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Re: Rise of the Remorhaz Society
Story? You mean epic saga of titanic proportions, right? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif
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Re: Rise of the Remorhaz Society
Sci-Fi channel would just screw it up like they did "Taken" and "Ultra Violet", sadly I don't get Showtime so......Make it a channel that's good at mini-series! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
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Re: Rise of the Remorhaz Society
What sucks is that Stargate SG1 is on Sci-Fi channel and they cut the episodes down to 20 per year. THAT BITES. However, they also have 20 episodes of SG Atlantis, but they will still want $60.00 US for each set of DVD's, so we be getting ripped off IMHO.
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Re: Rise of the Remorhaz Society
Recon in Force
2414.0 Deep under the surface of Correlia, men watched the skies. The Iolo system was displayed in the center of the room as a holographic image, and this image was always being watched by a team of naval officers, watching for any sign that the enemy was coming. For the past week, there had been signs, but as usual, they didn’t make much sense to the humans who watched for them. The enemy was present in Remorhaz space, but they did not bring numbers with them. In Sector 4-10, a lone Gol class cruiser drifted lazily between the Yukra and Wanduk wormholes. It seemed that the Ukra-Tal commanders knew that their enemies would not chance leaving Correlia open to attack, and so would not molest their journey through the system. Of greater concern to the underground watchers was the Rasbokil class battle cruiser in Sector 2-4, following a course that would lead it to Correlia. This ship was an unknown enemy, and had never been faced by the Remorhaz navy before. How much damage could it hope to do against Thom Hitcher’s task force 3 and it’s eight ships of the line? Aboard RSS Odysseus, Hitcher had already decided to find out. It was vital to the rest of the fleet that the enemies rapidly changing capabilities be accessed and recorded, and if this could not be done by electronic spies, it would have to be done the hard way, in combat. Knowing that the battle cruiser would outgun even his most powerful ships, he decided to take the whole task force out the meet it, and hopefully destroy it. The trip out was uneventful, and on the fifth day out of Correlia, they met the enemy ship. Hitcher divided his force into two units. He led the main task force, consisting of the destroyers Midguard and Narvik, and the light cruisers Odysseus and Orion. Commodore Landover led the second element, made up of the destroyers Shining Victory and Skydancer, and the light cruisers Mount Thunder and Xanthe. Landover flew his flag on Mount Thunder. Hitcher watched from the command center as his task force cut through the darkness, bearing down on the Ukra-Tal battle cruiser at maximum speed. Long range scanners began to probe the enemy ship, and after burning through the enemy jamming, a clearer picture of the enemies capabilities began to form. The Rasbokil was a barrage ship, loaded down with seekers. Hitcher could only guess that the Ukra-Tal had sent the ship to try to bombard Correlia from maximum range and then flee. With a stronger escort, the ship may have been able to do some damage, but Hitcher doubted it would survive very long against his own ship’s phased-polaron beams. He was confident his ships would be able to stand up to whatever seeker barrage the enemy battle cruiser could throw at them, and launch a counter-attack that would eventually wear it down to a hulk. Hitcher keyed his com unit and switched to the command net. “Gentlemen, let’s keep the formation tight. I want to maximize point defense fire.” Then he watched as the two separate elements quickly closed formation, creating what he hoped would be a withering wall of fire to defeat all of the seekers fired from the Rasbokil. At maximum range, the battle cruiser opened fire. A wave of over fifty parasite seekers screamed toward the Remorhaz battle line, but when they reached effective point defense range, they were all destroyed in short order. Employing usual tactics, the Ukra-Tal ship moved to keep at maximum range while his crew readied another salvo of their living seekers. Hitcher was surprised when the Rasbokil quickly fired another salvo of seekers, minutes before he thought they should be able to. “Weapons upgrade. That’s bad news,” he said to no one in particular. If the Ukra-Tal were able to put more ordinance into space in a shorter period of time, it would take away one of the advantages that the Remorhaz forces had over them, which was the ability to hit their ships between seeker salvos. His ships continued on, as the point defenses defeated the second wave of seekers without damage. However, the Ukra-Tal ship was able to keep ahead of the task force, matching their speed and retreating from close combat with the Remorhaz ships. Hitcher weighed his options, and finally decided to take a risk. It was a small one, but he wanted to catch the enemy ship, and with his speed, he wasn’t sure he would be able to get close enough to hit him with his beam weapons. He opened the command net again. “Beta element,” he said, speaking to Landover’s force, “split off and go for the fork.” On the screen, his junior officer nodded. “Yes sir. Executing fork.” Hitcher decided to split his force into two elements again, hoping to catch the enemy ship between the two forces and cut off his options for disengagement. The downside of this maneuver would be that the point defense fire from either group would not be as strong as it would if the forces were together, and his ships were at greater risk. Still, he felt that they would still be able to defeat the Rasbokil’s attacks, and hopefully get some of their own in as well. The forces moved apart, with Hitcher’s force continuing to trail the battle cruiser and Landover’s four ships moved off at a right angle to them. Perhaps the Ukra-Tal commander guessed what the Remorhaz ships were doing, because he fired another salvo of seekers and moved quickly to cross in front of Landover’s force. If he could get past them without sustaining much damage, he would leave Hitcher’s force too far behind to do any good in the engagement, and then maybe he could pick off one of the Remorhaz ships. Midguard, Skydancer, and Shining Victory all fired small missile salvoes at the enemy ship, hoping to slow him down and allow the pursuit to catch up with him. The point defense fire from Hitcher’s element defeated the seeker salvo, but the Ukra-Tal commander was extending his escape path. The Remorhaz salvo did nothing to slow him down, and he moved full speed to try to escape the outside of the “fork” maneuver. Mount Thunder was able to close within four hundred miles of the ship, but that was still about one hundred miles out of range. Hitcher frowned slightly at the thought of losing his quarry. Finally, the task force got its chance. Skydancer was able to get within beam range, and they opened fire, but missed. Shining Victory also was in beam range, but also missed, mainly because of very heavy jamming coming from the enemy battle cruiser. Both ships fired missile salvoes. Mount Thunder lashed out with a powerful broadside of beams, but was only able to hit the Ukra-Tal ship once. Gashed appeared in it’s armor, but no major damage appeared to have been done to the huge ship. The Rasbokil fired yet another parasite seeker salvo at the Remorhaz fleet, and Hitcher prepared to give chase. The enemy ship had escaped the gauntlet relatively unharmed, and it would be a very near thing if Hitcher hoped to catch back up with him. Then the enemy captain did something extraordinary. He reversed course, and made as if to fly directly between the two Remorhaz elements! Hitcher watched the plot with his mouth agape, dumbfounded by this maneuver. The ship had made good it’s escape, but here it was, charging his battle line like a mist bear with a thorn in it’s paw. He quickly recovered, and decided not to squander his good fortune. “All ships fire at will,” he said calmly over the command net. Immediately, his order was obeyed. Before the beam fire opened up, the Remorhaz seekers did their damage, however. The Rasbokil fired its counter missile projectiles effectively, but they were quickly overwhelmed. Missile after missile slammed into the ship, but were unable to bring down the battle cruisers shields. Still, the shields were heavily damaged, and would not stand up to much more punishment. Some of the damage done to the hull be Mount Thunder had already been repaired by the living armor that covered the ship, but Mount Thunder got a second chance. The Rasbokil was only thirty miles from her when she opened fire, point blank range in space combat. Mount Thunder hit with every shot, and the phased polaron beams penetrated the ship’s shields without losing any energy. The beams burned down the length of the battle cruiser, burning off armor and weapons alike. When it was over, the Rasbokil was venting gas from a number of hull breaches, and two of its seeker launchers were destroyed. Orion closed in and bLasted the ship with two more salvos, igniting secondary explosions within the hull of the battle cruiser. Odysseus delivered the coup de gras, delivering a withering beam attack that finally caused the huge ship to explode. Their mission accomplished, Hitcher turned his forces for home, allowing the Gol to live another day. |
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Re: Rise of the Remorhaz Society
Yay finally http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif good read
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Re: Rise of the Remorhaz Society
Nice read. It was a real boost at a good time. Thank you. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif
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Re: Rise of the Remorhaz Society
PRESS THE ATTACK! PRESS THE ATTACK!
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Oh, there is an attack coming. Very soon. Big space battle around Highrock. I wonder how it will turn out?
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Re: Rise of the Remorhaz Society
Highrock Hold Em’
“The way I see it, ma’am, we have three choices,” Rear Admiral Hitcher said. “One choice is that we abandon Guardian. We’ve done it before, at Nova.” In spit of themselves, the other officers in the command center stared at him in shock. “It wasn’t our most glorious moment, but it did allow the fleet to concentrate and then counterattack, and that counterattack didn’t stop until the Rage were crushed.” He looked around the table, and met the eyes of his commander. Admiral Gina Jager nodded. “Go on, Thom. I want to hear everything.” Hitcher nodded, and continued. “The second choice would be to split the fleet between Guardian and Highrock. Both forces would be backed up by considerable ground batteries, and might be able to withstand a Ukra-Tal attack.” He glanced around the room again, and sensed that this was the plan most of the staff agreed with. “Third option is my favorite,” he smiled. A few of the officers laughed. “We could engage the Ukra-Tal fleet in transit, see if we can whittle down their numbers somewhat, then fall back to Guardian or Highrock and meet what’s left in a defensive battle.” Hitcher sat down and waited for the responses to come. Gina tapped the table with her finger while studying the holographic image of the Lenoltris system glowing over the table. On it she saw her battle fleet, Task Force 1, stationed over Highrock. The support task force, under Commodore Santos, was on station near the Yullado wormhole in sector 6-0. In sector 1-6, on a direct course to Guardian, was a fleet of thirty-two Ukra-Tal ships. Most of the ships in this fleet were cruisers, but also mixed in were three battlecruisers and nine light carriers. It was a very formidable force, and it was presenting her with a number of problems. As she saw it, the biggest problem was that her fleet was not strong enough to defeat the Ukra-Tal force in direct combat. Even with the advantage of phased-polaron beams, the Ukra-Tal fleet would overwhelm her ships with their firepower. If that happened, and her fleet was destroyed, the Ukra-Tal would have a direct path to Remorhaz. Obviously, she couldn’t let that happen. But she also couldn’t let forty-two million Remorhaz citizens die in a planetary bombardment, either. Then Remorhaz People’s Navy was created to protect the citizens of the society, and it was her job to carry out that mission. If there had been more time, and the defenses of Guardian had been built up a little more, the position would be much more manageable, but time was up. The Ukra-Tal were headed for Guardian, and they intended to destroy the outpost. What she needed was a way to goad them into attacking Highrock instead of Guardian, and subjecting their force to the heavy minefield here. Commodore Hank Nivend was the first to speak up. “Admiral, I’d like to second Rear Admiral Hitchers option of moving out to meet the slugs,” he said. “We could see if we can get them to launch their fighters early, and take them out first. That would seriously weaken their combat power. Then we could close with the cruisers and do as much damage as possible before withdrawing.” A few of the other officers spoke up in support of this plan, offering their advice on how best to conduct the operation. Hitcher stood up. “Everyone, there is something very important to consider before we ride out to meet the enemy.” The room quickly grew quiet, and all eyes were on him. “We are all that stands between the Ukra-Tal and Remorhaz. If this fleet is destroyed, nothing will stop them from penetrating deep into the society. It will have to be a hit and run attack, because we just don’t have the assets to take that fleet on directly.” Everyone in the room took Hitcher’s words to heart. It was natural for them to want to engage the enemy in combat directly, but the Ukra-Tal still held a big superiority in numbers and tonnage, and the Remorhaz forces were just not strong enough to do much more than defend what they had, and pick off Ukra-Tal ships when they could. A stand up fight would probably end badly for the Remorhaz side. In the meantime, Gina thought she had a solution. She typed information into her datapad even as her staff continued to discuss all of their option. Quickly she finished, and the forces on the hologram started moving. “Ladies and gentlemen, do you think this will work?” Again, the room fell into silence as they watched the hologram play out Jager’s battle plan. Rear Admiral Hitcher chuckled as he watched. “Gina, I knew there was a reason you were so good at poker.” The room broke into relaxed laughter. Commodore Santos watched from the command bridge of RSS Scorpion as Task Force 1.1 moved into Highrock orbit and joined up with the destroyer RSS Firefly and the cruiser RSS Shiro Sakazawa. Once all of ships were in position, he ordered his staff to stand down. It would be days before they knew what the Ukra-Tal were going to do, and so wanted everyone in the task force to have a two day dirt-side pass. If they Ukra-Tal took the bait, his people were going to have company very soon, and he wanted his people to enjoy themselves as much as possible before the battle was joined. Task Force 1 moved to Guardian, taking the bulk of the combat power in Lenoltris with them. Their course took them into extreme range of the Ukra-Tal scanners, to make sure that they got a good look at the Remorhaz force. They wanted to make sure that the enemy commander knew that they were going to make their stand at Guardian. What must have been outside of their scanner range was the exact composition of the force remaining at Highrock. Admiral Jager hoped that the enemy commander would come after Highrock, and be forced to deal with the deadly minefield that surrounded the planet, hopefully taking a number of their ships out before they came within range of the planet. If they survived that, the survivors would have to deal with the ground defenses and the two remaining combat ships, which she hoped would be enough to keep any remaining ships from tearing into the rest of Task Force 1.1, which consisted of unarmed support ships. Her gamble was that the enemy commander wasn’t aware of the minefield, and he would go after the target that presented him with the least resistance, which would appear to be Highrock, she hoped. On the other hand, if they went after Guardian, Task Force 1 would make a stand there, backed up by the ground defenses there that would hopefully add some much needed firepower to the Remorhaz side. Either way, the Remorhaz forces had played their best hand. How much they stood to lose remained to be seen. The Ukra-Tal took the Highrock bait. In the command center, Admiral Jager watched with growing satisfaction as the most effective weapon in the Remorhaz arsenal, the Correlia space mines, annihilated the entire Ukra-Tal fleet. “No targets remain, Admiral,” one of the sensor officers reported as the Last enemy ship disappeared from the strategic display. Gina allowed herself a tight smile. “Alert Commodore Santos that there will be no breakthrough to deal with. Luckily for us, the slugs haven’t figured out how to spot a bluff.” |
Re: Rise of the Remorhaz Society
AWSOME READ
A real treat for us tonight. Thank you Sachmo. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif |
Re: Rise of the Remorhaz Society
I just love it when the AI keeps blowing up it's fleets in my mine fields. It has saved my bacon many times.
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Its not the AI, its an alien race that is too stupid to figure out that the Remorhaz have mines over their planets. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif
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Re: Rise of the Remorhaz Society
I think I broke the modern comma record in the second to Last paragraph.
And if it weren't for mines, Remorhaz would be mush. |
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By AI I meant Alien Invader. What did you think I was talking about?? Some sort of Computer Artifical Inellegence?? What do think this is a Computer Game??? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif
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Re: Rise of the Remorhaz Society
Love it, I made that blunder once against my brother, but lived...
PS be carefull, soon they will learn, or maybe not Any way good story. |
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They will send some sweepers, but odds are that it won't be too well organized.
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Re: Rise of the Remorhaz Society
In this game (TDM mod), the Ukra-Tal rely heavily on the Gjovik class cruiser. Each of these cruisers has one minesweeper component. When they attacked Highrock, they were able to sweep 17 mines before the rest of their fleet died a horrible death.
Is there a good mod that: 1. Makes fighters viable for the entire game 2. Makes mines less of a wonder weapon ? |
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1 Would making mine sweepers more powerful (like each level sweeps 10 mines) suffiencently decrease the mines 2 Would reducing the damage mines do to ships 3 Making mines say destoy engines but only very lightly damaging ships Or some combination of the above be sufcient? I have started playing around with modding the game (thanks to the most excellent guide) and just wondered.... Not even sure all that can be done but would think so based on what I have read. Rasorow |
Re: Rise of the Remorhaz Society
There are certainly lots that do at least one of those, and both are covered by various mods.
#1) There are plenty of ways to do this one: GritEcon makes fighters the item of choice for defending against missiles. They also provide some anti-ship capability with no supply drain on the host ship. (Where most ship weapons drain supply quite fast) #2) GritEcon makes mines weak, and forces a thinner deployment, but removes sweepers. They are less of a wall to break down, and more of an area-effect delay tactic. (Building a wall involves pumping out a screen full of satellites (mini-bases, which need to be repaired) instead http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif ) |
Re: Rise of the Remorhaz Society
Thanks, SJ!
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I tried to make a mod where fighters would be valuable throught the game, but I have never finished it.
The best way is to make the PDC target everything its suppose to except fighters. For fighters have a second weapon with only a 15% bonus to accuracy. All other weapons should then be set so they cannot target fighters. Add new weapons like heat seeking fighter missiles and such. I did this with the mod I was working on. |
Re: Rise of the Remorhaz Society
NEED MORE STORY... Sufforing withdrawl symptoms...
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Re: Rise of the Remorhaz Society
I don't want you to suffer, but it may be a while. Sorry.
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Re: Rise of the Remorhaz Society
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif I am now horribly depressed.
We all know how RL is Sachmo, so its ok. I thank you for what you have posted though. It was a great read and an excellent story. |
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NEED STORY
NEED BEER how'd that get in there http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif NEED MORE STORY |
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Remorhaz lives? yay Sachmo!
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I uploaded some new pages of the story this morning:
http://www.spaceempires.net/home/content-6-page46.html |
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Just and FYI.
I am updating the Remorhaz set. I am adding in Neo-Standard images and have already replaced the fighrers, troops, and weapon platforms with better looking models. (The fighters really look like fighers now.) |
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Re: Rise of the Remorhaz Society
The Remorhaz Society V 1.1 Gold/Deluxe
To View Race Click HERE The Remorhaz began their space exploration in the year 2400.0 Galactic Time, and since that date have fallen victim to many hostile races. Having defeated many, the Remorhaz are still fighting for the survival of their people and planets. |
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Oh that's just AWESOME! Thanks, Atrocities.
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It sure does. I need to at least get the Augustus up and rolling in the story. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
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Re: Rise of the Remorhaz Society
Augustus Reborn
2414.2 Inside and out, the new ship looked like all of the other Rochester class cruisers in the Remorhaz People’s Navy. It’s weapons, sensors and computers were all identical to the others in the fleet. The crew, made up mostly of brand new recruits, was also unremarkable compared to it’s fellows. The one thing that made this ship stand out among all of the others was the name it bore. RSS Agustus was named for the first warship of the old Earth empire. Many had argued against the need to construct armed spacecraft in the early days of human expansion. The universe was infinite. What need would they have for armed spaceships? Without the Augustus, the answer might have been the death of the human race. When the human found out that they were not alone in the galaxy, soon after they found themselves under attack by their new neighbors. The first battle of the Tervanian War was fought in the Dengar system, where the suddenly very necessary Augustus held off the bulk of the Tervanian fleet as thousands of human colonists fled back to Sol. As the Empire scrambled to build more warships to combat the alien threat, Augustus patrolled the frontiers, checking the advances of the Tervanians in a series of hit and run attacks. Eventually, at great cost, peace was achieved. Augustus was destroyed in a minor skirmish near the end of the war, but by this time the ship and its crew had become a legend. Augustus was a symbol of human perseverance, ingenuity, and forethought. Although the ship was destroyed, the memory of its victories remained etched into the empire’s history. Now Augustus was reborn to the children of the old empire. It would embody the fighting spirit of the Remorhaz Society and defend its citizens against the attacks of the enemy. It would soon carry the war to enemy space, and secure the future of the human race in the universe again. It would accomplish this, or die trying. |
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Didn't quite miss a year, but it was close. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
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Re: Rise of the Remorhaz Society
New Chapter! w00t!
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Re: Rise of the Remorhaz Society
Awsome....well worth the wait. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
MAKE THE MOVIE! - MAKE THE MOVIE! Its odd that you would use the Augustas.. It has always been one of the names I have chosen for my best ships... (My great Grandfathers name was Augustas and I have always like that name.) Very nice read indeed... Very nice. |
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Re: Rise of the Remorhaz Society
Sachmo,
A long time ago you posted a link to a map at http://home.attbi.com/~chrissachnik/pics/map.jpg but that link doesn't seem to work any more. Do you still have that? I was re-reading from the begining and would like to look at that again. Geoschmo |
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I've attached it to this post.
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It's not dead. Wooot! Of course this isn't news, but it is to me as I haven't been around here for a while. Keeping the standards maintained, this is 'A good thing' TM
Roll on saschmo, roll on! |
Re: Rise of the Remorhaz Society
Iolo Nine
The defense of Lenoltris continued. As the assault forces were marshalling at Highrock, the flood of Ukra-Tal ships continued to pour into the system from the Yukra wormhole. Admiral Jager decided to split Task Force 1 and assign a permanent mobile defensive force to Guardian. Task Force Sword was placed under command of Commodore Hank Nivend. The new task force was made up of ten ships, with three light cruisers as the backbone of the unit. He transferred his flag to RSS Bill Elliot, and left to intercept an Ukra-Tal Sandviken battle cruiser. Four days later, they caught up to the ship. The Sandviken was an unknown class, but as soon as they closed to maximum seeker range, the ship played its hand, filling space with parasite seekers. The missile defense fire kept the ships of Sword out of harms way, and the fleet pursued, closed, and destroyed the heavy Ukra-Tal ship with no damage to themselves. Bill Elliot was able to claim the killing barrage, much to the delight of Commodore Nivend. In the Iolo system, Brigadier General William Teagarten and his staff were preparing for the first assault on an Ukra-Tal world. Intelligence was limited to what could be gathered by long-range scans from Correlia and the ships of Task Force Three. Rather than let the enemy know that Iolo IX was a target for invasion, Fleet had decided to only gather intelligence by passive means. For Teagarten and the men of 3rd Brigade, that meant they were going to be dropping into the unknown. While this did not make the marines happy, they prepared as best as they could. Teagarten glanced at the display on his datapad as the small device chimed for his attention. The display read “Go-No Go”, telling him it was time to either commit his command to the assault on Iolo IX, or to high-tail it back to Correlia. His eyes strayed to the display of his target. Iolo IX was a huge gas giant, swirling with heavy clouds of ammonia in a carbon dioxide atmosphere. In the light of Iolo’s sun the planet looked a pale yellow, but below blanket of clouds, the core was shrouded in darkness. He stood up and addressed his staff. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is the commit point. We need to decide if we’re going to go ahead with this assault or not. I need for everyone to send me the latest intel that they have, along with your assessments. Don’t pull any punches and don’t omit anything, no matter how small. Battalion commanders, I need to see all of you, please.” He sat down and waited until his datapad reported all stations as having sent their final reports. There were no surprises to be found. There were no Ukra-Tal ships guarding the planet, nor were there any visible ground defenses. Four domed population centers were detected, but their populations were unknown. Overall, it looked like a very soft target. There were a number of unknowns, though. Very little was known about the Ukra-Tal behaviors. If there were no organized troops, would the colonists be armed? How would the population centers be organized? These questions would not be answered until they actually engaged the enemy. He wanted to hear what his officers had to say. “Ok, it seems that nothing has changed. Does anyone want to discuss anything new?” He paused, but none of his battalion commanders spoke up. “Then the invasion of Iolo Nine is a go.” He stood up, and his officers and staff stood quickly and came to attention. “Dismissed. Go get your troops ready.” The invasion task force consisted of RSS Loxias and the Nemesis-class frigate RSS Artemis. Artemis took the lead, her sensors probing space for any signs of Ukra-Tal defenses, but found none. Aboard Loxias, the space marines of 3rd brigade sat in their Blazers, anxiously awaiting the combat drop. At drop minus fifteen, Loxias began moving into drop position. The drop plan was simple. Each battalion would drop on top of one of the population centers and move directly to secure it. One company from every battalion would be kept in reserve and would drop in a central location, ready to respond at a moments notice. At drop minus five, Loxias opened her drop doors and began transmitting pulse jamming to hide the Blazers behind a wall of electronic noise. Once the Blazers hit the atmosphere, they had a small degree of maneuverability, but during the short transition from low orbit to high atmosphere, they were sitting ducks. It was hoped that the jamming would give them enough protection to get the bulk of the troops into the atmosphere alive. In his Blazer, Teagarten took a quick look around the troop compartment. Everything looked secure and ready to go. The troopers of his command staff were outfitted in combat environmental suits, since it was possible that they would be fighting outside of the Blazers in a non-breathable atmosphere. The suit didn’t offer much in the way of protection from weapons fire, and it wasn’t very comfortable to fight in, but it allowed the soldiers to breath and fight anywhere, so it was a necessary evil. Each man had his PPR-3 Phased Polaron Rifle clamped next to his seat, ready to be grabbed the instant they were ordered to deploy. Their backpacks were secured directly above their heads, so they could be attached to their suits as quickly as possible. They look scared, he thought. Well, we haven’t dropped since Bardron, so they have a right to be, he decided. The timer reached zero, and Teagarten felt a tug as his Blazer moved down the drop racks. The command platoon was third in line for the drop, so he had all of four seconds to wait before he felt the magnets release them into free fall. His suit told him that the Blazer was rolling, but he couldn’t feel it in zero-gee. The first thing he did feel was a jerk to the right as the main engines of the landing sled kicked in. He listened to the command net as the lead units hit the atmosphere, and he hoped that the intelligence had been right and that there were no defenses waiting to blow them out the sky. No one was reporting any ground fire as of yet, so he allowed himself to let out the breath he had been holding. The Blazer rocked a bit as the pilot executed standard evasive maneuvers, but everyone seemed to be holding up well. A few moments later, the pilot came on over the com unit, “Welcome to slug country, everyone.” Teagarten smiled. There was another bump as the Blazer separated from the landing sled. Teagarten switched his helmet view to slave to the Blazer’s view, and got his first look at the surface of Iolo IX. It was dark, pitch black in every direction. Far off, there seemed to be a break in the clouds, and a beam of light shone down from above like a laser beam. It lit up a small area of the flat, wind-swept rock surface, but outside of the light halo, the planet was pitch black. The pilot switched the display to active low-light, and the view was washed out in blue, but he could see much more detail now. The surface of the core was flat rock. Hardly a rise in the terrain in any direction, save for a few low fissures here and there. If the marines had to take defensive positions, they would have to dig into the rock and make them. Off to the west at about five miles was the dome of one of the Ukra-Tal population centers, designated Objective Hook. Teagarten watched as the elements of 1st Battalion formed up around him and then swept across the surface toward Hook at high speed. He couldn’t see any fire coming from the structure, but he knew that if there were, Artemis would provide cover fire from orbit. Her missiles would make short work of the domes if the resistance were too stiff. Reports were coming in from the other units as they closed on their objectives. 2nd Battalion was the first to reach their objective, and reported no enemy resistance encountered. Because of this, rather than attacking the domes directly, 2nd Battalion deployed their marines outside of the Blazers and had them attempt to penetrate the dome through existing hatches. That way, they could keep casualties to a minimum, or at least give the Ukra-Tal an opportunity to surrender. An attack on the dome structure could cause the entire thing to collapse, killing everyone inside, and unless they resisted, Teagarten wasn’t about to do that. As the command Blazer slashed across the planet surface, Colonel Breed of 1st Battalion came over the com unit. “Sir, we’re receiving a broadcast from Objective Hook. The subject has identified himself as the governor of the planet. He wishes to surrender, sir.” Teagarten’s eyes widened. “Patch it through to me, Mike.” He punched up the translator on his com unit, and waited for the transmission to come to him. “…overnor of this planet. Myself will speak with the senior barbarian, if you please,” the com unit blared. Behind the translator, he could hear the Ukra-Tal speech. It was a low, wheezing sound, and it made Teagarten uneasy. He keyed his com unit. “Governor, this is Brigadier General William Teagarten of the Remorhaz Space Marine Corps. I understand you wish to surrender this planet to us?” There was a pause, and he could hear more of the wheezing on the other end of the line. Let’s hope this is legitimate, he worried. If they are trying to stall me, there will be hell to pay. “General Teagarten, ourselves are very surprised to find Remorhaz forces here. Ourselves understood you to be on the defensive. Logically, we have no means to resist your invasion. We know your history, and if you mean to slaughter us we cannot stop you. Ourselves would prefer to submit to your barbarian rule until our forces return to slaughter you, but until then, ourselves will agree not to resist you.” Teagarten shut down the com link as he laughed. Such arrogance, he thought. For a moment, he had to wonder what sort of strength the Ukra-Tal had that could make them so confident. He shook his head and opened the link back up. Keep you head in the game, Will, he thought. “I understand, governor. We will accept your surrender if you immediately open your domes to us and allow our troops in unmolested. If any of my troops are harmed by your people, the response will be swift and deadly. Otherwise, no harm will come to your or your people.” Teagarten switched the channel to the brigade command net and relayed the news. All units were to hold fire unless fired upon and wait for the hatches to be opened by the Ukra-Tal. It might turn out that no one would have to die after all. |
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