P3R-285 (New Velokian Outpost World)

Tucked away in a quiet little corner of the Milky Way lies a gem of a planet, very similar to Earth.  This planet was chosen by the Velokian's for a new outpost both for it's proximity to their Home World, and it's strategic value.  Rich in resources needed for ship building, this formerly uninhabited world is one of the few untouched by any alien race.  Until now.


The Morioka exited Hyper-Space into the middle of a war zone.  The unidentified enemy vessels now numbered 40, easily more than enough to overwhelm the 'token' force the Velokian's had at the planet.

While powerful ships themselves, the Velokian's were greatly outnumbered, as they only had three of their Cruisers, and a single, newer model Warship available.  Outnumbered 40 to 4, the Velokian's were unfortunately, getting their asses handed to them by the marauding fleet.  While there were a small number of the Millburn interceptors still in the fight, the enemy had launched fighters of their own, and the debris in orbit seemed to be mostly that of Velokain ships than the enemy.  More ships would be needed, and fast, even as the outpost's distress signal continued on all channels, open for anyone to hear and locate.


The Captain of the Morioka stood on the bridge, not liking what he was seeing.  The enemy force had doubled in size in the time it had taken them to get here, and they already would have been badly outnumbered.  They needed more ships, and fast, but they had to make due with what they had.

"Start scrambling the Jackson and Grant fighter wings and get them out there, we're going to need to go all in.  Comms, find out where the hell the rest of our ships are.  Tactical, take us to battle stations and engage the first available target, and if you find a weakened one, target at your discretion, we need to even these numbers out or this fight's going to be over soon."

As the crew scrambled to make things happen, the sensors alerted them to multiple hyper-space windows opening up nearby,  One of the crew spoke up quickly.

"Multiple hyper-space windows, all friendly.  Fifteen ships just dropped out and are joining the fight.  Long range sensors are detecting another fourteen ships en route, ETA three minutes to seven minutes for the furthest out."


A quick glance at the information screens would reveal the Allied Fleet that had just arrived consisted of the following ships:

2 Scalerious Class Draque Vessels (Including the Scalerious herself)
1 Skil'Ta Class Draque Vessel
4 Alveran Kara Class
2 Wraith Hive Ships
3 Asgard Beliskner
3 Asgard O'Neill



Ships on the way according to the Sensors:

1 Olsen Class
1 Carter Class
1 Draque Skil'Tarus Battle Carrier
2 Velokian Warships
2 Volara Class Vorian Ships
2 Tollana Class Tollan Ships
2 Ha'Tak
1 Unknown Signature broadcasting Alveran Frequencies, 7 Minutes out.
2 Velokian Cruisers


((Will give everyone else a chance to respond before proceeding any further.  The enemy forces will be mixed to say the least, still determining the composition of the force, plus at this point, no one can identify who these aliens are just yet.))

As the ships that were arriving from Peltas reached the battle, an additional ship had arrived among them, also transmitting an aliied code. From the code, the Morioka's crew could probably figure out why it didn't show up at first. The Observer was with them, and the ship was, likely due to technology on board, difficult to register as usual.

Fairly quickly, Solomon maneuvered his ship into the center of the allied formation. Over the comm channel, he called out, "Observer here. Going to be focusing on co-ordination."

The warning beeps of sensors indicated the arrival of another ship to the fray from an unexpected direction. No hyperspace signatures were detected, just a large mass coming around the planet from it's sensor shadow. It moved a significant portion of the speed of light, the planet's gravity well turning it towards the center of the conflict.

The ship was a massive crescent about 12km in diameter, and it seemed to come alive as it plummeted towards the battle, lighting up with sickly green energy as it powered on. Engines flared, and it slowed to a combat speed with a force that should have torn it apart, contacting one of the unknown ships and damaging it severely. It also tore a rent in its own hull from the contact, though no atmosphere vented from the rent. Then it opened fire on the other unknown ships, not seeming to target any of the Allied ships with its strange energy weapons. It broadcast no identification, and seemed to ignore the Velokian and allied ships, shields flaring as the unknowns ships began to return fire.

Energy was flying everywhere in space as the Allied ships and the attackers exchanged shots, though some of the fire shifted over to the newcomer as the attacking vessels seemed to consider it a bigger threat than the allied ships.

There was a decent bit of comms chatter regarding the arrival of the ship, however as it seemed to only be attacking the enemy vessels, the allied ships left it alone for the most part, periodically though they would take shots at the enemy vessels attacking it, taking whatever shot presented itself, and the best available to maximize damage.

After a few minutes, a number of other hyper-space windows opened, as the rest of the fleet joined in. A few moments later, one final window opened, and a very different vessel emerged, moving into combat position and launching it's own fighters, even as the other carriers did the same.

Moments later, Siphon's image came up on the viewscreen of the allied vessles.

"Sorry we're late. Looks like shit's really hitting the fan. Be advised, I can confirm at least some of these ships are definitely Klarnell in origin. I think it's safe to assume the others with them are commandeered ships, or newer models I haven't seen before today. Let's deal with these bastards and then clean up the ones on the planet, I'm detecting a number of them planet side as well."


One of the other captains responded back to him about the new ship, to which Siphon responded he'd deal with it himself before closing the channel. Even as he opened a new, private comm to the other ship, his own was engaging the Klarnell in battle, letting loose it's own blend of firepower.


Opening a channel to the other vessel, Siphon leaned forward slightly in his chair, unsure of how this was going to play out, especially if even half of what he'd been told about the species this ship likely belonged to was true.

"This is Commander Siphon/Talvesh of the Alveran Warship Nasara, hailing the Necron vessel. Please identify yourselves, and your purpose in this star system. Respond when possible, I will be awaiting your transmission."


Meanwhile, the Klarnell ships were starting to take a beating as the allied vessels were starting to really tag team ships at once, focusing fire, and from time to time, pot shotting the ships the 'unknown' vessel was raking. It seemed they were taking full advantage of those ships being damaged by the unknown, and firing on them to dispose of them faster, rather than waiting for the ship to take them out alone and spread their firepower too thin. The Klarnell meanwhile, seemd in disarray, not using the same strategy as of yet, which struck some of the allied captains as strange ....

((Should give you something to work with Shrike, and maybe for you as well Copper.))

Once the new vessel appeared, Solomon immediately noticed something on his sensors... There were zero registering life-signs aboard.

Once the rest of the fleet arrived, though, he was tied up playing spotter, sending targeting data around to the other Alliance ships, high-lighting the more damaged of them. He'd shot a brief data packet to the Nasara, once Siphon arrived, with the sensor readings he'd gotten on the newcomer. "I'll let him handle that..."

Occasionally, one of the Klarnell ships would try to fire on the Observer... Only for the shots to seemingly pass right through the ship as if there were just empty space there.

Siphon's screen flickered as the connection was returned. The view was dominated by a metal death's head topped with a crest, a green glowing crystal in the center, matched by the sickly greenfire glow in the head's eyes. Behind was a few panels of dark metal, flickering green lights casting shadows about. The lines of the face were delicate, though the structure itself was metallic and harsh. Behind, metallic tendrils reminiscent of dreadlocks writhed. When it spoke, the mouth did not move, though the voice came across clear, feminine and with a cadence that sounded almost Bohemian. It was also currently dripping with disdain.

"You are speaking to Phaerekh Ossuaria of the Nihillakh Dynasty, Nemesor of this vessel and it's legions. Be glad that my purpose here aligns with your organic concerns, and stay out of my way. This other race has earned my ire." She said, those eyes glancing away briefly, then returning. Out in space, the ship focused an entire quadrant of fire on a single ship, melting through it's shields and tearing though a segment near the engines, the ship's power flickering and dying, starting to drift as leftover energy from the attack arced over the hull.

(We'll jump the ME crew into the fray for the time being.  I'm going to presume the Normandy's had time to be patched up from her arrival and they've had time to fit her with some form of working jump drive equivalent.)

While generally not a combat vessel, the Normandy had seen her fair share of dogfights and when word came down that there were allies in need of aid, the crew wasted no time in jumping in to help.  With the coordinates relayed to EDI, Joker guided the ship after the Nasara, making the jump after the declaration of 'Hang on to something, people!  We don't know what we're dropping into!'

Which turned out to be unnervingly similar to the fight with Sovereign.  A massive amount of ships all maneuvering and swarming each other.  Operating on the logic of "If they're shooting at us, they're the bad guys," he joined in the strike runs, blasting the targets with the Thanix cannon before streaking past and banking around for another pass.  What made the Normandy so dangerous wasn't the firepower, however.  It was that she was practically a ghost in the combat...at least according to the enemy sensors.  Thanks to the IES system on board, the only way to locate the Alliance vessel was literally to spot it with the naked eye and given most targeting sensors didn't work that way, the ship was usually gone by the time any sort of shot could be lined up.

Meanwhile, on board the Nasara, Ian was hitchhiking with Siphon this time around.  Not much he could do on board but observe, which was what he was doing when the transmission from the other ship patched through.  "That's unnervingly similar to the goa'uld aesthetic," Siphon hears with a bit of a chuckle.  Given, too, that he's not an active participant in the combat, it does give him the opportunity to observe the field, as it were.  "You gettin' the idea they're lackin' a general at this junction?"

Another spectator to the fight was on the Normandy. Ariana sat in an unused chair on the bridge, focused on the readouts as well. She was hoping for an inkling of warning when they were targeted to give Joker an extra second or two to react, but so far, the nimble frigate had not had any issues. Her own Falcon was powered down in the bay. There was a chance she could land a torpedo on one of the larger ships about, but it hadn't seemed necessary once the reinforcements entered the fight. And to be honest, she was kind of glad she wasn't out there in her tiny fighter.

There was the briefest of amused looks on Siphon's face at the reply, but it was gone a moment later.

"It's their funeral then, we've got our own issues with them as well. But picking a fight with you as well? They truly have a death wish. I'll pass the word along, happy hunting."

He would cut the channel shortly after, waiting to see if she replied first before doing so.


Turning to Ian he nodded.

"Yeah, getting vibes from both sides actually, though I know far less about the Necrons than I do the Klarnell. The Klarnell though ... they're massively disorganized right now which is unusual for them. Even with the Necron ship wreaking havok, we shouldn't be having this easy of a time with their fleet. They're either distracted by something, or trying to set us up for something else."

He paused then added, "As far as for the Gou'ald ... well at least it's nothing we haven't dealt with before."


Meanwhile he had sent a transmission that the Necron vessel was, at least for now, to be given a berth to do it's own thing and that it was not against them. At least for now anyway. He had no idea how things would turn out once the Klarnell were finished, but he'd deal with that when the time came.


For the most part, Ariana didn't have a whole lot to do given the Klarnell definitely were having issues even managing to get a shot off at them, instead seeming to largely ignore the ship, either by choice, or because they simply couldn't even SEE it.

Finally though it seemed she'd have some 'action', as one of the mid sized ships seemed to get a bead on them, and began firing what seemed like a wave of purple energy at them...

((Can't remember if it was Ariana that had the pre-cognition ability or not, let me know Shrike and if I can I'll make a small edit to this to accomodate for that.))

The glowing eyes flicked back to regard Siphon at his response, but the Phaerekh did not reply before he ended the transmission. The rent in the ships hull had almost entirely sealed up again, and a squadron of fighter ships erupted from a central bay to harass enemy fighters trying to find weak points in the Necron ship's point defense batteries. It continued to ignore the allied ships, a few of the arcing electrical shots even seeming to arc and stutter around them to strike ships that otherwise would have had cover from them.

"Joker, incoming." Ariana said quickly as the danger flashed across her mind, pinging the enemy ship that had targeted them just as it's weapons zeroed in on them. It was only a second or two before the automated warning response, but with Joker's piloting skill, the additional warning should be plenty of time.

Knowing where the attack was coming from gave Joker the edge he needed.  The dodge was unnervingly close, but given the style of the attack, he chose to move onto a different plane than the wave that was shot out at them, watching the energy pulse shoot past them into the void.  Turning his head briefly, Ariana got a "Thanks for the head's up!" before he put his attention back on the combat in front of them.  "You know, EDI, you might learn a thing or two from her."
The electronic voice chirped back from the coms, "Jeff, while I am capable of calculating the probability of when and where an enemy attack might be coming from, I am not, as you say, a mind reader."  There's a very brief pause and the AI seems to have a chuckle in her voice.  "Wouldn't it be interesting if I were?"
Ariana might catch the briefest look of concern, something more of an "oh shit I do not want to think about that possibility" cross the pilot's face.  Thankfully, the fact that they are still in the middle of a firefight is enough to distract him from that train of thought.

Ian mulled over Siphon's words while he watched the other ships cutting through the Klarnell.  "Enemy of my enemy and all that," he says of the Necrons.  But since the other ship didn't seem inclined to bother them at the moment, he didn't seem too concerned.  Instead, he focused on the other probability:  the Klarnell were losing on purpose.  A feint to make the group think that they had them on the ropes only to be lead into an ambush.  He makes no bones about voicing the thought to Siphon, sure the other man thought about it, but perhaps directing his thoughts to the idea to help him see through any potential ruse.  "Or," he adds on, "we have a rogue faction that's acting against the wishes of the main body, which accounts for the lack of direction."

(Not that I think y'all will think that, but when I say 'different plane' it's Joker moving the Normandy up so the wave passes beneath it. Change in altitude, so to speak, as much as one can do that in space.)

Siphon glanced over at Ian, slowly nodding.

"I did consider it could be a trick yes, I wouldn't put it past them, though it would be somewhat out of character for them in a space fight. Although, perhaps the trick or trap isn't with regards to space, they could be trying to lure us in to committing into landing crews down on the surface, try to hit us with our shields down or something. Though if it is a rogue faction ... well I'm not sure what to say on that."


The Normandy had no issue avoiding the wave of energy as it went harmlessly shooting past them. For the most part, the Klarnell continued to 'ignore' them, though ever now and then Ariana would have a brief flash about a potential strike on them. Nothing she wouldn't be able to handle though as it seemed perhaps they were just lucky guesses, or even intended for other targets and they just happened to be in the wrong spot themselves.

However, Ariana did get a flash from an unexpected source. As the Normandy began a particular attack run, there was a more insistent flash in her mind in which the ship they were moving towards suddenly exploded, her pre-cognition telling her if they didn't abort the run, they'd be engulfed in the explosion of what seemed to be a breached hyper-drive core going off. What was of note to her was in her vision, the ship hadn't taken any notable external damage prior to it, something she might note seemed out of place, after of course ensuring they didn't get blown up.


The Klarnell gave up very quickly on trying to hit the Observer, and Solomon could almost hear their frustration ...



While all of this was going on, sensors began detecting a number of Klarnell on the surface of the planet, even as some of the fighter craft broke off from the fight and began heading towards the planet...


((Little bit of stuff before I start really moving this along. Apologies for the long delay.))

"It's... Only sort of like that." Ariana commented, frowning slightly as they evaded the shot and continued to fight. When the next flash washed over her, she shuddered, then marked the ship. "Back off, it's already going up." She told Joker quickly.

The necron ship had already sown chaos in the middle of the Klarnell fleet. Dozens of return shots had worked through it's shields to blow potholes in it's own hull in retaliation, each one slowly seeming to melt and flow back into it's original configuration. It ignored the fighters leaving the combat in favour of the planet, continuing to hammer at the larger ships.

Joker, very used to dogfights, not to mention with EDIs help, being able to navigate around spacial debris, had little trouble maneuvering the Normandy out of the way of the explosion. The shields may have taken a hit in the rear of the ship but nothing damaging to the actual structure of the Normandy.
"I am aware," EDI chirped in response to Ariana. "It's just easier if I break things down into the simplest common denominator for Jeff."
"Hey, I'm right here."
EDI's interface blinked out for a second and then back in, which Ariana might gather as the equivalent of the AI 'winking' at her.
"If you're done making fun of me, maybe you can try and pick up anything from our exploded friends out there? See if we can figure out why they blew up. Given what that was, my money's on some sort of internal sabotage."
"Given the way the Klarnell operate, I don't think that is the case. You may, however, have to get closer."
"We'll see about that. "Hey, Big Guy," Joker hailed Siphon through the comm. "You want us to take a pass down and chase those fighters? Might make us sitting ducks for any anti-aircraft they got down there, though."
"We could also send down a probe to scan the surface," EDI cut in. "However that would require us to maintain a steady orbit. Ill-advised right now unless someone could keep them off our backs."

Ari chuckled. Some people may find EDI off-putting, but she had been living with an AI like her for years, so the thought didnt bother her. "I didnt see what caused the explosion either. Too far removed from the actual threat. I-" she paused briefly, little more than a blink, and she pinged another enemy ship.
"Another incoming. I could chase them down in my Falcon as well. As for a stationary orbit, theres a fair amount of debris up, we could nudge one to a good place and park on the inside of it's orbit, perhaps. Used to do that with asteroids, and Jeff certainly seems capable of the maneuvering necessary for such a larger ship."

There was a brief pause before Siphon replied.

"We're diverting some of our fighters to assist you with the ones heading to the planet. We're not detecting any Klarnell structures or ships other than fighter craft down there, but just to be safe, I'm making sure you have some escorts. The hives are launching more darts as well to assist. For now we need to make sure the Klarnell don't bail out with any captives, I've a feeling they may try to do so now that they've broken through the initial lines of defense. We ... Stand by!"


Another Klarnell ship suddenly exploded with no apparent reason for it, this time closer to the Nasara. As it did, another smaller Klarnell ship began making a move to break orbit of the planet, a strange energy signature building up that clearly was not an FTL drive. A few scans suggested some sort of magnetic resonance build up, but what could that possibly accomplish?

"Make your run to the planet. All other available ships, target the engines of that retreating Klarnell vessel.
I believe they may be trying to open an anomaly and leave. We can't let them. If I'm right, this may be the break we need to learn how they move through time. Target to disable, then prepare to storm that ship once the remaining vessels are dealt with. I'll advise out new ... friends."

He sent a quick message to the Necron vessel advising them of what was going on, followed with a request that they not destroy the vessel. After a moment he added that they had reason to believe a key tactical advantage could be gained by this action, and he'd explain more later when there wasn't a fire fight going. Whether they responded or not would be anyones guess, but he was at least hoping they'd steer clear of the intended target.

The Observer moved slightly into a new position. While it didn't really have heavy weapons to deal with the running ship, Solomon was going to make use of the ship's sensors to get as much data as possible.

Once that was dealt with, he repositioned the ship again, and began trying to feed scans and data to the fighters and control ships, helping coordinate that fight.

"Roger that. We'll see if we can't get figure out what's going on down there." Joker shot a brief look to Ari and also informed the rest of the Normandy crew to "hang on to something. Might get a little bumpy." He'll steer the Normandy into position with the rest of the fighters, ready to make the run down toward the planet itself. "EDI, keep an eye on that one," he stated of the one they're not supposed to blow up. If nothing else, in addition to the data Solomon was gathering, they might be able to pick up something, being at a closer and possibly more visual range.

Ari nodded, leaning into her console a bit and gripping it with both hands. "Like the good old days. Course, I'm usually flying through the bumps, but I think you've got it handled." She said with a smirk, before glancing over to Lil. "...He does have it handled, right?"

The Necron ship pinged reception of Siphon's message, it's heavier weapons turning away to other targets to clear flying lines while a swarm of small crescent shaped fighters changed course to harass the ship, aiming to disable the engines with their green energy rays. Once they passed the shields, the weapons almost seemed to just deconstruct whatever they found, eating away at layer after layer of armour at the rear of the ship.

Siphon watched the Necron weaponry go to work on the Klarnell vessel, admiring their work.

"Damned efficient weaponry theirs is. Going to make this very interesting once the Klarnell are dispatched."


A number of ships began working to disable the vessel, targeting shields, weapons and engines, soon enough managing to disable the ship with their combined fire power. They wouldn't be able to beam over just yet, but the rest of the fight seemed to be going well enough that things could change soon.


Meanwhile as the Normandy made her run towards the planet, several things happened at once. First, their sensors began detecting strange energy readings coming from the planet. Second, a Klarnell vessel managed to get a bead on them, but the surprise came in that the flash Ariana got wasn't of their impending potential doom from being shot at, but rather from an explosion that came from nowhere.

Moments later, the Klarnell ship that had been about to fire on them exploded. This time sensors would detect an odd anomaly from within the ship, almost as if some sort of implosion had happened within the ship's primary power systems. Something was clearly not normal with this fight, and now it was obvious, these ships were being sabotaged, but by what, or whom?

Ariana frowned, the flash barely registering at this range, but she pinged the offending ship. "It's going up as well, get some distance." She warned Joker.

Once the fleeing ship was disabled, most of the necron fighters returned to the main ship, a trio remaining, using their weaponry to burn a hole through the hull into a cargo bay. Siphon's comms would light up with an incoming communication from the Phaerekh again. Her crested head appeared when he accepted it.
"I plan to board that ship and inspect it's computer and navigation records. You organics may as well, but I suggest you prepare to explore in a vacuum. You are capable of this, yes?"

There was a moment pause before Siphon responded, having to make sure things with the battle were taken care of for the moment. When he did respond, he nodded to her.

"Indeed we can manage that. Once there is an appropriate gap for us we will meet you aboard the vessel and see what secrets she holds. I'll bring along a few surprises in the event the Klarnell also find themselves a way to survive the vacuum. Until then."


He would end the transmission after she acknowledged, then turn back to getting things situated to beam over.


((Holding off on anything major until Copper can respond))

EDI will, of course, inform Joker of the energy readings, and almost immediately start to analyze them.  That will also prompt her to hail over to the Nasara, informing them and relaying anything that she might be picking up on.

"Uh, right here.  And of course I do," comes from Joker at the aside to Lilith.

That prompts a laugh from the Commander.  "He does.  I have faith in Joker.  Moreso in his burning desire to make sure nothing happens to the Normandy."

When they're informed of the Klarnell ship going up yet again, that prompts a concerned comment from Lil.  "Not that I don't like someone else doing our job for us but these implosions are getting worrisome.  Glad you can keep us notified of them, since I don't care if the enemy is blowing up--"

"I don't want it happening near my ship," concludes Joker, to which Lil nods.

"Perhaps it has something to do with the energy signature," EDI offers.  "Something in the signature may be resonating with the Klarnell equipment and causing the instability."

"But why aren't more of them blowing up then?  There's got to be something else going on.  Like, maybe someone on planet sabotaged the ships but they weren't able to get them all."

"You know, it's mostly been the ones that have been targeting us," Joker observed.  "Maybe it has something to do with us and them?"

Regardless, he continues the run toward the planet, making note of the rogue vessel with the other odd signature that had been diving toward the surface.  The last thing they needed was for the two of them to interact in a bad way and he wanted to be able to bug out if that turned out to be the case.

Siphon frowned as EDI sent over the readings.

"Very odd indeed, something about this though seems oddly familiar, I can't place why though. As for why only some are and not others ... perhaps this energy reading needs to be in close proximity to the Klarnell ships.
Then again ... each one that's blown up thus far had been of the same class so to speak, perhaps there's a design flaw that's being exploited somehow that the others aren't vulnerable to?"


Meanwhile the Normandy made it's way towards the planet, detecting more odd energy readings. These energy reading were accompanied by extremely high burst magnetic signatures, as if a mini magnetic pole were somewhere beneath the descending ship ....



Finally, enough of an opening made itself apparent that Siphon could beam aboard with a small crew to the Klarnell ship that they had disabled. He would beam over, leaving Aya in command of the ship for now, not wanting her anywhere near both potential Klarnell AND Necrons.

((Will leave it up to you Copper and Shrike as to who of your chars are joining him. Figuring for him he's likely only taking some random officers with him this time. Making new thread for the ship.))

Thankfully, the Normandy is able to withstand even strong magnetic fields, though probably best to not push their luck too far.

"Hey, I think, we got, like, a transmitter or something on the surface," Joker will call over after Lilith takes in the readings from what they're experiencing during their descent. "EDI, start scanning. See if you can't locate the source of that energy reading or if it's the planet itself."

(Figure the Normandy folk will stay with the ship/do that end of things. Ian might tag along with Siphon, provided it's viable.)