Rise of the Kirin 19 & 20

Cmdr Wyvern · Post by **Cmdr Wyvern** » Fri May 08, 2009 2:31 pm

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Chapter 19 (Into the Hornet's Nest)
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The Kirin prototype had a passenger cabin installed and a refuel at Diquxe. The ship was now a regular battlecruiser, heavily armed with four mil lasers, two nuclear torpedoes, a cascade torpedo, two drop tanks, and military missiles; the captain felt they were ready for what lay ahead at Tibecia. However, the 10 cascade warheads packed in cargo containers with remote detonators, the improvised mini-tank in the hold, along with the hidden antipersonnel defenses in the bottom hull, and the aerosol stun grenades Dr. Pachensen had mixed up were extra insurance. Between the marines and the Bugs, things were going to be rough. Roh'i hoped the covertly spread message of a Thargoid invasion brought Bug hunters into the Tibecia system as additional CYA.

Roh'i looked around the bridge. Everyone had taken battle stations: Ramania at technical, Thorn at tactical, Esei at the cargo control station, Doc and the brothers Hanuris were standing by. Roh'i himself had the helm. "Everyone ready?"

"Not really, Cap," Thorn sighed. "But do we have a choice?"

"I'm afraid not, Rupert. Esei, I'm counting on you to keep cool and not freak out. Can you do that?"

"Ahll try, Capt'n."

"Thatta girl! Alright folks, it's victory or bust. Kitten, let 'er rip."

The familiar shiver ran through the deck plates as the witch drive spooled up...

Tibecia.

Roh'i turned the ship towards the distant planet, "Torus and cloak!"

"Cloak failed, Cap!"

"What?! Dammit! So much for a stealthy get in get out."

Behind them, a Caduceus class cruiser dropped out of witch space, followed by the first wave of Red Storm fighters. As if on cue, it wasn't long before Thargoid warships began arriving.

With taunts and curses sounding over the comms, the Red Storm ships ignited injectors and surged into the rapidly increasing Thargoid force, lasers blazing. With more Red Storm ships dropping into the system, the battle had been engaged.

Roh'i cursed under his breath as he wheeled the /Therenback/ around to attempt an end run around the Thargs and reach the station. "Figures the hotheads would get here first."

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Chapter 20 (fools rush in)
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"By Giles there are thousands of them" Zorr stammered as the outer edges of the scanner rippled through waves of green and red.

Shulth was unmoved. "I would have been surprised if there weren't."

Orburn looked at him cockeyed, "I would have prefered it if you were wrong, I'll take alive idiots over dead heros any day."

Ignoring him, Udian studied the table size 4D graphic over view. "Our more immediate problem is inconsistency. The Red storm have broken formation despite being informed exactly what would happen if they did." Udian gestured at the map, there were serious discrepancies between the hasily drawn up battle plan in deep blue and the current state of affairs flaring across the board in oranges and reds. Instead of an even advance, with fighting along the entire length of the battle line designed specifically to hold the enemy at bay whilst the kirin rescued Mima, the Red storms first wave wing covering the left flank, had surged forward injecting away, leaving a 10 ship wide gap to the far left of the GalCop militias formation. This had caused the middle to become cramped with a fifth less room to maneuver and needless to say the flank dangerously exposed. The two forces were now razoring down on each other like the blades on a set of scissors.

"They seem to be doing all right" Zorr replied optimistically as one of the monstrous Thargoid Battleships was quite literally torn in two by the sustained fire of 4 rattle cutters that swarmed around it like angry hornets.

"Up to the point where their lasers over heat and they can't thrust out because they blew the quirium on a pointless charge," Shulth replied, "until then I'm sure they'll do absolutely fine."

Everything had started so well, they'd jumped into a relatively quiet system and the bulk of the fleet had managed to get roughly half way to the station before the main bulk of the battleships had started appearing. The Kirin had long since broken off and making best speed for the station, burners firing all the way.

"Do we actually have a plan B?" Zorr commented. "At this rate we're going to be outflanked on the left, and all it would take is about ten or twelve of those warships to get through and start sweating out robots and...."

"I'm well aware of the situation," Shulth snapped. The wave of conflict that was slowly surging down the line of ships began getting uncomfortably close. Udian dutifully addressed the ships crew, "Side gunners remember, lock your targets, we'll be pulling some serious evasive maneuvers and I don't want to see you waste one drop of plasma. White cannons the same goes for you. Don't waste fire on the small targets, if you lock a warship good but if you can get an eye on a carrier or a battleship then all the better. If we can kill enough of the big boys it might be sufficient to overload the robot control capabilities of the rest. May Giles keep you, may Giles keep us all."

Zorr interrupted as weak green laser fire began streaking past the Hammers hull. "Now entering Military laser range." This was Udians que, he could do much more as the ship than he ever could from the tactical display. "Condition Red. First Mate, you have the bridge," and with that, he stepped into the bio-interface.

_ds_ · Post by **_ds_** » Fri May 08, 2009 3:05 pm

Little things… “CYA”? (In full the first time. Abbreviating it afterwards is fine. Yes, I had to look it up.) Where have these ‘marines’ come from? Set of scissors – pair, surely…

ClymAngus · Post by **ClymAngus** » Fri May 08, 2009 5:41 pm

FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!

Tivva · Post by **Tivva** » Fri May 08, 2009 5:56 pm

pedant mode on
"serious discrepancies between the hasily drawn up"

surely spellchecker picked this up? hastily!!!

but carry on, good tale & I'm enjoying it

ClymAngus · Post by **ClymAngus** » Fri May 08, 2009 8:14 pm

Tivva wrote:
pedant mode on
"serious discrepancies between the hasily drawn up"

surely spellchecker picked this up? hastily!!!

but carry on, good tale & I'm enjoying it

Well of course it did. But I'm lazy and Proud of it!

CptnEcho · Post by **CptnEcho** » Sat May 09, 2009 12:30 am

A lazy eye?

http://www.lazyeye.org/

Rebecca · Post by **Rebecca** » Sat May 09, 2009 6:21 am

why did the cloak fail - seems a bit plot-devicy???

B

ClymAngus · Post by **ClymAngus** » Sat May 09, 2009 9:48 am

Rebecca wrote:
why did the cloak fail - seems a bit plot-devicy???

B

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWILhrSzw5o

There was a bit of foreshadowing back in Chapter 14 (Burning Bridges). So this event is not completely unexpected.

Of course it's easily missed. We don't draw particular attention to it.

Rebecca · Post by **Rebecca** » Sun May 10, 2009 10:11 am

a cloak jammer... hmmmmm!!!!

B

ClymAngus · Post by **ClymAngus** » Sun May 10, 2009 5:20 pm

Rebecca wrote:
a cloak jammer... hmmmmm!!!!

B

Well the military invented it, so it's not beyond the realms of possibility that they should be able to jam it if need be. Also, if you were a captain would you feel more or less comfortable about going into a system swarming with aliens with or without a cloak?

It's a factor in the decision making. By nixing it I change the balance of power. It's no more plot device-y than Drews Personal shield for his baddie in Mutablis. At least I'm nice enough to give you some warning

CapC wrote:
A lazy eye?

O.-

Think of it like a shaker quilt.
http://thepurloinedletter.blogspot.com/ ... stake.html