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Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
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But I didn't hink it would affect you all that much as (I tried to keep it as a secret...). But I guess that if the other races know of the One, the info will leak to the rest of the CP eventually. |
Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
Maybee so, but a move this big is bound to cause alot of movement, and wonder (for instance why give the captured terrens to the CP).
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But I didn't hink it would affect you all that much as (I tried to keep it as a secret...). But I guess that if the other races know of the One, the info will leak to the rest of the CP eventually.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> |
Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
Ahh, yes.
Didn't think of that http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif |
Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
Short chapter this time
____________________ Chapter 22 "You are hereby charged with Treason, Conspiracy to commit treason, attempting to incite a revolution, and plotting to assassinate the Prime Minister. How do you plead? Somar listened to the words; most of them were correct charges, except the assassination plot. It didn't matter though, in the two months since Somar had been arrested while leaving Hamal's house, he could see everything leading to this point. It was a classic setup, his trial was a secret, if it was ever even revealed to the general public, the only thing that would be known was the verdict, and of course the sentence. Which Somar had no doubt would be death. The small room he was in now, didn't even resemble a court room. In fact their were little decorations at all, only a small table where the "judge" sat, and two other tables for the defense and prosecution. In all only about 4 people other than he were even present. Somar didn't even have the option of a lawyer, he was being forced to defend himself, but again he doubted that a lawyer would affect the outcome in the least. He was a dead man. The Last 2 months had been hard, he and Hamal had both been arrested and shipped to this secret prison. Once they arrived at the prison he had lost sight of Hamal, that was also the Last time he had seen the older Draven, but he had heard, oh creator how he had heard. Mostly at night, he would hear the screams, that seemed to Last forever, occasional a name would be screamed out, no doubt Hamal was being tortured to give the name of so called co-conspirators, and also no doubt those names would be exactly what his torturers had wanted him to say. Somar didn't blame Hamal either, their was no way a person could stand up to torture forever, everything had its breaking point. Somar by contrast hadn't been treated badly, other than the lack of toilet facilities, and the distasteful food, he had been treated remarkable well, even if he was locked in his cell the entire day, and was forbidden to see any visitors. It hadn't taken long for Somar to figure out why he was being treated well. It was simple, he was being fattened up for his trial. No doubt the star witness for the prosecution would be Hamal himself, after he had been properly conditioned that is. Somar's suspicions were confirmed once he walked into the courtroom. In a corner chair sat Hamal, or what looked like Hamal. He had aged considerably over the Last 2 months, the man looked look frail, like a moving corpse. Somar took a breath, if he claimed innocence he would convicted then shot. If he pleaded guilty, he would be forced to make a statement, then shot. Neither choice appealed to Somar, but his options were limited, and damn if he was going to go down he would go down swinging. "Not guilty", Somar managed to say. The judge didn't even flinch, only nodded, then looked over to the prosecutor. "Tanat, is the Government ready to present its case?" "Yes it is Sir," Tanat motioned to Hamal in the corner. Hamal obeyed however slowly, and made his way to the seat beside the judge. "Representative Hamal," Continued Tanat, "You have admitted to the government that you and several other Representatives in the Peoples Committee conspired to assassinate the Prime Minister, is this true?" Hamal spoke, but it sounded rehearsed, fake, devoid of Hamal's usual charm. "Yes" Tanat didn't even skip a beat, "And is it also true, that Representative Somar orchestrated the entire thing?" Somar was on his feet instantly, "that's not true!" The judge pointed towards Somar, "The defense will remain quite or be held in contempt." "I will not. If I am going to be dammed I will be dammed on my own terms. This entire government is a sham, it has been taken over by Yalare, and has no representation of what the founders intened. Yalare..." Somar never finished his sentence, a guard game up from behind him and hit him in the head knocking Somar to the floor. As reality slowly faded away, and blackness seeped into his vision the Last thing he saw was Hamal staring at him, his eyes saying what his mouth could not. Later that day, Somar along with 56 other Representatives were shot for treason. In effect the Peoples Committee died in a lonely field just on the edge of Capital city. Chapter 23 Yalare watched the news, it was no surprise of course when it was told that Somar and 56 other representatives had been convicted of treason. Yalare had complete control of the media, and the only thing that got out was what he wanted to get out. He leaned back in his chair, ignoring for a moment the two other people in the room with him. If the people knew the truth about the Yalare they would certainly have him killed. In fact when Yalare had first learned the truth about himself he had wanted to kill himself. The voice, had turned out to be nothing more than a figment of his imagination. A way for his mind not to accept what he had done. After the voice showed him, he finally had to deal with the reality. It took a while, for several weeks he had refused to leave his office, but in time, he had come to accept that what he had done was for the good of the republic, if his plan worked, the Draven republic would be stronger than ever, and the looming threat of the CCCP would be gone. Yes, he had planed the destruction of Landing City, but had been the only way to get rid of that foolish president, while inciting a war against the Terrens. For the most part his plan worked, unfortunately the Draven armed forces hadn't fared too well against the Terren's the loss of the sledgehammer fleet had been upsetting, but not disastrous. In the end the war with the terrens had been nothing more than a distraction to the big picture, which Yalare was now seeing with unparallel clarity. Their was a problem though, that fool Josha had apparently caused some sort of communications blackout with the Acamar system. Everytime he tried to contact the system, or even the Central Powers his communications were getting bounced back to him. Josha was obviously up to something, he just had to find out what. "Prime Minister" one of the men in the room finally said, "are you sure you have the Josha situation in hand, if you do not we need to know now so we can take care of it." The man's accent betrayed where he was born, even if he had been genetically altered to look like a Draven. "Tell you boss, that Josha is a bug, and that I will take care of him. The only thing he could do is call on those despicable weyrlings, and if he does that he'll being plying right into our hands." The man looked at his companion for a moment, then back at the prime minister, "We are troubled by the delays, you should have had Josha taken care of months ago. If you don't take care of Josha, we will be forced to withhold the shipments." Yalare stood and gave the man the sternest look he could, "don't you dare threaten me, your boss needs us more than we need him. I will take care of Josha, you take care of the shipments." The man hesitated for a moment, "Assuming you have Josha taken care of, the shipments will be here in 3 months." "Good," said Yalare, and then retook his seat, "I'm, sure you boss will be glad once this entire situation is behind us." The man nodded and then turned to leave, but stopped, "is their anything you wish me to tell him?" "Yes," Yalare couldn't hide his smile, once Josha was taken car of Draven's would take their place in the Universe, "Tell Stalin, that he will soon have the Weyrlings on a platter, cooked and stuffed curtsy of the Draven Republic." |
Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
Whoo, scary.
I didn't expect that http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif Hmm, what now, will have to think. But alas, the Weyrlings knows nothing of this.... |
Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
Woah, that was totally unexpected! Great Plot Twist CaptRR!!! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
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Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
I was actually going to work this plot twist in over the next couple of installments. But, events change, and I ended up having to rush it. I can tell that Rutha is prepareing for an end to his side of the story, and I figured I better start doing the same. Still their is plenty of action left, for the most part my story is planned out, and I garentee the best parts are yet to come.
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Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
No need to rush, I still have three years before the Weyrlings are isolated. And much can happen to stop that from actually happen.
But it gives me an opportunity to end the story from my side eventually. There are some ways that some of the dead Weyrlings might make a comeback, but I don't tink I'll use that. Propably I'll focus on the ones i haven't killed off yet http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif [ April 13, 2003, 23:46: Message edited by: Ruatha ] |
Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
Who ho, even shorter than yours CaptRR!
2407.2 Weyrling Empire: ----------------------- Elyssandra sat in her chamber looking over the strategic map of the Weyrling territory. So far the borders towards the Ghouls clan had been shut down. The new intra-empire warp-point network was starting to unfold, much was left to be done but everything was going as planned. What was most disturbing was that the former ally of the Weyrlings, the Argon confederacy had started sending in small attack ships into Weyrling territory. Targetting unarmed freighters and asteroid miner ships. Not a threat but a nuisance. And the Central Powers alliance wasn't much to count on these days. The Dravens had refused to declare war upon the Argons and the CCCP, claiming that there wasn't really any actual real war involving them and the Weyrlings, only diplomatic problems that the Weyrlings ought to resolve themselfs. The Central Powers charter needed all three partners to agree if the alliance itself was to declare war upon another nation. The Thermolians had said that they would support the Weyrlings if the alliance got involved in the war, but sofar the Weyrlings had never seen an actual Thermolian warship in action, they were to busy with their war against the Infernal Realm. Elyssandra let out a deep breath, it seemed as if the only ones that really put up any effort to support the other members of the alliance was the Weyrlings. Weyrlings had died when the Weyrlings had sent ships into the Thermolian-Infernal realms war. And the multitude of lifes that had been sacrificed to defend the Dravens from the Terrans was still an aching wound in the collective mind. No Dravens or Thermolians had even been wounded in the defence of Weyrling space! Elyssandra was more and more convinced of the righteusness in the isolation decision. Thurya was expected home tomorrow. Elyssandra had tried to speak to her since Try's death. The death of her son had been a hard blow to both Elyssandra and Ilian, but Thurya seemed to be the one that was affected the most. She wasn't alone in her opinion but surely the one that voiced it most loudly, she thought the isolation decision was an abomination. Elyssandra belived it was a reaction to Try's death, but when she tried to raise that with Thurya she only got abuse back, "You are petrified in your thoughts and you've dragged the One along with you!" was the Last thing Thurya had voiced to her before shutting Elyssandra out. Life wasn't fun anymore, Elyssandra thought. She got up and headed for the bed, she seemed tired all the time now. Ilian was at the lab experimenting with the One. It took along time before sleep finally shut away her thoughts of her dead son. Thurya was expected home tomorrow. She didn't look forward to it. She would surely have to meet Try's old emotionless old haggard to mother when she arrived. Thurya was somewhat of a hero herself now, after all, she had been involved in some way in the bLast that ended the Terran war. She wasn't sure of how to use this, but the one thing she was sure of was that this isolationist thought that was predominating Weyrling life at the moment had to be stopped. Surely it must be obvious that the Weyrlings would again stagnate if they isolated themselfs. Hadn't the one once chosen the long sleep so that the Weyrlings would go out into the universe and interact with others? How did the collective belive that things had changed so radically to be able to ignore that fact? Somehow, this had to be stopped! [ April 16, 2003, 20:41: Message edited by: Ruatha ] |
Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
Hi Ruatha.
No, I haven't given up. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif Just haven't had the time. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif It is so bad, I haven't even read your stories yet. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif Hopefully soon, I will be able to participate. |
Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
Chapter 24
Josha watched as Fifth fleet accelerated away from Acamar VII. It was a strange feeling, watching a fleet as large as this one leave without so much as a mention. Usually when large fleets left their home station families and friends would gather in the orbital stations to see them off. This time though, operational security had made that impossible. As far as the families of the Dravens manning the fleet knew they were just leaving on a standard training cruise within the system. Josha took a breath, he had taken a shuttle up to one of the orbital shipyards to clear his mind. He figured that watching the ships speed off might give him some perspective. Instead it filled him with guilt. Guilt at sending the Prince on an almost impossible mission, against his own people, and guilt at the lives that would be lost in the months to come. Still Josha smiled, he had no idea what would happen when that fleet showed up in the home system, but he was sure their was no one more competent to lead it than Prince Dravel. He was young, yes, but he had his father's flare, add to that his keen tactical sense, Josha was sure if victory could be found Dravel would find it. Josha turned from the large windows overlooking the planet, and headed towards the hatch that would take him to his shuttle. He had a full schedule ahead of him. The Weyrlings were making some strange ship movements, nothing major. A shipyard gearing down here and there, and the occasional warp point closure. Those things in themselves were not alarming the Dravens themselves had begun to close unnecessary warp points themselves. The gearing down of shipyards however was strange, after all technically they were at war with the CCCP, and the Argon's weren't exactly being the most friendly to the Weyrlings right now either. Nothing overt had happen, but they had been harassing Weyrling freighters, and if Intelligence reports were correct the Argon Confederacy wasn't exactly acting as a single entity. For years the CCCP and Argon intelligence corps had been running major operations against each other, but the CCCP with its vast resources had been much better at it than the Argons. The results were major uprisings all over the Argon Confederacy, ships missing, and leader's being assassinated. The Draven Intelligence Agency predicted that unless something major happened the Argons would begin to splinter very soon. Josha didn't exactly look forward to having an unstable empire right next to Draven Territory, but at this point he couldn't do anything about it. Josha almost laughed, the Dravens weren't exactly the symbol of unity right now on the verge of a civil war. Somehow though Prince Dravel had to pull it off and win back the Repubic. Then and only then could they start to repair all the damage done by Yalare. It would be hard to win back the trust of the Weyrlings, if Josha were in their shoes he would have left the alliance a long time ago. The Weyrlings at least seemed to be leaving the alliance in place, even if they had began to regard it as a burocratic mess, and even stopped asking for assistance from the other members. As Josha entered the landing bay, he saw his aid standing beside his personal shuttle. As the aid spotted Josha, he began to walk towards him. Once he was within a few meters he produced a pad and began to skim its contents while giving Josha a summarized Version. "Sir, I got a message from SysComm." Josha nodded, SysComm was short for System Communication Center. They handled all faster than light, and slower than light communications going in and out of the Acamar system. The center actually contained representatives from all member of the alliance, since Alliance HQ was in the system, but the Dravens primarily ran it. "Are they going to be able to meet our requirements?" asked Josha. His aide looked at the padd again, "more or less, they said they can block all Draven communications going out of the Acamar system, but since we don't control the Weyrling or Thermolian communication nets someone could route though their communication networks and bypass ours completely. It seems more likely that someone would use the Termolians though." "Why's that?" Asked Josha. "Well sir, for some reason the Weyrlings communication nets have been almost unused. About the only thing that goes over the lines is Messages from other races going to their homeworld, if someone tried to use their net it would stick out like a sore thumb. The Thermolians on the other hand have an almost saturated net, it would be much easier for someone to use their net without them knowing about it, it would simply get lost in the static." "I see. Well it will have to do. All we have to do is stop Yalare's official orders from going to the Alliance HQ, as long as we can do that we can stop him from asking for help from the Alliance." The aide looked at Josha thoughtfully, "You really think the Allinace would give him help after how many time he's repeatedly thrown them to the wolves?" "I doubt the Weyrlings would, but the Thermolians haven't had to deal with Yalare too many times, they would just be abiding by the Allinace Charter." "I see" said his aide as they walked to the shuttle, "But isn't the Alliance going to get a little suspicious when they lose all contact with most of the Draven Republic?" Josha nodded, "they most certainly will, but thats the purpose of our meeting with the Speaker this afternoon." "What are you going to tell him?" Josha srugged, "The truth, that Yalare is a madman, and that the military has been forced to uphold its constitutional duty and stop him. Considering the speakers past dealings with Yalare I don't think he will complain too much. Mostly though I just want them to stay out of this, we don't need Yalare using the Weyrlings as a propaganda tool. If the Draven people thought that they were being invaded it would make the princes job harder." Josha and his aid entered the shuttle and took their seats, as they did Josha looked out the window. Just outside the launch bay he could see the Last glimmer of Fifth fleet disappeared. "Good luck Prince. Let the creator watch over you." Chapter 25 Comrade General Speratii was not a happy man. Another of his ships was having trouble with its stealth generators. If Speratii could have shot the tech responsible for the generators he would have. As it was though all he could do was send the ship back for repairs. He couldn't take the chance of his force being spotted, not this deep in hostile territory. Slowly he took a deep breath and let it out through his mouth, he used the moment to calm himself. It wouldn't do him a lot of good to scream at his subordinates no matter how much he wanted to. "Comrade Colonel Lackcheck, that makes the third vessel we have had to send back this month. What is the problem?" The young Comrade Colonel squirmed slightly, the man had danced around an explanation for the Last hour, attempting to bury his commander in so many details that he wouldn't see the overall trend. It was common trick for someone who didn't want to answer the question. "Well uh..." squirm "Comrade General... uh... the Generators were never meant to run this long. When Stalin himself laid out the uh... requirements for the generators it was never mentioned that they be designed to run for so long without a break." Speratii leaned back; satisfied that he had finally beaten the explanation out of the younger man. "So" he said slowly, "you are blaming Comrade Stalin for your failure." The Colonel's face got white as a ghost, and he stuggled for words, "No Comrade General... I was just noting that it wasn't a requirement that is all." "Any decent Fleet Maintenance officer would have planned for our long stay," observed Speratii, "If you failed to plan the only conclusion I can make is that you are incompetent, and should be sent back to home world in disgrace. With might I add a full copy of you actions in this room. I'm sure Comrade Stalin would be very interested in how it is his fault that you are unable to do your job." Now the maintenance officer was on the verge of panic, "No Comrade General I didn't mean it that way, I was just..." He stammered for a moment trying to find any way he could do get himself out of the situation. "I just meant that..." "Colonial," said the General cutting off the Lackcheck sharply, "I will make you a deal. I will not punish you for your incompetence this time, but so help me if another ship falls out of the fleet I will have you thrown out an air lock, and I'm sure your family would get a call from Internal Security. Do I make myself clear?" "Yes Comrade General," Said the Officer, still scared to death. "Good, in that case get out of my office" Lackcheck obeyed instantly, and Speratii was left back to his maps. Speratii actually had no intention of throwing the man out the airlock, or turning in his family to Internal Security, but it made a great motivation tool, and right now he needed every member of his fleet operating at 100%. If he was spotted, the entire plan would go up in flames, and Speratii was sure that Stalin would not make the same idol threats that Speratii just did. He would simply carry them out, and hang his head up for all to see. Comrade General Speratii went back to looking over the star charts. It showed the current traffic patterns, which were quite heavy, as usual in this system. In the center of the maps was the major population centers, and quite major they were. The entire system was among the most populated in the known universe, and the Industrial capacity of system was greater than any single in the CCCP. Slowly Speratii made some calculations, and estimated that he would have more than enough firepower to accomplish his goals. That is assuming the Intelligence people were doing their jobs. The Last thing that Speratii wanted to do was face the defensive fire from those planets, he doubted a strait battle with them would Last 10 minutes. Yes if everything went as planned Speratii would accomplish the greatest strike in history of the CCCP. He looked down at the target area of his map, the fire patterns were perfect, his ships would have clear fire paths at the planet and her shipyards. Speratii smiled as he read the name of the planet "Kornephoros X". The Dravens were in for quite a surprise. |
Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
CaptRR, you did yourself proud. I imagine the twist came from the beginning of the unseen, from Ruatha isolationism. Whether or did or not. The chapters 22 and 23 were great! Now 24 is awesome!
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Ruatha, very nice, Sir! I think there is something going on here! Not sure just what. But I do get the feeling there is, something yet undone. Might be wrong! <font color=purple>mlmbd http://www.shrapnelgames.com//ubb/icons/icon6.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif </font |
Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
Phew!!
Reading that I was afraid that the CCCP had infiltrated my home system!!! What a relief that they where somewhere else http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif |
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Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
CaptRR, please go ahead and write, you don't have to wait for me. I'm lacking direction here now.
Will have to wait for my musa to wake up! |
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Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
I know it been a long time, but I am back. I'll try to keep the story going between studying and school, that means I will only be able to write about once a week. So here goes.
________________________________________ Chapter 26 "..and that about covers it, Questions?" Dravel looked over his assembled officers as they exchanged glances. For the Last hour he had filled them in on his plan, they had raised an occasional question here and their, but overall they had sat and listened, most no doubt were still trying to their mind around an invasion of their home system. Dravel had to admit he knew had they felt, no one had ever mounted an invasion of the Draven Home system, the place was like a fortress. The defenses started with mines, lots of mines, just under a hundred on every warp point going into the system. Backing up the mines are 3 Large Bases, 2 of which were heavily armed with the latest Telekenetic Projectors. Then assuming you were able to get through that hailstorm you still had to face the wrath of home fleet, an armada of almost a hundred ships, 25% were the latest Dreadnaughts. All that didn't even take into consideration of the Weapon Platforms located on the planet. Usually when a fleet attacked a planet, it would engage the weapon platforms on the surface. Once those platforms were out of the way, the assault on the planet itself could begin. The problem here was that more than half the weapon platforms were located inside the floating cities themselves, taking them out would kill a great many Dravens, and that was something Admiral Dravel was not willing to do." Captain Hanack was the first to ask as question, "Why not hit the shipyards at Kornephoras VII first?" Dravel thought about it for a second, "If this were an operation to destroy the home system then yes, Kornephoras VII would be the best target, its shipyards account for most of the systems production. However, Kornephoras X is the home of the Republic, if we can hit there, with minimum civilian casualties, I'm sure the rest of the Republic would fall in line." Dravel had to admit that leaving the shipyards intact could come back in bite them later, after all having an intact industrial area that close would leave most of the systems war fighting elements intact. Most of all though, Dravel didn't want this to turn into a long and drawn out civil war. For the most part almost all the republic was taking a wait and see attitude, no one wanted to upset whoever was going to be left after the cards fell, as of now this little war was between Kornephoros and Acamar systems. If Dravel could win this war quickly, it would mean keeping the conflict from spreading across the rest of the republic. The next person to ask was Captain Tenal, Dravel's fleet XO, that short Draven was almost a legion amongst the Republics Navy. The captain had managed to beat almost every "unbeatable" scenario in the Academy, and he was almost single handedly responsible for putting an end to the piracy in the outer colonies, so when the man spoke he got respect. "Admiral, I was wondering sir why are we charging in so fast to the planet? Why not just go in slow, and try to get some extra support from the rest of the system?" "Tenal, I don't think we can count on getting much support from the rest of the system. Yalare hasn't got them locked down as tight as the Capital, but he still isn't very well liked there. I imagine, with the exception of the shipyards, that the rest of home system will want to stay as far away from this as possible. Besides, we will want to draw as much of home fleet away from the planet as we can before we hit them with our little surpise. The more that are left to guard, will make it that much harder for us down the road." Tenal simply nodded, Dravel noticed that no one had any more immediate questions, although he was sure to get a flurry of fresh ones as the days went on. "If there are no more questions, then we'll adjourn for today, and meet back up here tomorrow at 0800." With that, most of the captains stood, and began to confer with their various aids. For the next servral minutes, Dravel walked around and answered various questions and signed other documents for approval. After a few minutes the room was almost empty, only the aids were left to sort out the details of his plan, that was when Dravel noticed Sosha in the corner. Her smile immediately lit up the room. Sosha had come with Dravel on his trip to Acamar to help out with any communications with him and the small fleet in Agamar. Since the terrens had surrendered though she had found herself with little to do. The only thing that the King Dravel was doing now was overseeing the reconditioning of a couple of Terren Battleships for use of the Alliance, the work was important, but slow. So Sosha had busied herself as the Captains secretary, that meant the two had spent a lot of time together, which Dravel didn't mind at all. Even if he couldn't have a relationship with her, that didn't meant he couldn't spend time the beautiful officer. As Dravel approached her now, she noticed his smile as well, and the two locked eyes for a moment. It was strange in a way, and heartbreaking in another. If Dravel hadn't joined the Navy he would never have met Sosha, yet that same Navy also had rules about Relationships within the ranks. Yet somehow that didn't matter right now, all he wanted was her, and after all this was over, rules be dammed, he would throw away his commission if he had to, some things were worth it. Besides after this fight was over, Dravel was sure that he will seen enough of war to Last him a lifetime. Up to a few weeks ago, Dravel had no idea if Sosha felt the same way towards him as he for her, but as they had worked together the Last couple of weeks she had let on subtle signs that indeed their was an attraction their, even though she did her best to hide it. "Sir," she said now, her voice strong yet fragile, "I just got back your requisition request from Troiken I. The administrator over the bone yard at first was hesitant to grant you the ships, but I simply informed him that it wouldn't be a good idea to upset a war fleet parked right off his back door." "So we are getting the ships?" "Yep, plus a few extra that he failed to report as space worthy to command." Her smile was as wide as now. The Administrator of the "bone yard", a place were ships were sent in storage when they had run their life cylces, was known a fierce negotiator, often times wrangling headquarters for months over the smallest budget expenditures. The fact that Sosha was able to get almost his entire inventory was amazing. "He wanted to warn you though, that almost none of the ships are armed, and the few that are armed have weapons that have been obsolete for years." Dravel waived a hand, "For our use it doesn't matter. Dispatch as many techs as you can space, I also want the Engineers their ASAP. It is imperative that they get that armor in place, or all this will have been for nothing." Sosha nodded as she quickly took notes on her pad. "I'll have them leave immediately, also we are going to be running short on armor, which ships should get it first." He had to think about that for a moment, "make it the first group, they are going to be taking the brunt of the damage." Once again sosha nodded as she wrote it down. Once she finished and looked up, their eyes met again. "God," Dravel though, "she certainly a beauty." "Also" he said, "How would you like have dinner with me, we could use the time to finish." A small twinkle showed in her eyes, "Why, Admiral, are you asking me out?" The sentence was obviously a joke, but it still made Dravel's temperature rise, and he stumbled over his own words trying to speak, "Uhhh... well, that is of course, if you are available." "Thank you Prince," she said, the smile never leaving her face, "I would be honored." Dravel watched for a moment, and for a second his future didn't seem that bad. Chapter 27 "What do you mean, we have lost contact with Acamr!" Yalare was screaming at the top of his lungs. The victim of his rage, Golemen just looked up. "How do you lose contact with an entire star system, what happen did you misplace it?" "No sir," Golemen said as humbly as possible. The Last thing he wanted to do is upset the Prime Minister any more, people had turned up missing that had done far less. "It appears to be a complete communications breakdown, every time we try to send orders into the system, or even try to communicate with the Central powers, we run into a road block. Whatever it is, its being done on purpose from Acamar" Yalare slammed his hand on the desk, it hit so hard, a couple of object fell off, and hit the floor only added to the drama of the act, "its Josha, I'm sure of it. He's trying to orginize some kind of rebellion I bet, fine, if he wants to be mortar the so be, dispatch home fleet, I want Josha taken into custody." Goleman shifted in his chair uneasily, "That may not be a good idea Mr Prime Minister." "Why not." Goleman could see that he prime ministers rage was about to boil over, this Last bit of news might send him over the edge. "We have been getting some reports that a large formation of Draven ships is headed through Troikens. Unfortunately astro control for the system says there are no unusual movements within the system. My sources are pretty reliable, so I am inclined to believe that astro control is lying." Yalare stared in silence this was bad news indeed, Probably worse than the communication problem in Acamar. For weeks now, responses from most of the planets in the republic had been strange. Not anything concrete but, their responses seemed too robotic, as though they were sending in enouph information just to get the job done, but trying not be overly friendly. Now with Astro control not reporting the movement of a large group of ships, it was obvious that what they were doing. A war was coming, and they didn't want to take sides. If they had sided with Josha in his band, the communications would have stopped completely, with that Yalare was thankful, at least he wouldn't be fighting the entire republic just a portion of it. "In that case, pull back the home fleet to Kornephoras X, if they come through the Warp point, we'll engage them at that time. Also put the Base crews on alert, if anything comes through that warp point, I want it dead, understood?" "Yes Prime Minister." "If Josha thinks I'm going to let him destroy me he is mistaken." Out in space, the home fleet of the Draven Republic began their movement towards the Capital, and silently the stealthed fleet of the CCCP took note, and followed. |
Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
The tension is rising....
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Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
Ooooh, interesting...
The question is who will the CCCP Be siding with? *suspense* http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif |
Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
Side with someone? I wouldn't. I would let them battle it out and then take down the leftovers. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif
Intersting to see how he manipulates the story. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif [ May 04, 2003, 14:26: Message edited by: Cyrien ] |
Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
2408.0 The Weyrling Empire
--------------------------- http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newup...1053364922.jpg Thurya felt somewhat numb due to the psychoactive drugs that seperated her from The One, it was impossible for the collective to track her movements now. She had severed all ties with her people, all for the good of her people! The small interstellar shuttle was slowly approaching the construction site at Alpha 2 Lib. The ship was loaded with explosives. Ever since Try died Thuryas life had felt meaningless and empty, and now that the Weyrlings were going to isolate themselfs it had lost all meaning, the only thing that still brought her some joy was to fly amongst the stars, pass through the wormholes in anticipation of what would be on the other side. And now that was going to be taken from her. Never! It wasn't egoistic motives that had prompted her to take action, she was fully convinced that isolation would be the doom for the Weyrlings. Stagnation and decay was the future for the people who had risen so fast, she couldn't let that happen. If it meant sacrificing herself to show the rest the true way so be it, she didn't have all that much left to live for anyway. It was a small price to pay. "-Shuttle Erax respond", the comm channel opened with a surprising loud voice. Thurya hadn't used a comm channel for ages it seemed. "-Is there anyone aboard? We receive no contact with any Weyrling aboard! If there is anyone aboard respond! We are sending a boarding crew!" Thurya armed the explosives and pushed the throttle control forward to maximum. The engines roared into action and pressed her deply into the seat, the small ship was unbalanced in mass versus power, it was heavily owerpowered and accelerated quickly. Thurya opened an all direction comm channel. -"This is Thurya Kyli speaking. Our people was stagnating before, after we opened ourselfs to the great wastness of the universe we have risen and become a great nation. Our achivements are legio and we are renowned for our honour and reliability. Now we have decided to abandon the rest of the universe, to put ourselfs into isolation and care nothing for what happens to our allies who we have sworen to aid. I cannot silently watch this deceit. If we isolate ourselfs we will also loose our motivation to evolve, to strive forward. We will stagnate and perish. This cannot be. To stop this I will gladly give my life. To those working on the System Gravitational shield in the Alpha 2 Lib system, head for your escape pods now, in two minutes it will be too late. Don't forget this sacrifice for our people, take it for what it is, my Last service for our common good, reconsider what you are doing. Thurya Kyli out". Thutya shut down the comm channel, watched the escape pods starting to launch from the orbital yard ahead of her as the crew there realized what was about to happen. All would propably not make it, but Thurya still hoped they would. At first the yard seemed to grow so slow on the front screen that Thurya thought the engines had somehow malfunctioned even though she could feel the acceleration making her every move cumbersome. The jets of the disappearing escape pods became clearer and clearer as she approached and soon the yard was growing at an astonishing speed. She had never approached another object in space this fast while watching it on the front screen. It was an exhilirating feeling, she smiled as she felt the adrenaline pumping though her veins. Here I come Try and Areia, finally! [ May 19, 2003, 18:22: Message edited by: Ruatha ] |
Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
And so I've killed another of my main characters.
Really only Elyssandra left now. Thurya was depressed and became a suicide bomber, The depression somewhat clouded her judgement is my belief. Now I'm awaiting what is happening to the east in the Draven territory.... |
Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
2???.? The Weyrling Empire
------------------------- http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newup...1053364847.jpg Elyssandra sits in her room all alone and thinks of the years that has passed by. So much sorrow, so much pain. She still has the love of her life, Ilian. There will be joy ahead, but not enough to balance the sorrow she has felt in her life. The hole left in her heart when her son Try died will never be filled. There where some bumps along the road, but despite her sons beloved taking her life trying to stop a plan set in motion by Elyssandra, the Weyrlings where finally isolated, cut off from the rest of the universe. You have witnessed a tragedy. During the short period the Weyrlings roamed the galaxy billions of people died, to which end? The Weyrlings left all their conquerings and returned to their home, never to be seen again, becoming a short parantesis in the history of the galaxy. What happened to them? No one knows, many tried to contact them or open worm holes into their territory but all failed. Did they stagnate or did they flourish? Who can tell? The facilities they built obviously still operate as it is impossible to open a wormhole into those systems that should be there! Where they well designed and flawlessly built? Or are they still maintained? The questions are many but the answers are few. So ends the tale of the Weyrling race, they conquared a waste nation despite never winning any decisive battle, they left their mark in a desolated system, once nurturing the lifes of multitudes, now only rocks and debris. The universe is propably a better place without them........ <Center><Font size=20>THE END! </center></font size> [ May 19, 2003, 18:24: Message edited by: Ruatha ] |
Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
Don't miss the previous chapter also written today before you read the end chapter below this post!
And it's just the end to the Weyrling part, not the Draven or Zax stories. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif [ May 19, 2003, 18:25: Message edited by: Ruatha ] |
Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
Is this the end or will Capt RR tell us what happened to the CCCP and the Dravens? you can't end like this! Noooo please don't end *begs*
Ok i recovered http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif Great ending Ruatha, leaves a lot of mystery surrounding the story. At least we have NCG3 to read http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif |
Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
Nope not the end for the Dravens and the CCCP. Probably alot more left to it, just too busy to do much writing lately. I'll correct that soon thoough, I've been thinking about how the next couple of chapters will play out, now that Rutha has lost most of his characters, it gives me a little bit of freedom to shape the Universe as I see fit http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
Don't worry soon all will be reveiled, and the great war will be upon everyone. [ May 21, 2003, 16:57: Message edited by: CaptRR ] |
Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
Yes.
I set an unknown date on the final chapter and said there where "bumps" on the way to isolation to give you more freedom to use the Weyrlings if you need. Eagerly awaiting! |
Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
I know its been a while, and for that I appologize. I hope that you will think it was worth the wait. Here are the latest chapters.
_______________________________________ Chapter 28 The Draven Dreadnaught “Landing City” was a flurry of activity. People swarmed everywhere. Most were engaged in the standard trials that always happen just before a ship was brought into war, but there were a few that stood back from the flurry to reflect. Some of them wrote letters home, the electronic documents would be sent just before the ship passed through the warp point into the Draven home system, and transmitted through the rest of the Republic. Other’s were off duty, and were resting up for the long days to come. Deep in the heart of the great ship, in the fleet command center of F-COM as it was called, Prince Dravel watched the plot. The room was the largest on the ship, measuring nearly 15 meters tall and twice that wide. In space such large volumes were hard for life support systems to deal with, it also decreased the structural integrity of the vessel. However, the “Landing City” was the newest ship made from alliance technology. Her new life support systems could handle almost 4 times the amount of space they were forced to deal with. Add to that, the ships structure was made from Fiber Steel, a relatively new invention that had 3 times the strength of normal ship construction material, with only a slight increase in weight. All these factors when combined with the need for a central control room for fleet operations had led to the addition of F-COM. The room was far from empty though, over 75 members of Dravel’s staff busied themselves on with the activities required to move a fleet of over 65 ships even if most of them didn’t have crews. Along the walls were 3 stories of terminals and equipment necessary to support the fleet. In the center along with Dravels desk was the largest and most prominent addition to the room the 10 meter tall Holographic plot. Dravel nodded in approval as the Last of the suicide ships was moved into position at the front of the fleet, its slow speed was evidence of its huge mass, after all this ship had started life as a transport, the only ships in the Draven inventory that were larger were the mammoth dreadnaughts. Finally the ships icon flashed green, showing that all its systems were good. “Sir,” Sosha answered from her station just to Dravel’s right, “The Gold Rush is reporting all systems are green, the fleet is now ready for transit.” “Thank you Sosha,” Draven said with a sigh, this was the moment he had, had nightmares about for weeks, he was about to send almost 50 thousand Dravens into battle, a battle that they were probably going to lose. Dravel had sent many people to their deaths, he and death were no strangers, but he had never done so against his own people. The people his fleet was getting ready to attack were no less honorable than he. They were doing their best to defend the republic, even if it was being run by a madman, and because of Dravel those thousands of live would be snuffed out. He was sure the nightmares he had, had would be nothing compared to the ones to come. The only comfort that he could count on was that he was doing it to save the republic. He looked over as Sosha, her beauty was simply amazing even at a time like this. Over the Last couple of weeks they had grown closer. When Dravel had first met her, he was sure that it was no more than a hormonal attraction, a school boy love affair, that would pass with time. He was definitely sure that the feelings that he harbored towards her were not the same as those that she harbored for him. Something had happen over the Last couple of weeks though, he had gotten to work closer to her than ever, and he began to feel that their was definitely something their, something that Dravel had never felt before. Was it love? Dravel really didn’t know, what he did know is that once all this living hell over with he was going to ask her to Marry him, it would cost him and most likely her as well their commission’s but in the end they would be giving up the military for a life as a President and first lady. But first they had to survive the immediate future. “Sosha, patch me into the fleet broadcast channel” Dravel paused while hit buttons on her panel to put him on every speaker on every ship in the fleet. Such occasions were rare, but, Dravel felt in this case it was needed. As the warning tone signaled almost all work stopped on the F-COM, he was sure the same scene was being repeated all over the fleet, as people turned to hear him speak what could be the most important speech in all their lives. Dravel took a breath. “Brave men and women of Third Fleet, I speak to all of you now on what may be the darkest day in our Republics history. None of us want to be here, I’m sure that when we signed up for service none of us ever though we would be engaging our own brothers in battle. If we had known we no doubt would have chosen another path, but as dreadful a task this is, I assure you that if we don’t do this, it will be the end of everything that we hold dear. Today, we stand on the edge of an abyss. We can sit still, and do nothing while the Draven Republic collapse around us, or we can fight. Fight for our friends, our Mothers, our Brothers, our sisters, and our Fathers. What we do today, will determine the future of the universe, whether the Dravens will continue to exist or fade into the darkness of history. Today, all of us, every single member of our fleet, makes a state. We will not go quietly into the night! We will fight to the end, and only when the Last of us has no more breath will the Dravens truly be beaten; I say again we will not go Quetly into the night!” At those Last words Dravens fist hit his desk, but the pounding was drowned out by the cheers around him. In every ship, everyone from the lowest ranking cook to the most decorated Admiral, crewmen cheered. Not for the deaths that were to come but for themselves, never had the future of so many relied on so few, no matter what happens history would never forget Third Fleet. Dravel looked over to Sosha who had a broad grin on her face. Dravel stepped over to her, and put his hand on her shoulder, “Give the word to all ships, initiate Operation Redemption.” Slowly the ships of Thrid fleet moved into the Warp point, and into their Destiny. Chapter 29 Commander Linoris was bored. He had been giving command of the Kornephoras warp point defense station almost 6 months ago. At the time he had known that being assigned to the Defense base that orbited the warp point was a career ender, but he was still young and at the time had thought that it wouldn’t affect him. He would spend a few months their, 6 at the most and then be assigned one of the new dreadnaughts coming out of the yards, after all the way the war was going, the fleet was in need of command level officer. Unfortunately the war had ended when the Weyrlings defeated the terren’s, and that effectively ended Linoris’s chances of promotion. Now here he sat, in what must be the most boring assignment in the galaxy. The “alert” that Kornephoras X had ordered, had provided a few days of excitement while he went though drills, but that had passed quickly, and ground into dull routine. Now here he was, on third watch, looking over the 3 warp point defense bases. Linoris sighed as he checked off another routine status report. Once again, all the automated systems appeared to work fine. He lifted his cup of Nanal leafe tea to his lips and began to take a sip. Suddenly alarms went off; in his surprise Linoris spilled his cup on himself, leaving an impressive stain. “Son of a...” His curse was cut off by the tech reporting, “We have incoming unscheduled transits, multiple signatures, and force estimate of at least 50 vessels.” Linoris’s fear was now overtaking the burning sensation on chest. This wasn’t suppose to happen, all ships were required to file a flight plan before they transited the warp point. Certainly a fleet this size would have caught Linoris’s attention, it could only be an attack fleet. “Visuals.” He ordered. Almost instantly several of the screens scattered around the command deck showed a close up view of the warp point. It colors slightly distorted by the gravitational waves ripping though it, for a second it seemed that the storm at its center subside then in the blink of an eye, a bright light surged, and a ship took shape, then another, and another, and then they were lost in a sea of explosions. The defenses on the warp point were an old Version. Their weapon systems had not been upgraded in almost a decade. After all the general theory was that if a fleet ever got this far the Draven Republic was doomed anyway. But what the defense system lacked in quality they more than made up in quantity. Before the first ship was finished transitioning, automatic defense system had activated the mines, and each of the small warheads had activated their friend or foe transceivers. By the time the second ship had finished transitioning it had been determined that the codes returned by the invading ships were not authorized. Cold computer logic kicked in, and each mine communicated with other beside them. Targets were prioritized, and compared to the mines internal database for the area that was weakest. When the third ship finished transitioning, the mines engaged their, hyper impeller engines. These engines could accelerate a device to almost a tenth of the speed of light inside of a second, unfortunately the devices were a one use variety, and the engine burned themselves up in half that time. It wasn’t a big deal though, at these ranges it brought the mine into lethal range of the invading ships almost instantly. The mines proximity warheads engaged and release the magnetic rings holding almost a liter of anti-matter. When the anti-matter came into contact with matter they exploded. The resulting explosions were equivalent to a 1 megaton nuclear explosion. Each ship had been assigned 10 mines, and as each went off, space itself rippled, as anti-matter and matte came together, and ships vaporized, but not fast enough. The ships, Large transports really, were absorbing ungodly amounts of damage, often times, mines would have to attack the same target twice. Still the mines computer cores lashed out at the invaders, and ships would only appear for a few seconds before a group of mines would descend on them, lashing at them with Nuclear fire. But the ships kept coming, and soon the wall of fire produced by the mines began to slacken off, and finally the Last mine detonated, slightly damaging a large transport that had just translated into the system. Only after the battle was over, would anyone relies the beauty of Prince Dravel’s plan. The lead ships had been procured from the bone yard, and had been programmed to go though the warp point first. They had no crews, and over the Last couple of weeks Dravels engineers had loaded as much armor onto the ships as they could handle. The result was a slow, ugly, defenseless ship that could absorb huge amounts of damage. This was an ideal answer to Dravel’s problems with regard to his inability to procure any mine sweepers. Instead of sweeping the mines guarding the warp point, Dravel had simply absorbed them with worthless ships. Now the doorway was clear, as the first of Dravel’s warships began to transition into the Kornephoras system. |
Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
Go Prince Dravel! A sound tactic, Lets just hope the endings happier than ruathas http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif Will love blossom between the two and i'm interested to know what will happen to yalare. Keep up the good writing, it was worth the wait http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
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Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
I would have liked to see that fireshow!
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Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
Chapter 30
Linoris watched as the Last of his mines detonated itself against yet another invader, their seemed to be no end to them. Tactical had reported over 15 ships destroyed, but they kept coming. The command deck of the Kornephoras had been busy to the point of panic the Last 2 minutes. No one had ever tried to invade the Kornephoras system. Even during the dark days when it looked like the Dravens and Weyrlings were going to go to war, no one had put much faith in an attack on the Draven home system, it was just too bold of a move, the system was too well dedended, yet here someone was sending what seemed like waves of ships against his mines. His tactical officer looked at him, her look was one of death, “Sir,” she said, her voice, almost cracking, somehow she kept it under control. “We have identified the ships, they are Draven.” “What?” Linoris started to breath hard, he had just destroyed 15 draven ships, what the hell was a Draven doing trying an unauthorized transit, what was going on. “Communications get me in contact with whoever is in charge of that fleet, find out what the hell is…” “Commander, the commander of the fleet is signaling us.” She paused for a second listening to her ear piece. “We are being ordered to power down our weapons, and deactivate warp point defense systems, if we do not comply immediately we will be attacked.” Linoris was speechless, what was a Draven ship doing threatening his stations. This was mad. “Tell the whoever is in command over their that we will not power down our weapon system’s until we know what is going on.” The communications officer nodded, and began talking into softly. The computer automatically separated his voice from the background noise and sent the signal out. It only took a moment to get a response. “The fleets commander is requesting a visual.” “Agreed.” Waiting for a visual took a little longer, encryption keys had to be exachanged but overall Linoris’s communications officer was able to expidate the process rather quickly, in less than a minute the screen on his console blinks, and on it appeared the image of a familiar Draven. Linoris gasped in surprise. The voice spoke with the same pride that had been seen on countless holovids. “Commander, I am Prince Dravel, if you do not comply with my orders I will be forced to open fire.” Chapter 31 Dravel watched the holographic image of the commander. The man was young for his position, but that wasn’t so unusual these days. The recent war with the Terrens had propelled many through the ranks much faster than they otherwise would have. What did come as unusual was the fact that he hadn’t been fire upon yet. The three base station’s guarding the warp point were capable of tremendous fire, despite their age. Dravel was sure he could take out the stations before his fleet was destroyed, but he would take losses. Losses he couldn’t afford. The surprise on the commander’s face made it evident that he hadn’t expected a Draven fleet. He probably didn’t even expect a real attack through the warp point, after all the Kornephoras warp point defense was suppose to be one of the most boring assignments, with several systems of friendly territory between it and the nearest neighbor it wasn’t expected that an attack would just come out of nowhere. The Commander seemed to get control of himself. “I’m afraid I can’t do that sir, my orders are not to let anyone into the system without authorization, and it’s clear by your entry that you do not have permission to pass.” “Commander,” Dravel said, his voice pleading, he didn’t want to fire on the station if he could help it but he was being left little choice, “We have 15 Landing City class dreadnaughts pointing shield skipping weapons at you, you won’t Last 10 minutes in a firefight. Commander, I’m pleading with you, don’t be a fool, we are here to free the Republic, Yalare is not worth dieing for.” The commander sighed; Dravel wondered what thoughts were going through the young Draven’s mind. In the end Dravel got his answer, “Sir, I am ordering you to stand down your weapons, or I will be forced to defend this system.” “I can’t do that commander.” The expressions of Linoris’s face said it all, he was a man trapped by duty. Since his days in the academy he had it drilled into him that the defense of the Republic was paramount, now he was in a dilemma. The Republic was corrupt, he knew that, but it was still the rightful government, a government he had sworn to protect. “In that case sir, you leave me no choice.” The image instantly disappeared. Draven could hardly restrain himself. “That stupid fool! He’s outnumbered, outgunned, why won’t he just give up.” It was Sosha who answered, “He’s doing his duty Prince, at least what he feels his duty is.” Dravel looked at her, she was right, but damn how he wished the young man would have just surrendered, instead of throwing his life away. A voice boomed over the loudspeakers in the F-COM, it was the fleet Tactical officer, “Base stations have opened fire, all hands brace for inpact.” Dravel looked at the plot the bright red lines arched themselves across the screen. A time to inpact notice shown over them, as well as weapon type, and hit percentage. Already the Third Generation Alliance Jammers were lowering that percentage down at a staggering rate. A few would hit, but the damage would be far less than Dravel had feared. Dravel took a breath, he could feel the pit of his stomach fill with vile at his next word, Father forgive me, he said to himself. “All hand’s return fire.” The Base stations had huge power draw from their fusion rectors could put out twice as much power as that of a ship. Add to that their massive size, and the fact that they didn’t need heavy propulsion systems, and you have a heavily armed beast. Each station mounted 7 Telekenetic Projectors, but they were of an old variety. From the moment that the base’s had fire, ECMS had lashed out at the Base’s guidance systems. As guidance was lost each of the Telekentic projections began to veer of course. 21 shots had been fired from the Base’s of those only 3 hit their targets, and those were easily shrugged off by the dreadnaughts shields. Now Third Fleet brought its own fire to bear. The Landing City Class of dreadnaughts sported a new weapon. The Phased Polaron beam was a new alliance development. After realizing that soon all empires would have the ability to shield their ships, alliance HQ had began work on a way to bypass an enemies protective shield. After almost 3 years of work the Phase Polaron Beam was developed. The weapon used a small amount of antimatter, which is brought slightly out of phase with the resonance of the universe. The antimatter is for all intense and purposes invisible to any type of energy shielding. However once it is brought into contact with “real” matter, it is brought back into phase rather violently. The only flaw was that only a small mount could be brought out of phase at a time. The alliance had figured that the trade off was worth being able to bypass shields, and ordred the weapon developed. Unfortunately it wasn’t ready in time for the end of the Terren War, but all new alliance ships were being built with this new weapon system. Now a wall of phased anti-matter was ejected at near light velocities towards the lumbering base ships. As designed the anti-matter passed through the base’s shield as though they weren’t their, and sliced deep into the hull of the massive fortresses. Explosion after explosion ripped into the base’s without protective shielding only armor was left to absorb the energy being released, and that didn’t Last long. Layer after layer was ripped away, and giant sections buckled and fell away, but that wasn’t the end of it. After all the punishment the bases were still standing, weakened, yet still operational. Their shields gone, most of their weapon systems disable or destroyed, they attempted to fire on third fleet again. They never got the chance though, behind the wall of Phased anti-matter came an equally impressive wall of telekinetic projections from third fleets smaller vessels. The weakened bases were no match for this, and one of them disappeared in a ball of plasma, it multiple reactors going critical. The remaining two took this as a sign, and immediately shut down their remaining weapons. By this point though they were basically floating scrap metal, already escape pods were flowing from their mangled hulls, a sure sign that it was over. Dravel looked at the carnage he wrecked, he hadn’t lost any ships, but he had just sent several thousand Dravens to their grave. He tried to take a calming breath but it didn’t seem to help, “Pick up survivors, then head towards Kornephoras X, its time we end this. If anyone needs me I’ll be in my quarters.” Without even waiting for an acknowledgement Draven turned and left the room, he felt sick and needed to be alone. Sosha watched as her prince turned and left, if everyone hadn’t been too busy trying to search for survivors they would have noticed the thing line of a tear down the side of her face. |
Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
Ah, Duty, so misguided!
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Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
Great Chapter, seems a shame for honourable dravens to perish needlessly but i guess change and peace comes at great cost. I'm looking forward to seeing more!
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Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
CaptRR I want more.
And Tbontob, if you ever get time, what happened to Strong-In-Arm and the rest of them? |
Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
Quote:
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Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
You know in all my work I forgot about this thread completely http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif
Since play by web appears to be down for a few days, I think I can use that time constuctively. I actually just checked on my comptuer, I apperently have a few chapters that I have not yet posted, but I wanted to use this time actually complete the story before pbw comes back up http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif I'm back working on it now. |
Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
Goodie, I can wait!
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Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
Well maybee not the end of the story, but the end is near. Hopefully I'll update a little more than Last time.
______________________________________________ Chapter 32 It was a beautiful night at the Headquarters of the Central Powers, but you couldn’t have told that by the semi-empty streets in the city. Josha noted this with the other reports coming in. All over alliance space the Weyrlings were recalling parts of their population. Even here at HQ over 90 percent of the representatives from the weyrling delegation had left. In a world where the population was evenly split between the 3 races of the Alliance it had become noticeable. Add to that the reports that warp point going into Weyrling space were being closed as well. Any other time Josha would have just though they were being prudent, just reducing the routes for a future invasion to take. But the points they were closing were major trading routes. Despite all of this, the Weyrlings were continuing to push their shipyards at war time rates. With the loss of revenue from trade, they had to be running a huge deficit. Frankly it looked like the weyrlings were taking on an isolationists policy, but that didn’t explain the increased build rate. Josha sighed, and looked at his watch. It was late, and way past the time for most government facilities to close down, but the Central Powers Speaker had insisted on a meeting at this time. When Josha asked why, he simply changed the subject. More peculiar was the location. Instead of the speakers office, he had insisted on meeting in the Alliance VIP space port. The port was empty, more so now that almost a third of the population seemed to have left. The VIP space port was located deep in the city center on top of one of the Alliance administrative buildings. It was used exclusively for visiting statesmen, and of course the speakers Yacht. It also had the distinguished honor of being one of the most glorious ports in known space. It’s view of the alliance headquarters had inspired many artist to paint pictures of the skyline, and many a poet had said the view was a gift from the creator. But today it filled Josha with dread. The 3 sections of the city could be seen easily from here. Both the Dravel and the Thermolians sections could be seen clearly, their huge skyscrapers reaching to the heavens, glowing with life. The story was much different with the Weyrlings section. It looked almost abandoned. Only a light here and their came from their buildings. In effect that section of the city looked like a ghost town. It was a grim reminder that the Weyrlings were facing a dramatic shift in their attitudes towards the universe, an attitude that didn’t include the Alliance. The sound of steps snapped him back to the present, and Josha turned to see the speaker of the Central Powers walking towards him. He was followed by several other Weyrlings. Josha recognized them as his aids, one of them wore the outfit of the Weyrling Navy, his approximate rank equal to an Admiral in the Draven Republic. As the speaker approached Josha bowed, his show of respect was repeated by the speaker and his aids. “I hope you are well, Draven Josha. I must apologies for the location, but I’m afraid time is short.” “It is ok speaker” The Weyrling, gave his races closest approximation of a smile. “Still, hopefully after we finish you will understand my haste.” Josha looked over the speaker and his aids, over the years he had learned to read Weyrlings pretty well, but all he saw now while he looked over them was a mask. Whatever they were up to they were playing it close to their chest. “Draven Josha, I’m afraid it is time for us to part ways.” Josha tried to look surprised, but he had to admit he was expecting this, instead he settled for a courteous nod. “I expected as much, Mr Speaker.” “You are a smart for a Draven,” now Josha could see that Weyrling smile cross the cat like creatures lips, “so I had no doubt that you would have noticed our sudden withdraw from this planet.” Josha nodded, “Yes, I had noticed,” he swung his arms towards the window, indicating the darkened Weyrling buildings, “it was after all hard to miss, what I don’t understand is why.” “Draven Josha, I will try to explain as best as I can, but in many ways it will still seem strange to you. After all the alliance still considers the One to be a myth, but you see Draven Josha, The One is real, and it is so much more than any kind of God. The One is everything to us, it is our beginning and our end, our future and past all rolled into one. To be honest there is no word in your language to describe The One.” The Speakers aids nodded in agreement. Whatever this One was it was something that they believed in with all their hearts. “Ok, Mr Speaker, I understand this One is important to you, but what does that have to do with you leaving?” The Weyrling nodded his feline head, “I’m afraid Draven Josha you understand nothing of the one, but that’s all right, you don’t need to. You will of course remember it was a Weyrling fleet that did the initial occupation of the Terrens. What we found was… disturbing.” The speaker seemed to shudder visibly. “And this is the reason you are leaving? Something you saw while occupying the terrens?” “No Draven Josha, its not something we saw, its what we learned when we probed deep into the minds of the Terrens. We saw hate, as pure and evil as anything we had ever experienced, and it was aimed at the Weyrlings.” Josha was about to voice his objection, but the Speaker cut him off. “I know what you are about to say Draven Josha, but the hate we saw was deeper than something as simple as war could produce. That hate was woven into the very fabric of their being. Do you understand what I am saying? The Terrens were breed to hate Weyrlings!” Josha froze for a moment, the implications of what was being said were staggering. Most of the known races were offshoots of Terrens in some way. That included the Dravens. “Speaker that can’t be, the Dravens have no hate for the Weyrlings.” “Perhaps not now, after all, the trait seems to have been repressed in the Dravens. But, it is bound to come out eventually, maybe not now, but in the future for sure. It might take a hundred generations before the effects begin to become noticeable, and when that happens the Dravens will turn on the Weyrlings as well.” “Speaker this all sounds too implausible, could their have been some kind of mistake.” Josha was pleading, almost begging, he couldn’t believe that what the weyrling was saying could be true. “We have studied the facts as conclusively as possible, and from what we have been able to determine, all races that spawned from terrens, as well most of the other known races have this hate buried in them, waiting to come out. We also believe we know the source.” That riveted Josha’s attention. “The source?” “Yes Draven Josha. You see 65 thousand years ago, before even the Terrens had developed on the planet that you call Earth, the Weyrlings spanned across all of known space, and beyond. Our records, indicate that despite our relative size we were very poor technologically speaking. Our ships operated off solar wind, and journeys took centuries even with the help of the warp point network.” Josha tried to take all this in, what the speaker was telling him couldn’t be true, no one had ever suspected that the werylings were as old as he was now claiming, but something in the speakers voice convinced him that all that was being said was true. “Dispite the huge gulf between stars we were all One. The One kept us together, even if we were to never see another Weyrling we knew that we were always one. For thousands of years we lived this way. We never invented better technology because we simply didn’t need it. What was several hundred year journey when we were never alone. We traveled the stars and found life everywhere, but none was advance as us. Oh sure their was potential, but it was thousands of years distant. We were content that we were the only intelligent species in the Universe. At least that is what we thought. We still don’t know who they were, but we knew they wanted us extinct. Their physic abilities were unmatched, and even as their massive swarms of ships came down upon us they used their physic abilities to turn our own people away from the one and against us. It took everything we had to beat them. Trillions of Weyrlings died in the conflict, but we managed to drive them back to their home system. We had thought it was over, but in the end they unleashed the worse weapon imaginable. It took the strength of every Last one of them to project a psychic virus. All of a sudden billions of our own people went what could only be explained as mad. We destroyed ourselves in such numbers that they could not be recorded. We think this is when some of our scientists began to alter the genes of developing species. Instilling a hate for the Weyrlings in every life bearing world they came across. We survived, but not before we lost almost 99 percent of our species. The one was scared deeper than words can convey, and we withdrew inward, into just 3 planets. From their we started to rebuild. The one knew that we could not survive another war like the Last, so it went into seclusion, and let our own competitive instincts build the technology needed to win the next war. It took us a long time develop better ways to travel the stars, and when we finally ventured out of our own warp points we found that the Galaxy was filled with life. We never suspected that life had been altered by our ancestors, until we looked into a Terren and saw what we most feared. Hate for ourselves, the very hate we had thought was behind us, beried forever.” Josha just stared at the Speaker, not sure what to say. What was being said was amazing, it was so unbelievable he could not see how anyone, much less an entire race could have made it up. “That Draven Josha is why we must leave you. We cannot live in this Universe beside you. Your own nature would eventually turn against us, and we cannot fight off everyone. Instead we have come to learn, that the time of the Weyrlings has past, the future is now with you, and it is a future we cannot be a part of.” Josha searched for words, “But what of the Alliance, surely the alliance cannot hold without you.” The Weyrling looked up though the space ports huge glass dome, and for a moment stared at the stars in the night sky. The view was breathtaking, and Josha realized this would be the Last time he would see the Weyrling, they were right the Weyrlings could not live in this Universe anymore, the actions of their ancestors had made that impossible. No, the future belonged to the other races. The Weyrling looked back down at Josha, “You are correct, the alliance cannot hold, but perhaps it was never meant to. With only three races, we are not diverse enough to stand off the CCCP and its vast resources, but if others we aligned together maybe you might just have a chance.” “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” Josha muttered softly, for some reason that phrase seemed appropriate. “Indeed, Draven Josha, Indeed” With that the Weyrling bowed, as did the rest of his guests. Josha stood and watched as the Speaker got into his yacht and vanished into the night sky. For many hours Josha just stood their in the space port staring out the windows. For some reason the Universe seemed a little more frightening. Chapter 33 Yalare paced his office. The news of the invasion fleet reached the Capital just a few hours after they entered the system. The amount of ships the enemy had were not many, already home fleet which outnumbered them 2 to 1 was already on an intercept course. No the invasion fleet was not the problem, what was a problem was who was leading that fleet. Of all the Dravens in command it had to be Prince Dravel, the rightful heir of the Presidency. Even though Yalare had placed a lockdown of all media word had gotten out, that Prince Dravel was coming to free the people from Yalare. Almost every floating city had been having riots continually. Yalare knew that if the Prince managed to get troops on the ground, then the people would rally around them. Yalare may have an extensive security force, but they couldn’t fight off an entire planet! Yalare wanted to run but he couldn’t. He was sure the Prince would be killed when home fleet managed to crush the Princes little fleet. The word of the princes death would enrage the population, and Yalare would be disposed of like any other dictator in history. It wasn’t fair, he told himself. All he was trying to do was help the republic, and now that same republic had turned against him! Fine if that was the way they wanted it, he would make them pay. Slowly Yalare reached into his desk and took out a small black box, it looked almost antique and mesured 15 centimeters across, with an old style keypad being its only feature. Yalare rubbed it with his hand. “Oh yes, if they want me that bad they can have me, but they will pay more dearly than they could imagine.” |
Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
I like it!
It was a good description of the Weyrlings far history and a good farewell! Things start to look bad for that scumbag Yalare! Good! But what is he up to now? Has it something to do with the cloaked CCCP ships?? Or is it another bomb?? Why are the Weyrling shipyards working so? They have 130+ planetary SY3:s so they can output alot if needed, but what are they doing now? Suspension!!! [ August 07, 2003, 11:34: Message edited by: Ruatha ] |
Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
Great update! I've been eagerly awaiting the next few chapters of this story and i'm impressed. It gives us a great insight of the Wreylings. Hope you find time to write more soon!
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Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
Chapter 34
The purple ball of Kornephoras X was beautiful. It sky's full of clouds shown brightly against Kornephoras the blue sun. Of course Prince Dravel knew it was an illusion. What he was seeing as he looked as his screen was thousands of kilometers distant. It was only being shown brightly through the ships optics, and they creped across the endless gulf that separated interplanetary distances. It had been 2 weeks since the fleet has had fought it way through the warp point. The wreckage of the system bases still sent out streams of radiation. That was undoubtedly part of the reason few survivors had been found, that's something that still burned in Dravels heart. Sure intellectually he had known he might have to fight fellow Dravens, but up until the moment his ships had actually fired he had never quite believed it. Now he took a breath, the memories of that day, came flooding back to him in full detail. He could hear the ghosts of his fellow Dravens that had died, he knew that those ghosts would haunt him until the day he finally passed. The only thing that had made it bearable was Sosha. For several days following the fight Dravel had all but locked himself in his cabin, only leaving long enough to do his duties, then he would retreat back into his own personal purgatory. Their he would question what he was really doing here, making war on his own people, after all they had elected Yalare, maybe it wasn't Yalare who was the tyrant, maybe it was Dravel himself, and just when he was about to give up. To maybe call this entire invasion off, Sosha had arrived. Dravel didn't know what she had said, his own emotional turmoil was too much. But just by her being their it somehow was able to take away the pain... no, not take it away, but someone to share it with. To take the burdon that he had been carrying himself and spread it between the two of them. He wept that night, for many hours, and Sosha wept for him, and somewhere in that time they had realized what they meant to each other. The next morning when they woke up they were still embraced in each other's arms, and it seemed as if an anvil had been lifted from Dravel's heart. Now, finally he was no longer alone. It wasn't long after, that the incoming ships of home fleet had been spotted. Dravel still dreaded having to fight against his fellow countrymen, but now at least he could find solace in what he was fighting for. As he looked up and saw Sosha their working hard at her console the reason was reaffirmed in her warm eyes. She noticed him looking at her, and blushed slightly, but her smile radiated within him long after she looked back to her work. Dravel did the same. He stared at the plot showing the incoming ships, they outnumbered him at least 2 to 1, and unlike the base stations these ships would have Phased Polaron Beams. The next generation of shielding was suppose to be able to stop PPB attacks, but as of yet no one had managed to adapt it to an actual warship. In any conflict his shields would be worthless against home fleets landing city class dreadnaughts, of course they would be in the same pickle, but they had more ships than he. No, the only way to win a battle with home fleet was not to fight them at all, and that was exactly what Dravel was going to do. "Sosha?" Her head snapped up, and despite her trying to act professional, a small hint of smile still came through. "Yes my Prince... err, I mean, Admiral." She blushed at slip of tung. Dravel, smiled at her slip up, it was innocent of course, and had some other junior officer made that mistake he would have undoubtedly given them a talking too they would not forget. But, this was Sosha, and right now he didn't give a damn about rules and regulations. "I want you to open a communication with the flagship of Home Fleet. But, I don't want Yalare knowing, so you'll have to use sub light communications." "Yes, sir, it'll take a few minutes to set that up." "No problem Sosha, we still have time." And Dravel gave Sosha the broadest grin he could manage. Chapter 35 "...Once again I reiterate my warning to home fleet. If you do not alter from your intercept course of us we will be forced to engage you. Yalare is not worth dieing for Admiral. I await your reply." With that the small hologram over the table vanished, and the room light came back up to normal. Admiral Nakanorma, looked over his assembled officers, "That came in over slower than light communications in a directed beam 5 hours ago, we have positively Ided the speaker as Prince Dravel. Observations?" Commander Harlow, was the first to speak. The commander had been a "special" appointment by the Yalare administration after the former commander vanished of course that wasn't long after his less than flattering comments about the government. Admiral Nokanorma tried not to think about that, it was just more proof that the republic had gotten more dangerous over the Last few years. "I think the prince it attempting a coup just as the Prime Minister said before we departed. He knows he can't win, so he is hoping that we will go ahead and let him walk right up to Kornephoras X and take it over. It's desperation pure and simple." Nokanorma thought about it for a moment, then nodded his head, "I got to fight in war games against the prince several times. When his back is against the wall he never tries desperation ploys. No he is up to something." "Sir," said Harlow, "I think you are letting your personal relationship cloud your judgment." Harlow didn't even try to keep the venom out of his voice. Their was no love between the admiral and the commander, as far as Nokanorma was concerned the commander was idiotic political appointee, totally unqualified for the position he now held. His only trait for the job was his unending loyalty to Yalare himself. "Commander," Nakanorma did his best to keep his voice even, "Whatever my personal feelings for the Prince, it is abundantly clear that he is breaking several Republic laws, and it is our job to stop him." Good Nokanorma thought to himself, let Harlow try to make an issue of that. Harlow seemed taken back, he had hopped to edge the admiral into a confrontation that would let Harlow assume command of the fleet, but Nakanorma seemed a little more cunning than that. Oh well there was always next time. "I was not trying to insinuate anything Admiral, and I apologize for any misunderstanding." "None the less," Nakanorma went on ignoring the commanders stuttered explination, "we still only have one course of action, we will continue to intercept the Princes fleet. Once in range we will send out fighter strikes. The fighers will hammer their main battle line from long range, as well as suppress their own fighters. We will then move our capital ships into range and engage the enemy wit PPB's. Commander, I trust that you concur with this action?" "Of course Admiral." "In that case Gentlemen, lets get ready, we launch fighters in 10 hours." Chapter 36 Lieutenant(j.g) Shanar watched the empty blackness of space only occasionally broken by stars before her fighter cockpit. Relatively she was going almost 10% the speed of light, but outside it looked as though she wasn't even moving. Also as she looked outside it appeared that she was lone, but that was just an illusion. Her instruments told the real tale, she was joined by over 215 IF-302 attack fighters. Each spaced several kilometer apart, its immense force glowed as individual icons in Shanar's helmet display. But as immense as the force she was now apart of was, it was nothing compared to the onslaught that was heading her way. Dravel's force had brought several of the Alliances new Escort Carriers with him. Their relatively small fighter compliment was augmented by their ability to handle starship style weapons. Shanr really didn't care about that right now though, the force coming at her was from Home fleet, it had no need for starship style weapons on its carriers so it used full blown Super Carriers. Their immense bulk could hold almost 100 large IF-400's, home fleet 7 of these, and that was what was coming at her now. 600 fighters of variouse classes was heading right to the Princes fleet. Shanar had no doubt most of those fighters were optimized for anti-shipping strikes, but their would be more than a few escorts mixed in amount them. It wasn't all doom gloom, as far as her sesors were able to tell, they were using exclusively large fighter designs. The IF-302 that Shanar now piloted was of a small figher design. In a one on one fight the smaller fighter would lose, but the her wing had no intention of making this a fair fight. They would close to max weapons range, fire their missles, and then turn around, using their faster speed to elude the enemies as long as possible. It wasn't a perfect solution, and undoubtedly they would lose some pilots, but at least they would weaken them down so that the prince's point defenses could finish the job. "Ok, everyone" it was her commander over the wing com system, "pick your targets, remember fire and leave. We don't want any hero's here. Good hunting everyone, out." Shanar picked her targets, and imagined a pilot like her was doing the same against her. It was horrible to think that she was shooting at her own people, but she had little choice. Slowly the clock counted down, and then began to beep. She was in range, "Computer" she said the small crafts cybernetic intelligence, "commence staggered firing on primary targets, on mark." She took a breath, it seemed forever, and the silence of her cockpit surprised her the only sound was of her own life support systems. She exhailed slowly, letting the stress flow out of her, "Weapons release, Fire." The craft shuddered slightly as a massive load of a 1,000 Kilo missiles detached. Barely a heartbeat later it ignited its own Contra Tarrene engine and sped off into the darkness at a staggering rate, the process was repeated over and over. In all she launched 6 missles at 3 targets. Barely a heartbeat after her Last missle detached her blood ran cold. Her computer beeped its cold uncaring warning in her ear, "Inbound missiles. 12'oclock forward, Inbound Missle..." Shanar pulled the craft into an almost 90 degree turn, even with the compensators on board 20g's got through. The only thing that even remotely allowed her to live was the sensors in her suit redirecting blood to the brain. But she still blacked out. She didn't know how long, but it couldn't have been more than a second she woke again. The roar of the computer still screaming in her ear, "Inbound missle 3'oclock right, Inbound Missle..." Shanar cursed under her breath, and lauched decoys out, at the same time bringing the F-302's engines to over 130%. The crew dogs would just have to ***** at her for burning the fuser out, they wouldn't get the chance if she never made it back. She was still struggling with another turn when she was almost blinded by the brightest light she had ever saw as the first missiles from home fleet stuck home. Their antimatter warhead unleashing huge amounts for energy for just milliseconds, but it was enouph to rip though the small f-302's like so much toilet paper. Shanar's fighter buckled against the shockwave's roaring everywhere around her, as she attempted to pilot her craft through what could only be explained as hell. Then just as suddenly as it started it was over. Ever so slowly, she was able to take stock of the survivors, their were so terribly few. She didn't know if it was proper for her to give the order but she really didn't care, Home fleets fighters would be doing the same as her, and it wouldn't be long before a second volley came through "Everyone back to the ships, on the double, anyone who doesn't keep up will be left behind." That brought a few laughs. And Shanar whipped the f-302 around back towards the fleet. So few were going to be coming back today. Of the wings original 215 fighters, just over 100 came back to the carriers to reload, and rearm. |
Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
What's the prince up to now, the odds doesn't look good!
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Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
Interesting, i wonder what the prince is up to, i'm sure he has a back up plan. Great writing as usual http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
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Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
*Trembling with anticipation.......*
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Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
Still waiting for the conclusion....
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Re: Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread
Anyone heard anything from Capt RR recently??
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