Fwurg

[Ariana Danacia]

Ariana quickly communicated with the boarding squadron to check how much time they had. "What is the countdown saying, how much time?"

She wanted to try two things before giving up unless she ran out of time.

"I am trying to abort the self-destruct! Give me as long as possible."Ariana first tried to slice in on a console to abort the self-destruct sequence. If they could trigger it from the bridge it might be possible to abort it from a central console as well.

If the self-destruct sequence could not be aborted due to the fact that the missiles were armed and no longer receiving abort commands she tried to fire all the missiles into space as quickly as possible before they would blow up. She quickly targeted all the missiles on an Asteroid nearby. "I try to dump the entire payload."

If aborting the self-destruct was no longer an option she would give the abort command to the boarding squadrons and would abandon ship as quickly as possible.

((Check: 15 = 6 Force Level + 6 Reason + 2 Slicing + 1 Battle Meditation -- Hacking into the ships system to abort the self-destruct or launch all the missiles and dump all the armed bombs.))

[Mercury]

The First Shebi Fleet continued to rain down fire at the Mandalorians to the very last moment when they finally jumped out into hyperspace. They had done all the damage they could, though a chase might be in order to destroy the two Mandalorian fleets once and for all.

The Veolian Imperial Fleets and the ships of Admiral Haelstein moved in to take care of what few Mandalorians remained on the surface. Few of them surrendered, prefering death in battle over capture, but really it was semantics - control over Azarya was firmly in Union hands.

"About ten seconds!" the boarding squadron reported, seeming to be running away from the bridge and back towards the boarding platforms. Ten seconds would not be enough to do much.

Ariana was a capable slicer, but Mandalorian vessels - like most ships - had their weapon systems and self destruct sequence under the strictest of security and with the added pressure of tight timing. Moreover, firing and aiming weapons for a ship this size was not a matter of running a command script. There were all sorts of procedures and various people involved in firing the weapons.

All in all, she soon realised she simply did not have enough time to prevent the ships destruction.

But Ariana was a capable slicer and not foolish either - she quickly set a download to transmit as much data as possible from the Mandalorian command ship to the Union vessels in the area, and her own datapad - it could be decrypted later, but saving the data would at least give them a chance to do so.

Reluctantly, Ariana was forced to abandon the Mandalorian vessel before it was destroyed, her boarding platform shaking heavily as it was flung out into space by the explosion, where it was soon picked up by one of the Union vessels.

The battle for the Azaryan Homeworld was over. The Union had won.

[Veolian Commonwealth]

First Shebi Fleet

As soon as one of her officers noted the unexpected data stream being broadcasted from the Mandalorian vessel contains a Union signature, Ajava orders the officer to store the whole stream. She had a quick look at the data, and couldn't make heads nor tails of it, so she decided to let it be for now. There were bigger things to worry about.

Such as the Mandalorian command vessel exploding! Ajava contacts the Praetorian fleet mere minutes after the explosion, assuming that the padawan survived something simple like an exploding ship. "This is Shebi Ajava to the Praetorian Primary fleet. Please inform Ariana Danacia that the First Shebi Fleet will be chasing the Mandalorians, and that we would be happy to hunt together."

After she sent that message, she ordered a chase and sent a second message "This is princess Shebi to the Veolian Imperial Fleet. Thank you for the assistance. We will give chase."

It took a while for the fleet to prepare for departure, allowing the Praetorians to make up their mind about chasing.

Veolian Imperial Fleet

After assisting with the mop-up of Mandalorian ground forces, the Veolian Imperial Fleet entered space once more. Though they had orders to join the line in sector 7 -4, the current strategic situation did not warrant their presence at the front anymore. The veolian fleet plotted a course for Mirda, carrying the Shebi Legions back home.

[Ariana Danacia]

"I am still alive. I made it out of their command ship just in time. I managed to transmit as much encrypted data as possible from the Mandalorian command ship before I had to leave.

I have orders to return home with the Praetorian Primary Fleet. We will be decrypting this information as soon as possible.

Good hunting Shebi Ajava. Ariana Danacia out."

The Praetorian Primary Fleet plotted a course for Praeto.

[Veolian Commonwealth]

First Shebi Fleet

Immediately after the Mandalorians jumped away, and Ajava gave the chase order, the capital ships of the fleet started recalling their fighter wings for repair and resupply. Repair crews were deployed to the captial ships that required it.

Roughly an hour later, the First Shebi Fleet was ready for hyperspace. As the ships aligned and their pilots synchronized their engines Ajava looked at the projected trajectory of the fleeing Mandalorians. It wasn't sure that they could catch up, but it was worth a try. "Let the pilots wear themselves out, we will do battle on the second shift.", she orders just before the jump.

With all ship's pilots synchronized they executed a perfectly timed jump. One moment the whole fleet is floating about at a safe distance from Nest. Then, in the blink of an eye, all ships jump into hyperspace in perfect synchronization.

((OOC: As noted in the turn report as well: First Shebi Fleet: Move to 9 -3))

[Mercury]

Chasing after the Mandalorians, the First Shebi Fleet managed to catch up with a few stragglers, but nothing important as the disabled fleet continued to limp home towards Sector 8 -3. The chase continued.

[Veolian Commonwealth]

First Shebi Fleet

With the Mandalorian fleet capable of evading them, Ajava weighed her options. An extended chase would most likely prove futile, and would come at great expense to her family. Given the newly received intelligence on Union fleet positions she predicted that the news would inform the world that the 'Union fleets have mopped up the last remnants of a Mandalorian fleet', instead of the much better 'House Shebi of the Veolian Commonwealth destroys Mandalorian Fleets'.

Then again, she expected the wreckage from these fleets to hold some interesting information. Especially on what actually happened on nest.

With a smile, she contacted the Union fleets in 6 -5: "This is admiral Shebi Ajava of the First Shebi Fleet. We are in pursuit of two Mandalorian fleets and have chased them into 8 -3. Both fleets are severely crippled, and should not pose a challenge. Please intercept and delay if possible."

((OOC: As noted in the turn report as well: First Shebi Fleet: Move to 8 -3))

[Mercury]

((OOC: I appear to have forgotten that this chase was still ongoing. My apologies for this :())

The Mandalorian Fleets continued to withdraw, heading towards Sector 7 -3. No doubt the First Shebi Fleet would be in hot pursuit!

[Veolian Commonwealth]

First Shebi Fleet

The First Shebi Fleet was indeed in pursuit, having already informed the Union fleets to lay the trap.

[Mercury]

The Mandalorian Fleets kept up their flight, this time to Sector 6 -3.

[Veolian Commonwealth]

And again, the First Shebi Fleet was in pursuit. Ajava hoped she was able to catch the Mandalorian fleets before they entered Core Hegemony territory.

She knew that this might turn into a diplomatic incident, she makes sure that the First Shebi Fleet stays well away from the Core Hegemony border. At worst, they will cry foul about 'pushing' two Mandalorian Fleets into their territory.

[Mercury]

The Mandalorian Fleet seemed to have stopped at the Core Hegemony border. At this point it was unclear why, but it allowed the Union to catch up!

[Veolian Commonwealth]

Seeing the Mandalorian fleet outside of the Core Hegemony, the First Shebi Fleet prepared to engage the larger of the two crippled fleets.

((OOC: a) This post is really in 137, but the ST post was very late, so I had to post late as well.

b) How far away from the border are they? If they're really close by (i.e. if a battle could move into Core Hegemony space without hyperspace jumps), I won't attack, as said in my previous post.))

[Mercury]

The battle in Sector 6 -3 was short but bloody, the First Shebi Fleet cutting into the crippled fleets with little mercy.

Seeing their allies destroyed, the remaining Mandalorian fleet moved on ahead to cross the border into Core Hegemony space... but the Core Hegemony did not take kindly to that at all. With the Mandalorian fleet already crippled, the Core Hegemony made short work of what remained of their fleet.

And with that, both the Briikase Bes'laar (MF 943) and the Kandosii (MF 944) were destroyed. The fight was finally over.

[Veolian Commonwealth]

The First Shebi Fleet made sure that no straglers moved back out of the Core Hegemony. After the battle, Shebi Ajava contacted the admiral of the Core Hegemony fleets: "This is fleet admiral Shebi Ajava of the First Shebi Fleet, we're glad that you have the same opinion of these Mandalorian pirates as we do. We're heading back to Union territory."

And with that, she ordered the fleet to return home.