Sector 44 (last updated 26th of July 2008)

[Syndrome]

revised

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Five days had passed. Vanessa and Tate had got to know each other a lot better, and meaningly so. Their spending time together had paid off. They had gone together on the party that was organised on the Omicron Lyrae planet and they decided to continue the relationship.

Previously, the convoys coming from Sector 44 had been small. Recently, though, they had become bigger, now including ships the equivalent of a corvette class. Over the last few hours, up to three corvettes had joined new convoys. They had to be swarmed in order not to lose any Argon ships.

With the Boron’s, and, mysteriously the Split’s help, they had managed to fix the majority of the Herra’s docking bay. What work was left could easily be done while the Herra was in flight. Consequently the hanger bay traffic was back to its normal level.

Tate and Vanessa were enjoying a drink together in the cafeteria, and Melissa was just about to join them. She grabbed her drink from the bar and walked towards the pair. “May I join you two?” she asked.
“You’re welcome,” said Tate mockingly early as he gestured to a free chair.
Melissa took a deep breath and sighed. She’d just come back from a twelve hour shift. “Your dad’s been working me to death Vanessa. Can you give him a little hint that I was never meant to be part of a ‘staff’ system. I much prefer my own ship.”
“No pain no game my friend,” replied Vanessa.
Melissa expected that reply, so instead of wasting time whining she changed the subject. “Guess what?”
“You’re ship’s back?” said Tate.
“How did you know?”
“I was the one who authorized its transfer back to Omicron Lyrae.”
“There better not be any scratches on it.”
“Hey I just authorized it nothing more.”
“Yeah now you deny everything.”
“I’m not den – ”
A man in his early twenties approached Tate from behind. “Just like old times eh Tate?”
“Who – what – Jo!”
“You never won an argument when I was around. And it turns out it’s no different now.”
“How did you get here? Last I heard you’re patrol group was doing hit-and-run pirate slayings around Ore Belt.”
“We got transferred here because of this new alien threat thing.”
“And you didn’t contact me?”
“Well I was meaning to soon. I was busy.”
“Yeah sure. So where are the rest of your group?”
“One is waiting for a new ship after his got fried, the other is in intensive care and the other two are dead.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
“So how about you introduce me to your two beautiful lady friends here.”
“Well, this is Vanessa” said Tate gesturing to the person sitting substantially closer to him than Melissa. “And this is Melissa.”
“It’s an honour to meet you ladies. My name is Jo Skillers. Me and Tate have known each other since high school.”
“Really,” said Vanessa. “What’s he like when he’s not around me then?”
“Oh a lot worse, I can assure you,” said Jo with a grin. “I assume you and Tate are…”
“Yeah,” said Tate quickly. “So what are you flying now?”
“Back to the old Disco again. I just didn’t like the Jaguar’s shielding. Far too dangerous for me. But hopefully I’ll get at least an M4 after my ship got fried…”
While Tate and Jo were engaged in deep discussion, Vanessa’s comm beeped. She answered it. It was Jason. “Emergency Van. We got what looks like an M7 and five M6s with full fighter escorts coming through the gate. I’m sending a call out to the Illustrious but we need all the fighter support we can get. Get the others and meet me in the hangar bay. I’ve got you some brand new Novas.”
“Right. Out.” She put her comm back on her utility belt. “Hey guys, we’ve got to get down to the bay. A large force just came through the gate.”
“Hey I’ll come to,” said Jo.
“Uh, well – ”
“Don’t worry,” said Tate. “This guy is an absolute ace. Plenty of real combat experience to.”
“Alright then. I’ll try and get you a ship.”

[Syndrome]

revised

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The five of them were together in the hanger bay, and Jo was drooling at a brand new Nova Vanguard.

“You think that’s good,” said Jason, “Then get a load of these new M3+ Eclipse fighters. Fresh from the shipyard.” He pointed behind the Nova.
“Whoa that baby is massive.”
“But she handles like a fighter when fully tuned. I’ll tell you what; which one do you want?”
“You serious?”
“I’m dead serious.”
“I’m tempted by the Eclipse but I have to go with the Nova Vanguard. I might be flying one of them soon.”
“She’s all yours, at least during the fight. Don’t get yourself killed.”
And with that they parted and went to their ships.

Tate had a Nova Sentinel; Vanessa had her own Mamba Raider; Melissa was in a Nova Vanguard; Jo likewise; and Jason was in the Eclipse.

Jo hopped into his cockpit and retracted the see-through metal. He was amazed by the advanced controls before him. Everything was covered from advanced engine control to fonts for long range messaging. At the back there was a very compact living area complete with a bed, toilet, and miniature cook top and fridge.

He started up his engines and marvelled as he felt the power behind him. Luckily, the cargo bay and engines were separated from the main area by sixteen centimetre soundproof plating. Traffic in the bay was high and he had to be careful not to bump into the innumerable other ships taking off to deal with the threat. Shields weren’t usually allowed in the hangar. Without being too graphic, if a shield touched a human, they were dead; disintegrated. Jo moved his ship into the que and waited for some of the slower ships. He took the time to check out his weapons array. Available he had five alpha high energy plasma throwers, one mass driver, and four beta particle accelerator cannons. He put one plasma thrower in his back turret and set it to missile defence, and the four others went in his main array. He put the particle accelerators in his main array as well, and kept the mass driver ready to be quickly interchanged.

Finally, he got a spot in the launch tubes and was propelled out the side of the colossal Herra. The enemy was closer than he thought. Probably because the Herra was moving towards it beforehand. Jo wasn’t used to being launched from an M1. Fifteen kilometres away loomed a large cruiser surrounded by five smaller ships and around twenty assorted fighters. Around Jo’s ship were about twenty five fighters, mostly M3s.

They closed in, with the Herra following at full speed. The fighters would unload missiles and lasers as much as possible on their first approach, and then the Herra would follow with photon pulse cannons.

It was a lightshow of missile trails, explosions, and lots and lots of laser fire. The enemy fighters responded, chasing down their enemies after they had gone past the bigger ships. The large cruiser that the convoy was centred on only took minor damage. It had around four gigajules of shielding. The Herra’s frontal turrets unloaded at their maximum fire rate. The Herra moved to the left to allow its right turrets to get a shot as the M6s split up.

Jo had taken minor shield damage from a lucky M6’s turret. He turned to face the cruiser again but then realised he was being shot at by a small fighter behind him. Now that he had been hit a few times his back turret would kick in against his marker. It obliterated the little fighter with a few hits. With his tailer now gone, he turned his attention to the closest M6. He shot a barrage of fire while strafing to dodge high speed plasma bolts. He managed to bring its shields down to forty percent.
“A little help would be nice guys!” said a wing mate who was being attacked by two heavy fighters. Jo immediately pulled hard on the stick to get a point blank shot right at one the fighters. Needless to say, it went spiralling head first into the enemy cruiser after Jo had finished with it. He then brought his attention to the other fighter but just couldn’t seem to get a lock on it. It was alerted to Jo’s threat after its partner got fragged. Their weapons weren’t as powerful, but the rate at which they fired more than made up for that. The fighter continued to hit its mark and soon the pilot yelled, “Heeelp!” His shields were gone and his hull was taking damage. Jo couldn’t do anything about it except pray that the pilot ejected. Luckily, he did and Jo flew around and scooped him up in his cargo bay.

Almost immediately after a large space suit came hauling through the door to the cargo bay. He took his helmet off to reveal a blonde haired male. “Thanks. You saved my life.”
“Skip the thanks just jump in the back turret,” replied Jo without taking his eyes off space. “Missiles take top priority.”
“Got it,” he said as he quickly removed his suit and ran to the back turret.

Tate’s inexperience at fighting was not doing him any good. He had used a sentinel version for a reason, and that reason was because he was a bad pilot. His shields were already down to sixty percent. Another couple of hits from the cruiser’s main cannons took them down to thirty percent. “I’m pulling out to recharge," he said over the comm. He turned around and flew back in the direction of the Herra but one of the enemy fighters picked him up and started taking pot shots from his tail. “Baka!” yelled Tate. The sentinel wasn’t designed for dodging shots. Rather, it was more of a tank for full frontals. He revved up the engines and skimmed the surface of the Herra. He passed the frontal communications array; gave the bridge crew a fright; dipped his ship into the gap in the middle of the Colossus; made sure not to crash into the top turrets and then pushed the stick down as he reached the end of the Herra. What he wasn’t aware of, though, was that it was not a good idea to come that close to engines as big as the Herra’s.

His shields plummeted down and the bottom of his ship was quickly disintegrating!

[Aragon Speed]

I've just read the whole of what you have done, and have to say your writing skills are improving a lot.

When you first started I had a lot of trouble working out what was going on, it seemed very bitty. As you carry on reading though, your writing skills have gone through stages where they suddenly jump a notch and get better. A definite case of 'Practise makes perfect'.

I'm enjoying the story now, which I didn't at first, and I'm now looking forward to seeing where you take this.

[Syndrome]

I've just read the whole of what you have done, and have to say your writing skills are improving a lot.

When you first started I had a lot of trouble working out what was going on, it seemed very bitty. As you carry on reading though, your writing skills have gone through stages where they suddenly jump a notch and get better. A definite case of 'Practise makes perfect'.

I'm enjoying the story now, which I didn't at first, and I'm now looking forward to seeing where you take this.

Thanks. Let's just say it improves with age So should I change my first chapters now?

[Aragon Speed]

Not yet. Wait until you finish your story if you want to do that sort of thing. You can then add hints towards things that happen later, and thread extra bits in to flesh out the story ect. If you really want to be adventurous you can add tons of sub-plots that help the main story by fleshing out details or characters without disrupting the main plot lines.

But you need the story finished (or fairly near to that) to know where its all got to lead to. (Did that make sense?)

That's the way I work anyway. Other writers have different ways of doing things.

'Living ship' is the first time I have written a story in this 'Chapters done lets post it' style. It's basically a first draft. After you have been through it a couple of more times (2nd, 3rd 4th draft ect) your story tends to end up better, but only just recognisable as the story you started with.

[Syndrome]

Well I just spent about an hour fixing up some typos and changing minor slip-ups in my earlier chapters. I also changed the color scheme back to normal.

So I guess you could call this version the second draft

I have an idea of where I am in the storyline but where do you think the story is at the moment? eg. just started, half way, almost finished.

I must admit though I don't really have all that much of a plan as to where it's going to go from here. When I approach a new chapter I almost make it up as I go, from the start of the chapter that is, not sentence by sentence Often, though, I think of different ways to go in mid-writing, so it might not turn out the way I planned.

With combat It's very 'make it up as I go' style but I think that's expected. I mean, I don't really think of all the moves that a pilot's going to make beforehand.

Seya.
Syndrome.

[Aragon Speed]

I have an idea of where I am in the storyline but where do you think the story is at the moment? eg. just started, half way, almost finished.

I feel that the story is getting going, about 1/4 to 1/3 done.

Well I just spent about an hour fixing up some typos and changing minor slip-ups in my earlier chapters. I also changed the color scheme back to normal.
So I guess you could call this version the second draft.

Yep, second draft is usually a tidy up job. I suppose really you do you first and second draft at the same time. I mean, how often do you go back and re-read what you have just done, and start to change things?

"Damn! that doesn't really say what I want it to - how can I really put across what a funny shape this banana is?"

I know I do it all the damn time. I waste more time fiddling and tweaking than writing if I'm not careful.

With combat It's very 'make it up as I go' style but I think that's expected. I mean, I don't really think of all the moves that a pilot's going to make beforehand.

I always have trouble with combat scenes. It would be nice if Zig or Mercenary could add some input on how they do their's.

[Syndrome]

I have an idea of where I am in the storyline but where do you think the story is at the moment? eg. just started, half way, almost finished.

I feel that the story is getting going, about 1/4 to 1/3 done.

Well I just spent about an hour fixing up some typos and changing minor slip-ups in my earlier chapters. I also changed the color scheme back to normal.
So I guess you could call this version the second draft.

Yep, second draft is usually a tidy up job. I suppose really you do you first and second draft at the same time. I mean, how often do you go back and re-read what you have just done, and start to change things?

"Damn! that doesn't really say what I want it to - how can I really put across what a funny shape this banana is?"

I know I do it all the damn time. I waste more time fiddling and tweaking than writing if I'm not careful.

With combat It's very 'make it up as I go' style but I think that's expected. I mean, I don't really think of all the moves that a pilot's going to make beforehand.

I always have trouble with combat scenes. It would be nice if Zig or Mercenary could add some input on how they do their's.

1/4 finished eh? That wasn't how I thought of it but you're probably right. Come to think of it, IIRC we've only covered roughly a few weeks! I was thinking from the point of view of how long I've been writing, not how long the plot has been going for. Heck I might even implement X4 somehow if I'm not finished by then. Personally, I prefer to keep up to date on the terms and references of a story. For example, when I started this story M3+s were a long way away, but a few chapters back in Melissa's dream I mentioned them for the first time. I can also add these new ships/sectors/stations/(even races) etc. as if they had just come out. Like in my previous chapter I referred to the Eclipse as "Fresh from the shipyard" with a sort of double meaning (Omicron Lyrae 'yards are where most of the Argon ship development goes on).

I feel combat scenes come fairly easy to me, but that's not to say I'm really good at it. In X3 I do alot of fighter dogfighting, and I've also got used to how capital ships would [really] work. The hull damage in X3 is painfully unrealistic. An M2 could have 0.000000001 hull percentage and the whole ship is still intact So that's why in my writing I try to emphisize that if a Disco got it's wing shot with no shields, it would really get it's wing shot off.

[Aragon Speed]

When I read my combat scenes back to myself they always seem ... well ... DULL.

[Syndrome]

I just realised how much I missed in my first draft I've just pasted all my story so far onto a word document and there are tiny little red zig-zag lines everywhere.

I'm in the process of correcting it now.

[Aragon Speed]

I just realised how much I missed in my first draft I've just pasted all my story so far onto a word document and there are tiny little red zig-zag lines everywhere.

I'm in the process of correcting it now.

It's all those green squiggles I have trouble with.

[Syndrome]

I've just finished properly revising all the parts of my story up to here. You might want to reread the first paragraph of two chapters ago. That's the chapter before the last one.

Next part. I'd particularly like some feedback on this one. How is the story going from a readers point of view?


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If there was one thing about Tate that you might notice in a combat situation, it was that he usually overreacted to minor threats that could be easily avoided, yet he didn’t really give a damn to the real life-threatening things that happened. Consequently, he just said, “Oh well. Computer, transport to Herra.” He could feel the heat running through his ship. It felt like a hundred degrees to Tate, the same feeling you get in a hot spa just amplified many times over. He was cool in these situations, but anger started to creep up inside him as the pain became almost unbearable and the computer seemed to be taking it’s time. To Tate it seemed that the computer waited till he was almost dead to transport him. In a sudden flash he was standing on the bridge of the Herra. His singed hair and clothes caught the attention of the Captain. “Tate, what happened?”
“I knew they would turn on me some day!”
“What?”
“The engines. I designed them and I knew they would try to kill me someday. Hey pilot, you just had to give them a turbo boost right when I was behind them didn’t you.”
The pilot turned and looked in innocent surprise, “But, sir I – ”
“Oh who cares. It’s not like it was your fault,” said Tate with a sudden calmness.
The pilot was looking at him, speechless.
“Well don’t just sit there, you’ve got a job to do.” With that Tate went out the door to clean himself up.

Outside, Jo was making plasma cakes out of the enemy fighters. He kept his shields down to a stable average of around seventy percent. He flanked one of the M6s, letting off three of his favourite missiles, Tempests, as he went. Flames shot out of the hull breaches the missiles had made, and soon the M6 became it’s own worst enemy as, in it’s desperate attempt to regain combat composure, it’s engines smacked against the M7’s hull, vaporising against the shields. Jo couldn’t help but laugh.

Vanessa’s game was quite repetitive. Flank-shoot-flank-shoot. That’s how she fought all the way. Her tiny single twenty five megajule shield only allowed her to take a few hits before racing away to take cover behind the Herra. She had been fighting like this for a while, and decided that she could do more damage by taking a different approach. She hit her thruster controls hard and shot towards the back of the battle. Executing a perfectly smooth one eighty turn, she brought her ship to face the engines of the M7. Letting off all that her laser energy would allow, she made a notable effort towards taking down her enemy’s shields.

Melissa was fighting an average fight, but, in harmony with her personality, she started contemplating why the aliens had come. They were inevitably going to lose the fight, with all their ships almost gone, they had no real reason to take such fool-hardy action and bring in this size task force. Unless… There could be only one reason that such a small-in-comparison force had been sent, it was not alone. And as Jo picked off the last fighter with a rein of plasma, and the Herra vaporised the M7’s reactor, another ship came through the gate.

It was massive, the size of an M2. Swarms of fighters followed it, swarm after swarm, hundreds of them came through. Another capital ship came through, the same size and shape as the previous M7. After a few seconds a slightly bigger ship shot forth, releasing even more fighters from it’s launch tubes immediately after.

The capital ships alone could possibly be dealt with, but the shear numbers of fighters were seemingly overwhelming.
“Holy Terra,” exclaimed Jo. “I hope this isn’t going to happen time they send a few ships through the gate.”
Jacob forge commed his counterpart on the Illustrious Titan. “Do you think you can take that kind of capital firepower?”
“Possibly, but our cannons might overheat soon and those fighters are just too much. We’ve got to call for backup.”
“I can’t, I just got a message from the captain of Argon One. An even bigger task force has been sent through the gate in Black Hole Sun, they can’t spare any more ships.”
“What do we do? We don’t have enough fighters!”
“I’m sending a call through to the other races but their ships can’t get here quickly. It might tank a while to tank them for the jump, and the nearest ship is a Phoenix in PNTI Headquarters.”
“That won’t be here any time soon.”
“We can only pray.”
“Right. Out.”
Forge opened a channel to all ships, “All ships, protect civilians at all costs. Draw the enemy away from the centre of the sector.”

The suicide mission began. The Illustrious powered up it’s engines and flew towards the side of the enemy M2, all guns firing. The Herra did likewise, using the line of friendly fighters as a blockade between them and the enemies, it started shooting it’s small cannons at the oncoming fighters. There were around a hundred and fifty enemy fighters compared to the fifty or so friendly fighters.

Jo felt his shields take the brunt of a frontal from the M7’s main cannons. He strafed up and to the right, keeping his nose pointing at the M7. Plasma shot forth from his main cannons making a small impact. Four fighters came up and over from the other side of the cruiser to start tailing him. “How’re you going back there,” called Jo to his turret man.
“There’s too many of them. Missiles are coming from everywhere.”
“Hang in there.” Jo pulled up on the stick, drawing his three tailers like heat seeking missiles. He initiated a barrel roll, turned and let off a few Tempests at the three ships chasing him. Their blue trails bent backwards and soon Jo heard an explosion behind him as his wings lit up. He had given his markers some tailers of their own. They started moving in all sorts of directions. One of them caught it’s wing on the M1, bouncing back and giving the Tempest a stopped target to vaporise. Jo smiled as the final fighter’s hull gave in to his Mass Driver.

Regaining his composure, Jo turned to face the M1. It’s turret’s were weak, and didn’t give Jo much trouble as he unloaded more energy into it’s shields. He scaled the surface and gave his thrusters a boost. At the end of the M1, about four hundred metres away, came another fighter to bug Jo. Plasma made quick handiwork of most of it’s shields but it had came at a price. Jo’s shields were down to forty percent, and suddenly he caught the attention of three new fighters. They brought his shields down even further, and Jo felt doomed. Barrel rolling gave him some hope, but the nearest friendly cover came a kilometre and a half away in the form of the Illustrious.

The battle had moved a lot closer to the south gate, and suddenly more fighters came to support the alien attack. Jo’s shields were gone, he was relying only on his flying skills, but there’s not much anyone can do when you have four markers. Five hundred metres and his hull had taken damage. A breach on the wing caused a fire to break out.
“I’m a sitting duck here!” said the man in Jo’s turret.
“What do you suggest? I turn back?!” Jo’s heart was pounding, but pure adrenaline fuelled his cause and he made it in one piece to the Illustrious. Turret’s turned two of the fighters into space dust and severely damaged the others. Jo did a one eighty and swiftly fragged the rest of the fighters.

Despite that small victory, there were just too many of them. Onboard the Herra, things weren’t going well.
“Sir, shields at twenty four percent!” said the ensign. “We have several minor hull breaches on decks five through eight.”
“Seal them off, open a channel to the Illustrious.”
Jacob’s counterpart appeared on the screen.
“How’s it going over there?”
“Not good. We have partly disabled the M2 but we’ve got ten percent shields and fighters are always bombarding us. We – ”
A massive explosion on the side of the Herra sent a shockwave through the ship and disabled systems ship-wide. Sparks shot off panels on the bridge and the connection to the Illustrious was lost.
“Sir,” yelled the ensign, “Major hull breach on decks five and six! We’ve been hit by a torpedo. Oh great Terra, another one’s on the way. Brace for impact!”
The whole frontal underside of the Colossus was ripped apart under the impact. Tate lifted himself up off the floor and rushed over to replace the unconscious ensign’s role. “Frontal decks have been destroyed! We’ve got no hope!”
“Then we’ll fight to the end,” Jacob yelled back over the noise.

The battle was lost, or was it…

[Syndrome]

Next bit.

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Earth; it was a beautiful planet, the most beautiful in the universe. It hadn’t changed much in a thousand odd years either. Sure, the continents had moved a kilometre or two here and there, but hardly anything major enough to impact on it’s overwhelming beauty from space. The orbital defence ring provided weapons beyond imagination, should they be needed. About twenty Odins and twenty five Tyrs were lying in orbit, ready to be called upon. The whole Terran fleet consisted of eleven thousand fighters, but only a few thousand were being piloted. Most of the Earth fleet was no where near Earth, though. One Odin and two Tyrs were orbiting the moon, half a dozen or so Odins and Tyrs were protecting the Alpha Centauri System, and the rest were stationed around the other Terran colonies in the Sol System, along with fighter patrols and escorts.

On the surface, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, was a gigantic ground docking facility capable of having four hundred fighters docked at one time. Two massive landing pads were also reserved for capital ships, such as the Tyr or Odin. This was also the base for Earth fleet operations and capital ships could be built here as well. There were six admirals in the Earth fleet, one was on the Terran space HQ on the surface; one was captain of an Odin in Earth orbit; and the rest oversaw fleet operations on the colonies outside of Earth.

His name was Admiral Mark Tyr and he was sixty two years old. His combat achievements had been so highly noted that they even named the current Earth battlecruiser class (or in standard terms, an M2) after him. He was stationed on the ground-based Earth Fleet Headquarters. In his office he was studying on the Argon race, and with every hour of reading he had become more inclined to think that they really were descendants from the original Terran race. His office consisted of a small semi-circle desk, with his monitor sitting on top; and a corner-couch where he did most of his reading. That was where he was sitting now.

A urgent knock sounded on his door. “Come in.”
A medium sized man rushed in, puffing slightly.
“Ah, hello colonel.”
“Sir, we’ve just intercepted a distress signal from the Argon sector Omicron Lyrae.”
“So what? Their technology is fairly primitive but capable nonetheless.”
“This is different, sir. After we heard the distress signal we activated our hidden probe in the sector. They are inevitably going to lose the fight and many lives will be lost.”
The admiral’s eyebrows raised slightly with interest.
“They’re up against an enemy we’ve never seen before who have similar technology to ourselves. If they penetrate the defences in Omicron Lyrae they will kill millions at first, and they might even initiate an attack on the planet. Here, have a look at this.” The colonel handed him a small handheld monitor showing the battle that was taking place.
“There’s hardly any ships there. Why haven’t the Argon sent reinforcements?”
“There is a bigger invasion taking place in Black Hole Sun. They are dealing with it with moderate effectiveness but that’s where the rest of their fleet is.”
“You suggest we intervene?”
“Like I said, if they lost this fight it would be a devastating blow for them. On top of that, I feel that our relations would be greatly affected if they later found out that we didn’t do anything when we could’ve.”
“You’re right, colonel. Alright then, send five Tyrs and an Odin with full fighter escorts. Get Kobach to go with them.”


************************************************************************

Out of the corner of his eye Jo saw some of the Herra explode from a torpedo hit. He just stared for a few seconds. “Tate… No. He wouldn’t have been down there, he’d be on the bridge…right.” Jo tried to comm the Herra. No response. This made him a little more anxious. Then, though, the Herra’s turret’s started firing again. It wasn’t completely disabled.

Jason was enjoying himself as much as he could in his Eclipse, but seeing what happened to the Herra just supported his thinking that, if they were going to win, they needed a miracle. Suddenly, all hope seemed to be lost as another enemy destroyer came through the gate. Yes, slowly but surely, it sliced through any hope of a friendly victory.

A few seconds later, though, the gate exit lights flashed again. The enemy destroyer was only partly away from the gate and franticly trying to move away.

The following explosion was beyond words. If you can imagine a long, powerful, heavily shielded, advanced battleship ripping through another M2 like a knife through butter, that’s what is was like. All the surrounding fighters that had come with the enemy destroyer were obliterated in the explosion. There had been two destroyers trying to be in the same place at once, only one could be victorious. And that’s how it was. With the Terran vessel’s shields only moderately damaged, it pulled up and then forward to allow for another, even bigger ship to come through the gate. This ship was familiar to most of the Herra’s crew, though, who had seen it first hand only a few months ago. Around five of them had come to help out in what was now called, ‘The Battle of Heretic’s End’. Later, it had been revealed that it was called an ‘Odin’.

It moved away and soon four more long battleships came through the gate. Their weapons were amazing! With the speed of a AHEPT but more power than a GPPC, they destroyed many fighters on it’s way to the enemy M7 ship. Similar to how the Khaak react when suddenly given a different assignment, all ships that were swarming around the Herra and Illustrious immediately went to engage the nearest Terran fighters.

Jo’s shields had now recharged sufficiently to move away from his cover. As he came up and over the Illustrious to take a look at the battle before him, he felt like he was dreaming. He took a detailed look at the closest of the new battleships. He had never seen anything like it. The surface was very complicated, full of mini turrets and communications arrays, but somehow it still looked very sleek. Two engines placed close together at the back of the ship propelled it to a reasonable speed while it’s super-fast capital weapons wreaked havoc with the enemy fighters.

In the centre of the fight, there was a ship more familiar to Jo, but still he had never seen it close up. From the news displays showing the Battle of Heretic’s End, he had seen these vessels as the supposed ‘Terran’ ships that saved the day.

The fighters of the Terran race were equally a marvel of technology. Fast, agile, heavily shielded; these ships were truly deadly. Jo grabbed his video enhancement goggles and zoomed in on the closest heavy fighter he could see. It flanked the enemy M7, which was, by now, almost completely destroyed from the Terran battleships; came down across it’s nose and met a enemy fighter underneath. It was now that Jo got a good look at the Terran fighter level weapons. They were almost identical to the alien weapons. The speed of an APAC but the power of a AHEPT and with a shimmering blue colour that surrounded the perfect spheres of energy.

A truly powerful ally had saved the day for a second time. In a display of shear technologically advanced weapons, these six ships had destroyed four more battlecruisers that had been sent by the aliens through the gate as reinforcements. Admiral Forge finally commed the Odin after the battle was over.

“This is Admiral Kobach of Terran Fleet Forces. May we be of further assistance?”
“How can we ever repay you? First you save the day over at Heretic’s End and then this…”
“We will be in touch again very soon. Kyle Brennan sends his regards to the Argon race. Kobach out.”
“But…”
“Comms are out,” said Tate.

The six ships finally disappeared just as majestically as they had appeared in a brilliant flash of light.

“What’s the situation, Tate?”
“Look’s like we’ll need to spend another week at the shipyard. Engines are dead, reactor is semi-breached, decks five through eight have been destroyed, the list goes on.”
“What about casualties?”
“One hundred and twenty crew dead from that torpedo blast.”
Jacob’s expression grew even more bleak.
“If there’s one good thing about it, rest assured they all died instantly. Those who weren’t immediately killed by the torpedo were just sucked out into space.”
Jacob started to walk towards the bridge exit. “I’ll organise a memorial service for them. You can reach me in my office.”

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

GO TERRANS!!! BO YEAH!!!

[Aragon Speed]

This ship was familiar to most of the Herra’s crew, though, who had seen it first hand only a few months ago.

Missing 'seen' in that sentence I think.

Excellent couple of parts m8. Looks like you have had more time to write this week.

[Syndrome]

This ship was familiar to most of the Herra’s crew, though, who had seen it first hand only a few months ago.

Missing 'seen' in that sentence I think.

Excellent couple of parts m8. Looks like you have had more time to write this week.

Fixed

Yeah I've been getting up early(er) in the morning to do it. I enjoy it so much it almost taken over my x3 playing time Looking forward to your next installment as well Speed.

[Aragon Speed]

Looking forward to your next installment as well Speed.

Code: Select all

Working... Working... Automatic story program has not enough memory to complete the required task. This program will now close.

Damn! Looks like I'll have to do it myself...

(Next part is in progress )

[jackhanna88]

Just read the last 2 installments - bloody brilliant. I nearly wooped out loud when the terrans arrived!

[Syndrome]

Just read the last 2 installments - bloody brilliant. I nearly wooped out loud when the terrans arrived!

Thanks I'm glad you like it. Rest assured this won't be the only Terran appearance

[jackhanna88]

Lol no problem mate - keep it up, I'm really enjoying it!

[Syndrome]

I should have the next chapter up either today or tomorrow morning Australian EST.

Here's a little teaser for you meanwhile

Melissa tried to scream, but she couldn’t. Something was there, blocking the airways.

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“You and your people will die, and your pathetic Terran friends will go with you.”

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...something was taking over, devouring her nerves into millions of little pieces of fear.

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One final shot hit her face. Her eyes closed, stunned by the blast. She couldn’t move, she started to feel life losing its grip on her. She drifted away, helpless to the evil that had just overcome her.

Hehe. Don't get too worried about Mel, though.