++ Don't get too carried away, it would be beneficial to have prisoners from both factions. ++

Diana then proceeded to watch, acting very much like a beacon of calm for her bridge officers to take confidence from, as the Valdar continued its barrage on Grendel.

OOC: 18 to hit, 6 damage

Oscar braced as the impacts hit them. Despite the crude tech, warfare was still the same and proving to be deadly. His eyes darted to the status indicator as he watched his ship go from green to yellow to red. Lost communications and sensors. “XO, damage control is yours. Find out if we have bridge to bridge available on tight beams. Deadeye, hammer her again!”

08:25, Today: Oscar Hargrave rolled 12 using 3d4.  Reaper Damage. – 12

08:25, Today: Oscar Hargrave rolled 23 using 1d20+9.  Attack Roll. – 23

With klaxons and lights blaring Zazan relies on his his headset to speak to the officer on the other side of the bridge. "Gunnery shift fire to ze battlecruiser. It appears ze Sigfred was not a fluke.

07:51, Today: Zazan Mysh rolled 12 using 1d20+10.  Fire on Grendel +3 gunnery, +7 AC of target.

The engagement rages on,  INS-Harald Wartooth dives in after the fleeing Drakken-3 blasting her again with charged particles. The now glowing radiation fins break apart like dry leaves in the wind, scattering like dust. Although in a surrender posture, they begin to launch smaller vessels, consistent with primitive escape pods. They are desperate to escape. With nuclear torpedos that have no effect against you and their laser turret destroyed, they have no hope of fighting any further.

The rest of the squadron engages Grendel, bursts of laser fire and exchanged as the big ship swings about on it's axis, trying, maneuvering thrusters straining to move the bulk of the ship to get it into position to fire again. The burst of superheated metallic spray is more easily anticipated now and your pilots deftly avoid the blast as it simply sails out into the void towards the moon, most likely to cause scars on the surface.

The other weapon, that invisible killer goes off again, as before, radiation sensors spike and sensors ripple as they struggle to deal with the ambient pulse. The Angantyr takes the hit this time, her aft dorsal structure heated red hot by a focused burst of X-rays, many orders of magnitude worse than any background radiation could be.

The smaller escort fires, the glittering laser beam missing the Randver by thousands of kilometers as Drakken-2 struggles to add weight to this fight.

The Wartooth is still off the comms net. The Grendel doesn't appear to be in terrible shape, still capable of fighting. Drakken-3 is fleeing and launching life pods while the Wartooth pursues her, battering her with energy blasts, though the damage seems limited primarily to the thermal radiator fins, rather than to the actual hull.

(OOC: Oscar, Make a roll to see if you have a telepathic connection available, Luck roll.)

You still outpace these ships over distance, you can easily choose to retreat, with only a single exchange of fire and then pull out beyond engagement range and beyond their ability to pursue you. Your ships are far faster than theirs are and you can choose the engagement place and time if you wish... however, they are still technically holding the Listening Post and if you want it, you will have to come to them if they refuse to give chase.

Trusting his gunner and pilot to continue the engagement, Zaman keeps an eye on the scopes and damage reports throughout the ship, directing engine snipes and fire teams.

18:09, Today: Zazan Mysh rolled 26 using 1d20+10.  Fire on Grendel +3 gunnery, +7 AC of target.


18:10, Today: Zazan Mysh rolled 11 using 3d6+1.  Damage from Plasma Beam, +1 from gunnery.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:11, Mon 26 Apr 2021.

"Chief, scopes show you have a breach in the aft reactor plating. No breaches to containment or vented coolant though. Check reactor control for physical damage.

Fire team Blue, smoke detected in ze armory, kindly investigate before we void ze mess hall.

Comms, try visual signaling of ze wartooth. Perhaps they can spare a moment to tap us out a status report."

Zazan fingers the locket around his neck as he commands the response. As another shot lands on Grendel he triumphantly swears under his breath.

Diana remained calm, taking care to remain aware of everything that happened during the battle, but mostly keeping an eye on her bridge crew to see how they were handling the pressure now that King Squadron had likely suffered its first losses. Grendel remained the target, though it had managed to dodge the next barrage of shots as well.

- "You're doing fine, Tactical. Just remain calm and wait for your firing solutions."

OOC: Rolled 18 to hit, missed the target :/

Oscar watched the lifeboats peeling away from the stricken relic of a warship and addressed his helmsman. "Bring us about. Close to just outside engagement range," he ordered before bringing up a series of damage readouts at his console. "Sheared the main sensor array clean off. Well, this is why we have NORDO protocols. Comms, send status via laser semaphore to any ship you can triangulate. Otherwise, we will have to rig up a comm buoy to act as a relay until we get it fixed. Not even sure if we have enough onboard to cobble that together. XO, start working on alternate comms."

He was in a pickle but not too far from allies. The Wartooth was still capable of defending herself, but without comms, they risked too much to engage with the other hostiles.

OOC: Luck Roll=9
18:17, Today: Oscar Hargrave rolled 9 using 1d20+2.  Luck Save TN14. – 9

Casualty and damage reports are coming in throughout the squadron. Wartooth reports breaking off and taking a minor hit on the way out from Draken-2's laser emitter. Of the squadron, only Diana's corvette is in decent shape, the rest of the ships are badly damaged. This is the bad news, but there is good news as well.

Of the enemy squadron, Draken-1 has been completed destroyed. Draken-2 seems only armed with a relatively weak laser weapon, their nukes exhausted or held back in knowledge of their uselessness here. Draken-3 has fled and 'struck colors' popping their radiator sails before Captain Hargrave destroyed them and forced them to abandon ship.

The biggest shift in the battle is Grendel, no longer is she maneuvering forcefully, providing only the most minor course corrections to bring her weapon arcs to bear. Of her two weapons, one seems to no longer be firing, only the occasional X-ray burst can be detected and the molten metal gauss cannon is no longer operational, either burned out or out of 'ammunition' to spare. Analysts are reporting that they believe Grendel has run out of spare fuel for maneuvering and as a result, she has become easier to hit.

The remaining three ships of the King Squadron all make a final past, two plasma cannons from Mysh and Volsung and a burst of concentrated laser fire from Hersson's ship rake the huge ship, shredding the armor plating and tearing deep rents into structure. Explosions go off around the vessel, pieces of it coming off in chunks as power conduits overload and fuel cells are ruptured.

In the final attack, the damage is so severe that the ship, designated: Grendel, begins to power down, radiators deployed. In short order, Draken-2, seeing it's own flagship crippled and surrendering, deploys their own radiator sails and powers down their weapons and engines...

The battle is won, but at great cost. One entire ship destroyed, the crew fleeing in lifeboats, and the rest of the fleet taking significant damage and casualties. The Wartooth is cut off from the commnet, their sensors and receivers damaged or destroyed. They communicate to you with binary code through rapidly flashing running lights to update their status. This is neither secure nor convenient, but it is enough to get their reports. The Listening Station is now open to you, no longer defended from space although no transmissions are detected. Comms departments report no further enemy or unknown vessels detected in system.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:33, Wed 28 Apr 2021.

At seeing the remaining enemy ships power down, Diana took a deep breath.

- "Well done, officers. Store the combat and sensory data along with the combat data we recorded from Sable-One, we've got plenty of intel to send back home."

She then got on the comms. It was a ity the Wartooth's comms had been crippled in the attack, but she supposed they could make their decisions known in binary to them once a consensus had been reached.

++ Captains, i think the most efficient course of action right now is to have the Randver and Angantyr use their boarding tubes to secure the Listening station and either bring it back online, or retrieve the crew that has fled to it along with some supplies if the station is no longer salvageable. The Wartooth would see to repairs while the Valdar provides overwatch duties along with the Wartooth. Once done, the next step is boarding the Grendel and Draken-class ships, add them to King Squadron and spread out the rescued crew among them to minimize the impact on our food and water supplies. Thoughts? ++

++Ze lifeboats of ze Sigfred are as much of a priority as ze listening outpost. While I been burned before going down ze well in a busted ship I agree the boarding tubes may be necessary.

I suggest ze Valdar start rescuing Sigfred's sailors.++

"Helm, burn towards ze listening outpost." On the ship-wide he continues."Harken to me, crew of ze Randver. We have won a hard-fought victory, we have taken down unknown hostiles in this frontier of ze Hegemony but not without cost. Ze Sigfred is no more, her remaining crew on the float in lifeboats.

I am proud of you sailors. But as always, we still have work to do. We are pressing on to Ultima-black 6 outpost to look for survivors...and evidence of what has happened here. Boarding party, meet me at the boarding tubes."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:31, Wed 28 Apr 2021.

++ Copy that, Randver. Should the station be unrecoverable, prioritize survivors and fuel: The added numbers will mean we no longer have the supplies to continue our mission, so we'd need to head back and drop them off for debriefing along with the gathered intel. Valdar proceeding to lifeboat recovery. ++

Diana turned to her officers again.

- "Alright people, we're not done yet. Start recovering those lifeboats, and get an extra shift's worth of crew active on Medbay. Odds are it'll get busy."

She then turned to her XO and gave her a nod, letting her know she could proceed to handle the execution of her orders.

"Comms, flash our update to ze wartooth and forward any lifeboat telemetry to ze Valdar.

XO, you will have the ship while I am station-side with the boarding party. If we have any more visitors or our guests get rowdy, cut and burn out of ze well."

Oscar gave a slow sigh of relief as the last moments of the firefight came to a close. It had been a near disaster but King Squadron had pulled through. Seeing the rest of the squadron begin to fan out and achieve secondary goals, Oscar gave orders for the Wartooth to pull into close orbit with the station and prepare to salvage what supplies and parts they could. Grendel and her brood would be scuttled, for the most part, Oscar suspected and he needed to repair his own ship badly. NORDO was no way to fly. They would make contact with the Randver using short-wave radio if they had to.

Detailed damage reports were now coming in, places where the hull had to be patched up, the bulkheads reinforced and power conduits rerouted around blown out regulators. Weapons systems had been pushed hard, a few minor components were being replaced in the plasma cannon accelerator circuits, stressed from the constant heat.

Casualty reports too... 6 crew lost over the whole squadron wounds too grave for even a lazarus patch to restore them, 10 more wounded and an unknown number on the Sigfred. The debris and radiation was making it hard to get a fix on the lifeboats and they had not yet activated their locator beacons, waiting until the end of the battle was certain from their limited vantage points.

All the deaths were tragic, but perhaps the worst was Ensign Artin Gerson aboard the Harald Wartooth. He had been in the communications equipment bay, trying to boost sensor fidelity when a laser cut through the already damaged hull and cut him in half, destroying the communications processors as well. He died instantly. It only became clear what happened after the battle.

The Valdar wasted little time in searching for the lifeboats, scanning for lifesigns while sending out 'all clear' messages both in binary and short range communications for the lifeboats to pick up and activate their beacons in the process. Diana herself would be assisting in the Medbay, healing those that were recovered in critical condition, while leaving those with non-life threatening injuries for her medics to handle. The resources she could tap into were not limitless, and she knew that once she was out, she could do nothing for those that would still be going in.

She also went around with a crew manifest, striking off names on the list of those they had recovered to get an indication of who was still missing, and could therefore still be in one of the lifeboats still out there. The names of those accounted for would then be broadcast to King Squadron: Even if it was unlikely that members of the different crews knew each other on a personal level, it would provide psychological relief amidst the casualty reports that were coming in alongside it.

She did not discriminate however, Draken lifeboats were also being recovered: She knew it would go a long way as a display of trust, though those who had seen their injuries tended to would be escorted to the brig for obvious reasons. There would also be a security detail guarding Medbay itself.

Dealing with his own vessel's wounded and battered hull, Volsung affirmed the suggested course of action from his Captains. He was, after all, only first among equals in the Hegemony style

Amidst the damage on his own bridge, his praise from the crew was solid, "Take a moment to savour this victory, men and women on the Angantyr. You have fought well - and hard - against two unknown foes, in the black where often information is as much a weapon as plasma and fletchettes!"

"Take a moment", he repeated, "Then we see what fate has claimed our fellow sailors on the Listening Post"

Oscar had not even realized what had happened to his XO until the casualty report for the ship had come in. He should have known. Oscar should have realized something was wrong the moment Artin had not checked in after the shooting had stopped. Oscar had assumed that the cyborg was fixing something, being a diligent and faithful sailor and Fleet officer. How wrong he was.

Oscar sat in the small cabin that was his, the space feeling uncomfortably large to his Bothislian upbringing. He looked at the small area that he had made. Something made of the space containers and detritus from around the ship. Something that children might call a fort if they were generous. To Oscar, it was a solemn place. Something he had arranged for quickly and would disassemble after he had done what he needed to do. Oscar entered the cramped space and felt more at ease. He stared at a small shard of metal, his electronically enhanced eyes pouring over the only piece of his Cova that he had managed to save over the years. Oscar closed his eyes and whispered a silent prayer to Secret to keep the secrets of Artin safe for as long as he is remembered. He made a few more prayers to the various saints of the Black before dismantling his small area and returning to his duties.

When Oscar returned to the bridge, he inhaled deeply and spoke aloud for all to hear. "Ensign Artin Gerson was a fine sailor and a true Fleet officer. If anyone needs time to themselves or with others for services, it is granted. Take the time you need before we get to the station. A memorial with full honors will be conducted upon our return to homeport or a burial among the stars if required. We have done well and his loss is not a reflection on this crew. It is a battle and we will honor the XO by getting him home," he finished and sat heavily. He made no attempt to hide his emotion. In all the years he had worked in salvage, he had never lost a person under his command. The feeling of such a good person as Artin Gerson being the first was a heavy burden for Oscar to carry.

Picking up lifeboats wasn't difficult work, but it was time consuming. Astral Troopers had to be standing by ready to wrest the prisoners from their boats and prepare for hostile intent. There was a mix of everything, suicides, injured that perished in the escape, unconscious, badly wounded and willing surrenders. Those who could speak, speaking if they did, in the same language as before: some dialect of Hindi. The total number of injuries overwhelmed the medical equipment and soon Captain Herrson had exhausted her psionic abilities, saving lives but wearing herself out in the process.

The Sigfred's lifeboats were a easier process, the panicked but relieved crew, each with questions and injuries to be addressed. When all was said and done, another 8 dead from the Sigfred's crew, either unable to escape the explosion or badly irradiated to the point of rapid death. Captain Karsen was also found in critical condition, he was stabilized but placed into a medical coma.

Takagara's speech was broadcast squadron wide, even the Wartooth received a summarized version of it through pulsing light transmission. It was a great victory and it seemed that ever man and woman felt a great sense of pride, with measured sorrow at the victory and the sacrifice given today. The Listening Post awaited in darkness, almost certainly requiring Astral Troopers to storm in forcibly to confirm survivors and system status of the monitoring arrays and various components of the station. It was logically clear that either the comms systems were down or there was no one left alive down there willing to broadcast.

You have 11 crew members who after some recovery (so not just yet, give them a few days) who can be distributed throughout the squadron to make up for losses if needed. Additionally you now have 24 Prisoners from Draken who are now stressing your guards. Additionally, there is another ship of the same size which has surrendered and an even larger ship which has also surrendered. The amount of potential prisoners may be more than your ships can carry in terms of actual cubic volume if not life support resources.

Diana's voice sounded over the radio, sounding audibly fatigued.

++ Captains, we have recovered all lifeboats. We have managed to recover 11 crew members from their lifeboats, as well as Captain Karsen, though he remains in a medical coma for at least the next day or two. Additionally, we are currently holding 24 prisoners from Draken ships. Needless to say, we are at capacity of what we are able to hold and maintain in terms of both security and life support. Next is the last remaining Draken as well as Grendel -- if the latter has a cargo hold, it may serve our purposes best to have it converted to a temporary POW holding area. ++

++Centralizing the captives would also make policing easier, a single ship with weapons hot and target lock on the reactor would be able to control the population.

Randver continuing to outpost.++

++ Form up on me, Valdar ++, commannded Takagawa, beginning to formulate a plan in his head, ++ We will have my marines take the surrender of the Grendel, whilst you provide cover. Let's see if we can transit pictograms to have their captain and non-essential crew assemble in their cargo spaces, with weapons and manuoevring drives remaining powered down. Are you able to take the surrender of Draken-2, and Wartooth? Bring her in under tow? ++

++ As you are, Randver, continue to the Listening Post; we need high fidelity scans of the situation there ++

++ That's a negative, Angantyr Actual. We can provide cover, but the majority of our entire security detail is guarding prisoners at the moment. The margin for error would be zero. On a more practical note, we lack boarding tubes. Either way, i believe it best to let the Wartooth handle this, by having Draken dock and lock with her fully powered down, which would just leave Grendel. ++

Diana took a deep breath.

++ Copy that on the listening post, we could sure use a heavy transport or two... ++
This message was last edited by the player at 09:50, Thu 06 May 2021.

++ Apologies, I meant cover us with your emitters and scanners only, not docking with Grendel ++

++ I see, though i was more referring to the taking of Draken that followed it. That should not be a problem then. My Sensors officers will be coordinating their efforts with yours. ++

Diana relayed the orders to her bridge crew, letting them handle contacting their counterparts on the Angantyr and relaying emitter and sensor data between themselves.

++ Will you be requiring my comm server for encrypting local communications? I could have it made available to you if you'd be willing to drop by to pick it up. ++