Twilight Of Peace

[Nightfall]

ONBOARD THE MAUL, MIDDLE OF THE BATTLE...

... "HULL-BREACH...INTRUDER ALERT!!!..." interrupted by a shake of a torpedo hit "... decks 7, 9, 13-16 lost! Hull integrity is now below 30%! Damage critical!" said ensign Kristiansen.
The Maul was heavily battered... Massive holes in it's hull and the nomad/phantom assault ships sticking out made it look odd. It lost almost half the original crew it had. The Maul began loosing control...
"Shield restored!"...
"And now these new things...! The shield won't last long" Nightfall sat in the captain's seat... with all the comotion around on the bridge and the shakes and the explosions... the lights flickering...
"Clear your mind..." he remembered his master's words. He had the sensation of himself bursting out of his body... out of The Maul... out of the battle, so he could watch it from distance and see it entirely. He saw the decimated Rheinland fleet. He saw the heavily damaged Asgard Warrior fleet. He looked upon the newly appeared Phantom fleet (their cloak devices couldn't stop this vision).
"Quite a hopeless situation, my padawan!" said the Voice from the other side "How will you get out of this? An advice, do you require?"
The Time stopped.
The Movement stopped.
Even the rays of light from the energy weapons stopped.
Explosions stopped from spreading their deathload, now looked like great balls of bright light.
Everything became a still hologram.
Nightfall saw what he was looking for: The Tarja, shields at 65%, no hull damage, it's solaris turrets cutting through groups of phantom fighters. The Juggernaught a few "Ks" from the battle, full battlegroup comming in hot...
"No Master, I appreciate the offer though!... But I think I know the answer to my questions. I will share it with you... The Time has come for Sacrifice!"
"Maybe this is a good day to die, my padawan, but remember that escape from death is appreciated if you can do it" said Master Lo-Gon.
"Ah! But my Master, I thought of just sacrificing the Ship, not the crew or myself, not more than necessary anyway."
"Good thinking, my padawan! May I remind that a future lies on the path of the Chancelor if she is saved and brought back to Life. A rather uncertain future, but if she dies, it will bring a disballance in the Force and the Dark Side will prevail."
"I know what to do, Master, thank you for the Time!"

This said, the Time moved forward... the explosions took their toll, the energy beams hit and missed their targets...

Nightfall shouted the orders:
"Ensign, order all hands evacuate the ship! Fighter bay, ready my Talon and cramble all fighters! Escape pods set course for the Tarja and the Juggernaugt's battlegroup, rendezvous and seek refuge! Commander Oradea, follow me to engineering"

Not long after, in the engineering section, final preparations for Nightfall's surprise to the phantom fleet were in the making...

The escape pods, along with fighter escorts were pushing through heavy flak fire from phantom ships... one of the Suicide Kings escorts - Manincap dodged a pair of incoming Nova torpedoes, dropped a Supernova mine taking the attacking fighter's shields, he veered, turned 180 degrees and started shooting, his overpowered Talon's guns quickly taking care of the two, now inexistent, attacking fighters. Some of the escape pods never made it to their destinations as were tratored in by phantoms.

On the Maul, the work is done...
"Allright, men, we have done all that we could here, time to abandon ship" said Commander Oradea "Vice Admiral, your Talon is ready, along with a wing of Suicide Kings and the ATrans, as you ordered"
"Good job men, set course for the major concentration of the phantom/rheinland capital ships! they'll have a surprise when they blow up The Maul. Abandon ship!"...

The Maul carried on, unmanned, automatically firring his Solaris and Mars turrets at enemy fighters in random patterns... Nightfall and his Suicide Kings wing escorted the Suicide Kings ATrans to the Rheinland Flagship...
"We don't have much time until The Maul reaches it's final destination, it's do or die, men! This is Vice Admiral Nightfall, to all Fighters and bombers! Bring down the shields of the enemy capitals, clear a path for The Maul! Juggernaught battlegroup engage targets with full force, cover the fighters! ATrans, be ready to board the Rheinland Flagship, quickly etract the Chancelor and clear out of there!"
The mission went smoothly with all the confusion on the crippled Rheinland Flagship. The Suicide Kings left it's fighterbay with the Chancelor onboard the ATrans. The Chancelor was safe to a point, as the ATrans was a heavily armored transpors capable of taking on a nomad battlegroup on it's own and barely loosing 25% of it's shields. **This is NOT power play, I tested it last night!**

"This is Manincap, Vice Admiral, I see an opening in The Devastator's fighterbay!" he was taking down fighter after fighter as if he was an ancient Viking Berserker, at the highest of his strength. Again he dodged another torpedo and he took down the phantom fighter firing it "I told you the torps are too slow for me you phantom b*stards! Sir, I have a few Supernovas left, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Do your thing, brave warrior! It was an honor having you on my side!" said Nightfall encouraging the brave but suicidal act of the young pilot.

The Maul has reached the middle of the heaviest concentration of enemy capital ships, it stopped there and it's modified AI started ripping through targets of opportunity... every weapon it had fired at double rate.

"Valhalla, here I come!" screamed Manincap directing his Talon through the fighterbay doors of The Devastator, releasing the remainder of his supernova mines behind him. He hit a fighter inside the bay, his speed bounced him into a group of fuel containers at the back of the fighterbay, with the five supernova mines he dropped detonating at the same time causing massive damage from inside the fighterbay of the Devastator. The Devastator was crippled and left floating dead in space as it's power generators failed. Manincap saw a bright flash of white light... then nothing...
"All AW forces, retreat, keep clear of The Maul's blast" shouted Nightfall.

Moments after that The Maul's engines exploded, ripping apart everything that had no shield, sending a swarm of reprogrammed nanobots to "eat" the hull of anything they fell on... thus destroying most of the enemy forces along with some AW ships left there damaged beyond any repair and disabling every single ship and fighter caught in the blast.

**this is to even the odds a bit, too many ships in one place**
**I'll post the aftermath in a while**

EDIT: here's the aftermath:

ONBOARD THE ABLEBEN, after the shockwave

"Status report!" ordered Lord Captain Dab.
"The Juggernaught battlegroup survived almost completely unaffected as they all had shields except 2 cruisers that were destoyed along with 2 fighterwings caught in the blast without shields.
The Battlestar Tarja is floating disabled.
The Rheinland Flagship, Leviathan and Ableben are as they were since they weren't caught in the blast.
The Devastator is floating crippled.
Mayhem was engaging somewhere out of the blast, so he's still causing mayhem whithin the Juggernaught battlegroup.
Most nomads and phantoms remaining ships disabled and crippled, lots destroyed.
Everyone has in fact a battlegroup remaining and two other battleships (heavily damaged) operational."
"Good, the odds are more to our advantage now!"
"Lord Captain, this is Nightfall, we have the Chancelor onboard the ATrans secured, awaiting orders!"


***To be continued...

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If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God? - from 'Nightfall' by I. Asimov
The Outcasts consider Siniestre Nube a sacred place for several reasons. Early explorers discovered a jumphole within the depths of the cloud that leads to a strange world of ringed stars and strange craft. All ships in the burrial ground are placed facing that hole to honor the Alien Spirits. - An Outcast rumor