Echoes of the Dead

"Major Alinari reporting in, ETA two hours, with a Christanan prisoner."

Somewhat surprised, Admiral Carren replied nevertheless, "Acknowledged. Return to the UNS Beowulf for debriefing. We will collect the prisoner upon your arrival, and process him in due time."

She raised an eyebrow towards one of her subordinate officers, and he just shrugged in response. "Herakleans must have took them back."

"Must have been. Probably better this way, though I can't help but worry that the Christanans might suspect something."

*Paladin Komtur Maya watched as the last of the ground teams from their various allies finished boarding their vessels and the fleet retreated to minimum safe distance.*

Operations Officer: Ma'am, the allied fleet is now away and all ground teams are secure. Artillery fleets are ready to fire on your command. Waiting on your word.

*Maya was silent for a long time before the officer spoke up*

Officer: Ma'am?

Maya: Just a minute Officer. This a new possibly even darker chapter in Ordenreich history than even the Silesia Nova incident. We are about to show the galaxy that we have the capacity and willpower to completely destroy a planet and I'm about to go down in history as the one who first ordered it. This power, this ability to completely destroy a planet. Its a power no mortal being should have nor should be willing to use. When we do this... I hope to God it doesn't set a standard for all future galactic war...

*The Paladin Komtur was silent a long time before finally speaking up*

Maya: *sigh* Tell the Artillery Fleets Cleansing Fire Protocol is a go.

Officer: Yes ma'am... Artillery Fleets we are a go on Cleansing Fire Protocol. I repeat, you are authorized to initiate Cleansing Fire Protocol. Authorization Code: 78919920.

Artillery Fleet Order Captain: Roger that. Authorization Code accepted. Cleansing Fire Protocol is a go. Shot out.

*After he said this the bridge was extremely quiet for five minutes. Everyone held a collective breath as the FOABs continued traveling through slipspace. After five minutes though tiny dots of lights appeared all over the planet's atmosphere signifying the FOABs exiting slipspace. Five seconds later all hell broke loose. The FOABs detonated covering the entire planet in nuclear fire and debris. The impact was so strong that some chunks of Praos broke Praos' doomed atmosphere. When the dust began is dissipate the land on the planet began to show through. The only signs an AI civilization still resided on the planet was the few burning buildings that survived the impact with just their shells intact. However, a second event happened that would make sure the planet would never recover. The deep impact craters of the FOABs coupled with the immense shockwaves caused by them was too much for the planet's crust. The Crust began to buckle and fall apart. Large cracks began to form that cut all the way through the planet's mantle. Soon large chunks began to drift off and the planet's rotation crumbled away the compromised structural integrity of the planet. Within minutes of detonation the Planet's core was completely exposed to vacuum and the atmosphere was completely gone as the planet was now too small to maintain a gravitational force to hold the atmosphere in. Within a few months the planet would shake itself completely apart and the remaining chunks would form a new astroid belt around the star it once used for warmth.*

(OOC: Damn. Talk about overkill. We were just going to blast off the atmosphere, vaporize all the oceans, and reduce the surface to molten slag. Just how many FOABs did you lob at them? Don't actually answer. I'm going to have some fun with this. )

The Rheans, who had been observing, use this opportunity to attempt to calculate the number of FOABs held by the Ordenreich. At 5.02x10^22 tons of TNT minimum to overcome a Class M planet's gravitational energy and a known yield of 1.2 petatons (1.2x10^15 tons of TNT) for a FOAB, Rhean intelligence estimates it would require 41,833,333 FOABs to crack apart the planet by sheer brute force. However, their analysts concede that since there undoubtedly were far fewer than nearly 42 million bombs lobbed, they must have some sort of exotic effect that massively multiplies its damage potential beyond what raw firepower would do. They provide as an example the way phasers in the old galaxy converted materials into neutrinos in a chain reaction. While highly useful in "vaporizing" organic components and silicates, they were less effective against more dense materials such as metals in packing crates that were routinely used as cover. If their chain reaction mechanism is similar, then the armor of Rhean warships might be able to fair better, as in leaving some wreckage behind vs being blown into a trillion pieces. Those analysts then left before the Tetrarchy thought to ask them for a concrete estimate of FOAB numbers, which they never provided.

(OOC: It is possible actually. I actually asked a NASA scientist before posting this :p. You are looking at the FOABs as the only culprit of the planet destruction. The FOABs were only the catalyst. They had the "unintended" side effect of causing massive disruptions along the planet's fault lines which the blast combined with massive earthquakes caused by the FOABs ripped the crust apart causing the above effect. Also... its an RP. Lighten up. Fiction is well... fiction. Sci-Fi authors make stuff up all the time. Mass Effect relays, Death Stars, Dawn of War Extreminatus, they are all impossible and completely made up, thats what makes the story exciting. When it boils right down to it space is slow and monotonous. Sci-Fi is just a more spiced up version of it. How the heck does a FOAB produce a 1.2 petaton yield? I don't know and I honestly don't care, Petaton sounds cool and its an actual measurement so people can get an idea on what power it unleashes. Who cares how the weapons work in RPs? Its all about the fun and community. Not realism and sarcastic pricks.)

(OOC: I don't really care much either, given I have Green Lanterns and Superman flying around somewhere in this universe. I also have a Death Star somewhere. I'm just having some fun with numbers, especially since my leadership is in no better position for them. That's the primary joke. For all the effort I put into calculating this stuff, the Rheans got nothing out of it. But yeah, I've spent too much time on SDN. Heh.)

IOC: Dude not fucking cool, you should have asked first. This will send us into war.)

(OOC: Thats all up to you. From the Ordenreich perspective this was a rogue AI that needed to be destroyed before it did something really bad. I was all for preservation of the planet before you pulled that hostile takeover stuff with your operatives. After that all bets were off. I will RP a "last chance for peace" topic if you want to talk about it. Besides, this could go either way still. Either we come to a settlement and avoid war which will mean the Ordenreich will effectively leave the combined military power of the Compact because of the Citizen's Guard movement in the other topic I made or we go to war which will mostly likely end up in a bogged down slugfest between Pan and I while your empire is cut off and isolated from your allies)