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

1st January 2013
21:34 GMT

"-'m not obliged to defend you from whoever's coming through."

I move to reposition myself so that I'm nearly between them and the opening boom tube.

"Tick tock."

Their ships move, aligning their upper surfaces with the aperture to give as many of their guns as possible an angle on the potential attacker. Of course, any rapid attack would have the ships coming through immediately to maximise their impact and it's been at least twenty seconds now, meaning that-

BOOM!

-they're actually going to come in from the other side and the first-

Two ships of the Grayven-aligned Ascendants come through and open fire on the underside of the closest Reach vessel.

-was just to get their attention.

These ships are a size up from the Ascendants' cruisers, and much like the Absolute Dominion come with a fixed prow weapon. Just a blaster rather than a hyper blaster, but it's a rather large blaster hitting what appears to be the Reach's weaker armour.

"Orange Lantern Illustres to Grayven aligned Ascendancy ships-."

"The Ascendancy was Sparta's failed attempt to lead us. We are New Gods."

Oh that's going to be confusing.

"Why are you in this system?"

"Escorting damaged… Athyns-aligned New God ships back. They asked me to-"

The Reach ships are frantically rotating in a way which momentarily makes me hope that their inertial compensators are up to scratch. Then I remember that they're Reach and I go back to neutral.

"-intern the ships you're shooting."

Their prow guns fire again, and that's one Reach cruiser that isn't going home. Secondary weapons are shooting at the other Reach ships who are only just getting their weapons into position.

"We would crush you."

"Oh, they haven't surrendered yet. Feel free to keep shooting."

"I have no need of your permission!"

"If you keep doing what I want, why should I-"

Each ship points-

I raise a construct barrier.

-a turret in my direction and fires, blaster bolts biting into my barrier.

"-care who gives the order?"

Calculate angles…

I fly fast as my barrier fails, moving so that one ship blocks the other and then a moment later so that one of the other turrets blocks its neighbour.

"So other than killing the-"

Whose fire has intensified as their ships complete their manoeuvring, but stutters as the prow blasters fire again and slag a portion of the dorsal guns on two of them.

"-Reach, what brings you here?"

"Reunifying our people under Grayven's leadership."

Not exactly a surprise, but it does add to the…

"So where's the rest of the fleet?"

"And also killing the Reach."

The Ascendants' New Gods' ships seem to be in good condition, though now the Reach's shots are hitting their shields. It takes a couple of volleys before they get their coordination down enough to actually get anything through, and even then the New God armour doesn't seem to be having much trouble holding firm.

"I don't suppose that Grayven gave you any idea why he refused my offer of cooperation? N.E.M.O. is perfectly happy for him to occupy most Reach territory after the war is over, including all of the really heavily industrialised parts. We just want the outer parts. And that's only so their inhabitants can resettle them; if they decide they'd like to be part of Grayven's kingdom later we're fine with that."

"Then you do not even begin to understand him."

Not… Untrue.

End. Open channel to the Reach ships.

Compliance.

"Looks like you're going to lose. And that's just against these two ships."

"While we-. We delay them, our comrades can destroy the rest of his fleet."

"Think it through."

Frantically manoeuvring makes one prow shot miss this time, while the other manages a upper-side hit that only destroys some of the target's guns. The Reach's shields are really only stopping the smaller turret blasters, and… It looks like the New Gods aren't even really trying to make kill shots with those. I think…

Ring, review targetting data?

Data available.

Yes, they're focusing on the sensors, trying to create enough interference with their weapons' impact on the shield that the Reach aren't able to see out as well. Not a bad approach.

"I raise the issue because if you surrender, that might bring me in on your side. Your chance of survival goes up, while the delay to them remains the same. The only way it's worse for the Reach -and not for you personally- is if they immediately accept it and boom tube back to Grayven. And I doubt that will happen."

The prow blasters score a double hit, overwhelming the shields of another Reach ship and breaking its back. The ship's still somewhat functional, but it's out of control and its shields have failed. The New God ships turns their secondaries on it and begin chewing through what's left of the hull.

"Up to you, of course."

"You will not take us prisoner?"

"Not as long as Minosyss doesn't join N.E.M.O."

"Then… Then we will accept internment here."

"Good show. New God vessels! The Reach flotilla just surrendered to Minosyss! Cease fire and withdraw!"

Secondary batteries turn in my direction.

"Make us!"

"I thought you might say that."

 

1st January 2013
21:37 GMT

I talked it over with Mr. Free once, whether there were any weapons which New Gods are particularly vulnerable to. Turns out that the only thing that he and Barda could think of is weapons using something called 'radion', and that it was only used in a handful of places on Apokolips due to the obvious danger it posed to its rulers. According to them they've never even seen one. I've kept half an eye out for one… Maybe add a radion round to my railgun ammunition varieties? But that does mean that railgun fire probably isn't the best solution here.

I make a ship-scale railgun anyway as I dive, trying to keep one New God ship between me and the other while also making it so that only one facing's worth of guns can target me at once. And as a third factor, trying to ensure that those guns also have the option of shooting Reach ships instead. Because while I am going to try and ensure that they survive, I don't like them enough to actually take undue risks with myself and they're the ones who chose to delay.

I load a mage slayer, because that should disrupt the magic they use in extending their soul through their defence systems. But that's not where the main attack is going to come from.

I erect a large ablative shield construct.

"Last chance?"

A ragged volley of blaster shots fly in my direction, but I'm using the ring to calculate the angle of the ship's turrets and even at this range dodging around them is relatively simple. The volley isn't coordinated, and viffing around it isn't hard. They'll improve, or prioritise me once they've seen me actually do something. These ships weren't involved in the engagement when I faced down Grayven, so they may well not be aware of what I can do.

I had wondered if I would be able to destroy the Absolute Dominion by myself. Evading the hyper blaster is easy for any Lantern; it's an anti-capital ship weapon. Its secondaries and flak, enhanced with the strength of Grayven's soul, would be the issue. That and whatever other systems he has, which make it a bit imponderable. But if the main advantage of the ship is its magic aura sustained by its master, well…

I've got a way to deal with that.

I fire a token mage slayer and then fly towards the closest ship at best available speed. A heartbeat later I fire a second token mage slayer, forcing the ship to point their point defence systems at the tiny projectiles rather than fire them all at me. I grunt quietly as both are melted by the ship's gunnery before I can judge how much effect they actually have. The ones that do fire at me chip away at my shield construct, but point defences are designed to do small amounts of highly accurate damage so my construct is merely mildly ablated.

"Tell me, does Grayven have anti-Lantern protocols for his followers? Because last time I did this to Sparta's fleet-"

Gehh!

That's the shield envelope! Looks like the boundary is a little imprecise, ow! And the-.

Turret-.

Move!

Okay, they spotted that I stopped long enough to point a turret at me, and that's where my shield construct went, but now I'm in a position to actually do what I meant to.

Because this shield is 'part' of a being with wants and desires of their own, permeating the ship. Which means that I should be able to-

"-Assimilate-"

-it just fine.

"Identity theft in progress. Four percent complete."

I feel the strength of the shield, and I feel it weaken almost immediately before the ship master… I assume, realises what I'm doing and pushes back.

"Resistance detected."
My Ship Is My Castle!
"Identity theft in progress. Three percent complete."

Which is fine, because apparently that distracts them enough that they don't order more turrets to fire on me, and I can move enough to avoid the one which hit me the first time. Construct armour can deal with the point defence, which… Yes, they're getting measurably weaker as the ship master focuses on forcing me out of the ship's metaphysique and less on the gunnery.
My Castle Is Inviolable!
"Identity theft in progress. Two percent complete."

I feel my self get pushed back a little, as I expected.
I Shall Smite-!
"Consume."

And now their metaphysique isn't just being attacked from my physical location but from everywhere, from itself, the places they believed they were secure, their own mind.

Respect to them, they don't panic, but they clearly don't know what the correct response is. If there even is one. So their power and influence goes down the Ophidian's gullet and-

"Identity theft in progress. Twenty three percent complete."

-out of the ship. Out of the New God's soul, too.

The colour of the hull is changing as well, a faint orange glow shimmering through the area covered by the ship's shield.

"Reach ships, please focus fire on the other New God vessel."

"What fire we have left."

"The alternative is that you take cover behind this one, and I don't think you're that manoeuvrable."

Because he's not wrong. While doing this has weakened the shields to the point where their guns could damage the ship. But I don't trust Reach ships enough to tolerate them 'danger closing' me, and this ship isn't contributing much to the fight at the moment. New God ships can afford to have fixed position prow weapons because boom tubes allow them to reliably bring them to bear, but that means that their other weapons don't have anything like the power. Or default power, because the New God inside can ramp it up by focusing on it.

Usually.

"Identity theft in progress. Forty one percent complete."

"Ship master, strike your colours and I will intern your ship along with theirs."

"Never!"

"Identity theft in progress. Forty seven percent complete."

Because wanting something strongly when someone is using desires to eat your soul isn't a clever thing to do.

Another Reach ship is reduced to wreckage, but it's… Reasonably intact, and I see the faint orange glow of survivors trying to reach the escape pods.

"Identity theft in progress. Fifty nine percent complete. Sixty five percent complete."

"Weapon control available."

I want the other ship destroyed.

Turrets rotate and open fire. Not very well, as the ship master is still trying to fight me, but added to the fire of the surviving Reach ships the other New God ship actually starts taking damage. A slightly lucky hit does something to its prow weapon, and its own turrets start to fire only sporadically as part of the power system is penetrated.

"You will not-"

"Identity theft in progress. Seventy eight percent complete."

"-triumph!"

My ship's guns fire again, this time bursting through the target's shields and slamming into the hull.

"I beg to differ. If you yield-."

"Grayven will scour you from the universe!"

"Perhaps."

"Identity theft complete."

"But not today."