Karl was hovering around the Morningstar area, carefully staying out of the way of the ground crew as they finished swapping and securing magazines and making field-expedient repairs where needed, but keeping an eye on everything that was happening.

So it wasn't hard for one of the ammo techs to effectively sneak up on him, pausing to clear his throat.  "Ahem...Captain Nilsson, sir?"  Karl turned, giving an acknowledging nod to the man.

"We were told you wanted as many of those new shells as possible...?" the man began.  At the look on Karl's face, he continued readily, "We've managed to modify fourteen shells.  Not sure how exactly they'll emulate the tank rounds you were referencing, but they should make a pretty spectacular bang on the outside of the hull, and anything they hit that isn't a composite or flexible compound is really gonna feel it...like an open-fist slap from one of the Ape-Folk..."

Karl grinned at the assessment, and gestured at the hover-cart next to the man.  "These are the goodies?" he asked, and the tech nodded.  Karl turned and shouted at the ground crew..."Hey, Chief!  Need to load a dozen of these in one of the howitzer ammo modules!"  He gestured at the cart, then turned back to the tech.

"If these do what I'm hoping they will, I'm hooking you all up with some hundred-year-old whiskey, if I can find any!"  He turned to the crew chief who was just opening his mouth to protest, adding, "You too, the whole ground crew as well."

  The SGT   smiles,..Thank you SM.. we'll make  sure they get  some,  we best  be away  before the shooting starts again.

 Larry   Thumped his tail and   began to prowl towards the   largs.. He Blurbbled  a  bit, which caused    most of the  Largs to pop their heads up.. Thro   tried to do the  'priaire  dog   stand, but fell over.

 The   Alpha  began to   nose   each  larg as we went through the  pack.


................

 The Admiral  was one the Scaffolding with Captain  SI, he  motioned   for  Sam to bring up  all the feeds she could muster, that pointed  at the  Angel fleet.

 Hennings  stepped  back a pace to  allow Captain Si  mor reviewing room. Well, Oliver? we may have taken out   25 ships, but that still leaves them  with around 125 Cap ships.

 Captain Si Nods   as she speaks up.They lost a few destroyers  and   almost half of the sloops..We have more destroyers  , corvettes  and sloops then them, and  out  Cap  ship differential is   as big as it was...

 we  have  16  Ships    behind  us  that are serving as a last line of  defense   for out  support ships... But they have a Hell of alot more damaged vessels then we have.. they don't know what's coming next. Our  flanks  reported that some   sloops or corvettes
 were  trying to find out , how far  our  flanks extended...they were destroyed , which helps eliminated   a few smaller ships, and should   put  more  fear into them we think AP-LO is  on #2..at least that's  what Beth guessed at , after  your talking with AP-Lo . It will be very interesting  , to see their  reactions

..............

 The tach  and  Ground  crew  cheered for Karl  as the hutled the   new toys to the  modulaes

Henry came and took a knee beside Thor. He helped the little beast up, then held him in the 'prairie dog' position.

"Is this what you wanted to do, Thor? You need to strengthen up your back muscles to hold that stance."

He rubbed Thor's flanks and then scritched his head.

  Thor leaned  alot on  Henry's hand  as he  stood him   Up... Gregor   came over Thumping his   tail and stood  up  as if showing the   younger pup.

 Tess  and   Freddie  left the   Group  and  pranced around  Roll as he and the LC   walked to the  area between the scaffold  and   QMs, where the  Largs  and the Fur Largs  rested.

 Hool and Rigg     came around Shadow   as he   rubbed their  heads. Rolls was  grinning  and   laughing   as he   have the  big heads  hugs.. those  same  jaws  could  tear an arm off a  demon, By  Roll never looked  concerned.

  Magin approached    Shade  and they went  off  by the shuttles   as she  pointed to the Omnicoms  and they fussed over it

 Shadow bent  down to   Fuzz  Mila  as she reached  the main   larg area,everyone  alright.?

 Disna  nodded ,some got   small wounds, we  patched them up, and  made sure  suits  are secure.

 Can  Looked  up at Shadow...Me and Mommy protected Thor..with  Mr Vorse...

 That's good , Can.  THor is the  youngest of the pack, they would be  very sad  without him

Mila wagged her tail and licked Shadow's hand, appreciating the fuss.

 Sam perked up as she got an urgent message," Admiral, Captain I just got this message from Captain Caroline Spikes of the Zeus, the flagship of Delta 4; they are ready for the word."

   The Admiral Opened his  COM as   , he  Si  and  Hennings waled to the  Middle   hanger  bay doors.

  This is Admiral Hack.. All  Crews  all ships... You may wish to   look out towards  Paradise, we are  about  to  kickoff to the  Angels  again.....

  Waving to Sam to connect him with Feeds to  AP-LO  and/or, the Paradise  leadership...Beth was  running  down the   tapped off  walkways, reminding herself  how  glad she was, she stopped wearing  heels.

 AP-LO... I want you to understand this. If i had it my way, you would not be getting this message... but i have friends  who are Angels, and even some other races who have....more level...heads then Myself. You Have  5 minutes to decide, to leave you vessels and surrender. Turning Paradise over to the APF... or you will  suffer...very badly.. for  the foolishness of thinking you cannot be beaten

 AP-LO appeared to be tired. an odd look for an Angel.Thye  Most High, laughs  at your threats... As  I must. There are too many Angels that wish to see you wiped from The Black. You are an escaped lab experiment, that would could not get under control..

Paradise Angels.. and I mean  those who fasrm, work, and  try to raise  Famlies., when this is done.  The APF is  invading  Paradise Prime.. we  will not be gentle,  so those who oppose us   will fall , those  who support, or at least, work with us, shall have   your own place on  Paradise...hoiw big that place is, will  be  effected  by how many of you, are left after   we  sieze the planet... We do not have  as long as histoiry with Paradise, as   the Skyth... The   skyth have  far more  axes  to  grind then Humans... The rest of the APF  are somewhere in between..for all those who are about to die... I feel badly, only for those who oppose  us ...to quote an old movie, i am fond of...." The Delta  Fleet is  coming, and Hell is comngn with us"

 beth Just  reached the scaffold,  a quick look at th lights  gave her  an  idea what was going on Sam.. You Handle the COMs,  I'll handle the 'other' stuff.

 Hack turned...SAM!..THE WORD IS GIVEN...

 Sam looked at the Admiral and replied," Already DONE sir." Sam then sent back to Captain Spikes of the Zeus," The WORD IS GIVEN Captain."

After the mission Briefing Justin moved with the other Pilots to the flight line and chambered onto the 25. Slipping into the cockpit Justin ran through the start up process. After a quick radio check with his C Flight comrades he waited for word to launch.

---->>>>> From Med Tech

 Meari moved with a purpose and got the AI compound pretty fast from Med Tech. She checked her suit, making sure battery was full and ammo fully loaded, she was going with the ammo gatling gun, she just liked chewing up angels with it. She started the timer when she got there to see how long it takes everyone to get to the Compound and suited up.

  crews   ran. Troops  ran  and  Pilot's ran.. Sneak and Dana  appeared on the   dec   with a dozen or  som men and Young boys ( mostly Stem kids)  who  guided the hover  carts  to the  'food area', By the tower.

  Shadow   watched the   Destruction... One Angel   ship opened up a full broadside  .. only two have those  6  weapons  miss  and Hit another Angel  vessel;  that had   already    been  hit   by another Delta   #4  vessel


 All those   centruies of sailng  and fighting in The Balck..and they can't   grasp the   ships  coming up frpm Under.. and sailing  North and south...

 Admiral Hack  was very grim when he reached   the  scaffolding. He   tapped his COM....Lilly... how many people   do you think were on those two transports  we just saw...

 Lilly COMed  back...He..he..hellow  Admiral. I...um.. just ..fron the  vids.. i....um....at least....1400 on each transports... that   is  only counting  what ..i..um..could..um...see?

 Thank You   Lilly, that is all...

 Opening the PA  system  to  Fleet wide'we have the deaths  of those   humans  and APF  folks on the   2 Limbo transports as 1400 each.... here is a standing Order.. I want one of those  reserve ships that have  been disabled , By The Harvester  and her fleet...emptied  of  every last  Angel, save for officers, captain and  up..I want the  Number of that ship   sent  out,  and  every  officer, captain and  up we capture,  is sent  to that ship, until, we have  2800 of them... start  by sorting through the  two  Risner ships  we have  now.

 Colonel Cummings  asks...Admiral Hack , Old Boy ? what are we to do with therm,

 You Contact me... and  I'll give you my orders..
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:29, Fri 24 Mar 2023.

Hearing the call, Madison climbed up into her fighter and ran through her tests. When it was her turn, she was ready to kick some Angel ass.

Roy had been on the deck when the vid of the passenger ships getting destroyed was shown.  "Poor bastards..." he muttered.  He strongly doubted that most of them would have ended up anywhere near Paradise...more likely the Angels would have tried to buy down their tribute to the Demons by substituting Humans in larger quantities.

And if they had made it?  Who knew what kind of fate awaited them?  Ten years ago, Paradise was still pretty much at the height of its mythical perfection, to him, aside from the fact that the Angels had largely given up the fight.  Five years ago, he'd met enough Paradise Angels, especially from among the ruling class, that he'd have rather gone back to being a neglected teenager in the poverty of the Rez than go to Paradise.  And that was back when they still believed that the Angels were at least neutral, if not largely on the side of the APF.

Now?  Knowing what he knew and having seen what he'd seen, he had no illusions about the Angels treating Humans or any other 'lesser' race with any degree of benevolence greater than one might see given a favored pet by someone who really didn't care all that much for anyone at all.  More likely, they'd have been subjected to slavery or experimentation.

At least this was a quick, clean death...

He stood by the shuttles, waiting for the troopers to muster and board up.  No idea where they were going, or what the Admiral had in mind for them to try and accomplish...could be anything from making another stab at taking their flagship to trying to use the chaos of the battle to infiltrate the palace and grab their 'Most High'...

And he actually kind of liked that idea, despite the fact that it would be nigh suicidal.

----->>>>>>> From Officer quarters

 Lizzy went to her fighter and double checked everything, once she was good she got into her fighter and started her up and got ready for takeoff.

---->>>>>> From Med Tech

 NA-CE came onto the Hanger Dec with her full gear and then waited to see where she was going this time.

Henry was ready with Mila and the largs, waiting to see where they'd be put to use.

  Assault  teams  lined up  by their shuttles .     Roll, Dinsa  and  Puskie. make sure the Largs  had thier  head gear on, and  suits  checked for the 10th  time, to make  sure there weren't any holes.

............

  Grounds  crew cleared   things   away for  take off, Vosts, made herself scarce , after helping with   Tool boxes  and   push carts

.............

   Beth and Sam worked on thier  screens, hooking in to the Fleet. Orria  was   running back  from the  Shuttles  after  saying good  bye  to Zob, LArry  and   Shade.

..............

   Cookie was now to stay with   Val , Can and Vorse , at henry's lab..Shadow watched his Vid Board  as a Light  went  on next to the  aircraft Numbers of the Piltos, . there were three  balck numbers  that would never light again

........

   Hennings   looked over  Sam's  shoulder..They Lost  7  more   ships, Plus the   10  That Roles  took care of...

 Those numbers  on the  other  Ships  with  the 'R' in front, tells  us  there  was...is?  another  set of ships out there.. Send  word  to the Destroyers to  keep an  eye out in  all directions

 Admiral?  the Pit Bull has been destroyed,  all her fighters and shuttles  were off the ship, but they lost all hands, no report of  Pods... 3 other Dekta 4  Ships   have  formed up to   head to the rear to be repaired...

 Hack Winced at the loss of the ship.we are paying a low price  for this  invasion, thus far..but  to me, the price is still too high.

 Shadow    gave the  word,  he flew  out his his flight, Then frans's  flight, then every flight  by number... The shuttles would leave  as soon as the last Fighters  was off the Dec.

——> Non-Coms quarters

Tarja would stride across the dec towards the AI compound at a relatively sedate pace compared to those rushing about her, with the stoic Finn seemingly unconcerned by the cry and alarm of the upcoming battle. Even at this steady pace she would arrive at the compound with plenty of time ”Sergeant Meari! We are splitting unit into two fire teams; Barlett, Hipper and Paskins are to be under your command, I will have Tennis, Conrad and Nimrod once she has recovered along with overall command of unit…any questions?” Tarja would say to Meari without any preamble or greeting, with her then speaking up to address the entire team ”Suit up! Make sure all lights are green if they’re not speak up now!” with her then turning her attention back to the tall Udenese sergeant to see if she understood what she had just been told and it’s implications.

Acknowledging the order of departure Justin waited the short time before C Flight launched. Manoeuvring into position Justin tapped his thrusters propelling the 25 from the Flight deck into the black. Forming up with the other six kites before moving into Squadron formation. Justin checked the screen noting Delta Fleet deployment.

Stavros waited patiently for his flight to be next. He quickly ran a last check, making sure this fresh skeeter did what it was supposed to do, then he commed his readiness to the rest of the wing.

  Wth Haley    sitting at the the  Scaffold , near Dana  and   Sneak,  Nikki moved   down to the Torpedo  bomber, and   gave  Micth a good bye  hug  and kiss...while  also giving Benny a hug.

  Once she reached  her Fighter,  She waved  to Stabros  and  Lizzt, waiting for   Fitz to elad them out.

——> Officers Dec

Upon stepping out of the look Izzy would give Lizzy’s hand a quick squeeze before heading towards the scaffolding at a jog. After climbing to the top she would offer Sam an anxious smile as she sat down at her station and put her headset on, ready to resume her work.

 Meari nodded to Tarja and replied," I understand completely, you run the team this squad follows me, we will do great again Tarja"

 Meari then completely suited up moves up front and said," Ok lets get suited up and ready to kick Paradise ass. Everyone alset anyone need assistance."

 Lizzy had her skeeter ready to go, she waved to Nikki and Stavros as they lined up for takeoff. When it was Fitz's turn Lizzy launched when it was clear and then waited for Nikki and Stavros to join her. " Ok guys lets get into formation and get ready.

---->>>>> To Paradise Thread.