his Warcythe at the field, cutting clean through it without effort as the field vanished in a burst of light. As he raised his weapon to shatter the crystal he was suddenly thrown violently to the ground. One of the crystal creatures stood over him; it was larger than the others and had four arms instead of two. Rolling to the side, Kar avoided three of its strikes, but the fourth punched thorugh his side, disabling his right leg. As the creature prepared to strike again a torrent of Gauss fire hit it in the back as Kar's Pariahs struck back. As the creature reeled, Kar slashed his Warcythe across its midsection and the beast fell, the two halves turning black under the torrent of energy blasting it.

With the large beast's fall Kar's self-repair systems had him up on his feet within moments. With his retinue holding back the creatures Kar raised his weapon and swung at the crystal sphere. The material parted as easily as anything else under his Warcythe's blade and the sphere exploded violently, throwing Kar and his Pariahs ten meters through the air. Kar hit a protruding crystal which pierced his chest and held him a meter off the ground. Thait and his forces rushed into the chamber as the crystal beasts all began coming apart. Two of them pulled Kar off of the crystal and he fell to the flool. "How badly are you injured?" Thait asked.

"Not badly enough," Kar replied as his Phylactery activated and his chest wound began closing. After nearly a minute he stood, completely intact. "You were correct about the creature within the sphere controlling the creatures. What do you believe should be our next move?" He asked.

[Star Dragon]

...I am alerted by my comm monitor to the response by Commander Nattuo.

"Excellent. " I reply, "I'm sending a Shroud to your location as I'd prefer you to visit me directly. No doubt, you've started building in the system you ended up in. A wise move and something that I wanted in particular to discuss, but not over the air so to speak..."

Lets see if this progresses.

Anyway, now that word of Ori 'probes' appearing in Pegasus I am concerned. Bastards are either bold or merely overconfident. I would not be so foolish as to try to wage a two-Galaxy war unless it was out of desperation.


I send this message over necron-net:

"I have been driling my troops for anti-Ori actions in case they appeared in Pegasus. Now that word has gone out they are showing themselves I want to implement a plan with the consensus of the Peasus SB'ers of course...

Simply my network of Pegasus Gate blinds have hidden troops and they can get the word out quickly that a prior has come to a particular world. I can then have a shroud go there and remove that Stargate, thus forcing the Ori to send a ship if they wish to try to convert that world after the initial meet and greet. Traditionally the Priors make a return trip to every world before taking final action.

We can simply store the gates or render them moot by storing them in the same system with no planets. (suck space priors!).

I can spread the word to each allied world in turn before each gate is taken offline that the world in question is under travel ban until further notice.

That will serverely limit the Ori once they start recruitment efforts and avoid a lot of "plauge" situations or gate based prior retalition...

By removing the Stargates we limit the Ori to solely space based assets.


Any comments or opinions on this before I begin implementation and allied world briefings?

Note we still have the advantage ship-wise in terms of speed, defense, and firepower."
"

[X on]

The battle was over and the damage could have been worse, it would take a few to fix it but it could be done before days end. After getting back to new covenant space, i sent a message to Nattuo. and Entilza.

"Entilza I would like to have a meeting with you if you wound mind, it will be in regards to ship building, earth, the war and anything else that comes up. I am also calling Fleetmaster Nattuo so we may finish up are meeting we were having before the fight." I send with the devise Entilza gave me so we may keep in touch.

"Nattuo if you have the free time would you like to finish are meeting?" I send to Nattuo.



OOC: I did this at 4:14 Am, and i got 1 hour last of sleep last night... I'm awesome.

[Nattuo]

I observe the shroud arriving through both the slipspace sensors and, a moment later, the realspace sensors. Overriding the defense station priority response, I welcome the ship.

"Ah, you're here" I state "If you'd care to teleport, however you do that, across, I'd appreciate it" After a moments pause, I transmit a selection of safe zones for teleportation, all centred around the temple gardens, I head there to await a potential new allies arrival.

---------------

>Construction report-
> >Mainline shipyard completion at 45%
-Add status:
> >Main power: online
> >Internal facilities: Online
> >Primary strip-mining platform: Operational, active(report enclosed)
> >Secondary strip-mining platform: Operational, inactive(status subject to change, report enclosed)
>Estimated time until completion: 907,200 seconds (252 hours) -Details in attached file
>Report ends.

---------------

OOC: @X On, I'm three-three and a half million lightyears away at the moment, meeting in person might be tricky.

[X on]

Originally Posted by Nattuo

OOC: @X On, I'm three-three and a half million lightyears away at the moment, meeting in person might be tricky.

OOC: I don't really mind, i just thought i add you.