>Follow them, but slow and quiet, just in case.

>>1940293
>Follow them, but slow and quiet, just in case.
Flu season time, I know almost every is slightly sick including me.

>Follow them, but slow and quiet, just in case.

>>1940293
>Sneeki breeki

The Legion fleet had actually translated out of the system before you arrived, but thanks to light-lag you get to see the last half-hour or so. The fleet stands out like stars on the feed, and though it's pretty fuzzy, you get a pretty good idea of which star they're heading to. With that done, you have the auxiliaries top up the fuel reserves of your screening ships, and leave them behind to boost as best accel for the jump point. They'll follow behind, but simply can't pull the same acceleration as your fighting ships.

Almost twelve hours later to the dot, your squadron moves into the jump point at almost a dead stop. You recheck the figures, and there's only one system the Legion ships could have been jumping to. As slow as you like, you take your squadron into the jump.

Roll 1d100, best of 3, for sneaky FTL.

Rolled 55 (1d100)

>>1940411
ded

Rolled 95 (1d100)

>>1940411

Rolled 8 (1d100)

>>1940411
jinx

>>1940411
>95

That's pretty sneaky, anon. Writing.

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>>1940476
The flash of Cherenkov radiation as you translate back into n-space is impossible to hide, not with the size of your ship and screening elements, but coming in at as slow as you can makes it as small as possible. The sensors of your escorts clear, and you breathe a mental sigh of relief. There's no sign of enemy vessels in your immediate vicinity, though it has to be said... significant wreckage around the jump point. Some of it has the composition of Legion ships, others you can't identify but do bear similarities to Order armour plate. The zero-point energy plants of your two battlecruisers come back online, and you light off your engines very lightly to drift away from the jump point, and start examining the system.

The star appears to be a relatively standard K2 primary, orbited in close proximity by a 'hot giant'; a gas giant that orbits quite close to its primary, and was perhaps once upon a time a failed brown dwarf. Regardless, the system has two more rocky inner planets, a relatively substantial asteroid belt, another cold rocky planet, then a small-ish deep blue gas giant before the standard deep space debris cloud that jump points tend to form somewhat 'before', relatively speaking. All in all, a more or less normal system. Of course, what's going on near the orbit of the third rocky planet is of interest indeed.

A small Legion fleet is in orbit, made up of only a single battleship that appears to be heavily damaged as well as just six cruisers, all with signs of damage. They appear to be launching something towards the planet, and as you watch a massive laser, far more powerful than anything ship-mounted, spears up from the planet to touch one of the cruisers. After a moment it stumbles drunkenly out of the way, but it is clearly heavily damaged. As you take a closer look, the space around the planet - it has a thin atmosphere at best, you estimate around 550 pascals, a little less than old Mars - is filled with flashes and explosions as fighter craft fight to kill the constant pods falling towards the planet.

A bit further away, perhaps half of the way between the jump point and the planet, the Legion fleet you followed here is cruising sedately towards the planet. If they get to the planet, then it's dead, that much is obvious. Three battleships is a lot, but you're relatively certain you can match it.

>Burn at full acceleration to give the Legion fleet a quick pass on your way to relieve the planet.
>Go for a zero relative velocity intercept with the Legion fleet and smash it to bits.
>Move in, but keep watching for now, you don't want to tip your hand too soon.

>>1940537
>Go for a zero relative velocity intercept with the Legion fleet and smash it to bits.

>>1940537
>Go for a zero relative velocity intercept with the Legion fleet and smash it to bits.
take out the full heath reinforcements.

>>1940537
>Zero/Zero intercept

You're going to smash those ships to bits, but how should you do it? Should you keep them in missile range for as long as possible, or try to rush in and engage them with lasers?

>Missiles
>Energy mounts

>>1940650

>Missiles

>>1940650
Missiles

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>>1940650
>Missiles

Well, there's nothing for it, you'll have to intervene. Your long-range missile capability gives you an unparalleled advantage over the short-ranged enemy ships, even if your missiles are going to have to catch up with them. Still keeping half an eye on the besieged planet, you light off the drives of your squadron at the highest acceleration you can manage. It'll take a few hours to catch up with the Legion fleet, and you spend the time continually updating passive targeting locks. They're little more than smudges at first, of course, but as you get to within ten light-minutes, you can finally start getting more accurate returns. And that's when the Legion fleet apparently spots you, because they start decelerating.

The range descends to about 2 light minutes, and that's when you fire your first salvo- turning your ships around, you fire off a full broadside straight down their teeth. Thirty seconds pass, tubes reloading and remote telemetry links handing over to on-board control, then you fire again. Twice more after that, four full broadsides going straight down into their teeth. Then you're forced to turn and start decelerating yourself, inertial compensators straining to protect the more delicate components on your ships from breakage. Of course, you can decelerate at several hundred gravities, which gives you an advantage over any human enemy. Unfortunately, the Legion aren't human.

But neither are they infallible. All four broadsides are into the black before the first is anywhere near reaching terminal velocity. Each salvo has exactly 251 missiles in it- 36 battleship-grade, 99 cruiser-grade, and the rest destroyer or smaller. And in the first salvo, those 251 missiles are divided neatly between just 3 Legion battleships. As they race in, some are suckered off by jamming a bit better than anything you've seen so far, and still more are picked off by the massed plasma point defense of the enemy fleet. But for all that, at least 50 missiles of varying sizes reach their terminal attack phase for each Legion battleships. Each of those missiles detonate their on-board nukes, and from that nuclear hellstorm stabs out hedgehogs of x-ray lasers. Each of the beams may have been somewhat less powerful than a singular one, but this method means that at least one beam is far more likely to score a hit, and in many cases the battleships are hit with at least two per missile. Hellfire stabs through those massive ships in a rolling flame of destruction that lasts for four seconds. You watch with bated breath, but then they come out of it, like whales emerging from the deep- hit yes, batter definitely, but still coming.

cont.

>>1940873

The next salvo was targeted on the Legion's smaller vessels, and this is much more productive. The small destroyers need only half a dozen hits to knock out, the cruisers on average around sixteen. Almost thirty screening vessels are destroyed outright, and twenty more are damaged. The third salvo is again targeted on the enemy screen, and deep satisfaction fills your core as this one proves more effective. A significant percentage of their overall point defense wiped out, almost sixty screening vessels are destroyed, some of those the ships already damaged. Almost forty more are damaged, but the Legion fleet still has over fifty cruisers, let alone their destroyers.

The fourth and final salvo, however, is once again focused on the enemy battleships. With their point defense and jamming so badly out of whack, more missiles make it through, but by some fluke two of the battleships attract only twenty or so missiles each, while the final one is hit by approximately one hundred and forty. It's ripped apart by those deadly lattices of energy, great chunks of armour seared off its ovoid bulk as it's smashed apart.

These battlecruisers and the upgraded missiles courtesy of Flavius have proven their worth, but there's still 2 battleships, 50 cruisers, and a good 30 or so enemy frigates bearing down on you still, and they're decelerating as hard as they can to get you in range. You have just 2 battlecruisers, 11 cruisers, 13 destroyers, and 17 frigates, too little to stand up in a prolonged fight at very close range without some luck.

>Continue decelerating and fight the Legion vessels with your lasers and missiles at close range.
>Stop decelerating, and try to rush past. You'll take your licks, but you can try to stay at missile range and batter them to death.

>>1940922
>Stop decelerating, and try to rush past. You'll take your licks, but you can try to stay at missile range and batter them to death.

>>1940922
>Stop decelerating, and try to rush past. You'll take your licks, but you can try to stay at missile range and batter them to death.

>>1940922
>Blow this popsicle stand

1d100s please.

Rolled 18 (1d100)

>>1940957

Rolled 81 (1d100)

>>1940957

Rolled 28 (1d100)

>>1940957

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>>1940957
>81

Well, no point staying around to get shot up. As one, your squadron flips end for end and starts accelerating again. If you can get ahead of the enemy, then maybe you can wear him down with massed salvos of missiles. Best of all, however, your bow tubes are now exposed, and you start putting out salvos of just over sixty missiles into space. They dive into the enemy fleet, and this time you focus on just a couple of screening ships a time- despite the enemy defences, the grim, constant missile fire gradually punches out ship after ship.

Both you and the enemy fire off either lasers or plasma too, of course, but at the initial ranges and the fact that every ship is constantly manoeuvring, there's simply no way to score hits. But then the distance between you becomes just a single light-second, and in that instant everything happens. Under the massed bow energy fire from your squadron, seventeen enemy cruisers and twenty three destroyers are immediately destroyed. In return, however, all but three of your frigates are blown out of space, you lose five destroyers, and a single cruiser.

Then the range opens up again, and under the constant darting around, few plasma bolts manage to connect, and those that do are reflected by mag shields or disappear in the fury of antimatter drive plumes. You breathe a quiet, mental sigh of relief, and take a moment to gather your bearings. Your battlecruisers took barely a hit, surprisingly, and all your surprising ships are actually in very good shape. But you're left with the question- what to do now? You can fire missiles off-bore, but they'll be much less effective without the initial shove of the tubes to drive them, and will be a much better target for the enemy defence. Of course, you can still try whittling down their numbers enough to engage with energy mounts, or you could attempt to pull out and commence another strike.

>Ships remaining: 2 BCs, 10 CAs, 8 DDs, 2 FGs

>You've devastated the fresh Legion reinforcements, pull out and regroup.
>The longer the enemy is concerned with you, the longer they can't help their friends. Use missiles to whittle them down.
>Perhaps you can stay ahead of them long enough to clear the skies over the world the other Legion ships are attacking with a high-speed run-by.

>>1941116
>>Perhaps you can stay ahead of them long enough to clear the skies over the world the other Legion ships are attacking with a high-speed run-by.

>>1941116
>>Perhaps you can stay ahead of them long enough to clear the skies over the world the other Legion ships are attacking with a high-speed run-by.

>>1941116
>Perhaps you can stay ahead of them long enough to clear the skies over the world the other Legion ships are attacking with a high-speed run-by.

>>1941116
>Perhaps you can stay ahead of them long enough to clear the skies over the world the other Legion ships are attacking with a high-speed run-by.

>>1941116
>Drive-by

You have a speed advantage on the Legion ships chasing you, and as you pile on the speed, the damage of the battleships become obvious as they are incapable of matching your acceleration. For several minutes you pull away, and then the undamaged cruisers and destroyers abandon the battleships to give chase. But even those ships are merely capable of matching your acceleration, and you've eked out a significant lead.

Turning your attention to the besieged planet, you can now make out the ruins of orbital forts and the wreckage of extensive industrial construction. An anti-orbital laser stabs out at the invaders again, and this time it manages to completely core an already-damaged cruiser. Well, one less for you to worry about. A couple more hours pass as you reach your maximum squadron velocity of a hair over .5c and start to refine targeting data for your bow tubes. You're jolted out of the methodical, almost meditative activity by a radio message in the clear. It's coming from the planet.

"Unknown ships, please identify yourself."

>Respond (Write-in).
>Ignore it.

>>1941252
>>Respond
>Enemies of the Legion

>>1941252
>>Respond (Write-in).
Dauntless of the Order (insert full name) here. We noticed you're having a hard time with a mutual enemy. Thought we'd lend assistance.

>>1941252
>Enemy of the Legion, Do not fire upon my vassles. We shall leave soon enough.

>>1941271
Ugh, now I need to go look up the name from like 5 threads ago anon.

>>1941252
>This is Dauntless, do not fire upon my ships.

>>1941252
Okay, I'm seeing a few different things, so just to confirm:
>State your name only
>State your name and where you're from

>>1941328
>State your name only

>>1941328
can't really think of a reason not to, so
>State your name and where you're from

>>1941328
feel free to ignore my vote for the sake of speed though, It doesn't make a large difference to me either way

>>1941328
>>State your name and where you're from

>>1941328
>>State your name and where you're from

>>1941328
>State your name only

Guys, we aren't supposed to tell the humans that the Orders exist.

>>1941328
>State your name only

>>1941328
>Name and where you came from

You check the distance to the planet- still 30 light minutes. Couldn't they have waited? Still, you shrug inwardly and broadcast in return, "Dauntless, of the Order of Radiant Light." Now all you need to do is wait for an hour for your reply to reach them, and their reply to come back. It's actually a bit under an hour, since you're still racing towards the planet.

"I am Grand Master Zylon, of the Order of Tyr's Star. It's surprising to see you, Dauntless, but hardly unwelcome. From your vector, I'm assuming you plan to take out the enemy ships currently in orbit of our Stronghold. If you do, then I have some weapons that should be able to assist you against the remainder of the Great Enemy." Presumably that's what they named the Legion? Weird, though you suppose it's quite easy to mistake them for the Devil. "You'll need to get into orbit, however."

>Acknowledge and reply (Write-in).
>Acknowledge and follow his suggestion.
>Ignore him and continue on after taking out the Legion ships.

>>1941420
>>Acknowledge and follow his suggestion.

>>1941420
>Acknowledge and reply
Ask for the situation on the planet and clarification on these weapons, I'm hesitant to stop in orbit and give up our speed advantage on vague promises.

>>1941420
>Acknowledge and reply (Write-in).
Negative. My ships are not built to take a hit.

Let's stay with hit-and-run as a tactic.

>>1941420
Backing this >>1941443

>>1941420
>Request a sitrep and clarification

You think it over a little, but you really need more data before you can commit.
"Unfortunately, Grand Master, none of my ships can really take a hit like one of the enemy battleships, and I don't want to give up my velocity advantage if I can help it. Could you fill me in on your situation, and what these weapons are?" Now to wait. The reply takes around forty minutes.
"Yes, of course, sorry. I am being pushed hard at current, though I have been able to prevent their ground units from establishing nests. They're horrifically self-replicating, you know... anyway, I was working on a method of deploying missiles defensively, and I settled on packing them into tubes in pods. Unfortunately, the fortresses in orbit were knocked out before I could utilise them, and I lack the telemetry links on-planet to fire them. If I can tie them into your fire control, however, then you can use them against the enemy."

Well, it does sound tempting to try yet another fancy new weapon, and the enemy ships behind you are a good hour or so from catching up. You'd probably have time to set it up.

>Go along with the Grand Master's plan.
>Go with your original plan.

>>1941498
>Go along with the Grand Master's plan.

>>1941498
>Go along with the Grand Master's plan.

>>1941498
>>Go along with the Grand Master's plan.

>>1941498
>Grand Master knows best
One final roll of those 1d100s, then we'll finish up for the night.

Rolled 47 (1d100)

>>1941520

Rolled 76 (1d100)

>>1941520

>>1941498
>Go along with the Grand Master's plan.

Rolled 3 (1d100)

>>1941520

Rolled 16 (1d100)

>>1941520

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>>1941520
>76

Taking out the orbiting Legion ships is probably the easiest part of the plan, as all the ships are outside mutual PD support range. You fire off several salvos with your bow tubes, and the anti-orbital defences on the planet sweep up any damaged ships. You have to dedicate two full salvos to the damaged battleship, but it can't take that much damage in the end, and you lose no ships. Stopping, of course, is the harder part. Decelerating as hard as you dare, your squadron juuust manages to slow enough to use a gravity trap around the planet, though your smaller ships end up taking some damage from hitting debris.
"Dauntless." A com laser reaches up from the planet below as hundreds of heavy lifter shuttles erupt up from the surface. "It's good to meet you in the flesh, as it were. Now, let's get you tied into the tactical network..."

The Order of Tyr's Star use slightly different protocols, but it isn't too hard to adapt them from the ones you use, and all the while, the missile pods that the Grand Master mentioned are carefully extricated and moved to where they have a clear line of fire on the incoming Legion fleet. In the space of an hour, you manage to tie in one hundred and forty six missile pods into your fire control to beef up your own broadside. They float all around your squadron as you sit in orbit, locking in on the Legion ships. The range closes to thirty light-seconds, and you fire.

Each of the pods that you have in your fire control have ten missiles loaded. They're not quite as advanced as yours, but make up for it by being slightly larger than the ones you usually pack into a battleship. In that single salvo, you fire one thousand, four hundred and sixty missiles straight into the teeth of the Legion, and in comparison, your own squadron's broadside of two hundred pales somewhat. But not quite. Because that entire pod salvo was focused entirely on the fleet's screen, and in one massive cacophony of destruction, every single Legion cruiser and destroyer is simply swept away as if God himself removed them from the cosmos. You feel a savage glee, but it isn't as strong as when your squadron's ship-launched salvo is split evenly between the remaining two battleships, and those too are obliterated.

The wreckage of the Legion fleet sweeps past the planet, some just managing to catch the thing atmosphere as you take a moment to rest in relief of a job well done.

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>>1941658
And that is where we'll be stopping for this week. Apologies again for being too out of it yesterday, and the slightly rushed finish tonight. As always, follow me on twitter etc etc, and I'll see you all next week.

>>1941658
>>1941663
can we blast the legion in atmo? No loose ends.

>>1941667
Don't worry, that's being taken care of by the Grand Master with his literally millions of drones.

>>1941676
Wait. Where are the knights? Did they get wiped out and that is why their homebase was nearly overwhelmed?

>>1941800
Possible. I for my part am 65% sure the AI in Dauntless' cargo hold is one of the Tyr's.