Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

The other side of the Wall:

President Sajumi sipped his Terran whisky and shook his head with a grimmace, he had led the Anderman Empire and now was a senior partner the Mantisoran Mutual Defense League but today he felt like a child who had been given a gun and thrown into a warzone.
No one had expected those damned Icarans to spread so fast or be so furocious in battle, or so merciless, seven billion people were already dead and hundreds of millions were assumed lost, evacuation ships fled in all directions and unfortunately for them most of them had ended up either warping into the Icaran sector or had run into one of those light raiders of theirs and been destroyed.

Whole worlds were simply gone, it was as if there was a curtain in space, where the Icarans struck successfuly everything just went so quiet, and still no one knew what these Icarans wanted, for years they had remained in their own silent little sector of space until suddenly two Icaran battle fleets invaded the Andermanian empire from galactic North and Galactic south, it seemed so long ago now, by time the messenger sloops had arrived in the Capital city four entire star systems had vanished behind the shadow of Icaran war.

A gentle buzz jerked Sajumi's thoughts back to the present, his granddaughter was on one of those "gone" worlds and two of his three sons were in the Navy which was still trying to recover from their earlier defeats.
Sajumi tabbed a button on his desk that brought a security camera around to face the man at the door, it was General Harold Moore flanked by two Presidential guards and Sajumi felt his throat tighten as he tabbed another key that opened the door.

General Moore walked up to the other end of the desk and snapped a formal salute, the two presidential guards in their pale blue uniforms braced to attention as well but Sajumi waved them off and offered his hand to the General, who clasped firmly in return and smiled glumly.
"I'm afraid I don't come with good news Mister President." Moore's voice sounded haggared and weak but his eyes burned with the same strength and confidence that Sajumi had come to depend on.
"It seems there is very little of that to go around these days Harry, what is it this time?" Sajumi seated himself and offered a glass of whiskey to Moore who accepted gratefully.

"Well sir the confirmed allied casualty list has just gone up to 8 billion, it seems the Icarans dispatched on occupation force to bring an end to the rioting in the former Corian commonwealth and in the process took out four Mantisoran and one Sol Coalition world, the death tole was just over a billion souls, apparently they decided that their StateSec forces are inadequite for taking a planet." Moore downed the whiskey with a sour expression as he muttered the last sentence, from what allied intelligence sugjested the Icaran StateSec or SS was inadequite for taking over planetary targets but the thought of exterminating just over a billion people as if they were nothing of consequence made him sick.
"Were there any survivors Harry?" Sajumi kept his voice from sounding depressed somehow but when the General gave only a half nod Sajumi's heart sank.

"Yeah five light cruiser colony ships made it out with about five hundred million Mantisorans, mainly women and children of course, unfortunately they proceeded through the warp point that we now beleive leads to the Icaran staging system, possibly even one of their home systems, we know for sure two of the colony ships were destroyed because an Empire of Man dreadnought passed the word to the Mantis that they discovered the wreckage, then we lost contact with the dreadnought...." Harold Moore downed another glass of whiskey as he stood and began pacing.
"Sir.....the other three were captured by Icaran raiders, officially we don't know that for sure but those 5 colony ships were hanging pretty close together when they ran from the Icaran occupation fleet and if they were captured by raiders there is hope that at least some of them are still alive." The General suddenly looked years older then he actually was as he continue to pace.

"Anything else troubling you Harry?" Sajumi asked, half dreading the reply as the other man's back streigtened and he clasped his hands behind him.

"Mister President I'm afraid allied military losses are also increasing, we've lost 23 Sol Coalition cruisers, 8 Mantisoran super dreadnoughts, 3 EOM dreadnoughts plus one missing and presumed lost, and the entire 16th allied fleet which consisted of 5 Andermanian superdreadnoughts and a monitor.....that's not including the loss of over 20 allied swift colony ships.....taken into account that the Icaran Empire's population is larger then that of the entire Mantisoran Mutual Defense League and we are talking some bad numbers." The General just about collapsed onto a big sofa and covered his face with his hands in thought.

"It sounds like you say we're losing this war Harry, is it really that bad on the front?" Sajumi folded his hands and rested his elbows on his desk.

"Sir the only reason Icara hasn' totally destroyed Andermanian space is because we hurt them, not as bad as they've hurt the allies but they are operating hundreds of light years away from their shipyards and population centers, we can hold them at bay right now, prevent them from advancing and destroy their combat assets but in the end if they gain enough of a foothold here....we couldn't beat them, they have more warships and more experienced crews, not to mention the fact that those bastard Dark Star alliance people keep raiding Allied worlds which means we have to dispatch warships to retake or protect those worlds." The General's eyes watered as his voice cracked slightly, no military leader ever wanted to admit the possibility of defeat, especially not when it meant the fall of not only his nation but of an entire alliance of nations.

"The war is not all bad news sir, at least as far as the alliance goes, in some sick twisted way it's actually benefiting the other nations that we are the ones under attack so heavily...." Moore cocked an eyebrow at his President's baffled expression.
"It's simple sir, we, the Andermanians have lost five systems to the Icaran advance, the Earth Corps alliance has lost three and the Mantisorans have lost one, they've lost a lot of ships and a lot of people but nothing they haven't been able to rebuild in the past year." Harry frowned again for a moment and pulled out a peice of paper.
"Well because of the Icaran's focusing on us the Mantisoran Navy has taken over five Icaran occupied systems, and is in the process of taking out the Nian system which is only a small advance but still it's something, and they've promised to send battlefleets to aid our navy when they've finished of the Icaran presence down there." Moore winked as Sajumi shook his head with an almost amused chuckle

"Of Course when Mantisoran ground troops retake our fallen worlds they'll be more then happy to protect and add to their own territories." Sajumi shook his head again.

The two men talked for hours and when General Moore left both men had to figure out how to keep the Andermanian people from collapsing into a depressed and fatalistic mindset, even though neither of them saw any hope for their nation to win the war their only hope seemed to be that they may be able to keep the Icarans at bay for at least a few years more which would hopefully give the damned Mantisorans time to actually come to the aid of the rest of their "allies".

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

2435.9 Changes in Policy
Admiral Tyson Babcock woke in the middle of the night as the com unit howled an emergency code, he became alert almost instantly as he recognized the sound and rolled out of bed.
As he fastened his robe he tabbed the controls and a very concerned looking Commodore Carla Sanchez appeared on the screen.
“What is it Commodore?” Babcock asked, slightly startled by the disheveled appearance of the normally vein Commodore.
“Admiral somehow the Andermanians slipped a strike fleet past our pickets and attacked Ulda Frey XII, the planetary garrison was overwhelmed in a matter of hours and the governor barely managed to get a distress call off before the Anderman shock troops broke through his villa’s security forces.” her voice was almost as unkempt as her appearance but Babcock barely took note of it as his mind raced over where the enemy could have come from, of course the 3rd fleet was supposed to have been deployed months ago but the new Praetor had chosen to hold them in reserve “for the time being” which meant that the entire crusade had come to a blazing and inglorious halt, sure the 1st and 2nd fleets could drive into enemy space but they’d leave their newly conquered worlds open to being retaken as the Alliance forces came up from behind, the 3rd fleet and Fleet Admiral Ross were supposed to engage the enemy at another point, so that the other 2 fleets could advance but Praetor Rodrick had instead deployed a farce of a ramshackle fleet called “The 4th fleet” with nothing but shiploads of State Sec troopers to put down the rioting Coria systems…..and now Babcock had to pay for that, his exposed rear had just been attacked and now he had to turn around and strike back or let the entire system fall.
“Alright Carla, this could be a good thing, they were able to capture the planet so they didn’t glass it which means we can retake it, how big is the enemy fleet from our best assessments?” Babcock folded his arms in thought, intel flights had located a 95 ship fleet in Andermanian space, and Babcock just hoped to God that this wasn’t that fleet.
“Sir it looks like seventeen ships of the line, including two monitors as well as a single assault carrier.”
“Alright then the only thing that worries me are those monitors, they’re a lot bigger then anything we’ve got, but we can deal with this, order all of our repair and troop ships left behind, I don’t want to risk exposing them to any fire if it’s not necessary I’ll pass out the orders for the fleet to get moving in fifteen minutes.” The woman on the other end of the screen saluted, Babcock returned the salute and cut the circuit as he rushed to get his uniform and vac suit on.

Less then three hours later the 1st fleet, minus is transports, minesweepers and repair ships, was closing the range with the enemy strike group, to the amazement of Babcock and every other senior officer in the fleet the vastly outnumbered enemy force continued to close the range, everyone had expected them to turn about and flee yet whoever was in command of that fleet was determined to fight, apparently even if it meant his or her death as well as those of tens of thousands of others.
“Enemy fleet is going to get into firing position first Admiral.” the tactical officer of the watch announced as the main plot showed the enemy formation and his own fleet closing in on one another.
“Fighter launch, I count one zero six enemy star fighters.” Another voice sang out from the tactical section.
Babcock tensed, balling his hands into fists around the arm rests of his chair as the two fleets closed, there was really no tactics involved in an engagement like this it was going to be quick and bloody, with two monitors in their fleet the Andermanians would take out some of the Icaran warships but the return strike would be all it took to end the battle just because of the sheer weight of numbers the Icarans held.

The opening volley was devastating, the Andermanian monitors unleashed a broadside more powerful then that of any Icaran warship on scene and did so with devastating effect, two Icaran super dreadnoughts vanished in fire and wreckage as the broadsides sliced through their shields and armor like a sword through paper, the Wildcat was wrecked and drifting after the remaining guns of one of the monitors sliced through her with incredible ease reducing the massive once proud super dreadnought to a flaming hulk as she slowly drifted away.
The Icaran super dreadnought Typhoon vanished in fire as enemy capital ships unleashed hell into them, fortunately for the Icarans the Anderman navy lacked the “talisman” project’s technology and because of the extreme range they were firing from a great deal of their energy beams lashed out into space harmlessly.
Unfortunately for HMS Renown two enemy super dreadnoughts focused their fire on her, and though most of their shots missed her enough struck home to render her a nearly crippled hulk as energy ripped at her with terrible fury.
The super dreadnought Hades was less fortunate and exploded as her reactor core breached.

“Admiral we are in optimal firing range!” the tactical officer blurted as the Icaran battle fleet finally had their chance to strike back.
“Open Fire all ships, and make sure you kill those damned fighters!” Babcock spat the word fighters like it was a curse as he watched an enemy fighter squadron cripple HMS Dreadnought.

Space it’s self seemed to freeze for a moment as every Icaran starship in range fired their broadsides at the Anderman fleet, it was a moment that made the blood run cold as nearly a hundred energy beams all guided by “talisman” technology stabbed into the Anderman fleet, wreaking death and havoc among the Anderman with such ease that the previous moment of devastating fire brought down by the Anderman seemed like a mere spark of fire.
Not a single Anderman ship or fighter survived the multiple broadsides brought to bear upon them and in barely six minutes of actual fighting the entire battle had ended along with tens of thousands of lives.

The battle did not end there however as it took two Icaran regiments to retake Ulda Frey seven, and the losses on the ground added hundreds of Icaran dead and nearly three thousand Anderman dead to the total losses suffered.

The Imperial Palace:
Praetor Rodrick was nothing like his father, where his father was slow and methodical Rodrick was daring and quick to act, where his father had let the wars brew for decades Rodrick intended to finish them in ten years or less, though he knew that goal may be too much even under his more military oriented mind. And there had already been controversy, such as his holding the 3rd fleet back from the assault on the Andermanian alliance, and the Praetor himself knew that many said it was because he was afraid.

Whatever the rumormongers said he had held the 3rd fleet back not because he was afraid but because he had another plan for them, for too long his father had allowed worlds controlled by the enemy to remain free within the borders of the Empire, and now was the perfect time to bring an end to that and at the moment the only force available for this particular goal was the 3rd fleet. When the five swords storm trooper divisions were formed the 3rd fleet would be released to cleanse the Anderman territories with the 1st and 2nd fleets.

An older looking woman sat across the table from Rodrick, a grim expression upon her face as she read the newest report from the battle of Ulda Frey,
“We lost over thirty thousand soldiers my Praetor, and had that been a larger fleet the enemy had employed we may have lost thousands more, perhaps even the entire first fleet.” Grand Admiral Tanya Bright.
Rear Admiral Liza Adair sat next to Bright, her expression equally as grim yet she did not speak as she watched the young Praetor steeple his hands.
“How soon will the 3rd fleet be needed at the front Grand Admiral?” Praetor Rodrick spoke very softly and respectfully whenever he spoke to his advisors, and unlike his father they knew that his quiet respect was sincere, no matter what the previous Praetor’s positive sides were he had a serious lack of respect for his underlings unless they were born nobles, which very few military officers were. And though he spoke softly everyone who met Praetor Rodrick knew that he had an intellect and whit that almost spoke for it’s self.
“Highness to be honest I would have liked to deploy the 3rd fleet two months ago instead of just deploying individual superdread squadrons to reinforce the 1st and 2nd fleets. However I understand why you kept the 3rd fleet back, the storm troopers are finished with their training now and I think we should send them to take over the worlds in our space occupied by the enemy and dispatch the third fleet.” Bright looked over at Adair and quirked her eyebrow as if she expected the young woman to say something, however the intelligence officer simply glanced back at the Grand Admiral silently.

“Alright two months and I’ll deploy them to the front, I’ll let you and Miss Adair select the best target for their deployment and what system would be best to deploy them from.” Rodrick smiled a moment until a he heard a Liza Adair clear her throat politely.
“Praetor if I may, intelligence has already selected a system, though it may cause certain nobles to become irritated.” Adair finally spoke as she looked back and forth between the Grand Admiral and her Praetor.
“Really, why is that miss Adair?” Rodrick said pleasantly.
“The Swift system is the best place to deploy the 3rd fleet to it’s target for many reasons, yet certain nobles in said system, excluding of course the Spartans who consider it an honor, have spoken out against opening a third unclose able warp point into enemy space….especially in their system.” She rolled her eyes at the last statement yet said nothing further.
“They’ll get over it, is there anything else ladies?” Rodrick winked at Adair as she turned bright red, realizing she said more then she meant to on the “certain nobles’
“No Highness that’s all.” the two women said as they both stood and saluted, Rodrick stood and returned the salute, before walking them both to the door and bidding them fare well.

4th battle of Ulda Frey Losses:
HMS Lunar (SD) Destroyed
HMS Typhoon (SD) Destroyed
HMS Behemoth (SD) Destroyed
HMS Hades (SD) Destroyed
HMS Wildcat (SD) 98% destroyed
HMS Renown (SD) 52% destroyed
HMS Dreadnought (DN) 38% destroyed
Imperial Casualties: 32,300 dead
Andermanian Losses: 15 (SD)2(monitor) and 1 Assault Carrier total losses 104,300 dead, prisoners taken 6,100.

Total Imperial Losses during Andermanian Crusade: 135,647 dead, 300,958 wounded




[i]Imperial Wall of the Fallen :Anderman Crusade:"
HMS Anasazi
HMS Blackbird
HMS Catherine
HMS Cairo
HMS Hawkwing
HMS Raven
HMS Samson
HMS Sumter
HMS Tyrant
HMS Warden
HMS Lunar
HMS Typhoon
HMS Behemoth
HMS Hades
HMS Justin
2 Superdreadnoughts who’s names have been lost to history

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Something Wicked this way Comes:
It had been three months since the Andermanian Presidency had declared Marshall law in order to keep the rioting under control, despite the best efforts of the presidency the recent defeats suffered by the Andermanian navy, and the allies in general were leaked to the public and an all out panic was taking place on many worlds, especially on the frontiers where more and more people began to vanish behind the ever advancing Icaran wall. The Sol Coalition, EOM and Mantisoran governments had far better control over their people as they were repoting the numberous victories along their frontiers, however what none of them seemed to realize was that there were still many worlds left alone with no protection deep behind Icaran lines, this is the story of one of those worlds called simply Torque IX by the Icaran military planners it's citizens referred to it as New India, a small world with only two hundred and seventeen million people it was totally defenseless, and would swiftly find it's self on the receiving end of an Imperial invasion.

On “New India” hundreds of thousands flocked to the space port hoping against hope that the Cruisers that were headed for the newly opened warp point would stop off and pick at least some of them up before they left, other citizens prayed in the temples for their gods to protect them while still others raced to the armory to equip themselves with whatever weapons and armor they could.
Word had come in just yesterday that the Icaran 3rd fleet had entered system and that an Admiral William Jefferson Ross was demanding that the Sol Coalition worlds surrender unconditionally. Of course what Ross hadn’t realized was that it had been nearly twenty years since these people had ever even seen a hint of the Solarin government and unlike Icaran worlds which often went decades without seeing so much as an Imperial warship, the desperate citizens of the Torque worlds had been totally isolated from any signs of their government and any food stuffs and goods from the outside galaxy, effectively the citizens of Torque had broken down into their own planetary governments, each independent and some actively hostile towards one another. This state of affairs made surrender practically impossible, because even if one world surrendered it did not mean their neighbors did.
Unfortunately for Tarra Somenev and her family New India was the first world in system that could be reached by the 3rd fleet, Tarra had just celebrated her fourteenth birthday two days ago, and had just blown out the candles on her cake when the new warp point opened. Their first hopes were that a Sol coalition transport fleet would come through and give them food, but the civilian cutters which had approached the warp point were either boarded or destroyed as the Icaran war fleet came through like a hurricane.

That was two days ago now and Tarra’s parents had grabbed her and her six year old brother and run out the door with the other panicking masses and now they were all huddled together at the spaceport waiting, hoping and praying for the six Sol cruisers in system to pull at least some of them out before the Icarans arrived.
Tarra’s little brother was crying and huddled with her parents, Tarra too was huddled with her parents but she felt that she had to act brave for the sake of her brother and parents, she wanted to cry and throw her arms around her parents in fear but she held the tears back and kept from embracing her parents, though she did stay close both because of the cold and the freaks that would do anything to get aboard an evac ship.
“Mommy, Daddy why are they coming here, what did we do?” Jordan asked tearfully of his parents as his little six year old hand grabbed on to his favorite stuffed dog.
“I don’t know honey, they are just very bad people, they don’t want us to be happy and they want to take what we have.” His mother’s voice sounded brave but her eyes were tearful and her hands trembled uncontrollably as she watched her two children as if they would vanish any moment.
Tarra’s father smiled bravely at her when she looked up but he too was obviously terrified, Jordan’s soft voice spoke again, this time oddly optimistic sounding.
“Maybe if I give them Nara they’ll be happy, maybe they are just sad.” His little chin perked up and he smiled bravely as he looked up at his parents, they smiled back and nodded but Tarra only felt her heart sink as she realized no one knew what the Icarans were really like, there had been rumors that any world that fell into their hands was turned into a slave, some rumors had it that the Icarans weren’t even really human….not really but that they were aliens that ate human flesh.
Tarra was about to speak but a loud cry went up from a hundred people at once and the masses of people massed at the spaceport looked up into the royal blue night sky through the dome to see hundreds of lights streaking through the sky like a meteor shower.
“Oh Vishnu protect us they’re here!” Someone screamed, and almost on que tens of thousands of people began moving at once all, trying to get out of the space port and make it to the shelters, Tarra felt powerful hands grab her by the shoulders and screamed in protest until she realized that her family had been shoved away from her in the massive surge of movement.
“Tarra it’s me relax I’m not going to hurt you!” a voice screamed as she sank her teeth into his hand, the young girl whirled around to see Jason Hadrada clutching his bleeding hand and glaring at her, he was a boy from her school that had always joked with her about one day taking a trip around the galaxy with her.
“I’m sorry Jason….where’s my family!” She raised her voice so she could be heard over the throngs of screaming people.
“They were pushed toward the southern shelters, my family was shoved toward the east while I was trying to find medicine for my father, come on we’ve got to get out of here before we’re crushed to death by these idiots!” He grabbed her arm with his non-bloody hand and surprised her again with his strength as he guided her through the crowds, shoving his way through people that refused to yield, Tarra felt another pair of strong hands grab her other arm and screamed as she saw a big man with a strange look in his eyes, Jason whirled along her body with surprising speed and the strange looking man went down in a scream as Jason’s fist crushed his nose causing a geyser of blood to erupt and a nauseating crunch.
Without even pausing Jason began pulling her along again, until the air was suddenly split with an inhuman wail that caused hundreds of people to freeze in place, including Jason and Tarra, the two managed to turn around in time to see a small group of Icaran dropships come screaming in overhead, loudspeakers blaring in several languages
“This is the Icaran Royal Army, you are ordered to surrender, you can not win, surrender and live or fight and die.” the message repeated again even as Jason and Tarra ran for the shelters.
Another ear splitting noise followed moments later, but this time it was no loudspeaker, somewhere the dome had been breached by weapons fire and that meant even now Icaran dropships would be pouring into the city.
“Jason I see my family!” Tarra howled as she caught a glimpse of her father carrying her baby brother with one arm and guiding her mother with the other. Jason didn’t even turn around to look at her as he turned towards her family and started running even faster trying desperately to catch up and not be crushed by the stampeding people.
What seemed an eternity later Jason and Tarra managed to reach her parents and as one group they continued for the nearest shelter.
Meanwhile gunfire and artillery could be heard throughout the city as the Icaran soldiers advanced in a seemingly unstoppable wave, washing aside any planetary militiamen that tried to resist with incredible ease.

Tarra’s family and Jason were almost to the shelter when a deafening whistle split the air, someone screamed and a barely a second later a massive explosion cut into the crowd of people behind Tarra’s family, the shockwave pushed her down and she saw Jason go down with a spray of blood from his forehead. Tarra’s whole body ached and she heard the sounds of militia gunfire and some sort of strange whining weapons that she’d never heard before, the sounds of fighting were drawing closer and she expected at any second to hear another whistle and explosion that would end her life.
After a moment of panic the young girl forced herself to her feet and forced her eyes to focus again, she saw her mother picking up her little brother and her father heading for her, she shook her head and managed to squeak an “I’m alright.” she turned toward Jason and saw him lying very still, blood still gushing from an open cut in his forehead, her father quickly noted where her gaze had fallen and ran over to the young boy and gently picked him up to carry him to the shelter.

As Tarra’s family and a few others managed to claw their way toward the shelter the young girl had to force herself not to look behind her as the awful smell of burned flesh, and the groaning or screaming of the dying battered her senses.
When the shelter doors closed the young girl and her family felt as if they were entering a tomb, and to her sickening horror Tarra turned briefly to see the mangled blood soaked concrete where just moments ago hundreds of people had been, including some people that were just her age, the shock overwhelmed her and she felt her head swim as everything went dark and she passed into merciful blackness.

It was the sound of a breaching charge that woke Tarra, followed by the sound of screaming and crying as a second breaching charge blew the doors of the shelter apart, and figures in dark green armor carrying some sort of rifle Tarra didn’t recognize charged in with amazing speed.
Some of the startled inhabitants of the shelter stood up only to be clubbed down by a rifle butt, or dropped by a kick, an old man next to Tarra stood up and screamed something she didn’t quite understand but his scream was cut short by a gurgling choke as one of the Icaran energy weapons spat a green ball of light straight through the old man’s chest.
Tarra screamed as the body fell over her, her mother threw her body over Jordan and her dad threw himself over her mother, as her own body was protected by the dead old man lying on top of her.
“Everyone cease resistance or we will use deadly force!” one of the armored figures shouted.
“Alright alright for Vishnu’s sake don’t kill us please!”
“We won’t fight, I swear on my wife’s head we won’t fight!” people shouted and prostrated themselves before the Icaran soldiers.
Tarra felt a surge of terror as she saw two soldiers walk over to her and her family, but to her surprise one of them gently lifted the old man’s body off of her and pulled out what appeared to be some kind of medical device.
“Hold still young miss I just want to make sure your unhurt.” The soft masculine voice surprised her and she tried to rise only to have an armored hand gently push her back down.
“I’m not hurt please let me see my family.” the young girl felt tears swelling in her eyes and her tone was pleading and sobbing, the Icaran soldier nodded slightly and helped her to her feet.
The other soldier was standing over her family, trying to convince them to get off their son before they crushed him, Tarra ran past the Icaran and hugged her parents “It’s okay Ma’ dad please get up before you hurt Jordan.” she said tears flowing freely as she spoke.
After a moment of shock her parents did as the Icarans and their daughter pleaded and got off the squirming little six year old and rose to their feet.
“Name, age, and size of family.” The one soldier said as the man that had tried to check Tarra out knelt down to check out her little brother for any injuries.
Tarra absently heard her mother and father speaking as she desperately tried to find Jason Hadrada, the boy that had saved her life and reunited her with her family, when she saw him being carried off in a litter by two Icaran soldiers she broke down again and collapsed to her knees crying.
A female voice came from behind her “Hey your going to be alright young miss, no one here will hurt you.” Tarra turned and felt an odd sense of shock when she saw a girl that looked about sixteen standing over her in an Icaran uniform that had an emblem of a spaceship with an eagle clutching a wreath with a lion in it upon her left breast.
“Come on now you’ll be okay.” the girl said again and knelt down beside Tarra, somehow the young New Indian expected the other girl to turn into some kind of monster and devour her any moment now but instead the Icaran placed a gentle gloved hand on her shoulder and smiled solemnly.
“What are you going to do to us?” Tarra managed to get out through her shock and fear even though she dreaded the response.
“Well that’s up to high command, but we’ve been ordered to annex you folks into the Icaran empire, congratulations young miss your now an Icaran.” the navy girl answered jovially before standing and hurrying off to some other task.
Tarra walked over to her family as the two Icaran soldiers turned to walk away and stopped dead in her tracks as her little brother spoke
“Excuse me mister….”he blurted, causing the two Icarans to pause and turn around, young Jordan walked over cautiously yet bravely and looked up at the two soldiers bravely and reached out, his favorite stuffed dog Nara in his hands.
“If you want Nara you can have him…”his little voice was brave and he managed a ghost of a smile as one of the Icaran soldiers took the stuffed dog and knelt to be “face to face” with the young boy, even though the soldier’s face was not visible through the breather mask and visor.
“I tell you what young man, we aren’t allowed to keep pets on our ships but you can watch him for me okay.” the soldier handed Nara back gently and patted Jordan on his head before standing up to leave.
“What about food and water!” someone shouted and one of the Icaran Navy personnel stepped up and raised a mic to his mouth to amplify his voice over the crowds of crying and some shouting and angry people.
“You are all going to receive ninety day rations after that your should be responsible for yourselves as you have been for the past few years, you are now Icaran citizens and will be treated as such, a noble will be sent to rule over you in the name of the Praetor and you will be treated well, do not fight us and you will be treated as citizens, fight us and we’ll have no choice but to drop SS brigades on your world and have them enforce a Martial Law.” The Naval officer turned toward the shelter doors and nodded to another man wearing a Naval uniform.
“You will be processed and organized by our soldiers, after that you will be led out of the shelter to the city square for indoctrination before being permitted to return to your homes, those of you whom were wounded or are suffering illness will be taken to ai stations, please remain calm and orderly and you’ll be back home in a matter of hours.” this time the Naval officer spoke softly as if to fellow countrymen instead of conquered people, after that he began answering some of the questions that people shouted at him, but Tarra didn’t much care as she ran over to her parents and younger brother to hug them.

The Icaran occupation lasted only two weeks and the soldiers of the 3rd fleet were replaced by those of the Icaran “Home Fleet” and their storm trooper regiments, during that two week occupation Tarra found out that she and her family should be glad they did not make it onto the cruisers that were evacuating the system, apparently the fools had tried to engage Icaran starships at the other end of the warp point and were destroyed along with twenty four million people. Though she was surprised to admit it Tarra had also found that she liked these Icarans, she had gotten in touch with that girl from the shelter and found out her name was Jenna and that she was just a year older then Tarra, she had talked to Jenna a lot over that week and found that she and the other young girl had a lot in common.
Jason Hadrada had recovered from his injuries and been returned to school and his family the day after his injuries, his family and Tarras got together for dinner a few times after his recovery and spent hours talking and laughing with one another.
Tarra was a little depressed when she found out that by Icaran law ordinary citizens were not permitted space travel unless specifically ordered by the Noble, or unless enlisted in the Merchant fleet but after talking to Jenna for the two weeks she and Jason had decided they would join the Icaran navy when they were old enough and oddly though there was some bitterness and resentment on New India over the Icaran conquest and the four thousand people that had died for the most part the New Indian populace felt that not much in their lives had changed, after all they had been an independent state with no real allegiances for a long time and in some ways the Icaran conquest simply meant more access to food and interstellar trade once again.
Tarra did find the schooling system of the Icarans hard to get used to and figured it would still take her a few more months to adapt much less get into the physical condition that was required to be a “proper” Icaran student and that neural education net of theirs was just baffling to the New Indians and even though Icaran teachers were left behind to help the native teachers figure the technology out it would still take a while for the children to get used to doing “12 hours” of school in less then four hours of real time.
Though Tarra did hate one thing about the Icaran society, the uniforms that she had to wear to school were definitely not fashionable and even though Tarra was considered a beautiful girl by New Indian standards she still liked getting to wear makeup and pretty clothing, but no longer would she be able to wear any of that at school, and in fact she was stunned to hear that not many Icaran common women wore makeup at all much less every day.
The occupation was not all pleasant however as there were a lot of protesters and people who tried to start riots and free themselves from the “Icaran oppressors” though what they actually thought they would accomplish was beyond Tarra or her family, the Icaran empire was hundreds of worlds with hundreds of billions of people and had conquered their world in a single day and it seemed obvious even to a fourteen year old girl that even if these idiots drove the Icarans off New India they would be back and retake the world in a heartbeat, assuming of course they didn’t destroy the colony outright like she heard they had done to others who had rebelled or caused to many casualties to Icaran forces.
Even the young people at Tarra’s school knew that nothing in the Torque system would stop the march of Icara and that any who resisted would just end up being crushed, it was only a matter of time before the entire Torque system was Icara’s and no one on New India who had survived the battle and seen the speed and brutal efficiency of the Icarans doubted it.


OT: Hey all I am proud to announce that the SE story has grown so large I've created a second MS word file to hold it so that i don't have the incredible lag factor caused by over 200 pages of text.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

SH, I know the Icarans aren't a straight Nazi port, but still:

No offence, but.....



And if I read all this correctly you've switched sides and are playing the Andermanians now?

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

LOL no I've been telling the story from different POVs throughout the story and when it's going rather slow from an Icaran storypoint i tell it from the guys on the receiving end of the conquest, as well as the fact that these were Sol Coalition citizens anyway.

And I've said it before and I'll say it again SS=State Security, alternate history, and sooo far in the future they'd probobly would have forgotten about SS from Nazi era anyway.....and not ALL SS were the prison guard or death squad units anyway some (can't remember what they were called at the moment) were just elite multi-national soldiers.

And besides that why are letters turned evil because of some asswipes who were did evil things, I mean people still name their kids Adolf in Germany and folks still call the Airforce Luftwafa (SP?) the simple fact that bad guys used lettering naming does not mean that it has to always be trademarked to them.
If anything you can look at it as taking the letter S back for someone who's no evil http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

2436.4 The Alliance Fractures:
It was a bright sunny day on Icara when the shuttles carrying the Christiran and ECA ambassadors landed at the space port, a thousand army soldiers and two State Security brigades had been turned out to escort the two men and their entourages to the Imperial Palace.
The two ambassadors were loaded onto separate APCs and placed in the center of an armored brigade as the procession of troops and vehicles proceeded down the miles of streets from the spaceport.

The trip its self took only thirty minutes but once the APCs and their escorts had reached the sprawling palace grounds an armored column under the control of the Praetor’s own regiment took control of the APCs and their passengers and after thorough inspection continued on until they reached the very gates of the Palace.

Praetor Rodrick the second sat calmly at his desk as he watched the holo display on his desk as images of the two Ambassadors as they were led to separate waiting rooms, a moment later a quiet knock on the door pulled Rodrick’s attention away from the display. The young Praetor looked up with a smile as his assistant; Lieutenant Sally Reece walked in with a folder under one arm. She was a few years older then he and was absolutely stunning to the young man, even though he never saw her in anything but the drab green and gray army uniform. She smiled back and handed her Praetor the folder.
“The two ambassadors are here sir, they say they will only speak with you however, these are their files that the Shadow daggers were able to pull, would you like me to summarize highness?” she said sweetly.
“Sure Sally.” He said as he opened the folder and flipped casually through the flexis
“We believe the EAC has become disheartened with the rest of the alliance that we previously thought was dominated by the Andermanians, apparently it’s actually a Mantisoran alliance and though the Mantys have the largest military force of their alliance they have not provided aid for any of their fellow members against us. The ECA has suffered crushing losses against the 2nd fleet and apparently has had enough, they are probably here to try and negotiate a treaty, however the Intelligence service believes we should settle for nothing less then absolute surrender.” Sally smiled again as she saw the smirk on Rodrick’s face, the Shadow Dagger agents that had gotten into the Mantisoran Alliance members had suspected that the Earth Corps wouldn’t last much longer, their economy was collapsing because of the burden placed upon it by the military requirements of the allies.

“Okay so that’s what he’s here for what about the Christiran Republican, we haven’t had much contact with them at all and we know they aren’t members of the Manty alliance.” Rodrick asked as he tossed the ECA fleci aside.
“Sir the Mantisorans have been taking advantage of their war against us to annex territories within Christiran space, the Republic’s own military has been caving in under the pressure, odds are they’re coming here to seek Protectorate status, again the Shadow daggers believe we should force them into a complete absorption into the Empire thus bringing two Star Nations into the Empire without a shot being fired.
Reece briefed the Praetor on each of the ambassadors that was waiting in the palace and exactly what the Empire held over their respective nations, by the end of the day both the ECA and the Christiran Republic were forced to sign “treaties” that amounted to nothing less then absolute assimilation by and surrender to the Icaran Empire. That day over a hundred billion people and over a hundred new starships were added to the Empire.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

The story is coming along nicely IMO. I like the characters and the development of them so far (although I've kinda' lost track of some of the earlier characters.)

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

"Where are they Now"

Okay Rdouglas here's where the "early" main characters are:

Sandra Fowler (killed in battle along with her entire SD division) I was actually very said to let her go but I promised myself that if a main character's ship is destroyed then I wouldn't always have them survive heroically.

William Jefferson Ross: He's in command of the 3rd fleet which combined with the 1st and 2nd fleets has gone on the offensive against the Andermanian Alliance, His fleet actually will have a chapter about a recent battle, for that matter so will the 1st and 2nd as since i've stepped up the offensives once again I've had quite a few battles.

Yu Lin Pe/Ross: She's currently in command of the home fleet which is tasked with retaking the worlds posessed by other nations within the Icaran Empire's borders, she's also in command of the 3 Stormtrooper regiments assigned to the Home Fleet.

Praetor Leonidas: He's dead, killed in a nova in the Sadalmelek system while on an inspection tour of the conquered provinces. His son Rodrick is now in charge of the Empire.

Tyson Babcoock, still in command of 1st fleet you'll be seeing him again very soon as the 1st fleet had a space battle that i'm going to post up.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Thanks for the update.

Yay! I like Rodrick better. I'm very interested in whether he's gonna' be a good guy or bad guy. At this point he could go either way IMO. I like that; makes for an interesting character IMO. The ol' human emotional conflict and all that stuff.

Thanks for some good reads.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

2436.9 Bloodshed in Starlight
The orders from the Praetorian palace had arrived just two days ago and Admiral Patrick Raley, commander 2nd fleet hadn’t slept since, the orders were clear, the 1st 2nd and 3rd fleets were to retake the offensive and begin invading even further into Andermanian territory.
The 2nd fleet was currently holding position in Gamma Omicron, where Raley was supposed to rendezvous with the three dozen or so former ECA superdreadnougts that were currently undergoing refit, Raley found it strange that their first station had been in H’Athor system, until the orders came down to leave, which was oddly perfect because less then a week after the 2nd fleet had left the system it’s sun mysteriously went nova and turned the entire system into a nebulae, destroying 86 Andermanian ships and killing over a billion former ECA citizens in the process.
Raley suspected that the “incident’ was a shadowdagger operation of some sort but one did not investigate such matters if one wanted to remain in the light of day, and besides that at least whatever happened his fleet and his people had been spared from it.
An ear piercing shriek jerked Admiral Raley out of his chain of thoughts and caused him to nearly fall flat on his butt as his chair swung out from under him as he jerked to his feet and ran for the com panel.
A worried face appeared on the screen a moment later and Raley’s heart leapt into his throat as he caught a glimpse of the tactical plot behind the young woman on the screen.
“Admiral please come to the bridge, we have an Andermanian battlefleet in system, we count only 15 but we have strong reason to suspect cloaked warships in the mix, either that or they have the biggest balls of any Andermanian fleet I’ve ever seen sir.” The young woman blushed slightly as she realized she had said the latter statement aloud.
“Alright Ensign thank you I’ll be right there, and your damned right that if they don’t have a cloaked contingent with them they’ve got balls the size of New Icara.” Raley grinned as he switched off the com and went to don his vacsuit.

A few minutes later Patrick Raley emerged into the controlled chaos of a Warship’s bridge as it’s crew prepared for battle, Raley noticed with pride that though the bridge was chaotic the disciplined silence of an Imperial Navy crew.
His fleet and the enemy’s were on a constant acceleration towards one another which tended to confirm his suspicions that the enemy had some cloaked warships with them, no commander, not even an Andermanian would charge a fleet that was over five times their own size unless of course they were suicidal or had some vastly superior technology which was unlikely.
The two fleets continued closing in on one another for over six hours before the Andermanians finally tipped their hat.
“I have 24 ships decloaking dead ahead Admiral!” The chief tactical officer sang out as the master plot lit up with 24 new objects, all armed super dreadnoughts….so it was a trap after all, Raley thought to himself as he watched the range marker tick down.
“Estimated time to Weapons range tactical?” Raley said calmly as he returned to his command chair and adjusted his vac suit.
“Three zero seconds sir, but they’re going to be moving slow enough by that point to fire their weapons while we still finish our deceleration maneuvers.” The tactical officer said grimly, in this era of I-Laser weaponry getting the first shot of in a battle could easily mean the difference between life and death, for at least some of his people today was going to be their last and it was going to end before they were even in firing position, somehow Raley felt as if he had failed his entire fleet, because if everyone of those ships had I-Lasers then at least 15 of his ships would be destroyed.
The range quickly dropped and space erupted in a light show as the entire Andermanian task force opened fire at once, HMS Ferret and HMS Reverence were torn apart almost immediately though Reverence got lucky and managed to eject a handful of escape pods from her wrecked hull before what was left of her power plant went critical and turned the once proud starship to nothing but a cloud of debris.
“Admiral Imperius is breaking apart, she’s ejecting life pods, Zander as well.” The com officer’s voice was almost robotic in its professionalism but Raley could also hear the bitter tone as he watched yet another light code wink out, this time it was Grasshopper followed swiftly by Force of Arms and Alora even with this grotesque display unfolding on his screen Patrick Raley could not help but feel his spirits rise as he realized that the majority of the enemy’s warships were equipped with nothing more powerful then old style Anti-proton beams, by their power it looked like it was 12th generation but they were still no where near as deadly as I-Lasers would have proven.
“Admiral we are in firing position all gunnery crews have targets.” The tactical officer sang out.
“All guns, all commands open fire, I repeat open fire!” Raley had to force himself not to scream the order as he could finally bring an end to this intolerable abuse his ships were receiving, unfortunately it was too late for Hispannia II as her hull was burned and torn by anti-proton beams, her sole remaining engine put the last ounce of energy that she had into accelerating the battered ship away from the battle.
The Imperial counter fire was far deadlier for both weight of guns and the fact that the entire Imperial 2nd fleet was I-Laser armed, in short order the Andermanian battle line was turned into expanding spheres of Plasma and wreckage as the I-lasers tore through hull and shield like a wolf through a sheep’s hide. Seven Andermanian combat superdreadnoughts survived long enough to score a second salvo against the Icarans and Katana vanished in a ball of fire as Andermanian I-lasers rent her hull, Enchanter was set adrift as her own hull was shredded by Anti-proton beams, over four thousand of her crew died in the fires and explosions that turned her into little more then a drifting hulk.
The remaining ships scored damaging blows against [/i]California, Hathor,[/i] and Trafalgar as well but nothing as severe as had happened to their comrades.
Raley felt an emotion he had not been aware of before, even as he watched so many of his ships devastated by enemy fire, he felt a swell of absolute hatred, of loathing and contempt for the Andermanian crews and to his shame he felt a near glee as he saw the last Andermanian combat superdreadnought vanish in fire and death. Eight superdreadnoughts remained but they were mere minesweepers and the Icaran guns butchered them like cattle in a matter of moments.
An hour after the engagement that would go down as the First Battle of Gamma Omicron, Patrick Raley knelt silently by his bed and prayed to God for the strength to go on and for God’s forgiveness, Raley had fought in the tale end of the Phong crusades and had seen the bloodshed and devastation wrought by his beloved Empire, and he had known even then that he like all soldiers was a butcher, trained to lead young men and women into battle to kill other young men and women, the Phong were different they were Xenos, not worth tears, but the Andermanians though genetically engineered and considered “Mutants” by the State Church were human and nearly ten billion of them and their allies had died already, yet still they fought on. Raley hoped God would forgive him and mankind for the butchery and slaughter they brought upon one another, and though Raley would never doubt his Empire’s divine right to rule mankind he felt that he would go to his grave with the fear that he had done wrong and that when he met his God he would be branded a murder for eternity.
As the Commander of the 2nd fleet finished his prayer and rose once again to his feet he felt the weight lift from his shoulders ever so slightly, but he also felt his hatred of the Andermanians pass like a cool breeze and found it grudgingly replaced by a pseudo respect, for the Andermanians did what any Icaran would do, they fought tooth and nail, never giving up even when death was the only option, then Raley felt a dread of sorts come over him, Icara found in the Anderman and Mantisorans something they had not encountered in centuries, enemies that would not yield until they’re very nation was broken and dead in front of them, and that meant that this war was just heating up.


First Battle of Gamma Omicron 2nd fleet engages and destroys Andermanian fleet of 31 SDs and 8 Battleships:

Icaran Casualty List:
HMS Ferret (SD) Destroyed (6,100 dead)
HMS Alora (SD) Destroyed (6,100 dead)
HMS Reverence (SD) Destroyed (5,932 dead)
HMS Zander (SD) Destroyed (5,812 dead)
HMS Force of Arms (SD) Destroyed (6,100 dead)
HMS Grasshopper (SD) Destroyed (6,100 dead)
HMS Imperius (SD) Destroyed (5,210 dead)
HMS Katana (SD) Destroyed (6,000 dead)
HMS Trafalgar (SD) 59% damage (1,500 dead)
HMS California (SD) 30% damage (800 dead)
HMS Hathor (SD) 67% damage (2,300 dead)
HMS Hispania II (SD) 89% damage (5,140 dead)
HMS Enchanter (SD) 84% damage (4,560 dead)
Total Casualties: 61,654 dead
Overall Andermanian Crusade Casualties: 197,301 dead

The Remorhaz Front:
Admiral Tyson Babcock and the 1st fleet had begun the invasion of the Cyrilla system and since then they had conquered four worlds, now reduced to three as a Remorhaz squadron bombarded the one from orbit, completely destroying it and in the process killing 26 million of their own citizens.
The Remorhaz People’s Republic had been encountered a few years ago but had proven again and again that they were not worth contact on an official basis, their “Republic” was small and economically bankrupt not to mention technologically backwards as proven by the fleet they had just used to exterminate their own people.
“Sir I count eleven destroyers, three light cruisers, a single super dreadnought and three assault carriers.” The tactical officer reported confidently as she checked her sensor readings once again.
“Excellent Lieutenant then this should prove little more then target practice for our troops.” Babcock folded his hands behind his back and smiled at his crew, the RPR would prove little more then an annoyance to his fleet, and Icara would easily prevail in an engagement with such a two bit nation.

The battle began and ended in a single trade of broadsides, the Remorhaz fleet fired their missiles and broke wide to open the range, the single Super dreadnought in their midst closed in on an Imperial Superdreadnought and used her null space cannons to cripple the Icaran, killing two thousand of her crew in the process, the Remorhazian did not live long enough to celebrate her hit however as the Bear turned it’s wroth upon her.
The Superior destroyed four of the enemy destroyers in a single broadside as did another super dreadnought, the dreadnought Neptune scored her kill on one of the three assault carriers and moments later the last Remorhaz ship had been destroyed, the last traces of their fleet the dozens of escape pods trying to flee the wreckage of the carriers, there were no survivors from the other ships.

Total Andermanian Crusade Losses for Icaran Military: 199,301 dead

The Mantis Front
Admiral William Jefferson Ross watched from the deck of his flagship as Corellian VIII fell to his fleet, his invasion of Mantisoran space had begun with Corellian X and now led to VIII his ground forces had taken the only action of the battles so far as there had not even been a single Mantis warship to engage the 3rd fleet on it’s march to conquest.
Even as Ross acknowledged yet another conquest under his belt in the name o the Icaran Empire he could not help but realized how much he missed his beloved wife, Lin who was even now hundreds of light years away leading the home fleet on a mission of conquest of it’s own against the worlds within the Empire that were held by other nations. It had been nearly a year since he had seen her and he still remembered their last passionate night with a fire in his eye, but for all it’s passion it had still been nearly a year since he had seen Lin in person, held her in his arms and told her he loved her in person. Letters were just not enough and he longed for the day when the wars were all over and he could take Lin back to Icara and start a family with her. His spirits rose as he realized that this conquest brought him one step closer to that goal, and he silently swore that h would not rest until the Andermanian Alliance was crushed beneath Icaran jackboots, he would fight the wars alone if that’s what it took to see his beloved wife again.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

It's time for another Footnote in Icaran stuff!!

Attached is a file containing the 3 Icaran Navy Duty uniforms, army uniforms are pretty much the same except the tunic is green with black trim and the pants are a kacky color.
Marines wear similar uniforms, except for the trim being black and the pants being a midnight blue instead of black.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

2437.2 What Duty Requires:
Star Admiral William Ross, commander of one of three “subjugation fleets” currently deployed by the ever expanding Icaran Empire had fast risen to the epic status of “Champion of the People” as his achievements grew, he commanded the first interstellar warship/explorer in Imperial history and had since taken part in dozens of battles and three Crusades against both Xeno and Human as the decades passed, and now the Empire expected him to win for them yet another conquest, this time it was the Corellian system which fell under the control of the powerful Mantis Star Kingdom.
What the people did not generally know about William Ross was that his conquests and epic victories cost him dearly on a personal level, he had seen thousands of men and women under his command or in his fleets die, he had seen the death of his Wife’s father and the serious injury of her brother that put him planet side three years ago. He was a Royal Navy officer, and by his very nature was a warrior, but being a man who commanded hundreds of thousands of soldiers, spacers, and marines had finally given him the chance to really affect the outcome of the Andermanian Crusade which had engulfed practically the entire galaxy and when that war ended his greatest desire was not glory, promotion or power, it was simply to return to Lin and raise children.
At the moment however Ross sat in the command chair of an Imperial superdreadnought named Damocles in command of a subjugation fleet that was even now bearing down on Corellian II, he had seen two other worlds fall before him with little resistance and Ross hoped and prayed that this time would be like the last, though for some reason he could not explain his gut kept cramping.
Ross watched the planet for a long moment before turning to his com officer and nodding for her to bring up the pre-selected channel.
“4th 6th and 7th divisions are to close on target and lay down any suppression fire required, 3rd division is to hold in reserve, all other formations are to join the main battle line and stay outside of weapons range, 1st Kyra regiment will be tasked with taking this planet…..Godspeed and good luck.” Ross had discussed the invasion plans in depth with his division commanders for the last two days and he knew that he could count on each and everyone of them to carry out their duties without the need for the jibber some commanders would have added.

Time seemed to pass agonizingly slowly as the three SD divisions and 1st Kyra regimental transport approached their target, minutes seemed like hours and Ross felt his stomach cramping with a nervous feeling he had never felt before, something just didn’t seem right and no matter how he tried to shake it the feeling of fear remained and after eight minutes of the assault groups approach not even an enemy fighter had been launched which simply increased his nerves for some reason.
“OH MOTHER OF GOD!” someone blurted and Ross jerked back to the present in time to hear the sound of a gloved hand smacking against someone’s face
“Silence!” the officer bellowed and for a moment Ross was baffled until he looked up at the main display screen and saw a stomach turning sight.
Out of seemingly nowhere dozens of massive purple beams lashed out at the strike force and like some beast of legend they touched upon the entire lead division, the 4th with a fury that seemed impossible…..and indeed would have been impossible for any ship mounted weapons…..as the six lead ships of the strike force exploded and shredded under the fire of the massive batteries comprehension swiftly dawned on Ross.
“Planetary weapons platforms!” he blurted, louder then he had intended, and looked around his bridge to see a stunned crew, and one young enlisted man holding the side of his face where a big hand shaped red mark where the chief tactical officer had smacked him.
“Com, order the reserve division forward, main line of battle is to get underway as well, pass on orders for the strike group to fire on planetary targets as necessary, I don’t care if they have to turn that planet to cinders.” Ross turned to the chief tactical officer and glared a moment, showing his displeasure at the officer’s reaction to the young man’s moment of indiscretion, Ross remembered his first real battle and remembered that he blurted some things he would rather not have, and he knew more then anyone that professionalism must remain, but not at the price of humiliating a man who simply spoke aloud what they were all thinking.
“Advanced forces are returning fire on planetary targets Admiral, reserve division and main battle line are closing in as well but I don’t think we’ll make it before the remaining platforms fire again.” Tactical officer Ramirez said quietly as she read off the numbers on her small tactical plot.
The screens showed a relay from the flagship of the 7th division as the strike group’s surviving ships opened fire on the planet’s surface, trying to carve through the massive shield generators guarding the weapons platforms, the camera suddenly shook and the screen went purple as the planetary weapons fired once again, Cain was visible in the camera’s view as she broke in half like a toy ship as the beams cut into her armored hull with incredible ease. Another flash on screen and a shattered gun turret could be seen drifting into the camera’s range followed by other wreckage.
The 3rd division had finally closed the range and added their own firepower to that of the four survivors from the strike group, moments later the entire main battle line opened fire and completely destroyed the planetary defense platforms as well a several Mantis army bases.
Ross sat back in his command chair, the fleet had obeyed its orders to the letter the second the military bases and weapon platforms were destroyed they had ceased fire but as he sat in and watched the now helpless world just hovering there, it had been there since the dawn of time and yet it was so fragile to the weapons man had created, and on his whim Ross could order the surface of that beautiful blue jewel into a wasteland of death and wreckage, for the first time in his life Ross felt tempted to order just that as he saw the massive casualty list coming in from his strike group, the men and women he had sent in to their deaths…..the Star Admiral clenched his hands into fists and turned to his com officer, fighting everything his heart was screaming at him to do “Order the 1st Kyra to drop immediately take out any remaining military units on the planet, and execute all local government officials.” Ross ordered harshly.

The battle of Corellian II had been a success and was broadcast throughout the empire as a dramatic victory in the name of the glorious Icaran Empire, yet to Ross it seemed a bitter failure, as the casualty list confirmed his fears, two and 1/3 superdreadnought divisions had been totally destroyed, and because of the sheer power and shock cased by the planetary weapons batteries there hadn’t been a single survivor from the destroyed ships, 85,400 young men and women died in the fifteen minutes that the “battle” had lasted, the single greatest military loss of life in decades and the single greatest loss of ships since the Phong crusade.
That night Star Admiral William Ross went to his quarters and wept as he wrote the general condolence letters that would be relayed to the thousands of families who had lost children, parents, and spouses this bloody day, the computer would fill in the names of the dead and mail them to the appropriate places and no doubt the fourteen ships lost this day would be added to the Imperial wall of the fallen and there would likely be memorial ceremonies on the lost ship’s christening worlds, but still nothing would make up for the loss the families, friends and lovers of the fallen would feel.

Casualty List:
HMS Sao Paulo (SD) (6,100 dead)
HMS Perganum (SD) (6,100 dead)
HMS Cain (SD) (6,100 Dead)
HMS Advanced Carnage (SD) (6,100 dead)
HMS Belenus (SD) (6,100 dead)
HMS Gryphon (SD) (6,100 dead)
HMS Songbird (SD) (6,100 dead)
HMS Mt Mckinley (SD) (6,100 dead)
HMS Santa Maria (SD) (6,100 dead)
HMS Hunter (SD) (6,100 dead)
HMS Lanokota (SD) (6,100 dead)
HMS Kilcranke (SD) (6,100 dead)
HMS Delowese (SD) (6,100 dead)
HMS Nemesis (SD) (6,100 dead)
Total Casualties: 85,400
Andermanian Crusade Casualties: 282,701

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Story above

The Imperial wall of the Fallen:
HMS Anasazi
HMS Blackbird
HMS Catherine
HMS Cairo
HMS Hawkwing
HMS Raven
HMS Samson
HMS Sumter
HMS Tyrant
HMS Warden
HMS Lunar
HMS Typhoon
HMS Behemoth
HMS Hades
HMS Justin
HMS Katana
HMS Imperius
HMS Grasshopper
HMS Force of Arms
HMS Zander
HMS Reverence
HMS Alora
HMS Ferret
HMS Nemesis
HMS Sao Paulo
HMS Perganum
HMS Cain
HMS Advanced Carnage
HMS Belenus
HMS Gryphon
HMS Songbird
HMS Mt Mckinley
HMS Santa Maria
HMS Hunter
HMS Lanokota
HMS Kilcranke
HMS Delowese
HMS Halsey
2 SDs who's names have been lost to history

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

2438.0 The Difficult Decisions
Admiral William Ross of the 3rd subjugation fleet sat in disgrace on his bridge, no one could have expected the Mantis navy to mobilize over a hundred ships so quickly to counter his operations in Corellian but they had, and in a matter of a month had destroyed all three of the other worlds that his fleet had fought for and killed over three hundred million of their own citizens in order to deny them to the Empire.
It had been decided by the Imperial command that the 3rd fleet had failed its mission and that there was no point continuing operations in that region of space, no one could blame him for that but still somehow Ross felt the failure like a ton of bricks on his back, not only had he suffered the heaviest casualties in any single engagement in decades but now he had to make even that costly victory nothing more then ash as he ordered his fleet for the warp point into the Risa system where the warp point back to Lacerta would be opened for his fleet to get out, and then it would be closed for decades at least so that the fabric of space in Lacerta would be safe.
“GFG sails set, warp jump in five seconds, system transition in ten….all hands brace for jump.” The ship’s sailing master’s voice echoed throughout the corridors of the Damocles as the swirling blue warp point grew on the screen, of course the warp point was actually invisible in real space but thanks to Icaran technology the ship’s sensors bombarded the warp point with particles that made it visible to the ship’s visual sensors which then translated the data into a simulated image of what a warp point “looked like”.
For a moment time seemed to freeze as the ship’s sails pulled her into the warp point, then the typical blueish green flash that followed initial pull, all of these Ross knew well but then as the ship returned to N-Space something that hadn’t happened to him in years happened……jump shock, pure bred jump shock which rendered several of his bridge crew, most of whom hadn’t even been born when jump shock was still “just a part of the job” into vomiting quivering masses on the deck.
“What the hell happened Sailing master!?” Ross bellowed as the nausea subsided
“I don’t know sir a massive shockwave followed us through the warp point….” The sick looking sailing master whimpered as he clutched his stomach for a moment as it recovered from the initial shock.
“Sir I’m getting hails from all over the fleet, they all are reporting similar cases of jump shock and a massive energy reading that the sensors recorded during warp jump.” The com officer- a young Spartan man- didn’t even look flustered by the jump shock as he listened intently to the messages pouring in from the 3rd fleet’s startled officers.
“Send a probe back through that warp point before we proceed on to Lacerta.” Ross kept his voice calm and level as he watched his crew quickly bounce back into their duties, and others cleaning up the decks with embarrassed looks. Ross hid a sigh, modern warships never bothered giving out the jump shock injections that he had during his days aboard the old destroyer Enterprise because the newest GFGs rendered jump shock a thing of the past, now the most you got was a slight quirk in your stomach as the ship returned to normal space.
“Admiral! Something’s wrong sir, the probe isn’t showing anything in Corellian anymore, no sun, no planets, nothing!” The tactical officer looked up from her console, clearly shocked by the readings the probe was giving back.
Ross felt his heart race for a moment as he suddenly realized what that shockwave must have been “Run a scan for debris, large asteroid fields that weren’t there before and also….run a reading for thorodon particles.”
A moment passed before the tactical officer looked up from her sensors again “Large amounts of asteroids in system, positive readings for thorodon particles.”
“What are thorodon particles Admiral?” Captain Palmer asked from across the bridge as she put aside a flexi that one of her officers had handed her.
“Thorodon particles, captain, are used in the construction of Anderman Nova bombs, our own nova weaponry leaves behind a nebulae because of the materials used, however the Anderman use thorodon particles in order to completely destroy the system and leave behind nothing but asteroids where once large planets had been.” Ross said grimly as he looked around his bridge and saw the stunned looks on his crew’s face, they had escaped a sun going nova by barely a minute and more then that the fact that the Anderman would kill over five billion Mantis citizens, not to mention destroy 75 warships in the process seemed utterly unbelievable, and it’s implications would likely be felt for years to come.

Birth of a Fleet:
The 5th fleet formation ceremony had been a grand and spectacular affair with dozens of nobles and thousands of commoners and naval personnel turned out to watch the spectacle as the fleet’s massive warships did a flyby in formation. The 5th fleet had officially been formed under Admiral Maria White however in truth for the time being her fleet had no infantry regiments and less then 60 warships, the reason they were formed this soon however was simple, the Riots in Zeerzinbroduch had to end and so the 5th fleet would escort a large transport with 2,000 State Security soldiers in system to put down the rioters.
In reality the 5th fleet would not see combat for at least a year as it must wait for the two infantry regiments currently assigned to their flag to finish training. But once they did the 5th subjugation fleet would join the battle against the Anderman and their allies and sweep aside a path to glory for the Icaran Empire!

Return of a Hero
Admiral Lady Yu Lin Ross and her Home Fleet returned to the Norvor system as Heroes of the Empire, they had pacified Torque with minimal losses to both sides and now waited in orbit of Icara for their next assignment, which would come in a matter of months and which they all knew would be the subjugation of the remaining enemy colonies within the Empire, as well as pacifying the Xeno populace that was still rioting and holding “pro-equality” demonstrations.

The Choices of Poltiics:
Praetor Rodrick the second sat alone in his massive bedroom sipping at a glass of brandy and reading over yet another report, his heart wasn’t in it this time however as he had just given the two hardest orders of his life, he had been forced to order the 3rd fleet into what many would consider disgrace by leaving their post and just this morning he had declared the entire former Christirian republic “expendable” along with the estimated 30 billion people who lived on those worlds. The navy had been ordered not to send any reinforcements or evacuation transports and all communications had been ordered restricted to military and government officials to ensure no riots ensued because of the orders….and all because there were simply not enough warships and troops to devote to the Anderman alliance and to protect the remaining worlds of the former republic.
However Rodrick had ordered the construction of Defender class starbases in orbit of whatever worlds could sustain them, so that they’d have at least some defense against the Mantis fleet that had been taking out former republic worlds one by one.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Several points:

(1) The Icaran Navy uniforms remind me of the British Army circa 1880 (at least as depicted in the two "Zulu" movies).

(2) Icaran losses to long-range fire from enemy weapons platforms: I was impressed by the extra range of planet-based weapons in the stock game until I saw them in action against ships with full defense modifiers (ECM, stealth and scattering armor, ship and fleet training, plus cultural modifiers and additional ship experience). Unless the enemy had the Talisman (not obvious from the story) I wouldn't have expected the platforms to be effective at much more than the max range of the ship-based weapons.

(3) Enemy ships firing first: As mentioned in the "Unknown Critic" thread, in the story it can be awkward to follow the game exactly, e.g. with regard to the game's sequential move/fire mechanics. For example, a sequential game battle can be described as a simultaneous exchange of fire, which saves the author from concocting dubious reasons why one fleet is in range and the other is not, when both mount similar weapons. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

(4) Letters: Presumably the Icaran term "letters" refers to something like "full sensory 3D holovision programs" or such, but to us in the 21st Century the term conjures archaic images of paper-based text (Paper? What's that?). It might be better to translate the Icaran term into something that sounds more high-tech to Starhawk's primitive audience. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

(5) I like the Andermanians even less than the Icarans. I hope they get what's coming to them! Grrrrr! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

1. Yep it's suppsoed to remind you of an old school uniform, as I said Icarans are very "traditionalist" in their ways. And yes I know some folks say Red doesn't look right on a naval uniform but have you seen a 25th century navy? Especially since blue is so cliche

2. Heh yeah these weapons platforms are in devnull which gives them extra range apparently, plus they are massive mounts with Sensors maxed out....and yes all of the losses stated sustained to long range fire I actually lost to long range fire.

3. Okay good point from now on it's either simultaniou or totally explained.

4. Well due to the fact that there are no FTL communications the Icarans do use a system of mail whith "letters" which are either in flexi pad form with text (like a true letter) or in video form on a data cube. As I said though I figured the every day tech of Icara would bore people to death lol.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

2438.1 Fire and Starlight
Rear Admiral Forseti had been given command of the Artemis flight of 6 heavy raiders plus the 43rd SD division to investigate rumors of a Sol Coalition convoy that had just engaged and destroyed a scouting party. This was Forseti’s first command and his nerves were gnawing at him like lynch rats, Vice Admiral White had recommended him for this command just before she had been given command of the 5th fleet a month ago.
“Admiral we’re approaching the warp point, the enemy fleet should be mid system by now so it’ll take us at least a week to catch up, assuming the warships stick to the transports.” Captain Rheinhard Merkatz said as he stepped away from the master plot. The Artemis flight had been reinforced by the Superdreadnought division for this operation because it was decided that the additional muscle might be require to tackle the convoy’s SD escorts.
“Thank you Captain, tell Commodore Saunders that I’ll want her super dreads to form a spearhead in front of the Artemis and the other raiders, let’s try to keep their firepower and armor in front so we can get rid of those escorts as quickly as possible, that’ll allow us and the other raiders to snag those transports and the few hundred million people they are transporting.” Forseti grinned at Merkatz as he thought of the prize money he and his crews would receive for capturing three large transports.
“Approaching warp jump in five……four……three…..two……one…..all hands brace for jump!” The helmsman called out an instant before the lurch that signaled Warp transition.

A moment after transition Forseti flinched as a brilliant green flash lit the screen and suddenly alarms and klaxons howled as if a beast screaming with rage, it took Forseti a moment to regain his senses but when the shock wore off the Admiral saw in his screens two massive Sol Coalition SDs right in front of him and their guns were firing.
“Admiral unknown weapons they’re passing right through our shields!!” the tactical officer shouted over the klaxons and alarms as the screens lit up again this time with the glow of an explosion that could only be caused by a large ship exploding.
The momentary advantage that the Solars had was enough to inflict massive damage on the Icarans, the Decimator had been destroyed in a matter of seconds as null space cannons and then heavy AP weapons cut her apart four of the five raiders had suffered heavy damage and the Sauron was shot to pieces.
Fortunately Commodore Saunders quickly regrouped her division’s survivors and began trading fire with the Solar warships, Forseti’s raiders attempted to provide gunnery support as well but most of them had their sensors knocked apart only Artemis herself scored any hits and her massive I-lasers quickly reduced one of the 6 enemy SDs to wreckage and then disabled two of the three transports with ease.
Beams crisscrossed between the two groups of warships and as another volley of null enemy AP beams sliced into the shields of the Icarans a devastating volley of I-lasers crossed the void and lashed out at the Sol warships crippling one and blowing the rest apart as the Snipe finally managed to score hits with her cannons despite the wrecked sensors.
The battle was soon at an end as the last Sol transport was crippled by the Artemis, the three transports and a single enemy SD were quickly captured by the marines of the 4 raiders who had not been totally disabled however the Icaran victory had come at a high cost, thanks to the initial shock that the Sol forces had on their side the Icarans had almost been destroyed and had it not been for the commander of the Super dreadnoughts reforming so quickly all 12 Icaran ships may have been totally destroyed, as it was however the casualties were still significant, Decimator had been destroyed with no survivors and the Starlighter had lost half her crew and her entire marine compliment, the other ships could claim little better unfortunately and the entire Artemis flight was forced to remain stationary until the 3rd fleet arrived with repair ships and transferred the 5 surviving Superdreadnoughts to Star Admiral Ross’ command.

Casualties:
HMS Decimator Destroyed (6,100 dead)
HMS Imperial (SM) 42% (1,300 dead)
HMS Snipe (SM) 46% (4,100 dead)
HMS Triumphant (SM) 46% (3,800 dead)
HMS Starlighter (SM) 57% (5,000 dead)
HMS Sauron (SD) 42% (2,300 dead)
Total Casualties: 22,600 dead
Total Crusade Casualties: 311,471

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

New Orders:
With Praetor Rodrick’s much more aggressive policies towards the Anderman Alliance the military quickly found it’s self being reassigned to more aggressive positions, the 3rd fleet had been ordered to take the Duroon and Palpatine system’s as well as secure the Eridani Gamma system.
The 1st fleet had been ordered to continue their push into the Cyrilla system and then further into the crumbling Remorhaz Republic and engage their navy as much as possible to destroy their military forces.
The 2nd and 5th fleets were quickly returning to military readiness and when they did their orders would soon come in to begin their own invasions of enemy space while the 4th fleet continued to move it’s SS transports from rioting world to rioting world.

The Goddess Terra:
Admiral Lady Yu Lin Ross of the Home Fleet had been leading her troops against the various upstarts and single planet “governments” that had been cropping up around the worlds of the Sol Coalition and Andermanian alliance that had been cut off from their home Empires for decades. She had heard of one such small “government” on Trammis IX except that State Intelligence believed that this particular world was run by a maniac who called himself the “Prophet of Terra” whatever that meant. Her fleet was currently approaching drop range and Lin was sipping calmly at a cup of coffee as she continued to scroll through the data files compiled on this so called “Prophet” his real name was Johan Von Kepler of the Sol Coalition and the son of a rich merchant to boot, he had come to Trammis on a business trip when the warp points were cut off twenty years ago and had apparently gone off the deep end.
“Admiral Lady we are being hailed by a group calling it’s self the Conclave....they want to talk to the CO of the approaching infidel forces.” The com officer shrugged as she passed on the message from one of her com techs.
Lin felt a slight giggle rise in her throat as she heard herself and her fleet called the “infidel forces”. “Alright put them on coms let’s see what these people have to say.” She straightened her uniform as she stood and faced the main screen.
An elderly looking man-which hinted at a medically primitive culture or a very very old man indeed- wearing a hood came on the screen, he had a thick beard and hid his eyes behind the shadows of the long brown robe.
“I am Father Ezikiel, representative of the Prophet of the Goddess Terra, we are under her divine protection and do not fear you infidels, however if you would turn your backs on your heathen sinful empire and join with us as the fighting arm of her divine will we are always willing to embrace those who seek the embrace of Terra.”
Lin rolled her eyes and forced her self not to sound rude as she replied “Father Ezekiel is it?” the man nodded “Alright listen I have the Icaran Home Fleet and three regiments of stormtroopers under my command, now can begin the invasion of your world at any time, however if you are willing to surrender peacefully and allow yourselves to be incorporated into the Empire then we will not be forced to use violence.”
“Be silent infidel, you who would serve the forces of Satan and betray the Goddess even when her prophet so generously offers you a place within his flock, we will not yield to your heathen ways or be lured by the sinful pride of your empire, now leave this world before you all die!” the screen went black and Lin turned to her com officer.
“Son of a ***** cut you off ma’am.” The com officer shook her head and frowned.
“Well I guess we infidels are just going to have to pay them a little visit, deploy the Star Wolves regiment, tell the Deathwing to stay in reserve in case these fanatics put up more resistance then normal.” Lin snorted irritably as she watched the screen switch views from the planet to the Sword of Vengeance’s launch bays as the hundreds of dropships raced towards their landing zones on the surface/

[three hours later]:
“Ma’am these bastards are insane they’re charging our tanks with freaking suicide bombs even though most of them don’t even get close to us and the ones that do just bounce off the shields……they’re throwing their damn babies strapped with grenades at our infantrymen because those *******s in their “conclave” are telling them their children will be embraced by “terra” and taken to the holy land.” The Stormtrooper commander looked haggard and worn as he made his report.
Lin’s clenched her fists in rage, Icarans had in the past made great sacrifices including suicide runs during the long march but never…..never would they simply throw their children at enemies because some insane bastards told them too.
“Harris…..” she paused and cleared her throat “Harris I want you to find each and every member of the conclave, I want you to find their “prophet” and I want you to bring them to me…..alive if possible dead if it’s too much of a risk for your soldiers.” Her eyes burned with hate as she turned away from the Stormtrooper.
“Yes ma’am, we’ll do what we can, so far I’ve only had injured men they don’t have much in the way of weapons that can kill a man in Stormtrooper armor but we still have to fight back against their “milita” units” Harris said softly as he turned away from his own com screen before cutting the channel.
“Bring that bastard to me” Lin thought to herself as she went back to reading the most recent reports, which had pretty much confirmed what Harris had already told her, these followers of the “Goddess Terra” were insane or brainwashed to such extents that boggled the mind to think about.

The invasion and securing of the “conclave” took two days to complete for the stormtroopers as the fanatical cultists had exhausted thousands of lives in a futile attempt to throw the “infidel demons” off their precious world. And as she had promised Lady Yu Lin had all seven members of the conclave, and their “prophet’ lined up on her bridge with a camera crew hidden from view and a squad of marines standing behind them. She had the cult leaders tied up and on their knees in front of her as she walked calmly from her command chair to where they were kneeling.
“Gentlemen, you told me that if I resisted your Goddess would destroy me and my fleet, apparently you were mistaken…..”she took a step forward and paused when she noticed the “Prophet” was uttering something under his breath.
“Care to share what you have to say heir von Kepler?” she said coldly, the man’s expression went pale with shock.
“You know who I am?” he said arrogantly as his lackeys looked around at one another.
“Oh yes, and I also know your no prophet your just a merchant’s prissy little brat who decided to play rich man and take over a mining colony for his daddy…..but how you became a so called Prophet is beyond me.”
“I am the chosen Prophet of the Goddess of Terra you *****! How dare you speak to me in such a…..” his sentence was cut off with a grunt as a gloved hand smashed into his face tearing his lip open with a spray of blood.
Lin calmly wiped her bloodied glove on the robes of one of the conclave members and then drew herself back up to her full height, and smiled almost sweetly.
“I am Admiral Lady Yu Lin Ross of His Majesty’s Royal Navy, I am the commander of the home fleet that just conquered you and your pathetic rabble of scum….” She paused a moment, her smile growing even colder and more venomous “I…..heir Von Kepler am your executioner!” she calmly drew her dart pistol and leveled it at the head of one of the conclave members and waited just long enough for the stormtroopers to get out of the way before she pulled the trigger turning the man’s head into splinters in a spray of blood and gore, quickly bringing an end to the life of “Father Ezekial”/
She turned her gun to face the so called prophet but a squeal of terror caused her to pause for a moment as the squirming screaming “prophet” looked in her direction.
“Stop! for the love of God stop! I have information that can be useful to you just don’t kill me!” his voice was shaky and panicky and utterly without dignity.
“Oh, really?” Lin said coldly pointing her weapon towards the deck.
“I know where Earth is…..I can give you the coordinates please just don’t kill me!” the other members of the conclave looked on in shocked silence as their “prophet” squealed and begged like a child.
Lin turned to one of the stormtroopers and whispered “Get the information from him, then shoot him in the head and dump him out of an airlock.” After the trooper nodded she smiled again at the men in front of her, waited for the stormtrooper to drag the “prophet” away by his collar and for the other stormtroopers to line back up behind the members of the “conclave”.
“You gentlemen are found guilty of crimes against humanity, murder and incitement to murder children, conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism, and Heresy, your sentence is death to be carried out immediately….may your souls burn in hell for what you’ve done.” She nodded at the stormtroopers lined up behind the men and suppressed a shiver as the troopers took efficient aim and in sequence squeezed the firing studs on their rifles....

Kepler joined his conclave less then four hours later after he passed on the location of the “sol” system to the Icarans which was where old Terra was “supposed” to be though if it were the true location of Earth or not was just a myth these days after so much information had been lost hundreds of years ago. His stormtrooper guard followed his orders and as soon as the information was loaded into the flagship’s computer a headless corpse drifted clear of an airlock.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

OK I've gotta be honest. A bit shaky. The prophet either actually believes or is a conman. If he actually believes he wouldn't of crumbled at the end, if he's a conman he wouldn't of squared up against an entire fleet.

Or that's how I read it. If your fanatical enough to do all the things he did then the collapse at the end just doesn't seem any good. Of course he'd talk eventually, eveyone does, but to crack just like that... Lets it down at the end.

Still that aside another pair of good chapters. Nice to see your still writing.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

To be honest the end was a little rushed because I was being nagg about "GET OFF THE COMPUTER!" so I typed out the end and printed it before I had to quit, I probobly should have left it for today to finish though.....that would have allowed for a better end.

I wanted it to end more with the impression that the "Prophet" is a conman but his "conclave" are a bunch of insanely true beleivers and that's why THEY not HE squared off against an entire battle fleet and tried to convert them.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

But it's the prophet who talks to the fleet. So that doesn't hang together.

So here's a slight re-write: Fleet talks to random old man who isn't the prophet. The prophet doesn't speak to infidel say. Goes as normal. When they finally capture the entire conclave in a hideaway in the mountains you have the prophet breaking down then as he's had nothing to do with it, it's the insane true believers acting in his name who did this.

So he told them to stop and talk, but they took it as "proof that even the godess' chosen one has doubt, but the godess will overcome" or some such rubbish. That might hang together better. Just off the top of my head

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

I think you misread, actually the fleet talks to "Father Ezekiel" not the prophet....:) she just knows that the Prophet is actually Von Kepler who was the son of a rich merchant from the Sol coalition.....I may do a rewrite and repost some time however http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif to make it end better....hehe.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

It still doesn't hang together, although I'll admit I did miss-read abit (whoops http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif).

I am impressed at people who can do re-writes, I know I can't. I am too much of a 'Write it and never again' type of person. I think it's a habit I picked up at Uni, too many report subjects I never wanted to even look at again.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

El_Phil writes:

"The prophet either actually believes or is a conman. If he actually believes he wouldn't of crumbled at the end, if he's a conman he wouldn't of squared up against an entire fleet."

That was my first thought: I would have expected the fanatical Prophet to commit suicide (e.g. Hitler) or refuse to cooperate (e.g. many Al Qaeda prisoners).

On the other hand, some Al Qaeda leaders (presumably they're the most dedicated) have reportedly cooperated, and with much less "persuasion" than Yu Lin used. If the Prophet truly believed his Goddess would annihilate the invaders, his faith must have been completely shattered when he was brought before the very much alive "infidel" leader.

Of course in many scifi stories the futuristic societies have advanced interrogation techniques (e.g. panties on the head, super truth serum, brainwipes, etc.) that make resistance futile. As I recall from one of Starhawk's "side notes" on Icaran culture, criminals are brainwiped and given a law-abiding personality. If the Prophet and his cronies could be reprogrammed in a timely maner, the Icarans' new puppets could order an immediate end to resistance.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Not really If those Al Qaeda leaders actually believed they were going to paradise for killing infidels death would hold no fear => no levarage => No talking.

Lots of resistance should have crumbled after seeing what they thought collapsed. Generally religous fanatics are the last to accept the cause is lost. Of course after much sensory depravation/interrogation/torture (delete as appropriate) they will talk. But just a death threat should mean nothing to someone who believes they are going to paradise for doing xxxx's will.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Hunpecked is right in the sense that they would have brainwiped him prior to getting the information and then executing him which again would have been added in there if I had not been in a rush.

As far as the "death threat" it wasn't quite a threat as she blew a guys head off right in front of the "Prophet" just for the hell of it by as far as any of those men could tell, they probobly wouldn't realize that she had done it to the man she had spoken too on the com.

Also the resistance would have quickly claimed a the majority of the truely "faithful" and the brainwashed could undergo a minor version of a brainwipe to clear their porgramming and allow them their senses back.
The remaining faithful would probobly have at least tried to commit suicide or have given up when they realized their "conclave" and their "prophet" were all executed aboard the flagship of the so called "Infidel" fleet.

As it comes ot Al Quaeda/Religious Nut Leaders as many have said Bin Laden does not truely have faith in that he is doing God's work he makes a hell of a lot of money out of his terrorism and as far as he is concerned is running a buisness that just happens to have a higher then normal body count.
Some times those who do not truely have faith in a cult they created or a religion they are claiming certainly know how to exploit those people who do truely have faith.

I was trying to get the point that the so called "Prophet" was exploiting an entire world's fears about being alone in the universe after they were totally cut off from their Empire's people without so much as a skiff to go around, and that he was pretty much figuring that the Icarans wouldn't dare attack a world that throw their own children strapped with bombs at your soldiers.
He didn't really take into account the fact that Icarans have that attitude of "You do us wrong and we are going to come in and break your head open." unlike certain US presidents who have the attitude of "Oh no a bomb lets run away from the whole damn country" LOL.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

El_Phil writes:

"If those Al Qaeda leaders actually believed they were going to paradise for killing infidels death would hold no fear => no levarage => No talking."

Well, if you define "fanatic" as "one who won't talk under any circumstances", then by definition one who talks...isn't one. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif However, I submit that, given the diversity of human behavior, it's possible for a "fanatic" to lose his conviction under a severe enough "reality check", e.g. when the strain of imprisonment is NOW, and "Paradise" of some sort is maybe 50 years away.

So if Starhawk's Prophet is the "talking" variety of "fanatic", his capitulation is understandable. When suddenly whacked upside the head by his own mortality, his human instincts might certainly overwhelm his conscious mind, no matter how disciplined.

Starhawk writes:

"As far as the "death threat" it wasn't quite a threat as she blew a guys head off right in front of the "Prophet" just for the hell of it by as far as any of those men could tell..."

With the Icarans' willingness to slaughter women and children in self-defense, I think the threat of his own death was quite obvious to the Prophet, although it was still an abstract concept. So as I see it, Yu Lin wasn't emphasizing the threat, she was just trying to get his attention. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

:

It could definately be seen that way I suppose http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif afterall it definately got his attention!

And I wouldn't quite put it as "willingness to slaughter" as much as "indiscriminate fire", I mean when you turn an entire planet to molten slag you can't really single out men and soldiers from women and children.

As far as the "women and children" part goes, well Icarans have never seen women as any different then men, at least not in the past 6,000 years of their history, so marching into a town and shooting down any resistance man or woman isn't considered any different then a "normal" military marching in and shooting all male resistance down.
As far as Children go again they didn't quite "slaughter" the children so much as shoot them down to keep them from killing others since their parents were throwing them towards the soldiers.
And killing their parents didn't seem immoral by their standards because if you throw your kid as a bomb or encourage them to go suicide themselves on others then you really don't deserve any sympathy or mercy.

I hate to make a modern comparison like this but say if Icara had invaded Iraq instead of the United States or England, Icarans would have burned Faluja (sp?) to the ground or flat out bombed it with a few thousand artillery peices.
Anyone seen celebrating terrorist attacks would be executed and if it was a whole town it would pretty much be bombed into non existance.

As i said once before Icarans are brutal where brutality is required and they don't much care about YOUR collataral damage since you were the ones resisting to begin with hehe.



YAY I posted a chapter that is actually having some discussion about it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif granted it was not my best chapter....but it wasn't my worst lol and if I do eventually do a rewrite it will be a LOT better!

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

A wee tidbit of a chapter because nothing really interesting happened these last few months other then tiny battles that are ONE broadside deals http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

2438.2 News Report:
“Good evening ladies and gentlemen I’m Lisa Prat for State Channel One news service, Today’s top stories are:
The Janus and Cylla were ambushed on their way to rendezvous with the 5th fleet Janus was destroyed killing all 6,100, Admiral Tanya Bright calls it a tragic loss of life that unfortunately could not have been foreseen by the Navy and mourns the loss of all those lives lost.

Our second story comes from the 4th fleet Admiral Andrew Markowitz led the 4th fleet to victory over 8 Anderman warships destroying them all and capturing twelve hundred Anderman crew who are currently en-route to the military POW camp 107. Adding to this victory a detachment from the 4th fleet engaged and destroyed two more Anderman super dreadnoughts and all with out a single Icaran loss of life

“And now ladies and gentlemen we send you live to the 1st fleet in the Cyrilla system with reporter John LeGuan”
“Hello Lisa I’m here with the 1st fleet which has scored another triumphant victory for the Icaran Empire, the Cyrilla system has fallen and the last resistance is even now being suppressed by Planetary Militia forces, Star Admiral Tyson Babcock informed me earlier this morning that not only did the 1st fleet crush all resistance in this system on a planetary scale but they actually engaged a Remorhaz fleet that had been sent to retake or sterilize all the occupied worlds several months ago. Sadly the 1st fleet did lose a ship in the engagement along with several thousand spacers and marines however the thirty Remorhaz ships that had engaged the 1st fleet were utterly destroyed and enemy casualties are estimated at around twelve thousand.” The young reporter was wearing a modified version of the Navy’s enlisted vac suit which bore the bright blue and white shoulder patches of the civilian news corps, he wasn’t wearing the vac helmet however as the 1st fleet was not heading into any battles.
“John where is the next destination for the 1st fleet, if it is alright for you to say that is.” Lisa smiled into the holocam while she waited for the time delay of the “warper” drones that allowed this form of communication.
Several seconds passed before the reporter on the other end of the line could be heard speaking again.
“Well Lisa, the Caitia system is our next destination as that is where the bulk of the remaining Remorhaz power structure lies, once that system falls the Admiralty believes they can force a surrender on the part of the Remorhaz People’s Republic, however Admiral Babcock has informed me that they are expecting staunch resistance from the remnants of the Remorhaz People’s Navy and says that this particular campaign may take several months.” The reporter paused and looked off screen for a moment nodding in response to someone the camera couldn’t see.
“Um Lisa I’m afraid I’m going to have to end this interview, the “warper” drones aren’t going to have the range to the Caitia system and from now on all FTL probe launches are strictly forbidden unless they are military messenger pods…..I’m sorry.” The reporter paused again as a person wearing a Navy officer’s uniform walked over and whispered something.
“I have to go now Lisa….” The line suddenly went black for several seconds until the view returned to the studio and a baffled looking Lisa.
“Well I suppose that’s all for the major news tonight, stick around for your planet’s local news services to cut in, have a good night…..”

[i](note): A “warper” drone is a civilian modified messenger drone, they create micro-warp points that are totally unstable for periods longer then a few seconds, the drone launches through the warp point, unlike a military messenger the “warper” is designed to both transmit and receive video streams at a faster rate thus allowing a semi-real time conversation to take place.
Military Messenger drones are designed strictly to pass on information and not to enable a “conversation” like a warper drone, making it ten times cheaper and much more expendable by military standards.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

2438.3 They Died Icaran!:
The 4th fleet was hardly what one could consider a “proper” battle fleet it was a hodgepodge of warships that were scraped off of the other battle fleets, nothing emphasized this fact more then the Horatio its long gleaming white spindle of a hull with the hammerheads at either end obviously singled it out from any other Icaran warship in service, for in it’s past life this proud flagship of the 4th fleet had served the Mantis Starfleet as a “monitor” class warship.
The 4th fleet didn’t even have proper infantry support but instead had nearly 10,000 SS troopers assigned to quelling riots in the frontier worlds that had once belonged to the Corian Commonwealth and the Earth Corps Alliance which was in fact the only reason the 4th fleet had even been created and many naval officials looked down on the 4th fleet a as a mere “police detachment” and refused to mention it as a fleet during their briefings.

Commodore Vincent Moriarty was a young man at only 37 but he had risen to through the ranks with amazing speed as he earned a name for himself during some of the early battles of the Phong crusades, he had been on the flag deck of Saber during the first battle against a Phong warship and had been there on the deck of the Retribution when the original 3rd fleet was ambushed at the third battle of Fornax and now he was out on the frontiers quelling mere riots instead of doing what he should be, fighting on the frontlines of the Anderman crusades. Moriarty had been assigned to the 4th “fleet” as a “promotion” from his position as the 14th SD division commander 1st fleet, but as the months went by and he watched report after report of how the frontline units were doing he began to feel his current assignment more as a punishment than a promotion and often wondered which Admiral had given him the “honor” to begin with. To make matters worse the 4th fleet had been stuck “guarding” the Glakka system for nearly a year, which made Vincent feel as if his entire fleet were told “it’s too dangerous, stay here and guard the car.” So here he was “guarding the car” with 9,100 SS troops and a group of powerful capital ships that could make a difference on the frontlines, and he had no where to go because the system’s beyond Glakka were deemed “too high a risk” for the undermanned formation he commanded.
Vincent felt another surge of anger swell up as he paced his command deck, the Horatio was huge even by Icaran standards, she was only slightly smaller then one of the Artemis raiders yet had much more firepower to match her size her command deck was also a sprawling two tiered area nearly three times the size of any Superdreadnought’s command deck which Vincent was grateful for as it gave him plenty of room to pace without being disturbed “Why the hell did those dicks at command assign me here!?[/i] he thought yet again as he turned to resume his pacing; he came to a sudden halt when a startled voice came from the second tier.
“WARP fluctuation I repeat we have Warp fluctuation there are ships coming through!”
Vincent hurried back to his command chair and took a moment to fume at the fact that the ship didn’t even have a proper main plot.
“Get me an ID on who it is ASAP tactical.” He barked as he brought up his own micro-tactical display to see the fluctuations for himself.
“There are too many of them coming through to be a convoy, and none of our fleets are scheduled to enter this system until the 2nd fleet is finished with their repairs…..CONFIRMED WE HAVE HOSTILES three-one Anderman warships have just made transit!”
The bridge suddenly darkened as the entire ship switched over to battle stations barely a second later the klaxons and GQ alarms howled throughout the ships of the 4th fleet.
“All ships open fire full volley, and tell those transport commanders to get the hell out of here and warn the Admiralty.” Vincent found his own town surprising for it’s calm, he turned to his Captain as she walked up and saw in her eyes the same dread he felt, the simple numbers were all to clear and their enemy wasn’t some Xeno species, this time it was a well trained highly equipped enemy with the same level of technology as he had, all the 4th fleet could hope for was a fighting withdrawal and ensuring he got the transport fleet to safety but even there the odds were against them, the Anderman had acceleration on their side and the Icarans would have to start up cold and gain accel.
“Unless we at least slow those Ander bastards down they’ll outrun the transports easily…” Vincent whispered to Captain Lia Keyes and felt a pang of guilt as he saw the almost imperceptible nod she managed to force, she was even younger then he was and unlike him this would be her first real battle…..and her last. He thought bitterly as he turned back to the displays.

The stars lit up with brilliant and beautiful glory as the 4th fleet turned their desperate broadsides against the oncoming foe while they still recovered from their transit, the first salvo arrived unopposed and proved devastating as the I-lasers sliced through armor, shields, and hulls with the startling ease that modern energy weapons were capable of and with that single salvo nine enemy ships were torn apart creating nine wondrous new stars for barely a split second before they faded back into nothingness.
”At least we got some of them” Vincent thought with a small spark of pride as he saw the Anderman ships turn their own guns upon his fleet and braced himself for the hellish impact as the two fleets traded salvos.
Even as her guns sliced into an Anderman’s shields Danu’s hull was rent and torn as another Anderman ship fired a devastatingly close range and accurate broadside into her, as the energy cut into her the great Icaran ship lurched for a moment as if shouting her defiance before she broke cleanly in half spilling wreckage and bodies into space.
Horatio to lurched with fire as three enemy warships focused their broadsides upon her and Commodore Vincent Moriarty was thrown from his command chair as a beam burned through their shields and impacted just forward of the bridge, the unfortunate souls on the second tier were crushed or thrown to their deaths as wreckage tore through the entire forward portion of the bridge.
“Damage report!” Moriarty shouted as body crumpled to the deck next to him and he recognized the grey green eyes of Captain Keyes staring blankly toward the ceiling her throat sliced open by a piece of shrapnel.
“We’ve only got four guns remaining, life support on decks 20 through 30 is gone, engines are gone, gravitics are gone we are operating on emergency support systems, deck 27 is totally gone sir….” The damage report seemed to go on forever but Vincent barely took notice as he watched the flickering main screen.

The Icaran 4th fleet fought like devils even as the Anderman regained control of their fleet, Yukon who’s shields and weapons were shattered plowed into an Anderman superdreadnought turning both ships into careening pieces of wreckage as the explosions and secondary blasts tore out chunks of once mighty starships.
Despot spat broadsides to the last until one shot finally breached her reactors and she turned into a mini nova though not before she killed two Anderman warships on her own.
The transports continued to flee as they had no guns to turn to the aid of their comrades, meanwhile the rest of the fleet fought to buy the thousands of troops aboard the transports even a slim chance at life.
Horatio turned her four remaining guns on a nearby SD and scored three direct hits, which were enough to tear through the already damaged warship with hellish fury and seconds after the third beam struck her the enemy ship drifted away from the battle, not a single sign of life aboard her.
“Status of the fleet?” Vincent said coldly as he knelt down and closed the dead eyes of his former captain.
“Commodore Suffolk and Europa are undamaged and continuing the fight, Al-Batani is nearly crippled but she remains on station, Justin Alverato is totally crippled, everyone else other then the transports is gone.” The tactical officer’s voice was the mechanical disciplined tone that all “proper” Icaran naval officers used during battle but Vincent heard the despair in that young voice and knew that there was nothing he could say that would make anything any better, the 4th fleet would inflict heavy damage on the enemy before they died but still in the end it would make no difference, none of the warships would escape alive and God’s grace alone would save the transports. It was just then that a brilliant light engulfed the bridge and one split second of pain registered in Vincent’s mind before his life along with the hundreds of survivors aboard Horatio were simply washed away by the broadside of an Anderman Super dreadnought.
Justin was destroyed almost out of hand only a moment later as an Anderman super dreadnought raced past to catch up the fleeing transports, it would never catch up to them however as the almost totally crippled Suffolk rammed into her in a last act of retribution.
Europa’s crew would die much more slowly as their ship was cut away inch by bloody inch by Anderman weapons and as fires burned through her corridors choking the lucky and burning the unlucky alive as they tried to reach escape pods, an unfortunate handful of crew did reach an escape pod only to have a burning piece of hull plate drop into the pod with them as it ejected from the ship.
The shattered Al-Batani suffered a death caused by her own weapons which had been so severely damaged they overloaded on her last attempt to fire tearing her apart from the inside and ensuring that none could have even hoped to survive.

As Commodore Vincent Moriarty had feared the transports were quickly overtaken by the Anderman, and a single super dreadnought destroyed three of the small transports in a single sweep of her forward chase mounts, the other transports too died running as the Anderman overtook them and mercilessly butchered the defenseless ships ending the thousands of lives aboard with what was almost a fleeting swat of the hand for the powerful warships.

So ended the 2nd battle of Glakka, not a single Icaran soldier survived the brutal hour long engagement but for their deaths they had made the Anderman pay dearly in lives and ships with 15 of their warships completely destroyed and two disabled by the valiant Icaran soldiers.
No more would it be said that the 4th fleet was not a “proper fleet” no more would they be called “a hodgepodge of warships” from that day forth the valiant soldiers spacers and state security troopers of the 4th fleet would be recognized as heroes of the Empire who died in a battle against the enemies of Icara and did not feint or flee before their foes but instead did their duty to the last.


4th Fleet Destroyed in Glakka
15 Enemy ships destroyed
Icaran Losses:
HMS Dare (SD) 6,100
HMS Danu (SD) 6,100
HMS Yukon (SD) 6,100
HMS Despot (SD) 6,100
HMS Al-Batani (SD) 6,100
HMS Suffolk (SD) 6,100
HMS Justin Alverato (SD) 6,100
HMS Europa (SD) 6,100
HMS Horatio (MN) 10,400
SS Large Transport 200 crew- 4,000 SS troopers
SS Transport 01 50 crew- 2,000 SS troopers
SS Transport 02 50 crew- 2,000 SS troopers
SS Transport 03 50 crew
SS Transport 04 50 crew- 1,500 SS troopers
Total Casualties: 69,100 dead
Anderman Crusade Casualties: 380,601 (civilian losses number in the billions)

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

How shall they be remembered?:
A long time ago the Icarans came with ships, guns, and bombs, they saw our species and looked upon us as inferior because we were not human and so my race was doomed to slavery on the "sphereworld" they have built to house us.
My parents told me when I was a youngling how my race once roamed dozens of worlds, free and happy and any where you went you could see the sky and the stars, but that was all before I was born, before they came and took away our homes and our worlds and killed hundreds of millions of our kind because we dared resist them, our warriors fought valiantly but in the end these Icarans were overwhelming, and all of our soldiers were killed in battle after battle trying to hold back the encroaching darkness.

I have read the human history files for long hours and understand now why they have beaten us, it is not just because our technology was not as good as their's or because our people were not as brave, it is because in the end humans are warriors they don't give up until they are shattered and even then they resist, they do not forgive easily and they never forget what others have done to them. The Icarans once ruled over most of their species' home system because of their genius and military skill, and yet as all things human it was their own race who destroyed that once great empire.

Humans, they are curious yet arrogant, brutal yet see themselves as moral, harsh if we do not behave and yet gentle if we are submissive they feed us well yet slaughter us if we riot or fight, they tell us we are safe in their protection yet we are in the end their slaves. They are a constant contradiction of themselves and yet they do not notice this because it is so natural to them.

My parents and the elders had told me when I was young that one day my race would return to the stars, that one day humanity would look upon its self and see how wrong they were to enslave entire species just because they were different, they said that one day our descendants would step again under the beautiful green and brown skies of our worlds.....I am sad to say that my parents and the elders were all too wrong, our worlds are no longer the green and brown jewels they once were they are now a vile blue with white swirling clouds and disgusting green continents!

Icara, to us that name means slavery and the loss of our once glorious homeworlds, some say these Icarans are a punishment from the great gods for our sins, others say they are a tool of the evil ones, but they are neither of things, in some ways they are much worse then that they are us and we are them, mere mortal beings who collide in a galaxy of little importance to the rest of this grand universe.
Icara, conquerers, monsters, the shadow that washes away whole worlds, whole cultures and entire species, Icara the very word makes a thousand worlds tremble in fear. Icara cursed and spat upon, Icara the name that crushes stars kills billions and brings eternal slavery to those not human, Icara! the one name in this galaxy that will change the destiny of untold millions of worlds!

How then I wonder will Icara be remembered? No doubt to their descendants this generation will be considered heroes, virtuous crusaders bringing justice, peace and stability to the universe....and who is to say that is wrong? For these people rose from a devestated system's ashes and created for themselves not just a new world but an Empire that brings fear to any who would resist it, is that not heroic? Is that not valiant? I do not know for sure. But no matter how Icarans are remembered my race and whoever else they enslave in their brutal conquest of the stars.....will we even be remembered, our history our glorious triumphs and catastrophic downfalls and how might things have been different if we had met Icarans in peace and not war?

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

I like the segment about the 4th Fleet. In my game against AIs, I also have a couple of fleets with older ships (mostly light cruisers). They've been retrofitted and so are still useful despite their age, but like the Icaran 4th Fleet they wouldn't last long against the enemy's latest designs.

BTW, the "Second Battle of Glakka" reminds me of the action off Samar in 1944, when a motley force of American escort carriers and destroyers was surprised by a Japanese battle fleet.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Well the funny thing is I got 15 kills before my fleet was totally destroyed and every ship left aside from the Horatio in that fleet after I got into a few scrapes with a planet or two were Yu Hing class which is the only reason they did as well as they did before being totally destroyed.

Unfortunately for me that opens the ENTIRE glakka system up for conquest http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

2438.6 Reciprocity :
Three months had passed since the destruction of the 4th fleet had shaken the empire to its core and frightened billions of citizens, three months since the powerful 5th fleet had been dispatched on Operation Reciprocity to cleanse the Glakka system of the Andermani presence under Admiral Lady Maria White and now the fleet was finally closing the range to engage 40 Anderman warships responsible for the catastrophe of the 4th fleet.
“Admiral White we are approaching weapons range of enemy fleet, they are holding orbit of Glakka and are forming for battle, they’ve obviously seen us coming.” The chief tactical officer of the watch Commander Grissom frowned as he watched the enemy ships come cleanly into a battle line. Both White and Grissom knew that this was not a militia force they were facing this time, it was a well trained highly equipped Anderman fleet that had taken part in several actions against the Dark Star Alliance and successfully destroyed the entire 4th fleet.
“Firing range in four minutes, enemy fleet has not moved out of orbit but I am detecting increased power signatures, they are definitely powering defensive systems, we are also being subjected to high intensity scans.” A crewman at tactical said coldly as the main plot continued to show the closing distances between the two fleets.
“Well, one thing is for sure Commander unless we totally screw up this should be a clear victory for the Empire.” White grinned as she counted the number of ships in her fleet once again they had a clear numerical advantage but there was something weird about the fact that the Anderman admiral chose to keep his fleet in close orbit.

As the Icarans entered weapons range White clenched her fists tightly and turned to her weapons officer “All ships open fire, let’s end this quickly.” The officer nodded and seconds later the entire forward Icaran line opened fire on their targets yet as their beams struck not a single Anderman shot was fired.
“What the hell.” A crewman swore.
“What is it crewman?” Commander Grissom said irritably as he glared at the crewman’s lapse in discipline, but before the crewman could even respond the answer became clear as the “ships” they had just hit vanished with explosions entirely too small to be even a large fighter.
Before anyone realized what had happened the 19 Anderman warships that had hidden themselves in the atmosphere while powered satellites drew enemy fire raced forward and opened fire on the dazed Icarans, the Powers and Dashor were torn apart instantly as Anderman warships raced past them, firing their guns into the Icarans at point blank range.
The Stalin managed to respond the fastest out of any of the other ships on the forward line and opened fire on a passing Anderman her powerful broadside turning the enemy ship into a comet like streak of fire and wreckage. Unfortunately for the Stalin she was the next Icaran ship to be destroyed by a passing enemy.
“My God, all ships break formations and target the enemy ships individually they are too close for formation firing.” White growled as she saw yet another Icaran warship break apart as the Anderman raced into the ranks of Icaran starships firing as they went, the Cylla drifted out of formation as her hull bled atmosphere and wreckage, her power failing and most of her crew dead.

The Icaran fleet formation collapsed as the Icarans went to engage Anderman individually, new stars were born as Icaran guns brought an end to three Anderman warships in rapid succession, two more Anderman ships were turned into drifting hulks only to be fired upon and destroyed by wrathful Icarans. As the discipline and training of the Royal Navy took over the odds quickly shifted back into favor of the Icarans yet the Anderman warfleet was not to go silently as a direct hit on the Admiral Von Stropp sent it careening into the Hawkeye turning the two ships into twisted metal and burning hull.
The battle ended swiftly as the Icarans decimated the last remnants of the Anderman warships but Admiral White chose not to order her fleet to halt as she saw the severe casualties the Anderman had inflicted upon her people.
“Order the nearest warship to that colony to open fire and wipe every last life form off the face of that world.” White sounded as if she wanted to spit the order out and Grissom flinched at the look in her eyes.
“Ma’am we have an entire regiment waiting to invade that colony, surely we should take it instead of destroying a valuable….”
“No.” White said icily “That colony has always been a problem for the Empire, they led the revolts and riots throughout this entire system and in the battle for this world they spared barely half of their planetary militia to assist the State Security personnel against the Anderman invasion forces and I will not suffer any more casualties here, now follow your orders.” White glared at Grissom for a moment before returning her attention to the main holoplot.
“Aye Admiral….” Grissom said carefully as he turned to the comns officer and nodded.

Less then fifteen minutes later over 130 million civilians and 500 Anderman army soldiers were slaughtered wholesale as the nearest Icaran warships opened fire upon the unshielded and unarmed colony.

Throughout the Empire the victory was portrayed as a heroic act of revenge for those lives lost during the attack on the 4th fleet, what the average citizen did not know was that the destruction of the colony was not because of enemy numbers, nor because of armed weapons platforms but simply because one Admiral had chosen to pass down an order out of her own personal anger for the tens of thousands of lives lost.

Icaran Losses:
HMS Powers (SD) Destroyed 6,100 dead
HMS Cylla (SD) 91% destroyed 5,800 dead
HMS Dashor (SD) destroyed 6,100 dead
HMS Renenet (SD) 89% destroyed 4,500 dead
HMS Admiral Von Stropp (SD) destroyed 6,100 dead
HMS Stalin (SD) destroyed 6,100 dead
HMS Oglala (SD) 89% destroyed 5,000 dead
HMS Black Swan (SD) destroyed 6,100 dead
HMS Reich (SD) destroyed 6,100 dead
HMS Hawkeye (SD) destroyed 6,100 dead
HMS Mabutu (SD) destroyed 6,000 dead
HMS Deadeye (SD) 91% destroyed 5,986 dead
Total Icaran losses: 69,986 dead
Total Icaran Losses during Anderman crusade: 450,587 dead 1,584,627 wounded

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Heh brand new chapter and not a single comment http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Take a look at any multi-chapter fanfic thread on this forum and you will see the same thing: you write and write and write, while the responses get fewer and fewer and fewer...

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Starhawk writes:

"the destruction of the colony was not because of enemy numbers, nor because of armed weapons platforms but simply because one Admiral had chosen to pass down an order out of her own personal anger for the tens of thousands of lives lost."

That's what you get for appointing an admiral subject to PMS! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Seriously, if the Icaran military went to the trouble of preparing an invasion force, the Admiral should have to justify her actions on military grounds, or face court-martial. Civilians can think with their hearts; fleet admirals can't.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

I'd go with that. Any punishment maybe secret and what you tell the people could be a cover up, but that doesn't change the fact that several thousand (more?) troops who should be invading and could be better deployed elsewhere are doing nothing.

Either that world was worth capturing and should have been, in which case she's guilty of gross insubordination and/ or dereliction of duty (Not sure which I'm no shark http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif) or there was nothing wrong with glassing it, so why where the troops there?

Another point, if you go around naming ships 'Stalin' then you are going to attract certain comments. Now your short of names, ships like 'Advanced Carnage' and using computer virus names 'Mabutu' shows that. But still don't complain about people jumping to conclusions about the acronynm SS when their transport ship might be escorted by a ship called 'Reich' http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Finally there's only so many ways you can say 'good job', 'nice chapter', etc. How many times do you say such things to yourself when reading a book?

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

El_Phil writes:

"Another point, if you go around naming ships 'Stalin' then you are going to attract certain comments. [snip] ...don't complain about people jumping to conclusions about the acronynm SS when their transport ship might be escorted by a ship called 'Reich' "

FYI, the ships are named for Fred Stalin, Starhawk's butcher down the street, and Aloysius X. Reich, star pitcher for the 2132 NY Yankees. Perfectly innocuous.

Naming a ship "Hitler", however, would probably be stepping over the line; Keanu Hitler was probably the worst actor of the 23rd Century! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Just wait the SS acronym is soon to change http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif and is actually tied directly to this chapter but more then that I ain't gonna say http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

As far as ship names goes ain't nothing wrong with Stalin or Lenin because it's an alternate history for all you know Stalin was a saint, and besides that It does sort of tell the "mentality" of the Empire doesn't it.

Oh and Mabutu is an African name so there's nothing wrong with that http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

And look at the overall names of my ships it's pretty much stuck to names involving carnage and war since the get go that and names like Iconoclast, Devestator http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif The Advanced Carnage is actually a very old ship when I still had a LOOOONG list I just liked the idea of an advanced warship with the name "Advanced Carnage" hehehe pretty much a "Hey look your gonna die by the best".

I'll be blunt Icarans aren't "bad guys" but they can often get pretty damn close I know and that's pretty much the fact of human nature.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

[nitpick] No Mobutu is an name. Mabutu is what an illiterate computer virus writer used as the couldn't spell Mobutu.
[/nitpick]

Stalin "Man of Iron" or was it Steel? I can't be arsed to check the interweb but it was one of the two. In any case Superman was worryingly close to passing off. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

If not for my illiterateness, I would once again start writing. But lets face it, Lucas is a king of the written dialog compared to me. Looking forward to more chapters Starhawk.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Okay Mobutu I misspelled it I've only seen it spelled with an A so don't compare me to an illiterate jerk who likes making viruses http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

As far as Stalin goes it's much shorter then Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili which was his real name http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif so yeah I pick Stalin over that any day hehe.

Heh AT is that a jab at the Star Wars dialogue?

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

If I was being fair I wouldn't have added the nitpick tags. CTML Contrived Text Markup Language. Like HTML, but better!

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

2438.6 First battle of Caitia
This month had already brought much bloodshed to the galaxy but it was not to stop there as the 1st fleet continued their ever expanding crusade into the Peoples Republic of Remorhaz at the same time the 5th fleet was purging the Anderman colony the 1st fleet was engaging the last remnants of the Remorhaz navy and to their surprise the Remorhaz fleet launched 500 fighters and charged straight into the battle.

“Sir the Able is adrift those damn fighters crippled her systems, Claw has been destroyed and we’ve got damage reports coming in from all over the 10th division.” The chief tactical officer grimaced as another blue light representing another Icaran warship winked out of existence and with it thousands of lives. Hundreds of red dots swarmed around the forward elements of the fleet as enemy fighters attacked the enemy.

The Superior broke formation and brought her broadside against an enemy carrier, as the two massive ships came relative to one another, the Icaran’s beams raked across exposed enemy hull. Fire and wreckage trails drifted away as the two ships continued towards the main fight.The massive Icaran superdreadnought fired a final broadside and the Remorhaz carrier simply began to tear apart as its inertia carried the wreckage along.

The battle only lasted three hours but the losses on both sides were horrific, as the Remorhaz fought with every last ounce of strength and courage their people could muster until at last the Icaran weight in firepower and numbers overwhelmed them and the last Remorhaz warship and fighter squadrons were swept from the stars.

Icaran Losses:
HMS Able (SD) (71% damage 1,000 dead crew)
HMS Claw (SD) (Destroyed 6,100 dead)
HMS Defiant (SD) (Destroyed 6,100 dead)
HMS Hunt (SD) (Destroyed 6,100 dead)
HMS Warlord (DN) (Destroyed 5,300 dead)
HMS King Roger (DN) (Destroyed 5,300 dead)
HMS Avalon (SD) (Destroyed 6,100 dead)
HMS Andromeda (SD) (Destroyed 6,100 dead)
HMS Sarah (SD) (Destroyed 6,100 dead)
Icaran Casualties: 53,300 dead
Anderman Crusade Casualties: 503,887 dead 1,584,627 wounded

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

The Reformation:

On Icara the Imperial Palace shined like a brilliant wall of pearl as the summer morning sun climbed high in the sky, outside of the palace nearly 15 million people crowded outside of the palace walls, all of them waiting for the Praetor to make an announcement that had been the focus of rumors and speculation for five months. Everyone in the Empire knew that things were changing; the government was in flux as the new Praetor began to reshape the very organization of the Imperial bureaucracy.
The hours passed and still the Praetor did not appear but more and more people on Icara began arriving outside of the palace, so many in fact that the Praetor’s Own Regiment had to call in three Imperial Marine detachments including an armored brigade to help them ensure the security of the Palace. Entire State Security brigades were also arriving to secure various perimeter positions and ensure that no riots or problems occurred.

At exactly 15:00 hours the massive palace doors opened and a tall figure wearing the dark gray tunic and space black trousers of an Imperial Official, his cap was plain and unadorned and he carried only a saber and a sidearm with no other adornments. The lone man walked up to a podium at the end of the pathway leading from the palace doors to the gates of the palace grounds. For a moment the crowd expected the man to announce the Praetor or for drums to begin playing, it was not until every news camera in the area focused in on the man that the crowd realized they were looking at Praetor Rodric himself; and for a long moment a stunned silence came over almost the entire crowd bringing an eerie silence to the Palace grounds, there was none of the pomp or circumstance people expected of the Praetor, no trumpets or guards lining the pathway it all seemed to quiet, and except for the humming of tank and APC engines the moment seemed frozen in time until the Praetor cleared his throat and the crowds began cheering.
After a moment Rodric lifted his hands to call for silence and the crowd slowly responded, Rodric smiled; an almost embarrassed expression on his young face.
“Ladies, Gentlemen and fellow citizens of the grand Empire of Icara, as you all know our people have been engulfed in an almost endless war for the past 30 years, in fact we’ve been at war since before I was born and entire generations have been swept up in battle and warfare and millions of our people have died. Yet it is with pride and honor I say that we have not wavered, that you my people have not wavered in our great cause even though we have all become tired of warfare and even though many of us have lost those we love to the Crusades.” Rodric paused and cleared his throat for a moment.
“My friends, my people it is with all my heart I swear to you that the wars will end within our generation if there is anything I can do about it, I have begun increasing military production, and have raised entire regiments of soldiers to go to the front lines and I have given our military commanders the control they need to take initiative and to crush our enemies!” the crowds began cheering again but Rodric quickly raised his hands for silence “However….” He paused as the crowds began settling down again “However, we have a long dark road ahead of us, and there will be much more blood shed in the cause of Humanity, and it is because of this long dark road that I have chosen to reform our security forces, as such I am hereby dissolving the State Security and changing responsibility for our citizens security to the newly formed military controlled Federal Security Division, it is my belief that placing this officer under the control of the military will help with some of the disciplinary problems that some of the SS brigades have suffered from in the past due to poor leadership choices made by civilian leaders including certain nobles who have raised SS brigades as a private security force.” The Praetor paused long enough to allow this momentous statement to sink in, the SS had been with Icara for over a thousand years but it was true that it had been becoming a more and more controversial and corrupted organization but to have it replaced in one fell swoop would still be shocking to most citizens who were used to the “Status Quo” of the Empire.
“I am also reforming the Army so that Regiments may be raised from any loyal world with enough populace and not simply those who are core worlds, the Navy and Marines have also promised that they will begin recruiting from all loyal worlds no matter their heritage, whether they are pure blood Icaran or are one of our conquests.” Rodric swallowed hard and waited as the crowds thought about what had just been said, some openly began shouting and screaming down the proposal others just stood in stunned silence, allowing non “pure” Icarans to raise entire regiments and to be recruited into the Fleet and marines seemed outlandish, it took generations for a world’s population to be considered “pure” Icaran but it had only been 20 years since many worlds had been brought into the Empire.
“This is necessary if we want to end the wars within our lifetimes, we can no longer afford to allow millions of people that could serve our Empire on the front lines go unused simply because they have not been part of this Empire for generations.” Rodric spoke calmly over the crowds shouting and gently nudged his mic volume up several levels to ensure he was heard.

After several hours the crowds calmed and the Praetor’s edicts went into effect, the office of State Security was dissolved as well as several of the “discipline challenged” brigades the rest were absorbed into the new Federal Security Division and the new officers and officials took over. The other reforms were quietly taking place as preparations for raising several regiments on worlds previously considered unacceptable was underway as well as the creation of armory worlds, who’s entire industrial base was switched over to the production of arms and munitions for the newly expanding military machine.

Throughout the Empire preparations for a war on a scale never before seen progressed slowly but ominously as hundreds of thousands of men and women were undergoing training to march against worlds many of them had never even heard of before and many had to come to terms with the fact that in all likelihood they would never see their homeworlds again.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Wow, sounds like the Imperial Guard from WH40k, I like.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Well more like the way the English used to raise regiments but since WH40k based the IG recruitment style on that than indeed they do sound much alike http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif either way glad you like.

And hey guys you can all be happy now I have officially disbanded the SS for the SD http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif please tell me there are no evil organizations out there with the initials SD hehe.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Uhhhh sadly yes there is. The SD did stand for the Sicherheitsdienst which was another Nazi 'security' organisation. You don't have alot of luck with these acronyms do you?

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Holy crap on a stick your joking!

:Charlie Brown: AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGHh

Screw it SD is final as I've never heard of them before lol