Five years ago mankind, as we knew it, ended.

"This is Group-Captain Clark to all Ships of the 2nd Fleet, we have multiple contacts inbound, we are now at condition one. We can't let them take Earth."
"This is Lunar-Base York, roger. Anti-Orbit Weapons online."

Attacked from within and from without by a unknown force caught the usually unstoppable Alliance fleets off-guard. and so, One by one, they fell. Except one.

"They're everywhere! There, Target that one. Lower bow, pitch angle 23 degrees, Fire!"
"The Law has been taken out, it's escorts are down too."
"Move the Archfiend to cover the gap, don't let even an ant get through!"

The 23rd Fleet, comprised mainly of Mercenaries and ex-pirates, had been formed solely to respond to Pirate incursions and rebellions along the outer rim with overwhelming force, yet somehow found themselves the key players in the fight against the Void-brothers.

"Lunar-Base York has gone silent, our right flank is exposed!"
"very well, order the retreat, all ships punch random co-ordinates into their FTL drives, your new orders are to survive at any cost. the Alliance must survive.
"What about you, Group-Captain?
"I'm going to spit in her eye one last time."

But when Humanity needed a champion, the 23rd fell apart, easy pickings for the Void-Mother's Lackeys.

That was the Moment the war was lost. the battles that followed were merely the desperate thrashings of a dying giant. The void-mother had triumphed.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This game takes place five years after the events of the First RP, with mankind trapped under the Void-Mother's heel, but she hasn't won yet, the Gatekeeper and Spear of destiny are still out there. You must find them before she does.

Here are the ground rules.

- the fleet will consist of 9 ships within the class outlines below.
-posts will be limited to once per day.
- i will have the final say on the effectiveness of all attacks.
-try to write your posts like a story.

Ships consist of three parts, engines, hull and hardpoints.

Engines can be attacked to cripple the ship and prevent it from moving. This damage can be repaired.

Hull is the main body of the ship and will be targeted first unless the player firing the weapon chooses another point. if the Hull is too heavily damaged, the ship will be destroyed. minor repairs are possible.

Alright. I'll be into this as soon as possible. I hope the rest of the 23rd come back and rejoin.

Just a few questions though. Mainly will previous characters appear in this and can i use my old character? you said we can use the old ship but i'm not sure what happened to my captain.

linchowlewy:
Alright. I'll be into this as soon as possible. I hope the rest of the 23rd come back and rejoin.

Just a few questions though. Mainly will previous characters appear in this and can i use my old character? you said we can use the old ship but I'm not sure what happened to my captain.

All captains will start away from their ships, the scenario i will lay out once the players are assembled, it is not strictly limited to old players. you can use your old captain if you wish, or start up a new one. the choice is yours

Kickass, so i'll just use my old character. do i have to drag it across or will you do that?

Come on people. This RP needs numbers.

Im in, but Harrab already knows that.

Awesome, message some of the other people from the first.

Also are you recycling your old character?

No I won't be using my old charrie, Harrab is cutting out Marine commanders as characters do to the fact that we didn't have good coms with our Captains, at least the others didn't. And because we were for the most part ignored by everyone else.

Who all was in the last one?

Sgt.Looney:
No I won't be using my old charrie, Harrab is cutting out Marine commanders as characters do to the fact that we didn't have good coms with our Captains, at least the others didn't. And because we were for the most part ignored by everyone else.

Who all was in the last one?

Kind off sucks not having marine commanders and strike crafts independent anymore. I thought it was kind off cool having the people working together.

As nice as it is to see this starting up again, I'm afraid the Ironstar will not be returning to the fight this time around. I'm to involved in running my own RP right now to commit to any others. Besides, the way the last thread was ending it can be safely assumed that the Ironstar was destroyed by the Void Dragon anyway.

Good luck to all of you. From the sound of things, your going to need it.

Fair enough Van, be a shame not having you here. hope your RP goes well.

linchowlewy:

Kind off sucks not having marine commanders and strike crafts independent anymore. I thought it was kind off cool having the people working together.

It was cool in concept and I would have liked to be able to flesh out my marine character from last game more, but there wasn't much opportunity to. Plus when I posted the only two people that seemed to pay attention were Harrab and Ninjablu. It just wasn't as geared towards the Marines and Fighter pilots, which is cool its called Fleet Command, so just having people be captains and control the other things on board works. I completely understand where Harrab is coming with this decision.

Prologue: New Dawn.

Memory can be a treacherous thing.

John Phillips can remember a life where his world stretched for more then the walls of his cell, when he was a rich merchant captain with a loyal crew and a loving family waiting at the dock for his return, and the universe was his to explore.

Now he rots within these stone walls, and has done for five years, who's to say the past has happened at all?

Purgatory. That's what this was place was called, the Prison for those who have earned the Void-Mother's personal attention. An Ice world on the outer-rim, the only reason it wasn't called hell was that even Satan would freeze to death outside these walls.

Through the gloom of a Purgatory night, he can see into the other Cells, see the other victims of fate, they had been warship captains, whispered conversation in between the guard patrols had reveled that these men had dared to stand up against mankind's new Goddess. Controlling machines and men in battle against her rule.

John couldn't even remember what his crime had been.

movement up above caught his eye, a sort of distortion in the air near the rafters, that was the real threat, the guards were little more than thugs, it was the Infiltrator Dragoons that lurked invisible in the corridors of the prison who would kill you faster then you could draw your last breath. the guards liked to play for a while.

Suddenly the lights snapped on at the same moment a shrieking alarm rang though the halls, waking all who had been blessed with sleep. The shimmer vanished.

Guards were coming down the stairs from the barracks, their Shock-Mauls in hand and flickering, john quickly got to his feet behind the energy barrier that kept him penned, any who was slow to rise felt the bite of those weapons and continued to do so until either the guard got bored or the prisoner collapsed. or died.

Jhon glanced at the war-captain opposite, willing him to stand, defiance in this place would be fatal.

Vladirmi was sick of this. He and he men had went to battle against this Void Mother, he had lost friends to assure his freedom, and this was his reward. He heard the alarm go off, he did not rise. he was sick of these routines; someone got rowdy and the small escape of sleep was broken. He didn't care anymore. His body was already covered in scars, a few more couldn't hurt.

The rythmic stomping of the guards was getting closer, Vladirmir could stand up, he still had time. But he wouldn't get up. He just lay in bed, eyes closed, perfectly awake, only thinking of the old times. When he still had his ship, when he was free, when he could speak freely without fear of the dragoons, the taste of vodka and his friends and crew. Some of the command crew were still here. as were the marines. but a lot died. Some through the capture, others just disobeyed the guards. Several just lay in their beds during these calls, knowing what could happen. Vladirmir knew too, he was even looking forward to it. Maybe a good rest from purgatory, maybe off to heaven, maybe off to hell.

The guard's footsteps were ever closer, they were right in front of the cell door. Vladirmir knew it was too late to do anything, fighting would only make it worse. He wanted his transition to be a quick one.

The hum of the cell's gate stopped, replaced with the hum of a Stun Maul. Vlad kept his eyes closed and waited.

Alarm. Fear. Fire. AWAKE! Fear. Fire. AWAKE! Alarm...

Neil snapped up to a sit, breathing heavy as a rhythmic pounding and horrible shriek burned his ears. Cold sweat shone across his brow, like he was staring in some horrible fantasy hologram. He remembered who he was, and wear he was, and stood up into a parade rest position. Oh, but he remembered more. He remembered the hell the first klaxon had brought when the Void forces had come and demolished the defense perimeter of Mars while it was disabled due to "System wide maintainence."
Neil had been aboard the Bronzestar as Mars burned with the hulls of a thousand ships.
And his ship had been the only one to run. The only one to survive... sort of. It was so badly damaged two thirds of it was torn off during the jump, and the remained ship had randomly come down exactly where the Valiance had jumped a day previous.
Pure luck.
Then it had been a matter of getting the Valiance repaired with bits of the Bronzestar and reorganizing the crews of both.
Then a void patrol had swept the area. Neil, being the just-elected captain of Valiance had told it to run. It escaped.
Himself and the others aboard the Bronzestar were not so lucky.

Neil snapped out of his memories to find the brutish guards opening his cell, dragging in his old CO who had just gone through another round of torture. The old geezer was tough, and doubly respectable for claiming to be the commander of the whole operation the void had stumbled upon. He went through weeks of torture, all to ensure that he, Neil Fordman Garner, was left untouched from his black-haired widow's peak down to his runner's legs.

Two weeks. Two short weeks. Two very short weeks. Four years. Four long years. Four very long years. It wasn't fair. He was at the helm of the Red Nova for two weeks before it all went to hell and wound up here, in this cell, trying to remember how it all went to hell.

He remembered the anger when he was first brought here, was he betrayed or just frustrated that he was imprisoned so soon after being given his own ship, maybe it was anger at a mistake he made. Maybe all three. As the years progressed he calmed down and eventually forgot why he was angry, forgot why he was imprisoned and after a while forgot who he was. Oh sure, his name, Constantine Von Braun, he wouldn't forget that, but his character, who he was, had become a mystery. Nearly half a decade with minimal contact does that to a man. Living in your mind, hiding within your thoughts, leaves you wondering how you react to people. Constantine had spent a lot of his time in this cell trying to figure that out. With each day it got harder.

He could see others across the hall. He couldn't help but wonder who they where but their identities fell second to his own, why bother with others if you didn't know who your where? Maybe if he remembered them-

The lights suddenly flashed on, alarms shrieked and he started to hear guards come running down the corridor. He took a swig from his water bowl and stood at the energy barrier, the assumed behavior for when a guard comes a knocking, sitting down would earn you a healthy round of torture at the least. It was the soft footed ones you had to look out for. That isn't what urged him to stand though. Something big was happening and he wanted in on it. He might have a chance to get out, to not die in this hole. He wanted that. Four years was far too long already.

Vladirmi could hear the guard walking closer and his muscles already tensed as they waited for the first of many blows.

There was a crackle of burning air as the maul was raised..

and then the world exploded.

or at least seemed to, the guard was knocked off his feet as the cell block's ceiling fell in, followed by the unending howl of the eternal winter that gripped this planet.

Snow, smoke and dust prevented anyone from seeing what had caused the sudden damage, but suddenly there was a voice in the murk, a powerful voice, one used to command and having those commands obeyed.

"Now my sisters, take them down!"

Three figures emerged from the expanding cloud at a run, each armored from head to toe in gleaming metal that contoured to their female forms, a crimson cloak streaming in the wind behind them and each gripping a sword that blazed with blue fire as they charged the confused guards at the other end of the hall.

A forth emerged just as the smoke cleared, her movements unhurried, her own sword still secure at her hip, behind her stood four orbital drop-pods, still glowing red from the heat of re-entry.

Her Armour was a mixture of black and red, far grander then that of her companions, her helmet shaped like the face of a falcon and a blood-red Fleur-de-lis had pride of place on her breastplate.

the guard in Vladirmi's cell stood and bellowed a challenge.

The woman shot him in the face. the pistol back in it's holster even before anyone could realize it had been drawn.

"The war stills rages Vladirmi," the woman said, in a flat voice that held no emotion or accent, as she watched her warriors cut down the remaining black figures with ease, "how long are you going to remain in bed?"

Commander Kolm "Looney" Loonsriebach, he had been in this hell for four years just like damn near every one else on this hole of a planet. For four long year he, the a few members of the 12th Naval Commando Team who had been unable to make it back to the SFT Kretschmer had been stuck here separated from one another to prevent them from causing too much trouble. Kolm, a former member of the 12 NCT turned ship XO, rose from his back and sat up on the edge of his cot. The was a ruckus in the room nest to his, was that Vladirmi causing trouble again. From what he knew of the man, mostly through what he had said in times the guards were away is that he was a Captain from the 23rd Fleet, the mercs humanity had bet it all on only to lose. The noise sounded much louder than normal. Then something collided with the ground, the force knocking him from his cot. Kolm struggled to his feet what ever was going on next door certainly wasn't being caused by Vladirmi.

"Vlad!" he risked yelling when he knew the guards were near by, "Vlad you merc dog what the hell is going on in there?"

Fear.
Fire.
Awake.

Oh, how prophetic his odd dream had been. The jail was suddenly turned into a raging battlefield. Guards wielding stun sticks were suddenly outclassed by warriors with swords.

But Neil did not move. He thought he had noticed something weird about the corner of his cell, and it had suddenly dawned on him.

Dragoon.

He wanted to shout, to warn his possible saviors, female warriors he had only heard stories of, but knew there was essentially a knife at his throat, that he couldn't do anything.

When the guards went running by in disorder, however, he couldn't help but cheer. At least this wouldn't be out of character.

Braun's life had gotten a whole lot brighter in a matter of seconds. For the first time and most likely the last, he had a chance to escape. A figure strode from it's drop pod and killed a guard in the opposite cell. Three others attacked the remaining guards. Was this actually a chance for escape?

He couldn't yell out though, nobody could. The Dragoons where itching for a chance to kill someone, still, why hadn't they killed these women yet?

The women was now talking to the man in the opposite cell. Why haven't they attacked yet... 'remain in bed' he heard... it was idle chit chat! Shit, they didn't know!

"Look out, invisible things that crawl around the prison, extremely dealdy, open the cells and run!" Braun yelled in a single gasp. He wanted to live, but letting these people die so that he can spend the rest of his life in a cell didn't seem worth it. Better to die in a split second then die slowly in a cell.

Vladirmir jumped out of the bed, these sisters that had helped his marines aboard the fallen dreadnought had come to save him again. Vlad ran up to the Sister and snatched her massive pistol from the holster, it wasn't his C96 but it would have to do. Throwing in a brief thankyou he ran to the control room pistol in hand.

The alarms had increased in intensity, and more guards came marching down those stairs each minute. Vladirmir would have to pick up the pace. He began going at a sprint, his unkempt beard and hair rustling in the wind. Two guards came from a cell beside Vladirmir and ambushed him with the stun-mauls. Vladirmir tackled the first guard head on bringing his gun up into the thugs chest. pulling the trigger the gun lets off a dull thud followed by an astonishing fountain of blood as the pistol's bullet tore straight through the guards chest. Vladirmir had just killed the guard and himself in a single blow; the other guard brought the stun-maul up over Vladirmir's head and begun to drop his arm like the strong man at a carnival. Just as Vladirmir was about to get hit an ear splitting crack shot through the air by his ears. the stun-maul landed limp upon Vlad's back.

Vladirmir looked around, the sisters had begun to further storm the prison complex, three of them were heading up to the control room. Vladirmir joined the battle maidens and led the charge up the staircase, letting off a storm of bullets into the crowd of guards tearing through their corrupt flesh like hail pounding into a small cottage. The men dropped from the staircase falling into the deep abyss that was Purgatory. Vladirmir and the sisters continued their storm up the stairs removing any Voidscum in their way.

The control room was a black sleek cube with a large pedestal in the centre. Vlad stepped aside, letting the sisters do the work. Vlad had been on these void ships before, but then his goal was to destroy every living thing aboard those ships, it was never his intent to get the ships working.

The most decorated of the Sisters ran her hand over the pedestal. with a small humm the entire wall ahead was illuminated with security screens and the pedestal's surface was brought to life with hovering blue buttons. The sister began to tap away at the buttons, each glowing a deep blue at her fingers touch. soon the warning klaxon faded and the cells opened. it was like a swarm of ants had been unleashed upon a picnic. the grew mass of prisoners converged on the remaining guards and fled the prison into the frozen world.
Vladirmir joined them in their Exodus.

A hand gripped Vadirmir's shoulder, another jerked the pistol out of his hand.

"No." said the Black-armored woman, returning her pistol to it's holster. "Never touch my weapons again or else you will feel their rage. You will stay with me, Sister Jennifer!"

the last two words were a shout to one of the other sisters, she stepped forward,

"Yes, Cannoness? My blade is yours."

"Gather the other ship captains, bring them here. I want them in orbit inside of ten minutes. Watch for Dragoons and slay any you find."

"Of course, Cannoness." said the woman, with a hand on heart salute, then she left the room with her blade drawn.

The Cannoness stepped away from the Russian as if he had been switched off and raised a hand to the side of her head, triggering her long-range comm.

"Fleet Command this is Storm-Blade, Area secure. Standing by for Evac."

"Storm-Blade this is Invincible, roger that, evac en-route. ETA five minutes, be advised we have engaged Void-Brother forces at the system's edge and are under heavy fire, they will have reinforcements coming. Invincible out."

No response from the merc Captain, perhaps the Void Brothers had killed him in response to what ever had caused the explosion. His cell opened one of the Guards ran in hoping to avoid something out in the hallway it would be his last mistake, he failed to notice Kolm standing in the back of the room as he entered and now was focusing on the door, stun prod ready. He struck fast moving as quickly as he could to get to the guard, the guard began to turn towards the sound moving towards him but was too slow, a boot caught him in the knee dropping him, while the former Commando wrapped his arm around the things neck and broke it with a sicking pop.

The stun rod hit the ground and Kolm quickly scooped it up, it would provide much protection from the Dragoons, but it should work rather well on the normal guards. He stepped towards the door way, as he moved toward the entrance a tall armored figure stepped into view, it... no she from the looks of the armor's shape wore black armor with a beaked helm, she had a sword in one hand and a large pistol in the other which was pointed at him. He dropped the stun rod back to the ground an raised his hands, she didn't look like a follower of the Void Mother so perhaps she wouldn't kill him out right.

"Don't shoot, I'm not one of the Guards, I'm Commander Loonsriebach of the SFT Kretschmer." he hoped she'd believe him.

The pistol Roared, Kolm felt the bullet flash past his face close enough he felt it's passage, behind him there was a sound like a slab of meat hitting a slab, then silence.

Very slowly, as he tried to get his heart rate down from humming bird speed, he turned around.

A Dragoon was laying on the stone floor behind him, his face a bloody ruin from the shot.

Storm-Blade holstered her pistol again, "You. In here. Now. Keep quiet and out of the way, or we will all die here."

--------

Paladin Jennifer was alone on the rubble-strewn main floor of the prison, already a fine layer of snow was drifting down from the ruined ceiling. even the howl of the wind seemed muted.

She changed her combat stance, going from proud aggressive posture to an almost casual one, her blade held low beside her, it's fiery edges melting the snow around her feet.

in a nearby cell she saw one of the prisoners she had been sent to escort, strange he hadn't left his cell even through the field was down, Jennifer beckoned to him,

"Come with me, I'm here to get you out-"

Movement at the corner of her vision, a dragoon moving to strike, her sword was already moving, taking the form Eagle Rising over The Water, just as she had been trained all those years ago, and the Dragoon's own blade was falling.

Kolm was still shaking as the woman turned and left the room, she was damn good he never knew the Dragoon was in there with him. He watched her leave her orders fresh in his mind, stay out of the way and stay quiet, that's what he'd do. Quietly he turned back towards the Dragoon and went about searching its body on it he found a pistol, an older slugthrowing type similar to what the woman and been using and a blade, he took them both despite having little knowledge of how to fight with along blade.

He heard the woman shout in the court yard, calling for one of the prisoners to come to her, Kolm crept slowly out of his cell looking for anything that could give away the presence of a Dragoon. Something cut the woman off, he spun towards the courtyard bringing his procured pistol up and looking down its sights. A slight simmer caused by the snow reflecting off the active camo of the infiltrator, it was bringing its blade down in a cruel arc while the woman brought her own up gracefully, he had no doubt in his mind that the woman could handle the fight. Then another shimmer, behind her a second Dragoon was preparing to attack, with out a second though Kolm flicked off the safety on the pistol quickly firing off three rounds.

Braun was following the main group for a while, although kept his distance. He was unarmed and if a fight was to erupt, he would be useless. After a short walk his feet knocked something on the floor, it felt like some kind of rod but he couldn't see through the mist that had started to gather. Bending down, Braun started to grope on the floor blindly until eventually his hand made contact. It was a powered down stun rod, it may come in handy. Looking up he notices that he was at a fork in the road.

He took the left, it seemed like the most likely. He hadn't found any directions yet. The left turn lead into another cell block that had, had it's fields lifted. Scattered on the ground, under the mist were the bodies of guard and prisoner a like. The mist only revealed the top of their bodies and created a rather surreal scene. Constantine thought it rather disgusting.

Shots came from behind him, down the right side of the path. Wasting no time he ran back towards the split and continued down the right path. The shooting stopped, as he walked towards the door a final round was discharged.

The doors slid open to reveal a command center. Gathered in this room was a number of prisoners, deceased guards and a few of those women that attacked this place. Those still alive turned around and raised their weapons then, after seeing the prisoner uniform, turned back.

Braun moved towards the back of the room and started to pay attention to what exactly was going on here.

As the Dragoon's shimmer dissipated slightly from the quick motion of a sword swing as well as the reinforcement of the paladin's combat position, Neil had a chance. Not a good one, nor and even effective plan, but a chance and he needed to take it.
He took a wide step forward and twisted his hips, performing a vicious side kick at the dragoon's approximate position just as magical metal clanged on magical metal. It was an ungainly maneuver for the angles he was working, but timed almost perfectly and the side kick's longer range allowed Neil to have a larger margin of error.
And even if he screwed up, he had partner who was much better equipped to deal with the situation.

OOC: Just would like to place a holder here for when I can get around to posting my Ship/Character. T