the Great Bastonian Empocracy (updated)

ShadowZero

KrankysFirebrand48 ShadowBlade

(ha)

KrankysFirebrand48

ShadowZero ah sorry. The PINGA thing was lagging a lot

KrankysFirebrand48

@HMS-Hood
”Negative. Our archives are in ruins. We have lost knowledge of this forgotten world,” he started to sound excited, ”Tell me, how great was the British empire.”

@Gaunt
/Comms
”No, I do not mind. Go ahead.”

@ONI
The soldiers jumped out of the firing line, taking cover, or just getting out of the door way. They tossed in two grenades that erupted into light once the fire subsided. It caused a sharp pain, though it hadn’t appeared to have exploded conventionally in a way that would damage the ship. The light was so blinding and smoke filled the room. The noise the grenades made made their ears ring loudly. Confusion. Then gunfire erupted. Streaks of yellow cut through the air towards the hostiles. Through the smoke you could see the glowing visors of the marines.

@Drakador_Chaos
The now sweating Stantine realized the speed of the projectiles. The slower Moonlight cruisers were taking damage, with shields down on one, both the ships reverse engine were hit. Leaving it dead in the water until it could come about and travel forwards.
”I want back energy to our guns. Set nuclear explosive shells. AI?”
estimated 13 minutes until within optimal range
”Target the Bloodcult group heading with the projectile.”
Fire control moved about some holograms and selected the fleet. A green marker appeared on the window before Stantine marking the targeted fleet. This was his favorite part.
within optimal engagement range
”The fleet is responding.”
Stantine out his arms behind his back. He commanded slowly as if he enjoyed every moment of it:
”Open fire.”
The hulking main batteries made quick adjustments until the thunderous noise of a railgun firing went of. Every main batteries massive barrel shooting what appeared to be cyan streaks, which was in reality massive shells fired at impossible speeds on their course to slam into each Bloodcult beast with a tremendous force.
”Fire missiles 14% capacity. Launch starfighters.”
Tiny red lights erupted with trails from the sides of the ships, turning toward the Bloodcult fleet. Nuclear missile volley had been launched. Fighters and bombers in the hangars rolled across the floor and attached to the catapult. Only when you stood next to a Salamander you appreciate the beasts size. The massive blue bomber folded its wings forward. The catapult shot it away. The pilot was pushed back against his seat as he retracted the landing gear and gently turned the ship toward the target. The comms emitted garbled voices.
”Harvester Squadron heading 1-1-2, cruising speed. Target has been verified north-east-east-autem bearing 6-5.”
”Roger that.”
The bombers formed up in formation with the fighters headed to the projectile following group behind the missile volley.

ONI

KrankysFirebrand48 _The cultists screamed a warcry, and as soon as they saw the glowing visors they began to retreat saying demons, demons. Odd. They must have mistaken the soldiers as something else. As they retreated the gunfire cut through them mowing them down. Some were killed and others were wounded, perfect for questioning.

Drakador_Chaos

KrankysFirebrand48
Whilst the fleet was still getting away, the two red orbs, upon reaching the former position of the fleets center, detonated into another flash of red light, though rather than simply exploding, a... rather horrifying display played out in front of them.
As the red light intensified, the sensors detected a intense gravity well, drawing in all nearby debris from fallen ships and anything that hadn´t been fast enough or was too weak to stay out of the effective radius with a seemingly insatiable hunger, eventually, for just a brief moment, the light of it´s own explosion was drawn in as well, compressed to a tiny spot in the void...
Then...
A moment of silence, darkness...
That stretched time like eternity...
Then there was the third flash of red light, all energy and mass absorbed during the brief moment of terror, detonated outwards in blinding light and fire, consuming anything nearby and dwarfing the brute force of all other ship based weapons Stantine had witnessed to this day...
They were lucky Stantine had remembered the weapon and evaded in time, even though not all of them had made it the consequences of this attack could´ve been, so much worse...
As the explosion was still going the beasts which had headed to the projectiles, did a sharp turn, they split, avoiding the explosion and instead heading towards the scattered gbe fleet on either side, only to be met by heavy railgun shells and a volley of missiles, hard to avoid at the distance and the explosion behind them, strings of red light and plasma sparked through the void taking down missile after missile, but even they couldn´t take out the full volley under these circumstances, about a dozen of the smaller beasts fell, erupting into red mist and being drawn back to the rift, under an excessively violent telepathic screeching, now considerably more potent as the dying beasts were closer. Along with them two of the mid sized beasts took heavy damages, ones shell cracked open after being hit by a heavy railgun shell in seemingly lucky shot, another one lost two of it´s main weapons, to a volley of missiles intercepted too late...
Another two of the medium sized beasts were taken down completely having taken a hit or several by the railgun shells and then a volley of missiles to the same area, their screeches rolled almost like a shockwave through the area, if one were to be too close it would´ve been likely lethal.
Even the larger beasts didn´t go unscathed this time, one them losing a chunk of it´s sidespines, the other losing one of it´s heavy turrets, although their massive jaws prevented damaged to the eyes...
The beasts responded in kind, once the initially volley of missiles had either hit or been taken down, another, this time smaller, volley of their heavy turrets was fired towards the gbe fleet, as they GBE fleet was tracking the projectiles, another volley suddenly popped up on the sensors, but this one from the side, it came from the groups which had detached from the main pack, putting the British forces into the crossfire...
The situation grew more dire every moment, the beasts had reached the optimal firing range of the GBE weaponry, however, that also meant they weren´t too far away anymore from the fleet itself...

KrankysFirebrand48

ONI
The soldiers didn’t stop. They’re flashlights searched the room before advancing slowly on high alert, as the others scanned around, while two marines faced backwards, searching behind the group.

Drakador_Chaos
The HMS Fortune started to get pulled in towards the gravity well. The ship shaked, Stantine almost fell.
”Full thrust back!”
He watched in horror as a few cruisers and destroyers were pulled towards the spot. He shielded is eyes from the blinding light as the engulfing explosion slammed into the shield. The protective blue aura turned red, before it shattered. Then the explosion reached side of the ship, though this time much weaker. Stantine fell over this time, and quickly stood up. On the fleet status screen he could see the indicators HMS Domination, HMS Valiant and other cap ships turn red, as they’d been obliterated.
”Prepare lance firing sequence. Target: warpriest 1 jaws.”
Affirmative, sire. Opening gates
The front of the ship opened up, behind the shield lay the spinal lance. It started rotating and emitted some sort of energy.
”The weapon is ready, sire.”
”Fire.”
Another blinding light. Like a screech, the massive battlecruiser spinal weapon fired a blue particle beam at almost the speed of light at one of the warpriests, passing the bomber squadrons heading to the same target. The doors closed rapidly after the weapon had been fired when the incoming shots from both sides. Multiple shots slammed into the Fortune’s hull. The fleet took heavy damage with the ships advanced armour protecting the ships from annihilation.
One enemy shell hit a Sunrise-class from the side, it shattered multiple layers of armour before being stopped by the forged neosteel. The Sunrise turned its guns and unloaded a volley of its railguns. The entire fleet retaliated as the auto-cannons unleashed wrath and the main coilguns and railguns fired humongous explosive shells with an extremely powerful electromagnetic force.
”Missiles, 28% capacity. I want torpedoes in the air.”
Each ship launched missiles out of their broadsides. They raced towards their targets of the bloodcult groups with the warpriests followed by torpedoes.

ONI
Two dark blue, almost black, Monarch-class escort destroyers from the border fleet move up to board the ships.

ONI

A small group of ships emerges on the edge of GBE space. An escort group for a ship carrying data on the ever so powerful VIMY Tactical Bomb dubbed planet killers by some. Recent discussions from UEG and GBE leaders have decided that it would be beneficial to share nuclear arms technology. (Done on discord lol)

The ships hail the GBE ships in the area hoping they are aware of why they are here.

Ships present are four heavy frigates and a super cruiser.

Nearby a Prowler lurks watching for anything. The entire group is on high alert due to the package they have.

Drakador_Chaos

KrankysFirebrand48
Faced with an considerable volley of missiles the beasts seemed to cease fire for a couple of moments, instead focusing their efforts on point defense and evasion, thin streaks of light pierced through the darkness impaling missile after missile, erupting into raging explosions, however taking down the missiles did take away from their over all attention, as the blue light of the particle beam reached the beasts it was too late for accurate reactions, in a last ditch effort the massive beast dived upwards, though it was hit regardless, with terrifying telepathic screeching one of it´s massive tusks was cleaved right off, with the beam having enough power to still damage the medium sized beast behind it...
More fire lighted up the void as the missiles and torpedos which hadn´t been taken down reached the beasts, turning another dozen of the smaller ones into red mist, a torpedo hit an already injured mid sized beast and tore it to pieces, ending it´s life in a fountain of red mist and more terrifying telepathic screeching, explosive shells continued to rain down however coordinating fire with how scattered the fleet was after the explosion had become an issue, whilst damaging the beasts overall, it was hard to land killing blows like this...
Whilst at least the eye of the beasts seemed to be silent for a while, that advantage was almost immedietly tainted by the fact the beasts would likely soon reach mid-range, additionally to the other group which was still heading towards them from the side...

In the distance, cut off from his own half of the fleet by the slowly subsiding explosion of the eyes and a horde of Cultbeasts, Stantine saw the other half of his fleet fighting the other two groups of Cultbeasts, although he had managed to take down almost half of the small beasts at this point and a few of the mid sized ones, saying that his own fleet is 'not in best shape' would be a severe understatement...

ONI

KrankysFirebrand48 The carnage is bad. The bodies were all torn apart but the marines weapons. A sole survivor sat there holding his hands to stop the light. They notice how pale he is and how he is wearing nothing. His genitals seemed to have been crudely castrated. Probably from some ritual when he was younger.

Talking to him could lead to something.

.............................................................................................................
The ships docks and personnel are welcomed aboard the lead cruiser.

KrankysFirebrand48

Drakador_Chaos ONI

(fleet positions something like this:

)

// transmission start //
”Brothers, we’re glad you’ve heeded our call. Please engage the group closest to you and stop that group from chasing our battlegroup. Don’t allow them to get into close range.”
// transmission end //
The telepathic screeching instilled terror in the ships crew. The bomber pilots, bring close were hit the hardest as some died, their AI taking over control. The ships AI connected to their brain kept them alive and flying.
Most of the battlegroup’s shields were down, now the bulk of the defences were protecting them. Their armour. As they evaded projectile after projectile by using their computers and small profile to make them the hardest possible target, as they tanked bolt after bolt slamming into their advanced armour, they continued their retaliation of nuclear railgun shells and now continuous missile and torpedo fire. The fleets armour was very good at taking hits from energy weapons such as lasers and plasma. However the primal hunter shells were devastating and effective though the fleet prioritized evading them.
The fleet continued backing up as the beasts drew closer. The warpriest with the broken jaw was immediately engaged by the bombers. When they were close enough their torpedoes deployed out of the bay and launched with their payloads all straight into the eye of doom.

”Do you think it would work twice?” Stantine asked his advisor. ”I don’t see any possibility to stop it, said his advisor, ”Maybe some unexpected acceleration?”
”It’s worth trying. Slow passive charge on warp drives please. Transfer the power directed at the lances once they fire.”
The war drives started spinning up as the fleets cruisers opened their gates like jaws as the HMS Fortune had.
”Fire lance volley!”
The blue beams erupted out of their bows as the cruiser fleet unleashed their spinal particles weapons at the second bloodcult warpriest, all of them converging on the same target, warpriest 2’s jaws. More bombers launched converging on the second warpriest.

ONI
One marine and a medic stayed behind to tend to his wounds and bring him out the breach. The marines then continued down the path of were the enemies had come from.

ONI
The escort destroyers launched shuttles that eventually land in the hangars if the great cruiser.
Out of the shuttle steps the director of naval weapon development, Eylen Catolion, and her escort of 8 marines.

boombox
The comms operator picked up the transmission.
”That’s impossible... Officer!” The officer that was already very excited about finding the SAS came running. ”What now?”
”They claim to be the GSR. Listen.” The transmission plays. ”That’s impossible. Identify those ships!”
”They are GSR designs, sir.”
”Very well. Transfer it over to the Gladius.”

// transmission start //
”Greetings brother. Unfortunately due to the last wars result, which you should be familiar with, you need to go through an extremely long and complicated process of scanning your bodies and your ships to enter our borders. This meeting needs to be digital.”
// transmission end //

boombox

KrankysFirebrand48
Shortly outside of the borders of the GBE a small force of unknown origin exits FTL, hailing the GBE border guard should there be any:
//Transmission: GSR Code//*
"Diplomatic Taskforce "Ingenborg A-25" of allegiance to zhe German Space Regime requesting a meeting with an official of zhe Galactic British Empire. Ve come in peace, Wir kommen in Frieden."
//Transmission End//

The diplomatic force, consisting of a light cruiser, a light destroyer and two patrol boats, slowly drifts towards the border.

ONI

Battle group Quebec leaves slipspace. Multiple blue exit portal close and Chekhov radiation oozes everywhere. First into the new battleground are the battlegroups frigate strike groups, then destroyers, and cruisers. Then out of the final portal which is larger then the rests emerges a behemoth. A 3.5km super carrier capable of carrying destroyers in its hangars. The grey titanium armour of the fleet gives a sense of hope to the Galactic British Empire naval ships in the area.

This is UNSC battlegroup Quebec standing by.

In some spots the stars were missing. Odd as it may be these splotches of dark black were actually the battlegroups prowler attachment. Stealth craft to monitor and provide intelligence, watch and listen.

//UNSC.FLEETCOM.//Request// comes up on the comms channels of the GBE ships. Once accepted a mans voice is heard. This is Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb the man says in a heavy Texas drawl. From the gossip papers back home it was said he was descendent of Russian Cossacks.

He then goes on to say “we heard your cries and have given an answer. Frigates and Destroyers break. Atlas deploy fighters. Cruisers lay down covering fire for our allies. Whitcomb out.

On the UNSC ships view screens the bridge of the Atlas and Danforth snap out of existence.

The destroyers and frigates break off and move to get into range.

Drakador_Chaos

KrankysFirebrand48 ONI
By the time the torpedos approached the massive weakened beast, it was already too late to react, at least in the state it was in right now, the shells of torpedos ran through space glistening in the light of passing lasers and plasmabolts, both smaller and larger beasts offered retaliation fire to the fighters and torpedoes, hailing down projectiles almost like a destructive rain on the assailants...
Alas, it wasn´t enough, one torpedo came through, one more, another one, until a good dozen of them had crashed into the massive, beast, engulfing it in an enormous ball of nuclear fury...
The explosion raged for several moments and showed no sign of stopping. Then...
Nothing moved out of the cloud... one of the massive beasts seemed beaten.
There was a certain relief in teh thought that even these massive ancient beasts were not immortal.
...
Yet, it wasn´t the end.
Moments later, the feeling of relief would come to an abrupt and disillusioning end, a mind-numbing terrifying telepathic roar rolled over the battlefield, like the shockwave of a thermonuclear blast, minds strained, some shattered irredeemably into thousands of pieces and drove the untrained who survived to the brink of madness, the death roar of the Warpriest killed everything which had been in its immediate vicinity, be it fighter pilots or minor beasts...
...and yet, it wasn´t the end, the energy released in the last moments of the beasts life, compressed, concentrated.
The center of the site of the beasts death flared up like an eye of doom projectile...
...and then detonated like one, fighters, minor beasts and mid sized beasts, even the still raging cloud of plasma from the explosion, were all drawn in alike, although the mid sized beasts seemed to have enough force to outrun the gravitational pull of the Warpriests last breath and escaped, then...
...the energy released, like the first time when the eye fired a massive explosion erupted although this time localized on location of its death...
As the explosion raged between the UEG fleet and the remaining fleet of the Cultbeasts, those beasts from the now leaderless fleet re-united with the remaining one, which charged the GBE fleet...
As the lances fired, the beasts were prepared this time, the massive Cultbeast they had been directed at rolled to the side and whilst the intensity of the passive lance shots scorched the armour on its lower side it remained functionally undamaged, or at least it seemed like it...
The horde of beasts reached mid-range and along with a large volley of their roof mounted weaponry, smaller hunter cannons and large flak turrets began firing highly penetrative and explosive shells their opponents way, adding a addittional level to their offensive power, unlike the heavy weaponry which was concentrated on the larger ships, these however seemed to be more spread out, the flak even shooting seemingly at randomized toargets or even empty space, saturating it with explosions and making evasive manouvers considerably more difficult no matter the size of the craft...
However, this torrent was only directed towards the british fleet...
Were they ignoring the UEG?
A couple of moments later they would notice, why that was.
As the deathroar of the massive Warpriest had died down...
A second roar came over the battlefield, weaker, because it´s source seemed to be farther away, it was almost...
...as if the rift had answered, it´s surface boiled, raged and then a cloud of the eerie red mist poured into the battlefield like a geyser, drawing a broad red line into space behind the cultfleet, slowly spreading but still too dense to make anything out...
However, something was evident, although the mist covered most of the sight and seemed to heavily interfere with the scanners, something...
Something...
Visual scanners across the UEG fleet could bareley make out... silhouettes? ...and something seemed to be moving within the cloud, causing disturbances in it´s natural flow...
Another telepathic roar, closer, instilling terror in the incoming UEG crews, it was almost like a challenge, whatever was moving within... seemed to be moving towards the UEG reinforcements with a primal fury.

ONI

KrankysFirebrand48 The marines clear the rest of the ship. Finding more of the cultists. They even find the commander of the ship who tried to take his own life but is stopped by the marines grabbing him. The dark ship is clean of the cult filth.

boombox

KrankysFirebrand48
//Transmission: GSR Code//
"Understandable. In zhis case ve will activate a visual channel."

After a few seconds the silhouette of an officer appears. Seemingly rather old, he looks over into the camera.

"Long time, no see."

//Transmission End//

KrankysFirebrand48

ONI
The prisoners are escorted onto some of the shuttles. The commander stats for interrogation. The ship is now being scanned and analyzed by experts on the ships.
”Who are you?” asks one of the marines, ”and why did you attack us?”

@ONI Drakador_Chaos
The strike craft lost total control and started spinning violently towards the gravitation center. The crew would have panicked if they weren’t all dead. The strike craft were obliterated. The telepathic roar hit everyone on the ships like hammers. Some fell over, went unconscious or insane. The ship AI was now taking hand of more tasks.

// transmission start //
”We’re about to make a short range tactical warp jump in this direction.”

”Please be aware and stand clear of the enemy fleets next redirection. Attempt to target them from long range.”
// transmission end //

As the Bloodcult fire intensified losses were racking up. A Solaric’s reactor was hit and detonated as the ship became debris. Frigates were burning and falling like empty husks as escape pods launched. Some shields recovered after being recharged and temporality protected some ships. The GBE fleet was down to two thirds of its original size with plenty of ships damaged racking up to one half of its original strength.

As Stantine was waiting for the warp drives the charge he was ordered the firing of the only weapon he hadn’t yet fired. The signature armament of the battlecruisers massive cruise torpedoes. Half the crew on the bridge were being escorted out, some unconscious, some insane. Fire control made sure the torpedoes would follow a path were they flew away from the Bloodcult fleet and then turned around to accelerate at the Bloodcult fleet and hit the warpriest’s jaw just after the fleet jump. They’d hit one after the other. All the torpedoes launch out of their silos. They made an 180 degree turn and flew away from both the fleets.
”More power to the warp drives. Decrease power to weapons.” ordered Stantine.
”Roger abating firepower.”
”Focus fire on the medium sized beasts.”
”Directing firepower, sire.”
The main batteries and all the other missiles and guns started directing their wrath at the weaponry of the medium sized beasts.
”Advisor,” Stantine asked, ”how unwise would it be to send in the Redeemers if distancing with warp wouldn’t be possible?”
”Drawing out the full potential if their firepower is a bad idea, but I would serve as a distraction.”
”Yes, but with lives lost. They have lasers. We better stay at range.”
The torpedoes, after getting some distance, turned around and started accelerating toward the target, warpriest 2’s jaw and the eye of doom.

ONI

Drakador_Chaos The UEG ships hang back a few couple thousand kilometres from the enemy. As the unidentified craft draws closer the fleet opens up with barrages of missile fire and MAC fire after the effects of the roar wear off. The roar affected the crew differently by either causing severe migraines or knocking out the crew members entirely.

Some of the ships are knocked out completely but the ships AI took over in these situations allowing the ships to still operate efficiently and under their original orders.

The prisoners are escorted onto some of the shuttles. The commander stats for interrogation. The ship is now being scanned and analyzed by experts on the ships.
”Who are you?” asks one of the marines, ”and why did you attack us?”
The prisoners blink and stare off into space. Their pale skin shines almost translucent and hangs off some of the prisoners' bodies, suggesting that they don't have many resources and are operating on fumes.

We....we came here because of

Them

The prisoners point towards the location of the cult rift. Almost like they were drawn to it. Upon further investigation of the ships, symbols are scratched into the walls, as well as the dead bodies as if it was some sort of ritual or whorship.

Drakador_Chaos

KrankysFirebrand48
As the British fleet was preparing their next actions, the mist began spreading behind the fleet, sensors yielded no data on it, though it seemed to be interfering with them, it was likely a sort of smokescreen for the other group which had just left the rift in a distance and likely headed to engage the UEG forces judging by the roar...
If their jump was successful they would likely have some sensor interferences but that was a minor price to pay for an advantageous position to fight both the remainders of the original group and the new reinforcemenst of the Cult...
As Stantine was contemplating the next steps and keeping an eye over the situation, fire was exchanged back and forth, massive railguns shells either detonated, were deflected or tore thorns or one of the turrets off, each one hampering the offensive capabilities of the beasts considerably, staggering them with some of the heavier hits and even taking one of them down as a second railgun sheels burrowed into the open socket of one of the torn off turrets, tearing teh beast apart with the same horrifying telepathic screechingas it´s brethern...
Even though it was less effective than they would´ve wanted, with the reduced firepower, with the focus on weapons they managed to reduce that of the beasts by somewhere between 10 and 20 percent at least according to their estimates at this range, though almost immedietly the retaliation fire came, another volley of crossfired heavy shells, accompanied by heavy suppression fire by the explosive flak cannons and now also the medium sized explosive cannons, but all of it was overshadowed, by a rather simple fact:
The flare of an energy signature, coming from the massive warpriests front...
The eye was charging again.
Luckily, they had a surprise for it...

ONI
The opening volley, as expected due to the interferences of the mist, had at best mediocre effects, though it did seem to help regardless, most of the missiles were taken down and the majority of the MAC rounds missed, aside from a few lucky shots which resulted in a distant wailing, likely from smaller beasts being taken down. However, rather than spearheading them them right on, the group which emerged from teh mist instead began flanking them in a reasonable arc.
Around 80 smaller ships seemed to be in the group, around the size of those they met in their own territory but looking different, 20 more around the same size but shaped roughly like a moonsickle, another 20 with about the same shape, but the size of a frigate.
Aside from these smaller and mid sized beasts, several large beasts were in the back of the pack around the size of what normal empires would likely call a cruiser, led by a large, seemingly nightmare inducing manta-like winged beast, unlike anything they´ve ever seen...
The front of the formation was formed by the smaller arrowhead-like beasts, apparently serving as a sort of shield to those behind them, not only physically but also visually.
In the meanwhile the cloud of red mist began spreading behind the beasts and started to interfer with the communication with the British fleet, though there was no time to contemplate the cloud of mist as, as soon as the beasts left the cloud, a large volley of heavy explosive projectiles was sent the UNSC fleets way, coming from the larger beasts in the formation and it´s leader, the bulk of the volley, around 30 to 40 percent of it, was aimed in the direction of the leading ship of battlegroup Quebec, the supercarrier with the being spread out around it, aimed at space and other surrounding ships seemingly at random, the projectiles, unseen before by the UEG had quite a significant energy signature, suggesting a tremendous amount of power behind each projectile...
Group3

KrankysFirebrand48

boombox
In front of him were the entire roster of the directors and minister of foreign relations as well as a few council members. They were all shocked.
”But the German Space Regime is dead...”

Drakador_Chaos ONI
Stantines battlegroup had their warp drives spinning up. They adjusted the jump more to the right so the mist wouldn’t reach them any time soon. All the alive fighters returned to their hangars. The cruise missiles now passed between the GBE ships at high speeds and rushed at the warpriest as they evaded larger shells in the crossfire. Their shields and armor tanked point defense hits. As the heavy weapons volley approached the battlegroup...
”Commence jump to warp space.”
”Yes sire,” *said the navigator, who was one of the only conscious and sane people on the bridge, ”Initiating warp space travel. Firing up warp drives.”
Reality was bending. Every GBE ship individually appeared to launch away at lightspeed instantly. A second later and;
THUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUD
Each ship abruptly returned to real space behind the Bloodcult fleet. The ships started swinging around once again, their bows turning to face the enemy, some ships on fire or with chunks torn out. Some had disabled or destroyed cannons and radiators. Not long after were there explosions in the distance. Orange flashing far away were the Bloodcult fleet was. Every cruise missile, one after the other slammed their bodies and fusion payloads into the eye of doom.

ONI
The commander turns and looks at the rift. Then slowly his eyes pass over the symbols and bodies, which he recoiled at. He had already identified the bodies as the source of the rotten smell in the air. The commander looked terrified. Soon they would start analyzing the bodies.
”Who are you?”

ONI

Drakador_Chaos The opening volley, as expected due to the interferences of the mist, had at best mediocre effects, though it did seem to help regardless, most of the missiles were taken down and the majority of the MAC rounds missed, aside from a few lucky shots which resulted in a distant wailing, likely from smaller beasts being taken down. However, rather than spearheading them right on, the group which emerged from the mist instead began flanking them in a reasonable arc.
Around 80 smaller ships seemed to be in the group, around the size of those they met in their own territory but looking different, 20 more around the same size but shaped roughly like a moon sickle, another 20 with about the same shape, but the size of a frigate.
Aside from these smaller and mid-sized beasts, several large beasts were in the back of the pack around the size of what normal empires would likely call a cruiser, led by a large, seemingly nightmare-inducing manta-like winged beast, unlike anything they´ve ever seen...
The front of the formation was formed by the smaller arrowhead-like beasts, apparently serving as a sort of shield to those behind them, not only physically but also visually.
In the meanwhile the cloud of red mist began spreading behind the beasts and started to interfere with the communication with the British fleet, though there was no time to contemplate the cloud of mist as, as soon as the beasts left the cloud, a large volley of heavy explosive projectiles was sent the UNSC fleets way, coming from the larger beasts in the formation and it´s leader, the bulk of the volley, around 30 to 40 percent of it, was aimed in the direction of the leading ship of battlegroup Quebec, the supercarrier with the being spread out around it, aimed at space and other surrounding ships seemingly at random, the projectiles, unseen before by the UEG had quite a significant energy signature, suggesting a tremendous amount of power behind each projectile...

As the projectiles flew at the fleet, the large mobile refit station positioned itself in front of the fleet. The thunderous blood cult shells hit and vaporized it. No escape pods were launched. The station sacrificed itself so the fleet could survive. Following a salute of MAC fire was launched. Maybe as a way to honor the lives that were just sacrificed. The smaller ships in the fleet broke off, attempting to pick off their own individual targets while the supercarrier launched its fighters.

The destroyer Tighten Up headed straight for the enemy lines.**

The fighters zipped and dipped around the battlefield. Weaving around missile explosions. The fighters would all be controlled by AI to decrease the chance of the crew being harmed by the roar of the beasts. The frigates and destroyers that had broken off focused on the smaller cult ships. Launching high-speed fusion rockets at their targets. These rockets had been severely updated because of the past interactions from the cult.

The fleet monitored the large energy signature, cautious of what it could be about.

(Sorry for the late reply.)

Drakador_Chaos

KrankysFirebrand48
As soon as the jump finished Stantine came to the conclusion that adjusting the course had been a wise decision, alarms rang and control lights blinked, as the path which they would´ve jumped originally was cut off by the red mist, consequently also shutting off all communication with the UEG fleet and blocking sight and readings on the Cultbeasts...
It seems they had gained some time, though whether that was minutes or mere seconds was a question none of them could answer, additionally whilst they didn´t know what had happened after they jumped, there was no terrifying screeching this time, which lead to the conclusion that the Warpriest must be still alive, whether it still had it´s eye or not...

In the meanwhile, unbeknownst to the GBE the torpedos rushed across space whilst the beasts took a sharp turn, to follow the disappeared fleet, in response, rather than hitting the eye or the jaws, the torpedos hit more like a broadside, explosions raged tearing a large chunk out of the right side of the remaining warpriest, impairing it considerably as parts of its body were missing but leaving it and it´s eye alive...
The beasts began heading towards the mist which had been expanding since the UEG entered the fray, with the Warpriest slightly trailing behind, hidden by the wall of mist from senors and sight, headed to their prey...

ONI
The projectiles ripped up the station as if it was made of paper, penetrating armour and erupting into explosions that suggested an anti-matter-like substance being involved, though as detrimental as the quick loss of the station was, there was little time to grief, as the beasts were advancing.
The fighter which tried to pick of targets seemed to have considerably issues outmanouvering or even keeping up with the smaller beasts and in consequence getting closer to the larger ones due to the interruptions, whilst the fighters were undoubtedly top of the line technology for the UEG, the beasts had been born into space and lived there ever since, giving them a natural advantage in terms of movement...
Lasers and plasmabolts flashed up, using their lower range weaponry and point defense to assault any smaller spacecraft that came near...
The fusion rockets on the othe rhand seemed to be considerably more effective than the other weaponry they fielded, frequntly ripping holes into beasts and taking down a good dozen of the smallers ones and damaging some of th emid sized ones, additionally spreading out the formation seemed to have been a good idea, as, whilst that lessened their defense overall, now each ship had to picked off individually, although how much the damage they had dealt to the beasts was worth was an inconclusive matter.
The beasts in turn roared in fury, the horde split into two about equal sized groups one heading to each side of the UEG fleet, although visual confirmation was hard due to the other beasts around it, the energy signatures indicated the Largest of the beasts was with the group which was partly moving in teh shadow of the destroyed station, both a blessing and a curse, whilst they couldn´t fire at the supporting fleet, solely focusing on point defense, the fleet couldn´t fire at them either and there was a quite considerable energy spike building up in the largest of the beasts...
In the meanwhile the other group retaliated with another volley from their main weapons, more of the high energy projectiles crossed space towards the UEG coming from the mid sized beasts, whilst the smaller ones were focusing on the defense of the group, apparently even taking hits for the larger beasts without hesitation if necessary...
...and then another issue popped up, sensors indicated a short range ftl jump, which had been, judging by the position, the GBE fleet as moments later confirmed by sensors and visuals, they did get out of the firing range of their own assailants but likewise were they cut off from the UEG fleet by the ever expanding cloud of red mist, now concealing both the GBE fleet and the other group of beasts, they would have to fend for themselves until the UEG fleet had confirmation on what was going on the other side of the mist, though they certainly didn´t lack problems on their own side as the beasts were fast approaching...

boombox

KrankysFirebrand48
After a short break regarding the signal, the screen comes back to life.
//Transmission: GSR Code//
"It obviously is not. Ve have returned and are growing stronger in numbers zhan ever before. Over zhe last year ve have built up both in economy as well as military. Now zhe question remains to be asked: Vhat side are you on, and is zhere any interest in renewing old bonds?"
//Transmission End, awaiting answer//

KrankysFirebrand48

ONI Drakador_Chaos
Nurses in white uniforms where running around the bridge carrying bodies or moving seemingly insane bridge crew out of the bridge.
The navigator quickly made a new course for the fleet with his hands in a holographic replica of the battle, as some half damaged, torn up and burned main thrusters swung the ships around and fled at high burn away from the spreading mist.
The battle was not yet over, Stantine knew it. But his ships would deliver the final blow soon enough. But first, he had to warn the UEG.
”Comms operator,” he said, ”tell them what we learned about their weaponry.”
The Comms operator flicked a few switches and pressed a button on his holoscreen.
”This is the HMS Fortune to battle group Quebec, the largest beast is identified as a warpriest, you must keep di— Battle group Quebec do you read me? Do you read me?”
The transmission tried to reach the UEG fleet but to no avail.
”It appears as the mist is interfering with our communications.” said the Comms operator.
”Improvise then.” said Stantine.
”Uh I got it. Computer write it all down and upload the data to a C-5 and fly it over to the UEG fleet.”
done
transferring data

As the message was being prepared the GBE fleet took the opportunity to resupply and repair as they were heading away from the mist. Drone traffic looked like a morning on Anrillia as they transported ammo and missiles. Nanobots and repair drones were replacing parts of large railgun batteries and turrets. Ships were docking with each other sending over railgun shells. Drones slid nuclear missiles into their launchers slots. Larger repair ships injected some sort of liquid which immediately solidified into holes in the armour. Others had spare plates of ceramics, metal foam, metal nanocomposites and other pieces of armour which were applied. Barrels where replaced and new ones where connected to the turrets. The fleet also took its time to recharge shields and spinal lance weapons. Even though the fleet was battered and damaged, it was now ready for round 2.

In the hangar white lights illuminated the large space and high ceiling. A thin cloud smoke slithered across the floor. Fuel hoses were disconnected from the three C-5g emperor fighters that sat on their landing gear all next to each other. Missiles where lifted up my mechanical arms onto their hardpoints. The pilots, after taking their drugs, walked up the ladder that reached up to the cockpit. They jumped into their seats as a ground crew attached the nervous chord into their neck slot. As their minds merged with the ships AI their brain was overwhelmed by sensor data and information. The spotlights turned on, so did the cockpit displays. Green indicators and information displays appeared on screens, as holograms and as just projected straight into their “vision” through the AI.
/Comms
”Gatherer 3 all systems green.”
”Gatherer 1 all green.”
”Gatherer 7 all systems green.”
The pilots could hear the scrambled voice of fighter coordination that said,
”Gatherer 3, 1 and 7, you are all cleared for launch.”
The fighters glided forward smoothly and their landing gear clicked into the electromagnetic catapult. They got the signal to launch and they pushed the throttle. Their ships were thrown out of the hangar like toys. The thrusters smoothly focusing blue plasma to accelerate the group of fighters.
”Gatherer Squadron heading north-north-east, engagement speed.”
The group of fighters now banked about 200 degrees to the right. They where going to fly around the mist, behind and around the rift (not between the rift and the BC groups engaging the GBE.