Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Well here's a small (micro-chapter):

2419.2 In honor of a Fallen Hero
The Bureau of ship designs had just unveiled it’s newest creation, a super dreadnought, more powerful and better defended then their smaller cousins the super dreadnoughts would form a main battle line that’s power would be unmatched by any other star nation known to the Icaran.
In honor of the first serious casualties the military sustained these new ships were designated the Admiral Yu Hing Pe class super dreadnought, named for the admiral who with several thousand other members of the third fleet lost their lives in the third battle of Fornax.
Several ships were put into construction quickly across several systems to reinforce the main battle fleets.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Your story makes for a Great read!
Now when I use the Merge Fleet screen to merge my first brand new Dreadnought into my Grand Fleet and then assign it as the Fleet leader I will think of My Proud Captain getting their new command.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

2419.3 The Newest Sword:
HMS Shadowclaw’s advanced sensors had detected the four Phong warships at a much greater range then the other vessels of the third fleet, Ross was eager to get his newest ship into the fight so he ordered the 3rd fleet excluding his own flagship to remain in position in blockading the warp point.
Along with being the most heavily armed and most advanced starship in the fleet, Shadowclaw was also the fastest ship, she could intercept and destroy the enemy ships and return to the fleet in under a month which is something no other ship could do, this also played part in Ross decision to go out with his flagship and no escorts.

Two days after her departure from the 3rd fleet the massive dreadnought was already closing the range with all four enemy ships.
“One can’t help but admire their bravery.” Captain Fowler commented sourly as she watched the four tiny specs of light closing on the much larger green light code that represented the Icaran dreadnought.
“Really, is it bravery Captain or arrogance?” Ross sneered at the four closing dots before turning to the young woman, his expression held a wisp of a smile. “Those four ships don’t stand a chance against us, the Phong started this war with superior technology to our own and thought they could conquer us!, and because of our conquest of the Rebel Alliance, as well as our superior scientific endeavors we now have the upper hand, they know they can’t win yet they do not surrender. This is more an act of arrogant defiance then of bravery, some people simply need to learn when they’ve been conquered.”
“I suppose it’s a little bit of both sir.” Fowler’s voice held far less sympathy for her enemies then it had only moments before. Ross was right, the Phong started the war when they destroyed Haden, they threatened the survival of Icara and on more then one occasion demanded the Royal navy surrender, but Icara had fought on and now she was prevailing, sympathy towards an enemy was for the weak, the child and the coward Fowler scolded herself for her lapse and then turned her attention back to the tactical display.

“Admiral enemy ships are entering maximum combat range, shall I order gunnery crews to fire?” The chief weapons officer looked at the Captain instead of Ross which the Admiral actually preferred, he liked his crews to feel comfortable with their direct superiors and not feel like they need to pass everything through him.

“No hold your fire until we enter optimal range, we’ll still be out of their firing envelope at that point, and I don’t want to overstress our guns until we’ve had a chance to test them out in battle.” Fowler barely bothered looking away from her OpRan (Optimal Range) countdown to reply to her officer.
Seconds later the countdown blinked blue, Fowler shot a quick glance toward Ross, the Admiral nodded curtly.
“Weapons, Open fire all batteries all targets, take them down.” Fowler flipped up the visual display on her chair while Ross watched the main screens.
“Aye, firing all batteries, all targets.”
Moments later the screens lit up brilliantly as dozens of green beams shot forth from the massive Icaran dreadnought’ the broadside slammed into the four Phong warships like lightning through tissue paper. The infinite dark of space momentarily became alive with light and fire, and then….darkness returned, leaving only wreckage where once there had been four cruisers.
“My lord! Tactical do we have any signs of the enemy?” Fowler along with everyone else on the bridge crew was stunned silent, even they had never suspected the true power their ship had until this moment.
“No ma’am, they’re all gone, I’m only reading small clouds of debris and atomized hull and biological elements.” the tactical officer’s reply turned heads throughout the bridge as the realization sank in.
“Congratulations ladies and gentlemen we’ve just knocked four enemy starships out of the universe, let’s head back to the rest of the fleet.” Ross said cheerfully before standing up and walking towards the command center’s door. Inside the victory felt almost hollow, the enemy never even stood a chance to fire one defiant shot, it felt more like target practice then battle to the war hardened Admiral. But more dangerous targets lay out there in the universe and these new weapons brought Icara one step closer to dominance and in the end that is all that mattered.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

2419.5 Battle and Growth:
“How many ships did you say Commander?” Captain Fowler jumped out of her bed and wiped the sleep from her eyes as she waited for the Officer of the Watch to confirm his message.
“21 Ma’am, various classes of Phong Light Cruiser, they are headed towards us at maximum speed.” Commander Hoggins was surprisingly relaxed about the situation, but then again the IRN had proven that they completely outclass the Phong Federal Navy in every battle since 2407 so there was not much to be that tense about.

Ross had ordered only the Hawkwing and Lenin to escort his flagship against the enemy fleet, with their new weapons and upgrades Ross was convinced that 21 enemy ships would be no problem for his small squadron.
The massive dreadnought kept her speed down so that her two heavy cruiser consorts could keep up during the 18 hour trip to intercept the enemy fleet, in the meantime Ross allowed his crew to eat breakfast, get some sleep and have some off time as he wanted them to be in top trim when the battle actually began.

“Admiral, Captain Yu is hailing.” The com officer tabbed a control that sent the image of Captain Yu directly to Ross’ command chair and engaged privacy mode throughout the rest of the bridge.
“Admiral, I would like to request you allow Lenin to take the lead in the opening line if you wouldn’t mind sir?” Yu’s tone was very formal and rigid, it rather surprised Ross after hearing her laughing at a dirty joke in the officer’s mess aboard his ship only a few days before, then again at that time it surprised him and all the other officers present that the “prim and proper Miss Yu” would laugh a at joke about Phong reproduction, Ross shook his head as he thought about the fact that she was still so capable of surprising him.
“Oh, why do you want to lead the charge Captain?” Ross asked plainly
“Admiral, with all respect your flagship is hardly the appropriate choice to lead the line of battle straight into an enemy line, until we can come line-to-line with them I recommend you allow a smaller ship lead the advance.” Her reasoning was logical but Ross did not like the thought of risking her ship to protect his, no matter how well the odds favored his squadron, he was tempted to order Hawkwing to take up the lead but forced that thought out of his mind, if he did something like that and Hawkwing were damaged or destroyed then he would never forgive himself for sacrificing one good officer to protect another just because he had feelings for her.
“Captain Yu…” Ross swallowed hard and steeled his resolve “Permission granted, you may take your ship to the lead but when we form the line-to-line engagement I want you ship in it’s proper position understood?”
“Aye Admiral understood, thank you sir.” Yu saluted and cut the circuit.
Ross steepled his fingers under his chin and watched the tactical display show the heavy cruiser pulling forward.

20 minutes later the fleet was in engagement range, the opening salvo was fired by Lenin her powerful cannons easily destroyed two enemy warships as she turned about to begin forming the -line of battle-, Shadowclaw was the second warship to fire, her guns vaporized three enemy ships, she took up formation just “behind” the Lenin in the line and was followed up by Hawkwing who had managed two kills.

“Sir Line of battle formed.”
“Enemy fleet closing fast, all gunnery crews report ready for broadside”
“Enemy entering their combat envelope in three minutes I repeat three minutes, that leaves us three more broadsides.”
Voices echoed across the bridge of the massive as the crew quickly readied themselves for the real battle, Ross watched the main screen light up in a dazzling array of colors as all three Icaran warships fired their broadsides almost simultaneously into the enemy fleet, 10 ships vanished in an eye blink.
Four enemy ships remained yet they closed far faster then first estimated, all three fired directly at Lenin breaching her shields, the cannon shells that made it through the shields fell harmlessly against the Icaran warship’s ablative armor and both Ross and Yu thanked God for that particular invention.

Shadowclaw swept down upon the four offenders as if the ship it’s self were filled with wroth, her guns protruding from her like teeth ready to shred meat from bones, and shred they did as the massive dreadnought swept through the four ship formation, guns blazing as their beams were switched to “slicing mode”, the powerful green beams swept across the four enemy ships tearing them to pieces with ease, it was like a wolf among sheep and the dreadnought rampaged until all four enemy ships were nothing but debris clouds and particulate matter.

The Icaran fleet had emerged victorious, only two crew were killed aboard Lenin but in their triumph Ross felt only doubt, doubt about his feelings towards Yu Lin and how they would effect his future as the commander of a Royal Navy fleet.

Meanwhile the Icaran Praetor, Leonidas speaks to the public:
“My fellow Icarans, today is a grand day in our history, a day we achieve what has been for centuries thought impossible, the ability to terraform entire worlds!
On this day our construction companies all across the empire have begun building the first series of atmospheric converters, these converters allow us to turn any atmosphere on any world into one that our people can breath, this development will allow our once domed, and population controlled colonies to expand over the surface of an entire planet.

Now this project will not take place overnight, in fact the first series alone will take approximately three years to be fully realized, yet these first slow steps are not without purpose our scientists are still unsure of how the planet’s will react when their atmospheres are totally changed, and so the “first series” worlds are all worlds who’s populations have volunteered- or at least 75% have- to act as the test beds for this new technology.

When those tests are finished we will begin full fledged terraforming projects all across the Empire, this project may take years or even decades but when it is finished our people will thrive as never before, and I am honored to lead such a brave and advanced people to their future…” Leonidas’ picture faded as the Icaran flag waved on screen and a list of “first series” worlds showed on the screen of every Icaran household within the empire.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

BTW just for those who did not realize this since it did kind of blend together the "Actual" title of this whole story overall is:
From the Beginning and yes I know I did not spell it correctly in the title :p

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Another full chapter coming tomorrow:
In the mean time here is a chapter on the technology in use by the Icarans of the 25th century:

Ship technology:

Artificial Gravity:
Icaran scientists discovered back in the 19th century just how bad the effects of long term weightlessness on the human body could be, and so they went about solving this problem.
At first the Icarans used centrifuges to rotate the crew while they slept, as well as a centrigue for the crew to exercise in. This however was of limited use as ships of the day were only moving solar distances (aka in Sol only) and after a few months of deployment even these measures began to wear off.

The development of rotating sections followed, these sections are literally rotating potions of the ship (located in the center of the craft) that provided limited gravity for the crew quarters and command sections of a space craft. This technology quickly replaced the centrifuge as the primary "sim gravity" environment.

With the discovery of early Ion reaction drives however a new problem arose, the gravity generated by a rotating section would kill any crewmember on a ship that was at full acceleration using the Ion reaction drive, some ships had the rotating section tear apart entirely which caused catastrophic hull breakdown (the ships were torn apart by their own gravity)those ships that were not destroyed outright suffered another effect, their rotating section did not have an "external" gravity field and because of that the inertial force caused by the reaction drive turned the crew to paste.

Modern GFGs: Gravity Field Generators were the Last and most advanced development in Artificial gravity technology.
A gravity field generator creates a "grav bubble" around a starship this means that the ship's hull is exerting it's own gravity field, this generators' basic functions are classified by state security, however what is known is that the "grav field" created by a GFG negates the force of inertia or foreign gravity sorces on a starship.
The GFG is a necessity when it comes to warp travel as well, without the external gravity field and "grav sail" a starships crew is turned to a substance with the consistency of chunky salsa, however because of the "external field and grav sail reaction" the internal gravity of a starship must be turned off, leaving the crew in absolute zero gravity during the duration of the warp jump.

Propulsion and FTL travel:

The original engines used by Icaran solar cruisers were chemical rockets which were effective only for short bursts of speed leaving a ship to "coast" the rest of the way to it's target.

Ion Reaction Engines were the first "true" space propulsion system developed by Icaran scientists during the early twentieth century.
An Ion reaction engine forces superheated Ions out of a “vent” in the engine, this reaction propels the ship at great speed, early drives could manage a maximum acceleration of 200 gravities, more recent models could max out at 450 gravities.

Quantum Reaction Engines, the most advanced engine developed thus far by the Icaran Royal Science academy the QRE uses the new quantum reactor‘s excess energies to create a stream of anti-matter particles known to Icarans as kerons (k-ear-on) to accelerate a vessel, the quantum stream, unlike Ion propulsion uses the ship’s aft gravity field to focus it’s propulsive power even further. A modern quantum reaction engine can accelerate a starship at nearly 555.92 gravities.

“Solar Sail”: The newest development in drive technology the so called “Solar sail” is not remotely related to it’s ancient “material” counterpart, instead the modern “Solar sail” is a modification of a starship’s “grav sail”, instead of “hooking” the power of the warp into forward motion the “solar sail” “hooks” the so-called solar winds and channels that amazing power into a gravity field which, when combined with the power of quantum reaction engines provides a ship nearly 1,000 gravities of acceleration.
An interesting side effect of the Solar sail is that along with greatly increasing a starship’s speed it also dramatically improves the performance of a vessel’s GFG which allows the “inertial compensation process” to keep up with the extreme speeds achieved by a starship with the Solar Sail in much the same way as the gravity sail allows a vessel to enter the warp without mashing the crew.

Gravity Sail: The gravity sail or “grav sail” for short is a focused extension of a starship’s gravity field. The grav sail its self when fully deployed extends 2 kilometers afore and astern of the starship using it, the forward grav sail “catches” an energy wave of a warp point and begins to pull a ship into the whirling tides of the warp, the aft sail then repels the energy wave produced by the forward sail which pushes the ship the rest of the way into the warp.
Gravity sails dissipate the gravities of acceleration that would normally be felt by literally creating a null gravity environment within the “bubble’ created by the two sails, this null gravity environment also completely neutralizes the effects of inertia allowing a ship in the warp to accelerate at an estimated 6,000,000 gravities.

The warp: The warp is in essence another dimension wherein the rules of “real space” physics do not apply, contrary to earlier beliefs that for every point in real space there is a point in “hyperspace” Icaran scientists discovered that in the warp there is no such thing as a “non-solar” region (in other words there is no void between the massive gravity fields produced by a solar system) in the warp.
When a starship enters the warp it does not have any choice in it’s navigation as such, but instead a warp point is created by the gravity of a star tearing a hole into the dimensional fabric of space time which is directly connected to another hole in space time in another star system, because there is no “void” in the warp a starship entering one warp point travels nearly instantaneously to another starsystem (depending on the acceleration generated by an object penetrating the warp).
The nearly instantaneous travel does effect the human psyche however and creates a phenomenon known as “jump shock” where the human brain is stunned into a momentary comatose status, resulting in extreme nausea and disorientation Lasting up to several seconds, scientists recently developed a medicine that effectively shuts off jump shock, but even this drug has it’s side effects and the nausea of a jump remains even though the disorientation and momentary comatose status have been negated successfully.

Weapons and Defense Technology:

I-Laser: The so called I-Laser (Imperial Laser) is the most recent development in weapons technology, and the most devastating weapon developed by the Icarans thus far. The I-laser is a direct descendent of the generation 12 anti-proton weapons tests run during the early stages of the Phong War when it was discovered that the Phased poloron beam would not suffice in dealing with forces such as the Manti Star Nation who’s superior ships and weapons outclassed the Icaran’s own by generations.
The I-laser is not actually a laser as such, it is a compressed fusion/anti-matter burst focused by a laser beam into a coherent force that proves most devastating on reaction to solid materials and energy shields alike.
I-Lasers have two settings, a slicing mode for when a warship makes a quick attack pass on a ship or group of ships. The second mode is a piercing mode used only in a line-to-line battle where two fleets line up and fire at each other, the piercing mode is no more or no less powerful then the slice mode but it is better suited for attacking capital ships in a solid battle formation.

Phased shield Generators: The phased shield generators workings are classified top secret by the Icaran Security council, the only thing that can be said by Icaran law is that the Phased shield pushes incoming fire out of our reality by phasing it into non existence.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Finally finished! Excellent story, Starhawk. First rate stuff.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Heh I'm not finished http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif in fact here is that promised chapter:

This chapter is rated PG-13 due to graphic violence and language (mainly violence) I recomend you not read this chapter if you do not wish to read a very visceral story of the Icaran ground war.

2419.6 Blood and death on hill 529
Mestra 2 fell swiftly before the advance of the 1st Icara regiment, 3,000 Phong had died in the defense of their world or because they got mixed up into the crossfire and were killed by accident, either way the Admiralty did not overly care about how many Phong died as long as the planet fell and all resistance was ended. The Icaran army regiment guarded the world for a week before an SS brigade took over the task and allowed the troopers to get back to their job.

That was two weeks ago now and Mestra I was proving a much tougher nut to crack, the initial landing alone killed ten Icarans when their dropship was blown out of the sky by a Phong RPS (Rocket propelled stab*) and the damned Phong had dug themselves in so deep that the Icaran tanks had to bLast at entire mountain sides just to hit a single cluster of resistance.
It was the job of Section 025 red (better known as the Razor Claws by the Icaran 1st) to capture such a position known as Hill 529 to local intel, a force of some 500 Phong warriors in the Charlie sector were being led from the bunker that now lay before the Icaran troopers.
“Alright Ladies, let’s get this job done, Brekenridge, Canowsky keep those Wolfhounds** on patrol, make sure we don’t get snuck up on while we’re dealing with the yellow bastards inside.” Lieutenant Kemper whispered into his com as he slinked forward along the mountainside with the rest of his section.
It was well into this world’s “night” cycle if one could call a red sky “night” and it was Kemper’s hope that most of the Phong would be asleep, or at the very least not fully combat ready, in the darkness two Wolfhound armed buggies raced away from the infantry and began circling the area.

After what seemed an eternity of crawling on his belly Kemper and his section arrived at the armored door to the bunker, it looked like rock but ground penetrating scans showed it for what it really was, a 2 meter thick battlesteel door to a Phong command center that had to be neutralized. Kemper grinned to himself, to make matters worse his section had been dropped off with orders to capture the Phong leadership intact and alive!
“Lieutenant the charge set, we’re ready.” Sgt Hailey jabbed her shoulder into the Lieutenant to get his attention, when he turned around she pointed at the door where two engineers had just finished placing a compressed “one ton” nuke.

“Alright, assault squad stand by for entry, squad two and three follow us in, squad four I want you to stay outside and cover our collective ***.” Kemper said as he pulled a small silver pad out of his hard suit’s breast pocket, after a moment to make sure everyone was clear he pressed the green button and silently count down in his head (5.….4.….3.….2.….1.….there!) a brilliant flash and a shockwave that rattled Kemper’s teeth signaled the detonation of the compressed nuke***.
“Go go go! Assault!” Kemper shouted as he stood up with the rest of the assault squad and ran into the breach they had just created, his “eye-piece” showed no life signs in the airlock they had just broken into but Kemper knew better then to take that as a sign of light defenses.
A scream from just ahead of him made the Lieutenant drop to the deck, and just in time a mono-molecular beam sliced along the wall and decapitated the man behind Kemper, another Icaran trooper shot out the generation point before the beam killed anyone else, but the beam had done it’s job, the trooper in front of Kemper was relatively short as Icarans went and the beam did not decapitate her as it did the man behind Kemper, instead it sliced off the top of her head only and left her in shock, twitching and seizing, a medic raced over but after only seconds he looked back at Kemper and shook his head.
Already two of his troopers had died, but that was no excuse for rash behavior, Kemper slowly advanced his section in a leap frog pattern, throwing shockwave grenades to make sure the corridors were clear of traps before advancing. So far no one had resisted and that made Kemper more uneasy and nervous then if he had to face down hundreds of Phong,, but there were no Phong waiting, corridor after corridor met them with only silence and the occasional booby trap that was disarmed by the Shockwave grenades.

Nearly twenty minutes had gone bye and the three assaulting Squads had reached a vast chamber near the heart of the base and still no resistance had met them, Just as Kemper was about to order his unit forward again a noise boomed into the room from unseen speakers, a noise the Icarans did not recognize at first, it was like crackling paper or a fireplace with a roaring fire. Suddenly comprehension dawned on Kemper, it was Phong laughter!
“AMBUSH! Fireteams cover your backs AMBUSH!” just as he shouted dozens of pulser darts tore through the Icarans, blood sprayed from torn arteries like some nightmarish geyser, the screaming of the wounded and dying filled the corridors, the stunned Icarans returned fire and succeeded in killing many Phong, but they were totally outnumbered and had been hit completely off guard, within moments all 36 Icarans were on the deck.

The Phong advanced from their hiding places and walked forward to inspect the bodies of the fallen Icarans, bayoneting the downed Icarans at the edge of the Icaran formation, just to be sure they were dead.
A Phong warrior walked over to Kemper and kicked him in the ribs with an armored boot, a grunt startled the Phong, who whirled his rifle around, too late to save his life however as an Icaran combat knife drove into it’s groin, cutting open the Phong’s main arteries in his legs.
A second Phong stood stunned behind Kemper as the Lieutenant whirled around with his assault rifle.
“Hey baby, you miss me?” Kemper sneered at the Phong warrior and depressed the firing stud on his rifle, the AP beam tore the Phong warrior in half and Kemper whirled around to look over his shattered formation.
“NOW!” The shout echoed along the walls and everywhere in the formation Icarans came to life and began killing the startled Phong warriors.
Kemper heard the satisfying whine of Anti-proton fire and the equally satisfying scream of dying Phong as if they were in a distant background, his focus fell onto Phong troopers that were attempting to fall back and reform their ranks, they all died swiftly as his beams swept across them.
A third of the Icarans was all that remained after the devastating ambush but Kemper was unwilling to give up here, and he could not call in the other squad outside or he would risk leaving his only way out open to enemy attack.

The advance continued until finally the sole remaining squad reached the massive armored doors at the heart of the facility, it took two compressed nukes to breakdown the door and admit the Icaran assault. The troopers rushed into the room weapons at the ready and stopped in stunned silence.
The sounds of sobbing brought the advancing Icarans to a halt, the room was no military command center, it was filled with Phong females and children, not even a single weapon was detected in their midst, several of the younger Phong ran towards the soldiers and began chittering relentlessly in their alien language.
“HALT! Stay where you are!” the Icarans shouted as the youngsters continued to run towards them.
“Damn it STOP!” Sergeant Hailey shouted at the top of her lungs but the aliens did not seem to understand.
“Get me a GA’DAMNED TRANSLATOR TO TELL THEM TO STOP!” Kemper shouted as he lowered his rifle, one of the Icarans raced forward, a translator unit strapped to his hip.
“Stop where you are!” he yelled in Icaran and the machine chattered out an equally loud shout in Phong.
The youngsters continued to run at the Icarans even after they had been told to stop twice by the translator, they were almost in hand to hand range and Kemper made the most terrifying decision of his life.
“Firing line! Cripple them if you can FIRE!” his order was met with the silent obedience of Icaran discipline and the entire squad fired into the advancing youths, three of the ones in front were cut to pieces as more then one trooper had focused their weapon on them by accident, several of the youths in the back stopped running forward and hit the dirt, others had limbs severed by the sweeping beams.
“CEASE FIRE!” Kemper’s order was echoed by Sgt Hailey and as suddenly as it had begun the Icaran fire ceased.
“Oh my God” a trooper behind Kemper said stunned, another trooper vomited into his helmet, the noise of the self cleaning unit covering the noise.
“Medic up front NOW, Lois cover him, get moving damn it!” Hailey shouted, she shoved the medic forward, Kemper forced himself back to reality and looked around the room, there were still a LOT of females and children hutted in fear, some of the more scared young ones tried to stand up and run away from the Icarans, but they were jerked down by their parents or other adults who had just witnessed the massacre.
The five youths of the group that had not been wounded or killed in the Icaran volley hugged the limp bodies of the dead or chittered into the “ears” of the wounded in attempts to comfort them. The Icaran mdic gently moved them aside and began running scans on the wounded while PFC Lois covered him.

“Why did they keep running at us sir?” Hailey whispered as she came closer to Kemper, she too looked pale and sick, but her voice remained calm and cold.
“Sir, I may be able to answer that.” The translator stepped forward after talking to several of the Phong in the room.
“The soldiers that ambushed us in the corridor were not just soldiers, several of them were command officials for this region, and sir, those youngsters are their children, when they saw us they knew we must have killed their parents and so they declared a sort of blood oath, similar to our custom of debt of blood except that instead of service provided by future generations, their blood oath requires the offender be bled.” The translator paused and looked sick for a moment, Kemper cleared his throat in a sign of impatience.
“Sir, they would have tried to bleed us, not kill us, a cut or bight would suffice by their tradition since they are the losing force here.” The trooper shook visibly.
Kemper looked at the stunned faces of his soldiers, they had all just become baby killers, even Phong did not deserve what had just been done to them, not this up close and personal, not over some stupid tradition!
The Lieutenant slammed his fist against a nearby wall and cursed silently to himself that fortune should put HIS unit in this position, they had failed their mission when they slaughtered the ambush force that had included the command staff of their region and NOW they had killed four orphaned children and left another seven with horrible injuries ranging from severed limbs to opened guts.
Kemper forced those thoughts from his mind and remembered the original Haden base with it’s millions of people, including children that had been destroyed by the Phong, so a few enemy children had been stupid enough to try and attack an Icaran firing line, so what he had ordered them cut down, they had become combatants the second they refused to comply with his orders and he made sure everyone of his soldiers knew it.

Less then a week later Lieutenant Kemper and the survivors of the Razor Teeth were awarded the Icaran sunburst medal for heroism above and beyond the call of duty, two days after that Mestra 1 had fallen to Icaran forces and the 1st regiment began occupation duty until an SS brigade could arrive.

*[Rocket propelled stab]A "stab" is a weapon that breaks apart into several metal disks when reaching a certain altitude, these disks travel at super sonic speeds and can slice apart any dropship or fighter in service.

**[Wolfhounds]: A wolfhound is a three person armored buggie with either a gatling style Anti-proton gun or a surface to surface rocket launcher.

*** [Compressed Nuke]: A compressed Nuke is a weapon that focuses the entire nuclear reaction into a "bottle" similar to how a traditional shaped charge focuses it's explosive energy. The radiation is sucked into the bLast area by the preasure of the "shaped" nuclear bLast and leaves only a small area radioactive,and even that radioactive area is harmless to anyone wearing a heardsuit or vac suit.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

2419.7 Remembrance:
Captain Yu Lin Pe walked the long corridor alone, she enjoyed the silence of the moment, to be allowed to be alone with her thoughts, probably for the Last time today, she paused and breathed deeply, recycled air of course but still it was new air to her, she had been in space for months with neither hide nor hair of planetary or even domed spaciousness or “new“ air, it was all the same metallic ship‘s smell, and finally she was in a wide open space by herself with “fresh air”, yet she had to hurry through it and meet her new command. She felt sorry that her brother was still in the 1st fleet and was too far away to have arrived here on time but at the same time she was oddly grateful for it as well, she could say hello to her new command and goodbye to her father all at the same time.
She had been invited to the shipyards of Mavin Parsis II months ago, so that she could arrive in time for the launch of the Royal Navy’s newest and for the moment most powerful warship class in Icaran space, normally the ship’s first officer would have taken her to the new commander but this was a special circumstance, this was the Last tribute Icara could give to a hero who fell all too early in the war. The HMS Yu Hing Pe, the first of the Admiral Yu Hing Pe class super dreadnoughts the first two of which had just come off the production line.
Both were being assigned to the 3rd fleet and Yu Lin had the honor to take command of the warship bearing her father’s name and become the new flag captain of Rear Admiral William Ross a thought which roused many confused feelings within the young woman, she and Ross had known each other since she was 15, now she was getting close to 40-though thanks to modern medicine she was in the same top physical condition (and youthful appearance) that she had been in when she was 19- they had always been close friends and she even tried kissing him once when she was 16 but he pulled away and left an awkwardness that Lasted for months, she had always been attracted to him and got the feeling he felt the same way, yet they never seemed able to discuss it….
She inhaled deeply, deliberately breaking her train of thoughts and began meditating as she walked, much the way her grandmother had taught her, though Yu Lin herself was not a Buddhist like her grandparents or parents she often meditated to calm her nerves or clear her thoughts.
Before she realized it Lin was standing in the main gallery of the shipyard, a bulky man in the formal tan uniform of an engineering corps Admiral walked forward and smartly saluted her, in the tradition of the Navy any captain receiving their command must be saluted by ANY officer bellow the rank of Grand Admiral or equivalent rank, she smiled and returned the salute.
“I am EC Admiral Tankers, Captain I must say it is an honor having a member of the Yu family here in person, and more then that taking command of a starship we built, especially one that bares the name of such a great man as your father.” The man smiled broadly at Yu and part of her became very curious when she noticed his eyes seemed to wonder over her body just a little bit.
“Well Admiral Tankers I look forward to taking her out, but at the moment I’d just like to see what she looks like if you don’t mind.” Tankers flushed a little as he realized that he had barely even let her step into the room before intercepting her.
The Admiral guided her to a camera that was overlooking the shipyard’s construction slip, Yu’s eyes widened and she felt herself smile as she caught a glimpse of the Yu Hing Pe she was 250,000 tons more massive and 100 meters longer then a dreadnought, and had an additional 500 crewmembers, she was sleek and deadly looking bearing a striking physical similarity to her smaller cousin.
“When can I go aboard” Yu asked gleefully as she stared at the massive and beautiful new warship.
“Actually Captain I was wondering if you would like to go aboard after the party, of course if you’d prefer you can go aboard later.” Tankers grinned at the glowing new Captain, it was like watching a parent with their new child he thought to himself as she practically fell over herself to confirm she’d like to board as soon as possible.

The “party” drudged on for two hours, to Yu it seemed like an eternity though she did enjoy the opportunity to meet Commander Jason Styles, her new XO, he was a witty if somewhat bookish man with an obvious flair for the comedic, he had even managed to make Governor Shaun (Stoney) Garret to erupt into a belly laugh that could have shaken the bulkheads. But the man was also a brilliant officer and had skipped two grades in promotion to achieve his current post as Commander at the young age of only 21 years of age, she still marveled at how easily he was able to excuse himself from a “mandatory” party without stepping on anyone’s toes and found she envied that ability as there were only so many blue blooded noble wannabes that she could talk to n a single night without wanting to blow her brains out with a pulser.
But finally the bore fest had come to an end and she was able to board her starship, she wasted no time whatever in making her way to the bridge.
It was a marvel of modern technology, the bridge was a similar two tiered configuration to that of a dreadnought except for the additional stations, including one in particular which drew Lin’s attention to it like flypaper. The Neural Interface was the most recent combat technological advance it allowed the officer to link minds with the other “linked” officers of a battle group (which of course meant there would need to be multiple super dreadnoughts in the fleet) and then connected those minds to the AI junction of a “linked” fleet increasing the combat reflexes of a starships offensive and defensive system as well as allowing more precise-and thus more stable-warp jumps.
The Super dreadnought was 4.1 kilometers long and Yu made sure to investigate almost every inch of it for six hours before her launch, she rendezvoused with the Warden two days after launch and then began their long journey to join the 3rd fleet in the war against the Phong.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Is very good, the influence of David Weber / Honor Harrington Series is obvious (is one of my Favorites).

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Thank you for your generous statements you guys, you're all definitely building up my confidence and interest in writing a story.

Though I still have a lot of work ahead of me to become a real writer, for example I still sometimes have issues with making a story "flow" from paragraph to paragraph and I still have the occasional embarassing gramatical error lol.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

2419.9 Another Step on the Long March:
“Scopes show ten enemy light cruisers, most of them look like the new Stargazer class of theirs, a single shield generator and rather weak armor, but they pack a little more punch then the previous models of Phong warships.” Lin looked at the faces around the briefing room making sure the command staff of the fleet knew what they were up against before she continued.
“It is my belief that the Yu Hing Pe could take on all ten of those ships by herself with confidence of victory, our weapons and shields are light years beyond anything the Phong Federal Navy possess, and it would be a good opportunity to test out the Royal Navy’s newest warship under live fire circumstances instead of taking the Bureau of ship design’s word based entirely on simulated battles.” Captain Yu again glanced at the officers in the room, looking from face to face to see if she was hooking them.
“Captain, I am not sure it is the best idea to risk one of only three currently existing super dreadnoughts based entirely on the theory that she can take on ten enemy warships by herself.” Captain Fowler said skeptically as she looked over the schematics of the newest Phong warship again.
“With all respect Captain Fowler your dreadnought has taken on and destroyed eight enemy ships in a single battle by herself, my ship is larger and militarily superior to yours, it is my belief that whatever your ship can do a super dreadnought should be able to do better.” Lin shot a cockeyed glance toward Fowler, who had a seriously sour expression on her face as she was reminded of her ship’s “inferiority”.

Ross rolled his eyes, Fowler had seniority and probably saw receiving a smaller command as an insult by the Admiralty especially since she had been the prestigious Flag Captain, now she was just a squadron commander like the other two in the fleet and Yu who was several years her junior had been given priority for the newest flagship just because it bore her father’s name…..of course Ross knew that the ship’s name was not the only reason they gave her to Lin instead of another captain but at the moment neither Fowler nor Yu needed to know why the Admiralty gave Lin the super dreadnought over her seniors. As the two captains stared each other down Ross began to wish he had just put his flag aboard [/i]Warden[/i] instead.

“Captains Please we all know that the Shadowclaw and her crew have earned a magnificent record for themselves and that she has over 30 kills to her name, but we do have to face the facts, the Yu Hing Pe is a larger more heavily armed warship which does make her innately superior to the dreadnought, however we all know that the ship’s technical superiority does not reflect poorly on the crew of the Shadowclaw any more then it did when the dreadnought replaced [/i]Hawkwing[/i] as the flagship unless of course you see an older ship as inherently inferior?” Captain Bradford of the Hawkwing tented his fingers and grinned at the two captains wickedly. Though he had not come right out and said it he had almost dared the two Captains to continue their arguments over “technical superiority“-which they could not do without implying dishonor to the captain of the Heavy Cruiser by saying his ship had proven inferior to theirs (which in Naval tradition was a big no go for a ship with the Hawkwing‘s battle honors)- his grin grew all the more wicked as the two Captains simply looked at one another and nodded.
“So do we have a decision Admiral?” Yu looked at Ross expectantly, she knew that he could just as easily send Warden to carry out the intercept if he decided too, and she also knew that he would not base that decision on their personal friendship.
Ross whispered to his squadron commanders before returning his gaze to Yu, “Captain We will proceed with the intercept, however I will have Shadowclaw standing by close to support us should something go wrong, understood?” It was not a question, and Ross stood up, shook the hands of the other officers in the room and left quickly. The room cleared rather quickly, except for Fowler and Yu who hung back.
“Miss Fowler do you really have that much doubt about my ship and myself?” Yu asked straightforwardly as she leaned against the holo tank’s shut down control panel.
“What ever gave you the idea I lack confidence in you and your ship Captain?” Fowler had taken on the same impersonal and icy tone she used during a battle and the implication was not lost on Yu.
“Ma’am with all due respect my super dreadnought is well, that is to say she was designed for heavier combat then your ship, still you seemed absolutely confident when your ship faced down eight enemy warships yet you openly criticize my ship’s ability to face down a mere two ships more, this tells me you either doubt my ship or myself.” Yu paused a moment, swallowed hard before she continued with what could easily be considered an open (slap in the face) “So which is it ma’am do you doubt me or my ship?”
Fowler looked honestly taken aback by such a blunt wording of such a dangerous question.
“Captain Pe.” she began in a tone that was surprisingly friendly considering her previous icy one, however Yu’s guard remained high as she fully expected a political “pat on the hand” to cool the tension “I neither doubt you or your ship, in fact you have proven your skill time and again aboard Lenin even after all the beatings she took. To be honest captain I just don’t like the thought of this ship and Admiral Ross going into battle alone and not being able to do anything but watch….Ross is a friend of mine, and I know he and you are friends as well and that even if you weren’t you would do everything in your power to fulfill your duty and protect the fleet commander and carry out your mission, but I just don’t like having to sit on the sidelines and watch, do you understand?” Fowler leaned back in her chair and gazed into the eyes of the younger woman, watching the wheels churning in her mind.
“Yes Ma’am I understand what you are saying, however I do request that next time you not question the abilities of my ship in front of others until I have at least had a chance to prove her in battle.” Yu’s own icy tone had dissolved and her typical soft tone returned, Fowler nodded thoughtfully before rising.
“Very well Captain Pe I apologize for my earlier remarks and any insult you may have taken.” Fowler’s tone was neither bitter nor submissive but instead it was formal and polite.
“Thank you Captain Fowler, no hard feelings and I look forward to serving with you.” Yu smiled as she took Fowler’s hand and shook firmly.
Captain Fowler turned about to leave, but stopped and turned around as she heard Lin clearing her throat.
“Oh and Miss Fowler, it’s Captain Yu not Pe, I am of Chinese extract and in many parts of China it was tradition to put Clan name first followed by family and then surnames.”
“Really? I’ve never heard that before?” Fowler cocked her head with curiously.
“Yeah, not many people do as most of the Chinese extracted Populace of Icara still lives on Brandenburg, in New Beijing where they were found about 200 years ago since old traditions of not mixing the bloodlines dies hard.” Yu smiled at the other woman and was genuinely surprised by her interest, Fowler was like the bulk of the Icaran populace, over millenia of intermarriage had made it so that it was impossible to tell her direct decent just by looking at her, but unlike the bulk of the Icaran population she seemed interested in learning about the more ancient and “multicultural” portion of the Empire.
“Fascinating, I’d like to hear more about your decent some other time if you wouldn’t mind.” Fowler actually cracked the first genuine smile of the day.
“Of course Captain Fowler, I’d be honored, but first I’d like to apologize for implying your ship was inferior to mine.” Yu lowered her gaze to the floor (much the way her mother did whenever she was apologizing),
“Don’t worry about it Lin, we both acted like ****wits if you ask me so I suppose we sort of canceled each other out in the needing to apologize department.” Fowler smiled again as she turned around to leave.

Two days later the massive super dreadnought sped across the stars on her intercept course with the ten enemy warships, Ross and Yu spent hours on end watching the tactical displays as the light codes indicating enemy ships and the light code indicating Yu Hing Pe began to come closer and closer.
“Sir ETI (Estimated time to Intercept) is 15 minutes for us, Shadowclaw is still eight hours away at maximum speed.” Commander Styles said cheerfully as he idly drummed his fingers on his control station.
“Thank you Commander, continue countdown every five minutes please.” Lin’s demeanor was icy but Ross knew her well enough to know that she was tense, it was the first combat deployment of this class of ship and no one knew if it would really work in battle.
After a seemingly endless closing time and three more time counts the tactical readouts finally showed only a few seconds till intercept range.
“All gunnery crews have acquire target locks on the leading four enemy ships.” Chief Gunnery officer Chen’s voice sounded like music to Yu after such an agonizing wait.
“Bring us to broadside and fire as she bares mister Chen, let’s turn those four ships to ash.” Lin clenched her hands into nervous fists as her ship turned about to execute her maneuver, she was amazingly fast for a ship of her size which startled the bridge crew, most of which were veterans of the older Midwinter class heavy cruisers which were slow to maneuver and unwieldy at the helm, she rapidly came about as her broadside came to life with an amazing roar of energy and light.
Four Phong warships vanished in a number of expanding balls of plasma and wreckage, yet the other Phong continued to advance, seconds later another salvo from the Icaran super dreadnought reduced two more Phong warships to rubble and sent another spiraling into space, it’s control surfaces, weapons and engines totally destroyed.
“Weapons, switch to slicing mode, helm take us straight in at them, I don’t want to give them a chance o retreat.” Lin sounded venomous and dangerous as she gave the order to move in for the kill.
With equal speed and grace the Yu Hing swung herself around to charge into the remainder of the enemy force, her beams sliced out in wrath cutting one of the enemy cruisers clean in half neutralizing the reactor, which prevented the remnant’s explosion. A second cruiser’s entire forward hull vanished as the slicing beams of the Icaran’s secondary batteries sliced through her shields and armor like a knife, it’s reactor went critical seconds later causing it to vanish in a brilliant flash of light.
The third enemy ship actually managed to bring it’s weapons to bare and fired defiantly into it’s vastly superior foe, the shots were exploded on the heavy shielding doing absolutely no damage, the same could not be said of the Icaran’s return fire however, the Phong crew didn’t even feel what killed them as the heavy I-lasers sliced through their ship.

“Admiral Ross, I’m reading survivors aboard the crippled vessel and that other ship that we cut in half, should I open fire?” Every face on the bridge turned to Ross, thus far in the war Icara had taken no enemy Naval personnel alive, not through any act of mass murder or the like but very few people survived the destruction of even an Icaran starship and the Phong’s were far less advanced in the technology required to increase survival, the little bastards hadn’t even invented a proper vacsuit and were still using the bulky astronaught type suits that humans used back on earth during the nineteenth century, which could hardly be donned in an emergency.
“Send over marines, take the crews and destroy the ships.” Ross felt Yu glaring at him and he completely understood her hatred of the Phong but he was not about to turn the crew of an Icaran warship into butchers.

Mestra System:
The entire 1st fleet was forming up to make the warp jump out of Mestra, the entire system had finally been deemed conquered as the Last Planet fell a week ago, every world had a full State Security brigade on it, and the navy was ready to advance the war into the Ogoth Tir star system.
Admiral Babcock sat n his day cabin smiling as he watched his fleet forming up, it always amazed him how such beauty could wield such deadly power, earlier this very year he had been forced to destroy an entire Phong world with 350 million Phongs on it simply because his troopers were occupied elsewhere and his deep range scans showed the world fortifying it’s self it only took two dreadnoughts to do the job, two ships with a total of 10,000 people killed 350 million so easily. Babcock hated the Phong but he also hated this damn war and the fact that it had turned him and those under his command into mass murders, or heroes it all depended on who ended up writing the history books.

Well a new system a new beginning, Ogoth Tir would fall to the first fleet, and the system after that and the one after that too until there was not a single Phong stronghold left in the universe, but it would take time and cost lives, there was no option of peace now, no chance what so ever but to continue on until the end even though intelligence had sent him several communiqués informing him that the Manti Star Kingdom had begun to apply a great deal of pressure on the Icarans to stop their war with the Phong. Whether or not the Manti’s would attack was still an up in the air issue and the 4th fleet and Home Fleet had been put on high alert just in case the Manti warships traveling through Icaran space were to attempt an assault on Icaran assets.
Babcock downed a shot of whisky and continued to stare out of his window at the beautiful killing machines that made up his fleet, he looked down, remembering the paperwork he had been neglecting, shrugged to himself and returned to the monotony of life between the battles.

2420.0
The very next month the Yu Hing proved herself again and decimated an eight ship taskforce of light cruisers carrying supplies and satellites to the colonies in the Cortina system, with the confidence in this class spreading throughout the navy the old Reliance class cruisers began being retired out of service and scrapped as their resources were desperately needed to prop up the currently struggling Icaran economy.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Nice.... question - what mods if any are you using in your game.. I know you are using shipsets but what about game mods... I didnt see a reference to those..

Rasorow

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Well Yeah I'm using my own creation for the Icaran shipset I'm proud to say http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

As to the mod I'm using it's a moderatly modded Devnull, I added two new weapons:
I-Laser (a 13th generation AP beam with extended range and more firepower -20% accuracy +a LOT more expensive) Oh and it's green http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Frag Cannon: (Fragmentation Cannon) Ultra short ranged ultra light moderately powerful 7th generation Meson bLaster weapon designed mainly for bases guarding warp points or anti-fighter weapons (more power then a fighter missile +10% accuracy but a range of 4).

Best part is the AI will research BOTH new weapons I know this because I ran a quick (play as the AIs) a while ago to see if they were researching properly and i saw a warship of another star nation with Frag Cannons http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Plus I added a new ship size but that's going to be a suprise http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Any more questions from anyone?

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

How many planet are under Icaran control now?

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Here is a total breakdown of the Icaran Empire at this point and time:

Systems: 33
Planets: 170
Population: 54.3 Billion
Units: 2768
Ships: 117 (roughly 90 are combat ships and only about 30 are dread and super dread designs)

Economic Income:
Minerals= +10,305
Rads= +180143 (I wish I had resource converters)
Organic= +82111

Ranking: 2nd

Other Star nations contacted:

Neo-Star Empire (offically partnered unoficially they are in a state of cold war)

Maggellan Corporation (Military Alliance of convenience, the Icarans and MCs don't like one another)

Manti Star Kingdom (military alliance of necessity, Icara is not strong enough to defeat the Manti at this time)

Sol Coalition (Partnership treaty, the Solars are begining to be considered a trusted ally of Icara)

Citizen Federation (Trade and research alliance, mainly because the ICarans havn't seen a single CF ship in nearly 12 years)

Phong Federation (A state of open war exists between the Phong Federation and the Icaran Empire, a war Icara is thus far winning easily)

Political Status (Aka average planetary happiness):
All "True Icaran" worlds including those of the former Rebel Alliance are for the most part happy and absolutely trust the Praetor and House of Lords thus far.

The Recent "acquisitions" all have SS brigades stationed on them and have thus far been easily pacified on the few occasions they've attempted rioting.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

You have a partnership wtih the Sol Coalition?

That seems...odd.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Well their attitude towards me is murderous and mine is the same towards them, the treaty was first signed when the Phong attacked me, and I was actually outclassed by both them and the Solars....as I said it was out of my survival though the partnership treaty was actually the first thing they proposed and I took it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Besides that my economy is in shambles at the moment and I need their resources and above all else the Icarans are survivors and if it takes allying with a hated enemy for the time being then ally they will.

[edit]: Oh and remember these are Icarans we are talking about when I say "trusted" ally I simply mean one that is not making any immedietly threatening moves against me.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Well time for a new chapter, this one is less a "character" one though and more of a "big picture so far" story just to let you know in advance.

2420.3
“Welcome back, We promised to bring you up to date on the war against the Xeno Phong when we came back from our break and we always keep our promises, Hello Roy are you there?” the pretty news woman turned to face something off screen and as a voice came over her ear piece.

“Yes Madalin I’m here from the bridge of the flagship Conquest, with the 1st fleet where the invasion of Ogatha Tir has taken off like a missile. Admiral Babcock has politely denied our requests for an interview because he is very busy leading the fleet against the Phong Federal forces.” Roy Scheller was the premier field reporter of the Icaran News Network, wherever he was the hottest stories were and the people loved him, mainly because he was one of only a few field reporters that was willing to place himself in the midst of the action, though the Navy always denied him permission to drop with the ground forces during an invasion.

‘Roy can you tell us how it’s going so far?” Madalin Brice was the other kind of reporter, she never left the safety of the Icaran capital and though she was a well liked anchorwoman she was not as famous or well liked as some of her colleagues like the famous Liza Torrence of the nightly news.

“Well Madalin, in the past month alone the brave men and women of our armed forces have valiantly conquered Orgotha Tir, Eight, Six and Nine, without the loss of a single brave Icaran….The navy still won’t let me go down to the surface of any of the OT planets because they are afraid that the locals might see a reporter and attack him….” he laughed cheerfully “Even after I said I’d take a marine escort their afraid I’ll stick my “nose for news” out to far and get it shot off.” some of the military personnel in the background could be heard laughing at the reporter’s quoting Admiral Babcock.

“Well it sounds like you’ve gotten yourself quite a fan club over there Roy.” Madalin smiled into the camera.
Roy chuckled again “Yeah I’ve made a few friends is all, these people are great to be around, and given another two months and Admiral Babcock says this entire star system will have fallen to our forces, another step on our road to victory over the enemies of Icara.”

“Well Roy I’m afraid our time is up.” Madalin looked into the camera again “Ladies and gentlemen thank you for watching, we’ll see you tomorrow here on INN a subsidiary of the State Security Broadcast system.”

2420.5
Babcock’s estimate was correct, Ogatha Tir fell within two months and the first fleet was already mobilizing to move on to the next target of conquest on the Icaran hit list, Babcock had not lost a single soldier or spacer during the invasion, more then the capture of the entire system the Icarans managed to destroy a small fleet of Phong warships and an entire corps of Phong ground troops.

On the other end of the Phong front the 3rd fleet had finally been given the resources to go on the offensiv, the 1st Germania regiment had swept through the first three Phong bases in Cortina like a flood, sweeping aside all resistance and bringing the population of Cortina 1, 2, and 2a (Cortina 2’s moon) under the heel of Icaran Jackboots.
Admiral Ross had just received word of his promotion from Rear Admiral to full Admiral and Captain Yu Lin had just received the Fleet Service Medallion for her starship as it had managed to gain it’s 30th kill in only a few months of service.

Thus far the war was going well on the Phong front, yet on the NeoStar border the Icaran fleet was in a tense mood, the Neo Star empire was quickly growing more hostile and after three Icaran Merchantmen went missing on their borders the Royal Navy 4th fleet was ordered to ready it’s self for deployment in order to investigate the disappearances. Needless to say the Neo-Star Empire was less then pleased when they heard of this and began mobilizing one of their own sector fleets along the border, along with the usual diplomatic threats and accusations.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

2420.6
Tyson Babcock dropped wearily into the big comfortable chair he had brought aboard Conquest when she became his flagship, with tired hands he unbuckled his tunic and unhooked the button that held his collar. Sighing deeply, he started to think about the past few year.. His fleet had conquered 2 systems, no wait 3, yet they still had so long a way to go ahead of them before he could finally return to Icara and see his home by the western ocean: he thought to himself as the burden of the day finally started to lift from his shoulders, yeah they had a long way to go but his troops could handle it, no matter what he would return to Icara one day, he didn’t care whether it was as a war hero or just another soldier who did his duty, he just wanted to go home again after all even now his ship was in orbit of the most recent conquest MunjumbIX. The tired Admiral started to slip off to sleep when the com unit chimed, he ignored I at first but the chime became an irritating whistle. “Accept the call, audio only!” he groaned irritably and cussed to himself.

“Admiral Babcock Colonel Drago on the com for you from the surface.” The com officer paged Babcock in his quarters, much to his irritation, that com officer had a bloody bad habit of paging him at bad times in awkward places, Last week the young man paged him with a needless message while he was in his quarters with Countess Dorothy Rallins. The tired Admiral buckled his tunic again and dragged himself out of his chair and walked over to the com unit.
“Alright put him through Ensign.”
The old grizzled Colonel’s face appeared on screen, Tyson shrank back a moment when he saw the expression on the colonel’s face.
“My Lord Drago what’s wrong?”
“Admiral, there’s been an incident down here, there are a lot of our people dead here sir and a lot of Phong as well.” his voice was calm but Tyson could tell that the man was worried more then he had ever been before.
“What kind of incident?” Babcock demanded
“An explosion sir, an entire Phong Factory was blown to hell….and sir.. It was, it was with a compressed nuke sir.”
Tyson went white, with shock, a compressed nuke was only used by Icaran Royal soldiers, the Phong didn’t possess it.
“Sir, it wasn’t an Icaran nuke, the bLast pattern was totally different, but we know the Phong don’t have that kind of tech as you know, which only leaves one other option, someone else triggered the nuke, I need tech teams brought down though sir, I’ll keep a squad of my troops on site to prevent anyone from getting involved in this until they arrive.” Drago frowned deeply as someone of screen handed him a flexi.
“Admiral, I’ve got a confirmed list of casualties, 82 Icaran engineers and marines dead, 1,025 Phong dead on scene and 32 killed elsewhere by shrapnel, Admiral when can I expect those teams?”
“In one hour Colonel.” Tyson paused a moment to collect himself “I want you to get to the bottom of this, if there is someone out there that thinks they can get away with deploying a nuke on an Icaran facility they’re wrong, and I intend to show them that.” He cut the com circuit and left his quarters to get to the bridge, he had a good idea who might be behind the attack but until he could prove it he wasn’t about to say anything to anybody.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Okay an update on how things are going for me:

Planets: 178
Population: 56.3 billion
Units: 2757
Ships: 121
Bases: 0
Rank: 2nd

Resources:
Minerals: 19568
Organics: 86533 (dang phong practically every world is organics or rads)
Rads: 187053 (there's the rads http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif)


Relations with Other Nations:
Phong (losing the war badly but still won't surrender)

Neo-Star Empire (it's looking like war is coming soon as they are starting to get more and more agressive with demanding I leave their space, even though the space they are claiming is mine http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif)

Magellan Corp: Still ice cold relations but they are a year and a half's journey away even with my fastest ships so they're not to dangerous so I enjoy taking resources from trade with them

Manti Star Kingdom: Relations are good so far, they're staying out of my space I'm staying out of their's and we are both getting pretty good resources from trade with one another.

Sol Coalition: They are only my ally because I need their resources and because they are a year's journey away with my fastest ship and nearly two with theirs.

Citizen Federation: They're getting their asses kicked by someone though I don't know who so I don't really care about them and hope they die soon.

Anyway I hope you guys are enjoying my newest chapters http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

2420.7 Plans within Plans
The massive Admiralty building looked ominous and dreary on the snowy and wet winter day on Icara, and even more ominous because the lawn of the massive fortress like building buzzed with dozens of Flag officers attaché’s and nobles, all of whom were slowly making their way inside. A 500 man Marine security force surrounded the perimeter and dozens of anti-sniper teams were stationed on the local rooftops.

It took hours for the crowd outside to finally make their way inside the admiralty building, and then another hour for them to make it inside the sprawling holochamber in the center of the Admiralty building, once they had all been seated the lights dimmed and a massive holographic sphere glowed to life, the sphere was a 3d representation of the Icaran Empire and the various border systems belonging to other Empires.
The sphere rippled and a close up of the two Phong “frontline systems” speared.
“Ladies and gentlemen the Cortina and Munjumb star systems, our current front lines against the Phong Federation.” The booming voice of Grand Admiral Hallice echoed across the vast chamber.
“Currently the Phong are losing this war, and badly. The military command has begun discussing the possibilities of expanding our military operations against another race, but thus far that plan has been disregarded, until now.” The Admiral tabbed a key, Munjumb IX filled the screen, on the southern part of it’s only continent a massive red circle expanded outward, the entire chamber went dead silent as every eye in the room focused on the holosphere.

“This is the reason we are all here, the image you see here is the representation of a compressed nuclear bomb which was detonated in a factory block on this world, over a thousand Phong workers and over eighty of our own engineers and marines were killed in the bLast.” Hallice paused and the map zoomed out again focusing on Cortina and Munjumb.
“We believe that the Neo Star Empire is behind the bombing, as well as the now ten missing merchantmen along our borders. The 4th fleet is in the perfect position to strike against the Neo-Stars but before the military acts we need you all to know the potential risks, that is why Commodore Lady Liza Adair is here, she is a former Rebel Alliance officer, fortunately she decided to join the Icaran Navy after the Alliance was absorbed and has proven herself adept at information gathering on many occasions.” Hallice bowed and stepped aside, allowing the younger woman to step up to the podium.

“Ladies and Gentlemen.” she said formally, greeting the officers and nobles in the room “As Hallice has stated a strike against the Neo Star Empire is a very risky proposal, the Neo Stars have various warships stationed throughout our space, if we can not destroy these ships when we strike against the Neo Star Empire then we face the risk that they will attack outlying worlds, millions could die.” the room was silent, deathly so as the information sank in.
“More risk lies in the fact that we believe the have intelligence officers in our territories, my people are tracking them down now, but there is the risk that we may miss a few and they could possibly do a great deal of damage before we neutralize them.” Gasps went up in the room as people began to realize the possible threat that the Neo Stars represented.
“Then what possible good would it do us to strike them first?” Someone shouted, every head turned to Adair but she did not flinch.
“There are many benefits to this, one being that we will gain more worlds with HUMAN populations, two: we will satisfy the Manti Kingdom who have been applying political pressure on us for our current campaign against the Phong and three: it will give us a stronger foothold in the galactic West which we do need at the moment.” She tabbed a control and the holosphere changed focus to the 6-11 star system and the base of the 4th fleet.
“The opening battle would begin here, the 4th fleet would have to strike at the primary military base that the Neo-Stars have in that region.” “Ladies and gentlemen I’m afraid the primary battle plans are classified all we need is your agreement, then we will bring this to the Praetor so he can either authorize it or shut us down, I will now take question before we decide however.”

The argument raged for hours, several Admirals demanded more information before they attacked, others wanted to strike within the next month still others were unsure of what should be done. But finally the argument boiled down the “Do we strike or wait to be attacked?” and no one was willing to wait for the Neos to strike first, the vote was passed and it was agreed that the Neo Star would be struck first.

When the proposal was brought before Praetor Leonidas a day later he whole heartedly agreed to the launching of a new war effort against the Neo-Star Empire and dispatched Messages for the 4th fleet to mobilize for battle.

Meanwhile the war against the Phong proceeded quickly as two more worlds in the Cortina system fell to the 3rd fleet, Ross and his people were racking up the kills in space as well as another seven Phong warships were destroyed during the advance.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

2420.8 The Cortina 9 Incident

The 3rd fleet was preparing to take yet another world for the Imperium, Ross and Yu watched intently as the battle line approached the enemy world, Cortina 9 had several weapon platforms on it, fortunately for the ships of the 3rd fleet their I-Laser cannons easily outranged the old style depleted uranium cannons, the task of eliminating the platforms fell to the HMS Behemoth, since it was her first combat action Ross wanted her crew to get some weapons practice in before they met a real enemy some day.

“Admiral the Behemoth reports her gunnery crews are locked on target and….’
“Hold on.” The Chief tactical officer cut off the com officer and suddenly leaned in closer to her screen.
“Admiral something’s wrong I’m getting a shadowing effect down there, I’ve lost sight of the enemy colony’s dome, as well as everything else within the target area.” that news made everyone nervous, nothing should cause an entire section of a planet to suddenly shadow out on sensors.

“Sir, it’s not just us I’m getting this message from the entire fleet, um sir Captain Smith reports Behemoth‘s gunnery crews had lock, she’s firing.” the communications officer turned to face the Admiral and Yu, a look of disbelief on his face, the com channel had just filled with static, no one could order the Behemoth to stand down, and within seconds it was too late anyway as the massive warship fired her cannons towards the planet’s surface.
The screen showed a massive cloud rising from the surface, where the warship’s beams had just impacted: a cloud that could only be caused by two atmospheres mixing which could only mean one thing.
Suddenly the com frequencies cleared, and the shadowing disappeared revealing the true horror of what had just happened. The view screen showed a massive crater where there had once been a colony dome with millions of Phong.
“Son of a *****! What just happened?” Yu shouted angrily, she looked away from the view screen and turned pale faced towards Admiral Ross “I’m sorry sir.” was all she managed to croak out.

“Don’t worry about it Lin, I understand perfectly.” Ross said sourly as he unhooked his shock frame.
“Captain Smith is hailing sir.” The communications officer said numbly.

“Put him on now.” Ross said bitterly, the view screen switched from an image of the devastated colony to that of a stunned Navy captain.

“My God sir I wasn’t targeting the dome I swear on my honor, I don’t know how it happened my crew wouldn‘t make that mistake.” Smith was obviously trying to cover his own *** but Ross at least gave him the credit for defending his crew as well.

“I know it wasn’t on purpose Smith, it would only take one hit from an I-laser on an unprotected dome to make it blow apart and the Behemoth had only fired three of her cannons before Smith ordered his gunners to cease fire and it was just an unlucky shot that happened to breach the dome after a the other two had brought down the shields of the two underpowered weapon platforms that killed millions of Phong.

“I want you to pull Behemoth off the firing line, I’m going to send down investigation teams as soon as possible but I don’t want you here, understood?”
“Aye Admiral, understood.”
“Good, Ross out.” Ross turned to Yu, she had stepped out of site while he talked to Captain Smith so that she wouldn’t let her own feelings on the matter spill into the conversation.

“Lin, I want you to ready a unit of marines and techs and send them planet side as soon as they can get down there, find out what was causing that shadowing effect, and see if it really was that shot from Behemoth that destroyed the colony.” He kept his voice low enough so that only Lin could hear.
She quirked her head and opened her mouth to speak until she noticed the expression on Ross' face grew sharper, her mouth closed audibly and she turned around to carry out her orders.
But why would her oldest friend and now senior officer not tell her what he thought was going on?

It took the investigation teams 12 hours to comb over every inch of the wrecked site of a once thriving enemy world, and what they found was truly disturbing, a massive machine the size of a fighter craft with a single human female hooked up to it by thousands of wires and sensors, when the teams tried to remove her the machine killed her, quickly severing her spinal cord.
The investigation on the machine it’s self proved equally as disturbing as it’s discovery, it was of completely unknown technology though the techs did believe that it was somehow using the woman as some sort of power source or focusing lens, Ross immediately had the thing labeled “Ukjent” shipped off towards the Sparta Institute of military science.

On the other front of the Icaran expansion three more Munumb worlds fell o the 1st fleet, and even more mysterious artifacts were discovered and shipped off to Sparta for immediate quarantine and investigation, as to who they might belong to and what they did, the odd thing was they all showed signs that they were Psi Tech but the on scene techs couldn’t prove it no matter what investigations they ran.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Getting bored you guys? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

(New chapter coming tonight)

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Nah, not bored....just waiting anxiously for the next installment http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

2421.0 Battle or Murder?
HMS Repulse a Lord Nelson class dreadnought had been sent ahead of the first fleet to scout out the newest Target system belonging to the Phong and was three days out from the main fleet which put them 5 hours from the warp point to the next so far unnamed star.
Captain Donald Riker had just finished his cup of coffee when the tactical alarms howled and the ship’s AI began calling battle stations over the ships speakers.
“What’s going on?” Riker asked calmly, trying to keep his new crew from overreacting in the face of what might be enemy assault.
“8 Starships sir, well kind of.” The tactical officer was young and nervous, so Riker chose not to raise his voice, even though he wanted to shout the young officer down.
“What do you mean “kind of” mister?” Riker tabbed the controls that brought a small tactical overlay onto his personal command panel.
8 tiny blips, 6 of them so small they didn’t even rate the term “ship” in the Royal Navy, barely 150,000 tons each, the other two were only frigate sized vessels, which only slightly larger then a dreadnought’s gun turrets.
“Sir I’ve got an energy spike.” The tactical officer jerked around with a panicked look but Riker simply gestured for him to relax.
“Confirmed sir, I’ve got two birds incoming, both mark 2 fusion catalyst warheads, they won’t even dent our shields.” Commander Broady withheld a chuckle as she watched the two tiny sparks of light against the massive dreadnought’s shields, which signaled the impacts of the two enemy “missiles”.
“Hail them, com, they don’t stand a chance and they must know that I mean my lord they’re still using Fusion catalyst missiles!” Riker’s voice was still calm but a subtle humor was hidden beneath it, whoever these aliens were they were children compared to Icaran war fighting technology.

“Sir no reply, it’s possible that they are not able to operate on our frequencies?” the com officer sounded more concerned about that fact that she wasn’t able to do her job then about the fact that two more missiles and a salvo of enemy cannon fire had just impacted the shields.
“Captain even with shields, those missiles and cannons will add up and then we will start taking fire.” Broady said grimly as the foolish enemy continued to close on them.

Riker frowned deeply as he considered his choices, he could easily out run these aliens but to what end? They were obviously aggressive though primitive, and even fusion catalyst missiles could destroy worlds, as had been proven far earlier in Icaran history.
“Guns, lock on to those frigates and one enemy escort and fire at will.” Riker folded his hands together, he hated killing anything but especially some fools that didn’t know when they were outclassed by generations of weapons technology.
In the blink of an eye three of Repulse’ massive beam cannons lashed out into the enemy squadron, for each beam that struck an enemy ship vanished in a ball of expanding fire and plasma, most of their solid wreckage being vaporized by the sheer power of the I-Lasers.

“Hail them coms, maybe now they’ll give up.” Riker hoped that seeing three of their ships vanish, each to just a single shot would make the enemy give up, yet he feared they would not, a fear quickly proven correct as the enemy formation continued to advance.
“No reply Captain.”
”What could they be hoping to do, they are outgunned and out manned yet still they try to com after us, even though they don’t even know who we are.” Riker thought to himself as the enemy continued their suicidal charge into his gunners range once more.
Every face on the bridge watched their captain intently, waiting for him to give the order to wipe these unknown xeno’s from the face of the universe, either that or to run away and defy Icaran naval tradition.
“Guns, open fire all batteries all targets.” Riker finally grunted.
“Aye sir, all batteries all targets.” the echo repeated across the bridge as the weapons crews plotted their targets.
Seconds later 5 of the massive dreadnought’s guns fired and 5 enemy ships with unknown numbers of xeno
crewmen ceased to exist, only dust clouds remained of their frail hulls and the lives within, while the Repulse hadn’t even suffered shield failure or a single injury during the “battle” with the Xeno race.

“Continue survey of this system for the first fleet helm, Com’ launch a messenger drone to Admiral Babcock informing him of our engagement please.” Riker unhooked his shock harness and turned to leave the bridge, smoothing his copper colored hair after removing the vac suit helmet.
“Commander Broady you have the bridge.”
“Aye sir I have the bridge.” she echoed, but he didn’t hear it as he left the bridge and walked down the corridor of his massive ship, wondering what insane motivation had driven a race still using system patrol cutters to attack a vessel that was over a kilometer long.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

A new empire??

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Seems to be, though they are such primitive Apes I won't have much of a problem kicking them to dust if ever I find their home territories http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

The Making of a Marine:
As Told by; Private Recruit Mahony, Robert Patrick
“I signed up to join the Marine Corps because ever since I was a kid I’ve wanted to see the stars, other worlds and serve my Praetor, the second I turned 16 I was down at the recruiters office for the Royal Navy, ah unfortunately when I took the entrance exam to the academy the recruiter told me that there wasn’t a position open for me, in other words I didn’t have the grades for it.”
“I joined the Corps so that I could get into the fleet and see the galaxy, sure there was a war on but we were kicking their asses so bad it wasn’t even much of a risk anymore, and well joining the army was just not a good Idea as I didn’t want to spend my time on a troop ship, those things were ugly flying barracks, while a warship was graceful and powerful. Anyway when I got to the Marine Recruiter the woman at the gate definitely mad me want to join the Corps, she was about 23 by the looks of her, obviously a Brandenburg native by her hairstyle and a real beauty, the Corps should have put her on their posters if you ask me. She told me where to report and the next thing I knew I was on a shuttle to the Icara Marine Recruit Depot on Honshu Island-in other words the place where they shave your head tattoo your arm and send you to join the other bald, tattooed men and women you’ll spend the next 3 months with- I guess they figured “Marine Recruit Depot” sounded better.
There I was a raw recruit with one hundred and forty-nine others wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into, and right off the shuttle this “black hat” or Drill Instructor comes over and starts screaming at us, I didn’t even understand him until he started slapping folks on the back and forcing us into a line, another DI walked over and started taking our bags out of our hands and throwing them into a big pile at the back end of the shuttle- I was honestly afraid they were going to shoot someone- we were sent at a forced run to our new barracks: where the aforementioned head shaving and arm tattooing takes place, well my tattoo read “ME5923-521/5”, I’ve been told ME stands for “Marine Expendable” by the DI’s and I don’t know if that’s true or not but it sounds about right.
We were shaved after the tattoo and then all of us-men and women- were thrown into this big shower room and told to strip for disinfecting, I hadn’t seen a naked girl in person till then and I just stood there stunned for a minute until a DI came by and whacked me with his baton right across the back of my neck, well needless to say the shock of naked girls wore off quick as the stinging sensation spread in the back of my head.
The DI’s left the room quickly and suddenly we were being sprayed with this hot liquid that was obviously not water, some chemical used to totally disinfect the body, it had a greenish mist come off o the spray instead of that nice white mist that comes from water, that and it smelt like a mix between piss and lemons.
After our “shower” we were shuffled outside-still naked mind you- and formed up into a column, there was a girl to either side of me and both looked about my age, I tried to face front but man two girls naked and right next to me! Well the DI saw a few of the recruits-glad to say not just me, and not just guys- looking around at each other so he said and I quote “Oh so your busy admiring each other’s assess eh? Fine look at the person to your left and grab their ***!”.
Needless to say no one did at first-actually someone behind me did but he was slapped by the woman that he grabbed.
“I SAID GRAB THEIR *** YOU SORRY SACKS OF DOG [censored]!” the DI’s voice echoed across the little training yard we were all in, followed quickly by the sounds of flesh smacking against flesh as the recruits followed the order, I turned so red when I grabbed the girl next to me I could feel the blood rushing out of m face, I just kept focusing on other things so it wouldn’t rush *ahem* elsewhere shall we say?.
“NOW that you’ve got a feel for each other, let me say this, that sorry lump of flesh your holding in your hand belongs is YOURS!, her *** is yours your *** is hers an SO ON, as long as you are a unit! Do you pieces of dog meat understand me!?”
I had the feeling that the only good answer was yes so naturally I said it but even that wasn’t good enough that drill instructor finally let us remove our hands from our neighbors posterior but then came another dressing down, though at least we found out his name, he was Command Gunnery Sergeant Tyrel Jackson and he’d been in the Corps longer then most of us had even been alive.
After the second dressing down we finally got shuffled off-more accurate to say we got run off- to the Camp’s equipment distribution center where we got our uniforms and unloaded weapons, then we got to go eat some dinner, if you can call that pile of goo they plopped down on my tray food. Finally it was off to the Barracks where we got lights out and some peace and quiet.

The peace and quiet ended at 4:00am base time as the traditional bugle called reveille over the camp’s loud speakers, half a second later DI Jackson came storming into the barracks screaming fire and hell at us, whacking those guys that were a bit late out of bed with his “staff of office” we were rushed off to the showers for a one minute wash- real water this time, though it was cold as ice- and then to mess hall where we got fifteen minutes to eat more goo.
After that we went for a nice run where I got to here my first running cadence (audio file included) http://www.grunt.com/downloads/Combat_Zone.mp3 to tell the truth I didn’t much like the sound of “Dying on a Combat Zone” but what can you do about it?
Then it was off to the rifle range where we got to hear Sergeant Jackson describe the marine darter rifle:
“Alright you sorry excuses for biomass this is a Marine Mk92 darter assault rifle, now those army boys might like their energy weapons but we marines know better don’t we?”
“Hooyah Sergeant”
“Mmmhm Damn right we do, you see what those army boys don’t realize is that their pretty little energy weapons do a nice amount of damage on the ground, but aboard a starship they’d punch a hole clean through the hull, and then where would we be, I tell you where we’d be floating in space. And I don’t know about you piles of puke but I don’t want to be floating around in space during a battle. Hooyah?”
‘Hooyah Sergeant!”
“This weapon was designed for use aboard ship, and during ship to ship actions, it has an effective killing range of 200 meters though I expect you all to be able to kill at 205 meters at least, a magazine of 45 7.75 millimeter explosive darts, and a retractable polycarbine stock. Any Questions?”
I knew better then to raise my hand but some poor sap always has to open their big mouth, and this time it was Recruit Daniels.
“Yes sir, if they are explosive darts how come they don’t pierce a starship hull?” he didn’t see the grin on Jackson’s face but the rest of us did, and it made us all cringe.

“Well Daniels that is a good question, anyone want to answer it?” no one spoke “You really are a bunch of maggots now aren’t you! Alright then Daniels I’ll tell you why an explosive dart won’t pierce a starship hull, and then I’ll ask you later today, if you don’t know the answer I’ll have you running laps around the armory for days you get me?”
“Hooyah Sergeant!”
Sergeant Jackson went into a long speech about the materials that make up a ship’s hull and the explosive properties of a dart round and how they react to one another, not to mention a brief speech about speed and reaction mass that I didn’t understand at all.
After that Drill Sergeant Keeting took us for a six mile march where I got to hear a Marine Corps Marching cadence, that went something like this:
“When my Granny was 91, she did PT just for fun”
(squad repeated )
“Oh when my granny turned 92, she did PT better then you”
(Squad repeat)
“When my granny turned 93 she did PT better then me!”
(Squad repeat)
“When my Granny turned 94 she did PT even more!”
(Squad repeat)
“When my granny turned 95 she did PT just to stay alive!”
(Squad repeat)
“When my granny turned 97 she up and died and went to heaven”
(Squad repeat)
“She met Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates”
(Squad Repeat)
“Said Saint Peter hope I‘m not late”
(repeat)
“Saint Peter said with a big ol’ grin!”
(repeat)
“Get down granny and knock out ten!”

I remember later that day poor Daniels couldn’t answer Sergeant Jackson’s question, poor guy did 52 laps around the armory while the rest of us had to stand there and watch in parade formation, it took him twelve hours!
After that we got rushed to mess hall, ate and finally allowed to report to barracks for lights out, all accept Daniels who had to make a little trip to the base Doctor for exhaustion or something.
On the Second day our class was given it’s name “852” and presented the class patch, we were then taken on a “celebratory run” by Sgt. Jackson, before the rest of the day began.

Three months of hell and FINALLY I’m an Icaran Royal Marine, poor Daniels didn’t make it though, he washed out along with twelve others and sadly Lauren Bard and Leonard Crown were killed during training, Lauren by a grenade some idiot dropped during combat training (we recruits never found out who, though we suspected it was one of the “wash outs“ that the MP‘s dragged off) and Crown by a landslide during mountain training, the same landslide where Daniels broke his leg, he couldn’t take watching a buddy get killed and washed himself out.
To be honest I’m glad I didn’t see either event as I may have joined some of the folks that saw it on the wash out line, though at least they left with honor and dignity intact, unlike those wimps that just couldn’t take the training or those morons that screwed up seriously enough to be dragged off by the MP’s for disciplinary action (two were shot).

I got my assignment though, it was to the HMS Yu Hing Pe all the way out on the Phong Frontier, me and a few others were being sent out to replace marines that were headed back home, I am looking forward to my service with pride and excitement and can’t wait for the transport to arrive tomorrow at 05:30 hours, which reminds me I better get some sleep, Private Mahony signing off.”

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

A VERY good choice of a name http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif (My first name is Tyrel http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif )

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Hey would antone be interested in a ms word format of the story with all grammer/speeling errors fixed (no offense star)???

If so, I could attach the file.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Hello.....?????

Is anything happening here????

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

We are patiently waiting on the next chapter.. but it is Christmas so we may have to wait until after the holiday...

I wouldn't mind a copy of the file.

Rasorow

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Okay, I'll post up a file as soon as I get my computer back up. My registration period for XP has run out and I'm currently in the process of getting a code for it. Hopefully I'll be back up after Christmas. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Sorry all I've been busy writing a Prelude to a fantasy book I'm writing http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Well here's the next chapter,I hope you like it.

2421.3 One War Begins As another begins to close
“The 1st and 3rd fleets have continued to conquer even further into Phong space, yet they still will not surrender, Gentlemen to make matters worse the Praetor has bowed to the Manti Star Empire and the Neo Star Empire and declared all out war on the Maggellan Corporation, and we still don’t know the full capabilities of the Corporation.” Grand Admiral Hallice frowned deeply as he looked at the holomap, the planet hopping campaign was going well for the Empire, entire systems were falling in a matter of months but even at such a rate it would take up to three years to end the war and that was simply unacceptable considering the fact that this war had raged on and off for nearly 18 years now.

“I’m afraid we have to end this war in one fell swoop gentleman and ladies, we need to find the Phong home world and take it out of the equation, either by invasion or orbital bombardment, but it needs to be removed.” Hallice paused as the Admirals around the table murmured.
The Empires best intelligence operatives couldn’t find the enemy homeworld no matter how hard they tried, yet they expected the navy to find and neutralize it in a matter of months, assuming the Phong home world still existed, after all naval intel had shown that the yellow freaks were also at war with a race called the Crystallin Republic, whether these were humans or xenos was still unknown however.

“Well there you have it, we are to conquer the entire Phong empire in under three years as ordered by the Praetor himself, however ladies and gentlemen I will not let this get sloppy, if we fail our mission I will be forced to resign, but damned if I will allow even one life to be lost because I am in a hurry to save my own political ***, understood?” Hallice said bitterly, the other Admirals knew that “Getting sloppy” meant wasting lives on suicidal attacks simply to prove “progress was being made” and they all knew how the Grand Admiral punished such actions but to take over an entire race in under three years seemed impossible.

The entire Admiralty general staff left the room feeling rather grim and doomed by their orders, but Icaran naval officers never failed the Empire before, not even during the Final March all those long centuries ago when they were driven from their Earth and the entire Icaran military was destroyed, if there was a way to conquer the enemy in 3 years they would.

2421.3 Five Swords of Heaven

The five worlds chosen for project “Five Swords” were buzzing with activity, their entire population centers were cut off from the outside Empire, even the capital world Icara was cut off, all communications stopped, the home fleet had even been deployed in a blockade orbit of Icara, ensuring that no ships either entered or left.
All that was known of the Project was that it was a new “ultimate weapon” and that the entire project would take two years to complete.

Meanwhile the war weary troops of the 3rd fleet invaded three more enemy worlds, conquering them all in under a month’s time, Ross ordered the fleet to hold position over their most recent conquest, to allow his troops a rest as well as secure the supply transports captured from the Phong merchant guild.

Ross sat quietly on the bridge of his flagship and watched the video recording that had just arrived from the Admiralty, it was the usual monthly report but this one was special, it had video clips taken from the 1st fleet, showing entire worlds decimated by Imperial guns, Admiral Babcock had destroyed 4 enemy worlds killing a total of 600 million Phong, Ross knew how Babcock must be feeling, even though the Phong were simply xenos the Empire had killed billions of them and would likely kill billions more before the war was out yet the Admiralty put a positive spin on the whole thing, telling the public of the Navy’s heroic victories over dangerous Xeno scum and the Church spun it as a holy crusade purifying the universe of the enemies of God, but here, on the front lines it was butchery pure and simple, it was to preserve the human race and ensure Icara’s survival but it was butchery none the less.

“William, penny for your thoughts?” Ross heard a gentle voice behind him and turned away from the pad playing the video clip, seeing Lin he felt his mood improve almost instantly.
“What’s a Penny?” Ross, tried to sound cheerful but his old friend knew better and patted him on the arm, her smile warmed his mood but even she was getting weary of this ongoing war.
“It’s an old form of currency, haven’t you ever studied Pre-Antimatter economies?” she just smiled quietly after that and sat next to him, both of them just needed to see a friend even if they had nothing to say, they had seen so much death and knew that there was so much more coming.
After several minutes of silence Ross turned to Yu Lin “I hear the Blackbird scored 4 kills earlier this month.”
“How about that, she’s going to be getting some serious battle honor if she keeps this up.” Yu said cheerfully, after that they began some casual conversation, all the while avoiding the most recent reports that an entire SS brigade was destroyed when the Phong blew up one of their own worlds. The 35th SS brigade had recruited Ross youngest niece Meleena when she was 17, she had gone with them to that world and was among the 400 other dead Icarans of that brigade.
Ross felt angry at himself for feeling so hurt by her loss, he had only met the young lady twice and she was only one out of millions of Icarans who had died in this war, but for some reason he couldn’t shake the feeling of loss and sorrow.
Lin knew more then most how the sting of such a loss felt so she just stayed quiet, and waited for her “stoic leader” to bring it up on his own time and in private, she knew the two of them were getting closer as time went by and she found herself becoming more and more comfortable with that thought as well, even though it made her a little nervous. Ross too was enjoying their knew closeness, in his mind it was the only good thing coming out of the whole damned war.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Okay, so now I have my computer back (got a copy of XP for christmas). Is anyone still interested in a word format of the story???

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Yes

Rasorow

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Bump, I've got more chapters coming I've just been taking a break and trying to write a real book http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Well next chapter to follow soon please stay tuned http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif in the meantime you can download the word format of the story and catch up.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

2421.5
At the same time throughout the whole of Icara all vid screens all and all channels suddenly went black for a moment, seconds later the Imperial Anthem began to play softly in the background as the Imperial Eagle, with a world held in it’s right claw and a starship in it’s left appeared on screen. Throughout Icara billions gathered around screens to see what was happening.
Then the face of the Praetor himself appeared and throughout the Empire people fell silent in curiosity and fear as they waited for their beloved leader to speak.

“My fellow Icarans, my friends, brothers and sisters today I come before you with news both great and terrible, for this month two things have happened that may forever change the fate of the empire.
The Great news is that our brave men and women have found and conquered what they believe to be the Phong homeworld, though it’s population numbered less then one billion we believe this to be a great blow to the enemy, especially as the rest of the Berchest system fell to the 3rd fleet swiftly, those worlds that could not be conquered were sterilized for the safety of all humanity. Also the Briggia system suffered a similar fate, several hundred million Phong have been sterilized leaving their worlds open to human colonization.” all over Icara people cheered, the war was finally drawing to a close as more information scrolled across the bottom of the screen with information that the HMS Shadowclaw had just entered a third Phong system and was preparing to sterilize all worlds therein.

But the cheers came to a swift and sudden halt as the Praetor raised his right hand, palm facing the screen. “However my dear people, there is terrible bitter news that I must inform you of, for the HMS Tigerclaw and HMS Satuki have both been lost to a new star nation known as the Andoran, 4,400 sons and daughters of Icara perished in the brutal attack launched by an Andoran battleship. Now though we are angered by this situation I must remind you that 4,400 lives are nothing as compared to the billions of Icarans that would be put at risk should open war come between ourselves and the Andoarns, because of this I have ordered our Political bureau to send ambassadors to the Andorans in an attempt to bring peace, know this however though peace may come they will be made to pay for the lives they took on the 3rd of this month.

As always my friends I will guide and protect our people, Praetor Leonidas signing off.”

2421.6
Admiral Babcock sat numbly in his command chair, when his fleet had entered the Zerg system they had fully expected to find Phong worlds, instead they found more Xeno’s of the Xiati variant, the same ones that had lost an entire squadron to a single Icaran super dreadnought, and in a single broadside to boot.
Deciding that since the Xiati had proven hostile from the start Admiral Babcock directed his infantry regiment to launch a direct assault on the first Xiati world in system.

Landing the troops was easy enough as the world had no weapons platforms or orbital defense satellites what so ever, but once the infantry of the 1st Icara landed they soon discovered that the Xiati were totally unlike the Phong, they were tall brown skinned and over 30% of their body mass consisted of cybernetic enhancements, fortunately for the invading soldiers the Xiati world was defended by only a small force of lightly armed militia and fell swiftly.

On the Phong front the Shadowclaw had “sterilized” three entire worlds held by the Phong in the Fyras system, the 3rd fleet had just entered the Arich system and soon it too would fall before the might of the glorious Icaran Empire.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

2422.8 It ends with a Whisper
“War Ends not with a Glorious Trumpet, or a shout of victory, War ends with a quiet prayer by the enemy, a quiet plea for mercy that only the victor can answer or ignore, war ends with a whisper.”
(Hung Sun Lee, Earth 1575 when the Icara-China war comes to an end)

“In the fires of death life springs anew.”
(General Tamara Jordan, 1st Hunnic Regiment, Earth 1910)

Admiral Ross and Captain Yu Lin sat stunned on a silent bridge, the entire crew seemed to be frozen in place as the Com’s officer played back the message, the 3rd fleet had conquered two and “sterilized” one of the worlds in the final system of the Phong yet they had expected the enemy to fight on even longer, but just five minutes ago the Icaran Ambassadorial services’ messenger drone had just arrived with a message informing the crews and soldiers of all Phong front forces, the war was over, the Phong had surrendered unconditionally.
Ross and Yu heard a quiet “Thank God” from several positions on the bridge but no cheering, no joyous celebrations, right now only stunned disbelief that a war some of their men and women had been fighting for their entire lives was finally over. Ross gently and discretely slipped his hand into Yu’s and squeezed her hand gently and smiled softly when she squeezed back.
“Admiral Ross, Captain Yu.” the com officer said quietly, Ross looked over at the young woman and smiled.
“Yes Ensign”
“Sir, redeployment orders have just come in, we are to report to aid 1st fleet in neutralizing the Xeno star system neighboring this one, it belongs to the Xiati variety of Xeno sir.”
Ross hissed internally, they had just finished fighting one war, he wanted to give his crews and soldiers time to rest and at least a little time to relax, but instead they would be sent to a system that belonged to a Xeno race that they were still not “officially” at war with.
“Helm, lay in a course, comns give me fleet wide please.”
“Aye”
As the fleet wide alert chimed Ross stood up confidently, clearing his throat and fixing his uniform.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the fleet, we have done our great task at Last, the Phong forces have surrendered unconditionally, yet we do not have time to rest at this time, for we have one more system to conquer at the moment, just one before the Admiralty will allow us to return to Icara in triumph, with our brothers and sisters of the first fleet by our sides, so I ask you, be brave and true now more then ever not for me, not even for the Praetor but for your families back home and for future generations, so that they will no more have to fear the threat of a Xeno or a mutant, return home with me my comrades, once our job is done, return with me not as heroes but as servants of a glorious heritage! God bless, Ross out.”

An hour later the 3rd fleet was en route to it’s newest war zone, Lin and William sat quietly in her quarters, both of them a little to surprised by the days events to speak immediately.
“You know William, that the first wave of Atmospheric conVersions took place today?” Lin smiled sweetly while she stabbed at a piece of sushi with her fork.
“Really? I wish I could have seen it, I hear it looks amazing as an atmosphere changes from a hostile non-breathable gas ball to a beautiful blue jewel of a world for the first time.” Ross’ eyes glowed as he thought of how amazing that site must have been.
“You probably will someday, maybe we both will.” Her voice changed to a more alluring tone, but her smile remained the same sweet smile that Ross loved so much about the young woman.
“Tell me Lin, what do you think about this “eternal war” that the Praetor declared?” his voice was quiet as if Ross felt like he was asking something dangerous (which indeed he was) but Yu simply shrugged in response as if he had asked a question about the weather or some such.
“I don’t know, I’d like to see home again someday but we knew when we signed up that this may go on for our entire lives, but at least we’ve ended two threats to our people, and a third I soon to join the list of conquered foes.” Her smile faded slightly and she shrugged again “But let’s not talk about such depressing things, how’s your mother?”
The two laughed and talked for hours before Ross excused himself and went to get some sleep before his fleet shipped out in the morning.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Very good read. I look forward to more. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

2423.0
The Icaran embassy on Arich V towered high into the sky, it’s gray fortress like visage dominating the landscape for miles around, a hundred Icaran marines guarded the perimeter, and auto cannon turret towers rose high into the sky at the corners of the massive wall that surrounded the embassy building it’s self. A tiny black ground car approached the fortified battle steel gates and rolled down it’s single un-plated window, a man wearing a Magellan Corp uniform leaned his head out and whispered the pass code to the Icaran sentries who silently turned about and opened the gates to the embassy. The auto cannons tracked the vehicle as it drove up to the door of the main building.
More Icaran marines waited as the car door silently opened, revealing a short, nervous looking gray haired man wearing a business looking suit that had the symbol of the Magellan Corp emblazoned on the right breast pocket. Two Magellan Security branch guards stepped out of the car behind the man in the suit, a third guard stepped out of the driver’s seat and walked over to stand beside his fellows. Eight Icaran Marines walked surrounded the Magellan Corp representative and his three armed bodyguards, a sergeant stepped out of the cluster of marines and grumbled out “Lay down your weapons now, and follow us.” at this the other marines all aimed their weapons directly at the small group of Maggies. The shocked Corporates dropped their weapons at the man in the suit’s gesture.
Fifteen minutes later the man in the suit was sitting in front of a towering Icaran ambassador.
“You wanted to speak to us mister Chairman?” the towering man said gruffly as the head of the Magellan corporation squirmed uncomfortably.
“Yes mister ambassador I did, for two years now the Magellan corporation has been fighting a massive war against both the Manti Star Kingdom and the Neo-Star Empire, in the process of this war billions of Corporate employee’s have died and dozens of our worlds were burned to dust in the fires of conquering armies and fleets, our navy lays in ruins and our army has been totally destroyed.” Chairman Schmit almost cried as he spoke but the Icaran ambassador sat expressionless, and gestured for the man to continue.
“The Magellan corporation knows that you have been redeploying one of your fleets, so that it can invade one of our few surviving systems and this we simply can’t allow.”
The Icaran ambassador smacked his hand on the desk to cut the Chairman off “There is not a damned thing you can do to stop us mister Chairman!”

“That is not what I meant mister Ambassador! Please listen to me, we need this war to end but our enemies will show us no mercy, we are asking….”the Chairman paused sorrowfully “We are asking for a merger, that you take over our surviving worlds and protect our surviving population.”
The Icaran Ambassador froze, a grin crossing his face as he realized what the Chairman of a hostile empire was suggesting, complete and total surrender of a hostile Empire into the folds of the Icaran Empire, and without even needing to lose a single Icaran life.
“Very well mister Chairman, I think we can accommodate your needs, but we are going to need some insurance, namely that you are going to need to keep your people under control until our State Security forces can secure your worlds, if any of your worlds rebel they will be destroyed, no questions asked, is that understood?” the Ambassador’s voice was ice cold as he laid out the conditions of the surrender, Chairman Schmit’s eyes welled with tears and it was obvious that it was a great force of will alone that kept him from breaking down in front of his enemy.
“Very Well mister Ambassador, I accept the terms, we surrender to you for the preservation of our people.”
The Icaran ambassador stood and shook the other man’s hand, a sharkish smile still on his face while the Chairman frowned grimly “Have a good day, Schmit.”]


On the ride back to the space port the former chairman of the Magellan corporation broke down into tears, reached into his pocket and pulled out a small pulsar gun, carefully placed it in his mouth and with one Last thought of his family who had died when the homeworld of his empire was destroyed he squeezed the trigger and let the darkness take him.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Thank you. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif A nice send off for the old year and a good first read of the new.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Thanks AT http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Happy NEW YEAR YA'LL!!!

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Sorrow of A Phong:
They say Mercy is for the weak, the fool and the xeno loving traitor, they say our species is of no divinity and so we have no right to exist on our own, no right to live free and thus they set themselves to the task of ensuring that we did not.
They are a race like none before, they are a race none alone can stand against, we fought them so hard yet they were as demons, striking world after world and colony after colony without ending, no matter what defence we placed before them, it was swept away as nothing. They are the darkness its self, the void incarante, a plague of evil and they enslaved my people for all time.

I remember when I was but a young one, running under the brown skies of our ancestral homeworld, before our leaders led us into the void, they had good intentions at first, we were to reach the heavens and ensure our race's survival, for years our people worked on this great project, and for years after we reached into the stars we met no races and we extended our reach over dozens of worlds in many systems.
We should have known that peace is a fleeting thing, for the first site we got of the great destroyers was a single small vessel, a frigate! we can never know for sure if they had peaceful intent at first, and only they truely know what happened that grim and terrible moon, yet it was with the destruction of that first world, and two of our warships that led to the great war, the Last war of our people.

The great destroyers came on with no mercy, we resisted them every world, every system, but they are demons, cursed and undestroyable, for every life of theirs we took, a thousand of our people fell beneath them! Yet this was not enough for the destroyers, they threw themselves whole heartedly to the war proclaiming it a "Grand Crusade" and a "Holy War" to clense the galaxy of the non-divine races such as we Phong and for years they waged a tireless campaign to extinguish or destroy every one of our worlds.

No more do our people roam free on our worlds, the destroyers march on all worlds that were once ours and unless they are defeated we shall forever be enslaved, a beaten and used people, but know this, have not pity for we Phong, for we fought and kept our dignity even in defeat, do however have sorrow for us, and all others who will fall before this scourge that call's it's self "Icara" for they are the destroyers of worlds, a darkness from the gods sent to punish our arrogance and unless they are stopped all life in this universe will either bow before them or be crushed beneath them.

(Written Verse, Planek,Tal Norva Phong Scholar, written just before the purging of the Phong world known to them as Xenthet after food riots killed dozens of Icarans,

5,032 Phong were killed during the riots
18,592 more Phong were executed for the crimes of their people, including Planek Tal)

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

OOC: Read my link plz http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gifand help a "struggling author" hehe.

2423.1 Sword of Heaven Sword of Hell
The massive bunker that surrounded the Icara shipyard loomed over the surrounding landscape like some small mountain, only four other such bunkers existed throughout the whole of the Empire and all told they were some of the largest structures ever created.
Praetor Leonidas walked up to the massive armored door that it’s self was tiny compared to the structure it was part of, a dozen Praetorian guards surrounded him, for even in the heart of the Empire it was considered too great a risk that an Andoran assassin could slip through the defenses and get a shot off at their beloved Praetor Saint.
As they reached the door one of the Praetorians slipped his ident card into the door security lock, the noise of the massive door unlocking was like that of a massive drum beating repeatedly until finally the armored bLast doors slid open revealing a cavernous chamber beyond.
“Your Highness, Welcome to Project Sword of Heaven! I‘m Doctor Andraeavich” a bald older man with a gray close cut beard ran over to the Praetor and his cluster of guards as the armored doors slammed shut behind them.
“Hello doctor, I hear your project has progressed faster then even you first thought, is that so?” Leonidas was smiling politely as he stepped out from between his guards to shake the doctor’s outstretched hand.
“Uh Yes Majesty, in fact this particular piece of the project has been completed fully three months before the second piece, and four months for the three after that.” Andraeavich seemed quite proud of this fact as he led his Praetor to a second security door that opened up into the main chamber of the shipyard.

The security door opened, and as Leonidas stepped through he stopped dead in his tracks and his jaw dropped.
“By all that’s holy I’ve never seen something so large!” he said numbly as he stepped into the main chamber, before his eyes was a massive gray/silver wall, but as he let his eyes wander it was obvious that this was no wall, it was a huge warship, kilometers longer then the largest super dreadnought with gun ports the size of an old earth skyscraper.
“Your Highness, say hello to the HMS Sword of Icara, she is the largest most powerful warship in the universe at this time, her sister ships will be done soon, she is the first of five such ships by the way.” Andraeavich reminded Leonidas of a dog that had just been patted on the head as he smiled proudly at the ship he took part in designing.
“What are her capabilities Doctor?”
“She is 6 million tons of metal, five kilometers long, two wide, and one point eight high, she carries 10 spinal mount I-Lasers, 22 massive mount I-Lasers and 2 reserve standard mount I-lasers 29 shield generators, 7,000 kt worth of cargo storage and enough armor to take several direct hits even without their shields. Once Project Firehawk is completed the Five Swords will each be powerful enough to take over entire systems by themselves, though at the moment they are formed into a single fleet.” The Man smiled again as the Praetor let the sheer power of this vessel sink in.
“Is she ready for launch?” Leonidas said excitedly.
“Why yes My Liege that is why I invited you here this day, so that you could watch in person, while the whole of Icara watches over the Vid networks.” The doctor’s smile grew even larger as Leonidas grinned and followed him to the “safe room” in the heart of the facility.

The massive ship had a crew of some fourteen thousand, which had already been secretly shuffled aboard during the final days of completion.
An echoing sound made Leonidas look up and see the massive ceiling of the facility slowly open up to reveal the Icaran Night sky in all it’s starry beauty, another noise that was more felt then heard pinged off the walls as the null gravity fields aboard the huge starship activated, slowly “pushing” her off the ground and into the sky.
Throughout Icara city millions stopped whatever they were doing as all eyes turned to face the ship that was visible from miles away, some shrank away in fear at the massive craft, it looked nothing like any other Icaran warship ever built, it’s artistic arch like frame surrounding it’s armored hull, it’s gun ports replacing the traditional gun turrets of an Icaran man of war. Some feared that it was some kind of Xeno conspiracy and that this ship was going to destroy their world.
But as the Icaran Imperial Anthem began to play over every speaker throughout Icara, the people began to relax and many thousands began to cheer as the pride of their empire lifted her considerable bulk off of the surface until finally breaking atmosphere and reaching her new home amongst the stars.

2423.4
Months later the HMS Achilles on a routine patrol stumbled across a badly damaged super dreadnought belonging to an unknown human star nation, unfortunately this incident swiftly led to a firefight wherein the unknown starship was blown apart. It was discovered later that same month that the ship belonged to the “People’s Republic of Remorhaz” which was a minor power to the extreme galactic west of Icara.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

2423.8
Yu Lin and William Ross sat quietly, dining in Ross quarters and talking about the news of the day, they had become very close over the Last few years and had begun openly seeing one another a few weeks ago, though normally an Admiral dating a Captain would be forbidden the Yu family name allowed her leeway that no other Captain could have being that socially she was of higher rank then Ross, her military rank was balanced out, they were still somewhat awkward towards one another and had not even kissed one another-which Yu’s mother often teased about over vid mail- but tonight they were not focusing on that, they were just relaxing and talking in peace while their fleet waited on blockade duty in the Cortina system, ensuring that no foreign starships entered the conquered territories.
“So have you heard about that plague?” Yu said absently as she picked at a piece of overly fatty steak.
“Yeah, it’s in one of the Phong systems, I didn’t get the exact details, all I know is that the Admiralty is going to let it run it’s course, they said one less Phong populated world would b a benefit to the safety of the empire.” Ross seemed uncaring towards the Phong, but Yu hated every Phong she had ever seen and Ross had the feeling that she would have enjoyed being allowed to watch the plagued world die.
“Well at least they won’t be wasting any navy assets trying to save them.” She said stiffly, as she set the fatty piece of meat aside and cut herself a fresh piece off of her steak, taking a bite and savoring the rare “real” food.
Ross was about to speak when the com unit chimed, Yu looked up with a grimace, but Ross simply shrugged and tabbed the control.
“Commander Styles here Sir, we just received word from the Admiralty, the Xiati Empire has just surrendered to the 1st fleet, they wished to inform all Admirals of the Royal Navy.”
“Thank you Styles, Ross out.” Ross and Yu sat shocked for a moment before both began to smile, that left only one known race of Xenos, and they were presently too far away to worry about, but more important then that the Icaran empire would grow further.
“Well, I suppose our job just got a little easier.” Yu said cheerfully, smiling at Ross.
“I suppose so, well cheers.” Ross smiled back at her and took a sip of his whine. After a few moments of silence the two returned to their conversations and their pleasant dinner.

On the Xiati side of things it was far less Pleasant, state security troops rounded up dissidents and summarily executed thousands, rulers were dragged into the streets and beaten until they yielded in public to the Icaran Empire, others who would not yield officially were shot dead in full view of their communities, a wave of terror swept through any community that refused to submit, and as the State Security brigades suppressed any signs of revolt the Navy moved on, to return to their normal duties.
Within a month all resistance had stopped, the State Security rolls showed 150,000 dissidents and resistance cell members dead, and 300 government officials executed for inciting their populations to revolt, as well as 500,000 “revolutionary threats” imprisoned for life.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Great story !!!
Can you please give us a status update of the game / know empires at this moment ?

Also what kind of ship is the Sword of Heaven ?

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

The "Sword of Heaven" is one of five "Five Swords" class warships they are as follows:
"Sword of Icara"
"Sword of Vengence"
"Sword of Justice"
"Sword of Wrath"
"Sword of Heaven"
They are the "Flag Monitor" size which is a creation of mine it is 6,000 kt and takes over 2 years to build, plus a LOT of resources to build and maintain.

Empire Status:
Resources
+75364 mineral
+336609 organic
+403318 rad

Score:
Resources: 1.6m
Research Points: 411.4k
Intelligence Points 311.0k
Tech Levels: 217
Systems 53
Planets: 289
Population: 107.3 billion
Units 3899
Ships 142
Bases: 0
Rank: 2nd

Allied With:
Remorhaz Peoples Republic
Sol Coalition
Citizen Federation
Manti Star Kingdom
Christiria Republic
Empire of Man
Neo-Star Empire

Non Agression:
Celestian Republic

War:
Andoran Star Nation (ranked 1st and MUCH more powerful then me)
Fazar (Xeno race of little importance

Non-Relations with:
Dark Star Union

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Okay for anyone wondering how to make a flag monitor here yah go:

Name := Flag Monitor
Short Name := Flag Monitor
Description :=
Code := SM
Primary Bitmap Name := WorldShip
Alternate Bitmap Name := Starbase
Vehicle Type := Ship
Tonnage := 6000
Cost Minerals := 6000
Cost Organics := 0
Cost Radioactives := 0
Engines Per Move := 1
Number of Tech Req := 1
Tech Area Req 1 := Ship Construction
Tech Level Req 1 := 12
Number of Abilities := 1
Ability 1 Type := Combat To Hit Defense Minus
Ability 1 Descr := Large size makes FM 40% easier to hit in combat.
Ability 1 Val 1 := 40
Ability 1 Val 2 := 0
Requirement Must Have Bridge := True
Requirement Can Have Aux Con := True
Requirement Min Life Support := 6
Requirement Min Crew Quarters := 6
Requirement Uses Engines := True
Requirement Max Engines := 1
Requirement Pct Fighter Bays := 0
Requirement Pct Colony Mods := 0
Requirement Pct Cargo := 0

As I said it is VERY Expensive and VERY long time to build but trust me you'll find out later that it makes a helluva big bLast when it attacks someone; this has already happened in my game but that's going to be in my upcoming chapter so I won't spoil it for you.
Drop this down to the very bottum of your ships list in the devnull mod or else it WILL wipe out ALL of your other ship types below it, and trust me you do not want that to happen it's a PIA to fix.

They have with solar sails only 7 movement points so don't expect them to go racing about anywhere either okay http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

If you'd like the stats of the I-Laser I'll post them up too.

Oh and hey guys since I am writing a book here and I obviously can't charge you any money lol you can "pay" me (or at least just to be really nice to me) click the link in my sig anytime you take a look at my story, it gives me "Credits" in a game that I can't get unless someone clicks it, and you folks are the only guys I like to post with so your the only guys I know. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif