The more I write this, the more I see Slocknaw as the protagonist of this tale. A Slug who behaves just like a Human despite the fact his entire species are seen as sly, conniving manipulators.
Charlie just seems to be some guy who everyone explains stuff to. I don't know, but it's rather hard to give Charlie any significant role against the Flagship, because I believe having good Engines and Piloting is vital to winning and everyone else can board.
But the away team can't just be Slocknaw and Translator because there needs to be a redshirt
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Sector 8 – Last Stand – Flagship Product
The Nesasio arrived at the next beacon with several other cruisers ahead and behind them. There were a wide range of vessels from all different parts of the Federation. From the torus-shaped Engi vessels, the oddly-shaped Zoltan Cruisers and even a knife-like Lanius vessel and a few Shivian Class Rock Cruisers made appearances.
Slocknaw was checking the Sector Map. Several beacons were flashing as they turned into hotspots of furious combat as Federation forces pulled back or were overrun. He tried not to think about how many lives were being lost in those areas, focusing on the lives that would be saved.
One beacon in particular displayed “Last Known Position” with a rotating icon of a massive ship. Above the map was an indicator giving an estimated time before the Flagship would be in range of the Federation base.
“36 hours” he commented, checking the secondary timer until the Federation base could safely jump away. “40 hours.”
Even if all the Zoltans onboard diverted their energies to the shields, it wouldn’t even last an hour against such a large fleet, he thought worriedly.
Ahead of the Nesasio was a battle already in progress around the exit node – Federation ships were engaging Rebel ships at infeasible ranges. “Something must have gone horribly wrong if they can look out the viewports and see their target in front of them” Charlie remarked as he tweaked with the engines, diverting power from the main drive to the manoeuvring thrusters.
As the Nesasio ducked and weaved across lines of fire and missiles, he added “But at these ranges it’s essentially fighting with knives. No artillery, no ASBs. Straight up shooting with the guns.”
“Destroy the Rebel fleet!” Captain Rebekah shouted over the battlegroup’s channel before moving her Lanius cruiser ahead of the Nesasio “We must secure the exit node!”
The Slug assumed Admiral Tully had put her in charge of the fleet or at least would be the one to point the ships in the right direction.
A distress signal went over the comms from one of the larger Federation ships trying to escape from the scene. A quick scan revealed it to be a badly-damaged colony ship taking fire from a single Rebel fighter that was roughly half the size of the Nesasio.
Probably sent as an afterthought while the main battle rages, Slocknaw thought to himself.
The scans also showed that the ship’s life support was rapidly failing. “Help us! We’ve got families and wounded onboard!”
Slocknaw lowered his eyestalks as a frown. “I’m going to save those civilians” he announced to the other cruisers before breaking formation “I’ll catch up with you later.”
“Good luck Nesasio. We’ll try to save some Rebels for you once you’re done playing hero” Rebekah said before continuing her messages of bravado to the rest of the cruiser fleet. “Come on you sons of bitches! Do you want to live forever?”
The Nesasio’s wings went into a combat position and Slocknaw hailed the Rebel fighter “Hey bastard! Pick on someone who can fight back!”
Seeing the cruiser heading towards it, the fighter broke off from its run on the colony ship. “I don’t care who you are but no one defies the Rebel Fleet!” their Captain shouted over the comms. The Slug swore he heard that pompous accent before.
“Wait a second, you’re that jerk from Aquarius!” Virus #247-12 interjected.
“And you’re that ship!” The pompous Rebel exclaimed “I will take great pleasure in smashing your pathetic cruiser into dust!”
He opened fire on the Nesasio, only to have his shots either missing the ship completely or depleting the shields in his barrage. The stealth cruiser locked on to the fighter and began charging weapons.
The dual lasers fired first, missing the target completely, followed by both the Glaive Beam and the mining laser which swept over the target’s shields. Slocknaw cursed loudly before quickly recalibrating the mining laser’s targeting system for a more focused strike.
Virus reported a Breach Missile being launched and engaged the phase-cloak just as the projectile was about to impact with the ship. It passed straight through and out the other side to be destroyed by an ASB projectile that buzzed past the cruiser.
A new transmission came in over the channel, yet it happened to also be the same pompous accent of the officer in the fighter. “This is Rebel Bombardment Cruiser “Deadly Bacon” moving in to provide ASB support. And to you, Nesasio. I don’t care who you are, but no one defies the Rebel fleet! Target their engines!”
“Deadly Bacon?” Charlie asked, trying not to laugh “What the hell kind of a name is that?”
The other Rebel didn’t sound too happy about the ASB support either as he argued back and forth with the cruiser, citing he had the targets handled and the ASB would get in his way.
It’s like they’re talking to themselves, Slocknaw thought to himself as shots were still flying towards the Nesasio.
“Virus, they’re going to bracket us into a killzone once we drop out of cloak” Charlie warned as the shots came dangerously close to the Nesasio “I don’t like the look of that glow.”
The Nesasio’s dual lasers missed the fighter yet again while the mining laser cut through the shields and into the generator, piercing straight through and out the other side. The craft still held strong though – while the room was reported to be damaged on the screen, the shields didn’t seem to appear to be any weaker.
“If I can just get these lasers to hit their target, this will all be over” Slocknaw said as the phase-cloak dropped and the hostile cruiser’s projectiles started becoming more accurate. One of them smashed straight into one of the wings and tore it off the ship, almost taking the mining laser with it.
“Something tells me that we can’t just buff it out” Charlie commented.
Once the guns were ready, the Nesasio fired again just as the fighter slowed down to take a sharp turn to avoid friendly fire. The dual lasers depleted two layers of shield, followed by the mining laser smashing into their shield generator.
While the crews scrambled to fix the damage, the Glaive Beam swept over the hull, causing explosions to ripple across the ship, tearing the Rebel fighter apart into scrap. The Nesasio then shook from one of the cruiser’s ASB shots impacting into the hull from below. The shot overpenetrated the plating and came straight out the other side.
“Damage report!” Slocknaw shouted, knowing that this impact was more dangerous. He saw the cloaking device had finished cooling down at that moment and was ready to activate.
Translator replied grimly “They blasted straight through the Clone Bay.”
“Well at least it wasn’t the engines” the Slug said with a nervous chuckle before adding “Those ASB shots are calibrated for bigger targets than us. They could take down a battleship with that kind of firepower or… oh crap!”
The projectile barrage had stopped as the Rebel cruiser changed direction until it was pointing its guns at the crippled colony ship. “Nothing personal but I have new orders to destroy that ship full of Federation loyalists first” the Rebel cruiser Captain said scathingly “We’re better than your pathetic little ship, so just try and stop us!”
A Lanius cruiser spun into position in front of the ship, flak guns charged. The Rebel officer said “I don’t care who you are but…”
There were a series of explosions as the Lanius ship fired the flak guns, cutting off the officer’s last words and tearing the cruiser apart with high speed projectiles and debris. The vessel quickly turned away from the explosion with minimal damage.
“I figured you could have used a hand” Rebekah said to Slocknaw.
The colony ship sent a message to the ships “Thank you for saving us. This ship is transporting Federation civilians on the run from the Rebellion and we don't have the equipment to fight for ourselves. I don't have much to offer, but we were planning on setting up a repair station at Federation Command to assist once we get these refugees offloaded.”
“Much appreciated. Stay safe” Slocknaw said as the Nesasio moved away. The battle around the beacon had died down – thanks to the intervention of the other cruisers, the exit was secured and the fleet was heading through.
* * *
The Nesasio did a quick salvage run of the wreckage of the destroyed ships before heading towards the exit beacon node – the damaged Federation fleets were retreating.
At the next beacon, there was another chaotic battle between the Federation and Rebellion fleets as they fought for control over a highly volcanic planet. Debris from a black Shivian-Class Rock-Cruiser flew past them as a Rebel cruiser lobbed an ASB projectile at the beacon.
Several Federation cruisers opened fire with Vindicator artillery in response, tearing the ship apart as their beams swept through. Virus had to keep track of the laser paths and projectile trajectories as they moved between both fleets. The Flagship was estimated to arrive shortly.
The Federation-aligned cruisers picked their own targets of opportunity all around them while they waited – transport ships, missile frigates and bomber wings were engaged.
Slocknaw set his sights on a large Rebel battlecruiser three times the size of the Nesasio that was bombarding the planet’s surface with missiles. A large section of planet below it was scorched.
Almost as if someone had ignited the atmosphere and… holy crap, just like that planet in Aquarius! He thought to himself grimly.
A massive torus-shaped Engi vessel then jumped into the system and opened fire with ion weapons and a swarm of bright-white drones the size of the Rebel’s automated ships. The battlecruiser hardly stood a chance.
“Holy crap! I’ve never seen that class of ship before! Do we have flagships of our own?” Charlie asked in shock.
“That’s General Turzil’s carrier, [PURITY OF CODE].” Envoy Trikko said, pronouncing the brackets quite succinctly “It’s the largest ship in the Engi Brigade. It seems we’re pulling out all the stops here.”
She then pointed to a large green and asymmetric battleship that shortly arrived into the system, along with several smaller ships. “And that one is the Tyson, the largest ship in the Zoltan Resource Protection Committee and the second-largest in the Zoltan Empire.”
“Second largest?” Charlie asked, imagining just what would be more powerful than that.
“The Gutei is the largest, but that battleship went missing a long time ago on a voyage to Abadoth” Trikko explained “It’s still registered on official records though.”
“Typical Zoltan Empire bureaucracy” Charlie laughed.
Admiral Tully appeared on the screen. “All capital ships, the enemy flagship has jumped!” he shouted. “The fleet will be arriving in your system shortly. All capital ships, engage the Rebel fleet. Cruisers, proceed to your objective. At least one of you is needed to get through!”
The Federation ships began forming around the flagships, creating a giant sphere as they faced the bulk of the Rebel fleet around the beacon node. There was a massive disturbance of gravity and the already-massive Rebel fleet was reinforced by an even larger fleet of ships, both manned orange ships and black automated ships.
They spread out in a cone-like fashion before forming a massive cube around a central target – a large warship bristling with weapons. This is it! The Rebel Flagship! There’s no turning back now! Slocknaw thought to himself before saying to the crew of the Nesasio “We’re going in! Get tactical!”
* * *
A series of shots phased straight through the Nesasio as it cloaked and moved through the Rebel fleet. A massive blue beam swept through several Rebel ships from the Zoltan flagship to assist the cruisers.
However, just before the Nesasio could approach the Rebel flagship in the very centre of the formation, a large Rebel battleship stood in their path. “I don’t care who you are but no one defies the Rebel fleet!” said a very snooty accented Rebellion officer.
“Seriously?” Slocknaw asked with a massive groan of annoyance. “Can’t you clone someone else?”
The Nesasio’s guns and several Vindicator Artillery Beams from support vessels fired at the errant battleship. They tore a massive hole in the side of the warship’s hull and the stealth cruiser flew through it, leaving a large explosion of debris and bodies behind.
Other Federation ships came alongside the Nesasio – Vindicator-Class Cruisers, Zoltan Adjudicators and even an Engi Vortex Cruiser. They all faced the Flagship before them. Before the Rebel fleet could turn to annihilate the cruisers, the Rebel leader came on the comms – as a black silhouette on a dark screen.
Slocknaw was surprised to say the least – he was expecting another snooty officer just to spite him.
“All ships, focus on the other Federation ships. We can handle these ships ourselves!” The Rebel leader said in a gravelly voice, much like a Rockman before addressing the cruisers “Do you really think your pathetic ships have a chance at stopping the Rebellion?”
“We’re willing to die trying to find that part out” Slocknaw boasted. The other ships shared the same sentiment. “Non-functionality preferred option to servitude to Rebellion” the Engi operating the Vortex stated.
“No single species should have all the power in the galaxy. The might of a united Federation stands before you!” Slocknaw shouted.
He gestured to everyone “Humans, Slugs, Zoltan, Engies and Lanius. We have Rockmen and Mantises allied with us. The galaxy needs to be united as one, not separated by this reckless conflict.”
Great, now I’m thinking like a Zoltan, Slocknaw thought to himself.
“You Federation scum keep spending too much time playing pioneer that you neglected your internal problems. Was it not the Federation that provided the Mantis with the FTL drive?” the Rebel leader explained harshly as the rest of the Rebel fleet moved on ahead without the Flagship. Only a few capital ships remained to watch for any surprises.
“The Mantis/Federation War could have been avoided centuries ago if you just let those insects die on their overcrowded homeworld” the Rebel continued, moving his silhouette in closer. The Slug could make out vague facial features in the darkness, as well as something shiny.
He’s definitely a Human, the Slug thought to himself.
“Then when pirates started raiding outer colonies in greater numbers, did the Federation save them?” the Rebel continued “Or did they just hide behind their coreworlds, not wanting to scratch their precious firepower?”
“That one isn’t the Federation’s fault” Slocknaw protested “Especially when it was YOU who funded the pirates!”
“Even before then, the pirates were getting bolder. The Mantis Swarms were getting more numerous” the Rebel said “But no, you Federation scum didn’t care about that. You had more confusing laws to make, more Zoltans to appease and more useless stars to explore.”
He laughed “Then your leaders decided that Slugs should be given equal footing. Slimes like you with the power to lead others. Humanity might as well hand over everything to you slimy bastards before they’d be compelled to.”
The Slug leaned in closer to his screen, lowering his eyestalks in a glare “You shouldn’t have told your fleet to back off. Because I’m going to come over there and rip your damned throat out.”
“The teleport’s locked on” Virus informed Slocknaw.
“Oh how cute. The Slug and the Engi thinks they can threaten us” the Rebel leader laughed, his voice booming across all channels. “Playtime is over. Go jump into a star and save yourself the trouble of being wiped out by our impressive array of firepower. I hope your intel at least picked that up.”
The cruisers opened fire on the Flagship, sending a barrage of lasers, missiles and beams across the shields. The Rebel vessel shrugged off the attacks or avoided them before retaliating.
Virus said “Missile launches detected. Taking evasive action!”
The Rebel leader laughed in a guttural growl. “Witness your doom!”
The cruisers quickly dived away from the incoming missiles as explosions went off rapidly throughout space. Occasionally a cruiser would take damage from a missile strike they couldn’t evade. The Flagship would then pummel it with a barrage of lasers, ion blasts and a powerful, sweeping set of Glaive Beams.
The Nesasio shook from an unexpected impact and the blast doors to the weapon’s control room began sparking before sealing shut. A nearby console displayed the words “System Disabled by…” followed by the Rebel’s eagle symbol and “Have a nice day.”
There was a loud whirring noise behind him, followed by heavy footsteps as Translator came stomping to the doors dressed in dark power armour. The Lanius wordlessly forced the doors open with his claws and held them open so the Slug could get through.
Once he was through, Translator closed the doors behind him “I volunteer for the boarding operation.”
The Slug nodded and brought up a hologram of the Flagship schematic for the crew’s benefit. He pointed to four locations on the ship – they were labelled “Weapon’s Control Station” and had a connection to a large series of guns on the flagship’s hull.
“I’ve overlaid the FBI’s schematics of the flagship with our current scans and the layouts match almost perfectly” he explained, pointing to Translator.
“For the moment, we’re the only ship here with a working teleporter, so we have to board them” Slocknaw said “We will be taking fire from friendlies, but hopefully it won’t affect our objectives.”
“You will take the forward starboard side station. Lifesigns are minimal but be on your guard for surprises. We have to move quickly, those missiles will be our greatest threat” he continued.
Translator nodded and teleported off the Nesasio and onto the Rebel flagship. The Nesasio shook as one of the flagship’s missiles exploded near the hull. The Flagship then opened fire with a massive barrage to which Virus quickly phased the ship to avoid.
The flagship visually dropped off the screen as well. “The Flagship can phase-cloak!?” Slocknaw yelled in surprise.
“That would take a lot of power for a vessel that size” Charlie remarked grimly as the Flagship then fired a barrage of missiles and lasers, the projectiles materialising from empty space.
“That is not right!” Virus complained.
He looked to Charlie and said “You’re with me Charlie. We’ll be taking out the Glaive Beams on the outwards starboard station. I want you suited up and ready to go as soon as they drop their cloak! We have to destroy those beams!”
Charlie asked “Sir, shouldn’t you be taking Trikko on this one or Virus?”
“Trikko is needed to keep the shields powered up” Slocknaw said, pointing to the outward portside station. “That’s an ion blaster launcher. We cannot afford to lose our shields to ion damage.”
“And Virus needs to fly the ship” Charlie said with a sigh.
“Normally most people would be excited at the prospect of suiting up in power armour. You certainly were when we left Command” Slocknaw said.
“I then had a look at what I was supposed to be wearing and realised that I’m not rated for power armour operations, especially the heavy suits. They never covered it in Basic either” Charlie explained.
“I see” Slocknaw said, handing the Ensign several satchel charges “Stay behind me then and I’ll cover you while you plant the explosives.”
Charlie looked at the explosives and asked “How long should I set the timers for?”
The Slug chuckled “There are no timers. We set some charges and detonate them before we bug out.” He quickly went to the cargo hold to retrieve his own combat gear.
What returned to the teleporter room was a large, Rock-sized armoured bubble with two robotic arms attached to the sides and a pair of heavy laser cannons. Charlie gave a whistle of approval.
The Flagship had dropped back into normal-space. There was a flash of light and the two were on the Rebel Flagship, surrounded by metal bulkheads and rows of shiny-looking computer screens.
* * *
Charlie placed a satchel charge on a nearby workstation as a Rebel soldier jumped out of a nearby supply closet shouting “I don’t care who are are…”
The Rebel didn’t even have time to pull the trigger before Slocknaw’s armoured bubble had shot him with several rapid-fire heavy laser blasts into the chest.
“Room clear” Slocknaw announced.
“Same on our end. Single Rebel soldier. Greeted us with a tone of outrage at us defying the Rebel fleet” Translator responded, followed by the sound of machinery breaking as a metallic claw smashed through items. “And I just found a cloning tube in the supply closet.”
“I’m getting a strange tingling feeling by being on this ship. The sort I used to get whenever I was close to Virus” he added.
“Maybe they’ve got Engies being forced to work on the ship?” Slocknaw suggested, reaching out with his mind. All he could sense were Humans.
“You think this change anything?” the Rebel leader asked on the Flagship’s speakers. “Those stations and their crews were redundant anyway!”
Slocknaw shouted for Charlie to detonate the charges. As soon as he did so, the two were teleported back onto the Nesasio. The Flagship had cloaked as soon as they were off.
Several explosions rippled across the hull as weapons began separating from the ship. Missiles exploded in their tubes, the Glaive Beams broke apart and the laser cannons started overheating and melting.
The cloak failed, revealing itself as it tried to replace the damaged guns with new guns. The Glaive Beams were ejected and replaced with a single, weaker Halberd. The other weapons stations seemed to undergo structural failure, leaving them with fewer guns than before.
“You may have cut off our firepower significantly but we’ve done the same to yours!” the Rebel leader taunted “Bring it on Slug!”
There were more explosions rocking the flagship, presumably as Translator was tearing places apart before being teleported back to the Nesasio.
The Rebel leader looked to the side “What!? Shut it down! We’re not finished with the Federation scum! Now go away, I’m about to taunt them a…”
The Flagship’s portside “wing” began undergoing structural failure, sparking and rippling across the ship before violently exploding into scrap. The ship’s FTL drive immediately powered up and performed an emergency jump away from the battlefield, leaving a very visible exit trace, as if it had torn through the fabric of space itself to get away.
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Phase 1 has to be a little different from the actual fight, because honestly, why would the Flagship be fought 1 on 1? I know it can be assumed the fleet is being distracted by the Federation, but I think Rebel arrogance works better as to why a cruiser or two can take it on.
Of course, thanks to the efforts in Phase 1, it'll be back to traditional firepower for the next two phases.
So coming up next, be prepared to expect:
Drones!
New Allies!
Translator's Secret Project!
And don't be prepared to expect:
The Grand Inquisition!
A large structure that tracks the passage of time through the use of a circle with rotating needles that point to symbols!
