Talk:Prometheus Corporation Naval Fleet/@comment-32153758-20140309131337/@comment-11135771-20140309171449

Inside the crippled station, there was complete chaos. Fires burned through the halls of Icarus Station, spreading faster than they could be put out as the laser bombardment from the Aeon continued. A direct hit on an ammunition cache caused a massive explosion, ripping out through the station's hull. In one of the auxiliary control rooms located in the station's arms, vice admiral Ariana Crowe and a handful of surviving officers and other crew sat at their control terminals, attempting to mount an effective defense with the remaining weaponry.

Rapid-fire strings of commands went out, directed not to those whose specific duties they were but simply any who were alive and capable of performing them. "All weapons, concentrate fire on the Aeon. Deploy Gargoyles ten at a time; spread out and focus on disabling its lasers. Fire RCS and angle the station so that only our side profile is facing the Aeon, and keep adjusting based on its movement. Engineers, work on getting the warp drive back online."

Another volley of laser fire impacted the station, ripping through one of the arms and causing it to break free of the rest of the station. The remains of the connecting struts glowed white from the heat of the lasers. Another barrage caused damage throughout the station, explosions ripping through Icarus' hull.

Back in the auxiliary control room, a bulkhead ruptured from the heat, exploding outward and throwing several crew members across the room as the superheated water pipes turn to steam.

"Damage report," requested Admiral Crowe, almost eerily calm amidst the chaos.

The nearest officer scrambled to the nearest working console, somewhat hampered by his broken leg. "Uh, critical damage throughout. Twenty eight of the main ion beam cannons are down, as well as a quarter of the laser turrets. Station core, NPB projector, and central control room are just about destroyed. One arm section has detached completely, though its reactor and weapons are still mostly intact."

"Raise Razanal on the comms, let me know when you've got a stable link." She turned to one of the other officers, requesting a tablet. He scanned the room for one, finding the only tablet to be in the hands of a dead body on the floor. Wincing, he pried out the device from under the crewman's corpse and handed it to the admiral.

Ariana took the tablet without looking, pulling out a pencil and a pad of paper from her pocket. She switched to the calculator function of the tablet, hastily typing in complicated sequences of equations while writing them down on the paper.

"Admiral, we have a communications channel open to Harbinger."

She switched to it on the tablet. "Razanal, Icarus Station has come under attack by HYDRAXIS. We're critically damaged and in decaying orbit. I need three aerospace warships to warp in below and behind the Aeon, immediately."

Razanal responded quickly, contacting three of the Shadow of Darkened Skies II-class airships attacking the Neo-Earth coast. "How many HYDRAXIS ships are up there?"

"Only the Aeon now, they ha- (cut off by explosions) -ed but the rest ran out of missiles and warped out."

"What condition is Icarus Station in? Can it be repaired?"

"Negative, we're falling out of orbit and the station is a lost cause. One of the arms got shot off, the core is fried, and structural integrity is critical. Listen, I need you to send a force to attack the HYDRAXIS base on Neo-Earth. Draw as many of their ships back to defend as possible, and be ready to warp out. I'm going to deorbit Icarus directly on top of their HQ, and I want to take out as much of their fleet as possible," Ariana said while continuing to calculate their trajectories.

"You're going to deorbit!? That is a multi-trillion dollar investment up there! Warp out of the gravity well instead."

"Razanal, this is a multi-trillion dollar orbital scrap heap. If you can draw back enough of their ships, it'll cost them more."

There was silence on the other end for a moment, followed by a sigh. "Alright, I'll do it. You owe me a station though."

The vice admiral closed the channel, doing a few final calculations before turning to one of the engineers. "Have you got the warp drive back up yet?" she asked.

"Almost there, just give us a few more minutes!"

"We don't have-"

Outside, Razanal's ships warp in, positioned below and behind the Aeon, out of the cone of fire of most of the larger ship's weapons. They open fire, lasers, missiles, and guns ripping through the hull of the Aeon. Explosions blossom out from the ship's underside, silent in the vacuum of space. Already weakened by the Gargoyles' attacks and Icarus' remaining weapons, the vessel is torn apart by the attack.

"Never mind, we have time. Get that drive operational."

Minutes pass. The station falls, orbit sufficiently decayed that it is nearly into the upper atmosphere by now.

"Warp drive is back online."

"Excellent," said Ariana. "Now get everyone to the escape pods. Take only the minimum number you need, I still need one and the rest will be deployed as MIRVs."

The remaining crew comply, and the vice admiral goes back to her tablet, updating the calculation model with their current trajectory before beginning the warp drive charging sequence and running through a mental checklist of all the factors in play.

Velocity of Icarus Station relative to Neo-Earth: Twelve point oh six three kilometres per second laterally, seven point eight two oh vertically.

''HYDRAXIS main base located at 43.567 degrees N, 127. 583 degrees E.''

Mass of the station's remaining structure: 180 million tons, approximately.

Warp drive charged in five seconds.

Kinetic energy: More than enough.

Ariana cued up a set of commands on the station's automation, telling it to jump above and to the east of the HYXDRAXIS base in thirty seconds, and to deploy all remaining escape pods at thirty five, before hitting the enter key and sprinting for the nearest capsule. She closed the airlock, and then ejected the pod, watching the station fall farther away before vanishing in a flash of light.

She had the video feed from the station connected to her tablet, and watched from the pod as the station warped in above the target. Orbital speed was a very, very fast in atmosphere, and the station blazed toward the HYDRAXIS base, flaming from the atmospheric friction. Ariana counted to five, and on cue the escape pods deployed. They burned up much more quickly, but enough would still hit. She could see the HYXDRAXIS and Prometheus fleets engaged around and above the vicinity, bright flashes of light on the horizon from hundreds of guns firing on both sides, growing steadily larger. As she had requested, the Prometheus fleet was on standby, and warped away as soon as the glow of the burning, falling station was visible. The HYDRAXIS ships began the charge sequence, but it was too late. Far too late.

The station impacted with the energy of a thousand nuclear strikes, easily visible from orbit as a blinding flare on the southern continent. The empty escape pods acted as smaller kinetic kill vehicles, spreading out from their point of launch to impact the surrounding areas. Nothing within fifty miles of the target could have survived.

Vice Admiral Ariana Crowe opened a comm channel to the nearest Prometheus warship, still in orbit above. "This is vice admiral Crowe to aerospace warship Specter of Shattered Seas II, requesting pickup. I believe I owe Razanal a space station."