"Pestilence enemy alert! Bomber squadron right on top of you!"

The warning from Rock Juggler came too late for the mighty battleship, as the words screamed across the battlenet, the black strike craft pounced, diving down on the white ship like daemons as point defenses from nearby ships opened up.

the bombers fired their payload right into the gaping hanger bay that housed the timber wolves that served as the ships escort, then they where gone, passing out of sensor range before any other strike craft could respond.

"Stealth field detected, approaching from below-" Suddenly the sound of an explosion, "We are taking fire, i say again, the Rock Juggler is under attack, two cruisers just hit us hard with cannons, requesting support."

The Firestormer turned suddenly, inside any crewmen not strapped in where sent flying as she accelerated towards the two void cruisers.
"We can't let them cripple the juggler, or the entire fleet will be a sitting target."

Gregory activated the battlenet transmitter, "This is Captain Gregory of the Firestormer, we are moving to engage void cruisers at best speed."

The deep booming of her cannons shook her hull as she closed with the enemy. Closing fast to her optimal range she concentrated on the closer of the two cruisers aiming for her cannons.

"Stuff it, we'll exchange niceties later!"

The Ravaged Sanity rolled, and sped for the cruisers below the Rock Juggler. The top-mounted flak cannons swivelled and fired into a passing group of strike craft as she accelerated, slowly diverging to chase a single Void Ship.

"Hold her steady. Scopes, be ready." The gunnery officer didn't even look up, just grunting the affirmative as he glared at his viewscreen, fingers wrapped tightly around a pair of joysticks. The Cruiser began to get dangerously close.

"Fire and roll!"

There was a dual thoom as the torpedoes left the tubes on the Sanity's nose, heading straight for one of the cruisers. Gremlin's ship rolled upwards, whipping over the top of the Void Ship before pulling up and round for another run.

The combined fire from the sanity and the firestormer caused one of the cruiser's shields to overload, leaving the ship defenseless for a short time.

The other cruiser turned on it's axis and fired it's four cannons at the pirate ship, but due to it's evasive move, all shots went wide.

"Hostile target locked, shields are down." Rock Juggler announced "Knights inbound."

across the fleet a tiny veiwscreen popped up, showing a hatchway, as they watched it slid open, revealing ranks of sisterhood knights, weapons held ready and already marching towards the camera with a Paladin in the lead, their helmeted eyes glowed red in the gloom of the mining ship. Then with tiny flickers of energy they vanished.

"The boarding team is inside, all ships avoid firing on this vessel," The command ship flagged the uppermost void cruiser, "it has friendlies aboard."

The fleeing cruiser ran, dodging occasional fire from the fleet. It shimmered, the precursor to going into full stealth.

"Too late, bucko."

The Rogue Shadow erupted from the voidspace directly above the enemy ship. The three canons boomed soundlessly, firing hunks of metal towards the enemy's prow.

"Point defense, be ready for return fire! Get those canons reloaded, and run the stealth generator up to just below threshold. We'll be invisible as soon as this one's dealt with, or I'll have someone fed to the computer techs!"

The crew laughed, and in the comp. Tech. Department there were many growls and roars. Izzy smiled. Morale was above normal, they were fighting void-scum, and they had friendlies to take fire for them. Life is good.

"Oh, nice play. You'll have to let one of my lads have a looksee at that stealth genny of yours!"

The Sanity, having been about the fire a second volley of Torpedoes at the uppermost cruiser when the no-fire order was given, had sharply dived and was now below the lower cruiser, just as the Rogue Shadow ambushed it. Now it was approaching fast, slightly below and behind it.

Once more the torpedoes fired, heading for the engines. And as the sanity shot beneath the cruiser, the flak cannons span and fired a volley backwards, into the bridge of the Void Ship. Well, reasoned Gremlin, it might make someone fall over.

Churn-Churn-Vwernn

Churn-Churn-Vwernn

Trapped in the shuttle bay in a malfunctioning shuttle, Braun tried to wait patiently for the techs to repair the damn thing but no matter they tried the thing wouldn't boost up.

Churn-Churn-Vwern

"Fuck! Can't you do something, we've here for fifteen fucking minutes! This is not up to standard" Braun yelled out, the pilots ignored him and continued their conversation with the techs as cool as day.
"Nope, not getting any reading... do you think it might be a fuel line problem... yeah that would require taking the whole thing apart... it was working earlier today..."

Braun had heard enough and stormed out of the cockpit into the holding bay in the shuttle. Each second that dragged by felt like an eternity, each miserable attempt at starting the engine was like a thousand years slowing draining by. It was driving him insane to be this close to being on his ship, to true freedom, only to be denied by a crappy shuttle that wouldn't start. Jumping out into space seemed like a suitable course of action, his body might be collected by the Red Nova. It was strange that after all this time spent waiting it was the final moment that got under his skin. The years in prison seemed like nothing compared to this slow, agonizing wait to get on his ship.

Churn-Churn-Vwernn

It was still making that fucking noise. He couldn't stand it anymore. One more sound like that and something was going to be destroyed.

Churn-Churn-Vwernn

"That's it, this shuttle is going to hell" he said to himself as he made his way for the acess ramp.

Churn-Churn-Vwoosh

A kick ran through the shuttle, the force knocking him off his feet. It was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard.

"We'll be ready to depart when the Techs are all clear" came the sweet, sweet voice over the intercom.

The Techs ran behind a pair of blast doors, taking their parts with them. The docking bay doors opened, sucking out the atmosphere with them.

"Stand by for de-hatch in 3... 2... 1, unhooking shuttle"

A dull thud was heard and the shuttle rushed into space, powered it's thrusters and adjusted it's flight for The Red Nova VII. Braun walked into the cockpit. He could make out his ship against the silent side of the Rock Juggler. He let out a sigh and grasped his head. It was so close now.

"We'll have you on board in 2." said the pilot. He turned something on, "This is shuttle B-55 awaiting for confirmation of entry".

There was a slight wait followed by "Docking bay 4 awaiting arrival, good to have a captain back on board". The voice sounded angry.

The shuttle glided into the Red Nova and clamped it's magnets to the floor. The atmosphere re-entered and a greeting party strode into the bay. Braun walked out of the shuttle slightly bewildered he was back on the Nova. It had been a long time but he still remembered parts of it, he couldn't help but wonder what happened to some of the people that used to occupy this ship... would any of them remember him... was he still captain?

"Captain Braun" said the man leading the greeting party, "follow me". No niceties were made as the men traveled through the ship, eventually making it to the Bridge. All the staff stopped what they were doing and stood at attention as Braun entered the room. Part of the old days started to come back to him. He remembered being in command here.

"At rest. Let's get into this fight, God knows we've been out of it long enough. Set us above the battle, far above just out of maximum Torpedo range. There we'll look for an opening and take advantage of whatever we can" he ordered as he made his way for the Captains chair. He took his seat as the ship adjusted it's self and flew upwards, away from the Rock Juggler, away from the combat.
"Inform the men that we are going into battle, make sure they are prepared."
"Already done, sir" came the reply, "ship is in fighting order".

The Red Nova reached it's distance and angeled itself to get the best view of the conflict.

"Set up a battle-net with the rest of the fleet, hopefully we can give them some sort of assistance in hitting these bastards".

"And now, we wait for an order or an opening". He slunk back in his seat and sighed.

Gregory smiled, it was good to see the void-scum facing the wrong end of stealth tech.

"Switch fire, lets help the Sanity with those engines, and have the marines ready to launch."

The firestormer was keeping pace with the enemy cruiser behind and slightly above firing as fast as her cannons would allow.

He turned to his intel officer, "Pull everything you can about that cruiser from the battlenet, I want to know if she has anything that can destroy our marine shuttles."

Just then the first cruiser, the one boarded by the Sisterhood, started to list heavily to one side as explosions blossomed across its hull, then it broke apart.

"Paladin Aoi has returned, light injuries only, hostile ship destroyed.

The second cruiser managed to engage it's stealth generator, but it was still hit by the cannon fire from it's Resistance-held sister ship and the field flickered and died, then the torpeodes did their work and crippled the fragile ship, right in the cross-hairs of the Archfeind.

The heavy cannons roared in unison, shredding the smaller ship like they had the probe eariler, the fire from the firestormer ensured there was no survivors.

"New contact, Three cruisers attacking from 9'oclock, they just keep coming, Sentinels are moving to engage, someone back them up."

Singing Gremlin:
"Oh, nice play. You'll have to let one of my lads have a looksee at that stealth genny of yours!"

Izzy smiled. Same old Gremlin. "neither you, gremlin, nor any of your 'lads' will be coming anywhere near the Rogue Shadow's stealth field." She made a suitably haughty expression, grossly exaggerated. "You're just going to have to steal your own. Shouldn't be too hard for you, and it'd make a nice change from that hunk of junk you've been stumbling around in."

"Take us back into stealth mode, folks." She poked her tongue out at the gremlin's vid feed as the link died.

And the 'Shadow disappeared, out of radio contact again until the field was down.

"Lets see if we can pull off another ambush."

The 'stormer spun round away from the stricken cruiser and accelerated towards the new contacts, approaching in a ark so that they she from the side firing.

She pitched down (relatively) suddenly using what maneuverability she had to avoid any incoming fire before coming up from below.

(sorry work was hell yesterday)

"Ere, she just out-cheeked you, boss!" Called Scopes. Sparky, the tech officer, snorted. "Snubbed him more like." This in turn caused another laugh, and a cry of "That suggests he'd ever have a chance with a woman!"
Gremlin took a moment to stop himself laughing, then turned what he hoped was a severe eye on his bridge crew. They all grinned back at him. He gave up.
"Just try and position the Rogue Shadow between us and them. Accidentally, of course."
The Sanity burst back into life, heading towards the cruisers on a course that kept the patch of space they hoped contained Izzy's ship between them and the enemy.
"Ok, fire early and pull off. I know we all like last minute firing, but taking on three cruisers at once is asking to get crippled. That was the mindset that had us pick a fight with the Razorback, remember?"
There was a chorus of sheepish throat clearing.

"Ok captain, we're in range."
"Right. You sure the Rogue Shadow is there?"
"Course I'm bloody not. But it's a good bet."
"Right! We'll risk it. Call my ship a hunk of junk will she? Buzz her."

As the torpedoes locked into their tubes ready to fire, the Sanity dived suddenly, whipping across just in front of where the stolen Void Ship was supposed to be. The torpedoes fired, and Gremlin's frigate looped back up, retreating to a safe distance.

"If she wasn't there, it was just an evasionary tactic, right?"
"Right."
"Right."

"Torpedoes from the rear, Captain!"
"What? Was there a stealth ship we missed?"
"No. Ma'am, it's the Sanity!"
"Gremlin. I bet he did that on purpose!" but she grinned. "You've taken evasive action?" she asked the helmsman.
"Of course."
"Good. Get someone in navigation working on a new movement protocol. Let's try to be less predictable, shall we?"

And she made a mental note to congratulate Gremlin on that fancy bit of flying. It was pretty impressive... for a hunk of junk.

"this is Rock-Juggler Missile Command, Peacekeeper ready to fire, just give us the word fleet."

"Three cruisers sir, doesn't look like they care about us. Just in range."

Braun thought for a bit and then stood up.

"Chance of scoring a hit?"
"Roughly 70%, sir."

He sat back down, wondering why he felt the need to stand up.

"Ok, set up the shot on the closest cruiser from here and then half the distance between us and the Void ships."

The ship aligned slightly and then the distinct thud of the torpedoes locking into position could be heard through the ship.

"Awaiting fire order."
"Fire."

The torpedoes fired and the ship started to move, almost as if it was following it's shots.

"Let's try and get noticed, target the second cruiser when we get into position."

The first void-brother cruiser exploded under the heavy fire unleashed at it, leaving the two others to face their Sisterhood counterparts alone.

It was a sight not seen for millions of years.

Energy began to build along the flanks of the Sentinels as cannon fire from their opponent began to impact with their shields, the AI cruisers evaluated their effect, then dismissed them as lightning lunged across the void between the ships.

The void brother ships fell silent as the EMP energy rampaged through their systems, but the Sentinels hadn't finshed yet.

Igniting their engines, they rammed the stricken ships at full speed, smashing them to fragments against their silver hulls.

"Warning,two dreadnaught-class hyperspace signatures detected," the signals officer from the rock-juggler sounded more bored then scared, probably another sister, "Mothership Threat level increased, Rock-Juggler FTL drive chraging."

Gregory watched the void ships get massacred, they never realy stood a chance against the whole fleet. A grim smile played on his lips as the sentinels plowed through their opponents, sending debris spinning out into the void. His revelry in the destruction was cut shout by a fleet-wide warning of void dreadnaughts-class hyperspace signatures. He flagged their position on hit view screen, for a second half thinking of engaging them, but caution got the better of him.

"Bring us into escort formation with the Juggler, We'll let the big boys handle this one."

"Hey, they've got themselves ramming speed! Can we do that?"
"Erm, well, maybe," said Scopes, "But the ship would probably squish like a tin can being stamped on."
Gremlin froze. "Are you telling me," he said slowly "That a certain accusation of hunk of junkishness wasn't entirely off the mark?"
The rest of the bridge eyed him levelly. He pouted.
"Oh fine." he grumbled "It's not the most structurally sound ship, you've made your point. Pull back and hide behind the Rock Juggler. I remember being crippled by the Razorback a bit too vividly at this point."

As the the engines flared and the ship pulled back to their mothership, Gremlin stared moodily out the window.
"But I wanted to ram them. Stupid hunk of junk ship. I hope Izzy crashes into an asteroid and... and... falls of her chair."
While quite capable of moodiness and cheerful malice, sadism towards friends was not a something that came easily to the pirate.

At the systems edge, two hyperspace windows snapped open in unison, unleashing two massive warships, blacker then sin, and bristling with armored turrets and defensive systems.

"Alret. Hostiles detected, ID confirmed, Hostiles are two Razorback-Class Dreadnoughts, Black Hand and Hell Knight. Recommend immediate withdrawal."

"if only we could." Sharpe muttered as across the fleet FTL drives shut down under the touch of two hyperspace inhibitors. "we are like rats in a trap."

"They've got a lock on us! Incoming Nimbus torpedoes!'

Sharpe hit the comm. "all ships take evasive action, some of us might survive, Star-mother willing."

then she dropped to her knees, clasped her hand together, and prayed.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Missiles were launching from the super-capital ships in tight groups, only spreading out into the cloud of torps that the weapons were famed for once they were about halfway towards the resistance fleet, there was no point defense in the fleet strong enough to repel all that ordinance.

A hyperspace window opened between them, and spread to a far greater size than that of this newest threat. a ship emerged, bigger than the dreadnoughts, bigger than even rock-juggler, and sat in the space between the two fleets.

Hatches opened across the armoured skin and streams of boiling plasma intercepted every single torpedo in an instant, the explosion temperarily blocked out sensors across the fleet.

"Arch-Cannoness, we are being hailed by the unknown ship, patching it through, audio only."

What emerged from the speakers was incomprehensible to the humans in the fleet, but it had hardley started speaking when every sister suddenly raised their arms and bellowed praises to the Star-Mother, after a few seconds, from where she was still knelt, Sharpe translated;

"The Gatekeeper is aware. The Gatekeeper Understands. The Gatekeeper has seen the enemy."

Gregory's mouth hung open. "What is that thing?" he managed to blurt out. If it was hostile it would destroy them before then could blink. "Think the void-mother has come for us herself?" "Sir it seems to be friendly, he are getting data over the net that its non-hostile, it may be from the sisterhood."
"Well lets see, I don't want to take any chances."
The firestormer hung in space in escort position in front of the rock-juggler only making small movements, but ready to begin evasive tactics.

"... bastards took our kills. oh well, lets go back to the ..."

Lord Harrab:
At the systems edge, two hyperspace windows snapped open in unison, unleashing two massive warships, blacker then sin, and bristling with armored turrets and defensive systems.

"Alret. Hostiles detected, ID confirmed, Hostiles are two Razorback-Class Dreadnoughts, Black Hand and Hell Knight. Recommend immediate withdrawal."

"...fracking frack! The void-scum really have got our position."
It would be inaccurate to say that Izzy thought quickly. She didn't think. To survive in a rebellion, you had to look out for number one. The Rogue Shadow had been slipping away from larger enemies for years. Only reason it was still around. "We're leaving, folks! Get us in hyper ..."
the scopes officer "warp interdiction captain. We can't leave."
..."frack. Prepare to take evasive action. Keep us invisible, and follow gremlin behind the big one. Let's see if we can't avoid being hit at all."

Lord Harrab:

A hyperspace window opened between them, and spread to a far greater size than that of this newest threat. a ship emerged, bigger than the dreadnoughts, bigger than even rock-juggler, and sat in the space between the two fleets.
"The Gatekeeper is aware. The Gatekeeper Understands. The Gatekeeper has seen the enemy."

...
"well, wasn't that convenient." The Captain took a couple of deep breaths, calming her nerves. There was a short cheer round the bridge.
"alright, that should hold their attention. Pilot! Approach the black hand. Get the Shadow as close to the warp interdiction node as you can."

"Buh.. bwuh.. What... is that the freakin' Gatekeeper?!"

Gremlin looked on the verge of going crosseyed.

"You mean we all nearly died looking for the bloody thing and now it's gone and bloody found us? Oh for the love of...

Take us up, I want a look at what's going to happen now. Bloody buggering sod better be worth it. And fire a torpedo at each of the dreds! I want to pretend what's about to happen is thanks to us."

Following his orders, torpedoes slipped from the prow of the Sanity, before the ship pulled upwards to get a vantage point.

PM me when you do, I think next time I'll do the "Firelance" an ion-cannon frigate.

Lord Harrab:

Update

well, ain't that a shame.

let us know when yer gonna go agin, an' the Rogue Shadow will re-emerge.

Gremlin: 'twas fun, the banter. let's do it again sometime.