>>2867423
>>"Sure we will, no way the Legion can kill the pilots of the best squadron this side of Old Terra."

>>2867423
>"Sure we will, no way the Legion can kill the pilots of the best squadron this side of Old Terra."

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>>2867423
"Sure we will, no way the Legion can kill the pilots of the best squadron this side of Old Terra." There's a beat before you realise Oliviero switched you both onto the squadron circuit, and your confident words draw a subdued round of affirmatives and cheers. Morale's been... not low, but brittle, and you realise the lieutenant deliberately drew it out of you. Clever girl, but you can't let her get away with it.
"Of course I'm not so sure about you, Oliviero," You continue, "But I suppose every flight's gotta have someone at the back of the class." Whoops and jeers this time, and you switch circuits to PriFly at a comm request. "Alexander here."

"Standby for launch in five, Major." Nolan reports.

"Roger, sir. Launch in five."

You pass on the info, and run yet another final check on your fighter, taking special care to check the 'special' weapons fitted to your hardpoints. If they work as advertised, your boys and girls will have a hell of a punch. If not... you push that thought aside. All systems green. The sudden pressure of acceleration cuts out, and you're hanging in micro-gee as a number counts down on your display. All your pilots report green, ready to launch.

"PriFly, Talon One. All Talons ready to launch."

The first carriers of the OSN had rotating bays designed to 'drop' fighters out through spin gravity, but improvements in the plasma propulsion technology allowed a far slicker and more efficient means. Right at this moment, you know that Ranger's fusion reactor will be building up the power necessary for launch. There's two moments of every op you dread, and this is one of them. In a small corner of your mind, you register the slight bumps of your carrier jockeying into the correct position, aiming its stern at the distant Legion battlegroup you're supposed to intercept. The number in your IHD continues ticking down.

"Five-NAS, all systems appear nominal," The voice of Primary Flight control announces. "And you are go in five... four... three... two... one..."

You never actually here the word 'launch' for at that instant, a giant's hand slams down on your chest, pressing you back into your accel couch at almost fifteen gees. Usually, a human can only withstand seven to ten gees before blacking out, but the combination of your accel couch, flight suit, and the breathing exercises you partly manage keep you conscious- barely. For a long moment, you feel as though you're staring down a long black tube with a tiny, far-off opening. After a second more, breathing becomes unbearable. The pressure goes on and on...

Two seconds later your Vorpal erupts from its launch tube at almost three hundred metres per second, propelled by the powerful magnetic impulse that's usually used to hurl plasma out of the carrier's stern at almost light-speed.

cont.

>>2867491
The actual magnetic field extends past the end of the tube, however, and the torture continues for a second longer before you're embraced by the blissful rest of free fall. Then your fighter's AI engages the main drive. Behind you, the other eight fighters of Five-NAS emerge from their launch tubes, and the squadron's collective computers keep you in formation as you burn through your launch tanks in order to add another few tens of hundred metres per second to your velocity.

Finally, your fighter's plasma jet cuts off, and your AI releases the launch tank.

"Whee-oo!" Somebody cries over the squadron channel. "What a rush!"

You ignore them, and turn to the tactical data unfolding over your IHD display. The Legion force you've been ordered to intercept, designated Force Delta, is right ahead and coming in hot, though still a few hours away. Beside you, Six-NAS, the Impactors, have launched off Langley. That gives you two squadrons off the bat to play with, and you've got two more coming up your tail.

You could wait and form up the four squadrons into a single flight, which would let you hit the enemy force in a single hammerblow. But you won't be able to get much out of their EW before you hit, so you can't be sure of how hard you'll hit them. Alternately, you could keep your other two squadrons behind you, and feed back targeting data as you pass through the enemy formation. It'll mean they can follow up with a harder strike, but you'll collectively be in much more danger.

Or you could try releasing your weapons from long range, but targeting will be far worse, and you'll be left with a bunch of angry Legion that want a word with you.

>Strike as one formation.
>Stay as two elements to pass back targeting data.
>Strike with your new weapons from long range before you try approaching.
>Write-in

>>2867508
>>Stay as two elements to pass back targeting data.

>>2867508
>>Stay as two elements to pass back targeting data.

>>2867508
>Stay as two elements to pass back targeting data.

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Rolled 1, 39 = 40 (2d100)

>>2867508
>Stay as two elements

You toggle the circuit to talk to Captain Ivor Matthews, the Impactors' CO.

"Bring your squadron up with mine, Captain." You order. "The Black Demons and Star Dragons will follow up behind us. We'll give 'em targeting data on our first run through."

"Roger." The Impactors carefully maneuver over to join you in loose formation. You relay your orders again to the COs of the other two squadrons once they launch and complete their burn, five minutes behind you. Then you're left with little to do but watch the comforting light codes of 1st OSF and the Order fleet slide away behind you and slightly off to your left, while the red light codes of the Legion force creeps towards you.

Time ticks by, and you actually manage to doze off for half an hour between system checks, half-listening to the chatter over the squadron net between your pilots. But all too soon, it's time to face down the enemy, and all fighters show green.

"All Talons, this is Talon One. Weapons free on my mark... mark."

>Roll 2d100, best of 3.

Rolled 79, 40 = 119 (2d100)

>>2867581
For Valhalla!

Rolled 28, 7 = 35 (2d100)

>>2867581

Rolled 88, 18 = 106 (2d100)

>>2867581

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>>2867581
>88, 40 vs 1, 39
that's a pretty big oof

Your fighter's AI works with those of the rest of your flight's to try and peel back the EW the Legion force is pulsing into space. They're surprisingly successful- it seems they're using an older pattern that's been used before, and cycling through it. In fact, it's enough for your AI to give you an approximate count- several battleships, half a dozen cruisers and a scattering of destroyers. Time to get to work.

"Fox one!" You announce, as the comforting tone of a lock chimes and your thumb hits the big red button on your control stick. One of the new, 'special' missiles detaches from the spindly 'wing' of your fighter, and its CM field activates along with the solid rocket booster. So far, so good. Just like your regular kinetic missiles it races off towards your chosen target- one of the battleships. Over the squadron circuit, you hear more cries of "Fox one" as the rest of the Redtails release their own missiles, followed by the Impactors.

While the Legion EW might be a little dated, their point defence is still top notch. Missile after missile that reaches the outer defence envelope disappears, but finally one of them reaches its terminal attack phase- and disappears in a flash of Cherenkov radiation.

The secret to the new missile is not, you were surprised to find when briefed, anything particularly new. After all, essentially all the warfighting tech in the Olympus Space Navy already makes use of Counter-Mass technology, but Ranger's engineering department managed to take it one step further. Fitting a second CM generator onto a standard missile wasn't too hard either, because it turns out, when one of your missiles reaches terminal attack phase, a second CM generator can be used to create some kind of feedback loop that, in the half-second or so before it burns out, makes it go faster than light.

What looks to your sensors like a shaft of light punches straight into one of the Legion battleships. The kinetic weapon struck out like the hammer of the gods, the impact far too much for the missile to survive. Even so, the resulting explosion is nearly as disastrous for the Legion vessel as an antimatter strike.

"Holy hell, it worked!" Captain Matthews exclaims.

"Damn right it did!" You can feel the fierce, predatory grin twisting your lips. "All fighters, nail the bastards!"

The Redtails and Impactors dive on down the track, releasing missiles that strike the enemy vessels with savage fury. Most of them are picked off by point defence, but it only takes a few to get through to send one of the battleships tumbling, or one of the cruisers crippled beyond hope of repair. Then you're interpenetrating the enemy formation, and you switch to regular nukes, hoping the foul the enemy targeting. It's not quite enough, as you heard the dying screams of at least two other pilots.

cont.

>>2867693
But then you're through, and your fighter AI confirms it's sent on the positioning and EW data to the other two squadrons. The Legion vessels seem too shocked to fire at you, and you settle in to watch a job well done.

--

TF Dauntless
Force Beta lies in ruins astern as Cabot finishes off the stragglers, and the lightspeed reports of the human fighters are starting to stream in with their unexpected success. However, that doesn't concern you as much as the fact that every single legion ship around the third planet, and the massive forts, are turning on each other. That and-

>Da̸u̡n͠t̢͘l̛͢e̸ş͝s,̀ ̡I ̀͠͝n͢͠è͜e͜͞d̷̕͠ ̧͜y̴̴ơ̧ùr̴ h̷́͢e͜l̨̢͠p̷̢͜!̶͜

That, too.

>Move in and put all the Legion ships to the sword.
>Move in and try to contact... whoever it is.
>Leave them to fight it out.
>Write-in.

>>2867710
>>Move in and try to contact... whoever it is.

>>2867710
>>Move in and try to contact... whoever it is.

>>2867710
>Move in and try to contact... whoever it is.

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>>2867710
>Move in and try to contact

"We're moving in." You inform Weston.

"Aye." The Admiral passes orders to his ships, and you form up your ships as they continue their dive down the solar gravity well.

Legion vessels are tearing into each other that even you, with your experience of battle, are slightly in awe of. You're used to focused strikes and carefully-applied force, but what you're watching is like a pack of enraged animals being locked in a cage together. There's no order there, though, as time goes on, you begin to see a pattern, some ships forming into sides to batter everyone else before abruptly splitting again.

"What in God's name..." You hear Weston murmur as he watches.

You're still getting those frail radio transmissions, so you decide you should probably send one back. On the same frequencies and without code:

"This is Knight-Brother Dauntless."

Minutes tick by. You're still just over ten light-minutes away from the third planet, so it takes a bit over twenty for a reply to reach you.

"You have no idea how good it is to hear your voice right now, Dauntless. Now would you kindly get over here and help a guy out?" If you could, you'd blink, for the message receipt is... Knight-Brother Rubin. On your display, some of the Legion vessels switch from the red of enemy to the green of allied vessels as they broadcast the correct IFF signature- a month old, actually, the ones from when Rubin was captured. In response, almost a third of the remaining enemy ships turn their fire on them. Some of the other, possibly 'unaligned' vessels are turning green as you watch, but it won't be enough if you don't get in there and help. But what if it's some kind of trick to lure you in?

>Rubin was the one who rescued you when you were captured. Return the favour no matter what.
>Maybe you should wait and see how this plays out.
>This is obviously a trick of some kind. Move in and wipe them all out, then sort through the wreckage.

>>2867915
>>Rubin was the one who rescued you when you were captured. Return the favour no matter what.

>>2867915
>>Rubin was the one who rescued you when you were captured. Return the favour no matter what.

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Rolled 82 (1d100)

>>2867915
>Rescue your senpai

"It looks like we're going to have to help." You decide swiftly, and take the lead- assuming it's a trick, your ships are better at taking a beating than the humans. As soon as you enter extreme missile range you start firing from bow tubes, and your fighters race ahead on their heels. Behind those, your bombers finally come into play, eager to make a difference against those forts. All they need is a few good shots to blow them away.

>roll 1d100, best of 3

This is going to be the last post of tonight. However, I will be resuming tomorrow evening at the very least, and may be posting through the day depending on how things are. Still getting back into the flow of things, so I hope you enjoyed!

Rolled 57 (1d100)

>>2868060

Rolled 78 (1d100)

>>2868060
Dice.

Rolled 91 (1d100)

>>2868060

Dammit missed the thread

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>>2868060
>91 vs 82

You go to rapid-fire on your bow tubes as you continue to dive in. The fortresses are your initial targets, and they shudder under the steady bombardment of laser heads. Your fighters come slashing in, focusing on the enemy screening vessels with their spinal mounts. They can shrug off one or even a few hits, but they're smart enough to strike with at least half a dozen, usually in as small of an area as possible.

Then your grav-bombers arrive, and release their deadly antimatter payload into the forts not showing friendly IFFs. They shudder again, and for a moment you think that's it. Then they start to break apart, some fragments dropping towards the planet they orbit while others careen into the ring of manufactories and building slips. Some even hit the Legion vessels from both sides, though they barely contribute to the destruction being wrought against each other.

Finally the humans can fire off several salvos of nukes, and so distracted are the enemy that many even make it through to contact detonate. But finally, you simply must flip end to end so you can start deceleration. So does 1st OEF, but they seem to fly on ahead of you as your much harder decel rates leave them behind.

Beyond, the 'friendly' Legion vessels now outnumber the enemy, and they put them down with extreme prejudice. You also receive a terse lasercomm message from Cabot, reporting that she plans to intercept Force Gamma as they continue their track towards the third planet. Good.

"Thank God that you arrived when you did." Comes the voice claiming to be Rubin. Now you're closer, you can triangulate the signal- it's coming from the surface. "I need to show you something, Dauntless."

A link request pops up for your attention, and your eyes would narrow in suspicion if you had them either. If you accept the link, and this is some kind of trick, Rubin or whatever it is, could keep you occupied while trying to access your systems.

>Take it on faith, accept.
>You can't take the risk, reject it.
>This is obviously a trick, destroy the ships in orbit.

>>2870192
>>You can't take the risk, reject it.
try to find out if it's really him and that he's still on the orders side

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>>2870192
>Reject it

"Sorry, I... Don't think that's a good idea." You reply cautiously.

"Ah." Even through the radio link, you hear his disappointment. "Yes, I see what you mean. You want some proof it's me, yes?"

"Right." You agree. Your ships are entering the gravity well of the third planet, and using it to gravity trap as you jockey them into a high, but stable, orbit. You're sure that Rubin, or whatever it is, won't miss the clear implication your ships' broadsides aiming at all the Legion vessels you can reach- along with your fighters and bombers curling back around.

The human fleet has actually careened straight past the third planet, and so is temporarily out of contact. Cabot's position is clearly marked as flashes of antimatter meeting regular matter lights up space as she springs her trap on Force Gamma. You're alone, for now.

>Quiz Rubin on Order protocol.
>Quiz Rubin on some inside joke only you and he would know (write-in suggestions taken).
>Order he let you into his systems to investigate.
>Write-in.

>>2870452
>>Quiz Rubin on some inside joke only you and he would know
no idea for the joke

>>2870471
+1

>>2870452
>>2870471
this

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>>2870452
>Do the cliché inside joke thing

You think hard, querying your memories for something, anything, you can use. Suddenly, you remember.

"Okay, Rubin." You hesitate a moment to make sure you're still targeting all the Legion vessels you can. "You remember when I first got put into a ship? What was it?"

There's a miniscule pause as he considers it. "The very first? It was a cutter, right? The Grandmaster was letting you test you piloting capability for the first time."

"Correct. After that I got to test the weapons on some space debris around Chapterhouse, and you said-"

"That if you didn't make it as a Knight-Brother you'd make a great janitor!" You can hear the amusement in his voice. "Is that the test?"

You're pretty sure that if nothing else, it's Rubin there- or at least, something with Rubin's memories.

"Well..."

>You can probably trust him. Accept the link, but stay on guard.
>It might be him, but you can't trust anything he said. Order he tell you everything over the radio.
>You're still not convinced. Wipe all the enemy ships out and investigate where the signal's coming from on the planet.

>>2870777
>You can probably trust him. Accept the link, but stay on guard.

>>2870777
>>You can probably trust him. Accept the link, but stay on guard.

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>>2870777
>Link with your senpai

"Well, I think it's probably you. I'll accept your link." You start bringing up your firewalls and defensive software of course.

"You will? Great, I have a lot to show you." Another link request pops up. You draw up a brief data dump for Weston and Cabot to let them know, then accept it with no small amount of trepidation. It takes longer than usual for your onboard systems to sync- it seems that whatever system Rubin's running on is Legion-built, not made by the Order, but, as you now know, the Legion came from an Order similar to your own so it doesn't take too long before-

Darkness. But only for a system cycle before two sources of light flare into existence. One is familiar to you- Rubin, your friend. The other, however... there's something off about it, ever so slightly.

"Dauntless." Rubin greets you politely. "It's very good to see you. May I introduce you to Knight-Brother Perseus." He hesitates briefly, "Or, well... what's left of him."

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It's not very late, but for some reason I'm having trouble keeping my eyes open. I guess I'm not used to stay up late again still, and I do like my cliffhangers, so I'll be ending it here for this week.

I hope you enjoyed, and as always you can know when the quest is running (or why I'm so sporadic about it) by following my Twitter: Twitter: https://twitter.com/Pixel_Anon

Have a good night!