A slightly smaller Mess

*meanwhile, a long barrel extends from under the chin of the flagship. Deep within, the cabal of sorcerers gather around the  inner workings of the weapon, pouring their psychic energy into the great, green, pulsating crystal at it's heart. the weapon fires, a green beam emitting from the end, before splitting out in multiple directions, straight towards many of the ships in the rogue trader's fleet. the beam moves fast, around the speed of light itself, before it collides with those ships, almost seeming to grab hold of them. They suffer no damage...but immediatly feel themselves being pulled towards the iron warriors fleet at worrying speed, the pull too powerful for their engines to counteract*

*scarabs don't exactly do much to people in power armour as far as i'm aware. the wraiths continue to be pulled apart, one by one*

OOC: That's 11 minutes at lightspeed mate.

*Scarabs have the ability to convert matter into pure energy. This process is slow however, allowing plenty of time for a single scarab to be destroyed before it deals significant damage. But here, there are hundreds. As the scarabs reach the iron warriors, they immediately swamp them, the front rank are almost immediately covered in the fist sized constructs. They burrow into gaps in their armour, under pauldrons, the neck seal, the joint of their backpacks, and begin to eat away at their armour. Those unlucky enough to have one hit their neck seal are almost immediately doomed, as the scarab chews through the rubber in seconds, and forces its way into their helmet. Turning their trusted power armour into an oubliette. Were these ordinary warriors, the unimaginable pain would turn the formation into a disorganised rabble. As it stands, the warriors afflicted by this grizzly end continue to advance, until some crucial nerve cluster in the brain is sheared, and they fall where they stand*

the warriors in the other ranks fire on the scarabs, with flamer, bolter, or anything else they have, not giving a shit if they hit their own men. the sheer volume of fire soon sees off the scarabs*

as charles continues aiding the defence, Hera and maybe one or two of the others notice something's a bit off with him

*In those 11 minutes Roberts flagship has already fired about 330 shells (if we're using mass effect mass driver logic)*

*the fleet's been taking evasive manouvers since before they fired the beam. Most of those shots miss, usually slamming into the station itself*

*hera is incoherently roaring battlecries and lighting people on fire. Its very unlikely she does notice. As a scion next to her is clipped by a bolt shell, and falls, she bends down, and hauls him to his feet* "I HAVEN'T GIVEN YOU LEAVE TO DIE COWARD! ON YOUR FEET!" *she turns back to the iron warriors, and ignites another inside his armour, this time ferociously enough so his grenades cook off on his belt, and the eyes of his helmet shatter and flames belch forth before he falls and dies*

*those shots that hit the station puncture into its hull, and the small (relatively speaking) holes are quickly filled by the self repairing necrodermis.*

*the Necron phalanx continues to pour fire into the iron warriors as the scarabs reap their toll, many more fall to the necron's display of firepower*

*Noo, they don't delete the station, the slugs that miss eventually cause an extragalactic ambassador to approach the imperium in regards to the destruction of a major metropolitan world....Oops. The few slugs that do hit, basically delete whatever they hit, unless they are fortunate enough to be small. In which case it simply overpenetrates*

Charles pauses, surveying the scene. Definitely something off with him.

the warriors continue to advance, their firepower combined with the oblitoraters reaping quite the toll on the necrons too

*the ships continue to be pulled towards the fleet at worrying speeds, the beam also preventing them from evading as the iron warriors ships who have range pump fire into them*

*Serah, far less involved, as her bolter can only do so much against this advancing wall of ceramite. Notices charles's... strangeness.* "Inquisitor?"

*Hera pushes the scion's lasgun back into his hands* "You have been given another chance to serve your emperor, do not disappoint me!" *she unloads her bolt pistol at the advancing shield wall.* "THEIR CORPSES WILL PAVE THE WAY TO OUR VICTORY!"

*It becomes apparent that the vessels in question are designed for getting in close and as such do a rather good job of absorbing fire with their armour and shields. The rest of his fleet now push forward keeping pace with those being dragged as they start to return fire*

Charles: something's wrong... This is too easy. They're too clever for this, they're just sending more and more of their best troops into a storm of death.... they wouldn't normally do this

*as they enter the full weapons range of the fleet's entire arsenal, those ships however take an absolute beating as they're pulled close. Worse still, the dark mechanicum ships fire what appear to be to be torpedoes.... only for their true nature to be revealed upon impact. These were infact a form or boarding pod, smashing into the hulls of the target with a powerful penetrating warhead before the outer layer bursts away revealing a rather angry castellax or domitar pattern battle automata within each, beginning to wreak havoc within the ships struck*

Serah: "A gift from the god emperor inquisitor, be thankful, no matter what other deviation they may be planning that they allow us this opportunity to thin their ranks."

*the necrons prove even more implacable than the warriors, the only thing to retreat is the doomsday ark, slipping away on antigrav engines. the rest of the necrons stand firm, a considerable number rising again after seemingly fatal damage.*

Charles: as comforting as that thought may be Serah.... The iron warriors may spend the lives of their men more than most... but they never do so unless they stand to gain from doing so. This is bad.

Serah: "Traitor stock, regardless of their plan, the will not prevail."

Charles: I'd rather know what it is, perhaps figure out a counter. This is just... worrying.

*The fleets close to practically knife fight fighting range. Any attempt at overall strategy is drowned in the insanity of battle. The battle itself devolved into nothing more than a big moshpit. Torpedos and boarding pods litter the void of space, with fighters and bombers becoming embroiled in their own conflicts*

Serah: "Focus on the task at hand. We have no information to go on, so we cannot possibly fathom their twisted logics."

Charles: one moment.... +Laurence+

Laurence: +HAH! *Charles hears the sound of blood and gore being splattered around in an enclosed space* Oh, hello charles.+

+Something's wrong.+

Laurence: +We're up to our armpits in traitor astartes, i'd say that qualifies.+

+That's not what I meant. The plan of attack... This isn't right. They're too clever for this.+

+This is a xeno bastion charles, theres no other entryway besides that corridor, or through the walls into these tunnels.+

*A rogue shell detonates just inside the hangar, obliterating any vehicle caught in the blast wave*

OOC: I'm walking around a supermarket so my replies will be slow.

OOC 1) oh fun 2) wait a shell does what now to who where? 3),..... no follow up to all those automata boarding yer ships?

OOC: 1) Bundles of it.
2) The fight has devolved into a clusterfuck and one of the shells fired has detonated just inside the hangar
3) What do you think happens? People are gonna fight them. I don't want to micromanage a dozen individual fights, so I didn't respond. But.....

*The automata meet serious resistance as the crew begin to employ heavy weapons. Such as lascannons, melta bombs, melta guns, ect*

*The Iron Warriors flagship suddenly takes a monstrous glancing hit, gutting a good 2 kilometres worth of weapons and machinery on the port bow*

OOC:
My fleet:
Flagship: Upgraded Imperial Ironclad. Unknown Class. Notable feature: Dual Mass Accelerators.
Battleships: 2 Retribution class , 1 Emperor class, 1 Victory class.
Grand Cruisers: 1 Furious Class.
Cruisers: 6 Dominator Class, 4 Tyrant Class, 3 Dictator Class.
Light Cruiser: 6 Siluria Class, 8 Endurance Class, 24 Endeavour Class.
Escorts: A shit load.

You will notice I haven't included Roberts Golden Age fleet. This is deliberate.

The Battleships, Grand Cruiser, and Cruisers have all embroiled themselves in the moshpit, while the escorts and Light Cruisers basically fly around shooting anything remotely dangerous.

They're still outnumbered since 'Dozens of Battleships' but it'll hold them for a bloody long time.

*The emnity commits itself in earnest now, performing a daring manuver. The single Dauntless light cruiser swinging into gunnery range of the iron warriors while their main battery guns are occupied elsewhere, and issuing raking fire from the macro cannon batteries.*

*Byrne hails the ark mechanicum and charles' blackship*

OOC: I just joined my local gym...

Charles: +We both know they're cleverer than just throwing full on astartes to die in droves to our guns Laurence!+

*the two ships answer byrne*

Laurence: +...What if they want them dead...?+

Byrne: +We have the ships to engage the chaos fleet now, we should move quickly.+

+That's what I'm worried about+

Charles' helmswoman: I lack the firepower to influence this battle, byrne.

Archmagos: No. I will engage once the salamanders arrive.

Byrne: +Damn you mechanicus. Fine, I will engage alone.+ *he turns from the vox console, punching the button to end the transmission. and turns to the bridge crew, looking up at their captain.* "All hands to stations. We bring the Emnity into the thick of it. May the god emperor have mercy on their souls."

*There's a heartfelt Huzzah, that goes up among the bridge crew.*

Laurence: +we can't exactly... One moment.+ *the transmission flick off for about twenty seconds.* +Right. *in the background he hears bolter fire, and the coresponding sound of it rebounding off laurence's skin* Stay dead. *Stab* Now where was i? Oh yes, we can't exactly not kill them.+

Charles: +Obviously.... but why would they do that.... and what are they actually up to?+

Laurence: +I could ask?+

+And if they don't know? If I wanted to send men to their deaths, something I prefer not to do, I wouldn't let them know they were going to die.+

+I meant, ask the man in charge. some. Probing questions.+

+How? we both know they're protected by powerful sorcerers.+

*Laurence picks up the decapitated head of an iron warrior, and pulls the head out of its helmet* +Vox?+ *He pings the vox, and waits for a response*

*there is none*

+Come in.+

+[Voice code unrecognised. Severing vox connection]+

+Fuck. Should have interrogated one so i could mimic him...+ *Voxes charles* +It didn't work. they have a voice pattern cogitator.+

+Thought they might.+

+In any case i'm done here. there's no more.+

+affirmative....I don't like this.+

+I'll stay mobile. If shit hits the proverbial fan, give me a location, i'll be there.+

+Roger that. Good luck.+

*Charles hears a rumble throughout the ship, a sound, in the very floor, the walls. It reverberates through the halls, and the chambers. It meaning is apparent to everyone who hears it. "Run." *

Charles sighs and gets back to the fighting