A VERY VERY late but previously undiscovered and unposted Malarca Space Battle Log!

[Amy Vaughan <amyv@houston.rr.com>]

Somehow I managed to unearth this while looking through my log files....



Darish sits us in the Captain chair, yawning quite a bit after a bad
night's sleep. Until now, this has been a kind of a boring assignment,
nothing much, not even one good fight.
Bajazet Frigate -- Star of Sheushet
The Star of Sheushet is squat and solid, but not without elegance in its
particularly Bajazet architectural design. It was built a century ago
under the maxim 'the devil is in the detail' and saw active combat only
once before being relegated to policing the asteroid-field and mining
activities that belt the Malarca system. It has a flattened base and its
sides slope upwards, covered in lumpy protrusions, towards a circular
bridge set at the top of the ship. The bridge's convex sides curve up to
a tall radar antennae which lends it the look of a mosque's dome. From
the bridge, five large arches like flying buttresses run down the front
and sides of the ship, securing long narrow towers that rise from its
sides like minarets, a variety of weaponry jutting from the end of each
one. The original design was successfully used in a previous war to
disguise four frigates from orbital sattelites in the outskirts of a
Bajazet city, the domes and minaretsblending into the temple district
and catching the attackers unawares as they shot into low orbit.
Contents:
Feleyze
Darish
Darius checks the screens at his post, not expecting anything.
Darish picks us a clipboard and looks at the latest manifest reports,
"Darius, be sure to tell command that we need more supplies, this is
getting ridiculous."

Outside, From Harkonnen Destroyer -- Severence, Der Kaiser Holzhammer
thumps out
 of her fitting bay, the Swordmaster's upper body projecting from the
open face
of her suit. "This will be a difficult mission," she says in her flat,
matter-of
-fact way. She gestures expansively as she speaks. "We are working
within a narr
ow window of opportunity. We must take command of the vessel, calculate
her traj
ectory and burn, and withdraw in time to meet the Severence when she has
made on
e full orbit. We will launch when we come into alignment with the target
vessel.
 That is time minus: three minutes on my mark. We must leave no
survivors who ma
y be able to change the trajectory. There are no less than three
warships escort
ing our target, none more than destroyer class. They will surely attempt
to stop
 our victim before she can complete her burn. Are we prepared?"

Darius speaks into a comm to do as was ordered.

Outside, From Harkonnen Destroyer -- Severence, A shout goes up from the
Jagers.
 "Ai! Jagerkapitan! We are prepared!!!" They hoist their weapons, lower
their vi
sors, check the fuel in their tanks, and make ready for launch.

Darish looks around and sighs, "Navigation, what's going on with those
two tankers we sent three hours ago?"

Darius looks confused. "I'm not sure, Captain, they've completely
vanished from
my screens."

Outside, From Harkonnen Destroyer -- Severence, Sen withdraws into her
dampframme like a fern curling up on itself, the robot sealing itself
around her. Her harmonic, bellows-amplified voice declares as she aligns
herself with the first of
the twenty ejection tubes. "For the Baron! Time and launch! Mark!"
ar counsle, Darish, shocked, looks at it, very excited, "What was that?"

You say, "A ship sir...wait, no, i'm reading twenty, they're not ships!"

Outside, From Harkonnen Destroyer -- Severence, The Jagers, drilled to
perfectio
n by Sen's inhuman devotion to combat, take their places. A chronometer
ticks of
f the seconds to launch. 4...3...2...1. LAUNCH!

At the signal, a technician throws a lever, ejecting each dampframme one
after the other.

Feleyze looks up from his radar control with a paniced look.
"Torpedoes?" He sta
res again. "No they've no radar trace.. they ejected something sir"
Darius says, a tinge of panic in his voice, "Evasive maneuvers,
captain?"
A report comes out from one of the officers, "Sir, we have one Harkonnen
destroy
er and 19, no, 20 object, appearing to be, BOARDING MODULES!!!"
You say, "Sir, we should arm the crew!"
Darish seems much more alert now, "Sound the alarm, Evasive maneuvers,
power up
all turrets and get ready to be boarded!"

Outside, From Harkonnen Destroyer -- Severence, At the head of a
dragon's tail o
f purple flame, a glittering black tube appears around the edge of the
planet's
face, growing rapidly as it rounds the horizon and passes over the
terminator, b
laring on sensors of every kind. Plasma steams up in an irradiated gash
across M
alarca Secundus' sky, the Severence skimming through the upper traces of
the atm
osphere to confuse tracking and achieve a tighter turn through the
orbital stret
ch towards her target: the Star of Sheuset and her escorts.

Feleyze leans over and smacks a button by the display. A red light in
the cieling and a klaxon sounds a sharp noise

Darius pulls a lever and alarms sound.
Outside, The Bajazet ships seems to wake to life, it's numerous
defensive turret
s are now moving and tracking multiple targets, the ship itself lights
up at the
 amount of power that has been invested in it now."
Outside, Two Bajazet frigates fire thrusters from their base - ghostly
white flames standing out into space as they enter a slow turn picking
up speed and turning to intercept the destroyer.
Feleyze shouts over the klaxon "Sir.. put on a hardsuit, quickly"

Outside, From Harkonnen Destroyer -- Severence, A cloud of meteors
streak throug
h the upper reaches of Malarca's atmosphere; the ablative shields of the
dampfra
mme light like torches as the boarding party vectors for the Star of
Sheuset.
Darish looks at Feleyze, "Fire at will at all incoming targets!
Concentrate on t
he boarding teams and let our escorts take care of the destroyer. Bridge
team, g
et into hardsuits." He orders and does so himself.
Outside, lasgun fire flicks out from the exterior structure of the Star
as the gunners frantically turn their turrets trying to get a bead on
the incoming targets. One of the jaegers is vaporised, another gets
clipped by a shot and starts to spin in the air - a brief flash of fire
snuffed out almost instantly.

Darius puts on a hardsuit and shouts orders into the comm at his station

Outside, From Harkonnen Destroyer -- Severence, Although the Harkonnen
don't like to depend on cumbersome missile technology, they don't eschew
it entirely. Pinholes dilate across the flanks of the Severence, a
glittering swarm of missiles rushing out and sailing serenely towards
the enemy.
A group of soldeirs in hardsuits assume security positions in the bridge
and throughout the ship.
Outside, From Harkonnen Destroyer -- Severence,
Darish returns to his seat, now in a hardsuit, "Status report, come on
people, t
ell me what's going on!"

Darius shouts, "We've only a few seconds before we're boarded, sir! The
Harkonnen ship has bombarded us with missiles!"
Darish nods, "We could take some fire, continue to concentrate all
efforts on the boarding team."
Darius shouts, "Yes sir!" and screams some more orders into his comm.
Feleyze shouts at a junior bridge crew member at another control panel.
"Shields
 to full. Defend our flank!" he yells, a note of hysteria creeping into
his voice. He leaps from his seat and runs hastily across the bridge
towards a rack of hardsuits folded in half, opened. He pulls himself up
on a bar and lowers his legs into one of them trying to pull up the top
half of the suit around him
Darish looks at Feleyze, "Calm down son, it's ok, contact the HQ and
tell them we need more support."

Darius reads his screens and reports, "We taken medium damage, sir, What
next?"
Darish bangs his hand in his chair, "Damage control crew to hull,
shields and engines, take engines to full and to to smash the modules as
they try to latch on."

Darius affirms this a shouts more orders into the comm, flips a switch,
and shouts another order into the comm.
Outside, The Bajazet Frigate increases speed, and try to make the
boarding modules smash into it's shields and hull.

Darius says a quick prayer in Amat.
Using Amat, Darius says, "May Allah give us strength."
Outside, The two Bajazet frigates escorting the Star finish their slow
turn, tur
rets spinning around with frustrating slowness to bear on the Harkonnen
destroyer. Muzzle-flash sparkles from their flanks as high impact
projectiles shoot towards the destroyer faster than the eye can take in
Outside, From Harkonnen Destroyer -- Severence, The modules light as
rockets ignite; they dump velocity as the modules barrel in on the Star.
Only a slow weapon can pierce a shield, after all.

With flashes of blue light, a few penetrate the ship's shield, others
bounce har
mlessly off the shield and explode.
"They passed through our shields," someone screams and falls to the
floor from the burst that came from one of the missles.
Darish speaks into his communicator.
Over your communicator's secure frequency, a man's voice says, "All ship
securit
y teams, get ready to be boarded. I repeat, power up weapons and shoot
on sight,
 get ready to be boarded."
Darius looks to the Captain for orders.
Feleyze swings the upper half of the suit around him and locks it into
place. He
 takes a wickedly sharp heavy duty scimitar from the rack and snaps down
the vis
or on the rounded helmet. Through a microphone on the suit a crackle
comes out "
Sir, I'll defend the bridge" There is a moment's hesitation. "If I can"
Darish looks at one of the screens and mutters, "This is not good, spin
the ship
 360 degrees, lets make this hard on them."
Darius punches in orders for a fifteen-second burn that will spin them
around.
Darish looks at Feleyze again, "This is what they are for," he points at
the security team, "if that scimitar will do you good, so be it but
don't let it harm your work."
Outside, Whether the other Jagers are displeased by this development or
have come to expect it, they make no change in their collective
trajectory, solid rocket boosters thrusting them away from their
mothership, which shoots ahead, unleashing wave after wave of missiles
against the escorts but leaving the Star herself untouched.
Outside, Spreading like a firework's sparks, the spaceborne robots
vector their
thrust to scatter before the Star of Sheushet's prow, a few of the
slower or les
s lucky ones rebounding from the shield-on-shield impact and whirling
off into d
eep space. The flaring rockets scrape around in a lazy but perfectly
executed ar
c, scratching bright lines in the black as they reverse direction to
brake and b
urn on their final trajectory- for the scooped golden sides of the Star.

Outside, The Star starts a lateral burn for 15 seconds that starts to
make her s
pin by 360 degrees, making the gravity wells in the area impossible.
Outside, From Harkonnen Destroyer -- Severence, Magnetic clamps lash the
dampfra
mmes to the Star's hull. In the dark of space tiny sparks can be seen,
lascutter
s, the Jagers looking to cut open the metal skin of the ship to gain
access.
Outside, a final burst of close range missiles launch from the sides of
the Bajazet ship. Normally designed for anti-missile work, the warheads
turn sharply trying to tighten the angle on the incoming Jaegers. Most
miss, losing their targets and flying into the void but a few make good
causing more pinpoint explosions in the darkness.
Outside, From inside the star in a desperate move, the security teams
fire into
the ships hull and onto the dampframmes.
Feleyze looks across to Darish for instructions. "Sir.. what are we to
do?"
Darius looks also to the Captain.
Using Amat, Darish says, "Fight, and win, or die fighting."
Outside, Even as the last of the remaining two thirds of the dampframmen
impact and lock on, the first have sawed their way through the pressure
hull. Projectiles spang dimly off their shields, faintly audible over
the roar of inner atmosphere venting into space. One of the Holzhammers
takes a solid impact and goes spinning off from the force, tumbling down
through the atmosphere to find his fortune in an unexpected terrain.

Darius nods slowly, his face sad with realization.
Outside, From Harkonnen Destroyer -- Severence, Explosions flare as some
dampframme are swept off the ship into the void. One Jager fireteam
opens up concerted rocket-cannon fire on the security teams, each rocket
lancing the silent darkness.
The visor on Feleyze' hardsuit hides his expression. A gloved
 hand touches his temple "Sir" the microphone on the suit crackles.
"Reports from engineering show that we're losing integrity" His voice
remains calm but it is a struggle "We will be breached within minutes
sir"

Using Amat, Darius says, "May Allah protect us and curse the
Harkonnens."
Darius screams into the comm at his station, "Get a damage team down
there!"
A deck officer similarly suited makes a hand signal at another team of
men and leads them out through the airlock and down into the ship.
Darish closes his own hardsuit and orders through his microphone, "Close
all breached sectors, suppresive fire as they get in, protect engines
and bridge with rolling fire."
Darius closes his hardsuit and arms himself.
Holzhammer has arrived.
Feleyze looks around "Sir.. we have no response from the security team
in sector
 one. Repeat no response. Perhaps a communications error..?"
l holzhammer

        A huge, armored and mechanized figure, barely humanoid amid its
sprawling, grasping limbs. The black surface is coated with some kind of
refractive layering which sends rainbows skating over the prismatic
coating with every motion.
The thing stands ten feet tall, hunched over under the weight of its own
massive shoulders, which make it nearly as broad as it is high.
        It has six arms of varying size, ranging from crustacean limbs
which look as if they could tear apart an armoured car, to generally
humanoid arms more suited to wielding caber-sized weapons. The last pair
are only somewhat bulkier than a large man's arms, and project directly
out of the chest of the robotic man-beast. They look well suited to
delicate work, whatever "delicate work" this monster might be called
upon to perform. The lumpy, crab-like body manages somehow to balance
itself nimbly on a pair of trunk-like legs with reversable knees. The
feet are also clawed and fingered, for gripping difficult surfaces or
maneuvering inverted.
        Several bright, emerald eyes sparkle about the upper regions,
the most notable on short stalks. Combined with long, draping antennae,
it would seem that
 the mechanical creature misses nothing. A titanium cast of the
Harkonnen ramshead is embedded between the smallest limbs. Across the
span of its shoulders, just over the first of two sets of rocket
thrusters, is inscribed a slogan in flourescent white block lettering:

Gestorben ist nicht, was fuer Ewig ruht, und mid unbekannten Aeonen, mag
der Tod
 noch storben.

        At the moment, the black hulk is carrying a structural-grade
laser rifle
 and a variable-velocity missile launcher, both latched across its back.
The sme
ll of ozone and a warbling shimmer close around its skin indicates the
presence
of a heavy shield.

Darius points at Holzhammer and shouts for the guards.
Darish stands up and his quiet voice is heard through the microphone,
"The ship
has been breached, all hands, fire at will."
Holzhammer rips through the inner wall in a gout of flame and a sucking
rush of wind, its passage venting the air inside the corridor into space
in a matter of seconds.

Darius screams and rushes towards the hulking robot with his scimitar
Feleyze speaks into his communicator.
Over your communicator's secure frequency, a man's voice says, "Ground
control,
we are boarded. Enemy on the bridge.. *Chzzzkkk-silence*"
Holzhammer reverses its knees, clawed feet digging into the deck as it
strides down the curving corridor. Not looking for a door, but a set of
coordinates. With one of its crustacean claws the black hulk shreds an
inner wall, tearing out great chunks of metal and plastic to force its
way. It barely notices the tiny, tinny sword clanging against its
shield.
Darius drops the now useless sword and simply runs at the robot,
panicking.
Darish stands in terror at the sight of Holzhammer, he then says calmly
to Feleyze, "Autodestruct, now!"
Elsewhere in the ship another baker's dozen of the things begin to
burrow in and
 up, crushing and tearing and venting atmosphere into space as they go.
Several
of them head further down, for the gravity controls.
 Two more Holzhammers clamber in the gash made by the first. One fires a
gas canister into the room, boom-hiss...pale green gas effusing the
chamber.

Darius tries desperately to tackles the robot, screaming.
The gyros on Felayze' suit groan as he moves it forwards quickly. In one
arm is
a huge scimitar with a jagged mono-molecular blade. From the other arm
two electrodes protrude with a electricity sparking between them. He
swings wildly at the holzhammer aiming low at the knee joints
Darius grabs the leg of the Holzhammer, hoping to stop it somehow.
Holzhammer pulls out of the wall and raises a roughly humanoid arm,
firing a flurry of explosive 20mm bolts from a stumpy, blackened port in
the forearm at everyone it can see with its bright emerald eyes. With
one of its other claws it snaps with triphammer force at Darius, claws
to catch, claws to crush.
Darius shouts in terror and scuttles backwards as fast as he can, which
is not v
ery fast.
There's a screech of overstressed metal and another lumpy monstrosity
tumbles through the ceiling like a puppy from his bed or a wasp from its
nest. It rolls swiftly upright and begins spouting liquid flame from two
of its arms, white waves of hissing incendiary gel splashing and flowing
across the floor.
Darish is hit by one of the 20mm bullets not before he releases a short
burst fr
om his gun and falls to the floor.

At this point, my connection cut out, so...sorry about that.



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