So glad I only ever do short posts from my phone.
Faith in Superior Firepower [Planetary Annihilation Multicross SI]
- Thread starter Faith
- Start date
So glad I only ever do short posts from my phone.
- Location
- In a hole in the ground there lived a...
Humanity aren't a member of the Citadel races.
Mandabar
Waifu of choice is Rem. Give that girl some hugs!
- Location
- Florida, USA [Yes. Florida *FacePalm*]
Heh, sounds like you need pointers from a pro phone only author. Potato nose is one who only uses phone I believe. Jurric is another I think.
Well it looked good to me anyways when I saw it. Enjoyed the chapter and the Mic drop. Really enjoy this alternative look at Baterians and their culture.
As Samwise pointed out humanity is not a citadel race and so obviously not on the council as well.
Meanwhile Batarians are a citadel race, but aren't one of the three members of the council. The Asari, Turians and Salarians. I think we can agree they are the most powerful race of those who are left.
Of course in canon Humans were a citadel race (And eventually council) and the Batarians withdrew from the citadel in complaint over human colonization in the skylian verge. IIRC anyways. Details should be close anyways.
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johnwedd
Above Average man
- Location
- usa
One : I am amazed someone can write a decent fiction on a phone.
Two: there should be a tips and tricks for phone posters like myself. I am obviously barely competent
- Pronouns
- she/her
1) For the love of god, do not do it if you don't have to.
2) Try not to have to.
3) Don't compose significant posts in a forum's post box. Use a notes app or something, one that saves. You can always do the formatting afterwards, but you don't want to lose the text.
4) Learn to type basic tags rather than relying on the buttons on the forum.
5) Try not to have to phonepost anything wordy. This goes double for stories.
6) Try not to cry.
7) Cry.
Faith
Some idea of what I'm doing.
- Location
- Land of Waves and Warmth
Incidently, doing this is what caused the formatting SNAFU in the last chapter. Opened a [color.transparent] tag, and attempted to close it with a [./quote] because it was four AM shut up.
So yeah. That's why half the chapter was invisible when it was first posted. The more you know.
Mandabar
Waifu of choice is Rem. Give that girl some hugs!
- Location
- Florida, USA [Yes. Florida *FacePalm*]
Faith
Some idea of what I'm doing.
- Location
- Land of Waves and Warmth
That's because in the end I decided 'fuck this' and got rid of the offending tags completely. It's now a part of the chapter proper.
I think.
vyor
KITTY! \o/
It is unless you deleted it all together.
Faith
Some idea of what I'm doing.
- Location
- Land of Waves and Warmth
Not a new chapter just yet, soonish though. Been a little busy with work still. I'm aiming to get two updates out by the end of the week, though, so hooray for that.
Incidentally, since I'm here, let me show you something.
Batarian Hegemony 'territory'. Note that none of their systems are directly linked by Mass Relay, and all are indeed at least 3 mass relay jumps from Kite's Nest.
They don't even have large colonies outside of the Kite's Nest, that could believably support themselves. Four worlds, total, between Omega, Eagle and Viper nebulas (2, 1 and 1, respectively). If one of those four worlds comes under attack, the Hegemony would take ages to respond. That said, two are mainly slave mines and one more is so shit they need domed cities*, so I think Lorek is the only one they really care about.
I just...
Ugh. Damnit, Bioware. You so silly.
*A note on domed cities and tying back to the Reapers being the least threatening galaxy-ending threat ever. In the OTL, they didn't even invade Aratoht, they just burst the domes from orbit and moved on. Because it's totally impossible that the people living in domed cities would have failsafes for if the dome broke, or something like that.
Uuuuuugggghghghhghgghghhghg.
Still not as bad as the Red Faction wiki
Incidentally, since I'm here, let me show you something.
Batarian Hegemony 'territory'. Note that none of their systems are directly linked by Mass Relay, and all are indeed at least 3 mass relay jumps from Kite's Nest.
They don't even have large colonies outside of the Kite's Nest, that could believably support themselves. Four worlds, total, between Omega, Eagle and Viper nebulas (2, 1 and 1, respectively). If one of those four worlds comes under attack, the Hegemony would take ages to respond. That said, two are mainly slave mines and one more is so shit they need domed cities*, so I think Lorek is the only one they really care about.
I just...
Ugh. Damnit, Bioware. You so silly.
*A note on domed cities and tying back to the Reapers being the least threatening galaxy-ending threat ever. In the OTL, they didn't even invade Aratoht, they just burst the domes from orbit and moved on. Because it's totally impossible that the people living in domed cities would have failsafes for if the dome broke, or something like that.
Uuuuuugggghghghhghgghghhghg.
Still not as bad as the Red Faction wiki
Suryn
On the wings of a Dragon
Damn it faith, I got liquid on my monitor from that
*head desk* Really Bioware, you couldn't talk to someone outside the company about politics or anything? 3 jumps between systems? *sigh*
Faith
Some idea of what I'm doing.
- Location
- Land of Waves and Warmth
To get to Viper they have to pass through Exodus, and from there either the Arcturus Stream or the Local Cluster. I can't imagine the SA liked that very much.
I wonder if that's why the Hegemony and the SA never got along? Douchey Batarian slavers who just got their Space-L Plates taking joyrides through the Sol system.
I wonder if that's why the Hegemony and the SA never got along? Douchey Batarian slavers who just got their Space-L Plates taking joyrides through the Sol system.
... Right, note to self; Rebuild the entire goddamn map when figuring out politics in the ME universe, because the real thing is fucking stupid. How the hell did humanity not run into Batarian Hegemony ships before running into the turians when the Exodus Cluster is literally one jump away from both Sol and Kite's Nest.
- Location
- North of England
- Pronouns
- She/They
Drich
Von Neumann Writing Machine
Want another dose of stupid?
The Charon relay leads to Arcturus, 36.66 light years away.
The game tells us about the existence of Primary and Secondary Mass Relays, the former of which is a pair of relays that span thousands of light years, and the latter of which is a relay that can connect to any other relay in a range of hundreds of light years.
There is no mention of Charon being able to connect to any other Mass Relay. It goes only to Arcturus.
So, is it a Secondary Relay that people don't know about, or is it a Primary Relay that is being used for a hundredth of its actual potential?
The Charon relay leads to Arcturus, 36.66 light years away.
The game tells us about the existence of Primary and Secondary Mass Relays, the former of which is a pair of relays that span thousands of light years, and the latter of which is a relay that can connect to any other relay in a range of hundreds of light years.
There is no mention of Charon being able to connect to any other Mass Relay. It goes only to Arcturus.
So, is it a Secondary Relay that people don't know about, or is it a Primary Relay that is being used for a hundredth of its actual potential?
Strunkriidiisk
THE LEGEND
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Not a new chapter just yet, soonish though. Been a little busy with work still. I'm aiming to get two updates out by the end of the week, though, so hooray for that.
Incidentally, since I'm here, let me show you something.
Batarian Hegemony 'territory'. Note that none of their systems are directly linked by Mass Relay, and all are indeed at least 3 mass relay jumps from Kite's Nest.
They don't even have large colonies outside of the Kite's Nest, that could believably support themselves. Four worlds, total, between Omega, Eagle and Viper nebulas (2, 1 and 1, respectively). If one of those four worlds comes under attack, the Hegemony would take ages to respond. That said, two are mainly slave mines and one more is so shit they need domed cities*, so I think Lorek is the only one they really care about.
I just...
Ugh. Damnit, Bioware. You so silly.
*A note on domed cities and tying back to the Reapers being the least threatening galaxy-ending threat ever. In the OTL, they didn't even invade Aratoht, they just burst the domes from orbit and moved on. Because it's totally impossible that the people living in domed cities would have failsafes for if the dome broke, or something like that.
Uuuuuugggghghghhghgghghhghg.
Still not as bad as the Red Faction wiki
The entire right side of that map makes me angry. Admittedly, a good portion more of it also makes me angry, but the right side offends my sense of aesthetics.
88 - Revolt
Faith
Some idea of what I'm doing.
- Location
- Land of Waves and Warmth
*incoherent tired babbling, followed by sobs*
88 - Revolt
Of course, it was one thing to say you were going to war. It was quite another to actually do it.
The Judak Nurr didn't back down from the challenge, though. Within half an hour of Kirlak Thol's speech ending, he and his military advisors had hopped on a train to the Faith Foundation's New Bondi headquarters for our next round of military planning.
We'd been picking at the Hegemony for months, now, but the amount of damage done was negligible - the Judak Nurr cells still in Hegemony space focused more on spying and stealing information than fighting, and the few we had to exfiltrate generally managed to evade notice long enough to make the extractions quiet and gunfight free.
But this next raid was going to be different - it was going to be one hell of a blow to the Hegemony, a sign that the Judak Nurr weren't fucking around any more.
The five men strode into the New Bondi office with an air of quiet confidence, as if refusing to acknowledge the enormity of their recent actions.
Knowing that they, like most Batarians, were sticklers for not wasting time nattering, I got straight to work, my own holographic avatar hovering above the table.
For this particular meeting, Hope had joined me - not as a hologram, but in person, having temporarily requisitioned the NeoAvatar who was, on our official papers, known as Danielle DeMedico, Chief of Security.
Not that Fusou's faked papers mattered one bit out here on Miranda, but still.
Tossing a casual wave their way, Hope opened the proceedings. "Bold move. We're going for a follow up?"
Nukrae snorted. "Having made such a declaration, it would be a shame to back down now."
Krilak frowned at his subordinate but did not argue. "Indeed. Now begins the final and most crucial stage of our activities. We need to begin pushing the Hegemony back. It's no longer enough for us to skirt around the edges, striking at exposed targets. It's time to take the fight to the Hegemony, strike where it matters."
My hologram flickered. "You have some ideas, I hope?"
Krilak nodded sharply. "Naturally. The Hegemony are a galactic power - but like most galactic power, a huge proportion of their territory is centred in their home cluster. Distant Mass Relays hold only small colonies, isolated outposts. We're going to hit them first. If we can remove every Hegemony stronghold outside of the Kite's Nest cluster, then we can cut off all their access to outside resources."
It seemed a smart idea. Smaller hits to build experience for the Judak Nurr's forces whilst fighting minimal opposition, and then escalating as the war dragged on.
"That means we have three current target theatres. The Eagle Nebula, the Viper Nebula, and the Omega Nebula. The former two contain only a single target each. There are two worlds in the Omega Nebula to deal with, although they're in different solar systems. Lorek is one, and for symbolic reasons I'd like to liberate that world first."
Hope nodded. "Alright. Say we do that - what's the other Hegemony world in the Omega cluster?"
Krilak frowned and bowed his head. "Logasiri. One of the worst planets in Hegemony space. It's almost entirely populated by slaves, who operate mines across the surface. Palladium, mostly. Bit of platinum and iriduim around as well. More famous for the slaves than the goods."
Nukrae took over for the military analysis. "From what we can tell, very little Hegemony military presence - a frigate wolfpack, a couple of cruisers. Token ground forces. They rely on the fact that it's a colossal piece of do'fanan to keep it defended. No one would ever willingly go there."
"The labor is hot, endless, and backbreaking, even in the low-G environment. Every horror story told by slaves elsewhere in the cluster is topped by one from Logasiri." Krilak continued. "For obvious reasons, it, too, is a high value target for us. Not only will it earn us great political goodwill from the Citadel and make our stance on slavery clear, it'll force the hands of the Terminus pirates allied with the Hegemony."
Hope glanced at my holographic avatar. I don't follow.
Neither. Ask?
She turned back to Krilak. "Sorry, I don't follow. How will it force the Terminus' hand?"
"Either they join the Hegemony and fight against us, or they leave the Hegemony to die. If they side with the Hegemony, then we'll have to fight them, which is a shame. But if they don't, they won't dare show their faces to the Hegemony again - they'd be killed. The two groups have a largely symbiotic relationship, so I wouldn't be surprised if they did flock to the Hegemony's aid, but if we can put on enough of a show of strength before they arrive, they won't risk it. They're the Hegemony's allies, but they're no fools. They won't die if they don't have to."
Makes sense.
The green glow of my holographic avatar intensified briefly as I spoke. "If you don't mind, I'd rather we deal with Logasiri first. Lorek's population is much less slave-heavy, and the slaves there, from what I understand, are better off than those on Logasiri. Brusque as it is, I think they can wait."
The Judak Nurr militants seemed to agree on that point. Jarruk leaned forward, resting one elbow on the edge of the table. "Faith, could you bring up a map of the Omega Nebula?"
I did so, holographic emitters in the ceiling creating a three dimensional representation of the Terminus cluster, all six solar systems in a loosely-correct layout. I marked planets, all its Mass Relays - the system had several, almost all of which were Primary Relays - and, of course, the space station Omega.
Wait, isn't one of those Relays the one that leads to the Collectors?
Oh, shit, yeah. I completely forgot about those guys. Next time we talk to Fusou, we should ask her if she's dealt with them yet. If she hasn't, maybe we should pop over and kill them ourselves.
We could go as a group, make it a bit of a... bonding exercise?
A good suggestion, Hope. I'm sure you'd love to bond with Fusou a little.
Fuck off.
Unaware of our little mental spat, Jarruk pointed at the two planets of interest. "Lorek is closer to the Mass Relays and to Omega, a more important location to the Hegemony, and Fathar is just generally a more populated area of space. We strike there, the Hegemony and their Terminus lackies will show up faster and hit us harder. Thematic as it would be, I must side with Faith. Logasiri is both an easier target, and more deserving of being liberated from Hegemony rule in the first place. Once it's dealt with, then we can turn our sights to Lorek."
Kren'thal grinned. "And once Lorek is dealt with, we can move to take Anhur and Aratoht. And that'll cut off a huge amount of the Hegemony's mining operations. Neither world is particularly wealthy, but it'll still be a huge strike against them."
Krilak rested his palms on the edge of the table, eyes focused entirely on the galaxy map.
"It's decided, then. Logasiri shall be the first world freed of the Hegemony's reign."
---
Staging planet-wide revolutions against an interstellar government was somewhat outside my area of experience, but I was more than willing to watch and learn from the Judak Nurr.
The first stage of the plan was simple, and one that played on a recognised fact of 'modern' warfare.
Orbit gives the ultimate high ground advantage.
The first step to achieving orbital supremacy wasn't actually directly related to it - we were going to knock out the comms buoys linking Logasiri, and the other planets in the Batalla System, to the Omega Relays and the rest of the galaxy. Having cut off their ability to call for reinforcements, we were then going to move to Logasiri proper.
The planet's main orbital infrastructure was a transport hub - a huge space station that served as a glorified warehouse and dock for dozens of cargo freighters and transports. The Judak Nurr wanted to take the station, its resources, and, most importantly, its ships, for their cause.
The planet's orbital defences were managed by another, smaller station, heavily defended and armed with multiple GARDIAN arrays. That was the primary target of the first phase. Knocking that out of the sky, along with its attached fleets, would completely eliminate Hegemony orbital control.
Standing between us and our goals was a wolfpack of six modern Hegemony frigates and two outdated cruisers.
They'd never know what hit them.
---
Hegemony Captain Der'vayn stood proudly at the helm of his command cruiser, staring out into the endless black of space, deep in contemplation.
At least, that's what it would look like to anyone who couldn't see Verush Aflame 2: Thunderstriker playing on his visor.
Just as the handsome Krav'lin gunned down six dirty Turian special forces soldiers with a shotgun in each hand, the Asari maiden Nueva swooning at his heels, Der'vayn heard a shout from behind him.
Grunting, he switched off the media player, cleared his visor, and turned to face his bridge crew.
"Yes?"
"Sir, we just lost extranet access and all communications. I sent a message to the transport hub and the surface - same issue. We've lost everything outside orbital range."
Der'vayn swore loudly, then paused to compose himself. "Clearly it's an issue with the comms buoy. Call the transport hub, tell them to send a ship out to fix it."
"Sir… aren't we supposed to provide escorts to all Hegemony vessels?"
Der'vayn sighed. He'd forgotten that policy. He could see the reason for it, but it didn't make it any less irritating. "Split up the wolfpack. Send three ships with them. That should preemptively silence any complaints."
"Sir." The communications officer turned back to his post and set to work.
Der'vayn held silent for a moment longer, waiting for any further issues to arise. When none seemed forthcoming and his communications officer had settled down, he turned back to the window and resumed his holovid.
Only a scant ten minutes had passed when he heard another shout.
Irritated, he minimized the media player and turned again. "Yes?"
"Sir, we recieved the first two seconds of an SOS from the frigate Impaler before the signal cut off completely. Now I can't raise it, the Mauler, or the Whiplash. The maintenance corvette isn't responding to hails either."
To Der'vayn's experienced mind, that could mean only one thing. Hostile action. If he'd lost three frigates - a third of his force, - without even a whisper, then he didn't like his chances of surviving it.
"Set all stations to high alert. Helm, set course for the transport hub, and tell the Indris to follow us. We'll rally with the rest of the wolfpack there and hold position until we get a clearer idea of what's going on."
"Sir. Relaying instructions now."
After a moment's consideration, he added, "And ask Lieutenant Orpak if his new toy is ready. If those suit rats have the right idea with that stealth drive, that corvette might be our only chance of getting reinforcements. I want it making a beeline for the Omega-2 relay as soon as possible."
"Sir."
As the ship's alarms began blaring, filling the halls with the low-pitched sound of gongs, a number of armour panels across the Untrel's hull slid away, small GARDIAN nodes and mass driver cannons rising from recessed storage bays and unfolding into a combat-ready mode.
Underfoot, the floor rattled as the old cruiser's drive core engaged, throwing it into what Der'vayn suspected would be it's last ever bout of combat.
Somewhere behind him, the sensor officer gulped, and called out, "Sir, we've got contacts on the edge of sensor range. Six of them, light cruisers. Don't match anything in our target acquisition database."
Der'vayn groaned. "Helm, standby for evasive maneuvers. Gunnery, ready the main cannon and prepare the point defence lasers for interception duty. All hands to full alert. If I'm right, we've got combat imminent."
And then all of the lights went out.
88 - Revolt
Of course, it was one thing to say you were going to war. It was quite another to actually do it.
The Judak Nurr didn't back down from the challenge, though. Within half an hour of Kirlak Thol's speech ending, he and his military advisors had hopped on a train to the Faith Foundation's New Bondi headquarters for our next round of military planning.
We'd been picking at the Hegemony for months, now, but the amount of damage done was negligible - the Judak Nurr cells still in Hegemony space focused more on spying and stealing information than fighting, and the few we had to exfiltrate generally managed to evade notice long enough to make the extractions quiet and gunfight free.
But this next raid was going to be different - it was going to be one hell of a blow to the Hegemony, a sign that the Judak Nurr weren't fucking around any more.
The five men strode into the New Bondi office with an air of quiet confidence, as if refusing to acknowledge the enormity of their recent actions.
Knowing that they, like most Batarians, were sticklers for not wasting time nattering, I got straight to work, my own holographic avatar hovering above the table.
For this particular meeting, Hope had joined me - not as a hologram, but in person, having temporarily requisitioned the NeoAvatar who was, on our official papers, known as Danielle DeMedico, Chief of Security.
Not that Fusou's faked papers mattered one bit out here on Miranda, but still.
Tossing a casual wave their way, Hope opened the proceedings. "Bold move. We're going for a follow up?"
Nukrae snorted. "Having made such a declaration, it would be a shame to back down now."
Krilak frowned at his subordinate but did not argue. "Indeed. Now begins the final and most crucial stage of our activities. We need to begin pushing the Hegemony back. It's no longer enough for us to skirt around the edges, striking at exposed targets. It's time to take the fight to the Hegemony, strike where it matters."
My hologram flickered. "You have some ideas, I hope?"
Krilak nodded sharply. "Naturally. The Hegemony are a galactic power - but like most galactic power, a huge proportion of their territory is centred in their home cluster. Distant Mass Relays hold only small colonies, isolated outposts. We're going to hit them first. If we can remove every Hegemony stronghold outside of the Kite's Nest cluster, then we can cut off all their access to outside resources."
It seemed a smart idea. Smaller hits to build experience for the Judak Nurr's forces whilst fighting minimal opposition, and then escalating as the war dragged on.
"That means we have three current target theatres. The Eagle Nebula, the Viper Nebula, and the Omega Nebula. The former two contain only a single target each. There are two worlds in the Omega Nebula to deal with, although they're in different solar systems. Lorek is one, and for symbolic reasons I'd like to liberate that world first."
Hope nodded. "Alright. Say we do that - what's the other Hegemony world in the Omega cluster?"
Krilak frowned and bowed his head. "Logasiri. One of the worst planets in Hegemony space. It's almost entirely populated by slaves, who operate mines across the surface. Palladium, mostly. Bit of platinum and iriduim around as well. More famous for the slaves than the goods."
Nukrae took over for the military analysis. "From what we can tell, very little Hegemony military presence - a frigate wolfpack, a couple of cruisers. Token ground forces. They rely on the fact that it's a colossal piece of do'fanan to keep it defended. No one would ever willingly go there."
"The labor is hot, endless, and backbreaking, even in the low-G environment. Every horror story told by slaves elsewhere in the cluster is topped by one from Logasiri." Krilak continued. "For obvious reasons, it, too, is a high value target for us. Not only will it earn us great political goodwill from the Citadel and make our stance on slavery clear, it'll force the hands of the Terminus pirates allied with the Hegemony."
Hope glanced at my holographic avatar. I don't follow.
Neither. Ask?
She turned back to Krilak. "Sorry, I don't follow. How will it force the Terminus' hand?"
"Either they join the Hegemony and fight against us, or they leave the Hegemony to die. If they side with the Hegemony, then we'll have to fight them, which is a shame. But if they don't, they won't dare show their faces to the Hegemony again - they'd be killed. The two groups have a largely symbiotic relationship, so I wouldn't be surprised if they did flock to the Hegemony's aid, but if we can put on enough of a show of strength before they arrive, they won't risk it. They're the Hegemony's allies, but they're no fools. They won't die if they don't have to."
Makes sense.
The green glow of my holographic avatar intensified briefly as I spoke. "If you don't mind, I'd rather we deal with Logasiri first. Lorek's population is much less slave-heavy, and the slaves there, from what I understand, are better off than those on Logasiri. Brusque as it is, I think they can wait."
The Judak Nurr militants seemed to agree on that point. Jarruk leaned forward, resting one elbow on the edge of the table. "Faith, could you bring up a map of the Omega Nebula?"
I did so, holographic emitters in the ceiling creating a three dimensional representation of the Terminus cluster, all six solar systems in a loosely-correct layout. I marked planets, all its Mass Relays - the system had several, almost all of which were Primary Relays - and, of course, the space station Omega.
Wait, isn't one of those Relays the one that leads to the Collectors?
Oh, shit, yeah. I completely forgot about those guys. Next time we talk to Fusou, we should ask her if she's dealt with them yet. If she hasn't, maybe we should pop over and kill them ourselves.
We could go as a group, make it a bit of a... bonding exercise?
A good suggestion, Hope. I'm sure you'd love to bond with Fusou a little.
Fuck off.
Unaware of our little mental spat, Jarruk pointed at the two planets of interest. "Lorek is closer to the Mass Relays and to Omega, a more important location to the Hegemony, and Fathar is just generally a more populated area of space. We strike there, the Hegemony and their Terminus lackies will show up faster and hit us harder. Thematic as it would be, I must side with Faith. Logasiri is both an easier target, and more deserving of being liberated from Hegemony rule in the first place. Once it's dealt with, then we can turn our sights to Lorek."
Kren'thal grinned. "And once Lorek is dealt with, we can move to take Anhur and Aratoht. And that'll cut off a huge amount of the Hegemony's mining operations. Neither world is particularly wealthy, but it'll still be a huge strike against them."
Krilak rested his palms on the edge of the table, eyes focused entirely on the galaxy map.
"It's decided, then. Logasiri shall be the first world freed of the Hegemony's reign."
---
Staging planet-wide revolutions against an interstellar government was somewhat outside my area of experience, but I was more than willing to watch and learn from the Judak Nurr.
The first stage of the plan was simple, and one that played on a recognised fact of 'modern' warfare.
Orbit gives the ultimate high ground advantage.
The first step to achieving orbital supremacy wasn't actually directly related to it - we were going to knock out the comms buoys linking Logasiri, and the other planets in the Batalla System, to the Omega Relays and the rest of the galaxy. Having cut off their ability to call for reinforcements, we were then going to move to Logasiri proper.
The planet's main orbital infrastructure was a transport hub - a huge space station that served as a glorified warehouse and dock for dozens of cargo freighters and transports. The Judak Nurr wanted to take the station, its resources, and, most importantly, its ships, for their cause.
The planet's orbital defences were managed by another, smaller station, heavily defended and armed with multiple GARDIAN arrays. That was the primary target of the first phase. Knocking that out of the sky, along with its attached fleets, would completely eliminate Hegemony orbital control.
Standing between us and our goals was a wolfpack of six modern Hegemony frigates and two outdated cruisers.
They'd never know what hit them.
---
Hegemony Captain Der'vayn stood proudly at the helm of his command cruiser, staring out into the endless black of space, deep in contemplation.
At least, that's what it would look like to anyone who couldn't see Verush Aflame 2: Thunderstriker playing on his visor.
Just as the handsome Krav'lin gunned down six dirty Turian special forces soldiers with a shotgun in each hand, the Asari maiden Nueva swooning at his heels, Der'vayn heard a shout from behind him.
Grunting, he switched off the media player, cleared his visor, and turned to face his bridge crew.
"Yes?"
"Sir, we just lost extranet access and all communications. I sent a message to the transport hub and the surface - same issue. We've lost everything outside orbital range."
Der'vayn swore loudly, then paused to compose himself. "Clearly it's an issue with the comms buoy. Call the transport hub, tell them to send a ship out to fix it."
"Sir… aren't we supposed to provide escorts to all Hegemony vessels?"
Der'vayn sighed. He'd forgotten that policy. He could see the reason for it, but it didn't make it any less irritating. "Split up the wolfpack. Send three ships with them. That should preemptively silence any complaints."
"Sir." The communications officer turned back to his post and set to work.
Der'vayn held silent for a moment longer, waiting for any further issues to arise. When none seemed forthcoming and his communications officer had settled down, he turned back to the window and resumed his holovid.
Only a scant ten minutes had passed when he heard another shout.
Irritated, he minimized the media player and turned again. "Yes?"
"Sir, we recieved the first two seconds of an SOS from the frigate Impaler before the signal cut off completely. Now I can't raise it, the Mauler, or the Whiplash. The maintenance corvette isn't responding to hails either."
To Der'vayn's experienced mind, that could mean only one thing. Hostile action. If he'd lost three frigates - a third of his force, - without even a whisper, then he didn't like his chances of surviving it.
"Set all stations to high alert. Helm, set course for the transport hub, and tell the Indris to follow us. We'll rally with the rest of the wolfpack there and hold position until we get a clearer idea of what's going on."
"Sir. Relaying instructions now."
After a moment's consideration, he added, "And ask Lieutenant Orpak if his new toy is ready. If those suit rats have the right idea with that stealth drive, that corvette might be our only chance of getting reinforcements. I want it making a beeline for the Omega-2 relay as soon as possible."
"Sir."
As the ship's alarms began blaring, filling the halls with the low-pitched sound of gongs, a number of armour panels across the Untrel's hull slid away, small GARDIAN nodes and mass driver cannons rising from recessed storage bays and unfolding into a combat-ready mode.
Underfoot, the floor rattled as the old cruiser's drive core engaged, throwing it into what Der'vayn suspected would be it's last ever bout of combat.
Somewhere behind him, the sensor officer gulped, and called out, "Sir, we've got contacts on the edge of sensor range. Six of them, light cruisers. Don't match anything in our target acquisition database."
Der'vayn groaned. "Helm, standby for evasive maneuvers. Gunnery, ready the main cannon and prepare the point defence lasers for interception duty. All hands to full alert. If I'm right, we've got combat imminent."
And then all of the lights went out.
Wobulator
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This... makes zero sense. The Hegemony is clearly not actually run by idiots, so why are you pretending that they are? A world, especially a significant mining one should have a substantial military presence, and certainly not a wolfpack, which is a formation designed to attack merchant shipping, not defend.
Also, most of the time, if the sole link to a important planet stops working, people flip their shit. Especially since I'm sure these are some of the most reliable and well-tested systems in existence, given their necessity to keep... everything working. For everything to just stop working? For it to not even broadcast an in-system message? That should be making people very, very worried.
Also, most of the time, if the sole link to a important planet stops working, people flip their shit. Especially since I'm sure these are some of the most reliable and well-tested systems in existence, given their necessity to keep... everything working. For everything to just stop working? For it to not even broadcast an in-system message? That should be making people very, very worried.
vyor
KITTY! \o/
They are worried about pirates, a wolfpack is great for that.
Wobulator
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They have a fleet. Defending important worlds should be worth at least a battlecruiser.
KleverKil'Vanya
Ortillery Operator
You don't station capital assets in systems where the can't be serviced.
Such megastations are expensive, thus the hegemony decided not to shell out for them and stationed it cheaply.
Such megastations are expensive, thus the hegemony decided not to shell out for them and stationed it cheaply.
Wobulator
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I'm... not talking about megastations? They clearly have a fleet, so unless it's all in Khar'Shan(which kinda defeats the point), there should be some more here.
What Klever meant by megastation is basically the facilities to ensure that there is fleet maintenance for said fleet if they are to station one there. Maintaining large fleets would cost a lot of resources especially if the fleet has to constantly move from the place they were defending and back to the docks to repair, refuel and rearm. And to service a fleet, you'll need to have equally a large amount of facilities to help with such. Building such facilities would also take time and resources. All together, the cost of doing all that just to station a fleet over a glorified warehouse would be far too much and would easily be straining to the Hegemony.
Hence instead, they have a much smaller group to defend the area.
Wobulator
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Except... no? When they need to repair, they can just go to the Kite's Nest relay, rearm there, and go back. It's not like it's a particularly far flight.
KleverKil'Vanya
Ortillery Operator
If the ship needs service unexpectedly , how do you expect it to reach the repair station? By them sending an even more expensive mobile repair yard to retrieve it?