Week 3 - The Prison of Mandate and the Hunt for Alice Clegg

The Prison of Mandate had once been one of the worst prisons of the Iron Republic. The entire system Justice's Mandate was known only for the prison that orbited the planet Justice's Mandate 3. There was a certain cosmic irony when the E-strain overran the entire system in a few weeks over a year and a half ago. The Angels of Desolation personally took over the prison, and it was from this horrible place of punishment that Stockholder Kal Marx was rescued by independent mercs hired by the I.R. to find him only three months ago.
All the Brethren were executed and fed to the E-strain, because after all the E-strain have to eat as well. The Unity synthesized food shipments fed many of the E-strain hiveworlds, but new Colonies of E-strain required food to begin creating new shell to force the old shell from its body to create the hive walls.

The entire system of Justice's Mandate was infested with billions of E-strains and hundreds of Bloom ships. The Moon of Mandate, surrounding the Prison Facility itself, had fields of large sacks where bloom ships were being created from hulks towed from nearby systems. While a good 350 Bloom Ships patrolled the system, there were an additional 1,000 being grown on the moon of mandate.
Their birth would herald the fall of another Iron Republic system, and the repetition of the cycle.
With the status of Angel D unknown, the TRILAT was left to defend their program at Mandate, and it was quite a project to walk in on. The Prison was being used to test and retest new versions of Magnavores, Insectivores, Mekavores. Half the prison were test subjects, half were simply prey.
Leftenant Ryuk was the first on the scene, and was overwhelmed by what he saw. Then calming his mind and focusing, he decided the only way to handle it was to remove a finger from each person of interest, then destroy the rest, and rez them when he got back to safety.
And while it was an efficient plan, the prison communication network spread the word of the killings across the entire seven cell blocks that made up the Prison of Mandate. Ryuk’s soldiers shot prisoners in their cells, took samples and destroyed the bodies. It was a slog for the soldiers who did it, and even the normally sadistic Kasanthians found the work grueling.
Meanwhile, a small splinter fleet of cloaked I.R. TRIDENT Missile ships made their way across the system of Justice’s Mandate, passing Unity Reality Drill Emplacements and Bloom Ships. The cloaked I.R. assault ships made their way to the Moon of Mandate. The ships arrived without deterrence, at the Moon of Mandate, and their doors’ opened just inside the main courtyard of the Prison. From them ran Brethren Tactical teams led by Quall N’fel officers. The teams entered the C Block and under strict orders from Director Kal Marx, made their way to the top floor only to find acidic smudges in the cells.
The other team made their way to A Block, which held the most dangerous of the experimental E-strain Magnavores. They released the cages there, and unleashed them. Not shockingly, as the prisoners rioted, the Brethren were torn apart by the Magnavores in the close quarters of the prison hallway. The riot at A block spread to B block. Ryuk’s collection team at E block heard the commotion and fled with the samples they had taken. By the time the Riot reached E Block, there were the sounds of artillery outside.
In the sky of the moon was a wormhole that hadn’t been there moments before, and from it flew an I.R. Fleet which bombarded the surface of the Mandate. Of every salvo tossed by the 10 Heavy Frigates from their Dome Busters, two were intercepted by Sanguine Lords who floated in cloud form near the moon.
Once the Heavy Frigates were fully through the wormhole and it closed behind them, the TRILAT defense force struck. Captain Axis sent a splinter fleet of Nodachi starfighters and Kamikaze Boarding Vessels which struck the Iron Republic fleet from one side. On the other side, Admiral Layne Yr’s Organic Nightmare Ships (ONS) were expelling clouds of life-sucking, energy draining fluids created in the unnatural glands in the center of the vessels. The liquid stuck to the side of the Heavy Frigates, draining their reactors quickly. The entire electrical systems shut down, and the ships listed to the side.
As darkness covered the crew of the Iron Republic Heavy Frigates, they felt and heard the echoing thumps up and down the side of their ships. It was the Kamikaze Boarding Starfighters delivering their “packages”. Techno broken roamed the halls of the Iron Republic Frigates, getting into close range gunfights with those onboard in the darkness.
Some of the I.R. Vessels were flipped into each other using asteroid pelters, shearing metal and killing thousands of Brethren and hundreds of Earther I.R. Officers.
Under the cover of that fleet being ripped apart, Sector General Deer’s starfighters arrived to deliver their lethal payload. Acid Missiles were sunk deep into the fluid filled sacs that held the new Omnivore-class Bloom Ships. The Acid was one of their weaknesses and the growing foetal ships died in droves.
Then the I.R.s Cavalry arrived in the form of the forces of Rogue HiveQueen Ar’yay HiveQueen.
Hive Queen Ar'Yay’s anger with the Iron Republic was secondary for her disgust over the E Strain. A twisted perversion of the beloved larva she used to spawn her young. They needed to be destroyed before they could consume more of the galaxy in the name of their Ancient Evil master. She gave the order and energy Bridges open up in orbit around the Moon of Mandate and 20 Quall Light Frigates jumped through with orders to engage enemy light starships providing relief to the Iron Republic starships attacking the Moon and it’s fleets. They saw the wrecked fleet of the Sector General Palomedes.

300 Neo Flayer Starfighters provided close support protecting the Quall Frigates and the Iron Republic vessels from Yrs Starfighters. First firing a shot or two from their fireball cannons and then using their nano-whips to entangle enemy fighters and slow them down long enough for either allied fighters to destroy them, or until they can focus their fireball cannon on them. The Neo Flayer Starfighter Wings continued to move against enemy fighters but were often cut up in dogfights with Nodatchi starfighters. .

600 Quall Interceptors followed and moved toward enemy Capital Ships. Each squad of 20 strafed an enemy capital ship and used their grapple line to secure themselves to the enemy hull. Then they focused their fireball cannons and melt metal cannons upon the enemy ship’s hulls until it is destroyed.

350 Sagittae rushed to counter the Quall Interceptors and Neo-Flayers and a raging dogfight ensued. But as the attack began, the Quall Interceptor Pilots began reporting in strange holes into darkness where robotic talons moved. Once the Sagittae closed with them, the talons struck. As Quall Interceptors and Neo-Flayers were diving and rolling away from Sagittae Energy Lances, the Talons would strike. They ripped holes into the hulls of the Quall Starfighters, damaging the ships terribly. It was a gruesome battle.

While the TRILAT fleet was distracted with this force the Iron Republic Mothership "The Holy Flame" shadow jumped in at the rear of Ar’Yay’s forces. "The Holy Flame” launched its Starfighter complement to screen its actions.

"The Holy Flame" began launching multiple drop pods containing Quall N’Drone Warriors down upon the moon aiming at the prison, however a few drop pods were fired toward the growing ships. Unknown to its crew, its massive rear was hit by Reality Drills fired from the surface of the planet. At each location struck, E-strain Manslayers rushed aboard “The Holy Flame”. It was a hard battle as thousands of E-strain swarmed through the halls of the starship, hacking defensive systems and stealing control of the vessel in many parts of the ship.

As soon as the drop pods were away "The Holy Flame" opened up an exit energy bridge and prepared withdrew to Kyrpos. The rest of the Quall Fleet was able to limp away, under the EMP missile support of “The Holy Flame’s” Starfighters. The Holy Flame withdrew its starfighters and they all escaped back to Kyrpos and closed the energy bridges behind it. Unluckily it brought with it the threat of the E-strain to Kyrpos.

But on the Moon of Mandate all those drop pods had opened after landing in one of two different areas. Task Force Molten smashed through the outer walls of the prison and Task Force Conflagration landed amongst the growing bloom ships. Each Task force consisted of Red Fist Commandos in full power armor.

Once on the ground the Quall of Task Force Molten opened an energy bridge back to Kyrpos on an island separate from Ar’yay’s main force, a staging ground from which an army has been gathered. 12,000 Quall N’Drone entered and begin hit all prisoners they saw with brain fever and attempted to herd them back through the energy bridges when captured. Those were herded through were locked in Obsidian cages awaiting transport and interrogation. Though some of the Quall were wounded by the strange talons on some of the more mutated prisoners they captured.
Many Quall reported seeing Unity soldiers teleporting in and saving prisoners from their own capture squads. The teleport away saved them from being captured in all instances, with the Unity forces purposely evading all contact to simply move on to save new prisoners.

Task Force Conflagration landed in the bloom ship fields. Like Task Force Molten they opened up an Energy Bridge to a staging point and brought in 30,000 Quall Warriors. Their job was to secure the area and hold off the multitude of E Strain that were rushing them. They only need to hold off the E Strain for a short time as Task Force Conflagration began locating strategic locations within the fields and opening up specially designated Energy Bridges. As the Energy Bridges opened the Quall in the area shall all shout out “BY FIRE BE…..BURNED!” These energy bridges will open underneath the lava oceans in Kyrpos. Once the large energy bridges are open the area shall be flooded with billions of gallons of lava. On the other side of these bridges shall be Obsidian piercers maintaining the other side and making sure that no one interferes. The Quall holding off the E Strain retreated back toward the Energy Bridges that led back to the staging ground and withdrew. The Energy Bridges finally closed and the planet’s surface had been scoured clean.

All except a small patch around the prison were still covered in lava which was swiftly cooling.

--LtRyuk has escaped with a few different prisoners who claim to know the location of Alice Clegg. F.KalMarx failed in recovering any of their special targets. Unity Prime recovered the location of the Next Moon the Grey will target.--