With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

liger0 · Oct 6, 2021

Darko said:
Not sure if this is a British thing but if it isn't then it should be 'clever trick'.

I think it's more he's calling his opponent clever and is also insulting them by calling them a dick, or whatever is your preferred male genital euphemism, at the same time.

Mr Zoat · Oct 6, 2021

Darko said:
'minute'
'my bubble'

Thank you, corrected.

Not sure if this is a British thing but if it isn't then it should be 'clever trick'.

No.

moralrelativity · Oct 6, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
Things go dark, and blinking feels wrong and damp-. My eyeballs just exploded. Clean that up and grow a new pair.

Love Zoat's writing. This is evocative.

Mr Zoat said:
and there's making a real effort to shoot me

there's -> they're

Darko said:
Not sure if this is a British thing but if it isn't then it should be 'clever trick'.

It is definitely a British thing.

BlueMangoAdea · Oct 6, 2021

Handlewithcare said:
Damn, he is really struggeling with this one.

Bodes badly for any future Apokolips engagement.

But Sparta fights smart. I could see her and Paul at least respect each other as enemies.

Hopefully Paul learns his lessons from this fight and prepares to fight against New Gods.

Ngamer11 · Oct 6, 2021

Darko said:
Not sure if this is a British thing but if it isn't then it should be 'clever trick'.

moralrelativity said:
It is definitely a British thing.

It's just Paul insulting the guy in his head. That way, Mr Zoat can show us how annoyed Paul is about this. If you replace it with prick, it would have the same meaning.

Chojin Patriarch · Oct 6, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
11th September 2012
20:14 GMT

Spear wreathed in an orange glow, I head after the kamikaze cruiser, taking a few seconds to dodge behind assault craft where reasonably practical. The spear point can cut though their shields and armour easily enough, but as they start veering away from me I elect not to chase them down. The defenders are capable of dealing with them without me, but that battleship-

Yeah, the enemy's capital ship - presumably Sparta's flagship too - is going to be the major issue in this fight. And being rammed by a cruiser probably isn't going to slow it down as much as OL is hoping it will...

It turns one of its medium batteries in our direction and fires, shields flickering over New Cronus before a small breach appears and a building patterned after the Acropolis gets pulverised.

-isn't going to destroy itself.

And until it is destroyed, it's going to keep doing that. Better get a move on, OL, people are dying en masse.

I can't detect any communication between the battleship and my suborned cruiser, but my ability to detect New God communication isn't exactly reliable. Alright, this… Seems to be my maximum speed. What else can I do to sell this?

I form a beam singularity projector, then take a moment to contemplate the likely results of firing that in the vicinity of a moon with its own artificial gravity system when I'm not exactly sure how my orange light manipulation abilities are being altered by the change in local physics.

...Yeah, I don't think that's going to go over well with your hosts.

Best not.

Instead, I form a laser cannon construct and take a few shots at what look like they might be vulnerable points on the cruiser's surface. I mean, if I can see it then lasers should be able to hit its hull, right? Naturally its Apokoliptian technology shielding… Or wards? It could be a separate system. Whichever, they protect it.

Can't count out the possibility. Though it'd be kind of anti-climactic if they were taken out by simple lasers so easily...

Sparta isn't mocking me. Was that… Some sort of hallucination that I only experienced because I was touching the souls of people in her network?

I know I'm doing it again, but until the cruiser gets a bit closer there's not much else I can do.

Perhaps Sparta is too busy dealing with something else right now, or someone. I wouldn't be surprised if she was on New Cronus somewhere, hunting for a Titan to slay...

The battleship isn't targeting the cruiser, and neither are any of the other cruisers. I'm starting to attract a little more fire, but it's nothing that I can't evade. Should I be worried? Sparta appears to have better things to do with her time than fight me. Would she know who or what I am? Rhea might have heard of the Green Lantern Corps, but it's unlikely that she'd heard of Larfleeze. The Karrakanians appears to be assuming that I'm another god, so possibly they haven't heard of Lanterns ei… Ther.

Wait. If Sparta is using Pheobe's seed to create an area effect, shouldn't I be able to connect directly to that?

Careful, OL. Don't go poking things you don't fully understand. Remember what happened... Every other time you did?

I've got another minutes and forty seconds before the cruiser hits the battleship so I may as well give it a try.

Orange tendrils reach out, not really reaching for anything in particular. I unfocus my soul, trying to see the interface between the Honden and the material universe. It can't be cut off -and not just because of the power requirements- because people wouldn't be able to have desires. And I wouldn't be able to use my rings. Still can't feel the Ophidian, which is… Weird… But I can still feel the conflicting desires of-

No doubt Best Snek is raging at the edge of whatever effect is blocking her from her Agent. Which means everyone might be in for a shock once it ceases.

Things go dark, and blinking feels wrong and damp-. My eyeballs just exploded. Clean that up and grow a new pair.

Compliance.

...How casual. 'Oh, my eyeballs just exploded. Eh, wasn't using them right now anyway."

And there's the univerohdear. Yes, someone noticed that and there's making a real effort to shoot me! I abandon efforts to interfere with whoever clearly has the mystical realm firmly in their grasp and instead focus on dodging-. Oh, yes, yes, that was a shot from the battleship and it didn't miss by much. In a way, it's nice to see that the Karrakanians don't share the New Gods' reticence when it comes to just shooting each other rather than brawling, but it's-.

Well, at least in the latter case, you could lead them about like a charging bull.

Agh! Looks like they have lasers as well! I track the source and swoop left, because while the laser will hit me near-instantly at this range they still have to keep it on me-. Yes, it's following but not instantly. Coming from that ship, so if I fly-. Yes, they've lost the lock. I refresh my shield bubble and change it to 'reflective' mode, on the grounds that I don't think the bubble would stop a direct hit from their big guns anyway.

Indeed, it'd be a rare turret that could traverse as quickly as a Lantern could fly.

Cruiser is still on course even without me worrying it. Though… Why not combine the two? I fly out of cover and go back to normal evasiveness, and the laser locks onto me almost immediately, hitting dead centre and having about ninety seven percent of its energy directed right back at the cruiser I'm chasing. It-. Oh, it actually does damage their New God shields. Doesn't appear to be doing much, but it's doing something and that's probably what prompts their gunnery officer to stop using it.

Huh. Well, let's hope they're not smart enough to realise that.

The cruiser is on its final-

OhgoshIdon'tlikeseeingprimaryweaponfirefromthesideatthatdistance.

Kind of hard to stay focused when energy bolts bigger than you are are flying past, huh?.

-approach, and I think someone's spotted that things are-. Yes, yes they're firing. And its shields aren't blocking any of it; it's hitting the hull directly but no one's on the bridge. Can they communicate with the engine room or drive? They're not sending over a boarding team to speak to them directly, and the cruiser is out of the arcs of fire of the battleship's main weapons. The smaller guns on the other hand-. They're shooting the.. hull? No, they're trying to shoot through to the empty bridge-. Though that might just be because they're not in a position to shoot the drives.

Alas, too little too late, I think. The cruiser doesn't need much steering at this point. And it's not going to slow down, unless something with more grunt than its engines intervenes.

New Cronus' gun batteries on the far side of the battleship are still inert. That's a shame, because to quote Ghenghiz Cohen, if this doesn't work it's going to take ages to kill them all.

Okay, get into position. The fire coming at me is slackening off slightly as the ships don't have an angle that doesn't threaten each other or their ground troops. I'm taking hits, but unless they get a lot more accurate in the next few-.

Joy of getting stuck in the middle of them. Hard to fire at will when you might actually be firing at Will, on the ship opposite.

The battleship stops shooting and the cruiser starts to slow and turn. Oh no you don't. I bend space-.
Remain As I Command You To Be.
Ah. I can do it, but it's far more effort than usual.
Impudence!
Right, bend space around me and around the ship. Create a corridor and shorten the distance, I want to get close enough to shove it into the battleship myself if necessary.
Destroy The Usurper!
And the cruisers have stopped worrying about-.

An interesting exchange. Presumably whoever's on the battleship is standing at their own Apokaliptian control station, screaming at the oncoming ship.

Gah!

About shooting each other! A dozen hits across by bubble shield and about a hundred that miss me and hit each other! The bubble shield collapses as the battleship starts trying to shoot the cruiser that's on a collision course but it's too late! I get up close to the rear of its hull and generate massive construct thrusters surrounded by construct armour. Immediately they stop shooting me and try shooting my construct, but even as they eat through the armour both of my construct and the cruiser the engines activate and accelerate! Closer, closer!

Ha, he's literally having to push it home. Not quite a Hammerhead Corvette, but it should do some nice damage.

The cruiser's nothing like big enough to destroy the battleship at this sort of relative speed, but my rings show me escape pods being launched from the sections that will be closest to the site of impact because that doesn't mean that there won't be a lot of local destruction.

Would their shield block it? I.. don't know. Even if it prevented a direct impact, the kinetic force should push the battleship into the path of those guns… That don't appear to be ready yet.

Yeah, as much as Sci-Fi movies lie about spaceships exploding at the slightest collision sometimes, never underestimate kinetic energy.

Damn it. Okay.

I fly around the cruiser, taking all… Three disc launchers out of subspace and setting them to fire until dry. Then I fire fat cables of orange light at the battleship-. Yes, shield are still up. Connect that to my metaphysique-

If nothing else, that might be able to weaken it at the point of impact...

And it occurs to me that my tattoos are designed to feed on local sources of magic, and the change in my behaviour could well be explained by the fact that the Phoebe's seed is the largest local source of magic rather than anything deliberate.

-and Feed Me!

...Oh, for... Those things are becoming more trouble than they're worth, you know. Maybe next time you die, tone them down a little?

Red lightning dances through space as the discs start hitting and shield and doing their best to make an inanimate energy field feel pain. But my tethers are achieving something more, not only causing the ward shield to visibly fail in places but…
I think…
I can actually… I'm getting glimpses of the battleship; how the systems and New Gods on board interact with each other. It's fascinat-.

Depending on how closely the commander is tied to the ship, the pain thing might well serve as a solid distraction.

My right arm comes up and clumsily slaps me in the face.

The heck-? Soul back-hacking? Okay, clever dick, let's see if you can handle being consumed!

Ha! Oh, that is sneaky. And with the Ophidian blocked, there's nothing to stop the guy.

Another slap, then I feel something shudder and my arm is back under my control. I dive off the cruiser as the battleship fills the horizon and my engine construct falls apart under the bombardment but it's too late!

The cruiser smashes through what's left of the shield and into the outside of the battleship's flight deck.

And it's a pity space is silent, because that would have been one hell of a prang. I hope the commander feels like he just got kicked somewhere sensitive.

Now, if the New Cronus gunners take the hint, this battle will be over that much quicker. Though that was quite the imaginative assault by the battleship's commander. Anyone else might have been fatally distracted by their arm playing silly buggers. A pity they're probably not in the best shape after OL's counterattack...

...as the discs start hitting and shield and doing...

...as the discs start hitting the shield and doing...

Vaermina · Oct 6, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
11th September 2012
20:14 GMT

Shouldn't he be super low on Ring Power with everything going on and being cut off from the Ophidian?

Darko · Oct 6, 2021

Chojin Patriarch said:
Careful, OL. Don't go poking things you don't fully understand

Since when he that stopped any version of Paul?

Chojin Patriarch said:
Remember what happened... Every other time you did?

I think he remembers but he hasn't really internalized the information yet.

Radiant Knight · Oct 6, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
I'll have a look, but I suspect that that image is gone for good.

Google says this was it: https://www.deviantart.com/geikouart/art/Olympic-Palace-315705867

Ngamer11 · Oct 6, 2021

Vaermina said:
Shouldn't he be super low on Ring Power with everything going on and being cut off from the Ophidian?

He still feels Avarice, so the energy that fuels his ring is still fine. Only his method of communicating with the Ophidian is blocked

Mr Zoat · Oct 6, 2021

moralrelativity said:
there's -> they're

Thank you, corrected.

It is definitely a British thing.

It's not our fault that the rest of the world is wrong.

Chojin Patriarch said:
...as the discs start hitting the shield and doing...

Thank you, corrected.

Radiant Knight said:
Google says this was it: https://www.deviantart.com/geikouart/art/Olympic-Palace-315705867

That looks like I remember, but I won't be able to update the old link until I get home this evening as I need to save the image.

Dakkan Sall · Oct 6, 2021

Vaermina said:
Shouldn't he be super low on Ring Power with everything going on and being cut off from the Ophidian?

Ngamer11 said:
He still feels Avarice, so the energy that fuels his ring is still fine. Only his method of communicating with the Ophidian is blocked

The Ophidian didn't seem to be... inhabiting OL previous to the cut-off, more focusing her attention through him (and talking a bit when Thia was acting snooty), so she probably wasn't empowering him any more that he usually is. Her 'physical' form is still back in her cozy nest/Central Power Battery on Maltus.

And one way or the other... Power Ring energy depletion has always been subject to author fiat since you can't exactly itemize "he's used technique X at 79% power for five seconds, which should use up N%..." I forget off the top of my head if he has two rings again, or just the one, but it is likely that within a chapter or three it will become at least acknowledged how much power he's been using.

Silveraith · Oct 6, 2021

Ngamer11 said:
He still feels Avarice, so the energy that fuels his ring is still fine. Only his method of communicating with the Ophidian is blocked

He's currently wearing two rings I believe, Larfleeze's ring and the new one that was made for him after the explosion death.

Diraniola · Oct 6, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
Things go dark, and blinking feels wrong and damp-. My eyeballs just exploded. Clean that up and grow a new pair.

I love how the handful of times this happened to Grayven, it was this huge hassle that took a long time to heal, but Paul is just "Oh bother, better fix that real quick."

Someguy Somewhere · Oct 6, 2021

Silveraith said:
He's currently wearing two rings I believe, Larfleeze's ring and the new one that was made for him after the explosion death.

He also ususally carries a couple spare rings for recruiting purposes, unknown how many he has atm, but they would likely have a charge as well.

CTrees · Oct 6, 2021

Does Paul's Consume technique restore his charge, currently? I seem to recall that his first try wasn't great for energy efficiency, but he might have gotten to the point where he can recharge by feeding of strong energy fields like he has been intermittently doing in this fight.

On the other hand, I could see OL suddenly being out of ring charge at an inconvenient time, because his current focus on gathering new information has distracted him from paying attention to his charge level.

Coda · Oct 6, 2021

Lord Ernest said:
I don't believe she's enlightened. The black quotes seem to represent the special connection and empowerment that she has with Erebos because of her father, not because she has an special understanding of Death or whatever. I can't quote where Mr. Zoat said it, but I'm fairly certain he mentioned something of the like. Somebody correct me if I'm mistaken, however.

Fair point, you're right. I was using "enlightened" as a handwave description for that connection, but I shouldn't do that.

Mr Zoat said:
I'm getting glimpses of the battleship; how the systems and New Gods

Comma instead of semicolon

Mr Zoat · Oct 6, 2021

Coda said:
Comma instead of semicolon

Thank you, corrected.

Michael Vonica · Oct 6, 2021

CTrees said:
On the other hand, I could see OL suddenly being out of ring charge at an inconvenient time, because his current focus on gathering new information has distracted him from paying attention to his charge level.

The laws of foreshadowing decree that Paul must now improvise mid battle and learn the technique of charging without a lantern.

Doccer · Oct 6, 2021

Chojin Patriarch said:
...Oh, for... Those things are becoming more trouble than they're worth, you know. Maybe next time you die, tone them down a little?

Or better yet turn those bloody things off! He already has a soul so he's already set. Nobody else suffers from this do they? Hell given what Priest said about powerful Lanterns Paul should have been determined to get what Malvolio wanted shouldn't he?

Mr Zoat · Oct 7, 2021

11th September 2012
20:16 GMT

The first thing I see is that the cruiser loses momentum suddenly, the hull around the point of impact crumpling in a little as the hull armour fails and the exterior corridors form a crumple zone. Then the battleship's hull starts to bend, armour cracking as the empty hold of the launch bay provides no structural reinforcement while the more solid interior structure of the cruiser has far less give to it.

It bends a little more.

A little more.

Then it caves, the entire front… Fifth? Of the battleship's underside caving inwards. Is it-? Yes, whatever environmental shield they used to keep the air in fails with such widespread damage, atmosphere escaping in the direction the cruiser came from.

The battleship is moving. And it appears to be a weakness of the design that it doesn't have good manoeuvring abilities. That's a common feature of battleships, and why a lot of polities don't use them. Accelerating an object that big takes a lot of thrust, and larger ships have proportionally less surface area than smaller ships. When compromising between space for guns and space for the thrusters that would be needed for something it wouldn't ever be particularly good at anyway, most places allot the space to guns and have escorts cover them when it needs to turn.

The Karrakanians appear to have adopted that methodology and right now it's biting them in the rear.

I head for the battleship as it begins to tumble very slowly in the direction I want. That's not doing anything to move the troops that it has already landed other than wound their morale -they can all clearly see it- but if they're fighting in the Apokoliptian way, anything that weakens their supreme commander should have a knock-on effect on all of their weapons.

The remaining cruisers don't appear to be trying to reacquire me as a target, which is a little curious. Two are moving from their 'guard' position, presumably to render direct aid or recover escape pods.

Only question is whether the guns are going to actually take advantage of the opportunity. Well… That, and do I board the ship or operate the guns myself. I could… Drag the battleship while they're distracted. If I keep close to the hull I doubt that they'll dare shoot me, not with the battleship in the condition it's now in.

Okay. Ring, calculations based on the visible thrusters. Can the battleship stop itself getting hit by the guns if they're active?

Assuming that it has no other means of generating thrust, the battleship will drift into the arc of fire of the guns. However, the cruisers may be able to act as tug boats and prevent that.

Agh, that's what they're doing. Okay, not an insurmountable problem. Ships that size don't have lots of tractor beams, for the same reason that battleships don't have a lot of manoeuvring thrusters. It takes a lot of power to use and doesn't add anything to their gunnery. Some fleets relegate them to dedicated tug boats kept with the fleet tenders. I'd be surprised if they have more than one designed to work on capital ships, though they might have smaller ones from grabbing escape pods. And now that I know how to pierce their shield, and could just destroy them when they are deployed and then carry on with attacking the battleship.

I-.

Ah. I turn back and pick up the disc launchers. They're dry now, but they can generate their own ammunition given time. I stick them back into subspace, and then fly towards the closest of the two supporting cruisers. I've got no idea where they deploy their tractor beam from, so it's really just a-.

The cruiser I used as a ramming ship activates its thrusters at full reverse, pulling itself out of the battleship with a flare of the shields of both vessels. They… Shouldn't have any sort of central command and control, but I suppose 'we just hit something, move away from it' doesn't require a great deal of instruction from on high. If their tractor beam was front-mounted rather than underside-mounted then they won't be able to use it, but if it was-.
We Will Have Revenge!
I hurriedly throw myself into an evasive pattern as they work out where I am and decide to demonstrate their displeasure with all of their remaining guns. A cavalcade of plasma bolts fly at me with… More accuracy than they were able to pull off. I'm taking hits, and my construct overshield is cracking in a dozen places. They aren't keeping the guns on me like whoever it was controlling that laser did, but it's a good deal harder to redirect plasma. I'm going to have to keep moving-.

Oh! One of the surface guns is up and tracking. Not sure if that was because of me-.

It shoots, hitting… One of the cruisers that was preparing to act as a tug. Its shields flare, movement slightly thrown off. I know that Coeus said that the guns of New Cronus dealt with them easily last time, but I suppose that was without them boom tubing into assault boat range. If that cannon can't even destroy a cruiser, maybe it's best-.

It fires again, then maintains the rate of one shot every four seconds. It takes five shots before the target vessel's shield weakens to the point where they start hitting the hull, but the cruiser is already giving up on whatever it was trying to do in order to get out of the arc of fire. The other cruiser stays on the near-side of the battleship, one of its weapon ports opening up to reveal its tractor beam. I immediately start flying towards it, only for the-.

Ah ah ah.

Damn, bubble-. Bubble gone, and my construct armour is taking a battering. It turns out that someone over there has basic tactical awareness and had everyone else shoot through the space between my position and the cruiser that deployed the tractor beam. I just got shot by at least four different ships and I-. Alright, don't compromise on evasiveness. They know where I'm going and I have to go there, but that doesn't mean that I need to make myself an easy target.

The outer part of the battleship's hull just… It's falling off, the part near the hangar doors being completely disassociated from the rest of the structure. It's still attached at the opposite end, but the weakened sides are tearing from the stress as the ship tries to change vector. I can see bodies and small ships falling out through the gaps.

The cruiser that got into range of New Cronus' gun is nearly out of the arc of fire before it takes a final hit to the rear armour that punches straight through, a brilliant plume of gold-white fire burning through the armour and flaring through the interior! The ship loses control of its acceleration immediately, drifting along its last vector without further thrust.

One of the gods boosted that. And if Hyperion is fighting around the New Cronus launch bay I'm going to assume that it was Theia. Excellent! That makes my job far simpler.

Okay, I'm close enough to the tug boat cruiser that it's shielding me against fire from the rest of the fleet. Its anti-attack ship guns have deployed and are peppering me with fire, but they don't have anything like the power of its main guns. Destructive pulse… Doesn't penetrate. Okay, not a problem, I need to fly around the bulk of the ship anyway. Hug the shield, strands ready and-.

Alert!
Seek The Foe's Heart!
DODGE!

"Surprise, alien!"

A New God carrying a cruiser-class gun like it's an infantry rifle is floating in space. Light power armour and thrusters, and from the tron lines I'm going to assume that it's Apokoliptian issue. They narrowly missed the first shot, mostly because they're using a slower than light weapon and my ring's still guiding my dodging. They change pose and accelerate after me, weapon ready and apparently not slowing their accelerating at all.
Die!
Alert!

I change vector immediately and agh! Hit me anyway! There goes my construct armour and my power armour isn't rated against that class of weapon! Nowhere to evade to, have to fight them quickly and then carry on with my attack.

I turn, generating a construct shield and sending out construct tendrils.

Feed Me!

"Cannibal." Four small flak turrets extend from their armour and shoot out my tendrils. "Degenerate."

Two can play at that-.

They fire their main gun, the oversized shot smashing straight into my construct shield, which…

Technically it holds, deflecting the plasma before being reduced to a disc of cracks and dull orange light. Then it fails completely as my opponent prepares to fire again.

Spear it is, then.

Chojin Patriarch · Oct 7, 2021

Godspeech. Minor but pertinent.

The cruiser I used as a ramming ship activates its thrusters at full reverse, pulling itself out of the battleship with a flare of the shields of both vessels. They… Shouldn't have any sort of central command and control, but I suppose 'we just hit something, move away from it' doesn't require a great deal of instruction from on high. If their tractor beam was front-mounted rather than underside-mounted then they won't be able to use it, but if it was-.
We Will have Revenge!
I hurriedly throw myself into an evasive pattern as they work out where I am and decide to demonstrate their displeasure with all of their remaining guns. A cavalcade of plasma bolts fly at me with… More accuracy than they were able to pull off. I'm taking hits, and my construct overshield is cracking in a dozen places. They aren't keep the guns on me like whoever it was controlling that laser did, but it's a good deal harder to redirect plasma. I'm going to have to keep moving-.

Alert!
Seek The Foe's Heart!
DODGE!

A New God carrying a cruiser-class gun like its an infantry rifle is floating in space. Light power armour and thrusters, and from the tron lines I'm going to assume that it's Apokoliptian issue. They narrowly missed the first shot, mostly because they're using a slower than light weapon and my ring's still guiding my dodging. They change pose and accelerate after me, weapon ready and apparently not slowing their accelerating at all.
Die!
Alert!

DrThoth · Oct 7, 2021

What exactly is preventing Paragon from reaching the Ophidian again? He was able to access the Honden in the last chapter, and now that the battleship is wounded, maybe there's less interference. I'm asking to see how feasible a desire alteration of this enemy New God/Ascendant is, given that Paulphidian managed to mess with the real Grayven temporarily.

gustyeagle · Oct 7, 2021

Mr Zoat, I have updated the With This Ring epub file to this new link, if you could replace the old one that would be great.
https://www.mediafire.com/file/vsqygoec84mk1a3/With_This_Ring_9-25-21_-_Mr._Zoat.epub/file

Darko · Oct 7, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
the cruisers may be able be able to act as tug boats and prevent that.

Remove one 'be able'

Mr Zoat said:
Feed Me!

"Cannibal." Four small flak turrets extend from their armour and shoot out my tendrils. "Degenerate."

Hey, if you're Apokoliptian then you don't have the right to criticize other people.

Mr Zoat said:
The it fails completely

'Then it'

Ngamer11 · Oct 7, 2021

Darko said:
Hey, if you're Apokoliptian then you don't have the right to criticize other people.

Pretty sure they just accepted weapons to become servants for actual Apokoliptians, like how the Order of Stone is made up of fanatics and puppets.

Alasnuyo · Oct 7, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
"Cannibal." Four small flak turrets extend from their armour and shoot out my tendrils.

Well, he's not technically wrong. Even if OL wasn't already a deity of some sort, he did sucked dry that one Rhea-descended demigod recently; that bout of theophagy may have been enough to make him count as a legit Olympian deity.

I mean he got the godspeech working right before he figuratively ate that dude.

Darko · Oct 7, 2021

DrThoth said:
What exactly is preventing Paragon from reaching the Ophidian again? He was able to access the Honden in the last chapter, and now that the battleship is wounded, maybe there's less interference. I'm asking to see how feasible a desire alteration of this enemy New God/Ascendant is, given that Paulphidian managed to mess with the real Grayven temporarily.

I'm betting either Sparta is doing something with her powers or with something Grayven gave her.

It could be a method to block weird dimensional shenanigans, like what the Angels did, to prevent the Titans from just escaping and is also working on Paul.

Paul may have been able to mess with Grayven since he wasn't prepared for that, but now that has probably changed.

Ngamer11 said:
Pretty sure they just accepted weapons to become servants for actual Apokoliptians, like how the Order of Stone is made up of fanatics and puppets.

Yeah I know.

But after he called him an Apokaliptian I thought that maybe he was someone that followed Grayven and is now helping Sparta.

Chojin Patriarch · Oct 7, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
11th September 2012
20:16 GMT

The first thing I see is that the cruiser loses momentum suddenly, the hull around the point of impact crumpling in a little as the hull armour fails and the exterior corridors form a crumple zone. Then the battleship's hull starts to bend, armour cracking as the empty hold of the launch bay provides no structural reinforcement while the more solid interior structure of the cruiser has far less give to it.

Doesn't matter how big you are, when you get hit by thousands of tons travelling at hundreds of kilometres an hour, you are going to feel it. And something as large and rigid as the battleship is? It's going to feel it especially sharply.

It bends a little more.

A little more.

Of course, that 'bend' might only be a few inches of distance, but in something that large? A few inches is fatal.

Then it caves, the entire front… Fifth? Of the battleship's underside caving inwards. Is it-? Yes, whatever environmental shield they used to keep the air in fails with such widespread damage, atmosphere escaping in the direction the cruiser came from.

Nasty! And if the ship's inertial dampening systems aren't handling the impact well, a lot of crew just took a tumble into the nearest bulkheads in that direction.

The battleship is moving. And it appears to be a weakness of the design that it doesn't have good manoeuvring abilities. That's a common feature of battleships, and why a lot of polities don't use them. Accelerating an object that big takes a lot of thrust, and larger ships have proportionally less surface area than smaller ships. When compromising between space for guns and space for the thrusters that would be needed for something it wouldn't ever be particularly good at anyway, most places allot the space to guns and have escorts cover them when it needs to turn.

The Karrakanians appear to have adopted that methodology and right now it's biting them in the rear.

And in combat, you're going to want to point straight ahead, so the frontal batteries can pour fire into the enemy, while minimising your targetting profile. At most, I expect its thrusters' turning ability is intended more to adjust aiming than anything like agility.

I head for the battleship as it begins to tumble very slowly in the direction I want. That's not doing anything to move the troops that it has already landed other than would their morale -they can all clearly see it- but if they're fighting in the Apokoliptian way, anything that weakens their supreme commander should have a knock-on effect on all of their weapons.

The remaining cruisers don't appear to be trying to reacquire me as a target, which is a little curious. Two are moving from their 'guard' position, presumably to render direct aid or recover escape pods.

I suspect most everyone in Sparta's fleet is busy going 'holy crap!' I'm impressed the two moving have acted as quickly as they are.

Only question is whether the guns are going to actually take advantage of the opportunity. Well… That, and do I board the ship or operate the guns myself. I could… Drag the battleship while they're distracted. If I keep close to the hull I doubt that they'll dare shoot me, not with the battleship in the condition it's now in.

Okay. Ring, calculations based on the visible thrusters. Can the battleship stop itself getting hit by the guns if they're active?

Why pass up the chance to loot intel or gear?

Assuming that it has no other means of generating thrust, the battleship will drift into the arc of fire of the guns. However, the cruisers may be able be able to act as tug boats and prevent that.

Agh, that's what they're doing. Okay, not an insurmountable problem. Ships that size don't have lots of tractor beams, for the same reason that battleships don't have a lot of manoeuvring thrusters. It takes a lot of power to use and doesn't add anything to their gunnery. Some fleets relegate them to dedicated tug boats kept with the fleet tenders. I'd be surprised if they have more than one designed to work on capital ships, though they might have smaller ones from grabbing escape pods. And now that I know how to pierce their shield, and could just destroy them when they are deployed and then carry on with attacking the battleship.

Basically, at this point, the space fight is pretty much lost by Sparta's fleet, they just need to realise that... And a lot of the credit is down to one man. That'll sting something fierce when they realise that...

I-.

Ah. I turn back and pick up the disc launchers. They're dry now, but they can generate their own ammunition given time. I stick them back into subspace, and then fly towards the closest of the two supporting cruisers. I've got no idea where they deploy their tractor beam from, so it's really just a-.

Again, never let go of anything that might be useful. Adventuring 101.

The cruiser I used as a ramming ship activates its thrusters at full reverse, pulling itself out of the battleship with a flare of the shields of both vessels. They… Shouldn't have any sort of central command and control, but I suppose 'we just hit something, move away from it' doesn't require a great deal of instruction from on high. If their tractor beam was front-mounted rather than underside-mounted then they won't be able to use it, but if it was-.
We Will have Revenge!

Whoops, the commander's still alive and fighting, it seems. And they've regained control of the cruiser OL subverted. This battle might not be as over as I thought.

I hurriedly throw myself into an evasive pattern as they work out where I am and decide to demonstrate their displeasure with all of their remaining guns. A cavalcade of plasma bolts fly at me with… More accuracy than they were able to pull off. I'm taking hits, and my construct overshield is cracking in a dozen places. They aren't keep the guns on me like whoever it was controlling that laser did, but it's a good deal harder to redirect plasma. I'm going to have to keep moving-.

Oh! One of the surface guns is up and tracking. Not sure if that was because of me-.

About damn time. Let's hope they can take down the battleship.

It shoots, hitting… One of the cruisers that was preparing to act as a tug. It's shields flare, movement slightly thrown off. I know that Coeus said that the guns of New Cronus dealt with them easily last time, but I suppose that was without them boom tubing into assault boat range. If that cannon can't even destroy a cruiser, maybe it's best-.

It fires again, then maintains the rate of one shot every four seconds. It takes five shots before the target vessel's shield weaken to the point where they start hitting the hull, but the cruiser is already giving up on whatever it was trying to do in order to get out of the arc of fire. The other cruiser stays on the near-side of the battleship, one of its weapon ports opening up to reveal its tractor beam. I immediately start flying towards it, only for the-.

Welp, not perfect, but not everyone can throw around the kind of firepower a Ring can provide.

Ah ah ah.

Damn, bubble-. Bubble gone, and my construct armour is taking a battering. It turns out that someone over there has basic tactical awareness and had everyone else shoot through the space between my position and the cruiser that deployed the tractor beam. I just got shot by at least four different ships and I-. Alright, don't compromise on evasiveness. They know where I'm going and I have to go there, but that doesn't mean that I need to make myself an easy target.

Ah, the 'more dakka' approach to anti-air fire. Put enough shots into the general area of the threat and you're bound to hit something.

The outer part of the battleship's hull just… It's falling off, the part near the hangar doors being completely disassociated from the rest of the structure. It's still attached at the opposite end, but the weakened sides are tearing from the stress as the ship tries to change vector. I can see bodies and small ships falling out through the gaps.

The cruiser that got into range of New Cronus' gun is nearly out of the arc of fire before it takes a final hit to the rear armour that punches straight through, a brilliant plume of gold-white fire burning through the armour and flaring through the interior! The ship loses control of its acceleration immediately, drifting along its last vector without further thrust.

So one ship severely damaged, the other mission-killed. Not bad for a couple of minutes work. Now for the rest of them...

One of the gods boosted that. And if Hyperion is fighting around the New Cronus launch bay I'm going to assume that it was Theia. Excellent! That makes my job far simpler.

Okay, I'm close enough to the tug boat cruiser that it's shielding me against fire from the rest of the fleet. It's anti-attack ship guns have deployed and are peppering me with fire, but they don't have anything like the power of its main guns. Destructive pulse… Doesn't penetrate. Okay, not a problem, I need to fly around the bulk of the ship anyway. Hug the shield, strands ready and-.

The only problem with getting so close is...

Alert!
Seek The Foe's Heart!
DODGE!

...The crew can deploy to repel boarders.

"Surprise, alien!"

A New God carrying a cruiser-class gun like its an infantry rifle is floating in space. Light power armour and thrusters, and from the tron lines I'm going to assume that it's Apokoliptian issue. They narrowly missed the first shot, mostly because they're using a slower than light weapon and my ring's still guiding my dodging. They change pose and accelerate after me, weapon ready and apparently not slowing their accelerating at all.
Die!
Alert!

Well, at least this one went for ranged combat over melee. Probably heard what happened to the last two to try that...

I change vector immediately and agh! Hit me anyway! There goes my construct armour and my power armour isn't rated against that class of weapon! Nowhere to evade to, have to fight them quickly and then carry on with my attack.

I turn, generating a construct shield and sending out construct tendrils.

Then perhaps employ some tricks. I'm sure he's eager to kill you, so maybe take advantage of that and get him to fire without checking his backstop... Like, say, his ship.

Feed Me!

"Cannibal." Four small flak turrets extend from their armour and shoot out my tendrils. "Degenerate."

Huh. This guy actually has a clue about space combat.

Two can play at that-.

They fire their main gun, the oversized shot smashing straight into my construct shield, which…

Okay, if it can do that much damage, maybe try not to tank it with your face?

Technically it holds, deflecting the plasma before being reduced to a disc of cracks and dull orange light. The it fails completely as my opponent prepares to fire again.

Spear it is, then.

Geez, having to fight in melee, with your own two hands, like a savage... How primitive.

On the upside, there can't be too many more of these Ascendants capable of direct combat around. Assuming at least one or two per ship, anyway. Hopefully after the fourth or fifth, they'll realise he can't be taken in close combat so easily. It seems like they all have a bone to pick with OL, though. I mean, sure, he's got a knack for pissing enemies off, but this is getting out of hand...

Handlewithcare · Oct 7, 2021

Why would the ship break under stress of movement? They have inertial dampeners?

With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

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