Desperation

[Error]

Jumping in, Valkyrius caught the broadcast from Restitution. Shaking his head, he fed the coordinates to Long Reach to the fleet, then undocked from the Combine ship. Opening comms to Intrpeid, he said, "Intrepid, dock up and pull this one along with you. Repulse is holding with the Restitution until the civvies are clear."

As the helmsman brought the Reoulse up alongside the NeoRoman ship, her guns went active, and shields came up. Locking targets, Valkyrius hailed the battleship.

"Hgalvan, you lead. We'll drill whatever you smack first, and you'd best hope those civvies have working FTL." he stated calmly, watching the DRADIS board.

OOC: The Novan fleet at Long Reach will move the civvies into orbit over Pandora and then either a probe or a Prowler will jump out to where they came from, to gather as much data as possible.

Given how you're expected (the probe launched earlier), there's a full carrier group on standby.

Alternatively, most of the colony is dead and there's 1 or 2 ships left active.

[DeadlyMiddie]

Captain Vladius didn't have to be told twice. His ship jumped out of the system immediately, weapons charged and ready.

[Professor Fenway]

What is it with NeoRomans and mutinying?

Military codes. Belavrius already disobeyed direct orders and is effectively a traitor. He stayed in command since everyone knew NeoRome was doomed and followed him.

Under the NeoRoman Civilian-Military Code, military ships are required to protect civilian ships within their operations range under most circumstances. Exceptions are when given direct orders by the Hierarch or Council, when protection jeopardizes the safety of the fleet or the completion of the fleet's mission, if the civilian fleet will be destroyed regardless of protection, or if protecting civilians will accrue unacceptable military losses.

Under the NeoRoman Military Disobedience Convention, the crews of military vessels are allowed to relieve superior officers, mainly admirals, from command if they exhibit a blatant disregard for lives, place unreasonable and unattainable expectations of their crew, exhibit cowardice that is not tactically sound, or violates several military doctrines. These have to be repeat offenses, and the crew is not allowed to overturn command from officials such as the Council or Hierarch. If a superior officer is relieved from command by the crew, the council will investigate the vessel and the admiral's actions which led to his removal. Should the crew be found justified in removing said officer, his position will be replaced by the next officer in terms of rank and the offending superior will be expunged from the military. If the crew is found unjustified, the officer will be placed back in command on a different vessel and the crew responsible will be suspended for a period of time.

And under the NeoRoman Chain of Command Treaty, in the event of total government breakdown, crews are at their own discretion as to the enforcement and following of military doctrine. Overthrown superiors can be shot rather than expunged, since there is no government to evaluate them. Ultimately, authority will lie wherever the crew in such a situation places it.


That's why we have so many supposed mutinies. Officers are rigorously chosen and checked, both in personality, background, morals, but the system isn't perfect. Belavrius is an exception; his cowardice was never an issue, since he wasn't fighting wars, he was a defense and patrol fleet. Mutinies are rather uncommon.

[Error]

"Removing an Officer unfit for command" is the term in the Commonwealth, or occasionally (when they be REALLY bad), "Oops, sorry sir."

[Tell]

"Sir a probe just landed near by." an officer said.
"Recall all scouts and get us out of here in 5 minutes!" Thomas shouted.
"Sir a scout just reported a large amount of titanium, requesting permission to mine some." another office said.
"Negative but tell him to save the location and hurry back!" Thomas said impatiently.

-- 2 Minutes later --

The godspeed was rising out of the cloud level, as the altitude got higher Thomas could make out some words on the fleet channel. " All ships".........."Unidentified contacts".............."Ship has jumped"
"Put crew at battle stations and raise the shield, I don't like the sound of this." Thomas then looked up at the display screen as the ship ascended into hell.

[ACH0225]

Kyyt Battlegroup moving to support

On the bridge

"I want a full laser shield; all arrays are to be at 80% load."

"Commander, laser blocs F-I are down. Should we raise output on their side to compensate?"

"No; put the damaged side towards the planet we are guarding. Prepare for jump."

Just so you know, blocs are organized A-E on one side, F-J on the other.

[cats]

The Novan ship, luckily enough, had had a slip-merge specialist onboard. He assessed the stress damage in the containment mechanism and reported that it would be at least three hours working with the two remaining engine technicians of the Slipknot.

Neda looked over the list of ships and the chain of command that had been relayed to her as the Intrepid made its jump. She gripped the arm of the command chair as the stars snapped off screen and a wave of nausea washed over her. Jump drives. Clumsy, inefficient, overt. She'd be happy when her drive was back online.

"Kodiak, feed power to the point-defense laser banks, looks like our host Vladius is expecting something."

"Yes, ma'am."

OOC: Narok II Class Destroyer

Spoiler:

Narok is Old Eastern Mundesh, loosely translated to "the savage order" or "orderly destruction"

spikespike spikey spikeyspike

[Error]

Repulse's point defneses came to life, selecting fields of fire as the main guns warmed.

- - -

Over Pandora, a small battlegroup watched the civilian ships - and military - start to arrive. The lead ship, a Vanir-class battlecruiser, opened communications with Intrepid.

"We heard you're on the run. Please transfer all relevant data on hostile forces, then get the hell under the planetary shields."

[DeadlyMiddie]

Captain Vladius turned to his comms officer, "Send all the data that we have on the darkness and the contacts from the system we just departed." "Aye aye, sir," came the reply. "Helmsman, put us in orbit around that planet now!" barked Vladius.

[Professor Fenway]

The Restitution turned broadside towards the oncoming fleet as they entered weapons range and fired.

8 neon-green beams spat out from the side of the ship, distorting the space it went through, and sliced through space. Several flashes of light followed their path at the end, indicating a direct hit. Following these flashes, the beams shut off and a barrage of autocannon fire followed. Thousands upon thousands of shells flew out from the Restitution, forming a literal wall of bullets towards the oncoming darkness. Enemy ships were torn to shreds; and they kept coming.

Hgalvan stood at the bridge and watched the weapons fire. Not all of the civilian ships had jumped, and he was waiting until they did. Sensor contacts numbered in the thousands; and their shields would not last long. Multiple missiles had already impacted the ship. He braced himself as the ship shook, and noticed a beam emenating from one of the Darkness ships.

He only noticed it because it bent light around it and blocked light behind it. It was completely black, with a deep purple glow around the edges. He took a closer look before it disappeared; a singularity beam?

But it didn't matter. He couldn't even see the enemy ships, but he wondered about that too; why were they attacking? How did they detect them so early? They never acted like this; usually they knew of their presence when a ship inexplicably vanished.

The Restitution rocked again. Alarms blared throughout the ship. Those civilians needed to jump fast.

[Error]

Valkyrius watched as his ship's guns loosed their hypervelocity sheels towards the incoming fleet. Staring at the sensor board, he frowned and opened a link to the civilians.

"Civilian ships, get those FTL drives spinning, now. We can't hold this off for long, and if you're left behind, you are, in short, frakked."

Clicking the channel off, he turned to his weapons officer. "Load tubes one through eight with nuclear ship to ship missiles. Stand by launch order."

[Vinyl]

In the final stages of charging, the sublight engines were firing at full blast. A lone missile, like that of a strikecraft or some such, contacted the hull, and in that same instant the FTL drive fired. A hole blew open in the secondary cargo bay as it jumped.

[Tell]

Thomas watched in horror as the battle raged on before him.

"Civilian ships, get those FTL drives spinning, now. We can't hold this off for long, and if you're left behind, you are, in short, frakked." the comms channel said.

"Get the FTL drive online, cancel all limits and get us out of here!" Thomas shouted.

Opening the fleet channel Thomas said "This is the Godspeed, message received we're making jump now."

Suddenly an explosion rang through out the ship, "Sir our power core has been hit!" a office said.

"Can we still make the jump?"

"Yes but we'll need immediate help after we come out." The officer replied.

"Sir the drive is online, shall we jump?" another officer said.

"As soon as possible!" Thomas replied.

[Archduke Daynel, PhD]

OOC: I will probably be rather inactive until tuesday, so Fenway, have some info on the Angel of Eden so you can NPC it properly if needed.
The MK. V Colony Ships are the top of the line of a kind of ship the ZE and TTI have constantly been developing since always.
The Angel of Eden has room for up to 700 passengers and their belongings, including up to around 20 small civilian space ships (You know, fighter size or something. Like motorboats, only in space), however it currently carries only about 150.
The construction module is more or less like a super high-tech building-level 3D printer, and can make a small town from blueprints in about one to three days.
The Angel of Eden also has a lab and a mining module.

[Professor Fenway]

Hgalvan watched the sensor console as the final ships in the fleet began jumping. After a few seconds, the only ship remaining was the DSR-2 Britanny. It's drive was charging up, but the perimeter was falling.

The Restitution rocked again, another singularity beam. Another salvo of beams flew out of the Restitution, but there were too many of them. The shields were about to give out. Hgalvan smashed his fist on the console, cracking the glass, and then tumbled off the command deck onto the floor below as the Restitution rocked harder than before. Alarms went off in a frenzy. Consoles blared static for few precious seconds before reverting back to their normal displays. Hgalvan picked himself up.

"Sir," said one of the officers behind him, whom was bleeding profusely from a gash on the side of his head. "Sensors show that was a massive subspace pulse! It came from the DSR-2!" The officer partially collapsed. "The enemy ships seem to be disabled!"

"What the hell?" Hgalvan yelled back at him. He turned to another officer. "Bridge the FTL jump now and get us out of here! We have time!" Hgalvan walked over to the collapsed officer, hoisted him up, and half carried, half walked him out of the bridge to the medical bay.

The Restitution's FTL ring charged up and connected the remaining ships with a beam of energy, crackling and arcing as the ship turned. With a flash of light, the remainder of the fleet jumped out of the system together, leaving the Darkness ships dead in the water.

For now.