To Snuff a Spark | VC-UED First Contact [5 BBT]

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// SV Rolling Thunder
// Serene Swords Republic
// 5 BBT / 1268 PSY

“Simple job really. Jump in, hit a couple civvie freighters, cause some havoc, and run away. Pay’s pretty good. 20,000 creds.”

“Well, no time like the present.”

“Helmsman, bring us underway.”

“Clearing the mooring!”

// CNV Candela Flamea
// Horizon Gate, Vandalence Compact
// 5 BBT | Day 19 of Current Patrol
Commodore Hinako Mira

“I suppose?!”

Anger rolled through the particularly short Commodore’s face, something she’d continuously been reprimanded for throughout her career.

“You want me to trust the CIS’ Direct Action Corps? So we’re just feeding corpses to Void now, are we?!”

“You know we can’t-”

“SIX SUCCESSFUL OPERATIONS OVER FIVE YEARS!”

The CIC had been soundproofed multiple times over the course of her term in service. While on shore leave after their first week or so with her, most had soundproof headphones stored out of sight.

“You ask me to do a First Contact, I do it! I ferry an important diplomat? Sure! I ask for a real special forces unit.. No! Ugh. Fine. If they botch the mission, I will be speaking to your supervisor. You understand that?”

She sighed.

“Helmsgirl bring us underway. Full Ahead.”

“On it. Course charted.”

// CNV Candela Flamea
// Starton, United Empire of Denvaria
Commodore Hinako Mira

“Arrived at target destination. Exiting silverspace now.”

“…We see anything?”

“Lots of traffic, but nothing matching our predetermined signature for two Callistos, a Locastes, or a Rigel. Nor any silverspace signature besides ours. Place is clean, cleaner than clean.”

“Line. Suppose we’ll give them pre-warming. Maybe we won’t have to use DAC today.”

“Line is ready aye ma’am!”

“This is Commodore Hinako Mira of the Vandalence Compact broadcasting in the blind. Requesting to speak to system authority about a possible hostile attack in this area.”

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King Jason II Memorial Station, In Orbit Of Starton
July 10th, 2549 PY
Starton System, Capitol District

“Report!” The surprisingly loud voice of Grand Admiral Alexandra Varson, Duchess of Nyvari, sounded through the stations CIC as radar and communication specialists tried to figure out just what was going on.

“Ma’am, Unknown vessel in system, 500 meters, drive sig isn’t ours nor Vulkan or Chr’Kahr. Their weapons appear to be cold as of right now.” One of the Captains stated.

Alexandra furrowed her brow in both confusion and annoyance, right as one of the Comm Specialists shouted.

“Incoming broadcast, non-military channel!”

“Put it through.”

“Yes Sir.” The Specialist flipped a few switches before the broadcast sounded.

“Vandalence Compact? Lieutenant, check records to see if we have anything on them.” Alexandra ordered, as the called upon Lieutenant began cross referencing with forcibly acquired Vulkan and Chr’Kahr records.

“Anything?”

“No, Ma’am, we have nothing on them.”

Alexandra didn’t like that answer, primarily because it left the answer as to whether or not their hostile or even humanoid too open. “Set all ships to Combat Alert Yellow and divert civilian traffic away from that ship. Notify GroundCom of possible threat and send out Priority One signal to nearby systems to spin up their Jumpdrives in case this turns hot. Am I clear?”

“Yes Ma’am!” As the CIC began condescending into organized chaos.

One of the Leading Comms Officer, a Commander, spoke up. “Ma’am, what about the broadcast?”

Alexandra sighed. “Open a channel with them, priority two.”

“Yes Ma’am” He stated as he barked orders at his subordinates to open the channel.

“Channel Open!” One of the Comms Specialist sounded.

“This is Grand Admiral Alexandra Varson of the Imperial Denvarian Navy and CO of the Capitol Defense Fleet. I wish to speak face to face regarding your claim in regards to a hostile attack.”

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// CNV Candela Flamea
// Starton System, Capitol District
// 5 BBT | Day 33 of Current Patrol
Commodore Hinako Mira, Fleet Commander Johnathan Cuwatt

“Give me coordinates and I’ll be there. Just know that if I die, I will be avenged.”

Mira hands off control to her Fleet Commander, Johnathan Cuwatt, heading down to the Flight Deck.

“Now launch the ready five and go to action stations for flight operations. Bring Ketch 1-1 up and have it prepared for flight. Fleet Commander is the Officer on Deck.”

“Should we prepare an orbital grid incase things go wrong?”

“Go ahead. I need a security detail for Ketch 1-1.”

// Reference Point “Roslyn”
// Battlespace Reference Point

The Commodore’s Sprite took off towards the station, followed by an escort of VF-12 ‘Pixie’ fighters. Several ‘Satyr’ Early Warning & Control Spacecraft began flying picket missions to maximize radar coverage for the fleet, a standard procedure in the Compact Doctrine.

// King Jason II Memorial Station
// A/C-19 ‘Sprite’
Commodore Hinako Mira

The Sprite pulls into the hangar hastily, skidding between crates and the landing signal officer. Before the engines can even spool to idle, the back door slides open and Hinako walks down to wait.

// SV Rolling Thunder
// 15 Minutes to Interception

“Make a sig check.”

“Got one opening in the last fifteen minutes.”

“They use their own FTL, right?”

“Means only one thing.. Compact Strike Fleet got here before us.”

“Could be Seraphim.”

“The fuck would Seraphim doing this far spin-lee?”

“Fair enough.”

“Always knew CIS was sloppy, but they couldn’t even wait to use their embed.”

“Send a bounce back to Syndica about the compromise, and toss the traitor out the airlock before we exit Silverspace.”

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King Jason II Memorial Station, In Orbit Of Starton
Hanger Bay
July 10th, 2549 PY
Starton System, Capitol District

Soon after giving the alien Commodore the proper coordinates, Grand Admiral Alexandra made her way to the Hanger, not before calling in some security forces in the form of a Marine Platoon, just in case.

Of course, Commodore Mira’s little warning gave Alexandra the impression that both parties would be cautious of each other, she didn’t know what the commodore’s people has been through, but considering how the last Denvari meeting with a foreign species ended with a declaration of war, Alexandra had a right to be cautious.

Of course, that brought her back to why this had even occurred, the alien commodore had come bringing warnings of some kind of hostile attack on the Imperial Capitol, a foolish endeavor in Alexandra’s opinion, the CDF is the most well funded fleet north of the occupied territories, never mind the absurd amount of early warning systems every inhabited Imperial System had, a hostile force may get a handful of shots off, but would immeadiately face overwhelming force in response. The boon behind this possible attack is that the CDF may be warned ahead of time and already have weapons hot and the area cleared of civies.

However, the counterargument Alexandra had running was that the Commodore was a part of a false flag like operation and wanted to get aboard the station in order to possibly sabotage or otherwise distract the upper links of the chain of command to allow for her vessels to easily separate and pick off the CDF before they could properly organize. It was a bit unlikely, but Denvari History was littered with incidents like it, so a healthy bit of skepticism on Alexandra’s part was to be needed, along with a Marine Platoon.

As she approached the Hanger, Alexandra put a pin in those thoughts for later and steeled herself for this actual first contact. Entering the Hanger, she finds the Marine Platoon already awaiting her and she takes her spot, awaiting for the Alien Commodore.

She did find the Alien Shuttle’s rather… janky entry into the rather spacious hanger a bit jarring, but chalked it up to either urgency or sheer pilot incompetence. This was a Hanger Bay, not a Flight Deck. And finally the alien shuttles back door slides open and Alexandra finds herself face to face with the Alien Commodore.

“Welcome Aboard, I’m Grand Admiral Alexandra Varson, I presume you’re Commodore Mira?”

Meanwhile…

Early Warning Satellite J28, In Orbit of ST-GG2 (Starton - Gas Giant 2) “Risa”

UNKNOWN FTL SIGNATURE DETECTED AT EDGE OF SYSTEM
NEW DATA ENTERED
FTL SIGNATURE IDENTICAL WITH NEW ARRIVAL
ALERTING KJ2M STATION
WARNING!!! WEAPONS FIRE DETECTED
Connection Lost With J28

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// King Jason II Memorial Station
// Starton System, Capitol District
// 5 BBT | Day 33 of Current Patrol
Commodore Hinako Mira, Fleet Commander Johnathan Cuwatt

“The one and only, Grand Admiral. To speak quickly on business, my Task Unit sortied out two weeks ago to stalk a Syndicate Fleet. They are smugglers, dealers of illicit substances, and guns for hire. They-”

Hinako’s wristcomp lights up and she sighs, opening up the holographic projector seeing Cuwatt

“Mira.”

“Speak.”

“Silverspace dust just got detected. Six blips, twenty-apiece.”

“Daughter of a glitch.. Do as you need. I have business here to attend to.”

“Yes ma’am, Cuwatt out.”

“Mira out.”

She puts her arm back at her side as she looks back to the Grand Admiral

“Well, it appears like they’ve decided now was the time to show up. They most likely have a damage quota, and they’re gonna flee the battlespace as soon as it’s done.”

// CNV Candela Flamea
// Starton System, Capitol District
// 5 BBT | Day 33 of Current Patrol
Fleet Commander Johnathan Cuwatt

“Director Continuous Fire! Targets will be fine on our portside. SAP-SBF projectiles!”

“Director Continuous Fire. Targets will be fine on our portside. SAP-SBF projectiles.”

“EWC. Electronic Warfares procedures started. Spinning the fire control now.”

“CSC! Programming a volley.”

“Gunnery reports AP-SBF salvo ready.”

“Director, it’s on you!”

// Reference Point “Vera”
// Battlespace Reference Point

The spacecraft of VEW-221 ‘Squawkers’ detected the Silverspace Shear and triangulated their positions as they underwent their flush sequences. With power restored, the ships of the Syndicate Raiders rushed into the system and began attacking ships, stations, satellites, and dropped EMP and regular mines across the system. The ships of Mira’s Task Unit rushed out to meet them, but as the group was an order of magnitude larger, the Syndicate Raiders put a blocking force in their way.

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King Jason II Memorial Station, In Orbit Of Starton
CIC
July 10th, 2549 PY
Starton System, Capitol District

“Combat Alert Red to All Ships!” Was the general order that was called out, by whom, no one knew, all that was certain was that Hostile Forces were in the Capitol system.

All Across the system, Point Defense Batteries began arcing out, while Missiles and Torpedoes were launched in an effective swarm, not only to overwhelm Anti-Missile and Point Defense systems of Hostile Warships, but also to weaken or drop shields to allow the Main Positronic Batteries of the Warships to make it through.

MAC Volleys were briefly sent out, but were being held back out of fear of Friendly Fire, a similar situation for Phalanx Lasers.

Most warships that got the chance were to put up Emergency Heavy Shielding in order to minimize overall damage.

Rather fortunately, civilians ships had already been placed on the other side of the system due to the Compact’s arrival.

Fighters and Interceptors were already either on patrol or ready to be launched, and were now racing to meet the enemy forces.

Overall, it became increasingly clear that these hostiles had severely underestimated Denvarian Ships and Defenses.

Meanwhile,

Honestly, Alexandra was rather relieved at the Commodore’s general appearance, true, the Grand Admiral could tell she wasn’t fully human, and while it wasn’t her hair or eyes (If anything, it made her resemble a Denvarian Human), it was very pale skin. True, some Denvari did have Pale skin, but it was very rare to see outside of Half-Vulkan Children.

Regardless, it did mean that further relations would entirely depend on factors not regarding species, and currently that factor was reacting to these hostile forces.

“Lets head to CIC, we’ll coordinate our forces from there.” She motioned for the Marine Platoon to head to their designated battle station as the Hanger Bay quickly began preparing Interceptors for launch. Alexandra turned back to the Commodore.

“If we have any luck, we’ll get there on time to actually make any meaningful impact.” She said with a smirk.

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Shunting into realspace, other elements of the raiders descended upon the civilian ships. Several carried stolen and heavily modified anti-proton particle lances, which were put to use against security forces sortieing out to fight them. Ships not immediately at Combat Alert Red were put for a ride as 470 coilgun rounds ripped into them, followed by scraping fire from 380s and 180s. The rest held on for a little longer, their shields and armor being chipped down as Syndicate ships coordinated their fires enmasse, five to ten ships would task on Emergency Heavy Shielded ships, 470s, 380s, and even a few hastily mounted particle lances.

Syndicate PD was an impressive feat on its own. Rivaling Calerost’s own designs, their knock off Buckler system would mislead, divert, or otherwise trick the torpedoes’ seeker into the void, into an enemy ship, or into a corvette’s PD net. On the main battleline, Compact ships would employ older Line of Sight Beam Riding (LOSBR) missiles to crack individual corvettes, slowly opening the heavier ships to the assault. Both sides traded particle lance, coilgun, helicalgun, and railgun fire, with ships constantly cycling through the battleline to bring their damage control teams onto the hull. Syndicate pilots and their drone wingmen danced with Compact Pixies and Denvari Starhawks, managing to trade evenly or outperform their Denvari and Compact counterparts.

It seemed evenly matched, for now.

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