a young coporal burst through the door out of breath saying "General Harrington an urgent message from the Avengers Admiral Johns." "Patch the message here coporal."
five minutes later Admiral johns appeared on the viewscreen "It appears that three jumpships with warship escort have jumped insytem, from the limited info it appears to be the Red Lancers with two impavido class destroyers. I have set the Tropical Weather with the Baron Von Rictor and the Admiral Cartwright on an intercept course I have also alerted Fleet Captain Kolvoord as to the situation." "Damn this is not good Admiral try to contain them if you can, deny them any acess to sian General Harrigton out." "It looks like i need the full report on the Avengers now Lt. General." said the General. "In lieu of what is happening sir, I have a vid message for you sir." replied Lt. General Persh. Handing the vid player to the General, Persh quietly left the room. General Harrington hit the play button "Hello General, if you are watching this vid recording then i am very close to death or am already dead. I am making this vid recording to give you full command over the Avengers and its fleet. That means that you are senior commander. good luck sir. do not make a big fuss over my passing, i did my duty and asked nothing less in return, your knights are a credit to all humanity and a nightmare to humanities enemies. fight well friend for the nightmare is not over." hitting the stop button General Harrington bowed his head and prayed for the injured General.
Lt. General Persh reentered the room 30 minutes later and sat down. "I am ready to give a full operational briefing General."
General Harrington looked at the junior General and replied "I am ready to continue Lt. General Persh." Lt. General Persh gave General Harrington a packet of documents adn began to go over the operational losses of the Avengers. "Of the 3 'Mech battalions that were deployed we have two fully manned and supplied, of the 1st battalion we have one fully functional company. the other two companies will be combinded to form a provisional company. Of the 3 armor battalions all are functional and supplied. of the infantry 3 battalions we have one provisional battalion left after the fight with the 3rd MAC and 1st Sian Homeguard. The survivors of the 3rd MAC only two full companies were captured, the rest were killed in action. The 1st Sian had one company of 'Mech that were salvagable, with 18 survivors of the mech battalion, only 13 infantry were captured from the battalion of infantry. Armor battalion was completly destroyed with no survivors. Of the Avengers Aerospace assets we have three lances of fighters destroyed with a futher two lances damaged. no survivors of the destroyed crafts. minor damage to all three warships,"
"I understand Lt. Col. As for the Rainbow Knights, Operational losses are as follows. 60 killed, 82 injured, 4 missing in action. Search teams are still operating in eight contiguous sectors in three shifts. Alpha regiment lost five assault, thirteen heavy and five medium battlemechs; Beta lost nine lights, four mediums, eigth heavies and four assault. Gamma lost four medium and five heavy fighters. Delta lost sixteen tanks, seven combat VTOLs, two transport VTOL's two engineering vehicles, eleven armored infantry and 32 regular infantry and marines. Four dropships, two Unions, a Leopard, and a Leopard CV have been disabled; three in space and one on the ground. Our Excalibur has been destroyed. It has been a bitter fight, but we have much to be proud of.
"and lets not forget that we have a full battalion of House Imarra mechs that are untouched or damaged. " replied Lt. General Persh. "Seeing as we have new guest arriving in two to three days ill set up the remaining Avengers as a assault force to deal with them when they land. " "Also i seem to have forgetten to add our dropship losses. we lost two Unions, three Leopards adn one Dictator. the Unions were carrying supplies and the leopards were carrying fighters. The Dictator was lost while engaging the Elias Juang." A knock at the door caused a pause as the doctor entered with Duchess Candace Liao. "Your Highness this is not the best of times to be here with the Red Lancers days from landing." said General Harrington "I could not stay on a warship and wait to die either General so i came here to see my nephew adn to visit the wounded soldiers who freed the Confederation from a madman." replied Duchess Liao "If i may sirs, madam i have a report on the General." said the doctor "continue" said General Harrington "I am sorry to report that the Gernerals wounds were to great to overcome, i am sorry to say he has passed away in his coma."
Duchess Candace Liao watched her nephew stare at her with hatred burning in his eyes "Are you happy Aunt, you have destroyed the Confederation and allowed the Davion dogs to retain our rightful worlds." remarked Sun Tzu, "I told you never to come after us, remember nephew. You brung this destruction on your own head by trying to destroy the St. Ives Compact. Now i am here until your uncle Tormano arrives to formally ascend to the throne and sign a peace treaty with me over this little civil war. your time is up and now you have forced me to remove you for the good of the people of the Compact and the Confederation. Goodbye nephew and good luck. Where the are taking you i here is not a vey hospitable world." replied Duchess Liao.
"INCOMING JUMP SIGNETURES" cried a nervous private at the radar station "Where asked the Admiral, calm as the sea." "s--orr---y si--r, the signals are coming from behind the incoming capellan ships the signatures suggest that there are multiple vessels incoming possible 5 to 8 vessels." replied the nervous private. "Alright we wait to see who they are and then worry, ok?" said Admiral John.
Two hours later
"Sir we have a message comming from the new vessels voice only and it seems that one of them is or rather was one of ours that we traded to the Dragoons." " Allright ill be on the bridge in a few minutes".
five minutes later
"Ok play the message." said the Admiral "This is Fleet Captain Talia Dumont of the Wolfs Dragoons, i have a force of three regiments and two warships, we came in repsonse to a call for aid from the 1st PHG that was at outreach. The force consits of the 1st PHG, 1st Kearny Highlanders and Epsilon Regiment Wolfs Dragoons. The warships are the Ikazuchi class Cruiser Odysseus, and the Lola I class Nightmare. we will engage the capellans from the rear in order to stall them adn tell the Duchess the Highlanders are here to help restore honor lost during the 4th war. Dumont out.
Sian
"Sir we have captured Talon Zhan." reported a private.
"Very well put him with his former lord." replied General Harrington, "Sir the elementals have found the HPG complex and are engaged in a firefight with elements of Word of Blake forces who appear to be fighting Comstar forces for control for the complex." "Aid Comstar as much as we can and take out those fanatics before they cause any harm to the complex and make things more difficult than they already are."
ordered the General.
"General Harrington" addressed Commodore Gordieva to her leader in a not-quite-as-thick-as-it-once-was accent. The Elias Juang is quite fully under our control. If the five points of Elementals and three platoons of Marines coming in through neatly bored holes weren't enough, I really think that dropping the four Goblins in the hanger bays gave the resistance quite the martial twist in their shorts. Anyway, sir, I have assumed command for the time being. I would love to give this honor to someone else and remain on my own "space needle", but I realize that time does not allow for indulgences. The Rainbow Avenger, as the crew has temporarily renamed this vessel, will have 75% maneuvering and 50% weapons within the hour. Sir. Commodore Gordieva, out."
Capt. Daniel Chaney of the Odysseus picked himself off the deck and called for a damage report. "Sir we have moderate damage to the port broadside and port aft, two Laser emplacements are destroyed." replied the damage control officer. "Fire at will all port batteries!". A withering reply of destruction erupted from the Odysseus and impacted the hapless Impavido. The Starboard was pounded, held then buckled under the relentless pressure, exploding outward taking bulkheads, people weapons and precious oxygen.
"Captain we've crippled the enemy vessel" replied the first officer. "Well lets see what---" "HELM HARD STARBOARD, NOW!!!!!" "What?" asked the Captain "We have damaged the enemy worse than we thought, look she is on fire in her enginge room and it could go any second no----" started the first officer then the imapvido exploded knocking the cruiser off her axis and tilting the ship to the starboard. Lights flickered, panels exploded, the emergency lights came on. "WHAT IN THE NAME OF GOD JUST HAPPENED??" yelled Capt. Daniel Chaney. "Sir port side and aft are critically damaged, hull breach port aft, port thrusters destroyed and 20 reported casualties" answered the damage control officer. "Enginering what is the condition of the main drive system?" asked Capt. Chaney "Main-- ives---eline----2/3 spe---out fiv---ays---epai---." "Send somone down there to get that message and report back to the bridge ASAP! and have the com system checked out DC officer." "Sir comm has an incoming message from Fleet Captain Dumont, message reads, if we are able we can return to the jumpship fleet and repair best we can, have a newgrange vessel with fleet good luck, Dumont out."
Fleet Captain Dumont watched stunned as the Impavido blew up and destroyed three dropships and 23 aerofighters. After sending a flash message to Odysseus she turned her attetion to the remaining Impavido and the approaching Avengers fleet to stop the Red Lancers dropships from landing on Sian. Captain Rodgers looked to Fleet Captain Dumont and said "Given the age of this vessel we might last 4 minutes tops at best 4 seconds worst. I suggest an that we rake the top or bottom of the oppossing vessel on an approach that her captain would think would be a typical broadside manuver." "Excellant idea proceed with your plan." replied Dumont. "Helm hard starboard and start Alpha-Gamma-Fox manuver." the ancient destroyers drives flared white hot and the ship began her approach to disaster.
one hour later.
Smoke filled the bridge of the Nightmare and warning lights blared dark red. "Fleet Captain Dumont we must abandon the Nightmare, we have multiple hull breaches, fires are out of control near the engines, no main engine drives and we are losing integrity, if we abandon we can come back and salvage her. Please i beg you maam consider this advice for we have little time." "Alright, comm give me shipwide channel. This is Fleet Captain Dumont all hands abandon ship, i repeat all heads abandon ship this is not a drill."
Admiral John watched as lifeboats launched from the crippled Lola I, "Target that Impavido and knock him form my space." he snarled at his exec.
The Tropical Weather drives flared to life and pushed the old battleship towards the damaged destroyer. Foward firing naval weapons firing toward the preoccupied ship hitting her hard, shredding armor destroying weapons ripping bulkheads open to space. Going for a broadside the Monsoon class ship manuvered to the impavido's starboard only to see the bridge destroyed adn the ship listless and lifeless in space.
Commodore Gordieva watched the battle unfold rather quickly, the Baron and Naga destroyers made short work of the dropship fleet, darting in and out ripping them to pieces but one, an Overlord, it was too far ahead of the Avengers fleet to be caught. "helm full speed ahead, we have to stop that dropship."
The Chancellor's Pride
Overlord Dropship
Captain Sung looked out his bridge to see the mighty Elias Juang launching herself to defend the last ship of the fleet. then she fired.
Elias Juang(Rainbow Avenger)
The fowards weapons bays targeted and smashed the Overlord before her weapons could be brought online.
Sian
"People of the Capellan Confederation, today is a new day in this troubled time. Sun Tzu is no longer in control, i have taken the responsibility of the office of Chancellor until the arrival of your new chancellor. The Civil War between the Capellan Confederation and The St. Ives Compact is over. All Capellan forces are to return to their former posts and leave compact space or they will be forceably disarmed. Xin Sheng will continue but it will not include the St. Ives Compact."
General Harrington watched the Blakist prisoners paraded passed the assembled elementals one precentor looked up and said "Holy Blake will have his revenge on you, you have brought the wrath of Blake upon you infidel heads!" "Well son you see first you have call you idiot leaders then you have to fight us and our allies to get to that, i really dont think you have the balls to fight that bad. take em to the lock up."