Aceldama

[Daemon Hyfe]

OOC: This is a closed small-fleet spar between Viscera and I only. We would appreciate no interference from any other parties. While all questions/comments are of course welcome, we ask that you please place them in a separate thread. All OOC posts to this spar will be deleted. Thanks.

Viscera: Really sorry I took so damn long. Anywho, if you’re still interested in doing this, both our flotillas will be made up of the same ships. These include:

- 1 Super Star Destroyer Mk. III (only because I know you’d pout like a baby if you didn’t get an SSD as your flagship)
- 3 Imperial-Class Star Destroyer Mk. II’s
- 2 Imperial-Class Star Destroyer Mk. I’s
- 3 Dreadnaught Heavy Cruisers
- 3 Carrack Light Cruisers (in escort formation around the SSD)

Each ship is equipped with its standard load of starfighters. For our purposes, I didn’t think any Interdictors would be necessary. While I’m fully aware that this specific organization of ships is not at all common, I believe it will adequately suit our needs. If you have any specific small changes you want to make to the ship list before the spar develops too far, feel free to just edit that in.

Standard fleet battle rules apply. Please, no posts under 10 lines, for the sake of keeping the spar going in a story-like format. Good luck.

[Daemon Hyfe]

Aceldama – n [fr. Aceldama, field bought by Judas with the money received for betraying Christ (Acts 1:18-19), lit., field of blood] 1 : a place of bloodshed 2 : a place associated with evil




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There is a blinding flash of light that overpowers all else. All is white for a moment, luminous; fogging his mind of anything but its pure bright energy. An almost painful light. The brightness of the flash seems to penetrate into his very body, becoming a feeling more than just a bright light to his eyes, a feeling that unexplicably angers him. For this so brief a moment there is nothing but light, but this moment, this immeasurable flash, somehow seems an eternity, until finally it begins to dim away. Slowly, darker and darker, until the light is replaced by immaculate, taintless dark. So soothing… Darkness. Black. So often considered to be the evil side of things. Good and bad, light and dark. But how could something so calm, so soothing, be considered evil, in comparison to the blinding, despicable light? The light that scorches your eyes; burns your soul. His mind aches just to think of it. It is dark now. Almost nothingness. Nothing but a strange humming that he knows to be the combat chamber simulation loading. Seconds tick by. The humming sound stops, almost regrettably. But the darkness that encompasses him now lingers for only a moment.

All thoughts are lost behind him in the void of hyperspace as Daemons fleet blurs into the depthless sea of real space. The swirling void he knows so well had sputtered like a dying engine, steadying into what would usually be blurred starlines, which eventually slow into tiny pinpoints. But there was no starline. No pinpoints of stars. Just another void, like hyperspace, but this time a void of nothingness.




Catching his breath as his mind returned to him, High Admiral Daemon Hyfe surveyed the bridge of the Super Star Destroyer Pandemonium. His crew too was standing speechless for the moment, staring through the transparisteel viewports of the bridge, looking into the starless region of space.

Swallowing the lump forming in his throat, Daemon stands from his command chair, still examining his surroundings. The multi-level command bridge of a Super Star Destroyer is quite a sight indeed. Dozens and dozens of engineering monitors, comm stations, sensor stations, nav stations, various different readouts, and dozens more crewmen. Crewmen who should be busying themselves with their various responsibilities. Should, but weren’t. They were all still standing bedazzled at the sight of the nothingness of space outside the ship. It was quite a rarity.

"Report," he ordered to nearest duty officer in a booming voice, loud enough for most of the bridge to hear, snapping them back to attention. The constant low din and shuffling of busy crewmen tending to their duties slowly returned.

The young man that had been addressed looked to his display panel, straightening his poise. "Hyperspace jump successful, Admiral. We’ve entered a region of space called Aceldama. No description available, sir."

"None at all?" Daemon inquired in a slightly puzzled tone.

"No, sir." the Lieutenant replied, looking up with questioning eyes.

Daemon turned slowly back to the main view port. "Thank you, Lieutenant." Odd that the combat simulation programmers had left out key information like this... Unless it was intended, which seemed a likely possibility.

"Is that name familiar to you, Captain?" Daemon asked, looking over his shoulder to Davin Essian, Captain of the Pandemonium. Essian was a middle-aged man of medium build, his weight slowly packing on with the passing of years. He proudly wore his brown military uniform, which was neat and tidy, if not slightly too small. His mildly graying, curly black hair padded his head, and he doned a shortly trimmed beard which accentuated the fine lines covering his aging face. Deep cut eyes of shimmering blue and a scar on his chin gave him a roguish look, but his military stature was quite evident nonetheless. Over the years, Essian had proven to be quite an officer.

"Not that I recall, Admiral Hyfe," the Captain replied in an intrigued voice. He continued to occasionally steal glances out the viewport, gazing deep into the nothingness of space.

"Quite interesting, isn’t it?" questioned Daemon in a smooth voice, looking back to the viewport himself.

"It is, sir. I’ve never seen anything quite like it," the Captain agreed.

"Nor have I, Captain Essian. A marvel indeed," Daemon replied, bringing the conversation to what seemed like an abrupt end as he began to stride slowly down the command walkway. Captain Essian opened his mouth to speak and closed it again as if changing his mind. A soft sigh escaped his lips as he read over the datapad the sensors officer had just handed him. He glanced up to look at the High Admirals back, then back down to his pad.

"A question, Captain?" Daemon asked, without turning.

"No, sir." Essian replied simply, handing the datapad back to the officer, giving him a brief nod. He clasped his black-gloved hands behind his back as he paced over to an engineering monitor.

Daemon made no reply. There was no need. He already knew the Captains question, of course. So easily he had picked it out from the man's thoughts. A trivial matter. If Essian did not think it important enough to bother him with, then it didn't need further pursuing. He simply continued the rest of the way down the command walkway, coming to a stop when there was no place left to go. Running his hand along the artificial wood railing of the walkway, a thin smile formed on his sinister face.

He was clad in a dark gray robe that trailed down to his feet, a hood pulled up over his face, partially covering his visage. Brooding steel-gray eyes stared out from under the hood, taking in all the details that such a limiting sense could provide. A man still in his prime, Daemon had a powerful figure, with an even more powerful mind.

Both hands resting on the railing of the command walkway, Daemon let his thoughts wander as his eyes lost focus in the depths of space. His mind went back to the simulation briefing. That irritating voice of the automated mission briefer drilled into his brain... His whiney, snobbish voice was like torture to listen to. If he ever met the programmer of the voice of that flight officer, he swore to himself he’d kill him. Nevertheless, he had been paying close attention in the briefing. It wasn’t every day one had the opportunity to spar with the Lord of the Empire himself. In fact, he couldn’t recall any time in recent history when anyone had taken on Viscera in a mock-fleet battle. It certainly would be an interesting, if not virulent event. Thank the Force for combat chambers.

Letting out a breath, Daemon looked over the railing, down to the scurrying officers in the crew pit below. They seemed anxious, very anxious. Turning around, he locked his eyes on Captain Essian, who was busying himself at an engineering station. "Captain, how long until Viscera’s fleet exits hyperspace?"

"Just a few more minutes, sir." The other replied, glancing up at his superior.

Daemon nodded, walking briskly back to the bridges command center and his command chair. "Good. Have all ships report in. All hands to their stations, Captain. Let’s prepare for battle," he declared, lowering himself into his seat.

"Right away, Admiral."

[Daemon Hyfe]

High Admiral Daemon Hyfe now sat in complete silence, his face, shadowed by the dark hood of his robe, expressionless. His eyes were locked in concentration on the status readouts now wrapped around his command chair. Nothing disturbed his concentration, as if he was unaware of the bustling bridge crew all about him.

The Fleet had taken up a standard battle-ready formation, with the Star Destroyers loosely spread in a crescent moon type-arrangement, pointed towards the exit vector where Viscera’s Fleet would be coming out of hyperspace, according to the mission briefing. The cruisers were on either side in an attack pattern, and the flagship Pandemonium was commanding from the center. But there was an itching in the back of Daemons mind. Something was very wrong.

The head tactical officer stepped up to the Pandemonium’s bridge command station, coming to attention. Daemon seemed not to notice. The officer stood for a moment, awkwardly, wondering if the Admiral had indeed noticed his presence. Daemon remained silent for another few heartbeats, still studying the various status and tactical readouts before him, then he looked up to the tactical officer, nodding as a signal for him to speak.

"All units signal ready, Admiral," he reported dutifully.

"Very well," Daemon replied, giving the officer another brief nod. The tactical officer took the cue, returning to his post.

"Captain," he began again, looking to his right towards the station Essian was occupying, "Order the Fleet to break formation. Have all three Mk. II ISD’s and one of the Dreadnaughts move 3 kilometers to port, and the 2 Mk. I ISD’s and the other two Dreadnaughts similarly move 3 kilometers starboard. We will maintain our current position, along with the Carrack escorts. Both side groups are to be arranged in standard fan-V formation, facing inwards towards the Pandemonium and our Carrack escorts."

Captain Essian stood at his station, puzzled. "Uh, yes sir." The Captain nodded to the communications officer next to him, who was already beginning to carry out these latest orders. Then he looked back to Daemon. "Sir, if I may – "

"You’re wondering why I would have the Fleet taken out of the standard interception formation?" Daemon interrupted the Captain, who gave him an affirmative nod. "Quite simple, really. The normal formation simply will not be effective, because Darth Viscera is not a normal man. Far from it, as you’ve probably noticed." Essian remained silent, not sure how to respond to this.

"You can count on Viscera to mix with everything we think we know to be true, Captain," Daemon continued. "You see, since the combat chamber cannot load 2 simulations of this magnitude simultaneously, we were given the option to choose whether we would be first in or second, because we were the expected losers. The underdogs. We took the opportunity to be at the advantage by entering first, giving us a short time to prepare. Viscera does not give out advantages freely. I know this man. I’ve known him for some time now, and I’ve had a close look at his history. He will turn what we believe to be an advantage into a devastating disadvantage in a heartbeat."

Captain Essian still had a questioning look on his face. "I see, Admiral. But what – "

"What I’m trying to say, Captain," Daemon interrupted once more, "is that Viscera will not be coming out of hyperspace at the vector provided in the briefing. Most likely he will bring his fleet in from a different vector, approaching us from behind. It may also be a possibility that he will bring his forces in from multiple angles, in an attempt to close us in, limiting our possibilities, and smothering us. Do you understand that, Captain?"

"But there was nothing in the briefing about this sort of thing. How could – "

"I don’t know, Captain Essian. I really don’t know. But you can leave it up to Viscera to find a way. I am telling you, and I’m telling you straight out, Viscera will not make this simple for us."

"Yes, sir."

"With our forces split this way, we are defended on almost all sides. If Viscera does come from the rear, the two fan-V formations will have time to close in on his fleet, providing cover while the Pandemonium comes about. We can similarly defend ourselves this way from multiple attacks. What’s more, Captain, is that if Visceras fleet does come out of hyperspace as described in the briefing, the outside wings can come in, trapping his forces in between, and allowing attacks from three sides. A better defensive as well as offensive pattern all around," Daemon concluded, a glint in his eyes.

Essian looked baffled. He finally understood the Admirals plan, but what he did not understand, and probably never would, was how he had concocted a plan such as this in a matter of only one or two minutes. "Brilliant, sir," was all he could manage.

Daemon only nodded. He quickly changed the topic to the more important matters at hand. "What is Viscera’s current ETA?" he asked hurriedly to no one in particular.

"Supposedly just under 1 minute, Admiral Hyfe," replied a duty officer at a navigation console.

With the tap of a button on his right armrest, Daemon brought up a small holographic tactical display in the open area of his command station in front of him, along with various readouts and ship schematics. Settling back into his command chair, he surveyed the displays quickly. The 13 green blips on the tactical display represented the ships in the fleet under his command, showing that most of them were almost set in their newly designated places. They were as ready as they could ever be.

"All Imperial Star Destroyers, launch your first wave of TIE fighters," Daemon called. "Close range patrol."

"Thirty seconds," came the voice of the officer at the nav console again.

Daemon let out a sigh, surveying the bridge of the Super Star Destroyer, his lips contorting into a tight smile. This was more than he could have desired. He tapped into the Force, letting the currents of the Dark Side flow through his body, feeling it’s power.

A last glance at the tactical display showed all ships in position, ready for battle. And in the center of it all, commanding the battle effort, was his SSD. "Captain, is my flagship ready?" he asked in the formal manner.

"The Pandemonium is fully at your command, Admiral Hyfe," came the Captains formal reply.

"Ten seconds, Admiral," the officer’s voice alerted him. "Eight – seven – six – five ..."

[Darth Viscera]

OOC: Would you say that this picture accurately resembles the situation of your forces, more or less? Sorry for the crappy picture, I couldn't find 3d Studio Max anywhere.

<img src=http://www16.brinkster.com/wlabiche/tactics.jpg>

[Gormul Hyfe]

Oh, geeminy. Gonna trip me up with this huh? Gonna have read my mind and come in from all the wrong angles that will screw up my configuration? Well, go ahead, but don't let things get to out of hand. Remember, you aren't God... despite what you may think. ;) That's right, you don't believe in God. Oh well.

Yes, that looks about right to me. Pretty close, I guess.

And remember to make sure you delete these OOC posts from the thread when you're done.

[Daemon Hyfe]

LMAO.

This thread was fun.

[Darth Viscera]

hoo hoo hoo hoo