Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

yes please post the I-lasers and frag cannons. Either that or e-mail them to me

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

2424.7 A sword strikes
As far as the Icaran population was aware it had been a relatively peaceful year, no major enemy incursions or naval engagements, but what they did not know was that the Royal Navy had detected a fleet of 32 Andoran warships slip into the Kelvalora star system and had sent the 6th fleet and the “Sword of Heaven” fleet to intercept it, the chase had gone on for months as the enemy fleet bypassed colony after colony in a futile attempt to escape, finally Grand Admiral Hallice and the Five Swords had managed to plot their intercept course, and were beginning to enter combat range. The Andoran commander, foolishly arrogant seeing only five ships recklessly plotted his own intercept course and raced towards his Icaran foes.
Grand Admiral Hallice sat calmly on his massive bridge watching the Andoran warships approaching.
“Gunnery Officer Malone acquire lock on the first five warships, tell the other ships in range to lock onto five others and wait for them to get into range of our guns.”
“Aye Sir.”

Minutes passed, minutes, that seemed to go by like an eternity as the two fleets closed the range, the Icarans however had two major advantages, the five swords had the most powerful weapons in existence, as well as standard I-Lasers, the enemy fleet was mainly older destroyers supported by battleships and a dreadnought squadron of five.
“Admiral we are in range of main guns.” The executive officer blurted loudly as the sensor pings sounded.
“Gunner’ open fire all ships in range of the enemy.” Hallice calm voice reddened the face of his embarrassed XO as the gunner passed the message on to the rest of the fleet.
Three of the massive Icaran warships opened fire with their colossal spinal mounted weapons their powerful beams tore across space and connected to the enemy fleet sweeping through fifteen enemy ships, as the beams sliced through hull and armor the fuel and materials the ships were made out of, erupted into a purple plasma ball tearing the ships apart.
The next wave of enemy warships fired their entire arsenals directly into the Sword of Icara but it’s powerful shield grids simply absorbed the enemy fire, flares of energy arced off the shields as missiles exploded but still no damage to the behemoth of a warship.
The Icaran counter fire proved far more devastating as all five Icaran warships brought their weapons into the fray though several of the enemy ships attempted to retreat it was too late and a single volley destroyed the Last remnants of the Andoran war fleet leaving Icaran space safe once again.

OOC: Don't forget to tip the author http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gifby clicking my link http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Another good read. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Thank you.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

You know, you should start the offical SUPPORT Starhawk each day link. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Let people know you get something for clicking that helps you in your browser game. What do they give you, and extra turn?

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

It gives me enough "money" to keep my game going on, you don't have to sign up for anything at all, just clicking the link does it for me.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Operation Bearcat:
The Cloaked Icaran special ops shuttle swiftly approached the Citizen Federation light cruiser’s port side, this cruiser was decidedly worth the risk of an interstellar incident as it had the only existing warp point opening device currently deployed, which made the Icaran Praetor and Lords nervous as the Citizen Federation had been hostile towards Icaran expansion for the past several years and so an elite team of Marines and Troopers had been dispatched to capture the ship, at all costs.
“We’re almost in position Captain.” the pilot’s voice spoke from the com link.
“Sir, how many crew are we looking at here?” Lieutenant Garcia looked up from cleaning his weapon, the other soldiers directed their attention to the Captain as well, none of them had been briefed on their mission all they knew was that their commander was a Captain, and that the entire op was male although the reason for that was still unknown as the Empire had female commandos.
“Yeah, we are looking at a crew of 23, standard 6 man security detail, Mobile Infantry carrying the standard MK32 marrita assault rifle, 7.92 millimeter case-less slugs, the others are the standard crew, probably armed with the merrita .45 cal side arm, we are guessing that their standard pilot, captain mix is female as is usual board Cit Fed navy craft, we are going to capture the pilot and captain the others are unimportant and are to be terminated understood?” The tone of the man’s voice made it clear he was not asking a question, the other commandos nodded.
“If your wondering why the entire strike force is male, that’s simple we are going to deploy CS-G9 gas, which unfortunately renders women sterile so we’d prefer not to put any of our people at risk.” the mysterious captain locked his charge pack into place and stopped talking, the other crew went silent and returned their attentions to other things.

Minutes passed in silence as the shuttle clamped on to the hull of the Citizen Federation’s warp ship, the 12 commando’s readied their weapons, standing ready, the door’s slid open and the hull beneath it vanished in a brilliant flash as the breaching charge detonated.
“GO GO GO!!!” The captain shouted as he tossed a stun grenade down into the hole made by the charge, the sound of startled grunts of pain followed by several bodies hitting the floor signaled that several of the crew had been caught in the stun range. The commandoes quickly charged into the breach securing the corridor and shooting the stunned CitFed crew.
“Sir none of these guys are wearing MI uniforms, we’re still looking at six security troopers with assault rifles.” One of the troopers said as he toed a corpse.
“Alright, split into two six man teams, team one cover the upper decks team two go below decks and sweep all crewman from there, make sure you don’t kill the pilot or the woman.” The captain said quietly as he took five of his troops with him to clear the upper decks.
The captain led his men forward of their insertion point, two more crewmen had the unfortunate luck of being caught unarmed, they both died quickly as the Icaran commandoes opened fire with darter rifles, tearing both the Citfed spacers to pieces. The team advanced until suddenly a hellish storm of bullets cut down one of the Icarans his comrades snapped into action firing a volley of darter rounds in the direction of the 6 Mobile Infantrymen down the corridor, one of them fell his armor pierced, a massive blood spray erupting against the walls, the five remaining troopers continued to fire until one of the Icaran commandoes through a shockwave grenade down the corridor, at first the small sphere appeared harmless and one of the MI troopers bent down to throw it back but just before she managed to grab it a loud shrill noise began to emanate from, a moment later a visible ripple tore across the bulk head, the woman who was about to toss it back had every bone in her body shattered almost instantly, making a terrible crunching noise, the other troopers were thrown against the bulkhead with such force that bones were shattered and the two troopers that survived were rendered unconscious, only to have a pulsar round put into their heads a moment later as the commandoes continued their sweep.

A deck and two firefights later the Alpha team led by the Captain had arrived at the bridge, it’s bLast doors were sealed shut with a complex locking mechanism, the tech marine instantly plugged in a “coder” to break the lock while his comrades watched his back.
“How’s it coming marine?” the captain turned around to check on the man working the coder when the whine of a darter turned his attention back towards the corridor, long enough to see a young woman with a clean hole in her chest where one of his marksman had scored a hit, she had been holding a pistol but had not gotten the chance to use it as it limply fell from her dead hands, she walked forward two more steps prior to falling to the floor.
The five commandoes sat stunned for a moment before the man at the coder let out a gratified grunt.
“Got it captain!”
“Breach and clear men!” the captain and two of the men moved to the left side of the opening doors while the other two men moved to the right, the armored bLast doors slid open quietly, the captain nodded and one of the commandoes tossed a gas grenade into the bridge, the sounds of coughing and falling bodies quickly followed, one of the bridge crew panicked and ran through the open doors, unfortunately for him three pulsar darts tore into him, ripping him apart as they exploded.
“Go….”The captain said calmly as the first two commandoes ran onto the bridge, swiftly followed by the Captain himself and the other two men.
The bridge it’s self was small and only had six people on it (excluding the man they had killed in the corridor), the pilot was still slumped over her helm, while the captain was spasming on the deck, a pistol in her hand.
One of the commandoes walked over to the com officer and pressed his darter rifle’s barrel to the man’s head nudging him gently before squeezing the trigger spraying blood and gore all over the station. The other bridge crew suffered a similar fate as the commandoes carried out their orders to terminate the “unessential” targets.
The pilot was pulled from her station gently by one of the commandoes, who paused a moment with the young woman in his arms, apparently looking her over.
“Hey 3 what is wrong with you?” one of the other Icarans snapped harshly but still the man just held her gently not moving, the commando who had asked the question walked over and kicked the trooper lightly “Hey I said what the hell is wrong with you? Secure her.”
“She reminds looks like my little sister, almost identical, my sister died on Handra when she was only 17, this girl can‘t be older then that.” the trooper said, it was obvious even with his helmet on the young man was crying
“Oh [censored], Captain I think he’s gone crackers.” one of the commandoes said harshly, the man standing over the young man simply ignored the other’s comment and knelt down beside the younger trooper, gently patting him on the back.
“You can’t do this to yourself son, she’s not your sister, she’s nobody, it doesn’t matter how old or young she is, just secure her or let 4 do it instead alright.” the Captain walked over to the two kneeling men and knelt down to pick the woman up out of the other soldier’s arms.
“Alright 3, you secure the corridor with 5.” the Captain spoke calmly and gently the man called “3” stood slowly and nodded at his commander before returning to the corridor as ordered.

Three hours later the Citizen Federation was informed that a tragic accident occurred within Icaran space and their experimental Warp point vessel was lost with all hands do to some form of reactor overload, of course this was not the truth, the truth was much darker for two of that crew did survive and are even now being turned inside out mentally by the mysterious Icaran “psy tech” officers, whether they retain their sanity or not only time will tell, but does it really matter in the end that was not the only price, 21 dead CitFed soldiers-allies of Icara- 2 dead Icaran commandoes, and 10 other Icarans mind wiped after completing their mission, reduced to the mental state of five year olds left with years of retraining ahead of them, all for the security of Icara, but in the end do these few lives really compare to an Empire of billions will they really be missed, does it really matter?

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Thanks again for another great read. - link clicked too. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Thanks http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I'm working on the next chapter now but it's going t take a while because it covers a two year period and a LOT of political and character stuff that I'm going to have to try and figure out how to squeeze in http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Plan Exodus:
Lord Keagen stood proudly in front of the other Lords, the holomap behind him showing the whole of the Icaran Empire, on it a long line of intermittent dots appeared on the map, each one representing a system connected via warp point to a non Icaran star.
“Lords and Ladies, Plan Exodus is the most large scale operation our grand empire has ever undertaken, it will seal off our borders from the enemy powers that prowl the universe, including the Andorans, who we’ve had several armed skirmishes with, Phase two of this operation is already underway, the house of lords assembled a fleet of 11 construction ships to begin the assembly of our first “Sphereworld”, this massive artificial planet will be used to house all Phong within the empire that will fit on it, these Xeno’s should no longer be allowed to roam our empire, even with the current restrictions placed on travel for them and this construct will ensure that they do now, it will also open land for Icarans to colonize new worlds.” the young Lord smiled confidently as he saw the others in the room nodding or whispering.

“Lord Keagen, what you are not mentioning is that millions of Icaran citizens will be trapped outside of Icaran space when we seal these selected warp points, what are we supposed to say to them, “Oh I’m sorry but your expendable”.” Lord Manshar of Haven shouted over the din of whispers and hushed conversations, the house of lords went silent as all heads began to turn towards Keagen and Manshar.

“Lord Manshar, those “citizens” are merely absorbed Magellan corporate persons, you can not seriously suggest that these millions are worth risking billions of our true citizens over?” Keagen turned red, either with embarrassment at how loud his voice had risen or in anger at lord Menshar, none of the lords present could quite tell.

“Your forgetting the 4,000 Icaran SS troopers that would be left on those worlds Lord, are we supposed to leave them behind? In a galaxy where Andorans are quickly growing in power?” Menshar snapped angrily.

“ENOUGH my lords! This is pointless the systems that Lord Menshar want saved HAVE Andoran or Manti presence, some even have multiple empires present, Operation Bearcat was launched for a reason, this very purpose, to prevent any other empire from opening warp points into our space, that operation alone could have cost us dearly, and now you are suggesting we throw it aside and risk letting worlds belonging to other star nations into our space?” Lady Perci Tori of Brandenburg said coldly. She looked around the huge room, clearing her throat before speaking again “Yes 4,000 Icaran soldiers will be left behind, but they knew that there was a risk of them dying, it is tragic and sad that they may have to pay with their lives for our safety but tens of thousands of our soldiers and millions of our civilians have already died in the past 25 years of endless war and it must stop!”

“Lords, Ladies, this must be put to a vote now, the time for talk is over. VOTE NOW” the Primus Lord said powerfully, the room went silent as the nobles sat down and punched in their votes, the Primus Lord sat in his black robes, watching his “peers” through a black faceplate that none could see his face through, it was his job to keep the other nobles in line, this man who was responsible only to the Praetor himself inspired fear in even the most defiant of lords or ladies.
After the votes came in, 75% of the nobles were in favor of “Plan Exodus”, 10% abstained and only 15% voted against it, that 15% quickly shrank back in fear as they noticed the sheer volume of votes against them, some even cried as they realized they had effectively killed their careers, if not more.

Two and a half years passed as the very fabric of the universe was reshaped, entire worlds wept as they realized they were being cut off from the rest of Icara, and that they would likely never see their loved ones again, only handfuls of blockade runners escaped the sealed off systems, tragically dozens of ships and thousands of scared civilians were lost as their ships were crushed by closing warp points, some ships that had entered the warp before the point was salead appeared light years off course, the lucky ones had simply suffered heavy damage, but others, others emerged with beings on them so mutated and warped they could no longer be called human, several of these ships escaped the navy ships that attempted to destroy them, but what purpose or desire these mutated creatures have is still unknown, and whether they will pose a threat to the future of Icara still lies unknown, fortunately only a dozen vessels that suffered this fate managed to escape, or at least only a dozen that the navy knows about.

The construction began on the sphere world only after the warp points to alien space had been sealed off, it’s construction is presently only half finished, but already it is the largest single object ever constructed by a species in the known universe and is a symbol of pride to Icarans all over the empire, though to the Xeno’ Phong it is a symbol of fear and their future enslavement to the surface of a single massive construct, never more to roam the homeworlds they once loved so much, never more to see the stars, only to live serve and die under Icaran masters for all eternity.

Crossed Swords
Admiral William Jefferson Ross, buttoned his Dress mess uniform’s tunic he forced himself to choke down the bile that was rising in his throat, he had faced dozens of battles been wounded six times in battle and seen entire worlds burn but not a single situation was as terrifying as this one, he looked in the fine mirror on the wall of his bedroom and made sure all of his ribbons and medals were in the right place, he patted his close cropped hair and grimaced himself as he placed the black cap of the Royal navy upon his head, he looked tired and war weary and today of all days he hated that.
As the door chime brought Ross out of his contemplation; he quickly finished straightening his uniform and had to force himself not to run to the door, as it chimed again.
He quickly took the door handle and opened it, the professional expression on the face that greeted Ross only made him more nervous.
“Admiral it’s time sir.” Commander Jason Styles said, his own voice quirked with anxiety, Ross had chosen him to act as sword bearer for him and though the younger man excepted the position with honor it was still nerve wracking.
‘Thanks Jason, I guess we’d better get down to the launch bay.” Ross said stiffly as he stepped out of his quarters, looking back one Last time at the life that would be coming to an end today.
The two men walked to the lift in silence, out of tradition any on duty crew immediately turned their backs as not to see the two passing by so as not to incur bad luck upon the events that would take place later.
Minutes later Jason Styles and William Ross stepped off the lift on the flight bay’s deck, a line of marines in their black and green dress uniforms stood on either side of the corridor, all of them wore grim professional faces and not a single one watched Ross and Styles go by them.
Ross felt a knot in his throat rising and feared he was going to vomit up his heart any moment but he forced such thoughts out of his mind as the flight bay doors opened, revealing two huge columns of Crew, each column had a line of marines facing towards the center of the bay, just as grim faced and sharp looking as their comrades outside. As Ross saw the ship’s chaplain standing on a temporary dais in the middle of the flight bay his nerves became even more on edge but with Styles at his side he walked proudly by the assembled crew and up to the bottom step of the Dais, lowering his eyes and bowing with respect to the chaplain.
“Lord Star Admiral William Jefferson Ross, do you believe in God, the words of God and his divine intentions for his children?” The chaplain’s voice was soft yet powerful as he asked this all important question.
“Yes, with all my heart and soul.” Ross said nervously praying for the strength not to make a fool of himself on this day.
“Do you believe in the divine creation of man and his sacred duty to God?” the chaplain’s voice echoed.
“Yes, with my life and sword.” Ross spoke the words but barely heard them over his own nervous heartbeat.
“Do you pledge to love God above all others?” The chaplain’s voice grew hard at this question but Ross was already so nervous he barely noticed.
“Yes, God before life, his love before any other.” Ross finished the ceremonial sentence but did not rise from his bowed position.
“Then so be it Lord Star Admiral William Jefferson Ross, you have pledged in the site of God and man these things, may your soul fall should you ever betray this oath.” The chaplain said softly, before turning to the other end of the flight bay and repeating these same sentences to another person that Ross could not see, or hear do to the directional field generated by the Dais-prior to directional sound tech they would have simply plugged his ears so he could not hear the other person.

“William Ross step up upon this dais and begin the journey into your new life.” The chaplain’s voice remained soft but still cold and Ross nervously stepped up upon the dais, Styles at his side.
There was a paper curtain in place, Ross could make out the shadows of two female figures but he couldn’t see any detail as he quickly turned to face the chaplain.
“William Jefferson Ross, do you have pledged your life, your soul and your sword to your God’s service, yet in his mercy God allowed man to share his love with woman, and to pledge his life to hers and be a dutiful to her until death, do you now pledge this to your mortal love?” the chaplain ’s cold voice rang in Ross’ ears.
“I pledge my life to the proper duties required by my love for this woman.” Ross said anxiously.

The chaplain looked at the other screen and pressed the button that triggered the directional sound device making it so that Ross could not hear his question to the woman on the other side of that screen, but allowing the assembled crew to hear it.
“Admiral Ross, your duties as husband are to love, care for, protect, and respect your wife, you shall each have duties in this marriage beyond those stated here, she shall be yours and you hers until death, do you understand this?” the chaplain stared hard at Ross with a hard glint in his eye.
“I understand these duties and I swear to do them to the best of my mortal abilities.” Ross voice was cheerless and his heart was pounding so hard he thought he was going to collapse.

The chaplain turned and again the directional sound device was activated, Ross was forbidden to look at his crew or anywhere but straight ahead, so he could not see their reactions, what if she had changed her mind? What if she was saying no? he kept thinking until the Chaplain turned to him again.
“Admiral William Jefferson Ross, Captain Yu Lin Pe, you have both sworn these things that can not be undone, may the screens that separated your bodies and souls now be removed.” The chaplain smiled and Ross heard as two swords were unsheathed, and turned to face the screen as Styles and another figure cut through the screen’s supports making it fall away noiselessly, and there she was, the most beautiful and amazing woman Ross had ever known, Lin, her almond eyes shining with pride, she was always stunning but in her dress mess uniform she took Ross breath away and he felt his heart jump into his throat. Next to Lin stood Sandra Fowler, her sword drawn and held in salute towards Styles who mirrored her stance.
“William Jefferson Ross, Yu Lin Pe I now pronounce in front of man and God that you are husband and wife, by your vows Yu Lin will keep her heritage name and shall be known from now on as Yu Lin Ross, congratulations and may your love shine through the stars.” The chaplain smiled and an applause erupted throughout the flight bay, Sandra Fowler and Jason Styles both sheathed their swords as Ross stepped to take Lin’s arminto his, their two sword bearers switched places, Fowler stood next to William and Styles next to Lin symbolizing that they were no longer separate, and that what belonged to one belonged to them both, he would place the ring on her finger only during their first night in bed together, unfortunately for them that would not be until the 3rd fleet reached Icara in a month-because of the regulations no two officers of intimate relationship could share quarters or engage in sexual activity aboard one of His Majesty‘s vessels or installations- William and Lin had never made love to one another, and now even in marriage they‘d have to wait another month, but for now neither of them cared about that, they stood proud as the marines all drew their swords and raised them in salute to the married couple, the two of them walked down the line and into the lift followed by Styles and Fowler.
Neither spoke until they reached William’s quarters where-for the sake of tradition- he carried her over the threshold into his quarters as their two friends stood outside, William gently closed the door and put Lin down, kissing her deeply.
“I love you Lin.” he said rather sheepishly
“I love you too William.” her voice shook as tears ran down her face, she kissed him again and they held each other for a long time laughing and crying all at the same time for their joy, before Lin turned to the door to leave.
“I can’t wait till we get home.” She said heavily, William nodded with a wolfish grin and she kissed him once more before turning to leave.
Ross had never wanted to get off ship so fast in his life, and he thought that one month would be an eternity as he waited to finally be able to have the woman he loved so much. Though they were both nearly 50 now thanks to modern medicine they were both considered very young-neither looked older then 18 or 20- and quite capable of having a family, something Ross looked forward too very much.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Oh I forgot to post this like I wanted too earlier:

Nobility
"The Rank of Noble convey's no luxuries only responsibilities."
Praetor Alexander III

Ranks of Nobility and their responsibilities:

The Council:
The "Council" are the highest ranking lords in all of Icara they are the personnal advisors of a Praetor and some of the most powerful men and women in the galaxy.

Primus Lord: The Primus Lord commands no worlds, but instead he commands the entire SS force of Icara, including the "unofficial" resources at their disposal his duty is to keep the populace and other Nobles in line even if it means mass executions.

Lord Marshall: The rank of Lord Marshall has rarely been given to any man in Icaran history, and only once to a Woman, this rank is given complete and total command of every ship, trooper, and policeman that carries a weapon in Icaran space, this rank is only bestowed upon a truely superior military leader and only during extended periods of war.

Lord Fabricator: The Lord Fabricator is responsible for overseeing the construction of every ship, gun, and peice of equipment that is isued to the military of Icara, it is this lords duty to ensure that worlds meet their production quotas.

Lord Insidius: It is the task of the Lord Insidius to hunt down and eliminate spies/traitors/heretics and now mutants, the Lord Insidius commands the intelligence branch of Icara known as "The Shadow Daggers", these are a grim group of men and women who have pledged their very souls to the quelling of heretics, mutants, and spies that threaten the future of Icaran stability, a Shadow Dagger has permission to recruit or kill anyone short of noble rank that they see fit whenever they see fit.

Lord Militaire: A similar rank to that of Lord Marshall the Lord Militaire is far more common and far less prestigious, he is not the commander of the total armed forces but instead he is repsonsible for predicting the needs of the military and setting recruitment and construction quota's that will later be passed on to planetary and system lords.

The House of Nobles:

Duke/Duchess: A duke or duchess is the lowest rank of the nobility in Icaran society, they command but a single world in just one system of Icara, a duke is responsible for the upkeep of a planetary defense force and a planetary economy, any Duke/Duchess seen lacking in either area can end up face to face with a Shadowdagger with permission to execute.

Baron/Baroness: A Baron or Baroness is the second highest noble rank in the house of lords, they are the commanders of two dukes (or two worlds), it is their job to ensure that those under them meet their responsibilities, a holder of this rank is permitted to recruit ships or troops from their worlds as they see fit as long as the Lord Militaire is informed prior to this recruitment.
The Baron/baroness is also responsible for tax collection across the worlds they command if they fail to meet tax, military, or construction quota's for a long period of time a Baron may face summary execution by firing squad.

Count/Countess: The count/countess is the highest rank any "normal" noble can hold, this rank is a system commander they are responsible for the governance of an entire star system and anywhere from several hundred million to several billion citizens.
They are responsible for the defense/tax collection/resource collection/recruitment of an entire star system, thus this rank is only given to the most trustworthy of nobles.
Unlike the other two ranks mentioned above, the Count is responsible for more then just planetary defense, they are responsible for providing recruits to the Royal Military's fighting arms, sometimes this means recruitment from Planetary defense forces and sometimes it means sending press gangs into the streets to gather the personell required to meet a quota provided by the Praetor or the Council.
The Count/Countess however is generally safe from summary execution unless they are deemed a heretic, instead they are sent away in disgrace and demoted to duke, some have even been forced to join the very units they could not meet the quota for.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

You don't think that Last chapter was too corney do yah? I mean a wedding and all in the middle of a galactic war? I thought it would add a touch of humanity and besides that Yu and Ross have been dating by that point for 4 years and would have known each other for about 30 so hehe http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Okay, so finally here it is, the word format of the story. It's current up to this post, but is not completely edited for typos...

Enjoy

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Don't despare!!! I talked to starhalk today and he said he was working on the next chapter, so be prepared for it soon.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

2426.6
The third fleet entered Icara’s orbit as triumphant heroes, thousands of pleasure yachts and small craft darted about as tens of thousands of people rushed to see the magnificent site of their glorious warships and their righteous crews returned home from their holy crusade to liberate worlds from the vile clutches of Xeno’s of a most foul nature, nearly two dozen worlds were “purified” by the “holy fire” from the fleets of Icara and with those worlds millions and billions died freeing up those worlds for eventual colonization by humans, the true masters of the galaxy.
For the warriors of the 3rd fleet it was a time of celebration not because of their triumphant return, nor because of the glorious parades and parties held in their honor, no to the vast bulk of returning soldiers the celebration was in the simple warmth of Icara’s nights, the cool soothing breezes from the oceans, and the laughter of children, they were finally home after twenty five years of war and struggle in space, some had left home when they were but twelve and returned to home as thirty year old plus men, tired from a lifetime of endless war aboard the vast metal leviathans that were the warships of the Royal Navy.
For William Ross and his young wife Yu Lin the celebration happened in private, they stayed away from the parties and the parades and the endless banter from reporters and admiring citizens, they hid away in a cabin that had once belonged to her father enjoying each other’s company and inviting only a few friends over for simple gatherings and dinners were no reporters clacked away with holovid cameras or constantly jabbered in their ears, waiting for a famous quote for the history books.

Little could the celebrating population of the Icaran empire suspect that a threat more harrowing then Xeno’s more devious then the Andorans and darker then the heretical cults that were being suppressed by the SS. A threat that silently spread to the world named Valhalla, people vanished one day and appeared the next but they were changed somehow, distant, quiet and some would say hollow, the authorities searched for a cause but none could be found, days went by and eventually the entire world seemed to be distancing it’s self from the neighboring worlds and systems of the empire, the local governor began sending only vague reports from his world, more and more citizens began to become fearful that whatever was happening on Valhalla would spread to their worlds, but no one wanted to inform the military for fears that they would make an ere in judgment and face the wrath of an angry military commander should their fears prove baseless so instead the governors in that system remained silent and watched to see what would happen later…..something that would soon prove a most dangerous mistake.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Memories:
It was a long time ago now, it seemed like years now, though it had only been one year since the warp points to outside space had been sealed, since Jack Alderson’s ship had heard the final alerts by the navy to any stellar capable ships to make the warp jump before the points were sealed off. Jack had been on a passenger liner, the LNS Star Sparrow when the first warship appeared in his system and alerted the dozens of Civilian ships to make top possible speed for the warp point, they had only been given two days to make it and some of the poor bastards knew right off the start that their craft couldn’t make it before the point was sealed.
Jack remembered the panic, the screaming and crying of scared children, the sobbing of people who realized that even if the liner made it to the warp point they would never see their families again, some even demanded that the liner return to one of this world or that in the system but they were quickly overpowered by those people who were desperate to escape the system that was seen as doomed.

For hours upon hours the ship cut through space at full speed, other ships joined her, liner’s, freighters, bulk carriers, even civilian yachts that would never make the jump were trying to keep up, hoping to dock with some of the bigger ships and offload their passengers. It was like a scene of some holodrama, some small yachts even tried forcibly boarding an armed merchantman that was carrying over 6,000 souls that they had managed to pick up from one of the outer worlds, it was a strange space battle to say the least, none of the combatants had the weaponry of a warship and one of the three attacking yachts only had auto cannons with which to attack the behemoth of a ship, the merchantman returned fire with her frag cannons and quickly destroyed one of her attackers, tragically the exploding yacht slammed headlong into a school ship, destroying it instantly killing dozens of children. Jack remembered watching from the ship’s main view port and remembered wondering why the waiting Icaran warship didn’t even try to help that merchantman and save those six thousand souls, Jack just felt glad that he could not hear the com traffic that the crews of the surrounding ships could hear it must have been such a sad and desperate plea for help.
Another armed yacht darted into the fray, bringing it’s anti-proton cannons to bear on one of the armed yachts, the first shot missed entirely but the second volley cut into the raider’s engine housing causing the craft to spin out until the merchantman’s frag cannons locked on her and finished the job.
Unfortunately by that point the merchantman had suffered massive amounts of damage, whole sections burned with the fury of plasma fires and atmosphere was rushing into space from holed sections along the cargo pods that carried thousands of people, Jack thought back with a shiver as the site of people being sucked out into space by the hundreds as more and more weapons fire raked their ship, and the thoughts of how many people must have died in the fires or when the oxygen was sucked out of their cargo pods. It all ended when the raider tried to latch on to the merchantman and commence boarding operation, tragedy struck however when the other armed yacht scored a hit on the raider’s starboard engine forcing it to flame out, because it was latched onto the merchantman with grapplers however it did not spin away harmlessly but instead spiraled directly into the main compartment of the cargo ship causing a massive chain reaction, destroying the entire ship and killing thousands of innocent people.
More raids followed as desperate individuals attacked jump capable ships, and boarded them, though not every armed ship was in the hands of a desperate pirate, many armed yachts and racers patrolled the rag-tag fleet fighting off raiders wherever they could, hundreds of these brave people died as raiders engaged the fleet, one raider even scored three hits on the Star Sparrow killing dozens in the aft compartment before it was rammed by an armed racer that was acting as an impromptu fighter.
Jack remembered the feelings of anger and frustration as he saw a naval dreadnought just sitting there watching as raiders and “militia” fought for control of the jump capable ships, he had just come on this ship for a week long cruise around the system and now he was involved in a battle with other Icarans! And worse yet he had no weapons with which to fight back. He looked out his window just in time to see three armed racers and a yacht fly by his ship in formation, almost instantly one of the racers exploded in a ball of fire as a “merchantman” opened fire on the fleet with an I-Laser cannon, a second shot from the deadly cannon struck home on one of the poor freighters destroying it’s engines and life support systems outright. The fleet was only two minutes from the warp point and finally the dreadnought opened fire to protect the fleet, the raiding merchantman erupted into a ball of wreckage and fire.

Jack finally felt the gravity waves engulfing his ship and looked through his window long enough to see the dreadnought racing past his ship into the warp, warships were much faster in warp speed because of their higher quality GFGs and gravity sail generators that were the size of the Star Sparrow‘s entire engine block, which meant that the warship would already be thousands of kilometers off before the first civilian ship even entered the warp point it’s self.
The space around the civilian fleet was alive with colors as a Last wave of raiders tried to board the bigger ships to save their own asses, the brave few people left protecting the fleet raced out to meet them. A handful of the armed racers that had been damaged in battle managed to land aboard some of the larger civilian ships just before they made the transition into the warp.
The Star Sparrow was one of the slower ships in the fleet thanks to the damage she had suffered during the raider’s abortive attack against her, that left her and only two other ships with roughly eight thousand souls between them lagging at the back of the fleet and it was this that spelled their doom.
Jack remembered the tormented screaming and whaling coming from the forward compartments, just before the entire compartment he and dozens of other passengers were in turned red, a noise indescribable to anyone who did not hear it began and it was the noise more then anything that caused the screaming of agony, for the second the sound started every cell in Jack’s body erupted in fire, his body felt like it was twisting and distorting, his eyes lost sight for what seemed an eternity and the vision that greeted him when sight regained only made him wish for death even more, the other passengers were changing, their bodies were becoming distorted and the decks began dripping with blood as some of the passenger’s bodies liquefied because of the warping effects. It seemed like an eternity of pain before they finally exited the warp, the three ships that had been cut off from the rest of the fleet appeared light years off course and those poor souls that had survived could no longer be called human, Jack remembered the feeling of fear at first but then that feeling began to change, he felt a calling stronger then anything else he had ever felt before, the calling to find others like himself, those that had survived being cut off from the warp those that had turned into whatever it was that he had become, days passed and they had found eight other ships with other mutants like themselves, Jack had taken charge of the mutants through sheer force of character and will, and even now he had forged the 11 ships and about twelve thousand mutated individuals that had been ‘sacrificed for the good of man”, little did those bastards in the government know that they had survived the warp, their ships and bodies mutated beyond recognition but they had survived, and now they would claim vengeance upon the empire that had abandoned them to death for the sake of a numbers game!
And it would all start here, on Valhalla, he had already taken an advance team to the surface and even now their workings of sabotage and plans for the population were well underway, the entire planetary com system had been destroyed and thousands of people had been brought under the mutant’s sway, soon they would have their vengeance, very soon.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Mutants ???
Is that a possibility under the rules of SEIV G ?

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

lol not at all but I am going off track of the game for that portion of our story, so ladies and gentlmen please remain in your seats until the ride has come to a complete stop.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Apendix of Terms taken from Heinkle's 25th century Dictioanry (not Alhpabetical order):

Xeno: Xeno, short form of Xenobiological or Xenoterrestrial,
1.meaning not human or of Earthly origins.
2. Slang form of Xenoterrestrial
3. Derogative word for alien species

I-Laser: Short for Intensive Plasma Laser

ShellBuster: Term used to describe an explosive charge capable of breaching a hull.

Credit: A unit of Icaran Currency.

Crowns Crowns refers to a coin used to represent 5 credits.

Billy Hopper: A citizen of the Empire unauthorized for interstellar flight, who hides on a interstellar transport. The term "Billy Hopper" comes from the fact that the first recorded case of such action was taken by a man named William, the hopper refers to the fact that most of these "Billy Hoppers" must stow away aboard several ships before reaching their destination.

Mutant: Describing one who has mutated.
1. A human being who has suffered genetic or biological mutations of some form.

Xenocide: Refers to the systematic annihilation of a non-human species.

Slambred: Slambred, meaning one bred in a slam or maximum security Penal colony. Slambred citizens are often drafted into the Icaran marine corps or Imperial Guard regiments, following extensive "re-socialization" processes.

Re-Socialization: A series of drug, hypnotic, and brain print treatments which allow an otherwise unsuitable citizen to operate as a normal human being.

Joey: A marine

Bootstamp: Referring to the imprint left after a kick from an Icaran Jackboot, meaning chewed out by one's superior. ex: "John just got a bootstamp from his Commander for sleeping in."

Dancing a Molly: Refers to a hanging, the standard sentence for traitors and heretics.

Sweetjuice: Slang term for an illegal Phong drink which has intoxicating results on said species, and toxic results to humans.

Heretic: One who defies the existance of the divine, an atheist, a cultist, or one who has defiled the name of the Praetors.

Blackshirt: Slang term used by military personnel to refer to a State Security trooper.

Dragger: A dragger, an unproductive citizen, a lazy individual.

Warping Willies: A humorous name for warp sickness, caused by the effects of the warp on some humans.

Bouncing Brenda: Slang for a landmine used by Icaran State Security, it pops up from the ground prior to exploding when triggered.

Kissing Steel: Slang term for being slapped by the flat of a sword, punishment inflicted on undisciplined recruits.

Spanking Anna: Crude Slang for slapping a charge/magazine into a rifle, origins unknown.

Darter: Weapon used by State Security and Ship Board Marines. Fires a micro explosive "Dart" at transonic speeds via magnetic acceleration.

Auto-Rifle: Refers to an automatic darter assault rifle carried by SS and Fleet Marines.

Green Meanie: Stimulant pill used by the military during long periods where sleep is not available, side effects include explosive vommiting and diarrhea after prolonged use, as well as headaches.

Vac Suit: A soft form fitting suit worn over clothing aboard starships during combat incase of sudden exposure to vacuum.

Hard Suit: Refers to a Marine or Army armored Vac suit.

Slasher: Slang term for an energy blade carried by marines for hand to hand fighting aboard ship.

Charlie Foxtrot Polite version of Cluster ****, used to describe a situation where an officer who does not know what they are doing is placed in charge of those who do. See also goatscrew.

Slam: Maximum Security Penal colony.

Halfer: A being of mixed species, also classified as mutants.

Glassing: The destruction of a world by orbital bombardment, comes from the fact that energy weapons and fusion weapons turn soil to glass upon impact.

OpFor The Opposing Forces

Burner: Used by navy pilots to describe afterburners, by land forces it is used as slang for a flamethrower.

Bessy: A Mk12 Bessamalt Arms assault Rifle.

The State: Refers to the body politic, government as a whole throughout the Empire.

Nugget: A new pilot

Mud Eater: A ground pounder, generally army personnel.

Expect a New Chapter soon http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif btw you guys don't mind me going a little off game for a bit do you?

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Anyone still reading this http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

BTW don't worry about that link anymore it stopped working about two weeks ago http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Yes, still reading. To bad about the link.

Hey don't worry if you don't get any posts in this thread. People often read but seldom post. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I have found that writing for review is less rewarding than writing just to write. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

So please keep writing, and we will keep reading. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Also check out this site, it might be of interst to you. http://www.lit.org/

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

reading...... and waiting........

And Atrocities is right.... I try to post as little as possible once the story is going so not to break it up.

Rasorow

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

A Crisis on Valhalla:
William Ross Admiral Lord of the Icaran Empire woke up to the chiming of the com panel, he wiped the sleep from his eyes, before gently running his left hand down the naked side of his beautiful wife, a soft contented moan from her made getting out of bed even more anguishing to the Admiral, they had only been in their little cabin for a week, they had been hoping for a month of leave after their return from inspecting the newest superdreadnought to join the royal navy, their first visit to this cabin lasted only two days and that was months ago after twenty six long years in space, but as they say the navy never rests. William left the bedroom and grumpily walked over to the com panel in the small main room of the cabin so as not to disturb Lin. After a second he donned a robe and pressed the receive button, immediately Ross braced too attention and saluted “Grand Admiral!” he blurted, more then a little surprised to be seeing the Haggard face of Grand Admiral Halice, the old man was scheduled to step down in a few weeks, at the ripe old age of 168 he deserved a break, but until then he had sworn that he would do his job with as much diligence as he had when he was but 46 years old.
“Hello William.” The Admiral replied softly the set of his face serious, with an expression of concern that confused Ross, ever since the warp points to outside space had been sealed, the Admiralty had relaxed considerably, and began the process of mobilizing the smaller fleets into one massive fleet of warships that could strike at enemy systems in the blink of an eye.
“What’s wrong Admiral?” Ross asked hesitantly, a lump in his throat prevented him from speaking further as the concerned frown on Hallice’s face grew deeper.
“Maybe nothing, maybe something, we don’t know Ross, that’s the problem, Valhalla has suddenly gone quiet and the other nobles in that system are a little worried, they’ve called for a navy or SS explorative mission, I have decided we’ll send in the professionals so I’ve contacted Captain Fowler aboard Blackbird, she’ll stop by Icara to pick you up then make the jump to Valhalla to see what’s going on there.” Hallice paused and allowed the message to sink in as Ross stood stunned by his orders, he and Lin had just gotten off from duty now he’d have to leave on a stupid explorative mission of an Icaran colony that was probably just experiencing com malfunctions.
“Admiral with all due respect I am sure I’m not necessary on a mere explorative op, Miss Fowler is an excellent officer and capable of making decisions on her own, she doesn’t need me standing over her shoulder.” Ross took a pleading tone but Hallice simply shook his head.
“Sorry Ross, but Miss Fowler is not a noble, nor are most captains in the navy, you however are and you are also a Knight in service to the Praetor Saints, even a noble would have to listen to what you have to say….unless of course you prefer I send Lin instead of you since she is also now a noble and knight? Hallice shrugged, he knew Ross would never let Lin go into a potentially dangerous situation if he could take her place.
“That’s a cheap trick sir.” Ross said sourly “When do you want me ready to leave?” he resigned himself to the fact that it was either he or Lin that would be leaving, for Valhalla.
“Tomorrow afternoon, sorry Ross I know that you and Lin haven’t had much of a vacation lately but you’re the best man for this job and I need you. Hallice out.” the screen went black, after a moment of staring into the blank screen Ross turned toward the bedroom and quietly walked in, the moon shone dimly through the window into the dark room, revealing the slim fit body of his beloved wife Lin, he stood in the doorway for a moment admiring her slim beauty, her soft curves, even the sound of her breathing, a few seconds later William heard her breathing change and realized she had just awoke.
“Wil, Whats wrong?” she whispered into the darkness.
“I’ve just received orders to depart for Valhalla tomorrow afternoon, they’ve been having a communications blackout for a few days now and the other nobles are getting all nervous, they want me to go in with the i]Blackbird[/i] and investigate.” He walked over to Lin, gently kissing her on the neck. She was a naval officer herself and knew that this could happen, a fact William was grateful for, as most women would probably demand explanations or reasons before leaving the night off in an angry silence.
She grinned “Well at least we can take advantage of some of the time we have left.” he returned her grin and slid off the robe he had donned to talk with Hallice.

When Lin woke in the morning the smell of eggs met her nostrils, and she heard humming coming from the small kitchen, she smiled to herself as she slipped on some clothes and left the bedroom.
William was already fully dressed in his duty uniform as he set up the table for breakfast, he looked up at her and smiled sheepishly.
“You weren’t supposed to wake up for a little while you know?” he said cheerfully as he smiled again.
“Oh I’m sorry would you like me to go back?” She said laughing, smiling wickedly at him as she took her place at the other side of the table from her husband. For an hour the two of them ate in silence neither of them enjoyed the fact that William would be leaving for at least a few weeks to complete an inspection of Valhalla but finally William cleared his throat.
“Lin, if you don’t mind me asking what are you going to be doing while I’m away?” his voice was still sheepish as he looked into her eyes, they always comforted him, the strength, dignity and confidence they exuded had helped him through the hardest moments of his life but today they looked anxious.
“Well, I was hoping to tell you later but since your leaving this afternoon, I’ve been given a new commission Wil.” she smiled and William sat back shocked for a moment by her silence.
“Come on the suspense is killer.” he said jokingly, her shrug made him all the more curious.
“It’s no big deal” she started casually “I received word a few days ago, I’ve been given command of one of the Five Swords.” she smiled broadly and William almost fell out of his chair as he stood up to hug her. The Five Swords-often called the Five Swords of Heaven- were the most powerful warships in the galaxy and the true representation of the fighting and engineering prowess of the Icaran people.
“Which one is it?” he said, overjoyed she smiled brilliantly back.
“The Sword of Wrath.” she said, giggling like she had once when she was fifteen.
The two talked for hours before William finally left for the shuttle port that would take him to the Naval base on the southern coast of the primary continent of Icara. As he flew over the scenery below Admiral Lord Ross admired the beauty of Icara’s lush green forests and brilliant blue skies. Icara was a warm world compared to the average human world, but Ross liked it’s warmth it’s long sunrises and sunsets, the beauty of the blue-winged eagles flying overhead in the long summer season and the smell of Chacka Oranges blossoming in the pseudo spring that Icara had. It was hard for Ross to even believe that when his ancestors first landed on Icara they had to struggle just to find food, and that the pleasant warmth that he knew today was once a steaming sauna before weather grids were placed around habitable regions, and that the very heat had killed many of the weaker colonists when they first landed on Icara all those long centuries ago.

So much had changed for Icarans, they were once philosophers, poets and healers when they were almost slaughtered by the Spartans that all changed, they became hardened conquerors, they had swept across the face of Earth like a great shadow, unstoppable, unchecked until they ran against the Asian Empire, for centuries they coexisted peacefully, the Icaran military protected the Empire and the Asian Empire, though an enemy was rarely ever met on the battlefield, until the treacherous independent nations formed their own alliance, the Sol Coalition and nuked dozens of Icaran and Asian cities, colonies and outposts. Billions died in that war and left the remnants of Icara and Asia shattered and homeless, their desperation led them to Icara and Brandenburg, for two hundred years they had rebuilt and finally when they decided to reach for the stars again they again met with disaster as they encountered the Phong and the Neo-Star Empires, the war was brutal and millions died, which again ruined the possibility of peace within the Empire and the crusades began, crusades which claimed billions in a wave of fire and purification, for the first time in two decades the Icaran Empire was in a state of peace, but even in this time of peace, even now there was a crisis and Ross felt an uneasiness about his “inspection tour” of Valhalla and a touch of nerves about the future of the Empire, of a people that had seen so much death, blood and sorrow in their existence.
Ross finally reached the spaceport outside of Sagatarian city, the view was amazing, dozens of sky scrapers rose hundreds of stories into the sky, shuttles and public transports darted around like bees around a hive in an amazing buzz of activity and life. But the crowned Jewel of Sagatarian city was it’s massive spaceport, which was so large that it could land 3 dreadnought sized ships side by side and still have room for a squadron of fighters and a civvie transport or two, not that any dreadnoughts could make atmospheric entry.
Many people even claimed that Sagatarian was built for the spaceport and not the other way around, a theory Ross was willing to accept after he heard that of the 1.6 million souls in Sagatarian one million worked in some function at the Spaceport.
The transport landed silently in the eastern number two landing field, Ross walked down the ramp to find a full squad of marines waiting for him, they were all wearing full combat armor and many of them looked around nervously, something Ross found most disconcerting considering they were all on the capitol world of the entire Empire. As the confused Admiral stepped forward a Marine Lieutenant braced to attention in front of him, when Ross returned the salute the marine cocked his head.
“Lord Star Admiral William Jefferson Ross?” the Lieutenant asked, probably feeling rather stupid about asking such an obvious question, though protocol still demanded it.
“Yes Lieutenant that‘s me.” Ross said a little amused.
“Sir we are here to take you aboard Blackbird by order of Captain Sandra Fowler, please follow me.” The marine turned around stiffly and signaled the squad to move toward a landed cutter, which bore the crest of the Blackbird for some reason Ross always found that ship’s crest disturbing, it was a blackbird of old earth, wings extended to their fullest span, and a body extended as if about to land, with a sunset in the background, it always seemed like a symbol of bad luck to him, especially after Lin told him that many cultures considered a blackbird a foretelling of imminent death.
“Tell me Lieutenant why a fully armed and armored squad of marines to pick me up on our own homeworld?” Ross said politely as he followed the marine.
“Orders sir.” The marine said bluntly, Ross’ face reddened slightly at what could easily be considered a slight to his honor.
“Excuse me Marine?” Ross’ voice had a bite to it this time but the marine didn’t even flinch.
“Sir, I mean you no disrespect, but I don’t know why we were sent down in full armor or loaded out for combat but I am following my orders to the word sir, oh and sir this is not m homeworld I’m from Valhalla.” the Lieutenant said in the same unflinching tone that he would have if he were under fire from the enemy.
Ross however froze in place and instinctively reached toward his holster.
“Marine do me a favor, take of your helmet.” Ross said warily, and noticed with some bit of nerves that the other marines in the group were all looking directly at him, he wished he could see their faces, but the breather attachment and visor to infantry helmets prevented that.
“Yes sir.” The marine replied as any Icaran soldier would, instantly and without question, the helmet came off with a hiss and Ross instantly relaxed, realizing he knew the young officer, of course the man was only a private when he first met him years ago aboard the Yu Hing Pe straight out of boot camp.
“Mahony Isn’t it?” Ross said with a bit of a smile as he let his hand slip away from his holster.
The marine bowed politely and smiled “I’m honored you remember me sir.” he placed his helmet back on his head and gestured for Ross to follow him. Ross had only met the man once during the closing days of the Phong Crusade but the marine made a good impression on him.

On the ride Ross looked over at Lieutenant Robert Patrick Mahony “Hey Lieutenant, what do you think is going on, on Valhalla?” Ross knew that it was probably a sensitive question but he figured would be best to ask of a Valhallan native.
“I don’t know sir, Valhalla is as loyal and devout to the Empire as the next world, maybe even more so I don’t understand why my people would go silent like that.” the young man replied and his eyes flashed pain at the thought. The rest of the ride went in an uncomfortable silence, Ross sympathize with the young man, Ross was a native to Icara as were seventy eight percent of the human population that was his age the rest were Brandenburg citizens and Rebels, but there were a lot of people born on colonies, and to them their world was just as important as Icara it’s self. And to them the loss of their world was just as much of a nightmare as it would be to an Icaran native or Brandenburg native.

End of Part One

:As I said Looooong chapter, part two and three are going to be just as long, if not longer:

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

That was a very nice read Starhawk. Thank you. How many words do you have so far for the entire story?

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

So far my empire has 293 planets in 53 systems and a population of 132 billion.

I haven't fully finished colonizing the decimated worlds yet but when I do I'll probobly have an extra 50 or so planets in my empire.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

I've decided to add a bit more backstory to the Icaran Empire as I write part 2 of "Crisis on Valhalla".

Space Travel Within the Icaran Empire

Civilian Space Travel:
Space Travel within the Icaran Empire for civilians is limited to "sub-stellar" ranges, which means though the vast majorty of starships are equipped with GFGs it is illegal for a civilian starship to exit it's own star system without explicit government edict to the contrary, such as what happened during the early portion of Operation Exodus when all civilian ships with GFGs were permited to attempt a retreat from the systems that were being sealed off from the warp.

Even sub-stellar cruises are rare for the average civilian as the operating liscense the government places on all spacecraft is extremely expensive for the average citizen, which means that most Icarans never see another world, much less another system.

There are ways for civilians to see other worlds and other stars, however, these options are listed in detail below:

Colony Bureau: The Colony Bureau is the first hope for most civilians to see another world. A citizen that signs on to the CB is bound for a period of 20 years to a contract that forbids them from, joining the military or mining corps, in this time the CB attempts to find a colony project that best suits the citizen's skills.
Unfortunately for most civilians in the CB they do not find themselves on a beautiful Icara type world but instead are sent to mining worlds or armory worlds which are only safe because of massive blasteel domes, these worlds are often barren and toxic to human life and so the colonist may spend their entire life inside the dome, never again seeing the blue skies of an I-Type world. And any colonist must remain on world for 5-10 years prior to being allowed to sign on to another colony project.

For some citizens however the CB is their only hope for leaving such a barren wasteland of a world and they are willing to chance anything for the opportunity to leave.

Mining Corps: For some the Mining Corps is a worse choice then the CB, but to others it's a life of excitement and adventure that they would turn down for nothing.

The Space Based arm of the Mining Corps was established in the year 2412 when the remote mining devices requried to mine asteroid belts was invented and has for the past decade provided valuable raw materials to the Icaran economy.

The life of a "world" miner is a dangerous one, and a hard one, they spend hours a day, five days a week, every week of the year below ground digging for precious raw materials that are required to keep Icara's economy alive.

A "space" miner's life is just as dangerous but far more exciting to many. A "space miner" serves on a mining ship and spends years on end in space with his/her crew mining the valuable asteroid belts of Icaran space.

The benefit to being a member of the mining corps aside from high pay, is the chance of reasignment, the chance to be asigned to a "core world" that has already been terraformed or is at least undergoing the terraformation process.

Of course the opposite is also true, a miner may go from being based out of a beautiful gem of a world to a barren rock where ferocious creatures are trying to kill you in horrible ways.

The Royal Navy: The Royal navy is another option for a civilian who wishes to see the stars and other worlds, however service to the navy has it's price as well. Miminum service is for no less than 50 years, meaning that a person who signs up at the minimum recruitment age of 16 will get out when they are nearing middle age, It is also a dangerous occupation if you are assigned to a warship or frontline base, or a tedius one if the navy assigns you to a freighter or interstellar transport. Even with the chance of a boring assignment millions of people every year flock to the service of the Royal Navy.

Royal Marines: Like the Navy the Royal Marines attract millions of volunteers every year, civilians who want to see the stars and live a life of adventure and danger. Millions every year washout however and are forced to wait yet another year before they can try again.

Royal Army: Unlike the Romance of the Royal Navy or Royal Marines the Royal army is a machine of no finesse but instead is a hammer of destruction, a blunt objecct used to crush enemy worlds into submission. Those who join the army know they will likely spend the rest of their lives moving from world to world on a troopship in the middle of a warfleet, only seeing a world when they are deployed into battle or deployed for Garrison duty.

State Security: The SS is the only option for those who seek to serve Icara but are unable or unwilling to join the military, a citizen with a clean record and a loyal background may join the SS and hope to be assigned to one of the dozens of brigades guarding Icaran worlds, the main fear of joining the SS is being assigned to one of the "frontier" brigades on an occupied world where the population may be hostile or may not even be human at all.

The Warp:
The reason FTL travel is forbidden to all but government liscensed ships is because the only form of FTL travel is a "warp point" and travel through such points must be strictly enforced and scheduled to prevent tragic accidents.
Another reason for banning FTL travel to all but liscened ships is because millions of citizens would flock away from in-hospitable worlds and leave the vast majority of worlds within Icaran space empty, leaving massive ammounts of resources unreachable.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

This is a little bit of stuff I actually got the idea from someone who said it would be interesting to know how the average soldier feels when they are going to war in the days of Icara.

Well the best way I feel I could do that is to write prayers or battle hymns/songs because it is often in the songs of war that we can most often feel what the soldiers feel in my humble opinion.

Imperial Battle Prayer:

Lord you have chosen us to do this work
Give us Strength to face the fire.
And courage to face the sword

Give us resolve to be victorious
And Wisdom to be merciful

Give us this day to conquer
And tomorrow to spread your word

Give us your love and care
And allow us to do the same

We ask you now for your final blessing in prayer
So that when we die we can raise our faces to the sky
And know that no matter where our bodies lie
We are home, and have seen the end of our struggles. Amen

1st Icaran Regimental Battle Hymn:
The stars cried out the heavens fell
Yet still we charge into gore and hell
The earth may shake and burn with fire
Yet we fight on till our bodies meet the pyre
They Sound the call Fleet and Army into the endless night
So Come on brave lads be ready to fight
No matter the world green or barren
They shall say of us they died Icaran!

Call to Arms: Spoken in Icara city by an unknown speaker Circa 2402
They say of these Phong, They are too powerful!
They say they can not be overcome by mere humans
I say they know not the strength of our hearts!
They know not the strength of our soul and our faith!
These Xenos are just another test placed before us on our quest to unite man under one banner
They are just another obstacle which must be overcome for our future
And I say when history looks back upon this day it will say Icara can not be overcome, Icarans can not be overcome for as long as we stand together we are unbreakable! Stand and fight these creatures and bring us victory, in the name of all we consider holy by the time we are done with this galaxy they will say We are the only power in all of creation behind God that can not be overcome!

P.S I am still writing the rest of the story http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Thank you, I needed a good read this morning. LOL, please keep up the great work Starhawk. I tried to sing this to a tune but could not find one that fit. Perhaps the melody "Battle Without Honor Or Humanity" might fit. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Well you have to remember AT they don't speak english so that's of course a translated version, played to a foreign military march, yup that's my story and I'm stickin to it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

LOL! All I can picture is B-rate KungFu movies that were poorly voiced-over. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

EDIT: Oh yeah, still a great read.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

One way to explain away why every alien race speaks english is to "discover" a gene that all races share that make them develop their language to be simular to english.

Something that an ancient race instilled into the genetic make up for each planet they seeded. (English, the ancient english language)

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

It is due to an ancient race known as Bee'nn Cow'n'ters.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

LOL love that last remark narf http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Yeah the story is still coming along all well and good but Its a busy weekend for me so I'm not likely to be doing anything on it till monday or tuesday.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

(update) Just to let you all know this story is not dead, I have been busy re-making the Icaran Shipset to a much nicer and more menacing appearance, plus with better Special FX http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Here is the Icaran National Flag to give ya'll a taste of how the new set is going to increase the feel of the Icaran's true "nature". http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

If you want a closer look at the Icaran "Royal Crest/Naval Insignia" I've added an extra picture of that.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Thanks Starhawk. With the story drout we have been having around here it is nice to know that your still planning on writing.

I want to write but I simply am just to lazy to do so. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif "Bobs your uncle." (Thats just the way it is)

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

That's fixed you can now download the two pics http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I think most of you won't find the "theme" suprising at all.

Yah I Just love writing but lately things have been getting hectic and the like http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

As Promised part 2 of 3 of "Crisis on Valhalla". Enjoy http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[EDIT]: THIS POST IS RATED R for strong violence, graphic language, gore, and creatures that are probobly naked (the first 3 are serious!)


Crisis On Valhalla Part 2:
The Blackbird sat elegantly in space, she had taken up formation with a civilian fuel station in orbit of Icara which she dwarfed easily, her beautiful gray, and red cylindrical hull shimmered in the starlight making her look like some living behemoth out of ancient mythology. Ross felt an excitement he had not felt in a long time, he hated leaving Lin and Icara after so long in space, but when he saw the elegant death bringer that was a super dreadnought once again his heart warmed with a glee that only the stars could bring to a man, his joy at seeing the Blackbird was for another special reason as well, she was commanded by Captain Sandra Fowler, the young woman that he had seen rise from command of his old frigate which now lay in orbit of Icara as part of the fleet museum to command of a Super Dreadnought, one of the Empire’s deadliest warships. He remembered how proud Sandy’s parents were of her when she first received command of HMS Saber all those long years ago, and thought back to how happy he was as well.

“Admiral, this is [/b]Blackbird[/b] LSO Kerensi, we have your shuttle on scopes, and have acheived maglock you are hands free, and welcome Admiral.” The voice on the other end of the com sounded young but professional, making Ross smile once again remembering his early days in the Royal Navy.
The massive super dreadnought turned her gun ports to broadside and fired their salute to welcome a flag officer, the area lit green as the minimum power beams fired off in sequence in a centuries old naval tradition..
Ross’s shuttle came to a halt just below the open boat bay doors of the massive super dreadnought, the mag beam held locked the shuttle in place for a moment before gently pulling the shuttle into the huge bay. As the shuttle lifted silently into position a marine and spacer honor guard braced to attention and saluted smartly at their head stood three command officers in full dress mess uniform, Captain Fowler and Commander Higgins were wearing the newer blood red jacket and black pants of the Royal Navy while Major Jahonis wore the dark green jacket and tan trousers of the Royal marines, and each was decorated with several medals and orders making them stand out even more amongst the other officers and crews.
Ross stepped off the shuttle and smiled as soon as he saw Sandra standing in salute a marine Sergeant shouted “Aten-Shut!” bringing the entire honor guard to salute. Sandra stepped forward and smiled at her old friend.
“Welcome aboard Admiral” her voice was virtually brimming with joy her eyes gleaning with pride.
“Thank you Captain Fowler.” Ross said cheerfully as he shook Fowler’s hand.
“Would you like a tour of Blackbird sir?” her voice held all the professionalism required but her eyes were alight with pride, sure it was just another super dreadnought in a fleet of a hundred but it was her ship and that made it unique just as it would for any captain. Ross nodded and smiled again, as she led him toward the boat bay doors and dismissed the honor guards and receiving crew.

After the tour Ross, Fowler, her XO Higgins and Marine Major Jahonis had a private dinner in her day cabin, unfortunately it was more then a social gathering as the questions revolving around Valhalla had to be discussed in detail.
“I do not understand why the local planets could not simply dispatch an SS team to investigate the sudden silence on Valhalla, or why in the universe it took them four months to report it!” Major Jahonis said irritably as he looked over the other officers in the room.
“I too would like to be home right now Major but I’m afraid that for some reason the admiralty decided that we would be the best people to send on this little foray.” Admiral Ross barely hid his own irritation, he understood that the marine officer was probably not whining but the other man’s complaints only reminded him that Lin and Icara would very soon be far behind him.
“Sir you misunderstand me, I do not mean to offend or say that we should not be sent, only that if the local lords had sent an SS detachment to investigate before calling for the military right away then we might have some intel on what we are going into, for all we know sir my marine detachment may not be large enough to deal with problems on the surface, we may need an entire SS brigade or army regiment at our backs, if I implied otherwise sir I am sorry.” The marine hunched in his seat slightly like a child that had just been scolded by his parents.
“I’m sure the Admiral knew what you meant Major, it is just a stressful situation to be sent into as we all know, and you are correct if the local lords had done their jobs then we might not even have been necessary, but things being what they are do you believe you can handle a potential ground fight?” Sandra interceded with the same incredible skill and diplomatic grace that had made Lin like her so much, and which made William smirk just about every time he noticed it, Lin and he often teased Sandy that she should have been born to the nobility instead of the citizen stock because she would have made a perfect diplomat.
Major Jahonis sat up straighter and seemed to regain his confidence when Ross nodded at him, “Well Ma’am I think we could secure a small number of personnel on surface, or we could be used as recon but there are over two hundred million citizens on Valhalla, and most of them are of Icara-pure birth origin, they are from the defunct Rebel alliance so their loyalty already may be at question should we land. So if it came to a true ground conflict I do not believe even my marines could fight off that many people by themselves.” the major paused when Higgins made a grunting noise.
“You have something to add Higgins?” Ross said in a more even tone then he had managed for Jahonis, and made a note of it to himself to do something that showed he respected the marine officer as well.
“Sir it’s just Major Jahonis is assuming two hundred million hostiles, the entire population of one of our own worlds, doesn’t that seem more then a little extreme? With all respect major but an entire planet rebelling against their own Praetor?” Higgins voice sounded almost amused which brought a look of steel from the marine officer.
“Well the Commander has made a point, he was not always their Praetor, nor were all the RA worlds taken peacefully, some required threat, or even application of force before they were subdued.”
“Okay, that’s enough, Commander Major I want the two of you to work together on a plan for ground operations should they be required and how we can support any action by the marines from orbit, short of full scale bombardment, is that clear?” Ross said sharply as the two officers glared once more at each other before returning their attention to him.
‘Yes sir.” the two men echoed.
“Dismissed.” Sandra spoke softly but sternly as she watched her two officers stand to leave.

When the two other men left Ross stood, stretching stiff muscle and sighed as he thought over the situation, was it even possible for Icarans to be disloyal to their Praetor it would be the first time in thousands of years of history that an Icaran ever deliberately turned against their government. Ross shivered as a chill ran down his spine. And after a short conversation with Sandra went to his cabin to get some sleep, or at least rest for a while after the long day, and possibly his last chance for a real rest any time in the near future as God only knew how many long days he would have ahead of him until this situation was resolved.

A week had passed on board Blackbird before they even entered the Valhalla system, and another twelve hours at six gee’s of acceleration before the dreadnought had entered scanning range, and though Ross was relieved they had finally reached their destination things became very strange almost the moment the Imperial warship began scanning the surface.

“Ma’am, Sir, I am getting very odd readings from Valhalla Capital.” The tac officer of the watch sounded wary as the his Captain walked over to the main holo display at the back of the command center and punched up a larger version of the tac station screen while Ross read an orbital scan report from the astral survey station.
“It’s totally black down there.” Fowler said nervously as she looked over the holo display.
“What do you mean totally black?” Ross cocked his head as he turned his command chair around to see the display, “My God, that’s impossible.” his voice matched the sickly look on Fowler’s face. The only way a city with cold quantum technology could go totally black is for every single power station, backup station, and orbital relay to be completely warm, which meant that for some reason the entire planet was just “unplugged”.
“Admiral if the surface is totally black then….” her sentence was cut off as battle klaxons howled and speakers sounded the beat of war drums to call marines to quarters.
“Tactical?” Ross said instinctively, as the chief gunnery officer began running checks on his gun crews’ status.
“Sir I have a single, cutter sized vessel approaching from starboard, I can’t get a clear reading beyond that sir.”
“What do you mean you can’t get a reading Ensign it’s a bloody cutter how can you not get a reading?” Fowler blurted, frustrated by the situation, a cutter was far too small to carry any form of stealth and the fact they couldn’t get a reading was just weird.
“Ma’am the cutter is signaling.” The com tech sounded timid after hearing an officer get a bootstamp from the Captain and almost cringed in her chair when Fowler looked her way.
“Open channels please.” Fowler managed to keep her voice calmer this time as she tapped the com panel and the holo display switched from a view of the planet to a young looking obviously Icaran face.

“Your really the navy? Oh thank God and all the saints I thought you’d never come.” The man sounded almost tearful as he snapped a half dignified salute, not much of the man was showing but the black collar and crossed lightning bolts emblem emblazoned on it told Fowler that the man was an SS officer. She returned the salute as a matter of courtesy rather then necessity as military officers automatically outranked any SS personnel.
“What is going on here Mister?” Ross voice was calm and cold as he addressed the young man on the screen.
“Sir! Please let us dock then I’ll tell you everything, I don’t want to talk over the com line it’s not safe, you must understand sir, please!” The man’s pleading tone took the entire bridge crew aback, not many military people respected the SS, because they saw them as unprofessional amateurs but to see even one of them almost sobbing was enough to make anyone nervous.
“Tactical can you get me a reading yet?” Ross said under his breath, as he turned his back to the screen.
“Aye sir, but something about that cutter just isn’t normal sir.” The man replied in the same hushed tone.
“Care to explain further Ensign.” Ross hissed back as he turned to face the officer.
“I wish I could sir but I can’t, I’m sorry.” The officer cringed at what he expected to be a furious reply but Fowler and Ross simply looked at each other and nodded.
“Thank you tactical.” Ross managed a whisp of a smile before returning to face the screen.

“Whom am I addressing officer?” Ross kept his voice cold and calm even as the strange feeling in his gut continued to gnaw at him.
“Sir?” the man looked stunned at the question and Ross felt another twist in his stomach, any Icaran soldier, or even SS personnel with any shred of discipline left would answer the question immediately.
“I said who are you mister.” Ross tone turned dangerous as he took a step closer to the screen.
“I am citizen captain Brochensky sir, 33rd SS brigade, Midenshield.” the officer replied in a less then respectful tone. ‘Sir please let us dock I’ll explain everything.”

Ross signaled his com tech to cut the channel, and began pacing the deck for a moment until Fowler walked up to her superior, she looked worried but Ross knew her well enough to know she wasn’t about to admit it.
“Something about this whole situation doesn’t feel right Sandy, an entire world gone black and one of our own blasted cutters that we can’t get a proper reading on, add to that an SS captain who’s acting like hell is chasing him.” he paused in his pacing for a second and made eye contact with Sandra.
“I know sir, but if we don’t grant him permission to dock it’ll be a lot harder to find out what the hell is going on down there.” Sandra kept her gaze locked with Ross and felt like she could feel his brain churning with thoughts.
“It’s your ship Sandy, I won’t risk it’s safety unless you feel that this is the only way.” they both knew that he was senior officer and could easily order her to do anything he wanted, but Ross was no the type of man that would shove another officer’s opinion aside simply because he was senior.
Fowler nodded and turned to her com tech, “Spacer, open a channel to that cutter if you’d please and grant them permission to dock in boat bay 1.” she waited until the young woman at the com station nodded and tabbed a personal com key on her command panel.
“Major Jahonis, have a full platoon of your best marines assembled in boat bay 1 to greet our guests I’ll be there momentarily to join you.”
“Aye ma’am.” Major Jahonis voice boomed in reply.
Sandra turned to Ross and saluted “You have the bridge sir.” she grinned and headed for the bridge doors.

Moments later she was at the entrance to boat bay one along with a full platoon of Blackbird’s marines, she made her way to Major Jahonis and returned his salute.
“Status Major?” she was still buckling armor to her vac suit as she walked up to the marine Major, who like the other marines was wearing a “hard” vac suit, which meant it was built with armor plating already on it.
“Ma’am the cutter is coming in now, the boat bay crew are all carrying side arms, but there are only 6 of them at the moment and there are at least 20 people on that cutter.” He shrugged “I was waiting to go in until you arrived ma’am.”
“Alright let’s get in there I want to find out what is going on here.” she pulled a dart pistol and followed the marines through the blast doors that led to the boat bay.
The cutter bore the marks of the SS orbital security force but something about it’s hull looked deformed, though Sandra couldn’t put her finger on it, she looked nervously at the large guns that the cutter was armed with and frowned deeply.
“Major, tell your men to be careful.” she whispered over the secure com channel.
“Aye ma’am.” the reply sounded strange to Fowler, Major Jahohis voice was almost anxious something she had never thought she’d hear from the big fearless marine Major that had fought boarding actions and ground fights for the past two decades.
The cutter’s door slid open, the marines formed a semi-circle around the entrance as the armed deck crew and Captain Fowler found a place to get out of the way, they weren’t cowards by any means but marines tended to get a little protective of their navy comrades whenever there was a security risk aboard ship and all the off duty jokes aside the navy respected their “joeys” and stayed out of their way when it was a marine area o expertise.
Several minutes passed and still nobody emerged from the cutter, which seemed to make everyone more aware the gun turrets on the cutter.
“This is Captain Sandra Fowler, of His Majesty’s Ship Blackbird I order you to step your cutter now to be inspected!” Fowler said sternly over her com’s “announce” channel.
Yet still nothing but eerie silence came from the cutter, Fowler repeated her order twice more and both times no reply.
“Fowler, this is Ross, what’s going on down there?” Though his tone was cold and professional Fowler heard raw nerves in his voice.
“I don’t know sir, I don’t understand it, there are twenty life signs aboard yet no reply.”
“Tell Jahonis he has permission to send in a team if he sees that as an acceptable option. Ross out.” his last order made the hair on the back of her neck rise, to give a Marine permission “if he sees it as acceptable” meant that if Jahonis chose he could order his marines out and have the navy flush the cutter back into space, where it would be “cleansed” be a secondary gun turret that was probably already being trained on boat bay one’s doors.
Fowler passed on the orders verbatim to the major and after a moment his crisp strong voice echoed over the Blackbird’s tactical com channel.
“I need three volunteers to form an entry team.” almost the second he barked the order every marine in the formation took a step closer to the entrance.
“Alright, Johnson, Sakowitz, Kim you three move up, everyone else covering positions.” Jahonis voice was still wary as the three marines stepped forward, one of whom was carrying an SM 93 breaching gun, a weapon that fired twelve micro-explosive darts simultaneously into a target.
As the three entered the hatch the two marines carrying auto-rifles switched on their flashlights, making the scene even more eerie, as the light from the marines vanished from sight Fowler’s stomach knotted and her spine felt like it was about to twitch it’s way out of her back.
“Advance team, what do you see?” Jahonis voice hissed.
“Sir, there’s barely any light here, we are making our way to the cockpit but, stand bye.” Marine Talia Sackowitz voice stopped and for a second the com went quiet before the three marines began speaking again
“Can anyone else hear that” a voice Fowler didn’t recognize said
“What the hell was it?
“I can’t see, where is this damn smoke coming from”
“It’s not smoke, wait something is moving in here, oh my God!”
The sound of gunfire erupted from within the cutter followed by screamed orders and more firing.
’God get out get the hell out!”
“My leg oh son of a ***** it tore off my leg…”
“[censored] [censored] [censored]!”
“Kim where are you?!, Kim oh God no!”
More muzzle flashes flared, over the com the sound of rending flesh and bone could be heard followed suddenly by silence from within the cutter, Fowler could see that Jahonis wanted to go in but he was too much of a veteran to rush into that kind of situation.
“Advance team reply, advance team please reply.” Jahonis sounded tortured over the com until a quiet whisper came over the com net.
“Sir, their life signs are gone, they’re…..they’re dead sir.”
“There’s movement sir!” A marine almost shouted over the com line.
A figure emerged in the shadow of the cutter’s hatch, the surrounding marines turned their weapons in the figure’s direction; a marine turned on their flashlight revealing a horrible sight, it was Talia Sackowitz or at least what had once been Talia the bloody wrecked body that stood before them could no longer be called the young marine, her helmet’s face plate had been torn away revealing the last agonized expression she had when she died.
The marines stood shocked for a moment, Talia’s torso was torn open and something that looked like a spike was the only thing holding her mangled body upright, until suddenly her body was thrown forward onto one of the marines standing watch over the hatch, knocking him over.
The creature that emerged from the hatch looked like something out of a science fiction book, a mangled ruinous creature that looked as if it had armor plates some how melded into it’s flesh, it lunged from the hatch with amazing speed and tore one of the marines open in a flash of arterial spray and torn flesh. The creature lunged at Major Jahonis but the veteran marine jumped out of the way and attempted to drive his force bayonet into it’s side, unfortunately the bayonet snapped off clean sending sparks and shards of broken metal flashing away from the creature, it turned around attempted to drive the spike that was it’s right arm into Jahonis again but a burst of fire from a marine knocked the creature off guard.
“Open fire, bring it down!” Jahonis shouted as he managed to level his rifle again, firing a burst of explosive darts into the creature’s chest but managed only to take a small chunk out of it’s armor, the other marines opened up on the creature but it barely slowed down as it lashed out at another marine sending her flying several feet back into a crate with a resounding crash of armor on metal.
While the marines were distracted by the man sized creature, no one noticed several much smaller creatures slipping out of the cutter’s hatch, one of which jumped onto a marine knocking him to the deck, the marine whiled around to aim his auto-rifle at it but was too late the creature slammed six centimeter long ‘fangs” into his stomach and began motions that resembled Earth crocodile’s death rolls, the marine howled in pain until a spray of Auto-rifle fire from a nearby marine tore the creature apart in a gruesome eruption of innards and liquids.
“Sandra what the….[static] is going on down there?” Ross’ voice boomed over her com, Fowler dodged for cover as she tabbed her com key.
“Admiral get more marines to deck three forward, and seal it off for God’s sake, there are some sort of creatures in that cutter, we’ve got five dead marines already and I don’t know if we can stop them.” Her voice sounded terrified even to her own ears but she hardly had time to notice as an unbearable pain tore through her left leg and a blood curdling scream that she could hardly believe was hers cut the air like a knife.
She managed to kick the creature off of her with her right leg but her side arm had fallen out of reach and the injury began burning like fire, the creature jumped for her face to strike it’s death blow when a bayonet tore it’s side open and a rifle butt knocked it aside.
As her vision began to fade and the world turned to blackness and silence, Fowler remembered looking up into a marine helmet an hearing someone that seemed far off shouting orders to fall back.

The marine that picked Fowler up handed her off to one of the armed deck crew as Jahonis shouted orders for the navy personnel to fall back and began barking orders at his marines.
The man sized creature had finally begun to slow down, but the corpse on the end of it’s right arm was providing it a grizzly shield as the dead marine’s comrades attempted to get a clean shot at the beast.
Just then one of the turrets on the cutter came to life, and fired a green hellish blast into a fire team of marines that had taken cover behind some crates, vaporizing them all and turning the area into a fiery wreck.
“Get the hell out now!” Jahonis shouted, until his marines began shuffling back towards the big blast doors that sealed off the boat bay, a scream from behind him made Jahonis turn around just in time to see a marine’s head severed and thrown aside by one of the smaller creatures who’s four limbs could barely even be called proper legs. A marines darts quickly ended the fowl creature’s life but another leapt over the ruined heap of the other and lunged for on of the deck hands, taking him down in bloody cloud that didn’t even have time to scream.
The turret fired again and sent the upper half of a marine sprawling across the deck plating, having vaporized the rest of him with the deck plating he had been standing on. A brave marine charged forward with a hand grenade, barely dodging the manlike creature’s vicious spiked arm, Jahonis almost wept as he saw the young marine ram the grenade down one of the gun barrels taking the turret out with him and saving his fellows from more ruinous fire.
The last marine barely managed to slip through the blast doors before quarantine effects sealed the boat bay off and the sound of air rushing out signaled the purging of the filth that remained in the bay, a secondary battery outside did it’s job with precision and turned the cutter into a cloud of particles and vaporize plating.
Major Jahonis took stock of his dead and counted eight marines and two deck crew, as well as another two marines wounded with horrible bites like those in captain Fowler’s leg.
“Alright let’s get these three to sickbay and get some more troops down here to make sure we’ve completely purged that filth from the boat bay.” He felt weary yet part of his mind would not shake the fear that some how one or more of those smaller creatures made it out of the boat bay while the blast doors were still open.

To Be Continued

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Come on folks I've posted the longest chapter EVER! and not even one read?

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Skimmed it. Rooting for the monsters. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Good read. Kinda' had a familiar ring to it, but still a good read. Been waiting for new chapters for a while; thanks much!

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Thanks for the good read part http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif as for the familiar ring, well sadly a lot of stories now a days have a familiar ring to something hehe.

As to you Narf http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif don't just skim and you'd probobly enjoy the story much more lol http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif seriously though thanks for the comments guys. Part 3 is forming up in my head now but it might take a week or two, hopefully not much longer then that.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Oh BTW anyone who wanted to know what an Icaran Cutter looks like, here is a pic http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

This latest chapter must have taking some time to write. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif So far so good. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif It is so nice to come back from vacation to find a gem like this waiting for you.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Thanks so much AT http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I'm glad you enjoyed it and hope you guys continue to enjoy my work as much as I enjoy writing it.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

I was reminded of the Niven/Pournelle novel The Mote in God's Eye , except that the novel's navy had the sense to make contact using a quarantined proxy ship.

There's a deliciously wicked sense of anticipation when you just KNOW the characters in a story are doing the wrong thing. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

LOL Valhalla is an Imperial world that went silent Hunpecked that's why they dispatched a single superdreadnought http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

They didn't expect to make contact with anyone.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

No, no, the dreadnought's OK. But I was screaming at Ross to meet the cutter with one of his shuttles, while secretly hoping he wouldn't. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

There's aliens in the story?

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Uh yeah in the story as a whole but these ain't aliens they're something else http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Read the WHOLE story if you really want to know what's going on that's all I can suggest as it's a rather long history to sum up in a few sentences.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Crisis on Valhalla Part 3: Shadows

“Alright we’re going to need bonemend, artiskin and synth blood here now he’s been torn open rather horridly here.” Chief Doctor Ferrisin’s voice boomed out his tone a mix of worry and professional confidence as the wounded marine was placed in front of him, the trooper’s chest was torn open so badly that two of his broken ribs were visible and blood gushed out of his body like a crimson geyser.
Blackbird’s sickbay was a mess of organized chaos as the wounded marines from the “incident” in the boat bay and Captain Fowler were being attended too by the doctors and sick berth attendants. Even the wounds that were rather minor had begun to baffle the Icaran medical staff as a bizarre form of infection began to set in almost immediately even under sterile fields and las cutters, with all the chaos Ferrisin barely took notice of the four heavily armed and armored marines Ross had ordered placed in the sickbay.
“Alright SBA Keller get me a….” Ferrisin was mid sentence when the lights suddenly cut and the gravity switched off for a moment.
“Secure your patients now, get the ones you can in breathers in case life support is gone, and for God’s sake strap them down!” Ferrisin managed to “swim” his way to a “vacbag” locker. Vacbags unlike vac-suits were designed for wounded personnel that couldn’t be placed in a normal suit, it contained a full micro-life support system and enough oxygen for them to last 72 hours. Fortunately the emergency systems were tripped seconds later and the gravity, life support and minimal lighting came back on. But Ferrisin continued to pass out vac bags to the wounded that were already closed up, as he turned to get to the wall com to find out what was happening the chief doctor was met with a sickening sight, the wounded marine he had been treating was bent in a completely unnatural way on the deck, a grizzly spilling of organs and fluids lay on the mangled body an the deck plating next to it and Ferrisin realized with no small amount of shock that when gravity cut his patient had somehow drifted loose of his restraints and must have floated high enough for the grizzly wound.
Just as Ferrisin was about to order an SBA to clean up the wounds he heard what sounded like screaming coming from the corridor beyond his sickbay, as the realization that others must have been wounded sunk in Ferrisin’s medical training took over completely “Alright I want free hands to form medical teams, Keller, Suchi, Lewis take team one get out there and find out who and how many are hurt and bring them here only if you need to, Jackson I need…..” Ferrisin’s team recovered from their shock quickly and began assembling the necessary medical supplies, little did they know what true chaos and death was about to come upon them.

“Damn it chief I don’t need maybes I need to know why the hell my ship’s power just cut off do you understand me?” Ross barely managed to keep his voice calm as the Chief Petty Officer on the other end of the screen shook her head.
“Sorry Sir whatever happened I can’t find it, the main power should be on, but sir I can’t get in touch with power room one so I sent an engineering team to find out what happened.” The poor young woman sounded terrified but she tried to keep her face calm, she wasn’t even supposed to be in charge of engineering Ross realized, and paused a moment, she had mentioned that Commander Geller wasn’t anywhere to be found already, Ross forced his expression to relax and his voice to soften at the pang of guilt over reaming a junior CPO for something that wasn’t her fault.
“Alright Chief do the best you can but I need to know if our power is going to fail completely and I need to know that much at least now.” Ross’ voice was much softer as he spoke to the young woman that was presently the senior person in Engineering as no one could seem to find Commander Giller.
“No sir I got my-ah- the teams that were down here to divvy up main power between PR 2 and Main Quantum Reactor, but sir that’s the problem we rerouted the power but so far there has been no improvement in our condition, and I can’t manage anything better then emergency back ups.” Her voice still betrayed her terror at facing an angry Admiral but she was remarkably cool headed about the engineering glitch and how to fix it.
“Alright contact that engineering party and find out what happened down in PR1 and get back to me.” The young woman on the other end saluted and cut the com channel.

To Ross’ surprise the CPO in main engineering commed him only seconds later.
“Sir there is something wrong here I can’t get in touch with the team that I sent to PR1, or the two men I sent to find them.” The look on her face told Ross she wasn’t overstating matters but before he could reply he noticed his Flag Commander trying to get his attention.
“Hold on chief.” Ross muted her screen and looked up at the Commander Higgins.
“Sir I’m getting reports from all department heads, we’ve got people missing and we’ve lost coms on decks twenty-five through twenty-seven.” Higgins was a veteran and had seen action during the Xiati crusades so his voice betrayed none of the nerves and fear Ross glimpsed in his eyes.
“Alright order marine fire teams and armed Crewmen to seal off deck twenty five and cut all lift access and ladder access off, I want Major Jahonis and his marines decked out in full tac tell them we’ve got intruders on board and sound the alert.” Ross was surprised to hear how calm and organized his own voice was even as hell seemed to be chasing him and his crew, but what made matters more gut wrenching was that he knew sickbay was on deck twenty-six in the very center of the ship which would have normally made I one of the safest places on board any warship.
“Alert Alert all hands intruders detected marines to stations all hands arm, arm, arm!” the mechanical voice boomed over the ship’s speakers and Ross felt a surge of bile in his throat as the realization hit him at last, someone or something was on his ship, his thoughts grew instantly dark as the fear of not knowing what was going on began to tear at his heart in a way that he never had felt before, and he tried to force his mind to calm when he felt a tap on his shoulder and heard a gentle female voice.
“Admiral your sidearm.” the young Yeoman said as she gestured timidly at the holster and belt she was carrying, Ross took the holster belt and forced his face to smile confidently.
“Thank you Yeoman.” he said quietly and fastened his weapon in place.

“Alright you grunts keep your eyes open, I want those decks sealed off but I do not! want to lose anyone in this understood!” Major Jahonis confident voice boomed out as his marines sealed their armored vac suits and grabbed their auto-rifles and rushed for their duty stations. As each marine passed the door they quickly brushed their hands on a picture of Icara at sunrise, hoping they would see it once more.

An hour had passed before the decks were fully sealed off due to the constant power fluctuations that made simply getting from the marine barracks to the necessary sections extremely difficult as the marine fire teams and armed naval personnel had to use the ladders to get from deck to deck and then had to go through multiple compartments just to get to the right position.
By that time all contact with the decks below twenty-five had been totally lost, not even sensors were operational and it was by now far from certain just what was happening, and what had happened to the 200 personnel trapped behind the sealed compartments on deck twenty-four.
Major Jahonis was just about to assemble a search team to “go below” when a sudden pounding echoed on the massive blast doors that sealed deck twenty-five’s ladders shut, the marines snapped their rifles up and formed a disciplined firing line. Jahonis watched anxiously for a moment, his mind racing over the options, or rather so far the lack of options, after a moment more of pause that seemed like an eternity Jahonis switched the com link to the command channel and tabbed the send key.
“Admiral sir, this is Major Jahonis I’ve got a rather loud pounding noise on blast door, oh-five-niner forward of frame 37, I have two platoons with me but I haven’t got a clue in hell what’s coming up and…..” the major’s voice faltered for an instant as he looked around at the young men and women that stood next to him “Sir seal off deck twenty-four and don’t reopen it until you hear from me or my marines, we obviously have a breach and I’ll be damned if I let the bastards loose.”
“Major if I seal those doors you’ll be trapped!” Ross’ voice sounded cold and calm but both men knew how agonizing that thought was.
“I know that sir but if you don’t and whatever is coming up her gets by me we could have a hell of a lot worse problems then 80 trapped marines.” Jahonis’ almost sounded like he was pleading for his superior to seal him and 79 other marines in to where no reinforcements could reach him should anything go wrong. Unfortunately both men knew that this was their only option and after a long silence over the comn Ross’ stern cool voice replied.
“Alright Major, I’m sealing deck twenty-four but you’d better call me back to let you out of there eventually, that’s an order marine.” Jahonis grinned sourly to himself as the com channel cut off, seconds later the sound of blast doors sealing and ladders retracting alerted Jahonis that he and his men were truly alone against whatever it was that was coming at them.

The pounding became louder, almost rhythmic as it continued for the next several minutes; every pounding that kept the rhythm put another massive dent in the blast doors and brought whatever was on the other end one step closer to the waiting marines.
After minutes of anticipation the actual breakthrough happened almost faster then the marines minds had time to register as the heavy blast doors flew off the ladder casing and slammed into the ceiling before crashing back to the deck with an amazing crash, the creature that leapt from the hole shocked Jahonis as recognition dawned, it was the same bastard they had flushed out of the boat bay!
The trooper closest to the breach died almost instantly as a massive “spear” arm drove through his armor and torso and turned his innards into wreckage, the beast that had speared the marine tossed his corpse casually and turned to swipe at another with that spear “arm” but was stopped as dozens of auto-rifles and breacher guns sprayed dozens of darts into the beast tearing gouges out of it’s armored hide.
Even as the marines opened fire on the massive beast several smaller creatures crept their way out of the hole and leapt into the attack, all that is except for one which closely resembled a large snake quietly, almost invisibly slithered it’s way out of the melee, several marines screamed in pain as several of the small ugly creatures sunk 15 centimeter long fangs into flesh and rolled in a terrible rending thrashing bite.
Their larger consort was as juggernaught, seemingly unstoppable as it speared down a marine and swatted another away like she was a toy doll and turned to look for it’s next victims even as explosive darts tore into it’s thick hide.
“Son-of-a-*****!” Someone shouted in pain as their leg was torn open by a fanged creature just before he put a burst of explosive darts through it’s head causing an eruption of gore as the creature tore open.
“Got one!” someone else shouted as the splattering thump of another small creature echoed across the corridor.
The massive “juggernaught” had finally come clear of the main melee and Jahonis winced as he saw the severed head that it was carrying with it’s three fingered hand, he turned his com on to platoon wide and had to keep himself from shouting.
‘Terry, Liza now!” his voice crackled over the com and two marines that had stayed out of the fight stepped forward, Marine Terry was carrying a micro AP cannon, and Sergeant Liza Backowitz carried her own heavy plasma flamethrower, both weapons erupted with hellish light, but the screaming whine of the AP cannon firing shook the deck plates as the AP “ball” tore across the corridor and slammed headlong into the massive creature, the blast of light tore the creature’s gizzard open and it howled in rage and pain as it began it’s march forward, only to be engulfed in the purifying fire of Liza’s plasma flamethrower…..
“Move that flamethrower up!” someone shouted from the midst of the marines that were fighting the smaller nasty creatures whose fangs had already rendered so many bodies into dead lumps of flesh.
“Fall back and reform your lines on me!” Jahonis yelled as he leveled his rifle on another small creature and unleashed a burst of solid darts straight into it’s back, swiftly turning the ferocious creature into a subdued puddle of goop, many of the remaining marines managed to fight their way clear of the horrid beasts unfortunately Jahonis could only watch as two others were dragged down by the small monsters and rend limb from limb in a screaming bloody mass of chaos.
“Damn it, light those *****es up!” he shouted as his heavy weapons sergeant brought her flamethrower forward.
“Aye sir!” her reply came out almost like a curse as she switched the ignition toggle on her weapon from safe to “ignite” and a massive stream of hell’s own fire erupted from the weapon’s barrel.
The blaze engulfed the dozen or so smaller creatures that had survived the marines rifle fire but even that did not seem to stop their sheer desire to kill, as a burning creature hurled it’s self at the marines only to be cut to peaces by three rifles simultaneously firing into it. Even as the fire sprayed forward like divine wrath the marines continued to fire bursts of solid shot and explosive darts into the creatures to make sure non of those still alive got the same idea as their exploded comrade, none of the marines even noticed the snake like creature slithering up from behind them….

“Doctor, Doctor can you hear me?” a soft whispered female voice came from across the darkened sickbay.
“Captain Fowler, is that you?” he whispered back, he was still shaken by the attack that some hideous creature had launched on his sick bay, and his skin turned cold again as he remembered the blood spraying and the flesh tearing apart as it jumped into the midst of the wounded, killing almost all of them as well as two SBAs that tried to stop it, the four marines had barely managed to kill the damned thing before it had finished off the other wounded men and women, the chief doctor didn’t even intend to “hide” per se but as he backed away from the carnage he tripped over something soft and he dare not think further about what it could have been with the limbs and gore flying about, his embarrassed memory came back as he realized he had fallen and slammed his head against the table he was currently lying under and had been knocked out cold.
“Yes Doctor it is, where are you hiding?” her voice came back coldly and Ferrisin felt his face heat as the embarrassment came racing back in force.
“I wasn’t hiding ma’am I just, fell.” he said louder then he had meant and a hissing sound came from the corner of his sickbay
“Be quiet doctor we are trying not to attract attention from those creatures.” her voice was hushed but her tone was clear enough and Fierrisin shivered for a moment.
“Come over here doctor.” at her command Ferrisin rose to his hands and knees and tried to regain some semblance of direction, when he did he immediately crawled towards the voice of his captain.
As he reached an over turned bed he suddenly felt a stabbing pain in his back as two sets powerful hands clenched down on his coat and legs, the doctor forced himself to fight back a yelp of fear and pain as his body was lifted over the bed, as the pain began to fade he felt an even sharper pain as his chest hit the deck plating with a thump, again he gasped as the air was knocked out of him, his fear and panic was almost total until he heard a calm almost mocking voice.
“Sorry doc, couldn’t very well let you stay out there now could I.” the voice sounded familiar but Ferrisin only felt the throbbing in the back of his head and now in his chest and back as well, he managed to roll himself over and saw three marines looking down at him, he rolled back on his belly and noticed the fourth marine, Captain Fowler-who’s leg was still in a bad way- and his two surviving sick berth attendants.
“Don’t worry about it.” he grunted out as the marine who had apparently dropped him patted him gently on the back.
“What the hell is going on Captain?” Ferrisin croaked as he finally felt like he was breathing again.
“Apparently we didn’t kill all the little bastards when we spaced their cutter.” she murmured as she tossed him a dart pistol one of the marines had been carrying.
“What do you expect me to do with this ma’am?” Ferrisin had never fired a gun on a practice range much less shot at anyone.but the sharp glare Fowler shot his way was visible even in the dimly lit “barricade’ that she and the marines had created, again he felt his gut knot as he picked the weapon up.
“I really don’t know how to use one ma’am.” he uttered pleadingly but his captain didn’t even flinch.
“You aim, you pull the trigger it’s that simple doctor, and whatever comes through that door over there is not going to be coming to pay a social call so if something does come through you shoot it, get me?” her voice was ice as she glared at him again.
The nervous doctor managed a ghost of a nod before he turned away from her and tried to get a good look at the sealed sick bay doors, wondering how long they would hold out of something chose to attack them, it was moments later that the pounding began….

“Oh GOD what the hell is it?” a marine shouted as the huge snake like creature snapped up one of his comrades in it’s large fangs, biting deep into the battle armored trooper as blood geysers erupted from the bite wounds.
“Fire!” Jahonis’ voice commanded from what had moments before been the front of the fighting, the disciplined marines obeyed instantly and the whining clatter of auto-rifles echoed off the corridor walls as volleys of fire slammed into the armored hide of the creature, it barely flinched, rearing it’s head back and snapping out at a marine with blinding speed, the same bloody geysers erupted from the chest but unlike the other marine this trooper had his head caught in the same bite and it vanished in a spray of blood and brain almost instantly.
The Plasma flamethrower roared to life once again, unlike the conventional weapons the other marines were using the flamethrower actually seemed to be hurting the great serpentine creature unfortunately not fast enough as a third marine was caught up in it’s great jaws.
“Get out of my way!” a voice shouted over the din, instinctively the marines jumped clear of the creature as a massive green ball raced forward and slammed into it’s face, searing it’s armored flesh and melting it’s eyes with the fury of a sun. Finally the great beast slumped forward it’s head crashing to the deck, only to be shot by several more bursts of gunfire.
“Alright let’s move below decks and clear out the rest of these vermin.” Jahonis murmured as he stepped forward and rallied his marines around him to go below, to the sealed off decks and clear out the hostile creatures which attempted to take their ship.

“They’re coming through!” Ferrisin blurted as the sickbay doors tore open and a rush of small creatures charged forward, his voice was quickly drowned out as the marines and Captain Fowler opened up on the creatures, killing several instantly, it took the doctor a moment to come back to his senses but when he did he immediately lined up on one of the beasts and squeezed the firing stud of his darter and to his surprise the creature’s head erupted in a spray of blood and brain, dropping it instantly to the deck.
But even as the first wave fell the second came on and then the third, until one of the creatures leapt over the bed that acted as their barrier and dug it’s fangs into one of the marines sending him sprawling across the deck, the sick stench of bile mixing with blood as the marine screamed in agony surprising himself Ferrisin leveled his darter and squeezed the trigger unflinchingly blowing the creature off the wounded marine.
Another scream behind him told the doctor that another one of the marines had been wounded, the gurgling and chocking whale followed by sudden silence told Ferrisin that the fallen marine had just expired. Yet another wave was coming in through the doors even as the last creature that had slaughtered the other marine died as it’s skull was crushed by a marine rifle butt.
For a moment Ferrisin thought for sure he and his comrades were going to die, and it was in that moment that a brilliant green flash tore through the creatures waves followed quickly by the popping sound of “cracker” grenades with their micro-fragmentation charges. The last noise was the whine of auto-rifles as a platoon of marines charged through the wrecked sickbay doors and cut down the vicious creatures left and right. As he saw the marines charge in to the rescue of those survivors in sick bay Ferrisin uttered a brief “Thank God for the marines.” and turned his full attention to the wounded dying marine in front of him, “after all” he thought to himself, “this is the kind of war I fight.”

It took hours for the marines to sweep the ship, and even after the had done that Ross had ordered all hands into vac suits and exposed the entire ship to vacuum to ensure that any of the vermin that may be hiding were sucked away into the blackness of space.

Ross sat in a chair next to the bed where his friend lay, her leg still a mangled wreck of it’s once muscular and lithe form, it was still being repaired by the bone molding treatments and the flesh would be easily replaced with arti-skin until the real skin’s re-growth could be stimulated. Her eyes opened and for the first time in his life Ross realized just how much younger then him she was, this proud tough and smart woman was so weary that she could barely look straight at him.
“How bad is it sir?” she whispered painfully, still to weak to manage her normal voice.
“I’m not going to lie to you Sandy, it isn’t very good, we’re breaking orbit of Valhalla and returning to Icara as soon as possible but we’ve still got a lot of repairs to do.” his voice was soft but strong as he held the wounded captain’s hand.
“How many of my people?” she whispered again
“We lost about 500 people Sandy, maybe more but worry about that when your better.” he patted her hand softly and tried to keep himself looking strong for her sake even though he himself felt her pain at the loss of so many people over what was supposed to be a simple survey of an Imperial world, what Ross was also not telling his injured friend was that he had deployed the survivors of the marine brigade to the surface of the planet to find the population and what they found in the capital city would have turned anyone’s stomach, millions of bodies, thrashed shreds of human beings that had once been Icaran citizens, somehow though even with all that carnage most of the planet’s population had turned up alive, hiding in the mines and bunkers that dotted their world. Unfortunately Duke Tyrol had died leading a brigade of SS in an assault against the main force of creatures, but his death had not come without some success, most of the creatures that attacked the planet were butchered by the Planetary defense forces and SS brigades before the human military forces were over run and driven back or slaughtered, out of 12 SS brigades attached to the planet, including the Midenshield orbital brigade only 2 brigades had survived the battle and one of them was down to two third’s strength.
All in all including the losses aboard Blackbird the tactical officers had guessed that nearly twelve million of their people had died. Ross patted Fowler’s head gently again as she drifted back into the bliss of unconsciousness, while her ship hurtled into the void of warp space to make her long journey back home.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Great chapter. Enjoyed it very much. Keep up the good work!