Tarum III - Surface

[Rule 34]

Re: Tarum III - Surface

At this very moment Cyrus' drones encounter a rather massive problem - they ram into a massive barrier that's seemingly invisible. It seems they have found the pirate base, even if it's shielded and cloaked.

 

[Bartnum]

Re: Tarum III - Surface

The droids turn back toward the landing site. Upon arrival, one of them flies over to Cyrus and projects a hologramatic replay of the journey. Cyrus grins when they hit the barrier.

"Speak of the devil, we may have just found it. It seems to be shielded, my probes couldn't get through. I'll head out there along the same route, if you can't track me I'll signal my location once I reach the shield."

As the droids fly back into the ship, Cyrus closes the cargo bay and activates the cloak. He mounts his bike again and heads off toward the treeline.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Tarum III - Surface

"I should be able to track you as long as you remain uncloaked. I'm a distance above you right now. Shielded eh? Well maybe a few plasma beams will fix that."

There seems to be a wicked grin behind his voice.


((He is running without a cloak right?))

 

[Bartnum]

Re: Tarum III - Surface

((No, he's on a Hoverbike. Without a cloak.))

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Tarum III - Surface

((Is what I meant, running without a cloak. Doesn't matter if he's on a bike, he's still not running a cloak, so he's running without a cloak. Get it? lol, sorry, I couldn't resist.))

 

[Unknown Squid]

Re: Tarum III - Surface

"I hear you" Kars says pulling himself back into the cockpit of the Hell Strafer and powering up. "I'm getting back in the air where I can be of more use."

With that the hatch closes and the small craft leaps into the air. Kars remains hovering at a height above Cyrus's ship for the moment. He stays fairly high, so to give plenty of safety from any more ground based EMP attacks. While he was possibly putting himself at risk from anti air missiles, he did so with experience that there had been no missile yet fired at him that his ships sensor masking couldn't trick. Infact, he was almost banking on a sam battery having a go at him and revealing itself. Wasting peoples expensive missiles could be considered something of a hobby. Better that than letting Draven uncloak and taking a barrage before he could shoot back.

((Afriad I'm not quite back yet. Still on come and go internet access. May or may not respond but thought I could fit that post in there. If I'm unable to respond to something significant, assume Kars does what ever seems appropriate. He can fly in low to assist Cyrus, cover Dravens larger ship from fighters, rain explosive shells on a small area, pick off specific targets, or just hide. Anything a high agility prototype fighter craft would be expected to do.))

 

[Bartnum]

Re: Tarum III - Surface

Cyrus continues along the path his droids took until he hits the barrier.

"Alright, I think I'm there. It should be just in front of me, relative to the direction I was travelling in. Not sure how big it is. See what you can do."

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Tarum III - Surface

Draven notes the location on his map, then uses the surrounding area to mask his approach, decloaking at the last possible moment. With shields coming online the second he decloaked, eight plasma beams came screaming out of the ship's weapons ports, slamming into the pirate force shield.

Once that was done, he recloaked, becoming invisible to their sensor scans once more. He angled sharply to the skies, waiting to see the result of his barrage. If it worked, it would be an all out fight soon, if it hadn't then he would have to try again with something else.

 

[Rule 34]

Re: Tarum III - Surface

Only moments after his attack, everybody's commlinks are activated over an open channel. "Unknown ship, I'd rather you wouldn't do that. Get lost, or we'll shoot back."

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Tarum III - Surface

There is a moment of silence while he changes to a frequency the other people can hear him on. "By my understanding, your people already fired on our exploration team, and are sheltering known pirates and criminals. That constitutes as an act of aggression on your part by attacking us to begin with, and by all rights we should respond. You may fire at me if you wish, but know that if you do, you run the risk of angering the Ingrali empire. I await an explanation on these events from you, and will agree to a hold fire for now."

There is definite anger in his tone, suggesting to whoever has hailed him he is not only annoyed with the situation, but likely has the means to back up what he has said.

 

[Rule 34]

Re: Tarum III - Surface

"I've never said we'd fire at you", the voice replied coldly. At the same moment the dirt in front of Cyrus feet explodes into a cloud of dust as a short volley is fired from beyond the shield. "If your friend moves, or you attack us, he's dead. Back off, this is the last warning."

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Tarum III - Surface

"I see. And how do I know then that even if I DO end the attack you will not simply attack him anyway. Very well, but know this, if you do attack him, I will be returning, of that you can be certain."

There is a moment of silence and then the ship decloaks. A moment later a purplish cloud appears in front of his ship and their shield, angled slightly away. It moves to the cloud at blinding speed, and simply vanishes from all sensor sweeps of the surface.

In fact, Draven had gone to a mid level orbit, high enough to avoid a sensor sweep of the surface, but not quite out of range of his own sensors. He had seemingly opened a hyper-space window and jumped to this orbit, yet he did not trust the commander he had spoken to.

 

[Rule 34]

Re: Tarum III - Surface

"Yeah, that's right. And you there, standing at the shield, you better move it yourself", the voice says over the open channel. "Tell whoever send you here that this is Cruton's territory. This entire damned valley."

 

[Unknown Squid]

Re: Tarum III - Surface

Kars mumbles in his ship. He had kind of seen this coming. One guy alone on the ground like that. But he'd never been used to worrying about anyone other than himself. Seemed to him, this team needed a leader, or at least a plan of some kind. But he'd be damned if he was ever going to volunteer for a job like that.

"Hey, looks like we're heading back for now. You coming? I wouldn't want to be in your place right now."

 

[Bartnum]

Re: Tarum III - Surface

Cyrus grits his teeth as he climbs back onto his bike. He switches his radio to the pirate's frequency as he speeds away.

"The second that shield goes down, know that I will be coming for you and your families."

Once back at the landing zone, he radios the others.

"What's the plan then? Try again with bigger guns? Starve 'em out?"

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Tarum III - Surface

Draven switches back to the secure channel. "Not sure, seems their shield absorbed most of the plasma beams and was designed to take rapid hits, so it's a quick charge shield. I have a theory I want to test out later with a proto-type device, but we ARE expecting backup from the Alliance sometime soon. I guess we let Nadia know what is going on and then wait until our backup arrives, then move in."

 

[Unknown Squid]

Re: Tarum III - Surface

"Pshh... Well I'll see you back at base then." Kars cuts off and swings round to shoot upwards. He sets the ship on auto and sits watching the video feeds he captured during the misson, wondering who he shot today. Upon leaving the planets gravity well, a crackle of electricity sweeps over the tiny craft as it leaps forward and out of sight.

 

[Bartnum]

Re: Tarum III - Surface

"I'll stay down here for now. I've got something I'd like to try. I'll meet you guys back up there if it fails."

The Scimitar cloaks, and flies out over the shielded area. As it passes over, the aft airlock opens and a small object drops out. Moving the ship away from the area and as high as possible as quickly as he can, Cyrus monitors the object as it falls. When he registered that it hit the shield, he hits a button on a small remote in his hand. The object, a seismic charge, detonates.

 

[Rule 34]

Re: Tarum III - Surface

Cyrus accomplishes three things with that.
The shield flares up in it's entirety, allowing him to see for the first time just how big it is - at least 1 km long and 1/3 km wide. Second, the cloaking field fails for a moment, revealing a massive steel structure buried halfway in the dirt.

Third, several Garik Raiders pop through the shield and take course for his ship.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Tarum III - Surface

((Content Removed due to change of plans))