Stars of Glory

Chapter 4- Conflict Amongst the Stars

They came around the southern pole of Hoth, planning on taking nthe enemy fleet from below. The strike force consisted of a rag tag allaince of Clan and Inner Sphere fighters, with the rear guard comprised of any mercenary company capable of moving fast enough. Most of the mercenaries had also brought along their salvage craft, hoping to be the first to get a chance to loot the battlefield. The fighter screen led the bulk of the attacking force, the various WarShips, cruisers, and frigates. They had left behind only a token guard for the colonization fleet, counting on the enemy to not suspect the presence of undefended civilian craft in the area, and if they did. Had the Imperial forces known about the defenseless fleet, they would have attacked with out mercy, and survivors to be taken prisoner. As it was, it was fortunate they did not.

The lead elements were comprised of the Davion First Wing, followed slosely by the Draconis Combine's Eighth Fighter Group. Bother were eager to take part in the battle, being as desperate as their Clan rivals for action. Each pilot remembered the strict briefing earlier, and knew their target well: The large dome near what was assumed to be the bridge structure. Readings from the first battle had gone out to all of the various combat ships, and special focus had been placed on the shield capabilities of the enemy battleships, and especially how to cripple them. Since the destruction of the large sphere like objects had been tied to the destruction of the second enemy ship by the Clan fighters, it was assumed they were some sort of generator. As such, they were to be considered the alpha target of any fighter capable of striking them.

Not as well coordinated as the Clan fighters, the Davion and Combine fighters were pushing their craft at maximum burn, eager to see which would get to the target first. The Combine fighters were the first to fire, while still over ten kilometers out from the target. Their missiles streaked in with no seeming organization, and each found the shield, creating a beautiful blue ripple where it hit. Several did manage to punch through in the wake of their brothers, only to cause minimal damage as they smashed into the thick armor of the Star Destroyer. The Combine fighers pulled up to allow the Davions their chance at the target, as well as to make sure they didn't take a missile to the thrusters in the process. The Davion fighters closed ranks as they sped to their target. At five kilometers they lit up their targeting boards, each designating a point in space a mere five feet wide and tall. For a space battle, it was the equivalent of aiming right between the eyes.

The Star Destroyer Perfection had the misfortune to be the ship closest to the incoming attack. She had been tasked to the bottom of the formation to be the first to intercept any Rebel ships taking off from the planet. It had been a high honor for the crew and her captain to have been noticed by Lord Vader so, and they were hoping for the Rebels to make a move soon so that they might strike. As it was, they were lucky to have been maintaining constant battle readiness, for it gave them a few extra moments to act once the terran fighters were noticed. Her captain barked orders, and the entire ship's compliment of TIE fighters was launched to deal with the threat. They raced to intercept the incoming Davion fighters, their blasters firing for the heart of the oncoming formation. The Davion's barely flinched in the face of the storm of energy, twisting and turning while maintaining formation, allowing their armor to take the brunt of the damage. It seemed unlikely they would able to make more runs like this, but for now they were committed to seeing this one through.

At four kilometers they opened fire. Their missiles flew through the emptiness of space, twisting and twirling about themselves to dodge imagined anti-missile fire. The inbound TIE fighters flew apart to dodge the missiles, allowing them to close on their true target. They hit with in seconds of each other. The front ranks had fired first, each from a pair of ERLRM 10 missile launchers, the front rank consisted of the First's Third Company, a group of twelve fighters. Behind them was First Company, also sporting the twin ERLRM 10 arrangement. The third rank was made of Second Company, whose fighters had been outfitted with two LRM 20 missile launchers, though this had cost them some of their normal laser emplacements. Thus the first salvo consisted of 120 missiles, all aimed at the same section of shield. Striking as one, they caused a massive blue shock wave to reach out from the points of impact. The second salvo of 120 missiles punched into the same 25 foot square area, causing the shield to evaporate in a bright blue flash. The shield recovered in a matter of seconds, but not in time to prevent the missiles of Second Company to punch through. Of the 240 missiles, 184 made it through before the shield collapsed behind them. Cut off from the guiding systems on board the fighters by the electromagnetic interference of the shield, they began to spread out. Instead of hitting in a tight formation, they spread out as they hit the sphere, tearing through the thin metal skin. Fireballs erupted as their explosion ignited gases trapped inside, while shrapnel richocheted around the inside of the sphere, tearing through at a fraction of the speed it had hit. The sphere began to collapse as it's structure vanished in a holocaust of destruction. There was a glimmer from the shields of the Perfection, then all protection from its shields was lost.

By now, the rest of the Imperial fleet had been alerted of the combat, and had deployed their own fighters to aid their sister. Fighters from both sides flew against each other, spitting laser, bullet, and missile alike. The TIE fighters had shields at their maximum output to deal with the lasers of the Terran fighters, but they were meant to deal with the Rebel blasters, which had an energy output of gigawatts.The Terran forces operated on the range of terawatts, a factor more then what the TIEs were meant to handle. The beams from the aerospace fighters tore through the energy shields like acid through metal, leaving destroyed or crippled fighters in their wake. The TIEs were not helpless however. While the aerospace fighter clearly had the better weapons, they had no where near the level of defenses the TIEs sported. Not only that, the TIEs out numbered the aerospace fighters at a ratio of almost four to one. TIE blasters peeled away the armor on the Terran fighters, leaving the beleaguered fighters to their comrades. It soon became a common tactic for the TIEs to lead one of the aerospace fighters away from the dogfights so that a pursuing TIE could blow it away from behind.

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Marcus watched as Jade Four vaporized of his port wing. Banking away from the explosion he dove towards another cluster of TIE fighters, who were busy chasing a pair of Lyran fighters. He could see structuring on both of the Lyran's, a clear indication they were soon going to die. Letting his targeting computer lock onto one of the three of TIEs, while dead sighting the leader of the trio. He fired his missiles at the same time he triggered his lasers, and smiled as the deaths of the two TIEs sympathetically killed the third. The wounded Lyrans dipped their wings in thanks, before continuing on their course for the edge of the battle. His fighter rocked under several impacts, and Marcus's screens began flashing a brilliant red as they warned him of the loss of armor above his thrusters and right wing. Bright green streaks raced past his cockpit as he dodged the next burst of enemy fire, and a pair of TIEs rocketed past him as he slammed his thrusters into a hard reverse. The inertial compensators of his fighter barely held off the crush from the G forces as his fighter slamed into him from behind, but he managed to pick one of the two off with the pulse laser in his nose cannon.

He watched as the second exploded seconds later, though from what he couldn't tell. Several more exploded in much the same fashion, from untraceable bursts of laser fire that seemed to originate from no where. He checked his scanners, but they showed nothing other then the speeding blurs of enemy and allied fighters. He stared out his cockpit, then realized that several of the stars near the exploding TIEs seemed to be winking in and out of existance. He watched as series vanished for several seconds, only to reappear moments later. He suddenly realized there must be a fighter running around out there with some sort of unknown cloaking technology. To himself, he was silently thankful that who ever it was seemed to be on his side.

He began to follows the black streak as best he could, following the trail of exploding fighters and vanishing stars. He picked off several more TIEs in the process, adding to his already considerable kill score. It suddenly occured to him that after this battle, they were going to have to either seriously rewrite the rules, or his ace standing wasn't going to mean very much anymore.

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It took ten minutes for the WarShips and their accompaniment to join the battle. By then the rest of the Star Destroyers hade made their way into the battle, using their over sized cannons to try and pick off the smaller aerospace fighters. It didn't matter how much armor a fighter might have hade built into it, a single little tap from one of those massive lasers was more then enough to turn it into a smoking heap of vaproized gases and slagged metal. The Terran ships began to add their ow firepower to the battle, but instead of trying to pick off the smaller fighters, they targeted the much more massive Imperial battleships. Missiles and PPC blasts trocketed through space, battering the shields of the Star Destroyer. The Perfection rocked as the under hull was smashed by dozens of rockets and energy blasts. The Perfection began to pull up, trying to escape the firepower aimed at her, but all it did was further expose her vulnerable belly to the destruction being unleashed upon it. More missiles streaked in, finding the open fighter bays and holes torn by their previous brethern. Explosions rocked through the interior of the Perfection, and her rear thrusters vented orange flame as they exploded. No longer able to manouver, the Star Destryoer began to follow the straight line it had been following, deep into the heart of the battle. It began plowing through the unsuspecting fighters, interrupting dog fights and combat groups. The Terran ships continued to hammer the defenseless ship, until the Perfection finally exploded in the midst of the heart of the battle, scattering wreckage in all directions. Several fighters on both sides exploded sympathetically.

By now the Star Destroyers had realized the dangers the Terran ships posed to them, and had begun to attack in return. They tried to target the larger WarShips first, but the presence of the frigates and smaller support ships posed a much larger problem. The Imperial ships were used to a somewhat sedate form of "stand and deliver" type of combat. Essentially, star ships would stand off at a certain distance and exchange weapons fire until one or both of the ships was destroyed. Manouvers, as far as they were concerned, were for the smaller fighter craft. The thought of trying to do more then the most basic moves with a Star Destroyer, even in the limitless dimensions of space, merley seemed ludicrous. To top it off, they had little actual combat experience. While they had been involved with the occasional skirmish with the Rebels, they had very little real combat time against an experienced or trained force. They tended to rely entirely on the brute force of their ships to handle any problem. And should a problem become somewhat unwieldy, all they had to do was withdraw to a certain point, then bombard the target and until it was no longer a problem. There were a few Rebels which could match their levels of firepower, but those ships were generally kept with the larger Rebel fleets as their main bodyguards.

The Terrans on the other hand, had just spent the last several centuries in the midst of an on again off again intergalactic war. The Clans bred their ship crews and fighters from the genetics of those they had deemed superior in combat, where the Inner Sphere forces were trained by those who had seen real action, and was populated by those who had survived their own personal encounters with conflict. As such, the voice of experience was with the Terran force, and it showed in the formations the ships soon took up. The frigates and destroyers soone began to circle around their parent ships, using their own bulk to intercept any fighter that trid to get to the larger WarShips. There was no way to intercept the energy blasts from the Star Destroyers, but the WarShips didn't care. They merely shrugged off the attacks and came on for more, while returning an even larger amount of fire.

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Down on the ground, the Clan and Rebel forces were swarming into the Imperial base. Several salvage crews were already harvesting the fallen walkers, and the survivng storm troopers were being held by the Elementals. Crews had been landed from the Terran fleet above, and they were quickly finishing the take over of the two Star Destroyers. One had been given to Clan Jade Falcon as had been required by the contract, but Marcus had still managed to claim the second as his own. His crew had landed the various ships they had brought with them from the Terran planets, and where swarming about their new ship.Marcus wasn't quite sure what to do about the TIE fighters that had been on board, so he had allowed several of the Rebels on board to serve as pilots. The mechs had already been walked onto the ship, and were being secured in the hangar that seemed to be normally used for the rest of the walkers they had fought on their way into the base.

Marcus sighed as he watched the Falcons secure the other ship. They were already several hours behind, mostly becaus he couldn't call in the extra salvage crews that Karl could. As it was, his own were already pulling a double simply trying to figure out which systems were which on the enemy walkers. Stripping the weapons systems out didn't seem to be an option yet, so they had tried to get the walkers operational so that they could be walked back into the ship. When that hadn't worked, apparently because the workmanship that had gone into the walkers was worse then second rate. It seemed as if they had been put together by labor less then interested in ensuring the quality of the work they did. Finally, they had begun to drag the walkers back onto the ship, hoping there was some sort of equipment that might make repairing or stripping them more profitable. Though, when forced to admit it, he would much rather learn to pilot one of them himself. He had heard about the damage it had been able to do to Karl's Daishi. Marcus figured that with certain modifications, perhaps some additional leg armor, the walkers could be used in much more combat efficient ways. At least the smaller ones showed some promise as scout units, if they upgraded the sensor packages. Or even added sensor packages for that matter.

Marcus shook his head as he thought about the equipment he had seen in one of the ruined walkers. They seemed almost basic in their equipment load outs. There did seem to be a targeting computer on boaard, but it seemed to be more so that pilot knew he was looking at a viable target then for aiming purposes. Instead, it looked as if the pilot was expected to sight his guns in and fire entirely on his own, with out any assisstance from his machine. While he agreed it might in theory produce more skilled pilots, Marcus was more then happy to let his Atlas correct for any firing variables, such as wind speed, plane of declination, atmospheric ionization, or any one of a dozen more variables that could affect a pilot's eye sight firing.

"Hail the- What have you named this thing?" Marcus heard a voice call out from beneath him. Looking down the loading dock, he spotted Karl making his way up the gangway.
"Well, haven't decided yet. I considered calling it 'New Found Glory' but that seemed a little extravagent for this. Honestly, I'm starting to wonder if I might have made a bad deal by accepting this from you as part of the contract. This thing is going to take need a major upgrade to be anywhere near as effective as the Jade Falcon is." Marcus replied.
"Is the technology on these things that bad?" Karl asked.
"Just about. The only thing that seems to be worth keeping on these things are the weapons, shields, and armor. Now granted, the life support systems and such are not exactly a major concern when it comes to over hauling, but the sensors on this thing are not worth the price of armor on a Flea!" Marcus exclaimed.
"Hmmm. Well, we shall have to worry about it later. For now, we need to get the ships into the air. I just recieved word, over the radio on board the one you captured for us, of all things. It seems the attack on the enemy fleet is going well, but not as expected. It seemed the enemy fleet had many more fighters then expected, and seemed to consist of nothing save for battleships such as these. It seems they don't require any sort of supply ships they ours do." Karl informed Marcus.
"Either that or they didn't expect to be here all that long. I doubt the base you rescued would have survived for long against the forces you encountered, Blake take it all, I doubt we would have had much of a chance had it been a fair fight. Maybe if we had had the entire Jade Falcon behind us, but not with just my lance and the fire support you provided." Marcus pointed out.
"Aff. Well, so it may be, and so it is. But we need to catch that third ship before it reaches orbit, and to do that we need to lift soon. You have your orders, and the contract will be over in the next message packet I send you." Karl began to jog down the ramp back to the other Star Destroyer. There was a rumble and a glow as the engines of the second ship fired up for take off.
"What makes you so sure I'll take the contract? This is a fairly lucrative haul you just provided me right here!" Marcus called back.
"Because I know you. And how else will you pay for all those system upgrades you want so badly?" Karl replied. Marcus merely laughed, then turned to several of the technicians nearby.
"You heard the man!" he called out to them. "Get this bird into the air ASAP!"

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The Gauntlet rose from the atmosphere like a bat out of hell. Her captain had given th departure order as soon as he had heard of a boarding party trying to get on his ship. As it was, three elementals still managed to make it onboard, and where causing massive amounts of havoc inside the ship. They had been pinned down near the engine room, but were unable to advance because of sealed blast doors. The captain was looking forward to handing over his prisoners to Lord Vader once the opportunity presented itself. For now, he had to deal with more immediate matters.

The Guantlet burst out of the atmosphere right into the heart of the battle. She instantly opened fire against the Terran ships she was behind, trying to smash them out of the way of her retreat to the rest of her allies. He blasters shredded armor off of the Terran WarShips, and vaporized gun emplacements. Missiles slammed into her shields, to almost no effect. Her captain grinned as his ship flew past the embattled Terran crafts, laying in more fire as he passed.A trio of damaged cruisers tried to halt his advance, but they were swatted out of the sky like harmless flies, dying in three glorious bursts as the cannons from the Gauntlet found their engines. PPC blasts and lasers poured around the ship, but on she flew, destined to make her way to safety.

The Terran ships were not helpless, though. Several of them began to spin on their keel axis, firing their weapons in continous bursts. It was an odd technique, and impossible to duplicate in any other environment. It had been devoloped during the civil war between House Davion and the Lyran Commonwealth. During one of the many skirmishes that took place during that conflict a Davion ship found itself pitted against a Steiner vessel which was better outfitted. Taking heavy damage, the Davion captain gave the order to turn about so that his ship might flee to to safety. Unfortunately, heavy damage to the engines made such an escape impossible, and the ship began to spin instead as its thrusters misfired. Fearing the battle as lost, the Davion captain ordered all guns to be fired, in an attempt to do as much damage as his ship could before it was destroyed.

The Steiner captain found herself faced with an impenatrable wall of fire. Each revolution of the ship brough fresh guns to bear, allowing the rest time to cycle before they were fired again. The Stenier ship soon found itself on the defensive, as any attempt to return fire meant facing a literal firestorm of destruction. Not wanting to lose the first ship of her command, she had ordered the retreat and quickly jumped away from the fight. Surprised by the sudden departure of the enemy, the Davion ship limped home for repairs. Both ships told their tale of the battle, and the Davions soon adopted the tactic of spinning their ships as a defense. As time progressed more and more uses for the tactic were devoloped, and soon even the Steiners were using it. By the end of the century the only ships not at the least practiced in the tactic were those Clanners who thought that it made them and their crew look ludicrous.

Soon each of the ships facing the Gauntlet were spinning, firing their weapons both behind and ahead of their positions, ensuring the other Star Destroyers were unable to come to the aid of their sister ship. Surprised by the sudden tactic, the Gauntlet's crew shuddered with their ship as hit after hit began to cause the ship to roll with the impacts. Even the inertial dampners were having a hard time keeping up with the sudden energy fluctuations, making the entire ride rather uncomfortable. Finally, the Gauntlet managed to break free from her attackers, heading deep for the rear of the Star Destroyer lines.

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Marcus trailed the mysterious black fighter through the haze of exploding TIEs and suddenly realized they were clear of the battle. Sure, there were streaks of energy still racing past his cockpit, but they were coming from the big, slow guns of the Star Destroyers rather then from the smaller faser guns of the TIE fighters. Looking about himself, he realized there were several other Terran fighters breaking off as well, and that they were all in the heart of the enemy battleships. The TIE fighters seemed distracted by the larger Terran cruisers and WarShips, and hadn't even begun to pursue them into the fight. Out of the corner of his eye he watched as the black fighter banked towards the closest ship. He banked to follow, and so did several more Clan fighters nearby. He could recognize markings from Wolf, Ghost Bear, Goliath Scorpion, and Snow Raven, as well as dozens more he would have to look up in his briefing book when he got back to the ship. If he got back to the ship. If there was a ship to get back to.

Spotting the target he should have been looking for all along, Marcus allowed the onboard targeting computer to begin tracking the giant sphere. His computer sent out the relevant targeting data on the same frequency as his IFF reading, so he was sure the other fighters would be in on his plan. He dove past the bridge structure, and he noticed the people pressing against the windows of the massive ship. He squeezed the trigger for his small pulse lasers, and laughed as half the crowd shied away from the window, despite the fact his lasers were no where near powerful enough for him to cause any serious damage. He dove past the defenseless thrusters, circling underneath the belly of the ship for the protection it offered him from its top guns. The rest of the fighters closed up on him, and he raced to the point that seemed to be the bow of the ship. He accelerated as he pulled a tight vertical U over the bow, racing as close along the shield as he dared. The ship's guns did their best to kill his nimble fighter, but he was too close and going to fast for them to aim accurately. His ship shook as an unlucky aerospace fighter did take a hit, but he ignored it, staying to his own course.

His missiles once more reacquired the large sphere structure, so Marcus tilted his wings in a quick up down motion as a signal for the other Terran fighters. He watied five more seconds, then pressed the trigger on his missiles. Three mounted racks of LRM 5 missiles fired in unison, sending the fifteen missiles straight for the shield. They caused it to buckle, the forty behind them caused it to break, adn the seventy five behind them smashed into the sphere with all of hell's fury. The sphere crumpled in on itself, and the surviving aerospace fighters dipped past the Star Destroyer's thrusters in the same manner as when they had been making the attack run. This time, instead of dashing back underneath and up again for a second attack run, Marcus broke away from the cover of the Imperial battleship and headed for the next battleship in the formation.

His sensors screamed a warning, and he looked up to see a pair of TIE fighters making their way to intercept him. There was a brief flash of laser fire, and both of them exploded simultaneously. He watched for a few more seconds, and sure enough there was the momentary disappearance then reappearance of the stars. He smiled to himself. Well, if the Fates wished for him to have some sort of stealthy benefactor, who was he to argue?

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"Lord Vader, I have...distressing news." The aide reported.
"What is it now?" The Dark Lord demanded.
"Well, sir, the rest of the fleet is reporting loss of shield integrity. Reports also show nearly a thrid of the TIE fighters have been lost as well." the aide reported.
"This is...troubling. Sound the retreat. We shall accept our losses and return again later." Vader commanded.
"Yes milord."

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