And So It Begins: Space

[Dalahn Stormrage]

"My fleet is in your hands Admiral," the Narlin stated. "I must go. I must prepare Talaria in case we are invaded as well. Stormrage out."

"Well, that's unexpected," Becky said giving Angel a sidelong glance. "The Ajem'dasis fleet is closing in. They have launched fighters."

[Angel Ryder]

Angel nodded her head. "But not unhelpful. Launch our own fighters and drones. Get the Nerd Squad on to hacking their systems. Time to see if the investments we made in them are going to pay off." Angel ordered as she glanced at Ang. "Take a section and get going. Rally your people, anyone questions you ..."

"I tell them to kiss my ass." Ang said with a salute. "Gods it feels good to be back. Let's hope Yoshi's project actually works sooner than later... we may need it."

"Agreed... " she tapped her comm. "Yoshi, I truly hope your project is almost done... we're going to need Aunt Becca back in the fight."

"Almost there Admiral." Yoshi replied. "I may not have the full system, but we can certainly cause some trouble. Sensors indicate fighters, that should be a good test... how close are we to the nearest rift?"

"About a quarter light year." Angel replied with a hum. "More or less."

"Perfect." Yoshi "IF there's anything out of vibration with this reality... I THINK we'll be able to shove them into the rift and out of our plane. Of course, this is an entirely new process..."

"Fix on fail... just make it happen and don't blow us up!" Angel replied. "Bridge out. He better not blow us up."

[Becky Sandoval]

The Kitea shook under a barrage of energy fire. "Direct hit. Minimal damage to shields," The tactical officer replied. A brilliant flash of an anti-matter explosion filled the viewscreen, "The TAS Iroquois is destroyed. The Arizona is taking heavy fire."

[Bellatrix]

"Alliance fleet," Bellatrix said from the bridge of the ISS Vindicator. "I am Lady Bellatrix of the Ajem'dasis. I urge you to surrender, and you will have my word that no harm will come to you. In time you will learn to serve the Ajem'dasis. If you do not we will destroy you, and no quarter will be given. As I speak ground forces assail your capital, and burn New Scotland and New Kanto to the ground. I have elite strike teams on Byron to eliminate that station. You cannot hope to defeat us. You are outnumbered and outgunned."

[Angel Ryder]

Angel gripped her arm rest and looked at Becky. "Oh we're so not taking that line of crap. Open a channel." she fixed her hair and stood up. "Ajem'Dasis Fleet... I am Admiral Angelica Ryder-Morris of the Alliance Navy and I urge YOU to surrender and you have my word that no harm will come to you." she smirked, parroting back Bellatrix's own words. "I think that sounds so much more sincere coming from me, given that EVERYONE knows the Ryders are known for their mercy. Of course, we're also known for being quote unquote 'sneaky bastards' who'll give you a hug but also plant a tracer on your shirt collar and then come riding in on our white horse when something goes wrong." putting her hands on her hips her expression changed to dead seriousness. "You think you can defeat us? You think you can blow up my starbase? You think you outnumber and outgun us? You may out number us and you may have a few more guns than we do. But we have one thing you cannot crush or kill so easily and that's hope. And friends. I'm giving you five minutes to surrender and stand down and leave our space. This is my house. AND my reality."

Angel gave the cut channel gesture and walked over to the helm. "We've got a few minutes until the Narlins show up and some of the other friends I mentioned." she glanced at the HUD inside her glasses. "Becky, you and Ang get to the battle bridges and get our plan under way. I also want you to try those new micro torpedo drones, let's see if mounting a phaser cannon to a torpedo casing works like the simulations."

[Órlaith]

"On my way," Becky replied, headed for the turbolift.

Before Becky reached the lift the Kitna shook violently. Consoles exploded and any crew that was standing were sent sprawling to the deck. Another onslaught slammed into the Kitna, and the hull groaned under the strain.

"Captain, the port shields are off-line. The enemy concentrated their fire on us-."

The wine of a transporter beam cut the tactical officer off in mid sentence. An Ajem'dasis acolyte stood, kliden in her hand. Órlaith and Chen both opened fire with their phasers, and the acolyte simply dodged out of the way, and at the same time plunged her kliden into the chest of the tactical officer who was fumbling with his own phaser.

The acolyte used the ijulna to disarm Chen and stood definitely looking at Órlaith. "So this is where you ended up traitor. Lady Bellatrix will award me as her apprentice when I present your head to you."

Órlaith slipped her kliden out of her waistband. "Not today. You should have stayed on the Vindicator... or at the very least brought more friends. Órlaith activated her kliden and the orange blade hummed with malace. "Marda, you never could beat me."

"And you still cannot get your crystal to fully bleed. You are pathetic. You are weak."


Marda charged her red kliden held low. As she closed the distance she brought it up in a vicious upward strike. Órlaith didn't even try to block, which Marda expected. Instead she dropped to one knee and the crimson blade sailed over head by a mear inch.

Órlaith rolled to her right and using the ijulna she pushed Marda away. She came to her feet and flourished her kliden before going on the offensive. In a flurry of red on orange the two ijulna users danced around the bridge. Sometimes their weapons would land on equipment and consoles that sent a shower of sparks and smoke into the air.

Órlaith used the ijulna to run up a bulkhead and backflip over Marda. The Ajem'dasis didn't react fast enough and when Órlaith landed she took Marda's kliden hand cleanly off and then plunged her kliden to the hilt into her opponent's chest.

Marda stared wide-eyed at Órlaith. Not in pain, but shock and surprise. She grabbed Órlaith's shoulder with her uninjured left hand with surprising strength. It seemed as if she wanted to say something, but no words were formed. Suddenly her eyes rolled into the back of her head and the woman collapsed to the deck lifeless. Órlaith remained motionless with her back to the rest of the crew, and her kliden still humming.

[Angel Ryder]

Angel managed to shore up the shields during their fight, that was one thing that her mother taught her, when an enemy beams a fighter onto your bridge, they're trying to keep you off balance, instead, she kept working, avoiding the fight as much as possible and using her own limited knowledge of how to use the iljuna to keep them away until the lights turned back up and the consoles that were damaged were re-routed to holographic displays.

"Nice work Ensign." Angel said as she gestured and pull the Ajem's kilden to her hand. "Had I known who you really were I would have requested you. But... given who you are... you'll get no 'easy' treatment from me. In fact, I want you to work your tiny butt off harder than everyone else because I know damn well you can do it. Take the tactical station, I want you with me when we pull off this insanity."

[Órlaith]

Órlaith flicked the switch on her kliden off and hooked it back onto her her belt, this time not trying to conceal it. "I didn't want anyone to know," she said softly. "I didn't want to be that girl." There was sadness in her voice as she took the tactical position. "Uh ma'am. I'm not an Ensign. I'm just a crewman."

[Angel Ryder]

"And you're better trained than the one that was formerly holding my tactical post, since you're alive and he isn't." Angel said with a sigh. "I said what I said. You going to argue with a pregnant Admiral? Now that we've got comms, get in touch with command, let them know what's going on here... and we're going to do what we can until help arrives. We spent a lot of resources building up the 414th to do exactly this... let's show them it was tax dollars well spent."

[Órlaith]

Órlaith nodded and quickly entered the commands into the console. "I'm not getting any response from command. There's nothing wrong with the comms. It's as if they just aren't there. I'm reading heavy explosions in and around Capital City." She continued to work the controls, "Aft torpedo launchers and targeting sensors are off-line but I think I can manually target."