Switching his attention to the fighter that was still a problem, Sharlavaka tried to take down its shield so Thalin could finish it.
Sharlavaka's shot cuts right through the fighter's front shields, doing slight body damage.
Thalin traces the path of the still attacking fighter before scoring a second hit with the second shot.
The second fighter takes massive damage. The pilot ejects into the atmosphere, fortunately still over the cold side where he might actually survive, if he doesn't get shot.
The Exsilium blasts out of the atmosphere and into open space unimpeded.
It's worse than you could have expected.
Hundreds of Azlanti drones fire coilguns at dozens of Zothune ships.
10 Azlanti Monitor support vehicles continue to pound the inner Defense Platform. The outer Platform is utterly destroyed.
Two Azlanti stasis ships, each carrying a thousand elite troops, are already in orbit, and more are undoubtedly on their way.
And there is the Ranseur, sitting imperiously above the entire battle, untouched by any foe.
-----------------------------------------------
The Exsilium has implemented the modulated transponder, created by Esh and Isis. Its last setting, which it is currently broadcasting, is the PWM Arzata, a Pact Worlds merchant vessel.
Last time...
The Exsilium blasts out of the atmosphere and into open space unimpeded.
It's worse than you could have expected.
Hundreds of Azlanti drones fire coilguns at dozens of Zothune ships.
10 Azlanti Monitor support vehicles continue to pound the inner Defense Platform. The outer Platform is utterly destroyed.
Two Azlanti stasis ships, each carrying a thousand elite troops, are already in orbit, and more are undoubtedly on their way.
And there is the Ranseur, sitting imperiously above the entire battle, untouched by any foe.
And now...
The Exsilium drifts into the battlezone above Zothune. Ahead lurks your goal, the Azlanti Ranseur class ship, "Death Blade" according to its transponder.
Sharlavaka looked at the monstrous ship. There was no easy way to fight or sneak there way onboard, so why bother? "Possibility - surrender. Get taken onboard. Kill troops sent to detain us. Continue as planned."
"I can't see us managing to get close enough without getting blasted for one. Captain, you might be able to fool them into thinking we're defecting to their side, or offer up defense secrets. Or we could convince them that we're Azlanti who've captured this ship and it's crew. I know Azlanti in that instance." The elf started tossing out.
"Hm, playing defection may be our best way of getting inside."
Chaos and oportunity, right?
What if we got a hold of a Azlanti shuttle or other small ship and just... docked with the Ranseur vessel?
"IFF codes. If the ship wipes them or they are not suitable we will possibly get blown out of space." It wasn't a simple matter. Maybe in the chaos the Azlant captain, confident in his ship's overwhelming power might allow it, even without the right codes, but it was a risk.
"Attention, PWM Arzata!" a voice comes over the comms in accented Common.
"This planet is now under control of the Azlanti Star Empire. Please state your intentions." Esh scans fighters pulling in behind you in escort formation.
**lurks at the rear of the bridge like operatives do.**
"Split second desision time now, captain." The elf spoke, mentally ready to put extra attention to their sheilds. Might buy themselves a few more seconds before they become space dust.
Tamrat opens a commlimk and says in a calm and even to e, ”This is Captain Tamrat ul-Khedim. We wish to defect. We hold many rebellion secrets. This is an offer you will want to accept.”
"Power down combat shields and continue on your current heading to AES Death Blade," the fighter pilot commands.
As you continue, Esh can read both the Ranseur and the fighters have targeting locks on the Exsilium, and several other fighters have been put on alert status. There's no changing strategies now. Time to decide your next move. They're going to want those "secrets" you promised pretty badly, and they're going to be very suspicious of you.
”And the fly enters the spider’s web. Esh, bring us in. Don’t know how this’ll go, but we’re out of options.”
Esh, let's keep our options open, yeah? Can you see what other ships are docked with the... when, A-E-S Death Blade?
The Exsilium may not be our ride home. Maybe a mid-sized fighter, if I were shopping.
"Prefer not to. But could detonate Exsillum." Blowing their own vessel would rip the guts out of that monster, that was for sure. But it was a last resort. Sharlavaka did not like the idea at all.
"Into the jaws of hell we go then, Captain." The elf declared, obediently guiding the ship to a docking position after letting their shields drop.
As a precautionary measure he was designing a dead-switch program to activate if the worse case (and most likely) scenario takes place. He didn't want any of those damn humans getting their claws on his arcane research data within his computer, even if he'd have to wipe it all himself.
Esh notes that Thalin is no longer on the bridge. A few seconds later, a text message comes the Sensors station, in an obscure Elvish dialect.
"Down in [untranslatable, best guess is "house of building"]. Had Otis lower protections against sun-explode-energy. He and I should be cloaked from their scanners, and are well hidden. Just in case you need a wildcard."
The Exsillium is pulled up to a docking portal on the massive Deathblade with a tractor beam. Half a minute later, the docking clamps have completely latched, and you are instructed to open the door and come out of the vessel unarmed.
Sharlavaka arms his cannon. "Open door. Kill boarding team. Continue." The Vesk considers for a moment and adds, "Explosives would be helpful."
Sharlavaka arms his cannon. "Open door. Kill boarding team. Continue."
Last call. Anyone else want to do anything before the portal opens and you're boarded?
"We did all that work to get here in one piece, do you really think it's smart to start shooting the moment they open the door? We need to buy time, and pump them for as much information as we can before we go loud." The elf reasoned.
Shalravaka considered this question for a moment. "Yes." The Vesk tilted his head to one side. "But will accept alternative plans."
Stay cool, keep up the ruse... Esh and I can get access to a non-critical system and make our way up the digital chain.
The Azlanti seen to be very... orderly, policy and procedure. We can use that. Issue seemingly normal orders. All seemingly routine questions.
Hey placed with the prisoner or be sent to the med bay. Have a craft readied for flight or outfitted with explosives for a suicide run. The possibilities are endless, but Esh had it right.
We need time to gather intel. Keep one thing in mind, we are in control.
Tamrat nods. ”Sounds like it falls right within my skill set. Well, shall we go and meet these Azlanti?”
Yes, but one last thing. This type of incident doesn't happen all that often, to my knowledge. Something bigger, might be happening in the grand scheme of things.
Some... end game. We need to uncover what we can and give the locals every chance.
Finally the portal opens, and Azlanti troops enter the Exsilium. These look similar to those you fought below, but are wearing a special insignia to indicate their position aboard a flagship of the Azlanti Empire - A red and gray patch of the iconic "Death" robed skeleton with scythe.
A commander boards behind them; obviously an officer, due to his lighter armor and hand weapon. This officer has the hovering solar mote that identifies him as a Solarian.
"Secure the self-described turncoats. Remove all weapons."
The guards begin doing as they're asked. Irina is on the bridge with you as well, but Thalin and Otis are still in hiding in the engine room, their scans masked by a minor radiation leak.
Unless ordered to do otherwise, Sharlavaka stood by and allowed them to disarm him. He didn't think it was a good idea, but he could still fight so long as they didn't take a hammer to his claws.
Ahh well, what's a sniper without a rifle? James hands over his weapon in as non-threatening a manner as possible.
With your permission commander, I would ask to remove the drone's grenade launcher. It is unarmed, otherwise. He displays a small tool, fit for purpose.
Well, not Like it was his to begin with.
"The old owner wasn't using it anymore." He said in deadpan, as he handed off his Azlanti plasma pistol.
Irina is unarmed, though they do confiscate her med-kit.
"Which one of you is the captain?" the officer asks.
Tamrat steps forward and grins, ”That would be me.”
James, summarily ignored... begins to unmount the grenade launcher.
He makes sure he's on the business end, so no one thinks he might be actually planning on using the weapon because well... he's not.
He speaks as he works. Hey guys, think they got any work? No vacations for profiteers.
"Very well, Captain. You claim to be of some value to us, is that correct? In what capacity? Your ship reads as a Pact Worlds vessel. What are you, smugglers? Pact World spies?"
”Smugglers? Spies? I’d find that insulting if the truth weren’t so much better. No, my friend, we were high-ranking members of the rebellion.”
Sharlavaka shook his head. That didn't seem a good tact. He expected more guns, now. Lots more guns.
Surprisingly, he seems at least to be considering the possibility that you are who you say you are.
"So, what makes you abandon your people, after you've fought so hard? And, once again, what can you offer us in the way of assistance? Surely, you can see our military isn't having a problem here, and will succeed eventually in any case. How might you speed our victory?"
”Well, it came to light there were fundamental differences in how we wished to shape the colony. War sells, as I’m sure you are aware, and I wanted to prolong this conflict for as long as possible. The other leadership had nothing to gain, so we split from them.”
He pauses, adjusting his jacket as a sly smile creeps onto his face, ”You want this to be a rapid conquest, I am sure. The rebellion is quite widespread, and we possess information on nearly all of it. You may be able to chop off the stem, but I can tell you how to pull out the roots.”
"Very well. Let's go someplace we can discuss this in greater detail."
Then, to his troops:
"You two stay here and guard the ship and their weapons. The rest of you fall in behind."
The group of you leaves, with the Azlanti officer and Tamrat in the lead, followed by the rest of the crew (sans Thalin and Otis), followed by four Azlanti troops.
Esh sends a short mental command to the gelatinous cube's computer while it's still slurping around the ship; 'Hide from unregistered humanoids, observe the unregistered humanoids. Relay information via secure connection.'
The hallways you walk into are stark, done in green and gray, decorated only with the occasional emblems of war. The officer leads you to a medium-sized conference room in the administrative area of the ship.
Sharlavaka noted the corridor numbers and junctions, making sure he could retrace his steps back to the ship in the event they needed it.
James tried to take it all in, looking for evidence of the ship's design and engineering... central systems, power, life support, computers.
Impressive or no, a behemoth like this always had a weak spot. Bring in the inside should make it all that more evident.
Noting some air ducts, he considered sleeping gas. Sweet dreams...
Impressive or no, a behemoth like this always had a weak spot. Bring in the inside should make it all that more evident.
Give me an engineering check.