howlofthewolf:

fleet-admiral-red:

howlofthewolf:

fleet-admiral-red:

howlofthewolf:

BEA fighters danced with pirate interceptors, while BEA Bombers began attack runs on the pirate cruisers. It wasn’t long before 3 Rathian-class Star Destroyers came out of hyperspace, opening fire on the cruisers. 

“Keep those damn pirates off the GDI’s back!” Wolf growled into the comlink in his fighter’s cockpit, firing a proton torpedo straight into the bridge of one of the enemy cruisers. 

“And if it was their design, sir, it’s a sloppy one.” Noriega replied, appearing on Yumi’s bridge and gesturing to the side as a display filled with the weapon’s scan data appeared.

“It’s a powerful gun alright, but while it’s projectile does appear to have some form of shield-disrupting properties, it’s still a sublight round that drains a lot of power to fire. Relativistic maneuvers should make it trivial to evade those.”

Captain Thompson chipped in with a thought that had just occurred to him. “Hold that thought, Noriega. Something’s off. Pirates shouldn’t be capable of building dreadnoughts at all, they don’t have the resources. Much less one with a railgun like that. Someone or something has their back. And I don’t like the sound of that.”

Yumi’s face appeared on a viewscreen.

“The people who built that dreadnought are those same ones who want to keep us separated and weak.” 

Yumi brought up a holographic projection of the Arach leader. 

“The Arachs.” She said, “They live in the Arachnoid Cluster just north of Bouzaculan Space. They’re considered a subspecies of the Harch, a species well known to the Republic. They are known for a few things: they provided the Scorpion’s Hand with funding, and now they are providing war droids and ships to the pirates, drug cartels, and slavers who were allowed to roam free during the Hand’s reign.” 

Yumi sighed.

“A few months ago, a BEA task force found a Cartel drug cache, and the Cartel had a Arach Spider Droid Tank defending it alongside their own foot soldiers.” She said, “The Arachs want nothing more then to end our reign over our empire… and isolate us so they can exploit our resources without outside interference.” 

Thompson sighed. “And right now, GDI doesn’t have the political will to take action against them. CONCORD might handle them once they hear of this, but they’re just as ruthless as us on organized crime.”

News had circled around that CONCORD had recently modernized its fleets, bringing far more formidable vessels to the field.

“We’ll work on fortifying this area. Sumeragi out.”

———

Fortunately for them, the next few hours passed without any hostiles approaching. By then, Aegis had begun to awaken, and as she sat up in the bed yawning, memories came back of her sleep-deprived rant during combat from earlier.

“Oh no…” Aegis softly whispered as she hugged her bolster close out of embarrassment.

Not for long, though. Knowing she had to get back to business soon, Aegis freshened herself up with a quick hydrosonic shower, then headed to the CIC.

“Aegis, reporting.”

“They’re less then reliable on this then.” Yumi said, “We won’t allow anyone who doesn’t adhere to a certain code of conduct into here. Not my call.” 

—————————————————————————

Wolf had landed in Yumi’s hanger by that time, the extended time flying around the Sumeragi had left him somewhat tired. Moving to the bridge, Wolf looked over the officers as they went about their work, then to the captain.

“Status report.” Wolf said.

“All’s quiet.” the captain said. 

“Usually I would say that’s a bad thing, but right now, that’s good.” He said. 

“First phase of initial repair plan’s complete, Captain,” Noriega reported. “We’ve set up a base of operations in the Gate’s primary node. Component fabrication is underway, and Gate system protocols are being developed.”

“Good work so far.” Captain Thompson acknowledged. He’d overseen the ongoing expansion of the defense network surrounding the Gate throughout the past few hours, seeing it grow from 10 stations to 60. But even that was only very light defenses by Initiative standards.

Any Gate’s defense network usually had more than 8 times that number.

Aegis’s voice brought his attention back. “Captain. I…I must apologize.”

Thompson looked at the Titan who had just entered, looking refreshed and well-rested. “Apologize for what?”

Aegis shifted almost imperceptibly, her salute brief. “For my conduct unbecoming of a member of the Initiative Navy earlier.”

Captain Thompson gestured for her to relax. “At ease, Aegis. You were still tired at the time, sleep deprivation tends to mess people up. That aside, if you’re rested enough, I have a specific duty in mind.”

A swipe of the hand brought up a display of the Gate and its surrounding space. “There’s no guarantee that the enemy dreadnought you destroyed was the only one they had. We may have a defense network set up, but for all we know there could be thousands more of those dreadnoughts just waiting out there.”

Captain Thompson’s tone now became clear and decisive.

“Aegis, defend this Gate.”

Aegis saluted and nodded. “Yes, sir.”

howlofthewolf:

fleet-admiral-red:

howlofthewolf:

BEA fighters danced with pirate interceptors, while BEA Bombers began attack runs on the pirate cruisers. It wasn’t long before 3 Rathian-class Star Destroyers came out of hyperspace, opening fire on the cruisers. 

“Keep those damn pirates off the GDI’s back!” Wolf growled into the comlink in his fighter’s cockpit, firing a proton torpedo straight into the bridge of one of the enemy cruisers. 

“And if it was their design, sir, it’s a sloppy one.” Noriega replied, appearing on Yumi’s bridge and gesturing to the side as a display filled with the weapon’s scan data appeared.

“It’s a powerful gun alright, but while it’s projectile does appear to have some form of shield-disrupting properties, it’s still a sublight round that drains a lot of power to fire. Relativistic maneuvers should make it trivial to evade those.”

Captain Thompson chipped in with a thought that had just occurred to him. “Hold that thought, Noriega. Something’s off. Pirates shouldn’t be capable of building dreadnoughts at all, they don’t have the resources. Much less one with a railgun like that. Someone or something has their back. And I don’t like the sound of that.”

Yumi’s face appeared on a viewscreen.

“The people who built that dreadnought are those same ones who want to keep us separated and weak.” 

Yumi brought up a holographic projection of the Arach leader. 

“The Arachs.” She said, “They live in the Arachnoid Cluster just north of Bouzaculan Space. They’re considered a subspecies of the Harch, a species well known to the Republic. They are known for a few things: they provided the Scorpion’s Hand with funding, and now they are providing war droids and ships to the pirates, drug cartels, and slavers who were allowed to roam free during the Hand’s reign.” 

Yumi sighed.

“A few months ago, a BEA task force found a Cartel drug cache, and the Cartel had a Arach Spider Droid Tank defending it alongside their own foot soldiers.” She said, “The Arachs want nothing more then to end our reign over our empire… and isolate us so they can exploit our resources without outside interference.” 

Thompson sighed. “And right now, GDI doesn’t have the political will to take action against them. CONCORD might handle them once they hear of this, but they’re just as ruthless as us on organized crime.”

News had circled around that CONCORD had recently modernized its fleets, bringing far more formidable vessels to the field.

“We’ll work on fortifying this area. Sumeragi out.”

———

Fortunately for them, the next few hours passed without any hostiles approaching. By then, Aegis had begun to awaken, and as she sat up in the bed yawning, memories came back of her sleep-deprived rant during combat from earlier.

“Oh no…” Aegis softly whispered as she hugged her bolster close out of embarrassment.

Not for long, though. Knowing she had to get back to business soon, Aegis freshened herself up with a quick hydrosonic shower, then headed to the CIC.

“Aegis, reporting.”

howlofthewolf:

fleet-admiral-red:

howlofthewolf:

fleet-admiral-red:

howlofthewolf:

fleet-admiral-red:

howlofthewolf:

fleet-admiral-red:

howlofthewolf:

BEA fighters danced with pirate interceptors, while BEA Bombers began attack runs on the pirate cruisers. It wasn’t long before 3 Rathian-class Star Destroyers came out of hyperspace, opening fire on the cruisers. 

“Keep those damn pirates off the GDI’s back!” Wolf growled into the comlink in his fighter’s cockpit, firing a proton torpedo straight into the bridge of one of the enemy cruisers. 

“I see them. Shields are already at max.” Captain Thompson replied and cut the comms, before shaking his head and addressing Noriega.

“Take us to Red Alert. And wake Aegis up.”

“Acknowledged. Moving to Red Alert, arming all weapons.”

The haptic lighting shifted to combat status as an alarm blared. In her quarters, the noise roused Aegis, the Titan rubbing her eyes as fresh data poured into her awareness.

And an eye twitched as Aegis frowned, still somewhat sleepy. And now very, very annoyed. “Nori…Blink me outside. Please.”

The AI obliged, teleporting Aegis just outside the window of her quarters, in the vacuum of space. Her rigging manifested immediately, and Aegis began grumbling very audibly on an open channel, one that the Bouzac and even the pirates could hear.

Sighting in and running a firing solution, Aegis brought her massive five-barreled primary weapon to bear.

Straight at the enemy dreadnought.

“I…was having…a good SLEEP!”

The hyperluminal impactor, a hyperdense round able to shatter entire planets with ease, smashed straight into the dreadnought, obliterating it in a blinding fireball.

Wolf watched as the Predator-class Dreadnought disappeared in a flash of light, covering his eyes.

“Holy shit, someone remind me not to piss off Aegis.” Yumi said.

“Well, maybe you should talk to her when she’s done.” Wolf said. 

Despite looking rather frazzled, Aegis was not done yet. Her rigging’s secondary Relay Guns tracked and fired on the enemy Star Destroyers, smashing them into fragments as well.

“Anyone else want to make my day?! Huh?! I eat dreadnoughts for breakfast, you boorish pigs!” Aegis snarled as she finished blasting them into oblivion and trained her guns on the pirate cruisers, mercilessly firing on them as well.

In the CIC, both Captain Thompson and Noriega remained in awkward silence as the tired Aegis continued to rant on the open channel.

“Ten out of ten, definitely would still bang.” Yumi joked over the comms, “She can come wreck me any day.”

Wolf facepalmed, knowing full well what Yumi meant and that Aegis had heard her.

“Yumi, not now.” Wolf said, though he couldn’t help but grin. She really was his daughter, the dark humour and pervy nature said it all.

“Is that a request?” Aegis replied in an icy tone. She was clearly not in a joking mood.

Once the last pirate vessel had been vaporized by another FTL impactor, Aegis scowled as she willed her rigging back into the ether. “Noriega, Blink me back in, please.”

After the very public rant that the sleep-needy Titan had gone on, the AI was only too glad to oblige. “O-of course.”

Aegis was promptly teleported back in, and without further ado, she unceremoniously got back in bed, returning to sleep.

In the CIC, Captain Thompson coughed. “Well. Seems our pirate problem’s solved. Take us down from Red Alert.”

The haptic lighting soon returned to the hues of Yellow Alert.

Wolf maneuvered his fighter close to the GDI ship.

“We’ll continue to keep you covered.” He said, “Chances are that was only the first attack. Expect more and keep on high alert.” 

“Duly noted. We’ve got some surprises in store for them.” Captain Thompson replied, before clicking off the comms and turning to the AI beside him.

“Noriega, can you prep some defense platforms for quick launch and fab? Preferably 6 Steeldarts and 4 Artemises.”

“Done and launching.”

Around the Gate, 10 cores took positions around the perimeter and rapidly grew into full functionality with onboard replicators. 6 were ‘Steeldart’ medium-strength emplacements, with antiproton beam arrays, some torpedo launchers and a light network of SPEAR point defense nodes.

The remaining 4 were far more powerful, ‘Artemis’ heavy defensive platforms, armed with 6 batteries of 3-barrel Relay Guns, several antiproton beam arrays, torpedo banks and a very tight grid of SPEAR nodes.

And as with any self-respecting emplacement design, both of those types came with self-replenishing drone bays.

“Defense platforms in place and fully operational.” Noriega reported with satisfaction.

Wolf looked to Yumi on his own comms.

“Hey, love, can you get two Wolfsbane class Dreadnoughts in here?” Wolf asked, “We need as much firepower in her to help defend the Sumeragi.”

“Blood and Iron?” Yumi asked with a grin.

“Blood and Iron.” Wolf nodded.

“Message was already sent.” She grinned.

Another hail from the Sumeragi to Yumi’s ship-self was received. “Sumeragi here, we estimate two or three months to fully repair the Gate. Requesting permission for an extended presence here.”

At the same time, Captain Thompson looked over the combat records from the earlier engagement. “Noriega, you had the sensor readings from earlier. How long could we hold out against those pirate dreadnoughts, given their weapons?”

The AI ran a few hundred simulations in the background, then observed the results. “Either Wolf was severely overestimating their firepower or he forgot our multi-layered adaptive shields. One dreadnought is no issue, it’s ten-to-one odds we’ll have to worry about.”

Captain Thompson looked thoughtful for a moment. “And what about 5-to-1?”

Noriega scoffed in amusement. “Then it is an even fight. Not accounting for any defense platforms, of course. Which we now have up and running.”

Thompson suppressed a smile. “And Aegis is practically our living victory button. Let’s let her have the best rest possible. For now, we have some repairs to do.”