Utulien, Aduial

[Zerstorendar]

“By Tereza, deploy interceptor screens and keep them in escort positions, those anti-fighter nanite things will tear anything we attack with to pieces. Inform the Apex that it is to launch its entire complement of Kaska Interceptors, and issue a general order that the Interceptors first targeting priority is enemy torpedoes! And issue a general scatter-order, giving the Skeelzanians plenty of room as well.�
“Sir, the enemy has begun launching much larger torpedoes and are powering u-“
A huge blast rocked the ship as a beam cannon raked across the lower decks, completely ignoring the shields and cutting a considerably gouge out of the hull.
“Damage reports! Engage evasive maneovers! Order the corvettes to engage those incoming missiles as well, deploy a half-complement of Hellsinger fighters and throw them into defensive screens as well! Reports on the fleet!�
“Two of our corvettes have lost hull integrity, and the Mantra is reeling. Damage to our own ship is minimal.� Fendal took a moment to breath a sigh of relief. If there was one thing the Starsplitter class Superdestroyer had a lot of, it was armour plating. Zerstorendarian shield technology was not up to par with some in the ESUS, but they made up for it with layer after layer of super-dense metallic alloy. In this particular situation, that was perfect. The Garr class Supercarrier was even more heavily armoured.

However, armour was not all the Starsplitter class had a lot of.

Lances, torpedoes, mass drivers, a variety of kinetic and energy weapons. Lots of them.
“Helm, move us to 61% coverage, and fire with all broadside lances! Launch a half complement of torpedoes, and fire at will with everything else we have! The Darkhand can do the same, and order the entire fleet to fire with all weapons. Just make sure the corvettes and fighters keep us covered and divert a small amount of power to point-defences. Have the Apex move directly above us: they will be our shield!�
“Fire!�
Two Starsplitter class Superdestroyers, as well as the Garr class Supercarrier, and a considerably assortment of destroyers and frigates, fired everything they could into the Vanguard fleet. Lances, torpedoes, and a veritable cloud of smaller weaponry filled the space between the two fleets. In this fusillade, it would be foolhardy to attack with fighters. However, the sheer volume of this firepower did provide a slight element of defence against the massive enemy torpedoes.

The Vanguard fleet took some heavy hits, the frigates and destroyers punching into their shields so that the far-larger lances and missiles of the three Superdestroyer class vessels could hit their hulls. Several enemy craft received the full fury of the Sternsieg’s firepower, and Fendal was pleased to see that his weapons were having at least some effect.

However, the enemy torpedoes were still coming, and they were incredibly resilient. Fendal quickly calculated that the fighter and corvette screen would allow about half of the missiles through.
“All class C guns, target the incoming torpedoes! Fleet assets do the same! Evasive manoeuvres, these torpedoes are top priority!�
These massive torpedoes moved unerringly, and the combined close-range firepower of the Sternsieg stopped most of them, but not all. One of them crashed into the Mantra, a previously damaged Claymore class destroyer, taking part of the vessel to the next life in a huge and oddly-beautiful explosion of flames and fusion. Miraculously, about a third of the crew survived. Losing hull integrity, the ship’s captain ordered an evacuation to the Oblivion. Another few torpedoes were intercepted by a pair of frigates, and exploded at close range, taking the brave men of those vessels with them. One hit the Apex.
Captain Ryder instantly ordered full damage control and a report, and found that his ship had lost a complete reactor as well as taken considerably structural damage. They were still in the fight, but even a ship as heavily armoured as the Apex could not take more than a few of such hits. Ryder reported to Fendal:
“Moderate damage sustained, but we are still at almost full functionality. We will have to reduce power to some of our lances, however.� Fendal nodded, relieved that Ryder was unharmed.
“Very well� With the first volley of those large torpedoes defeated, the greatest danger to the Sternsieg fleet was over. Imperiatus beams and smaller torpedoes still lashed out at them, but the Superdestroyers were for the most part proof against these impacts and the Sternsieg fleet’s condition remained stable. It continued to fire with everything it had, and Fendal ordered the deployment of further Hellsinger fighters to strengthen the defensive screen. The enemy nanite-missiles were potent, but so far the proximity of the fighters to the main fleet was staving off the vast potential damage.

With a moment of comparative respite, Fendal turned to the Skeelzanian officer, von Zemstaldt, and responded to her previous words.
“Your commander is a damn fool, but I’ll play his game.�
“Bring the fleet around to flank directly opposite to the Skeelzanians. The entire fleet�.
Von Zemstaldt raised an eyebrow.
“I’m not splitting my forces. That would be suicide.� Fendal made a few quick checks over his fleet to ensure they weren’t going to their immediate destruction, and opened a link to his Skeelzanian envoy, Latenlich Hess.
“Hess, tell Durer we’re going to comply. And tell him that we are complying in full force. If he wants to maximize the effectiveness of his plan, he should do likewise. Warhammer is going to crush this section of the enemy fleet, and we’re not going to do it in parts.� Hess nodded.
“Yes sir, I’ll make sure he knows.�

[Skeelzania]

"The Torasque squadron has firepower equivalent to an Ishtar, and are a damn sight faster to boot," Durer snapped. His good will towards the Latenlich was dropping like atmosphere inside of a vented hull. "Keeping them in the rank of battle is a waste of their mobility. We didn't fluff out our rosters with light ships and bring only three capitals!"

As if to underscore his point, one of the Hussars blinked off of the map, having gone into an uncontrolled spin and colliding with an enemy cruiser.

"The Sornei aren't going to hold, and I don't trust the planetary shield farther than I can throw a Guar." Durer traced a line through the shattered Sornei formation, straight to New Constantinople. His facial muscles began to relax; the Zerstorendars were allies, after all. "The more we can split up the rebel fleet, the better. We must distract them from their goal of planetary bombardment. The evacuation is far from over, and more importantly our countrymen are on that rock. Both of our countrymen. Tell your Captain that I look forward to meeting him in the midst of the enemy fleet."

[Capsule Corporation]

Raimi piped up, "So much for that, commander, the new mass-energy in the area is throwing off our calculations... we're on sublight until we can fix it, otherwise we could wind up banking towards the planet on accident."

Jace was never one to curse, but he really wanted that ship destroyed. "Alright," he barked, now furious. "Then we wait. We wait for our oppurtunity to present itself, stay charged and ready, and make sure our space-faring pilots are ready to launch if their chance is given. Any word from the ground?"

"No, commander... the shield has all transmissions cut off, else the radiation would penetrate. We could rig an emergency beacon, but that's about it."

He sighed, and said a quick prayer under his breath.


----------

"Beacons in place. That short-range FTLi should have no real effect on our operations down here. Let's get that last colony ship in here quick!"

Over the past 20 minutes, the flights of Raysian Gunships were swarming around their designated airspace (and then some), signaling to waiting colony ships of the establishment of a safe approach vector. Civilians were already massing at some of the barricaded extraction points, waiting for the ships to arrive. A flash appeared in the mid-stratosphere as a Raysian Colony Ship defolded, and as it came into a clearer view with the naked eye, the sound of the enormous sonic boom rocked the windows of the city. The glass around the city remained in tact, but the people took it as their signal to get ready to board. As Colony Ship 14 approached the extraction point, the doors hinged open frantically, and before the ship had even touched down, taking over a chunk of a massive highway, people flew into the bays. With the thud of a landing, and the engines shutting down, the people poured in.

Groups of Zestorendarian Ravagers patrolled around everywhere, creating a barricade channel that allowed the people to file in quickly.

Then it happened, the guns in orbit trained themselves on the NC Shield. Bright Lights lit up the sky, followed moments later with roaring thunder. The shield was a dark shade... night had set in around the planet, even in areas where a light sillhouette of the sun could be seen. Radiation was blocked from the thermonuclear explosions, but it didn't stop the people from being a little scared. In fact, many began to panic. Hoping to find refuge, they began trampling each other to get into the ships.

Some of the more selfish people tried plowing vehicles through the crowd to get ahead in line. A Mechanized Ravager was seen quite literally stomping out one of the vehicles, enable to save the crowds from themselves.

Many pilots, circling in the air, had the same thoughts. "People are so stupid... but who can blame them?" Several of the gunships had to take likewise action as they spotted some of the rioters and desperates, sending regret-filled 30mm rounds through them, for the sake of the more part of the people.



"Colony Ship Omega 7, we're at capacity, we're out of here, we'll see the rest of you at the rendezvous point." The Patriarch-class vessel began to take off, atmospheric VILE engines starting up, sending gale-force winds towards anything nearby the ship, except the loading area. People tried to dive last-minute over the barricades and into the closing doors as the ship rose from the ground. A Decent 10 kilometers off the ground, the Ion Engines engaged, and ship rocketed towards the stratosphere, and approached the shield layer. Bright flashes nearly blinded the command crew as some of the light stole through shield. But with a flash of its own, Omega 7 had left the system. A vacancy in the air collapsed on itself, and the sound of roaring engines was gone.. With the sound erased, some were sad, others were overjoyed. "The first transport is away! The first transport is away!"

[Skeelzania]

The dinner service rattled, sloshing a few drops of tea onto the linen, and the bunker was momentarily plunged in to darkness. Fortunately, it was but a temporary lapse. Couldn't say the same thing for topside, though. Reports came in from all Skeelzanian forces, reporting that order had also completely disintegrated in the darkness. Only the starports were in any situation other than riot, the sight of Raysian colony ships offering hope and something to push for.

"We're going to use up all of our ammunition on civvies, at this rate," Hrazany noted as yet another report came in. "And tempting as it is, I'm not going to waste shells on them too. Amend orders that only those civilians whose action compromise the security of our forces are to be shot. The rest are to be merely encouraged to get off world."

"We shouldn't have to worry about the civvies much more, then." Prast picked up the latest field report. "All divisions are reporting that they are dug in. Ammo dumps are secured and shielded; shouldn't have to worry about the AL rounds going off."

An Anti-Landing Round was, quite simply, a nuclear artillery round. Rated for 25 kilotons, they would be fired into the atmosphere in whichever area had the highest concentration of enemy landing craft.

"Not until we want them to, at any rate," said Hrazany. "Speaking of which, I should probably inquire as to whether Scarus's men are NBC shielded. Can't be accidentally gassing or irradiating our newest allies."

"I'll ask him right away, sir." Hrazany returned Prast's salute and continued with his lunch.

[Kanuckistan]

Ch'cye resisted the urge to pace as she watched the tactical plot, the enemy having yet to shoot at them; be it their distance from the other ships, positioned as they were a light second away, or they were being annoyingly observant.

They had gone to battlestations as soon as the Imperiatus Fleet had arrived, brought their ECM online(was that it? They hadn't fired because they couldn't see through the half-lightsecond radius of sensor-distorting countermeasures?), set shields full and charged their weapons, but not targeted anything, not fired. She was just about to order a change in their ECM patterns in the hopes of 'accidently' suckering in a stray missile or ten, when something happened...



Displacer drives, you see, are unaffected by gravity, and so the black hole weapon had not stopped Kanuckistani freighters from leaving, or, arriving.

Which was rather unfortunate for the crew of the KCS Plot Device, appearing as it did in the upper atmosphere, directly under the guns of a hostile warship; rather surprisingly, the two kilometer long freighter crashed into a suburbs relatively intact, but while it's raw size and robust construction prevented it's destruction, it would never fly again.


The Commodore cringed, but had her casus belli, and a mere light second was spitting distance for her ship's guns.

"Guns! Intermediate batteries, on my target, fire as you bear! Helm, bring us about, nose down!"

And so those ten ships bombarding the surface found themselves in turn under six hundred kinetic particle beam cannon, as the behemoth turned to face them, the mainstay of Kanuckistan's anti-capital arsenal flashing out, a flickering cascade tearing into shields and hulls with all the subtlety of a Facehuggerian with a chain-axe.

"Extend point-defence coverage to allied assets!"

The range was long... ish, for PD fire, and a third of the guns masked, but with a thousand fast-firing beams at their disposal, and the enemy missiles(aparently??) easy targets, the impact would be telling - an exercise in long-range precision gunnery Kanuckistani had long excelled at.

"Deca-Salvo! Round-Hammer! Sweep their escorts, and get those Heavies charged!"

Cataclysmic energies building under two dozen massive weapons blisters, her missile tubes spat forth a gross of tiny, meter-long projectiles, then another, and another; ten times in all. Looping above the enemy fleet, each of the 1440 dropped a pair of decoy ECM drones, while the tenth of their number that were dedicated ECM platforms dropped two dozen each, and the whole mass formed a coordinated, dispersed swarm, dancing an evasive random-walk as they vanished into a countermeasured haze.

Over fifteen thousand Independent Attack Vehicles separating unseen, the swarming mass crashed down upon the enemy at a considerable fraction of c, IAV laser-heads engaging at fifty thousand kilometers, while decoys, ECM platforms, and IAV boosters screamed in for kinetic kill.

(another shoddy post, but it's well after 2am o.o)

[Zerstorendar]

Latenlich Felzan Hess remained stoic, but his level of annoyance was very similar to that of Admiral Durer's.
"Very well, Admiral. I question the wisdom of splitting's ones forces against a superior force, but as long as you have sufficient concentrated firepower to draw some attention away from our fleet, the stratagem may very well succeed." Hess saluted the Admiral, and quickly alerted Fendal to the situation.
"The Skeelzanians are adamant that they are splitting their forces."
"Perhaps they should read the Taktik Sternsieg."
"He assures me his firepower is sufficient to keep both our fleet and his attack force covered."
"Good. Tell Durer to give the mark, I'll follow his lead here. Fendal out".

The Sternsieg fleet kept its coherency, obviously taking a very different approach to naval warfare than the Skeelzanians. Fendal was sure the Skeelzanian fleet was sacrificing itself needlessly, but if the stratagem worked, he would be buying Durer a drink or ten. For now, the Zerstorendarian ships covered each other as they changed position, still swapping fire with the enemy fleet. Another two corvettes were destroyed, and the enemy vessels continued to recieve massive barrages from the Sternsieg ships. Fendal cursed whatever technology it was that was rendering his shields null.

[center]++++[/center]

“Are my soldiers NBC shielded? Tell him to read page 2 of the ‘Thwarter Powersuit’ field manual�. Scarus had no time for the Skeelzanian army at the moment. They were killing civilians in droves and contributing to the confusion as much as they were helping.

Scarus and his command had extracated themselves from their bunker as soon as they had been assured the anti-orbital shield was fully active. With nobody to fight and thousands of Ravagers at his disposal, Genlich Markus was working closely with the Raysian ships to evacuate as many civilians as possible before the shield failed. Scarus had issued general orders to fall back to the bombardment shelters the very second the shields showed signs of breaking down, but for now, there was the opportunity to save many lives.

While there was no enemy to fight, Scarus was pleased that his Ravagers were receiving such an exercise in situational awareness. Lunatics, opportunists, and panicking people were everywhere, and the Ravagers were constantly on the look out for dangerous to the crowds. Zanekrieger vehicles and Ravagers had already destroyed or disabled a number of civilian transports that had attempted to plow through the crowds. The majority of the twelve thousand Ravagers were ensuring the crowd knew exactly where to go and facilitating speedy movement toward the dropships. The Sornei people were afraid and on the verge of panic as the orbital bombardment lashed out against the shields, and if it were not for the military presence many more would die than necessary.

Scarus clasped his hands behind his back, satisfied with his troops. It was only a matter of time until everything went to hell.

[Skeelzania]

While Fendral cursed every torpedo impact and beam strike, Durer merely noted the thrum of the deck. The Gamma Quadrant, with its relatively close-quarters fighting, had taught the Skeelzanians the need for armor. The best shields in the universe wouldn't stop an Ork Kill Kroozer at flank speed, except maybe something the near-legendary Shivans fielded. But Durer would trust his twenty meters of Endor CHOBHAM over alien technosorcery any day of the week.

The Isotropic coating helped as well. A layer of nanites up to two feet thick, their single purpose was the realignment of electromagnetic beams away from the hull. This caused the Skeelzanian fleet to appear to be firing wildly in every direction as killing energy bounced from ship to ship, weakening with each impact. A good sixty percent of the energy was still getting through, though. Durer had been receiving constant updates from Engineering on the status of the IC Generators; current estimates were that they could sustain this rate of damage for eight hours.

Fortunately, the guns had no time constraints.

Feeding off of the massive fusion reactor, as well as recycled energy from the antimatter drives, the Ishtar's guns were firing at a blistering rate, systematically concentrating on whichever enemy ship was closest. Her two sisters did the same, as each squadron in the fleet picked their target. "Aziz, have your people located the enemy flagship?"

"Numerous possibles." He high-lighted the closest on the battle display. "Biggest ship in range, and its towards the center of their formation."

"Very well. Dreadnoughts and First Heavy will concentrate fire, with the rest of the fleet on support. Latenlich Hess," Durer turned to the Zerstorendarian. "We are moving to torpedo range. Ask if your captain has any leads on which is their flagship, and inform him that it is my primary target."

[Capsule Corporation]

Commander Laykress paced around uncomfortably as he helplessly watched the planet's shields take blow after blow.

"We've got it, commander. The gravwell has been compensated for... we'll have to monitor any changes in mass, but it should be good."

"Excellent. Our target is the missile launching ship, give it a 12 point attack."

The tactical officer nodded, "Path ready, on your mark. Ripliancum is dedicating 7 points to same target."

Watching the Skeelzanian ships split up and draw fire, his heart sank. "Idiots... they're sacrificing themselves... and they're hardly going to gain anything from it..." Sucking up his concern for the mentally challenged, he shouted the command to both ships, "Take us in!"

With momentum building, the 2 Kryptonite ships, beforehand side by side, disappear in separate flashes of light. Again, not gone even a nanosecond, the ships are relocated to positions inside the Vanguard formation. Volleys fire towards all ships, almost randomly, but mostly at 2 point targets or more. The combined firepower of the two ships teamed up on the Missile Destroyer that had been responsible for the black hole bomb, cumulatively 19 of the 42 attack targets were on the destroyer, suffering volley after volley. OZP-feedback warheads mingled in with the Railfire and beam weapons, impacting the ship one after another. Hardly concentrating on what damage they were dealing, and mostly just marking the target as an important focus for other ships in the fleet to target, the Starfire Kryptonites perform an escape fold back, arriving 1.5 light seconds away behind a small moon, waiting and recharging.

"Damage report?"

"Those blasts cut right through the shields... we've got damage to the starboard hull, some of the VILE systems were hit pretty hard and couldn't absorb the blasts. EM Cannons 6 and 12 are offline from damage received, and the Ripliancum ...well, it's lucky to be alive. They managed to escape the 2-minute attack run with only damage to their port main engine, which is currently offline, but reparable. They claim it can be reactivated in 20 minutes, maybe less."

Jace smiled. "Maybe we have a better chance at this than we initially thought. Get us set up for another run, I want to go every 5 minutes if we can."


And so it proceeded. After a 5 minute recharge and recovery, the ships performed 2-minute attack runs, then escaped to various random safe zones. This happened again and again, a pair of assault ships running quick lightning strikes against the enemy, fast enough to keep them confused.

The Archer, along with all the fighters onboard, had no idea how else it might be able to help, so it served as a missile destroyer, launching volleys of high-yield missiles and destroyers towards the enemy fleet. A few fighters hung close to the carrier, having already been launched, and performed various point-defense roles. Even the half-ship Cowdery-Port wound up firing off a few useful volleys, despite being bound to the underside of the Archer.

The Firebird began firing again, but only at a moderate pace, nothing super-ferocious... but certainly relentless. The ship randomly changed position every minute, taking the fleet from different angles every time, while keeping a momentum heading it continuously in a barrel roll heading towards the fleet. The occasional folds allowed the ship to start the run over again, firing consistently as it approached the fleet... but then disappearing again, reappearing on direct course again, from a different angle.

This continued for as long as the pace of battle seemed constant. Each time, the crews would get sharper, more confident, and less brash. Damage sustained was reduced overtime, but was compensated for by the awareness that the more often they do these maneuvers, the more chance the enemy has of learning how to counter the attack runs.

--------

Down inside the shield-layer of New Constantinople, the Raysians called in yet another colony ship to catch some of the remaining people who were begging for the ships to return at the site of the ones that had already left. 4 ships in total had now cleared the system, and there were now 11 left gathering civilians. Zerstorendarian soldiers kept the people in line from the ground, while both they and the Aerial Raysians found themselves increasingly nervous and anxious as the shield became weaker. The Patriarch-class colony ships prepared their shields, ready to fire them up the instant the shield looks critical.

[The Cerberus Alliance]

The ship rocked from the impact of the small portion of the missile screen that managed to make impact. The Achilles has built for taking head-on punishment, even without it's shields, so it could handle the fact that these weapons were ignoring shields. The rest of the fleet, however, was not so lucky.

The drone craft were the first to suffer from their lack of point defense systems, as the Achilles' point defenses could only do so much to defend them. Ten of the frigates had already fallen. Definitely a sign of some horrible design flaws.

The Destroyers were faring a bit better. Of the missiles to get past point defenses, only a few had managed to do real damage, destroying Odysseus 11's starboard fight bay and blasting the particle projector turrets off of Odysseus 4.

---------------------------

"Status?" The Admiral called to the bridge's engineering officer.
"Little more than scrapes and dents on the ship's forward armor. As for the rest of the fleet, we've lost ten drones and Odysseuses 11 and 4 had suffered damage. Eleven is reporting the loss of a fighter bay."
"How many casualties?"
"Around twenty-four pilots and ten techincians, by the report. More will be known after we get through--"

The view of the battle outside had just shown the black hole bomb detonating. Sensors were reporting it as a gravitational anomaly. Followed soon after, sensors reported another gravitational disturbance being "thrown" from the Sornei fleet. Whatever weapons the other forces were using, the Cerberan fleet didn't have anything like them.

"Everyone, since this is getting better and better by the second, full power to point defense lasers." Kennison had no clue what kind of weapons were being thrown around out there now, but the situation called for using the best of what's in his inventory. "Send the order to all ships: Deploy fighters, with orders to handle the incoming missiles. Now, I know their missiles can hit us, but how are we on our own range?"
"We're just within our missile lock range. Distance is still too far to accurately fire cannons."
"Screw accuracy. Can we just get shots in the general area of that enemy fleet?"
"Yes, sir. But don't expect it to hit anything."
"That's just fine with me. Send the order to all ships: Fire at will! Priority target is the biggest thing that fleet's got!"

Within moments, the Cerberan fleet, apparently going largely unnoticed since their arrival in the system anyway, began firing. Hundreds of missiles launched from destroyers, an attempt at a continuous barrage. Drones began their barrage as well, sending around one-hundred fifty bolts of energy flying through space.

"And, for God's sake, get me in contact with whoever's running things here!"

[Arizona Nova]

As the ships of the Departed swarmed through the gap in the Sornei lines like a scalpel in a gaping wound, sending withering fire into the flanks and blinking out more ships of the Sornei fleet, a voice rang clear, strong and steady on a global channel,

"You are sailors of Ilë Sornë! Whatever wrath of hell comes against us or those below you will stand your ground! Close the lines! Press forward!"

It was Anandil. Slowly the agonized whole of the Sornei fleet also pressed forward, even as it seemed the greater arrangements they had made with their allies fell into chaos. The enemy now in range, the great guns of the Kaltarak silently roared their vengance at that pressing horde, shells heated to a molten white streaking across the void before slamming with fury and force into the hated targets.

"Hold steady," added Naronya on the fleet channel, "They aim not to flank but attack the planet below. The monstrous bastards! They fire on fleeing ships. Forward, for if the main of their fleet does not fall, then all hope is lost for New Constantinople!"

On the bridge of the Kaltarak he and Anandil paced as the ship shuddered and groaned below them. "Now at last Kanuckistan adds her guns to the fray. A dear blood price it seems they demand before being moved to assistance."

"God willing it hastens the enemy's defeat," groaned Anandil. "And all thanks to Kanuckistan if it does."

Suddenly, on the fleet board, the light-state for the Fist began to flicker - from the red of attack to Black Alpha, and Black Delta.

"By God what can that mean!" asked Naronya incredulously. He switched the screen to a feed on the other side of the fleet. The Fist was losing altitude, her engines flickering. Suddenly they were hailed,

"Mayday mayday!" sang the desperate voice of an ensign. "The enemy has deployed some means of ECM which has penetrated our systems; reports are garbled, it might be nanites. The ship is sinking!"

Overriding it, on the global channel, came the voice of Anikar once again. "Fist in peril. Keep the fleet advancing, pay no heed! Cursed be anyone found with an arrow in their back, even one earned by running to help, over many in their chest!"

"No!" said Anandil. "There must be something!"

"The orders come from the head of state directly," said Naronya gravely. "Until she can no longer make them, not even you can override them."

"But by that point anything I wish would be pointless!" raged Anandil. "Then we go," he said, resolute. "Into the jaws of death."

. : ooc : . Halt posting until I give a signal on the OOC thread, and Aren advanced the thread with the next part. I need to get a better picture of what all of you are doing.