forum The Lost Fleet: A new experience {DeadRP}

Started February 14, 2019 by @ThatOneWeirdLostFleetFan

tune

(I'll start it good and proper then!!)

Geary breathed heavily that was… The worst loss of life he had experienced in his commanding time of around a year. He had given these Enigmas a chance to turn around and have a chance to leave but that was quickly upended and now he suffered the consequences for it.

A hundred and sixty destroyers, obliterated. Just dust of them now. Not even any crew in escape pods from the doomed ships. Fifty-five Light Cruisers, annihilated in the first strike. Thirty-one Heavy cruisers, the same fate suffered.

The same fate suffered to his fleet until the lone Battleship, the four Battle cruisers and the now lone Auxiliary.

"We have to retreat. The Enigmas have won this… We do not need more life suffered from such a catastrophe."

"But… Sir…"

"Captain Desjani please I am not in the mood to, quite obviously, talk. Keep it to yourself for awhile."

"Oh… Yes, sir, understood…"

The six ships, in a very loose formation, slowly turned their ships back towards a jump point and hoped it would bring them closer to survival in a system that would not try to destroy them too.

(Just in case I do a doof, I do roleplay Brella elsewhere, and I might accidently use her name here. Should I do just that, ignore it, I mean Elizia.)

Elizia woke to the chirp of the comms panel, and rolled out of her cot, already fully dressed. She tapped a checking that the codes matched those of her exoected client, she took the headset from off the hook above her head and slid them over her ears.

"This is Captain Eliziethara Arazael." She said happily, "Your codes have been confirmed. Come on board, Faraday!"

From the other side, a gruff, older voice answered, "Affirmative, Loveless, thank you. We'll be on board soon."

The line went dead, and Elizia jumped out of her chair and slid down the ramp into the cargo hold. There waited 5 crates full of modified data chips ready to be carried aboard the Faraday, a merchant vessel she constantly traded with. In the six months since she had left her home planet, trading with the merchants had been her main source of income, and it had been an exciting experience! Never had she met people so calm and like-minded.

The clunk of Faraday's docking tube reverberated throughout the hull of the ship, and Elizia popped open the hatch separating the two ships. On the other side, Thomas waited patiently, with his crew behind him. Elizia gestured to the crates, and the crew rushed on while she and Thomas exchanged words.

Blake Freedom kept his face blank as he tapped his fingers on his armrest. "We're turning losing about ten a week. That's another two hundred fifty lost this battle. Given our losses, we'll be in the neighbourhood with only one two ships by then. If we get the Enigma fight with us here, we lose more lives while holding them off. I could call in the several tens off Stryker Drones I have at my landing bays. As far as that goes, we could pull away from this hellhole of a battle right now and save the remaining ships for the future" Blake said informed in the battle report. "Sir. Ensign Ramirez has got the status for the remaining ships in our fleet." An Officer said.
"Bring him in," Blake ordered and the blast doors opened and a man in his 40s stepped in. "Ensign reporting for reports." The Ensign reported. Blake nodded his head for continuation. " We have one heavy cruiser mildly damaged and two light cruisers with no damage, we also have 2 Battleships one which is mediumly damaged." Blake let out a breath as he thought of the lives lost. As he clenched his fists he let the command for retreat…
(Is this alright?)

(Yes it is!! I didn't see your reply while I was posting this my apologies! I'll edit it when I have the time properly!)

As soon as the six ships got to the jump point, he ordered for a jump. Personally, he was surprised how quick it took this time. He expected a few days but this was almost instantaneous. He shook his head a little bit as the sensors updated themselves to the alien world before them once more. "We're not safe… We need to continue on, towards Alliance space, proceed to the next jump point." He ordered his crew. Sure, four Battle cruisers, a Battleship and an Auxiliary would've been a fantastic sight in itself but the damage they had all suffered varied and the ships could barely give more than a trot as the engines showed varying amounts of damage themselves.

Captain Tanuki could barely keep up with the requests for hull repairs, ammunition resupply and the like. He almost wished his ship was one of the bigger auxiliaries so he was quicker to get this down and done…

However, they did not pay much attention to the two small ships docking with each other, they were only paying worries to themselves, and the main bulk of their hull looking torn to be torn to absolute shreds. Hardly any repairs would make that looking nice again.

They needed a ship yard, each and every one of them knew that but they did not want to trust these new aliens yet and their different looking ships. Nevertheless, these warships were still deadly and if they saw aggression they would not hesitate to fire, after all their hospitality for alien races has been dwindling quite quickly due to the Enigmas.

Officer James nodded his head. "There's far too many critically injured about that will take days to heal even with our technology and you just mentioned the Enigmas. If we go in and have a battle we won't last a second" Blake offered a partial frown. "We have no other defences. Just our ships. and the tech inside of them. If we're to make a stand it will have to be here where we have an advantage of navigation. I wish it wasn't so, but it is. Unfortunately, we will be on their own, as no other Alliance members know of the fights here. We must back out if they come here, I doubt any of the other species will supply our ships to be in the good side of the Enigmas. At least not until we are equally as powerful." And with that meeting at the bridge adjourned the remains of the fleet warped out to get closer to the Alliance systems. "We have six ships in our sensors Alliance ones!" A voice called out. "Seeming to be in different stages of damage. looks like their straight from a battle!" The voice said. "Stay behind the sun lower down our signals and hide behind the Sun," Blake ordered after two more signals came, unknown ones.

The Alliance ships still trudged, their 'beautiful' dark paint even darker with all the explosions that the Enigmas had thrown at them. Yet those ships did their best to continue their best possible speed for the next jump point. They were on edge, after all those Enigma scum could come at any moment and at any time they wished.

Admiral John Geary finally decided, he might as well send a full general signal to everything within this system.

"This is Admiral John 'Black Jack' Geary of the First Alliance Fleet, we request and seek free passage through this system and ask that no one tries to attack our ships. Appearances can be deceiving. This will be the only message I will send. I repeat, however, that we seek free passage through this system and no one attempts to attack our ships. To the honour of our Ancestors, John Geary, out."

Captain Desjani just gave a silent nod of approval.

After all, if there were possibly any stranded survivors out here due to the Enigmas, they would know just who 'Black Jack' is from the Alliance. Otherwise, they continued their trudge across the system. A couple of thousand kilometers on ground that was quite slow in space, every few minutes.

As the message came through Blake ordered an immediate hail to the Admiral as he exited from behind the Sun. "This is Fleet Admiral Blake Freedom of the Second Alliance fleet, we hear you, Admiral Geary, I suspect you have the same problem as us, those damn Enigmas?" Blake said as he moved closer to the first fleet." We have lost all of our ships in all squads except these ships with us, I hope we can get back to the Alliance with you?" Blake said.

Thomas and Elizia had just shaken hands, credits between them, when the massive Alliance ships emerged from a hypernet jump. The general alert sounded throughout both ships, and Elizia gave a quick nod to her trading partner before they both ran up to the cockpit of the Loveless. In plain view of the enforced glass, six broken, battered alliance warships thundered over Loveless and Faraday. Fires still raged on a couple decks, and there was no doubt in Elizia's mind that they'd been in a terrible, terrible struggle.

In the comms headset, a broad-frequency transmission played out, and Elizia slid them over her ears just in time to hear the tail end of the message:

"–seek free passage through this system and no one attempts to attack our ships. To the honour of our Ancestors, John Geary, out."

She looked up to Thomas, "Geary? Why do I feel like I've heard that name before?"

Thomas shook his head, chuckling, "Liz, your telling me you've been squatin' in human space for six months and you've don't know of John "Black Jack" Geary? You're blind as a bat sometimes, girl."

Elizia watched as the ships sailed over her head. Her hand hovered over the transmitter, but something made her stop. She couldn't help them. Not that much damage. Even energy wings couldn't do that.

"I'm just new, I guess. You'd best be going, Thomas. I'll catch up with you 3 weeks from now."

He politely agreed and disembarked, leaving the credits in her hand.

Second Alliance Fleet? Fleet Admiral? He'd heard some in Ambaru station, Unity and Fleet Headquarters but out here? Impossible… At least they were other Alliance ships, however they almost seemed to be more heavily armored… That would explain the more heavier aggression from the Enigmas here. Not that it wasn't always normal. But he didn't know how long they had been away from Alliance space, surely it had only been a few weeks at best. Now he hoped the time-lag between the transmission back was not too badly… Well, after looking at the display and the distance between both 'fleets' slowly coming together, the long four hours were slowly coming short to two or three.

"Fleet Admiral Freedom, this is Admiral Geary. I cannot express more gratitude about your assistance and appearance. However, we do not know or remember how long we have been out here fighting off the Enigmas. We expect that they will come through that jump point behind us soon so we must prepare. Our forces together might be enough to push back whatever 'scouting party' they send to destroy our small amount of forces." He replied, he was anxious. Is this really his one attempt at doing another miraculous survival? Or was this death in disguise? The uniform he saw though… It was still Alliance-looking, despite the darkened colours of the uniform.

Had he gone out of time again? He didn't think that was possible. Not after what he had been at least. He saw these Enigmas naturally developing, there could be a rational explanation for that… He faintly noted the two small ships finally breaking away from each other, from what he believed would either be a finished transaction or he broke it with his appearance.

"Admiral Geary, we hear you loud and clear," Blake said. "let's meet up at the rendezvous spot at these coordinates. We don't know when the Enigmas will come." Blake said as he let out a command. The ships moved to the Gas Giant closest to the Asteroid belt and made a protective circle at the spot. "Admiral you seem pretty beaten up, so in case of mistrust, I will go onto your ship for a sitrep. After saying that Blake went to the landing bay and went to his shuttle before lifting off and out into cold, dark lonely space.

Geary sighed quietly in relief to that. A rendezvous was absolutely fine by him… Slowly, he got his ships back on course for this attack plan. Loosing a quiet, another relieved sigh to this but trying to keep up the best possible speed, regarding how many fuel cells they had left for the engines… This, really, had not gone well for him at all either way. "Understood Fleet Admiral Freedom. Welcome to the Dauntless." He replied. Allowing the shuttle bays on his Alliance ships to be left open. One of the many shuttle bays, however, was also completely destroyed but not as much to the extent of the bowels of the ship.

He might have to call Co-President Rione for outside views on this… As much as he hated it, it was the only thing he could do to say he did not want a fight well and truly.

The second fleet moved in slow, bulkier but just as busted. The two fleets began to close distance, and it hit Elizia then that she might be caught in the middle of something larger than she. The fires on the ships, the battered hulls, that's not how military ships traveled, was it?

Before she registered what she was doing, Elizia had her hands on the comms controls, relaying a message to what appeared to be one of the flagships. She hesitated, but the Arazael gene had already done it's work. She was in fixer mode, now.

"Dauntless, this is captain Eliziethara Arazael of the Mechanist workship Loveless Embrace (tis the full name). Requesting permission to dock, following your standard direction and protocol."

That was absolutely unexpected to Geary, an alien species, a new one he presumed, wanted to perhaps help out? He didn't know, after the Enigmas, if he wanted to test out these ones' patience too.

He supposed there was only one way to find out now, and he didn't like that he had to let them come aboard personally…

"Captain Arazael, this is Admiral Geary. Under a few seconds of careful consideration you will be allowed to dock but be wary that we will take up arms if you seem like a threat to us at any point. To the honour of our Ancestors, Admiral Geary, out."

Elizia, what on Love have you gotten yourself into?

No, she hadn't thought this through at all. No, she hadn't given a false name, as Brella would've told her to, and no, she had no idea how one more pair of hands was going to help anything. At this point, Elizia could only justify her decision with one thing.

They had allowed her to come on board without much question as to why. If they're doing that, things must be desparate, right?

That didn't stop Elizia from shaking as she manuvered her ship into position to dock with Dauntless.

Brella always told Elizia that there were three main things about the way a Mechanist should carry themselves. They should always be prepared, they should always be curious, and they should always be ready to help people. Elizia prepared herself the best she could, bringing her tool-jacket as well as a spare set of tools, and a pistol attached to her hip. She couldn't exactly call what she was doing curiosity, but she had the intention of helping. I'm trying, Brella, she thought, I'm trying to do everything you said.

(What are the handheld weapons in this universe typically driven by? Are they kinetic, like bullets, or energy driven, so lasers or shock rifles?)

A Marine, waiting for where she had docked, was quite patient even with the rifle plastered across their chest. She had the helmet down but the obvious thickness of the armour meant that hardly anything would get through it. The female smirked a little bit as the hatches between the two ships opened up. "Consider me an escort outsider. Where do you want to head first for whatever you're going to do? The name's Carabali. Major General Carabali. Pleasure to finally meet the alien who was brave enough to approach an Alliance ship that's acting more like a cornered tiger than anything else."

(Ye, kinetic! It's a lot of 'Old' Earth stuff so bullets and such are still a thing with clips.)

(Oof, is that for all races or just humans? I only ask because Lovuthans have the energy capacity ability, and that ties in to how they use energy weapons.)

"A pleasure to be aboard an Alliance ship," Elizia said, a little taken aback by how calm and ordered everything seemed inside, "I'd like to help wherever I can. I've only one pair of hands, but I've got a fair amount of tools and supplies in the Loveless. That, and I can charge your batteries, but that's about it."

"Admiral, docking now," Blake said as he lowered down the shuttle onto the landing bay. Blake got out with two of his most trusted subordinates and immediately went to the debriefing room.

(Just humans! I know they're sort of lame but it's just what it is lmao.)

"The batteries for grapeshot and such just need repairing, more ammunition for them too… Or so I've overheard our engineers go off about it. So… How and what are you going to do to try and repair Dauntless here? After all we already have the great Captain Smythe working his ass off trying to seal as much as he can from Tanuki, but an extra pair of hands helping is fine for us." Carabali replied all too easily. "Lets take you down to the engineering bay first so you know what you're working with and how it's different."
~~~
Geary gave a brief nod to that. "Understood, Fleet Admiral, we'll be waiting." He replied right back. He was easily waiting with his own Captain and the Co-President Rione. Who were trying not to glare death at each other through Geary, who was sitting in the middle of the two. All sitting on one side of the meeting table, only Geary was somewhat visibly anxious and worried about this.

Blake walked into the room and sat upon a seat."Gentlemen," Blake acknowledged."Let's get down to business. About two weeks ago on an order by the Alliance, the second fleet was sent out to space on the official order of exploration and of diplomacy. But as you can see the Enigmas were bloodthirsty and destroyed the second fleet except for the remains you see today, that's nearly 1000 in the first week and in our most recent battle, 240 were destroyed." Blake continued." We hope we can join up with you to reach Alliance space before the aliens come to us."

Geary thought that over, the losses and the fact that there was a second fleet up and about instead of just one like the Alliance promised it was going to do… No, he couldn't jump to conclusions yet. "That was the same order we received. Diplomacy to check if the people we were going to were willing to negotiate something but instead we met Enigmas head-on. We suffered a lot of casualties on our side. We came in here at least three hundred strong and we lost two hundred and ninety one to them. But with our fleets, your roughly four and our six, should be more than enough to defend for a little against a scouting party."

He just didn't want to believe, personally, that yet again Geary had slipped out of time. That wasn't likely but he wasn't ready to rule it out completely. Their uniforms were different… But what had happened back home? Were the Syndicate absolutely annihilated? Were they currently recolonizing every planet and world the Syndicate Worlds had held once before?

He didn't like that thought either. "Lets hope the Alliance has enough ship yards and materials for a year to repair these poor things."

"I had once heard of you 30 years ago Admiral Geary. They said you disappeared. And after the Syndicate era, we thought that no danger would come to us for at least 100 years, A peaceful utopia." Blake said with a scowl. "Your ships seemed to be vastly old, are they decommissioned yet or what?" Blake asked. Blake brought out a Stryker Drone file. "I am sure you have Stryker Drones their the newest tech of the Alliance perfect for small battle repairs or for plainly ground or space battle." Blake slid the file to the other side. "It only uses the 3D printer and is material and cost-efficient."
(Is this alright? I'm just making things up while going"

Brella nodded, but waved a hand to the engineering bay, "We can skip that part. I've been working with Human tech since I was 10. And I'm 18. So we're all good there. Just point me to the most broke thing here, and I'll have it up to it's original shine in no time!" In a common moment of Mechanist pride, she added, "Maybe better. Probably at least a little better. Just a little."

(It's absolutely fine!! 100% how I was thinking about it lmao.)

Another time slip… Geary loosed a very low sigh as he rubbed his eyes a little bit. The Captain and the Co-President almost couldn't believe it. "No, no we do not have those 'Stryker' Drones. We didn't know it had been thirty years, for us it had just been a week or two out here not years. What's changed besides from the ships and equipment?" He asked. "Because the only Fleet Admirals I knew, were hiding back out in Ambaru station, Fleet Headquarters and Unity… I didn't think I'd slipped time again, at least it wasn't for another hundred years…"
~~~
Carabali raised a brow at that. "Oh really? Alright then, if you're so sure you can do it. The main thing we need done up is the shuttle bay on Dauntless Took a nasty hit but we need it if we want our supplies back up and running as much as possible. Not a challenge for you would it?"