The Battle For Crenel

"Verax! Get back to the Voyager, we have less than half our original strength and your vitals are so far into the red zone that if you weren't talking to me I'd assume you'd be dead!" Lurinia worriedly messaged Verax as he kicked another Flesher of his massive blade, before whirling around and cutting through another. The Omega Blade was designed to be a two-handed mountain of a sword, being twenty feet long, half has wide, and half again as thick, but Verax was using the behemoth of a sword one handed.

"You know I cannot! 'He who flees death is undeserving. He who succumbs to death is unfitting. But he who strikes death down along with the rest of his enemies is worthy. And the unworthy have no reward but death.' That is the code of our race. That is MY law." Verax continued, strained, to hold off row after row of these monsters. There were already scars in his thin layer of nothingness, he was being pushed farther and farther. Lurinia could not let this happen, he couldn't die.

"Remember the plan! If you die, there's no hope...." Her words struck a chord in Verax, reviving some of his rationality. He lowered his weapon, as he gave in to reason.

"Fine then.... returning to The Voyager." As he propelled himself off a Flesher and kept hopping from ship to ship until a fighter clipped him, but also dragged him into a hanger of the massive ship, where a group of soldiers rushed him to the med bay.

~~~~~~

Krakot was starting to feel more and more confident. They were tearing through Verax's forces, and the enemy was being pressed back. It seemed that luck was on their side today, and that the slim margin of victory was going to be shown.

Then Luna sprung up in holographic form.

"Excuse me Archelaus, but WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO-" She was cut off by being drawn back into Krakot, who tried to make an apologetic bow to the High Druid.

"Ahem, I believe what she meant to ask was, did you do anything to Verax? Because now the majority of his forces are set on attacking your kind." Again, Luna began shouting in and filling Krakok's head with words and ideas. Krakot doubled over from the sudden explosion of mental activity.

What is it?! Can't you see we're-

Use them as a distraction! She screamed in his head. It might give us an opening! The rest of his army is coming in soon! We'll be overwhelmed in a few minutes! We have to act fast!

"Robless! Whatever we do, we have to do it soon! Verax's forces are about to be returned to as if he hadn't lost a single ship! We have the brightest minds in the universe here! We need to ACT." Krakot stepped forward hoping any suspicion about him had been cleared. Zero, who had not been in the room moments ago, put something forward.

"Also, Lords and Ladies and Officers and assorted yahoos of reality, I would recommend haste, it looks like that first wave of reinforcements has arrived, and..... well, there's a dreadnought class ship that looks like it's about 88% giant cannon and.... well, I'm sure you'll all come out okay!" Sounding optimistic, however, given his basically unauthorized entrance and mere presence on this ship, and unexplained existence in general, made it very difficult to take him seriously.

~~~~~~

Warping right into the midst the Initiative force came the first wave of reinforcements. Striking the moment the entered sent confusion and surprise everywhere. Javelin Fighters, normally attacking in swarms and in unordered, undisciplined ranks, were suddenly organized and fighting more efficiently. Instead of striking full-on and sacrificing themselves, they would hit and run, aiming for engines or weapons then using their Superior speed to flee. Reaver-Class Battleships came next, the complete opposite of the Javelins, having almost no speed or maneuverability, they were capable of taking incredulous amounts of fire and dishing out as much punishment as they could take. Serving as a wall between the battle and incoming reinforcements, the Reavers also presented a dilemma as they had never been deployed until now, and thus almost no battle data on them and how to deal with them existed.

"Crussssh them into passssste." Hissed a command from the Executioner, the Dreadnought that belonged to the shadow, to Lord Vabin the Iron-Winged. The Ship was average size by dreadnought standards, but the majority of the ship was a large cannon, that's barrel was shielded save for the one one-thousandth of a second before, and one one-millionth of a second after each pure energy round is fired. The Dreadnought warped in just in front of the Voyager, and instantly began tearing through the front of enemy lines.

~~~~~~

Deep with in Crenel, the hulking Verax limped. With ten medical drones flitting around him, he approached and stopped before the center cell's major defenses, erecting a shield around himself as he besieged the prisoner inside.

"Eris-Tam! Thel-ghan'che! Heed me! I... I have come to... to beg for your aid." Falling upon his knees, Verax, for the first time in his ancient life, bowed down to another. "As a fellow being of the darkness, a fellow being of chaos, I beg of you, assist me, and let me assist you! Should those who seek your destruction make it here, please, allow me to fight for you, and use the mortal husk you wield as a tool for you! If the worst should come to pass, allow me- Verax, The Dreadlord!- to become your new host!" He looked up, his cape in shreds, his life and strength at the lowest they had ever been. He pleaded more, "Please..... help me....... and let me.... help you....." He had come so far, he had come so close, all he needed was for this last move to play out right, and victory would be his.

But now, without the Parasites help, he would be all but doomed.

((Just so everyone knows, Verax and I have moved the posts that were here of what is taking place in Crenel to the thread "Crenel, the Prison Planet".))

OFC
(Er, I wasn't using the Fleshers yet. I was hoping on maybe sending them to attack Voyager, so I was keeping them in reserve. How else do will kill a ship that absorbs kinetic energy?)
(Lol. Oh well.)

For that one second the Decimation Beam burned a bright light into the eyes of the Marauder's crew, Admiral Hale thought they were all as good as dead. Which they would have been if it weren't for his crew's split-second reaction time.

"Damage report! Damage report!" Hale called out as the bridge crew recovered from the blast that rocked the entire ship.

The status screen blinked red in several places as he reviewed the ship's condition. Both ion cannons were out of commission and the crew members manning them were likely dead from the resulting ion reactor meltdown. Engine power had dropped, but it was mostly diverted to the fluctuating but still-functioning shield.

"How the hell-"

Admiral Hale did not have time to finish his sentence before one of the combat operators notified him of what happened.

"Looks like we managed to charge and fire our ion cannons slightly before the Decimation Beam. It hit their beam cannon as it was firing, disabling and severely damaging it before the resulting energy from their laser backfired through the ion beams and destroyed it. Radiation levels spiked and nearly took down our shields, but everything is now under control."

The crew cheered. The Marauder was still in action.

Posted by Verax:

Verax's eyes widened. Aurora...... yes! Keep fighting! Not against the beings within you, but fight for you! Hold on to you! This led him to another trail of thought. He lifted his hand to his ear and turned on an intercom, broadcasting on an open channel, so that everyone, his troops and others could hear.

"All units, cease fire! I repeat, CEASE. FIRE. I demand all my units cease fire immediately and regroup around the Voyager. Deploy the carriers, I want to show we mean no harm, return back all prisoners! Lurinia, tell me again, how many of all our 'kills' were actually transported aboard the Voyager's civilian and recreation areas?" He knew the answer, but he wanted everyone else, within Crenel and out, to know what he'd been doing.

"About 85% of all reported civilian casualties were actually simply transported aboard the Voyager, and treated as if guests or visitors. In fact we have had some children born during the duration of their captivity. Also, regarding enemy casualties, as follows, about 65% of all Alteriian military Verax-caused 'casualties' are alive aboard the Voyager. If unarmed vessels approach docking bay X-25, these Alteriians can be picked up. 95% of Plutonian 'casualtiesare ready for transfer, docking bay E-31. 61% NSI 'casualties' prepared for transfer, docking bay S-7."

"Also, any civilian 'casualties' of any race or location are either with their race, or still preparing for transfer. Final note, if any children or adolescent beings make mention of wanting to stay at the on-board recreational centers for a short time, Verax would like to let any and all beings know our water and amusement parks are free for the duration of your stay, as is all other recreation centers, except our casinos. You are responsible for any risks taken there. If you require a specific inquiry about a particular person or matter not discussed, all docking bays have VI's fully prepared to answer any question you might have. If you need anything repeated, please address the VIs. Thank you." And the open channel was closed.

"See Lurinia? I told you building a water park was a good idea!" Verax laughed. She just sighed and vanished. "Oh yeah, Robless, Zyria, Archelaus, if you could get your forces to stop shooting, that'd probably be helpful."

-~-

Posted by Robless:

Admiral Hale reached forward for his communications console. Whatever just convinced Verax to cease fire had saved a hell of a lot of lives.

"All units cease fire, I say again, all units cease fire. The Dreadlord's fleet is standing down."

The entire fleet cheered. Many lives were lost, but more were saved. Emergency crews ran frantically between damaged sections of ships, and crew members began joining in the clean-up operation. Potentially dangerous heavily-damaged ships were abandoned and scuttled. Boarders retreated from their ships and back to their Valkyrie gunships.

Hale sat back and let out a sigh of relief in his captain's quarters. They went in on a suicide mission and succeeded. The stars were in their favor today, and victory was theirs. Another big step forward for the Initiative and the entire dimensional population.