Public Money for Nothing ~ Pirate Raid on Mahporeem

[Aether of the Iron Order]

AX-01 Vanguard Mark I | [Aether's Build]
Weapons : Training lightsaber x 6 | Hot 'n' Heavy Compensator War Maul

Tags: ​

Allies:
Zoro Igala | Beltor "Bell" Cyrus | Makar Clyne

Enemies:
Tiber Fel | Kaine Hamilton | John Mahporeem | Captain Charles

Aether was no mortal admiral bound to a single body or a single lifetime. He had endured for thousands of years, an ancient Shard whose consciousness had grown vast enough to inhabit warships as lesser beings inhabited their own flesh. To him, machinery was neither foreign nor lifeless; every circuit, reactor, weapon, and droid mind formed part of a language he had mastered long before the empires of the present age were born.

Aether had given them their only warning. If they proved no wiser than every other Imperial he had faced before them, they would suffer the consequences of refusing it.

Once Zoro's coordinates arrived, Aether issued a simple command.

"Recall all fighters. Prepare to jump."

Mahporeem's planetary barrage followed Phoenix Wing into its withdrawal. The Bastion and Bulwark held close against the Surly's flanks, their shields sharing the punishment as heavy turbolaser fire rolled up from the world below and broke across the formation.

The Surly's planet-facing shields buckled beneath the sustained bombardment. Several sectors collapsed hard enough to force redundant projectors to catch the burden before it could spread. Even so, several bolts forced their way through. Armor plating was torn from the outer rings and cast into space; exposed defensive emplacements vanished beneath violent bursts of fire, while ruptured coolant lines vented pale streams into the void. Scorched trenches scarred the siege ship's hull, though neither its central systems nor its ability to deliver the waiting broadside had been silenced.

The Blizzard began drawing its squadrons home as the Surly Siege-Urchin continued toward the escape vector. Its vast hull adjusted by only a few degrees, bringing the full breadth of its bristling armament to bear upon Kaine Hamilton's Cataclysm.

Aether reached through the Force, and the pressure of the void seemed to deepen around his presence, as though the countless aeons he had survived had coalesced there with him. His consciousness entered the Force as something ancient and immense rippling outwards, as a force of will weathered by the millennia until the boundaries between memory, and time had drawn thin. For one harrowing instant, the battlefield seemed to fall within him, every vessel and droid with in his reach reduced to motion within the breadth of his vast awareness.

His presence spread across the void until the Hardcells, each packed with as much rhydonium as possible, registered within his awareness as extensions awaiting command. Through mechu-deru, he pressed into their droid pilots, guidance systems, engines, and control circuitry, smothering their existing directives beneath his ancient will.

Their bows turned toward Tiber Fel 's command ship, and the Hardcells' engines surged, yet machinery alone could not have accounted for their sudden acceleration. Aether had seized the immense mass of each volatile transport through the Force and drove them forward, adding the immense near unfathomable weight of his telekinesis to their burning thrusters until their velocity climbed to terrifying heights.

Constant corrections passed through Aether's wireless connection with Phoenix Wing's vessles. His own ships shifted by measured degrees, opening lanes for the Hardcells while positioning themselves clear of the converging attack. Tractor beams caught the nearest transports, while pressor fields refined their approaches and attempted to force damaged vessels back toward their assigned vectors.

Aether staggered the commandeered ships across several angles, each descending upon the Hydra along a separate course. Their paths tightened around Tiber's command ship in calculated succession, intended to leave near every avenue of retreat carrying it toward another incoming vessel.

Aether's attack upon Tiber Fel was meant to break the Imperial advance before it could fully engage. The converging Hardcells sought to force the Hydra and its escorts into evasive maneuvers, divide their interception fire, and spoil their firing solutions against the withdrawing allied ships. Even if destroyed before impact, the rhydonium-laden vessels should still threatened to detonate close enough to batter shield sectors, scatter the formation, and endanger the corvettes surrounding the Imperial command ship.

Then Aether gave the next order.

"Fire everything."

Every weapon aboard the Surly Siege-Urchin was unleashed all at once;

The six weapon-rings completed their rotation, as magnetic gimbals hauling nineteen hundred and twenty barrels and launch tubes into their firing solutions. Annular gas feeds opened, magazines unlocked, and six siege-capacitor vaults surrendered their stored charge in the same impossible instant.

The sky above Mahporeem ignited in a blindingly bright, violet flash as the Surly emptied its full arsenal, the sheer volume of weapons fire turning the void into a violent tide of light.

The twin spinal Usen'ye ultra-heavy accelerator cannons fired upon Tiber Fel 's Hydra. Their immense rounds were designed to smash through capital-ship armor before detonating seismic charges deep within anything they managed to penetrate.

At the same instant, the six rotating weapon-rings aligned upon Kaine Hamilton 's Cataclysm.

Four hundred and eighty heavy energy-torpedo launchers released mixed payloads into the barrage. Ion torpedoes sought to strain shields and electronics. Incendiary torpedoes were meant to cling to the hull and burn against it. Fusion-plasma torpedoes carried the explosive force of heavy anti-capital ordnance into the same converging assault.

Four hundred and eighty super-heavy accelerator cannons hurled plasma-wrapped penetrators toward the ship. The plasma was intended to scorch and weaken its armor, allowing the solid rounds to drive through compromised plating.

Four hundred and eighty Class-D disruptor cannons fired beside them. Their bolts sought to break matter apart at the molecular level, consuming armor rather than merely striking it.

Four hundred and eighty mass-driver rocket pods emptied their racks. Their accelerator rails launched more than eight thousand rockets at far greater speed than their engines alone could have provided.

Among them, incendiary-plasma rockets were intended to engulf exposed hull in burning plasma, while baradium anti-armor rockets carried tandem charges meant to pierce plating before detonating deeper within the vessel.

Six hundred and seventy-two Araniik-M2 point-defense systems fired around the main barrage, attempting to intercept missiles, fighters, and defensive ordnance crossing its path.

The Bastion and Bulwark poured defensive fire into incoming missiles and fighters, while the two Sorgan cruisers loosed their ordnance against the Imperial screen and any vessel attempting to interfere with the Surly's barrage. Behind them, the Blizzard's batteries covered its returning squadrons, as the outer pickets harried anything seeking a path through the withdrawing formation.

The Surly's tractor and presser projectors remained locked upon the Hardcells, correcting the courses of the rhydonium-packed vessels as Aether drove them toward the Hydra.

Spinal penetrators tore toward Tiber Fel as heavy accelerator rounds, disruptor fire, energy torpedoes, and thousands of rockets converged upon Kaine Hamilton. Defensive guns filled the space around them while the Hardcells accelerated along separate vectors toward Tiber Fel 's Imperial command ship.

The Surly convulsed beneath the combined recoil of its entire arsenal. Damaged plating shuddered across its outer rings, and ruptured coolant lines released fresh streams into space as the wounded siege ship forced its vast frame to continue firing.

Along the rotating weapon-rings, spent batteries withdrew to cool and reload while fresh emplacements cycled forward, turning the opening salvo into a continuous storm. The space between the Surly and the Cataclysm disappeared beneath an unprecedented torrent of energy, metal, and ordnance.

The barrage aimed at Kaine Hamilton 's Cataclysm was intended to overwhelm its defenses through sheer volume and variety. Ion fire sought to strain its shields and systems, while accelerator rounds, disruptor bolts, torpedoes, and thousands of rockets attempted to exploit any weakened sectors. Aether meant to leave the vessel's defenses saturated, its weapons or engines disrupted, and its crew occupied with containing breaches, fires, and potential system failures.

Then Aether gave his final order.

"Phoenix Wing… withdraw."

The fleet aligned with Zoro's coordinates and vanished into hyperspace, its withdrawal timed to carry Phoenix Wing clear only moments before the first Hardcells reached the Imperial line. The micro-jump became a full retreat, bearing them beyond the battle without pause.

PHOENIX WING

Siege Pressure / Defensive Wall / Denial Formation​

Type	Asset	Position / Purpose	Size	Carry	Condition / Damage
Main	Surly Siege-Urchin Battlecruiser	Fleet anchor / primary siege platform	4,950m	None	Damaged but operational — Planet-facing shields heavily strained; outer-ring armor scarred; several exposed defensive emplacements lost; coolant rupture along one battery section.
Main	Blizzard-class Heavy Starcarrier	Carrier support / fighter control / rear protection	1,500m	10 squadrons	Operational — Fighters recalling; no confirmed hull damage.
Main	Sorgan-class Ordnance Cruiser One	Left denial wing / mines, missiles, approach control	1,000m	3 squadrons	Operational — No confirmed damage.
Main	Sorgan-class Ordnance Cruiser Two	Right denial wing / mines, missiles, approach control	1,000m	3 squadrons	Operational — No confirmed damage.
Escort	Bastion — Shield-class Escort Cruiser	Close shield shell / anti-fighter and anti-missile defense	600m	3 squadrons	Moderate shield damage — Absorbed part of the planetary barrage protecting the Surly; hull remains intact.
Escort	Bulwark — Shield-class Escort Cruiser	Close shield shell / anti-fighter and anti-missile defense	600m	3 squadrons	Moderate shield damage — Absorbed part of the planetary barrage protecting the Surly; hull remains intact.
Picket	Sur'haai-class Scout Frigate	Outer picket / sensor watch / recon support	230m	1 craft	Operational — No confirmed damage.
Picket	Rain-class Direct Fire Escort Corvette	Fast screen / anti-fighter picket	110m	None	Operational — No confirmed damage.
TOTAL	Phoenix Wing	Withdrawing relief formation	9,990m	22 squadrons + 1 craft	Combat-capable; withdrawing with localized damage and shield depletion.

//Thread Exit