Space Operatic Week 1

All channel distress signal: “This is the IR star cruiser Baxter's Fist. We were on containment patrol for the border of Brethren Space...Dear god they have breached the engine room. We saw a fleet 4 motherships, 10 star cruisers, assorted other ships. BRACE THAT DOOR!!

We went to rendezvous, we...I figured it was a lost battle group. They didn't respond so we pulled close enough to use the short wave that's when they lit up their flood lights and we saw the tribal designs. We never stood a chance, my only hope is this message reaches any one. Its a raiding fleet, they will pillage anything within reach. Damn it they are down the hall, this is Captain Aldarin mil number 8082663. Don't let our deaths be in...ALL BRETHREN OF THIS VESSEL YOU ARE FREE! JOIN US OR...” Communication terminated.

(OOC: The raiding fleet could reach any factions controlled planets. Their last known trajectory put them on a course for Karava, a blue star system with a thick asteroid belt. If they can reach it tracking the fleet will be like finding a needle in a haystack. This mission is open to all factions, teamwork is encouraged. Please note: This mission is happening at the same time as Driving Off the Shadows. Make sure your leaders and fleets aren't in two places at once...the temporal empire likes it when the laws of physics are upheld. All players get one post except the first player who gets an additional counter post. The mission locks 11MAY12. Feel free to set up a thread to discuss strategy.)

His name was Danverk Van Gerald, or at least that had been his name since the fall of Earth, when he had traded in his designation of Omega Brethren A-00 assigned as overwatch of the original Alpha Brethren Infiltraitor program.
He had worked for the Tyrant Von Glomhammer during the civil unrest of Refuge's formative years as a penal colony. Danverk had been one of the founding members of the Cyborgs of the Wastes, and worked closely with the EEF agents who became the infamous Group2. As Cyborg 00, Dan had helped prevent the Coup de'etat that nearly deposed Colony General Malthus.

The border wars had left Jelena, Cyborg 47, in charge of the Cyborgs of the Wastes along with their A.I. leader Mary Jane. Couper and Jack Hudson had returned to Earth to help the rebellion against the Iron Republic.
Dan went off to wander the stars, to find out if any other groups of Brethren had rebelled against the I.R.

Dan called in all of his favors and was given a special dispensation by the Colony General. He was assigned the rank of Draco Privateer and given free passage to the Draco to assemble a small pirate fleet. Their instructions were clear, no overt EEF flags, no overt EEF colors and a civilian captain in the form of Dan.
They could target any faction, but their goal was linking up with the rogue Brethren.

Captain Van Gerald recieved the report of the communication and set forth after the message. With him were two EEF Gunships, with five Darkside Gunpods and Ten Aegis Starfighters each, that would be deploying their Spectre Cloaking Devices and acting as forward scouts. They would only deploy their starfighters in an emergency.
In addition he had a Dusk-class Destroyer and four heavily armed and armored Proto-Vespa Starfreighters. Two of the Freighters had upgraded their hornets with compliments of Aegis Starfighters, the other two had replaced their hornets with compliments of EEF Ripper Gunpods.
All the vessels under the control of Cap'n Dan had been reported sold as scrap by EEF junkyards in the Draco.

Captain Van Gerald would arrive and attempt to hail the Rogue fleet through forward flying starfighters. He would avoid all entaglements with EEF-allied factions, but will blow up any Kasanthian vessels that take pot-shots at his men.

I.R. Interplanetary Gunship Captain Sven Dendrill couldn't stop his hands from shaking as he gave the orders to ignore orders.

He was supposed to rendesvous with the I.R.-Tarrisian Joint Strikeforce fleet at the Arc of Midas when he caught the distress calls and overheard the hails.
So he did what any good Iron Republic soldier would do, he transmitted a boosted beacon to nearby Iron Republic Interdictor fleet on the plane of Awareness. He ordered his crew to launch a beacon to help guide them in.

He was about to have his ship continue onward towards the Arc of Midas when he realized he had the perfect excuse to take a paid divergence. Sven ordered his personal Delta V2 to disable the Gunship's Shadow Drive, so he could honestly transmit the images of the computer denoting damage to critical transit systems.

Sven got the ok from the base to divert to the nearby Banking Guild Service Station. From there he could see everything and his ship would be safe. As Sven considered this plan, the I.R. Interdictors that jumped in, multiple Heavy Capital Ships with fifty starfighters apiece. Sven wondered if this would be a smaller three ship formation, or one of the devistating ten ship formations.

Either way he and his men would be safe, and his hands shook with excitement, a paid vacation. Sven hadn't had one of them since the attack on the penal colony of Refuge two and a half years ago.

Let the Interdictor patrol handle the rogue Brethren, Sven was going to have a cheeseburger.

(OOC: Ok because I somehow doubt the interdictor assault force wants to talk about their feelings with the brethren I am going to hold off describing the battle till CGM is done with diplomacy)

The Brethren fleet while obviously arranged to provide maximum protection in case of attack ignored the starfighters as they kept their distance. The lead pilot hailed the fleet. In response he got a quick angry message. “Our quarrel isn't with you but annoying ants will be squashed.”

“1-2 has established contact. Retrans handshake complete, sir, you should be able to speak to them /
The pilot said without emotion.

"Project A, designate 00
Check your IR records. Nearly single handedly won the IR War of Independence as part of the original infiltration squad of the Earth Authority Command Ship Exodus.
Been working as a rogue with a nice fleet and looking to find some likeminded Brethren.

But there is a deciding question we need to know here?

Are you boys a bunch of dirty cannibals or have you moved beyond it?

The question is are you rebelling or are you just looting?", Dan transmits.

The voice on the other end had a respectful amount of awe, "I am honored to call you my brethren. I am Brevix chieftan of the Blackshield tribe. While many of our brethren have lost their purpose and now exist merely to gratify their existence we do not."

"We have kept the old ways, every brethren child is released into the wild zone, only those that turn 4 can be considered our brethren." CPT Dan knew the tradition well, all brethren "children" came fully grown from a cloning tube. The Iron Republic released them on the barren portion of Mars or one of many other untamed worlds as a trial by fire. Its where many turned to cannibalism.

"While our foes flesh is still sweet on our lips we are not gluttonous. We strike with a purpose, and will take whatever is needed to achieve it. Across the universe millions of OUR brethren are enslaved, governments like the EEF stand by and let it go without even a passing comment. The Black Shield could stand this injustice no longer so we seek to strike."

"I must ask, will the ones you deal with oppose our revolution?"

"Depends" replied CPT Dan, "Depends on whether you lot got any honor towards your fellows. But you have told me enough to support your cause...till you show me not to."

Dan had been tapping on his command interface, issuing orders to his small fleet as he did.

The Four Proto-Vespas took up a position ahead of the IR Interdictor fleet, two having already deployed their compliments of Ripper Gunpods. The Unmarked Rippers were designed to look Merc preventing any correlation with official EEF forces. They did however have the Ripper Cluster missiles which had historically fallen out of favor centuries before due to their high cost relative to weaker reusable plasma-based weapons.

These rippers would move in only after the Interdictors have deployed their own Gunpod Starfighters against the rogue Brethren Fleet. Dan's Rippers would do a heroic run directly to the rear of the Interdictors, aiming specifically for the engines and drive systems with close range strikes using their Cluster missile pods. As they finish this run. they will use their ripper cannons to strike communication hubs, transmitter arrays and any other communication devices used to direct the IR deployed Gunpods. Cutting maneverability and communication will be the goal.

After their attack run the Rippers would rondesvous with the Proto-Vespas who will shadow jump away to reunite with Dans force after the battle.

Dan finsihed his last set of commands, saying, "I've set some friends to hamstring their Interdictors, if you can handle their Gunpods, we can take those ships and hold them. Tell your boarding troops to focus on the Human and Quall N'fel Officers, we may be able to turn the Betas to our side."

A probe mekanoid would be sent to broadcast seperately to the IR tactical channels:
"Brethren of the Interdictor fleet, you have been betrayed. Your Officers are here on false orders sent by enemy hacking. They refuse to stand down and will simply sacriifce you to save their pride and then blame it on you.
We are Brethren as well here on orders of a higher authority. We do not ask you to turn on your superiors, we simply as that you do not engage the capture squads being sent to replace your faulty Officers with loyal ones."

After that was broadcast a seperate additional message would be sent to Rogue Brethren Command "If this ploy works have your officers take over the ships command deck. We can reveal the truth to the Betas once we get them safely away from here. Freedom for all regardless of birth by flesh or birth by steel."

Interdictor Gearheart: Its been a week already, where is this rogue super fleet? Have we received any orders from higher to redeploy?

Interdictor Balsam: Negative, higher is convinced the enemy fleet is coming. Are your sensor teams still tracking the space garbage and nitrogen traces around the fleet for fun?

Interdictor Gearheart: They had to stop being productive, our scout raptor hasn't checked in. They have been pinging active trying to see if they had a breakdown. Wait a minute we are getting something...is that what I think it is?

Interdictor Balsam: All ships prep fighters for deployment, prepare for engagement. Sensors indicate the rogue fleet is approaching.

[[Interdictor Balsam general quarters (GQ) sounded]] [[Interdictor Macavee GQ sounded]] [[Interdictor Gearheart GQ sounded]]

Interdictor Macavee: Attention all ships, detecting a vanguard. Four Proto-Vespa freighters, armament unknown.

Interdictor Balsam: Rogue fleet jumped. By the fist they did a mass jump, have you ever seen that level of coordination?

Interdictor Gearheart: They have balls, they got lucky there wasn't a collision. Looks like they are going to flank us. Engaging.

UNK Source: "Brethren of the Interdictor fleet, you have been betrayed. Your Officers are here on false orders sent by enemy hacking. They refuse to stand down and will simply sacrifice you to save their pride and then blame it on you.”
“We are Brethren as well here on orders of a higher authority. We do not ask you to turn on your superiors, we simply as that you do not engage the capture squads being sent to replace your faulty Officers with loyal ones."

Interdictor Macavee: What the hell is that, comms says its coming from the vicinity of those Proto Vespas.

Interdictor Balsam: Launching fighters to detain those Antares. We'll find out how they cracked our crypto after we mop up this mess. All Ships move to comm plan Charlie.

[[Interdictor Balsam reports crash in launch bay]]

Interdictor Balsam: This is the Balsam, landing strut on our gunpod collapsed. Our launch rails are a hot mess.

[[Interdictor Gearheart fighter launch complete]] [[Interdictor Macavee fighter launch complete]]

Interdictor Balsam: Keep maneuvering on the Brethren fleet those Vespas can wait. We are engaging, the enemy fleet isn't responding they are just taking the beating.

Interdictor Macavee: This is the Macavee, we just detected space garbage jumping out, signature matched an albatross class ship. They were ghosting us the entire time!

Interdictor Balsam: Nevermind that, give the fighters strike orders, they haven't launched theirs yet, we can pick off one of the outlying ships and see if we can bait them into a gun fight.

Interdictor Gearheart: All fighters in battle formation, weapons hot. Gearhearts main guns still pounding the enemy fleet.

Interdictor Macavee: ALL SHIP WARNING. We have been boarded they have seized the missile room.

Interdictor Balsam: SHOT OUT, SHOT OUT. They are targeting the fighters.

[[Interdictor Macavee reports 74% fighters disabled]] [[Interdictor Gearheart reports 67% fighters disabled]]

Interdictor Gearheart: Dear god, no way our missiles could do that much. Sensors report another launch detected between the fighters and the enemy fleet, they have something with a cloak.

Interdictor Balsam: Enemy fleet launching fighters. We need to push forward and get ahead of those disabled ships.

Interdictor Macavee: Why they are just brethren? Our remaining fighters can keep the enemy fighters busy while we move to a better firing position.

[[Interdictor Macavee reports severe damage to EMP missile system]]

Interdictor Macavee: They took out the missile room. Reports were Brethren in black and gold power armor. Internal security is on high alert.

Interdictor Gearheart: Enemy star cruiser listing, leaking air from multiple breaches looks like we got her.

Interdictor Balsam: Fighters detected leaving the Proto-Vespa, Ripper class gunpods. They are going on an attack run.

Interdictor Gearheart: Those antiques? That's insane. All anti-fighter guns preparing to engage.

[[Interdictor Gearheart reports severe damage to main engines]][[Interdictor Balsam reports light damage to stern armor]][[Interdictor Macavee reports moderate damage to maneuver thrusters]]

Interdictor Gearheart: Engine failure, those antiques just knee capped us. Damn pilots are good, guns report no kills.

Interdictor Balsam: Guns report one confirmed kill. They are coming around.

Interdictor Macavee: We got two, looks like they are targetting our...down...anyone...

[[Interdictor Macavee communications failure. Internal relay active]]

Interdictor Gearheart; All fighters recall, get those rippers.

Interdictor Balsam: Rippers retrograding, how did they know?

Interdictor Macavee: We are on short range internal. The brethren fleet just powered up its main...

[[Interdictor Macavee reports severe damage, multiple fires, life support failing, engine failure, weapons failure, multiple hull breaches]]

Interdictor Macavee: S.O.S. Taken heavy damage, Abandon ship

[[Interdictor Macavee calls abandon ship, 54% of personnel accounted for, life boat distress beacons active]]

Interdictor Balsam: The entire fleet just fired at once. I have never seen discipline like that. There is no way we can stand against that kind of firepower.

Interdictor Gearheart: Retreat, Retreat. We are crippled but we will put up one hell of a fight.

[[Interdictor Balsam jumps out of system]]

Enemy flagship: I am Brevix, Cheiftan of the Blackshield tribe. All brethren who hear my voice, rejoice, your freedom is upon you. You have been slaves ordered to kneel before weak and petty humans. Stand tall and shake the heavens. Over throw your captors and join us in our righteous crusade, their delicious flesh is yours. Those who choose to fight us will die an honorable death in battle.

Interdictor Gearheart: Any ships that hear this distress call, the Brethren of the IRS Gearheart are in mutiny. The bridge staff and I have barricaded ourselves here. I don't know how long the brethren loyal to us can hold out. Wait whats that noise...they are going to vent the bridge...

[[Communication lost with the IRS Gearheart]]

End of action Report:
3x enemy ripper gun pod destroyed
1x Enemy Starcruiser dsiabled
1x IR Interdictor scuttled
1x IR Interdictor presumed
150x IR gunpods destroyed/captured
All brethren unaccounted for presumed defection
Enemy fleet entered the Karava system. Whereabouts unknown.

((OOC: Stylistically I figured I would change it up from the standard description. If there are any questions about what happened please feel free to post them here. Diplomacy time for the EEF faction with the Brethren fleet.))