Week 7 - The Arc of Midas

A modest fighter squadron appears from the uninhabited end of the Arc of Midas. Their approach is overt as they strafe the asteroid belt and target enemy prey. Five Estrain Bloom Ships left the safety of the asteroid belt to follow after the squad of starfighters.

After the initial pass the squad makes it way back to space and disappears. This was obvious, what wasn't so obvious were the many Nano-Fusion Sages that stealthily made their way into the belt with the aid of some temporary Light Leyas effects.

Moments latter streams of recon data flowed from the arc. The data gave a good image of the threat awaiting them on the other side. It was also clear from the data that the threat inside the belt was real and had to be dealt with. The Drak'han Garmin Fe had hoped that it would not have been the case. From the data it was quite clear that, if it hadn't happened already, his men would be found out at any given moment. The general turned to the commander, "I authorize the use of all arsenal. I'll be making my way down their. Fire upon my signal." At which point Garmin stepped into the elevator tube and made for the lower deck of the vessel.

Soon after, dozens of drop pods fired from the Arcturus Warship, "The Warrior's Will", and the Unity Dreadnoughts that held their position not far from the arc now. Revealing themselves from the pods was additional support from the Order of the Recognized. Including the obvious gleam of several golden Nephilim. Three flashes of light shot out from the arc, two white and one gold. The signal was clear, all who were going to make it had managed to reach the rendezvous point. Three objects fired off into the arc and the appearance of an explosion in reverse shocked the bodies of those unprotected and trapped their memories in the Hearts of the Forgotten.

It was at that very instant that the remaining fleet of Garmin Fe shadow jumped into position on the opposing side of the arc, barely within weapons fire of the enemy fleet. Using the recon data, they had already positioned themselves into an ideal defensive sphere of ships. The Sagittae Starfighter from the initial side of the conflict commenced their support runs once again as the endless capacity of the Dreadnoughts delivered more drop pods into the conflict. The Thousands of Recognized tried to mobilize with the support of newly crafted Nephilim. Light artifacts were dispensed to power those fortunate enough to craft a Nephilim from the gold veins found inside.

As the Golden Nephilim and their pilots went deeper into the asteroid belt, they found dead Estrain Manslayer and Mauler husks. They were checked and had obviously died from the Hearts of the Forgotten. The Asteroid belt was filled with the corpses from what the Nano-Fusion Sages could fine. They also discovered another thirty Bloom ships hiding in the belt, its crew killed by the Hearts of the Forgotten. With the last of the deployed crystalline weapons recovered, the Nano-Fusion Sages signalled to the fleet of Garmin Fe, who signalled to their allies to begin deploying.

The Builder worlds hummed with excitement. The Zero Metal was understood at last. The will of the metal was a thing unto itself, so strong that even annihilation was turned aside. They had turned the Black Zero metal to the ways of the Builder's assembly, and tons of the dull silver material were loaded on to transports. The Builders sung as their new messengers were flung into the heavens.

An image of Prime was projected on the Bridge of Dreadnaught-5. A Triarius standing before him shouted commands from a mouth filled with razor fangs. "All hands! Prepare for the strike!"

10 Unity Dreadnaughts streaked into the battle outside of the belt, and behind them came four hundred Saggitae organized into wings of 10. From each of the Dreadnaughts streaked huge shards of the Zero metal. The metal was aimed at the suns, and half of the shards were actually engineered with structural weakness. Upon exposure to gravitic turbulence, the shard would shatter into thousands of tiny pieces. Prime had theorized that the metal would convert the Revelation nanoplauge quickly, neutralizing them as a threat.

Behind the Dreadnaughts came a single Apostle. The sun of its core appeared first, but was quickly hidden by layer after layer of black metal that surrounded it.

The shards of Zero Metal raced towards the three Suns. The center group of shards zoomed past the windows of the Devil's Elation.

Captain Roberts stood on the bridge of the Devil's Elation, Uloh's infiltrator ship. Yet again, he and his crew were on a dangerous stealth mission against the Estrain of the demonic AOD.

His orders were specific. He was to take his ship thru to the far sun in the Ark. there his Technician was to attempt to hack the Revelation nanoplague. IF successful, they were contact any Blackheart troops or the forces of SectorGeneral Palomedes and let them know. they were also to use the Revelation to target AOD forces and try to protect their 'allies'.

His list of optional targets included attempts to hack/capture gravity generators, if unable to capture them, he is to use the Revelation to destroy them. He was also to attempt to acquire a sample of the Revelation and store it in a lead box and then put it in the locker box that President Ragman sent special for just that purpose.

Captain Roberts was just happy that they still had the encrypted microburst IFF transmitter. Hopefully, their 'allies' wouldn't blow them out of the sky. He really didn't want to miss his daughter's birthday next week.

'Well,' he thought, 'no time like the present.' Turning to his bridge crew, he turned on the intercom, "All Hands, prepare for combat conditions. All anti boarding parties to their posts, Technicians prepare for electronic warfare. And now to war. "

Captain Roberts watched with concern as the Zero metal began shimmering as it broke up in high orbit above the Star which was his target. The Metal began being absorbed into the Revelation Nanoplague.

All three of the Stars began to pulse in time with each other. A network of strands spread out over the visible surface of each star, from this great a distance it had a spiderweb like design. Beams of Energy Spread from each of the stars as they began to link up. There was a low rumbling.

Captain Rogers turned to his science officer, "What is that sound? You can't hear sound in space?"

"That is correct sir," said the science officer, "We are being buffeted by the Energy Waves being given off by those stars. Umm sir, I think they are alive...or at least speaking to each other. There Energy Waves are conversing in Binary."

"Is the Energy dangerous?" asked Captain Rogers.

At that moment the doors to the IR Mothership Sword of Bootes opened and deployed a single Red Star satellite, defended by a team of ten IR Raptor Starfighters.

The Red Star activated towards the middle of the Arc of Midas. A wormhole opened and began sucking in the asteroid belt, drawing asteroids, Nano-Fusion Sages, Golden Nephilim WarGiants and Bloom Ships full of dead Manslayers.

They were all released at a location deep in Iron Republic Space. Here the cleanup began.
Sector General Deer was smiling when he gave the order to have the asteroid belt pulled apart one rock at a time using tractor beams. Then concentrated plasma cannons fire cooked Manslayer bodies that drifted out.

Le-a HiveQueen's Heavy Frigates moved into position and began firing rounds that melted the metal in the asteroid belt. As Liquid Metal flowed from the Asteroids in big droplets it quickly cooled.
Three Nano-Fusion Sages coated in hardened gold, along with twenty gold coated Manslayers were collected by Le-A HiveQueen.

Back at the original location of the Arc of Midas, the rear guard, 10 Stilletos of Blackheart and the 60 Neo Flayer Starfighters and 2 Quall Light Frigates of Aryay Hive Queen were recieving reports that except for the extreme energies coming off all three stars, the location was secured. There patrols took them behind the combined allied starforce when they spotted a single Kingfisher shadow jumping away.

The small Blackheart and Aryay fleet followed closely behind.

They left Ryuk still guarding the three Stars with his fleet. He had planned on making a base here, but aside from the three stars that seemed way too alive for his tastes there was nothing here.

Rewards for the Arc of Midas

All Ships survived

All players involved Gain a Mega Industry Bonus-
Autobuild 500 Starfighters of your own faction Only
Autobuild 1 Heavy Capital Ship of your own faction Only
(post choices in construction thread)

Special Rewards
Ar'yay and Blackheart gain the Rearguard Bonus (and access to the Week 8 Mission : the First AOD Galaxy Drive)

Le-a gains 3 Statues that Will Cause Problems (Beacon City citizens)
also Gains 20 Unique Golden Manslayers Statues

Garmin Fe gains a whole bunch of Nephilim (+25 Golden Nephilim Wargiants)

The Three Living Stars are now active. Their loyalty is unknown.

Warning to the Temporal Empire.