Nuking the Ark
From past Burnham, taking the long way around past Fury and New Canaan, the Reaver Fleet has finally come into full view between Meridian and Deadwood/Haven. For a couple of weeks, there have been several small groups of Reaver Ships, attacking...'Reaver Activity' increased in the Blue Sun System, but those were just the advanced guard or something because the fleet when it finally comes into view is something to behold. There's nothing to indicate however their target is Deadwood or Haven, they are just passing in that gap between Deadwood and Meridian. It is about...3 AM. It can be seen out yonder, in its full glory. There are 27 ships in the fleet that are operating WITH core containment and then about 35 running as wild and insanely as they normally do, working in circles almost orbiting the 27 ships in the inner circle. There are 62 ships total in the Reaver Fleet. That does not count the about 20 that have been darting about and attacking, on the plus side...there are less of the advanced guard left. <English>
Charley Wong takes a deep breath. "Alright. Transmit to Fleet command numbers and deposition. Inform them that we are engaging." And she gives the orders to begin the initial movements. "As with the plan. We may or may not be able to pull them back on Jameson and the mines. We shall simply have to do what we can. But I still want that Ark down." <English>
The ships all shudder into life, to assume their positions for the long ranged skirmishing portion of the engagement. Leen flickers her eyes at the screens for the Reaver disposition. "Target rich environment." It's dryly stated, as if to break the tension on the bridge. <English>
As per her orders she's aboard and along for the ride. Mack stands out of the way though where she can see and hear, an earpiece in place, and a small cortex tablet in her hands. There is no shortage of tension, at least now and again, they are reavers after all and don't give a damn about anything, just as likely to ram a ship as shoot at it. Target rich indeed, and they have a big bull's eye on their back, but that's here nor there. <English>
There are 4 ships total, 2 from the fleet itself and 2 of the advanced guard that were already circling around like sharks facing off before the two advanced guard ships suddenly explode in balls of fire, fired upon by the fleet ships before those two ships are flying off, split in two as one heads forward Haven and one towards a moon in of Dragon's Egg. - Meanwhile, one of Charley's communications officer announces they have an incoming transmission. <English>
Charley Wong gives a brisk nod. "Alert the Shelby. And Dragon's Egg. Maintain the planned courses. Take us at plus sixty. And roll to maintain arc of fire. And pipe the transmission to me." <English>
Mack cranes her head watching as best she can, even typing once in a while, taking notes as it were, as the battle progresses, or begins, or something. Does the battle ever actually end? It seems not, continually being waged on one front or another. <English>
That horrible haunting sound blasts over the speakers on the Bridge, that primary wail/shriek that is the signature of the Reavers. It lasts for about 3 minutes.
For those with very good hearing however, they would hear the faint sound of a voice. <English>
Charley Wong gives a grunt, "They're transmitting? Just to us, or wideband? Give me details, comms." <English>
Mack perks and shakes her head, "It wasn't just them... wait...listen...” she says and stares intently ahead. “That is a child... or a young woman...” she says, astonished then horrified. "There is a child on that ship, a person...” she says. “Are you sure it's them?" she asks, glancing to Wong. <English>
Charley Wong shoots a look to Mack. "Get it for me. Clean it up. I didn't hear anything." She flicks her attention to the comms officer, "Give me a location as well as destination. I need the information to work with." <English>
Valentina says in English, "Get a triangulation from one of the other ships, that should give us a definite fix."
Charley Wong glances back and nods, "Do it." And she returns her attention to fighting a battle. "Gunnery. If you get a firing solution on any of the ships, open fire." <English>
The Communications Officer is working on trying to get that location, as it appears to be coming from two ships closest to the Ark, or in that range if the triangulation is to be trusted. The screeching continues as usual, growing louder as and more insistent. But there's that faint voice, that Mack heard originally, if she's wise she might get the message cleaned up to share with others. The message is as such: Mary had a little lamb...little lamb...little lamb. Mary had a little lamb...its fleece was white as snow. White, as snow... - The voice stops for a moment before speaking up again - Mary had a little lamb..... It’s almost as if it’s waiting for a response. <English>
Mack frowns and tappity tap tap on her tablet then she moves closer to the comm officer, exchanging a few quiet words then more tapping and waiting. "It's... the child is singing...but... as if they want us to reply... She's singing Marry had a little lamb its fleece was white as snow... then she stops and waits and sings it again," she says. Her eyes widen somewhat and her face contorts to some sort of angry, anxious expression. "What the hell??" she asks. <English>
Charley Wong says tersely, "I can think of several explanations. Including the possibility that Reavers are made. And they haven't finished yet. Or that it's a trap. Or that it's an automatic system. Look into it. I want a lock on it. And see what you can do." Her eyes never move from the display screen. She's judging distances, "We _are_ going to try and get a nuclear lock on that Ark. I would _rather_ that innocent civilians were not on it, but I'm judging relative losses." <English>
Valentina says in English, "It's entirely possible that it's a code for the Pirates and Traitors Below to respond to. Destroy the transmitter, it's the best way to be sure."
The shrieking cuts off before it comes back over the coms louder than ever, and the voice can be heard a bit more clearly by those listening and it actually /sounds/ pissed off. "Humpty Dumpty! He fell! The wall! Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall! Allll the kings horses, alll the kings men...nobody...nobody can or will put you together again."
The ships start moving into position now, the fleet is shifting around slightly as some ships continue to circle that ark protectively. "Mary...had a little lamb..." <English>
Valentina waits at the gunnery station. "I am trying to lock onto the transmission station. Also scanning for other broadcasting systems as targets. Awaiting kill order" <English>
Mack keeps working at the tablet and glances up, "What if that's all the child knows to say? What if... it's a message of some kind or a warning? The angry part sounds... ominous," she says and looks to the comm officer. <English>
Charley Wong rubs her chin, "Alright. They're making this relatively easy in terms of not charging for us." She sounds slightly troubled. "Primary targets for railguns remain anything between us and the Ark. As you have the opportunity." <English>
"Sir, we have a...wave we are intercepting, a wave broadcast to Alliance ships that's been trying to get through. Shall I put it on screen?" The Communications Officer's hands shake slightly.
A wall was mentioned, and a wall seems to being formed by the ships. <English>
Charley Wong glances over to the Comms officer. "On Screen. On the bridge only." Her eyes narrow slightly. <English>
Mack frowns, "Humpty Dumpty..The wall... all the King's horses...and men..." she says, rubbing a temple as she tries to figure out what it means, /if/ it means anything. "A wall of ships... the King..." she murmurs. <English>
Valentina refines her targeting console, and launches the main batteries with a thrum as the targeting reticule turns green. She smiles a small smile as she hits, and pieces dance off the targeted ship. <English>
Charley Wong taps at her chin with one hand. Thoughtful. Then she glances briefly behind her, "Nav. Can you plot a continuation of the Ark's course at current speed and heading, and see what it intersects, planetwise? Once you've got that, give it to Trent. Trent, I want you to summarize Intel findings, including the course and so forth, and narrow beam it to Shelby, and then back to Londinium. The more Intel Fleet has, the better it'll be able to make decisions." Then her attention returns to the screen. Watching the impact. Watching the other 4 'fast ships' in their own positions, ready to intervene if any seem to be making mistakes, but not second guessing their captains. Yet. The Nelson touch? Perhaps not precisely. But she's briefed them. She wants them to feel valued. Part of a team. Important. As well as a weapon in her hand. Control. Aggression. Confidence. All conflicting elements of what must be inspired. <English>
The Broadcast flickers onto screen, and there's a very dark background, dirty with a Reaver pilot frothing at the mouth and his co-pilot is a very dirty figure, short and small. Hair dreaded and dirty so the color is uncertain just like the kid’s pigmentation but the child does have startling sharp green eyes that stand out. It wears a dirty and matched old Alliance Captain's coat, or maybe it was at one time...now there's lots of patches of skin and a necklace of teeth but the child/small person just hisses at the camera and narrows eyes about time one of the ships are shot. "Hush, little baby, don't say a word, Mama's going to buy you a mockingbird. Promises! Breaking Promises! Mama's going to buy a looking glass!" <English>
Mack's eyes flick up from the screen, "Reavers with a child, that makes no sense. They don't take children, for whatever demented reason, they'd kill them but not kidnap them or keep them.." she muses. She nods to Charley and then starts enacting those orders, preparing the intel message to be sent. Are they just trying to distract us? Is it a bizarre warning? Taptaptap. Her eyes lift to the screen and she blinks, "What the hell is that?" she says, staring at it, them. "Would they kill it if they considered it one of their own??" she asks, almost breathlessly. "Reaver...offspring??" <English>
Valentina concentrates on the damaged ship, trying to destroy it this time. <English>
Charley Wong says slowly, "Do we have a fix on where that's being transmitted from?" She pauses, "And see if you can sample her voice. I want you to broad spectrum transmit... 'Here's the church, and here's the steeple. Open it up, and here's the people'." <English>
"Here's the parson going upstairs, And here he is saying his prayers." The child, who's gender is hard to determine smiles with dirty teeth. It might be a grimace as he/she holds up what looks like a head, wearing an Alliance dress uniform's cap and such, the eyes have been stitched close though and it’s leathery and old and the child looks pleased. "Saying prayers. Daddy." A pause. "Give. Planet. Now. Promised!" He/she declares.
The ships on the perimeter of this fleet all start to speed up in their flying around the inner ships, a few dart towards certain planets and moons however. Sensors will pick up on their...scanning? And the Transmission? Is coming from a ship to the right of the Ark. <English>
Mack shakes her head, "Do you realize what this could mean...” she says out loud, mostly talking to herself. She stares at the screen and listens, "Daddy... and who promised the planet...” she murmurs aloud. “There is something on the tip of my brain... something going on...” she says and frowns. "We already know they are capable of outfitting their ships, making tactical moves...” she says, exchanging a look with the comm officer as she records the transmissions and makes notes. <English>
Charley Wong nods, presumably to Mack, though she doesn't look away from her display screen. "I'm entirely aware what it means. Someone needs to be looking at the identification of the ship, and looking at what old records they can find." She's still monitoring position, "Tactical aim is unchanged. Open a route for Nukes on the Ark." She says, slightly peevishly, "Nav! Come on! Give me a damn destination for their fleet. We need to be getting this information to Fleet." <English>
Valentina seems to be having trouble focusing on the dodging systems, and another shot goes awry. She works furiously trying to adjust the console, she does better in practice, and it’s just needing to focus in the controls. <English>
"While United, only nibbles. When divided, in that hour, come to the rim and then devour. Go to where the sun is blue, there will have a home for you. Daddy Promised! Promised us all. Monday's child is fair of face, Tuesday's child is full of grace, Wednesday's child is full of woe, Thursda-" Then the reavers behind the child shriek and scream and communicate in their own language and the child tenses when something is uttered/barked to them about in guttural shrieks and grunts before it looks back to the transmission screen, baring his/her teeth and the transmission is cut. When that shot is fired. 5 Ships on the perimeter of the fleet formation that are not flying with core containment just start darting and flying towards the Alliance ships, kamikaze style no doubt.
Nav can only tell Charley. "There is no destination we can find sir, we're working on it sir. We think they want to head for Meridian and perhaps New Canaan. They appear to be allowing a few of the wild ships that have been here, to head towards Haven and Deadwood, but those aren't in the fleet. We're working on it Sir!" <English>
Charley Wong considers the group breaking, "Alright. Hard a port. Speed to maximum. Try and pick off any that vector on us." Then to the comms officer, "Narrow band to Shelby for rebroadcast. 'Full fire on screening Reaver vessels'." She looks back to Mack very briefly, "See if you can fake up the child’s voice, if it's their C&C. I want you to fire any damn nursery rhymes you can think of at them, via Shelby, so they think it's our C&C. Especially those which emphasize falling, breaking, dividing, scattering. Maybe Jack and Jill. There's a gravity hill." <English>
Mack stares at the screen, "Who the hell is Daddy??" she barks, "Right, Blue Sun...” she says, duh. She glances over at Charley then nods her head some, taptaptap on her tablet. "As soon as Deadwood seceded... they started gathering...While united only nibbles, when divided in that hour... come to the rim and then devour! Son of a bitch! He sold out the planet to damn reavers?!" she yelps. She's tapping as fast as she's talking, as fast as she's thinking. Nursery Rhymes. Her only rhyme was 'Sticks and Stones'. Jack and Jill should be good. <English>
Charley Wong has missed that, it seems, and her head jerks around, "Son of a..... Copy that segment, and have Shelby transmit it, open band, to the surface of Deadwood." <English>
Valentina opens fire on the screening vessels, as commanded. She's gonna hit this one, really! <English>
Valentina smiles as she hits a ship, more solidly than the last time, but it's still mobile, unfortunately. <English>
Okay, so. Shots are fired, the Reaver ships are just flying at random Alliance vessels, not firing just attempting to ram. People who understand tactics, will see there's a pattern in there. An Alliance styled formation of attempting to draw the fire from the ships as the ARK's trajectory starts to turn around slowly with is escorts. So those 35 ships that have no core containment are throwing themselves in the flight path of those Alliance ships.
Over open band transmissions comes the Reaver shrieking and wails, almost in a lamentation. <English>
Lieutenant Commander Heather Jacy, of course, has been here on the bridge the entire time, although she's been quiet. She's already starting to look gaunt and haggard. As the shrieking and wails come over the open band, she keys her com. "Signals, jamming, please, per previous orders," she says crisply. She's strapped into her chair at her console, and she's developed a nervous tic of swinging from side to side, just a few degrees each way. That'll stop as things heat up, most likely. Her gaze continues to dart from situation display to situation display. <English>
Mack keeps working at the tablet and glances up at Jacy and Charley then back to the comm officer. "I just can't believe it... a child reaver, as if we didn't have enough messed up shit," she mutters. <English>
There's a pause as people don't see it coming, until communications and other people at other positions suddenly call out and sound an alert as something SLAMs into the side of the ship, it’s a small Reaver shuttle that evaded fire from the Destiny. It rocks the ship, but doesn't penetrate anything. Over that transmission, softly playing is the Alliance Anthem, and a series of voices and growls reciting the Alliance Pledge of Allegiance before it shifts back to screams and shrieks. <English>
Charley Wong groans, "Pitbull. Yours. Prepare to vent that compartment." And she moves to ignore that segment of the mission, instead turning to the helm. "Sheer off a little further. Keep circling. I want a clean shot with the nukes, dammit. The screen _remains_ our primary target for main armaments." A beat, "Jacy. Get visuals on the boarders. Make sure there's none of them going for the nukes on the outside. Otherwise we're going to need to deploy prematurely." <English>
Heather Jacy feels the shudder of the ship at the impact. "Damage Control, sector four, report," she orders crisply and unemotionally. Then, as the flickering lights on her console flicker the blue of an unknown status before turning green again, she turns, spinning round in her chair to face Connie. "No hull penetration, ma’am." Then, spinning back, "Get me that full damage report ASAP please, Lieutenant." <English>
Mack frowns as she feels the ripple from the impact, like a pebble in a pond. She looks to Jacy and Charley and then moves to find a seat, instead of standing, just in case, this could go very bad at any time. "How many would it take to shove us around?" she asks. <English>
Charley Wong shakes her head, "A lot more than they have. I'm more worried about the nukes. If necessary, a marine detachment will have to go out on the hull to counter-board them. But someone try and get me eyes on!" (Do we have any drones?) <English>
"Damage Control have some short-range drones, ma’am," Heather Jacy replies, turning back to her console to issue a curt, grim order: "Damage Control, Combat Ops, get me eyes on the external damage. If you have to get someone out there, do it." <English>
Here's how it was. The Alliance, builds a battle fleet and arms a cruiser with some nukes to take out an ARK that is filled with only god knows what...that sits in the center of a large fleet of Reaver Vessels. There's plenty of skeletons and red paint (blood) to go around. Yet, some are operating with core containment and some are not. Words are exchanged, children on board somewhere speak and nerves are rattled. People jump to conclusions! The reaver ships are on the Alliance ships like scuttle fish really, and in some cases like sucker fish, firing harpoons and attachments but not going through normal boarding means. No...just the ships that come into vicinity of the alliance ships, are fired upon by those fleet ships that do have core containment. Its not fancy weapons no, just direct missiles, ancient missiles really but they do the job, creating mini-explosions that cause mini-shockwaves and showers of space debris. In an attempt it would seem, to rock/shake/push those alliance ships. An odd tactic, but they do have to allow a clearer shot at the Ark to do so. It’s almost like they are daring them to fire as the ARK maneuvers its way closer to Meridian.
Meanwhile, the reaver ships trying to get closer to haven fall prey to those carefully laid mines. <English>
Charley Wong snaps, "Get me eyes on our hull. Is the starboard nuke clear to fire?" That's the one with the nearby Reavers. "Fire port." <English>
Heather Jacy echoes the order down the chain of command, "Gunnery Control, fire port nuke, repeat, fire port nuke. Break, break. Damage Control, get me an answer, dammit. Is the starboard nuke clear to fire?" Thumb off the transmitter. "Ma’am," she swivels round to Connie and says tersely, "Those ships running /with/ containment. Recommend you target them first." <English>
Mack continues her data collection and study, as well as making notes of the battle and plans and orders. She drums her fingers on the arm of her chair and her lips remains pursed, brows forever furrowed. This is not a good day! <English>
Charley Wong gives a nod, "They don't know the nukes have stealth capabilities." She nods to the gunnery team, "Try and keep clearing a path for the primary weapon loads." <English>
The reaver fleet ships part, there's a clear shot, the shot is fired, that nuke goes hurtling into the mass of the fleet to slam into the ARK as it enters Burnet's orbit, the timing really is...well it couldn't be accidental really. Everything is quiet in space, or usually quite in space and the Reaver Fleet does appear to be retreating, as that ARK drifts at the impact and then everything seems to explode and then implode all at the same time, causing something like a sonic BOOM to echo through space then everything is quiet. The massive hull of the ship left to float in space, quite a few charred bodies...hundreds floating in the debris, along with things like cattle and stuff destroyed beyond measure. The Reaver Fleet is retreating and contact with Burnet is lost but...still. At least the ark was nuked. The Alliance may never know what was on that ARK or what they've actually done. This doesn't mean the reavers have been defeated, but the fleet is heading back in the direction they originally came, leaving behind those ships operating without core containment and thereby...there's still a lot of cleanup work to do. <English>
Charley Wong takes a deep breath, "Broad signal to Burnet and Meridian of possible debris, and need to take cover." The looks around. "After that, mark the wreck as a navigational hazard on charts, and transmit." She scans the combat display, "Fire at will. Free choice of target. And someone get me eyes on that bloody shuttle." <English>
That stunned silence. Even if brief it is notable and it is as if everything stops. The boom, the flash, then the chaos that ensues with retreating vessels and the all-out attack on those that remain. Mack makes a last few notes on her notebook then unbuckles and slowly rises, nodding toward Leen and Jacy then a glance to the comm officer as she extracts herself from the bridge. "I need to report in," she says then is gone. <English>
Heather Jacy barely notices Mack's departure. She's all over the combat, passing orders down the chain from the Captain, filtering information back up into only the most succinct and concise summaries for Wong's ears. The chair twitching has ceased - now she's just swiveling from display to display. "Target your fire on the hostile on the starboard beam. Damage Control, purge compartment two alpha." <English>
Fade to Black...
