Author Topic: Butchery at Butera  (Read 2435 times)

Green Squad Leader

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Butchery at Butera
« on: February 27, 2017, 11:21:36 am »
EDITED: I rewrote a fair bit of this to account for some things I hadn't remembered correctly from the match, and I used the actual names of the crew Ruckdog had come up with.  Here's parts one and two, I'll finish the conclusion later.

Butchery at Butera pt 1

Captain Rubin surveyed the bridge of the Light Cruiser 'Daring', taking pride in the well oiled operations of his disciplined crew. While not a prideful man himself Rubin was the rare sort of naval commander who viewed mentoring the next generation of fresh ensigns and lieutenants to be one of his chief duties, and while his occasional untactful critiques of his superiors may have stymied his own career he took pride in the successes of those he trained.

The Daring was sailing as part of the escort of a supply convoy out of Butera. A Dozen heavily laden bulk carriers wallowed under several trillion tons of raw mineral ore.  While it was unusual to transport an entire years tithe in one convoy Admiral Goodenough had ordered the number of convoys be reduced to deter the increased xenos pirate activity within the subsector.  And so the Daring flew with the Dictator Class Cruiser Furious and a squadron of Sword Class frigates.  The mission so far had gone without incident, and after three days travel from Butera they were nearing the system's Mandeville point.

Seeing a small commotion by the sensorium  Rubin decided to use the uneventful mission as a training opportunity.  "Mr Keller, what seems to be the matter?" He asked the ensign overseeing the three monotasked servitors in charge of parsing the data from the Daring's myriad eyes in the void. 

"Its probably nothing Captain," the ensign said, standing smartly to attention, "but we're detecting several small warp rifts within a 6 million kilometer radius of the Mandeville point.  The spacial distortions keep giving the sensors fits, and we keep picking up ghost returns."  Gesturing at the scope, he added, "I took the liberty of inquiring with Mistress Malistlen, and she told me that the rifts 'taste' clean to her."

Rubin suppressed a smile at the thought of the Ensign suffering through a tirade from the Daring's Navigator for several minutes about being bothered with 'unimportant matters' before getting such an answer.

It wasn't really surprising news, each system's Mandeville point was after all the seemingly random spot in space where the veil of reality thinned enough to ease translation into the warp.  The sensor ghosts were probably nothing, but it never hurt to be sure of such things.  He was impressed by the boy's initiative and good sense though to check with that bothersome woman without needing his guidance, and it had saved him the earful.  This one was worth watching.

"Thank you Matteus, keep me apprised" he said before turning to his second in command. "Well you heard the situation, what's your analysis Lieutenant?"

Though bright Lieutenant Mumsdean had been a bit of a slacker in the academy, nearly being tossed out before his father called in a favour.  Sent to Rubin for "additional training" he had shaken down well over the last few months.

"Well the ghosts are probably nothing but without clearer intelligence it would be prudent to treat the Mandeville point as unsecured."

 Deciding to test the young man he asked, "I see, and how would you recommend we proceed then?"

"We could retask the Swords to sweep ahead of the convoy to take a closer look, and it would likely make sense to have the freighters drop speed until we've cleared the area."  Mumsdean replied.  "Total time for a full sweep of the area should not be more than 8 hours standard."

Rubin had already drawn the same conclusion, but wanting to see how well his 2nd would stand by his view he countered, "And what of the delay such a course of action would cause, I don't need to remind you that we are 2 days behind schedule already."

Mumsdean considered this for a moment, visibly searching for the correct way to tell his superior that he was wrong.  "Excellent, the boy's learning" Rubin thought.

"Thats true sir, but is it not better they arrive late rather than never." The Lieutenant finally answered.

"Indeed it is," Rubin replied, pleased that the boy had a spine. "Retask the 302nd and coordinate with the freighters, have them fall back by 500,000 kilometers. Apprise the Furious's officer of the watch, and place the fleet on alert."

His crew began putting his orders into action, reforming the convoy as the smaller frigates advanced to sweep the rifts. 36 minutes later the signal officer called out "Flag Captain Hoyt on the comm for you sir."  With a sense of resignation Rubin went to take the call.  While they shared the same rank Hoyt was the appointed commander of the mission.  It had been too much to hope that the he was actually asleep during Rubin's watch.

"Rubin what have you done with my fleet!" Hoyt sounded furious, and after a brief exchange he dismissed Rubin's concerns out of hand. "No one is stupid enough to hide that close to a warp rift.  We belong on the front, not babysitting some inbred ore haulers, and I will not extend this mission even longer because you can't keep your ship in working order. Resume formation and get us back on the timeline. Hoyt out."

Rubin wanted to tell the man exactly what he thought of his orders, specifically that his starched collar must have cut off circulation to his brain. Instead he relayed the orders to recall the swords and bring the freighters back up to speed.

Coming to his side Lieutenant Mumsdean whispered "Sir the 302nd is only 7 minutes from primary sensor range with the first rift, if we..."

Rubin held up his hand to silence the boy before he said something unfortunate.  "The convoy commander has issued his orders Lieutenant, see they are carried out."  Silently adding,  "And pray that he's right."
« Last Edit: February 27, 2017, 08:21:13 pm by Green Squad Leader »

LtDan1989

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Re: Butchery at Butera
« Reply #1 on: February 27, 2017, 04:26:44 pm »
It's a good read I'm still currently wrestling with my two write ups

Green Squad Leader

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Re: Butchery at Butera
« Reply #2 on: February 27, 2017, 05:52:28 pm »
Butchery at Butera Pt2

It took 12 minutes for Captain Rubin's caution to be vindicated.

"Mulitple contacts bearing 146 by 37, cogitators are reading half a dozen Savage Class Gunships," shouted Ensign Keller.  Racing from the nearest warp rift a swarm of Ork escort ships burned hard straight at the Furious. The 302nd tried to turn and engage, but they had moved out of position and the brutish ships weathered the damage. The void lit up as they unloaded on the Furious, its shields falling rapidly under the barrage.

As more Ork squadrons appeared on different vectors Captain Rubin felt a cold twist in his gut.  "They aren't going for the Furious, they're going after the freighters!  Order the Swords to break off and move to support them!"  The Daring shuddered violently as bizarre a squadron of Ork scrapships armed with crude lance analogues scored hits on its shields. "Acquire torpedo locks on those scrapheaps, damn it we can't come about with them on our flank."

The voxnet soon filled with a litany of calamity.  Forcing himself to listen Rubin watched as the first group of Ork attack ships fell upon the defenceless oar haulers, overcoming the lone sword frigate still guarding them.

"Guardian of Vrax is down, I repeat Guardian of Vrax is down..."
"This is the Misercord, our voids are failing we can't..."
"Misercord and Entrade are gone!"
"This is the Bassel, we're being boarded!"
The roars of Orks and the screams of the dying soon joined the panicked voices of those they were sworn to protect.

Like a terrified flock of avians spotting a feline the freighters broke formation and scattered. Together their meager weapons MIGHT have been able to hold the Orks at bay, but alone they were being picked off one by one.

"Sir we have firing solutions!"

"Take them down! And what is holding up the 302nd?" Shouted Rubin.  The deck rocked as the Daring launched a full spread of torpedoes, taking out two of the energy weapon gunships.

"Sir the Quicksilver was hit by a swarm of assault boats, dear throne they've reached engineering!"  Rubin looked up to see a miniature star form as the frigate's reactor went critical.  "Where the hell is our fighter cover, where the hell is the Furious!"

"Captain Hoyt has recalled it sir, he's advancing the Furious to engage the next group of contacts." Someone shouted back.  Another formation of attack ships had appeared in the path of the Furious letting loose with a massed torpedo volley, far stonger than ships of such a small size should be capable. While the cogitator couldn't classify them Rubin knew from experience how deadly Ravager attack ships were, and he grudgingly accepted Captain Hoyt's logic.  The with its flights of interceptors the Furious the only ship in the convoy well equipped to take them down.

Rubin was shocked by the effectiveness of the Ork attack plan. The beasts had somehow had the wit to catch them off guard by using one of the most dangerous kinds of celestial anomaly known to man.  At least the stupidity of such a trap was clear as he watched one of the Ravagers drift too close to the warp rift and be torn apart. 

Nearly 10 minutes later the remaining Swords finally completed their turn and reengaged the Savages.  Closing to point blank range to reduce collateral damage to the transports they traded fire with the ugly ork scrapships. The superior discipline of the Imperial Navy started to make the difference and the first wave of Ork ships was slowly taken apart ship by ship.

"Sir CC on the comm!" Called the signal officer as the last "Berserker" gunship was taken apart by the Daring's macrocannons.

"Daring this is the Furious, fine kills.  We'll have the last of these dregs finished off shortly.  You and the 302nd are to form up on the transports and begin recovery operations.  Once the transports have been reorganized we will proceed to..." Captain Hoyt's voice was suddenly cut off with a screech of distortion, only to be replaced by an inhuman voice grunting and growling something pretending to be a language.

"New enemy contact, by the throne its huge!" Cried ensign Keller. "Sir Ork capital ship broadcasting as "Da'Freema" is on an intercept course with the Furious!"  The new contact revealed itself, finally moving past the distorting effects of one of the rifts. It was an enormous amalgamation of scrap metal armor and weapons of every conceivable design. The thing easily had more tonnage than the Furious and the Daring combined.

"Someone cut that noise off," shouted Captain Rubin.  "Broadcast wide spectrum, Furious this is the Daring, if you can hear us break off now and fall back, you can't take that thing on yourselves."

"Sir they don't seem to have received our transition," Lieutanant Mumsdean called out from the tacticarium, "the Furious is moving to engage Da'Freema."

"Contact the Swords and have them form up on us, helm plot a course to assist the Furious"  At maximum magnification he could see the furious launch a full spread of torpedoes and ordnance, a fierce dogfight erupting in the space between it and Da'Freema.

"Sir Lieutenant Chastain reports that it will take his ships nearly 30 minutes to reach us through the debris field of the Misercord"

"Fine, they'll just have to catch up."  He watched as the two flagships started to trade battery fire, their void shields rippling with the enough destrutive force to flatten a city. "Helm take us in."

It took almost 15 minutes for the Daring to close with the Furious.  The Dictator was holding its own, the inferior weapons of the Kroozer unable to overcome its void shields at this range.

The vox distortion began to abate and Captain Hoyt's voice came back online. "Daring move to engage their starboard side, we'll take the port and force them to turn. We have the advantage at this range and our combined broadsides will cripple that heap.  Their shields are already dropping."

"Acknowledged Furious, we'll be in position in," Captain Rubin consulted his Chrono and did a quick calcuation, "6 minutes.  The ships continued to close, and sure enough the Ork Kroozer started a sluggish turn to engage both Imperial cruisers with its flank weapons batteries.

"We may have a problem sir," Ensign Keller called out from the sensorium.

"What sort of problem?" Rubin checked his feed and saw that the Kroozer was losing its power fields quickly, and its return fire at the Furious was so far proving ineffective.

"Sir, I don't believe their shields are going down," Ensign Keller called out.  "I'm picking up massive radiation spikes and heat build up near what seems to be their power plant. Their shields are losing strength but there power output is growing, it makes no sense."

Suddenly it dawned on Captain Rubin why the Kroozer's weapons batteries were ineffective, there didn't seem to be the normal amount of them.

"Helm break off and take evasive action!  ALL HANDS BRACE FOR IMPACT!!!" he shouted.  "Signals get me on vox with the Furious now!"

Grabbing the transmitter as the channel went live he hoped to get a warning across in time. "Furious break off, their preparing to..." But it was too late.

With an eye searing release of light the Kroozer let loose with its primary weapons. Its flanks were studded with ranks of bizarre energy weapons, and their combined volley struck the Furious full on.

Its void shields simply collapsed under the onslaught. Explosions blossomed all up and down its port side and along its dorsal superstructure as the sustained barrage took its toll.

The Daring only narrowly missed the same fate, its last minute turn throwing off the Orkish gunners enough to evade the majority of the lance fire. Even so the ship rocked as their void shields collapsed, and damage reports started flooding in.

"Get me Furious Actual, we need to get behind that thing to take it down!" Captain Rubin ordered as he reviewed the damage.  His ship had only suffered a glancing blow, and the damage was mostly superficial.

“We can’t sir, Furious Actual is… well its gone sir,” the signals officer answered.

“What?  Observation I want the Furious on the main vidscreen now!” his crew rushed to comply, a tech adept readjusted and then ceremonially whacked the vidscreen and the deck went silent.  For a few moments the entire bridge crew froze in horror as they saw the damage to the Furious.  The Dictator was still intact and operational, but its bridge castle was simply gone.  In its place was a perfectly circular hole nearly 70 meters in diameter, its edges glowing red as it vented atmosphere and crew into the frozen void.
« Last Edit: February 27, 2017, 08:59:35 pm by Green Squad Leader »

Ruckdog

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Re: Butchery at Butera
« Reply #3 on: February 28, 2017, 08:59:37 pm »
Great read so far! I really like the dramatization you are doing.

Optics1984

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Re: Butchery at Butera
« Reply #4 on: March 01, 2017, 04:39:31 pm »
Great read, enjoying this and I am going to have to get my act together to write some up too.