Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Uh, most Germans will know the SD for sure. Many Jews will. The Reichskristallnacht was mostly done by the SD, not the SS, if I'm not in error. Well, anyway, if you every want to publish in the German countries, SD will be a "nono" by law.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Okay look I don't mean to sound harsh here but you folks are seriously going to have to get over SOME of this stuff, they are INITIALS this time totally unrelated to SS it's a coincidence that SD happened to also be a german "security" group.

All the good initials with SECURITY in it are already taken by SOMEBODY I can almost be sure of that so the German folks would have to get over looking up every set of initials going 'Where they someone evil?" or else nothing won't offend someone out there. lol and I am not making up yet another security agency just because of one letter http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Also do me a favor and translate what the SS and SD's names mean in English because unless it stands for Security Division or State Security then I don't think there should be any cause for offense.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

First off there are loads of acronyms that aren't gone. Just of the top of my head 'Imperial Security Force' which not even acronymfinder can find something wrong with.

Next take if you will M.I.5 here in the UK. It isn't and never has been called M.I.5 and is in fact called The Security Service, hence SS as the short form. This is unacceptable so its M.I.5. Also how often is the yank Secret Service shortened to SS? nope its the United States Secret Service, so you get USSS.

In short while you may not have a problem with it lots of other people might. If you ever want to get anything published that's something you'll have to get used to.

Finally have you forgotten just a couple of months back the fuss on this very forum? Rest assured that using SS and SD will cause offence to someone and they will be vocal about it. You have no excuse not to pick a different acronym, so someone will read way too much into it. And as Mephisto points out some countries laws take a dim view of such things.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

My point is you are blowing things WAY the hell out of proportion it's a fictional universe an ALTERNATE universe to boot and I changed SS for the fact that you and others complained and actually the Secret Service is just called the Secret Service because it's not exactly hard to say "Secret Service" however "Federal Security Division" is a little cumbersome don't you think?

Also MI-5 you also have MI-6 and they are two seperate branches that are both related to intel so it fits http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif and actually it's "Her Majesty's Security Service" so it would be HMSS but you don't hear anyone calling it that do you?

Just like Her Majesty's Secret Service http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Like I said I think you are just reading too much into it I seriously doubt any reader who has not been forwarned that I am changing SS to SD would read much into it. I mean hell the initials of a Super Dreadnought are SD do you want me to change those too?

And yes I remember the "Fuss" and I changed it because of that fuss I am not going to be giving myself headaches over the fact that you are unhappy with INITIALS THAT DON'T EVEN STAND for the same thing the German SD did

And like I said if you would please translate what SD and SS are short for in German (tell me what their names mean IN ENGLISH) are they even close to Security Division? Because if it is then I will change it.

Federal Security Division is a unique name as far as I am aware while "Imperial Security Force" is used a LOT in Sci-Fi or at least the initials ISF.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

No its not, your confusing the James bond film 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' where he works for the Secret Intelligence Service or M.I.6, because that was an millitary intelligence service founded by an Admiral. The Security Service was never such an organisation and so calling it a millitary intelligence service would be silly.

All of this is distracting us from your inabilty to come up with an acronym that hasn't been used by Nazis. Which people who know abit of history are going to spot and some will complain about. That was all I was saying. Stick with it, it won't bother me. But you did ask if there were any evil organisations called SD. There were.

Right SD is 'Sicherheitsdienst' which is 'Security Agency' while SS is Schutzstaffel 'Protection Squadron'. Or thats what the interweb and my memory of school history tell me. If anything SD is probably worse from your point of view, security division, security agency. Pretty similar....

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Actually, the initials of the "Federal Security Division" are "FSD", not "SD", so there's no problem (unless of course the Nazis had a bureau known as "Fuhrer Sicherheitsdienst"). http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

As for the unfortunately named Super Dreadnoughts (SD), I suggest redesignating the class as "Honkin' Big Mothers" or HBM. These initials may have problems of their own, but at least they shouldn't be Nazi-related. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

I don't think anyone's going to complain about SD when it's clearly short for Super Dreadnought. At least, I haven't heard anyone complaining about David Weber's use of it in the Honor Harringtion series.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

True FSD works and if I get one Russian in here pissing fire at me over the similarity to FSB then I am going to crack some heads!

El_Phil like I said I think your seriously overblowing things a bit afterall man I just read an Honor Harrington book where he refers to a "State Security" SS and no body beat him to death http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif but if anything now I'd change my SS also not to infringe on those copywright laws lol.

Schutzstaffel: Literally Protection Force or Defense Squad. This complex organization was at the heart of the German political and social revolution and later attempts to control nearly all aspects of German (and later European) life. The Schutzstaffel consisted of three main parts, the Allgemeine-SS, the SS-Totenkopfverbände and the Waffen-SS. The well known image of this organization was its abreviation, the double SS.

A brief bit about the SS the SD was in fact a "part" of the SS apparently so yeah I WILL stick with FSD but seriously guys some initials just match up like I said I never heard of the SD until I googled it after you guys complained.

And like I said if oyu have any problems with FSD get over it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif because I am damn well NOT changing that too hehe

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Ah, but in that particular case the SS in question is an undisputably "bad guy" organization. No one's going to get in trouble for casting the SS in a bad light.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

True but anyway yeah I'll change it to FSD from now on or FS if there are other real organizations with these initials I can't find them and the only thing close is the Russian FSB (modern KGB just as bud but half the budget) and that's far enough off that it shouldn't be a problem.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

hey, I started reading your story. I like it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I figure it will take me a while to read it through. I think it would be cool if you posted savegames like was suggested in the beginning.

Also, is the Ikaran shipset available anywhere? I would be interested to see what these ships look like. Keep up the good work.

As far as the SD thing is concerned I think its blown out of proportion. There are only 26 letters in the english alphabet. eventually you are going to end up using an acronym that has already been used. If your SD was modeled in some way after the german organization of the same initials I could understand, but, frankly, I think that it is unfair that people try to put a hold on a letter combination just cause someone else used it once to do bad things. If the abbreviation fits use it.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Hey JAFisher nice to know I have a new reader, I am glad you are enjoying my story so far http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

And yes the Icaran shipset IS available as is the Anderman, I'll attach the Icarans right now.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

I don't believe I have encountered the Anderman in the story yet. Like I said, I just started. I think I just got done with page 2 http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif Well, now I have pictures to go with the words.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Meat to feed an angry beast:
The world of Thorsburg was a buzz as word spread from city to city that the Icaran Empire had finally decided to pay this former Rebel Alliance world some attention after decades of being nearly ignored beyond the production of starships. The manner of that attention though was the source of much strife within the political offices and even on the streets. The Royal Navy had arrived two days ago with twelve dreadnoughts and two massive currently empty troop transports and what they brought with them was an edict of levy which required Thorsburg to form two entire regiments of troops for His Majesty’s Royal Army to be dispatched on the grand crusade to conquer the Andermanian alliance.

To anyone on Thorsburg over the age of thirty it was a hard thing to be sure as they had seen their own alliance conquered by the Icarans, and now they were being told that they had to muster 8,000 of their young men and women and send them to fight and die in a war to conquer another democratic nation that the average citizen of Thorsburg only heard about on the news. In the streets of many cities “demonstrations” were assembled to protest the demand to raise regiments and hundreds were injured as local FSD brigades marched in with riot gas, stun batons and armored riot breaker vehicles.

********

The chancellery building was a relic of a bygone age where democracy governed Thorsburg and the young and promising “Rebel Alliance” was first stepping bravely out into the galaxy after shirking their oppressors it’s massive stone walls were made to resemble the buildings of the old Greek cities of long ago, the beautiful white stone still showed the horrible scars where the Rebel emblems were burned from the walls by the old “SS” brigades as the “pacified” the world and it’s population, it’s old fashioned fence was reinforced by an invisible “blast screen” and an entire FSD brigade was assigned to provide on sight security, inside was the first meeting the local Icaran governor had dared assemble with the local civilian government since his installment by the Praetor less than two years ago after his predecessor was hung for treason when it was discovered he had deliberately prevented tens of thousands of his people from joining the Royal Navy. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss this newest demand which the Empire had placed upon Thorsburg.

“Charlie those bastards have practically ignored us for the pats 20 years except when they send in crew transports to get the ships we build for their war machine, now they want us to raise 8,000 soldiers for them….it’s ridiculous!” Günter Heinz was governor of one of the cities that had seen the FSD deploy two brigades to break up a demonstration, in the process he had seen them inure hundreds of his people and arrest over a thousand others who have not been heard from since.
“Actually Günter it’s more like 28,000 including technical support staff, 4,000 combat troops and 10,000 support staff times’ two regiments.” Harold Schmitt spoke up from the corner and blushed slightly when everyone turned to him, he was a junior adjutant to the planetary governor and his main job was “work force” management so blurting out the actual numbers was only natural to him.
After a moment of silence Governor Ervin Katz grinned at his adjutant “He’s right gentlemen, 28,000 of our young people will be called upon to fight in a war that is hundreds of light years away and that does not even affect us, but there is nothing we can do about that, if you haven’t noticed there are twelve Icaran super dreadnoughts sitting in orbit and although the majority of people simply see them as escorting the transports, enough people know that they are really here to remind us of what happens to worlds that don’t fulfill their duties to the Empire and I don’t intend on making them prove it with a broadside.” The room fell silent again as the government officials present frowned in agreement, there was nothing they could do but provide the two regiments demanded of them.
“So how do we get those 28,000? No one from the planetary defense militia can be counted on, too many of them are ex alliance army soldiers, and those that weren’t are not exactly willing to leave home.” Günter said heavily as he pulled a flexi pad out of a pocket with the list of units in the PDM and their commanders.

Rudolf Heinrich, governor of a northern city spoke up “I’m afraid he’s right Charlie, however with the zeal our young people seem to show for the Empire and its armed forces we shouldn’t have a problem raising the recruits.”
The “zeal” that Heinrich mentioned came in the form of an almost religious respect and admiration the young people of Thorsburg had for the Royal Armed forces, they had grown up seeing thousands of soldiers, spacers and marines and they saw them as valiant heroes and adventurers who got to see the wonders of the galaxy, and the fact that a great many of these soldiers were only 15 and 16 inspired the youth of Thorsburg.
The vast majority of teens and school kids even sported the so called “trooper style” fashion to show their admiration as their clothes resembled the various uniforms of the Royal armed forces minus emblems and insignia of course.
“If that fat bastard Stein had just allowed our people to join the navy perhaps they never would have asked for two entire regiments to be raised.” Precinct Governor Ulrich spat as he mentioned the previous governor of Thorsburg.
“Maybe….maybe not Ulrich but that doesn’t matter anymore, this demand has been placed upon us and there is nothing we can do now but answer the call and begin recruitment of two complete regiments.” Charles paused a moment and turned to the chief financial advisor “Adolf how much money will this cost us? And how fast can we do this?”
The young man pulled out several flexi’s and passed them around the table “Well sir the cost in material is the first major problem, we’ll have to provide the recruits with food for at least two years, not to mention uniforms, weapons, and vehicles for at least 12 armored companies assuming the standard six per regiment.” Adolf Schultz paused as the others gathered around the table read off tonnages in metals, food and fabrics.
“The cost in credits would easily come to twenty eight billion credits per year as the regiments are being raised which our best estimates place at 26 months comes to a grand total of roughly seventy four billion credits after that the Empire will take control of paying salaries and maintenance costs.” Schultz winced as a woman slammed a palm on the desk.
“Damn it Governor that’s more than two years taxes to the Empire, and don’t forget we’ll still have to pay those taxes while these regiments are being raised.” Edwina Markov shrank back into her chair with an uncharacteristic blush “My apologies governor it’s just that, this seems unfair to our people.” She said more calmly and folded her hands on the table.

“Don’t worry about it Miss Markov, you just said what we’re all thinking….and your right this will prove a problem, we’ll have to raise local taxes to raise this regiment and still pay our tax to the Empire but we can and will manage it.” Charles lowered his head and spoke more softly “Alright ladies, gentlemen, let’s be about it we’ve got to feed an angry beast and he won’t wait for long.”

A week later recruits from all over Thorsburg were lining up at naval, marine and “regimental” recruitment offices all over their planet preparing to serve their Empire and join the ranks of heroes and adventurers that they had seen all their lives, many of those anxious new applicants were only 15 or 16 and had no idea what war really was like or that hell awaited them in war zones on planets they had never heard of before.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

2438.7 Assault on Caitia:
Admiral William Jefferson Ross had been in the Royal Navy for over 40 years now even though it didn’t even exist as a functioning force until about 38 years ago, he had seen some of the most devastating warfare the galaxy had ever known, and he had met some of the bravest and greatest men and women his generation would ever know and he had seen far too many of them vanish in a plume of fire or worse lost forever in the depths of space and he often wondered how long this war could last, how long the Icaran people could sustain themselves with a war that never seemed to end except for long periods of boring patrols and station keeping while the higher ups decided who needed killing next.
Ross spun his command chair around to face the master holoplot on his flag bridge and thought with a wry grin Well William they’ve certainly given you an interesting job, he stared for what seemed a long time at the slowly revolving map of the Caitia system, the capital of the fledgling People’s Republic of Remorhaz and their last real holdout since most of their frontier worlds had fallen to the pack of hyenas that was the “Anderman Alliance” after the bulk of their navy was destroyed by Ross’ 1st fleet.
The plan to invade Caitia was simple the main subjugation fleet would strike against Caitia IV, the most heavily populated and defended world of the system, afterwards two strike forces consisting of a full Super Dreadnought division and a Regiment of Royal Army troopers would break away from the main fleet and take Caitia I and II in rapid succession forcing what few military assets the Remorhaz military had left to spread themselves against three targets which would put the superior Icaran forces at a distinct advantage.
As Ross ran through his plan in his mind a klaxon sounded throughout the flagship and a proximity alert howled from the tactical section and a halo began to glow around Caitia IV,
“Tactical what’s going on?” Ross turned to see his tactical officer turn almost grey as he read something from his displays. “Answer me tactical!” The Admiral barked as the young officer hesitated.
“Sir, I count two hundred Remorhaz satellites in orbit of Caitia four.”
Ross cursed under his breath as the numbers were confirmed by other ships in the fleet, their satellites had poor sensors and weak weapons, but two hundred would at least slow his fleet down and if he got in too close even primitive satellites could cut apart his fleet.
“Helm, tactical work together to keep us just inside our own bombardment envelope and keep us out of their own firing pattern.” Ross turned back to face the master plot and within moments saw his orders being carried out as a battle line formed and the fleet began trading fire with the satellites in orbit of the enemy world.
Fortunately for the Icaran fleet the Remorhaz sensors on these satellites were worse then even Ross had believed and though several Icaran warships took damage none were destroyed as they fired into the ring of satellites. The worst part of the engagement for Ross was the time taken by the bombardment even with the number of warships he had and their targeting sensors the bombardment took almost a day as Ross wanted no slip ups accidentally leading to tragic results on the planet below.
As the last satellite vanished in a ball of plasma the HMS Alexander took up a geosynchronous orbit over the enemy world and opened its massive bays revealing 390 drop ships tucked neatly into their drop racks, 3,900 soldiers of the 1st New Haven regiment waited anxiously as their mothership spun on her side, turning her drop bays to the planet.
The familiar dull metallic thump of docking clamps releasing came seconds before the sudden jerk of acceleration and then the jostling and gut wrenching twisting of atmospheric entry at high velocity as the dropship formations raced through atmospheric turbulence in an attempt to dodge the triple A that the enemy would unleash.
As expected the night sky of Caitia IV’s target zone lit up with brilliant flashes of light and fire as planetary defense batteries opened up on the Icaran invaders, most of the enemy fire was in vein as Icaran sensor decoys and drop pods baffled sensors, unfortunately for the Icarans not all of the enemy fire missed and a dropship carrying the 4th squad 2nd platoon Fox company burst into flames as superheated plasma tore into it’s hull, as the stricken dropship spiraled out of control and began breaking apart bodies and equipment were thrown into the surrounding skies and several dropships were splattered with blood and gore as bodies impacted.
A second dropship was shot apart killing twelve more soldiers before they could even touch the ground another dropship was destroyed as a tank from the other dropship landed on it.

The nightmare had only just begun for the soldiers of the 1st New Haven as they landed only to be met by a maelstrom of fire from Remorhaz Space Marines and planetary militia troops.
Major Liz Torrington, commander of C Company was forced to order her troopers to dig in as Remorhaz marines and militia troopers opened up on her company with a barrage of artillery and rifle fire. An entire squad had been killed in the first five minutes of the engagement as an entire Platoon of Remorhaz Space Marines stormed their position and fought at close quarters with bayonets and las pistols alike.
“Watch the right damn it, the little bastards are coming up on your right!” a voice on C Company’s com net shouted and Major Torrington turned in time to see what had to be a company sized force of Remorhaz Militia charging headlong into her heavy weapons platoon.
“Five platoon, get your asses over their and help heavy weapons out, Charlie Company dig in I repeat dig in.” Torrington paused for a moment when she heard the voice of 5th platoon Echo Company’s commander on her com.
“Ma’am that’s a negative we are pinned down, enemy artillery has a pretty good fix on us and the [censored] kickers aren’t letting up.” A shrill sound caused Torrington to yank her headset away from her ear. “Son of a *****” Torrington grimaced as she realized that 5th platoon must have just been jammed, she raised her binocs to her eyes and watched as the Remorhaz Company slammed into 3rd platoons position forcing the heavy weapons unit to defend it’s self rather then provide fire support for the other platoons in her company.
The heavy weapons platoon was barely holding off the enemy Militia Company, even as their auto-cannons and heavy slug throwers tore Remorhaz soldiers apart the Militia units returned a withering fire of their own and continued to charge forward.
Torrington turned to her own platoon and stood up and raised her right hand, as she did this her entire platoon stood up with her, she turned and faced the heavy weapons platoon and with a slicing motion signaled her platoon to advance through the hell storm of enemy fire to come to the aid of their comrades.
Enemy mortars whistled in with terrifying frequency and more then one of Torrington’s troopers was torn apart by a mortar, she herself was knocked to the ground by the legless body of a trooper who was thrown a meter into the air by a mortar shell. With a grimace Liz Torrington forced herself back to her feet and pushed forward until finally the Remorhaz soldiers that were attacking her soldiers were in sight, she quickly brought her rifle up to the ready and dropped to a kneeling position along with several of her other soldiers and almost in unison the trill of AP rifle fire and the burst of purplish blue spheres erupted from Torrington’s platoon killing or wounding dozens of Remorhaz militiamen.
Energy weapons were not the clean and civilized things that the people of previous centuries had assumed they would be, they caused horrific wounds which were usually un-survivable and a “lucky” person was one who only lost a limb as an energy weapon burned through their flesh and Torrington noted with only a slight twinge of disgust the acrid smell of burnt meat as she picked her next target and dropped a young Remorhaz woman who dropped her gauss rifle, a moment of shocked horror on her face as the life oozed out of her but Torrington didn’t have the time to pay any mind to this as she stood up and continued to advance with her platoon.
The Remorhaz troops fought valiantly and forced the Heavy weapons platoon to abandon their defensive position but with Torrington’s platoon swiftly flanking them the Remorhaz militia troopers soon found themselves at a massive disadvantage but they still would not yield and instead used the craters and trees they had just driven the Icaran HW platoon out of as a defensive position of their own.
With the Remorhaz militia unit pinned Torrington was able to order her heavy weapons platoon and her own infantry platoon to simply trade fire with the enemy soldiers at range and thanks to the devastating firepower of her HW platoon’s auto-cannons the Remorhaz soldiers were killed or wounded to the last man, with not a single one surrendering voluntarily.
The night was not over for C Company as it was sent in to assault several more enemy positions throughout the course of the night, fortunately for Torrington Dog Company had taken out the artillery positions and she didn’t have to worry about mortars cutting her company apart any more. The battle for Caitia IV lasted two weeks as the 1st New Haven regiment fought against the Remorhaz defenders tooth and nail for every inch of ground but in the end the Icarans simply had the technology and the air superiority to win the battle. However for the soldiers of the 1st New Haven it was a brutal meatgrinder that cost them a 85 soldiers.

Even as the battle for Caitia IV raged two more worlds in the Caitia system were under attack and these worlds were no less stubbornly defended by the Remorhaz soldiers stationed on them, and 215 Icaran soldiers paid with their lives to secure victory. Ross felt his optimism quickly fade as he noted that there was still an entire system to secure, and tens of millions of Remorhaz citizens attempting to flea the system, people he would have to order killed in order to prevent the Remorhaz from causing the Empire more trouble.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

85 dead out of 3900 a meatgrinder? OK so it wasn't a walk in the park but still...

Also, having had my own style torn apart, I'm forced to agree: Long reams of text on a monitor needs large spacing, it's so much easier to read.

That aside it's nice to see you're still going. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Well considering 85 dead and an unstated number of wounded http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

And yeah I have to remember when I type up my format on word that it doesn't remain the same when I post it here http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Even allowing for wounded that's no meatgrinder. Just off the top of my head, ignoring any WW1 battle, look at Pork Chop Hill from the Korean War for a meatgrinder.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Okay counting Remorhaz dead too heh.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

If you want to hear meatgrinder, try throwing 8k (yeah that's 8,000) 1kt infantry troops against fifty 25kt heavy troops. At the end of the simulator, all of the infatry were dead and there were still 28 heavy troops left...

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

When your buddy gets hit, it's "light casualties."

When YOU get hit, it's a "meatgrinder!" http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

What future for the Children?:

The morning came dim and rainy on Brandenburg, much as it always did in the fall, but today the rain some how seemed colder and darker then usual as Countess Percilla Torri watched from her office window. It had been six months now since the invasion of the Caitia system saw the 1st Brandenburg regiment, enter battle as well as a large number of Brandenburg manning the warships of the 108th Super Dreadnought division which was providing escort for the Brandenburg’s transport.

Word had just arrived this very wet and grey morning that during the final four months of the Caitia invasion the 1st Brandenburg and the 108th SD division had been tasked with invading Caitia VI which was believed to be the final military stronghold of the People’s Republic of Remorhaz. Countess Torri steepled her hands as she remembered reading the report from Admiral Lord William Ross.

“To the brave and loyal citizens of Brandenburg it is my grim task this day to inform you that two ships of the 108th SD division were destroyed while valiantly protecting the unarmed regimental transport from hostile ground fire, 12,200 brave men and women perished.

However thanks to their valiant sacrifice the 1st Brandenburg regiment was able to accomplish it’s mission and capture the final hold out of the PRR but in doing so 750 infantry soldiers and 1,120 support staff were killed in action.

Because of these losses the 1st Brandenburg regiment is reduced to half strength and its tasked Escort division is down to 2/3 strength, however due to military pressures on the front we can not remove them from line service this day.

Know this your sons and daughters have lived up to the highest standards of his Majesty’s armed forces and their sacrifice will never be forgotten by me or those under my command.

Admiral Lord William Ross
Commander 1st Fleet.


Torri knew enough of the situation at the front lines to know that two other super dreadnoughts from another division had been destroyed and that all told some sixteen thousand other Icaran soldiers and spacers had perished in the battle for Caitia, a number that seemed so huge but when compared to the billions of Anderman, Mantisoran and Icaran citizens that had already died during the decades of war.

The countess looked out of her office window up at the night sky and stared at the massive shipyard in orbit, its outline clearly visible in the night sky as it orbited Brandenburg. Every time she saw that shipyard Percy couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by the vastness of the Empire and the universe its self, that huge shipyard was one of many in the Empire and wasn’t even the largest space station the Icaran Navy had built, that distinctive honor went to the gargantuan Fortresses that guarded the warp points into the galaxy beyond the Empire.
Torri sighed as she remembered the first days of the expansion, when she had left the warmth and safety of Icara and colonize Brandenburg, back then it all seemed so simple, the ships so small and the universe so vast and fascinating. Now all there seemed to be in the galaxy was warfare and even now in orbit of Brandenburg and several other classified worlds the largest ship class ever conceived was under construction, a ship that made even the Five Swords of Heaven seem small.

This ship class was officially the Holy Crusade class Battlemoon and it was supposed to be the weapon that won the wars and brought peace to the galaxy, with a crew of one hundred thousand and more firepower then entire divisions of super dreadnoughts and with a diameter of 25 kilometers it was the largest most powerful design ever conceived of, but in the end Torri only sighed again and remembered how the navy had said the same thing about the Super Dreadnoughts and the Five Swords, all were “Going to end the wars and bring peace.” But all had only been countered by enemy designs and as the ships grew in power the only thing that changed was the number of lives lost in each battle

The countess of the Norvor system spent hours thinking over the situation in the galaxy and felt her heart ache, her oldest son had already been assigned to the 5th fleet and her youngest son and 16 year old daughter were getting ready to leave the naval academy in a few months and each would be assigned to warships on the frontlines. She wondered with another stab of heartache if she would ever see them again as the battles grew more deadly and the war dragged on; a war that had been raging since before her children had even been born, and a war that might very well take them all from her if it did not end soon, as she drifted off to sleep Countess Torri, the first ruler of an offworld Icaran province and the once young girl who had left Icara with wide eyed enthusiasm wondered how many generations would be consumed by a war Icara hadn’t wanted in the first place and how many children had nothing in their future but war.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

2439.9-2440.1 A brief Historic report
The Delta Corporation dispatched its private navy and fleet to seize the Anderman world of Horod V and began conducting biological and genetic experiments upon the civilian population in an attempt to better understand the Anderman soldiers who were engineered to survive in almost any planetary environment with only a minimum of life support equipment.
This action was unsanctioned by the Icaran government and has in fact caused the delta corporation to come under investigation, however because of the fact that the financial records of the Delta corporation “security department” was mysteriously destroyed when the archive building burned to the ground the day before Naval investigators were able to arrive.
Having spent nearly all of it’s financial assets on forming the private fleet with which to launch the attack on Horod V the Delta Corporation began selling several patents on the open market creating havoc in the Medical and Chemical markets of the Empire.

The 5th fleet under Admiral White invaded Glakka I and suffered heavy casualties as seven Super Dreadnoughts were destroyed with another being crippled with the majority of it’s crew dead, the invasion cost the Empire 41,820 of it’s young men and women, however the planet was seized and valuable resources were brought into the Empire, the seven destroyed ships names have been added to the Wall of the Fallen to honor their heroism in service of the Empire.

On a much more important note to modern historians the Celestian republic was absorbed into the Empire on Tellus 3rd 2440 bringing in several systems and worlds into the folds of the Icaran Empire.

What no one could have suspected was that the Mantisoran government though claiming alliance to the Anderman and flying under the Anderman Alliance banner was secretly planting agents throughout the other members of the Anderman Alliance and creating disorder and instability in their governments in order to bring them into the Mantisoran fold.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

2440.1 Born in Fire
The 6th fleet had been formed little more than a month ago when Admiral Chester Hancock received his orders to ship out to the Asterion system and intercept the Sol Coalition’s 10th fleet which had been sited by an Icaran spy.

And now after traveling through an artificially created warp point and then having said warp point sealed again the 6th fleet was entering combat range with the veteran crews of the Sol Coalition’s 10th fleet which consisted of destroyers, cruisers and super dreadnoughts with varying levels of technology.

“Admiral enemy fleet advancing at high gee, enemy destroyers are leading their formation.” Spacer Martin Hargrove’s cold soprano voice sounded surprisingly confident for a boy of 16 who was going into his first battle

Hancock felt his own anxiety gnawing at him and tried to force himself to stop thinking about the fact that he was on a ship with an untested crew, for that matter he was in an untested fleet and found his only comfort in the knowledge that the enemy fleet though battle hardened veterans were on mainly outdated ships with only a small core group of modern Super Dreadnoughts.

The first shots were traded between the vanguard of the Icaran fleet and the Sol destroyer formation with surprising swiftness as the destroyers raced into the ranks of the Icaran fleet at full speed trying to avoid the Icaran fire. Unfortunately for most of the destroyers their evasive patterns did them little good as Icaran guns tore through their shields and hull as if they were not even there, in a single volley five of the eight destroyers had been vaporized.

“Admiral enemy destroyers are virtually gone, but….hold on….” Hargrove didn’t get the chance to finish his statement as a blinding flash filled the bridge monitors; the purpose of the destroyers’ suicidal charge quickly became apparent as Sol Super dreadnoughts having used their smaller destroyer comrades as a shield from Icaran fire now brought their guns to bare on the first Icaran warships with lethal effect.

As the screens cleared Hancock suppressed a wince as he saw a cloud of debris drifting away from what had once been the HMS Herodotus; a three kilometer long warship and six thousand human beings had vanished in a ball of fire and even to a veteran like Hancock was astonished at how fast such a powerful and magnificent starship with a crew the size of a small town could just vanish in a matter of seconds as I-Laser weaponry shredded them.

The Herodotus was unfortunately not alone, the Tangu was adrift after powerful beams raked her from stem to stern, and the Sullivans, or rather the third of it that was left burned furiously as plasma fires consumed the remaining wreckage and bodies.

Though the speed of the Sol SDs had come as a shock the Icaran navy’s discipline won out and in short order the massive Icaran warships were firing back into the enemy capital ships.

“Holy God!” the helms woman screamed as she slammed the control yoke of the flagship forward and down and slammed on emergency thrust to avoid colliding with an enemy Super Dreadnought that had just blown apart the HMS TigerClaw and had come charging straight at the Fortitude as if to ram.

“All batteries, open fire, take that son of a ***** out of my sky.” Hancock shouted as he saw green beams lance out from the enemy warship as it raced forward, only two shots struck upon the Icaran’s shields and Hancock muttered a brief prayer of thanks.

The Fortitude’s own gunners had achieved lock on the Sol SD and as it swung around to fire at them again both ships unleashed their full armaments at almost the same instant, and for a moment time seemed to freeze.
Beams from both ships passed each other by meters and two beams collided with one another creating an amazing light show as energy streams arced away from the collision of almost unimaginable amounts of energy.
Icaran beams danced across the shields of the Solar SD for several seconds before contacting the metal hull with a force that actually tore clean through from as beams entered through the port side and exited through the starboard.
There was no material in the universe that could hold up to 2 terawatts of power for very long and the Sol Coalition had chosen not to put reactive armor on their warships, and even now the folly of that decision was apparent as two kilometers of ship simply seemed to start coming apart as the I-lasers tore through bulkheads. There was no massive explosion from the Sol warship; it simply broke apart in a series of small fiery chunks, one of which probably contained its primary reactor which had some how not gone critical as the ship was destroyed.

“Alright let’s pick out another target people we aren’t done yet.” Hancock barked as his some of his crew stared in aw at the still glowing wreckage. A Sol cruiser was next to fall to the Fortitude as it tried to get under another Super dreadnought and fire at it’s unarmed underbelly.

The battle lasted barely twenty minutes as Icaran and Sol Coalition forces both fought fiercely, and though the 6th fleet emerged victorious from its first battle, it had paid dearly for that victory, leaving eight Icaran super dreadnoughts destroyed and two crippled hulks, a total of 57,900 Icarans died in the twenty minute battle and though 38 enemy ships were destroyed only 5 were of equivalent class to the Icaran warships lost.

6th Fleet under Admiral Chester Hancock engages 38 enemy ships
Icaran Losses:
HMS Prince Consort (SD) (98% Destroyed- 5,900 dead)
HMS Tangu (SD) (77% destroyed 3,200 dead)
HMS Herodotus (SD) (Destroyed – 6,100 dead)
HMS Sullivans (SD) (Destroyed 6,100 dead)
HMS Junaeu (SD) (Destroyed -6,100 dead)
HMS Lightning (SD) (Destroyed – 6,100 dead)
HMS TigerClaw (SD) (Destroyed -6,100 dead)
HMS Agitator (SD) (Destroyed 6,100 dead)
HMS Tsun-Tsu (SD) (Destroyed- 6,100 dead)
HMS Italia (SD) (Destroyed 6,100 dead)
Icaran Dead: 57,900
Total Anderman Crusade Losses: 632,307

2440.4 Change in the Balance
Three months after the battle of Asterion the entire Anderman alliance was thrown into upheaval as pre arranged forces under Mantisoran control seized government officials, and vital centers of commerce, defense and communication bringing the Anderman Federation, the Empire of Man and the Sol Coalition to their knees in a matter of hours.

Thanks to Mantisoran economic efforts and public relations operations the bulk of the Alliance worlds fell under Mantisoran control without a shot being fired as the people saw the Mantisorans as heroes come to save them from an ever growing state of economic collapse and sense of fear as whole worlds were abandoned by their former governments in order to protect the “more important” worlds of their respective nations.

Two weeks into the month of Pájaro in the year 2440.4 a new nation was born as the last political holdouts of the alliance “disappeared” or were otherwise forced into recognizing the Mantisoran crown as the only legitimate government in the former Alliance controlled space, from this change in political, economic and military power the Mantis United Kingdom was forged, a nation with nearly a thousand ships under it’s control and several hundred more planets then the Icaran Empire.

The new threat posed by this nation caused even the staunchest of Icaran expansionists to pause and rethink the new balance of power in the Galaxy, the Anderman, Empire of Man, and Sol coalition had all ceased to exist and from their chaotic political infighting came a strong government with an economic might greater than that of Icara and with As Mantisoran Admirals took over the fleets and Mantisoran Generals took over the armies of the former alliance, a new corps of deadly efficient and disciplined officers took the reigns of a once disunited and in some cases down right incompetent military and from it they would create a war machine to rival the power and discipline of the Icaran Royal Forces.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

(none story) In order to create a much more enjoyable and challenging foe, as well as to add some spice to the game story I took control of the EOM, the Anderman and the Sol Coaltion and had them all surrender to the Mantisorans.

I also put several battle moons under construction at mantisoran worlds so this story is likely to get a lot more interesting very soon http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

The hard thing about writing is simply writing after a while. It seems like no one really cares and no one reads what you post so its easy to call it quites after a bit. The thing is most poeple read what you post but post nothing about it, that is unless its bad in which case they point that out. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

I do miss a lot of the fan fiction that was always being posted here but what the hell, easy come easy go. Your still posting so that I have something to look forward to when I log onto Shrapnel.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

I always read this. Want to see what happens next.

Only hoping that can play same mod.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Heh my biggest problem in writing so far is that so many of my main characters were either killed (Fowler, Yu Hing Pe, and others) or have been seperated by assignments so it's hard to keep telling the story from the perspective of the people that once formed the core of my story http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

LOL Hell Ross and Linn are Married and yet they are about 800 lightyears apart that sort of puts a crimp in that relationship heh.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Keep notes. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I found that I would build more ships than I could track, and often one would simply disappear on me. That is why I am a big fan of getting a Ship tracking sheet in SEV. Fingers crossed anyways.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Starhawk writes:

"LOL Hell Ross and Linn are Married and yet they are about 800 lightyears apart that sort of puts a crimp in that relationship heh."

Phone sex?

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

2442.1 The Newest Breed of War:
Admiral William Ross, commander of the first fleet relaxed in his ready room aboard Superior and sighed contentedly, it had been a year of relative peace throughout the Icaran Empire, as the government paused and took stock of the new threats that the United Mantisoran Kingdom could bring against Icara. Though the 1st fleet was in Remorhaz space they were never in any real danger as the fading republic didn’t have enough warships left to threaten a single division of Super Dreadnought’s much less a full on battle fleet.
Word had reached the intelligence service a few weeks ago that the Delta Corporation had dispatched a privately funded fleet of mercenaries to one of the former Anderman worlds, and that hey had conducted horrible experiments on the civilian population. Ross remembered sourly that when he first read the reports containing details of the experiments his stomach heaved not only because of the experiments but because the Home Fleet was going to be assigned to destroying the renegades, fortunately that hadn’t been needed in the end as the Mantisorans tried to liberate the world.

Ross felt a strange sense of guilt as he remembered feeling remorse when he heard the news that two Mantisoran fleets had been destroyed on two separate attempts to rescue the inhabitants of Horod V killing nearly three hundred thousand of their spacers before a third fleet of some sixty warships finally overwhelmed and destroyed the DC fleet, however they too lost five ships with crews of around 6,500 each.

William re-read the report and frowned, though they had liberated the world of Hodor V it was a hollow victory as marine landing parties from the Mantisorans discovered that the population was so horribly deformed there was no point in saving them, in the end the Mantisoran commander, one Admiral Vincent DeLeno had glassed the world to end the agonies of those that were unlucky enough to survive the horrible experiments conducted upon them.

Ross knew that the Mantisorans were his enemy but he also knew that they were an enemy he could respect and that they like Icara dealt with prisoners with honor and compassion so the thought of hundreds of thousands of their naval personnel being killed by renegade pirates seemed wrong on the most basic of levels; navy personnel were soldiers, fighting for what they believed in, the mercenaries that had killed them were fighting for money and were doing horrible things to innocent men women and children for the sake of making a profit and though he would never tell anyone how he felt Ross could not help but feel sympathy for the families of those brave men and women who died trying to do what was right, they died trying to protect innocents.

Suddenly William was pulled from his thoughts as klaxons howled and a voice boomed over the ships speakers calling all hands to action stations, as he stood and tugged his jacket back on Ross couldn’t help but wonder if that enemy he just felt sympathy had decided to come and try to kill his young men and women.

As he reached the bridge Ross noticed the pale shocked faces of his sensor crew and flag Captain and felt the hair on the back of his neck rise, they were all veterans so whatever could make them look like that must be either very bad or worse.
“What is it Captain?” The Admiral managed to keep the concern out of his voice, though his worry grew when it donned on him that the marine sentry on the bridge forgot to announce his arrival.
“Uh, captain we’ve just had a warp point open and…..well sir.” The captain flinched at the screen again before finally looking directly at Admiral Ross “Sir according to our reports something the size of a small planetoid is coming towards our position and I’m reading energy signatures off the charts.” The flag captain shrugged and looked back at the screen.
“Small planetoid eh? How big exactly is it?” Ross said somewhat irritated by the fact that his crew was standing around like slack jawed back breeds, though he couldn’t entirely blame them.
“Sir unknown object has sixty kilometer diameter with a mass reading of twenty five megatons and an energy signature of several hundred terawatts I can’t get an exact reading from this range.” The Sensor tech looked as if she’d seen a ghost as she reported her sensor’s readings.

Five hours passed and nothing new came in, the 1st fleet assembled in battle formation with the vulnerable troop transports hidden away at the center of the fleet to protect them from whatever was coming.
“Um, Admiral I’m receiving a signal from that…..ship.” A young com tech tabbed a control and the primary screen on the bridge came to life, everyone on the deck visibly relaxed when a young looking woman wearing an Icaran Royal navy uniform appeared on screen, a mischievous smile on her face.
“Sorry if I startled you folks, I was ordered to keep radio silence until I was in position to join your fleet, I’m Commodore Rukia Fujita commander of the HMS Holy Crusade one of two battle moons that just launched from port, I also happen to be your new flag officer Admiral.” Her smile brightened as she snapped a salute in parade fashion.

Ross couldn’t help but smile, he had met Fujita only once before and that was back on Icara while she recovered from wounds she sustained during the campaign in Ulda Fraiv when the 1st fleet was still under command of Admiral Tyson Babcock before his reassignment to 3rd fleet.
Ross remembered that even while they grew limbs for the ones she lost, and even while she was undergoing agonizing physical therapy her spirit had barely lost any of it’s flair and toughness, she even refused to let the doctors remove a scar across her right cheek where a piece of shrapnel the size of a dinner plate barely grazed her. She told Ross that if she got rid of that scar it would be ignoring the only good bit of luck she had had that day.
“It’s good to see you again Rukia, come on in and take formation with the rest of the fleet.”

“Aye sir and I’d love to give you a tour of your new flagship sir.” Rukia bowed and saluted again before cutting the circuit.

(to be continued……)

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Nitpick: the phrase "it donned on him" should be "it dawned on him".

Re: Fujita. A veteran should definitely have a scar or two both as a reminder to self and as a warning to the newbies.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

The Newest Breed of War pt2:
The Superior’s cutter number ten slipped into the massive docking bay; the bay was so large the cutter wouldn’t even be visible with the naked eye from the farthest end, hundreds of cutters and other small craft called this bay home and as Ross stared out of the view port of his cutter he suddenly felt like a child who had seen the sky for the first time.
The cutter’s hatch opened and a ramp slid down to the deck with a quiet clank that seemed to be swallowed up by the sheer size of the bay, as Ross stepped into view he paused for a moment, stunned yet again as he saw the honor guard that awaited him a full eight thousand crew and marines; at their head Commodore Rukia Fujita and a tall, olive complexioned man whom looked almost frail as he stood next to the shorter but much more muscularly built Spartan Commodore in her full dress mess uniform.

The traditional steel whistle called out an ancient whistle alerting all hands present to a flag officer’s arrival on deck; at the sound the entire company snapped to attention with a sound that would bring confidence to any commander; Ross proudly returned the salute and cleared his throat “As you were.”
A few seconds later Commodore Fujita and the frail looking man at her side stepped forward, Fujita smiled like a schoolgirl as she allowed herself to relish the look of absolute shock on her new Admiral’s face.
“Welcome aboard the Holy Crusade Admiral.” The young woman offered her hand to Ross, who took it and grinned sheepishly as he realized he had been gawking like a backwater mudfoot.
“Thank you Commodore, she’s certainly one of the most unique things I’ve ever seen.” His grin widened as he looked around the massive “boat bay” again, still staggered by its sheer size.
“Tell me commodore how do you keep the enemy from flying straight into this great big beast and blowing you all apart?” Ross smiled wickedly this time and suppressed a chuckle when he saw the look of shock on face of the Captain next to Fujita.

Being acquainted with Ross’ quirky sense of humor Fujita was totally unflustered as she smiled back and managed a velvet smooth voice “Well Admiral unlike that bucket of bolts that was your old flagship the Holy Crusade has the latest in void shield technology, oh and not to mention a fifteen meter thick blast door that seals off the entire launch bay in battle conditions.” Fujita turned to her aid and her smile turned once again into a grin as she noticed the man’s confusion.
“Oh Admiral may I present Flag Captain Elijah Jones of the New Bethlehem colony.” She nudged the younger man who stepped forward and saluted.

“It’s an honor to be meeting you Admiral.” Elijah’s voice was surprisingly deep for a man that looked so thin, his accent was also very unusual within the Icaran Empire and Ross had to remind himself that the New Bethlehem colony had not been part of the Icaran Empire until it was discovered by the Midwinter about ten Terran years ago, fortunately for both Icara and New Bethlehem the Colony’s leaders had decided to join the Empire voluntarily due to both political and religious reasons instead of trying to put up resistance.

“Good to meet you too Jones, how long have you been aboard Crusade?” Ross always liked to get to know his senior officers and he had realized long ago that a more casual approach often helped; obviously he could look up the man’s entire service record in about five minutes but he preferred hearing things straight from the “horses mouth”. He suppressed a grin at the thought of a big hairy mammal no Icaran had seen in a few centuries talking.

“Well sir she’s only about four months old and I’ve been with her since her latter stages of construction, so I’d say about one standard year.” Jones said crisply and smiled with pride as Ross nodded and looked around at the amazing “boat bay” again.
“It almost doesn’t fit to call this thing a ship does it?” Ross asked no one in particular as Rukia and Jones turned to lead him out of the massive boat bay.

A few minutes later Admiral William Ross and his new command staff, Commodore Rukia Fujita and Captain Elijah Jones stepped off the lift and onto the main bridge, William came up short as he stepped off the lift and saw the sprawling two tiered command center.
“My Lord I’ve seen planetary defense command centers smaller then this!” Ross said excitedly as he looked around the sleek dimly lit bridge.
“Well sir considering this warship is 60 kilometers in diameter and rates 25 megatons I’d say she deserves a good command center.” Rukia grinned and guided Ross to one of the many holographic displays on the bridge before she continued talking. “This particular station shows a display of the overall ship’s status, including our armaments and shield capabilities.”
“So what are the capabilities of this ship Commodore?” Ross felt more excited then he had since laid eyes on the first Yu Hing Pe super dreadnought to roll of the line, this ship was something that was generations beyond anything Ross had ever seen before in sheer size and power.
“We have eight spinal mount I-lasers capable of a 50 terawatt stream for five seconds, beyond that we have 89 massive mount I-lasers on top of that each capable of the standard 2 terawatt 3 second stream.” Rukia smiled as she noticed the shocked expression on Ross’ face, she tabbed a control on the panel and the hologram changed from a view of the exterior of the massive warship to a display of the internal layout.
“We have the latest generation energy focusing lenses so we lose less then five percent of energy per shot, making them about twenty percent more effective then the weapons on the current build SDs, though NavTech is working on that, we’ve made some other improvements too……” After an hour of briefings on the newest improvements made to the Holy Crusade William decided to take some of the tech manuals to his quarters and invited Rukia to come along, partly because he wanted to talk to her and private and partly because he had no clue how to get to his own quarters.

As the two officers stepped through the door to Ross’ quarters and the marine closed the hatch behind them William turned to Rukia and smiled humorlessly “So Rukia tell me what’s been going on back home, I hear some things are changing” he tried to keep his tone from becoming grim but it didn’t seem to help much and he realized that as Rukia’s face suddenly turned pale.
“Well sir some of the frontier worlds have begun rioting more and more and the Praetor has declared them rogue until such time as the FSD can get in there and stabilize the situation…..and sir I didn’t want to tell you this in front of the rest of the crew but Home Fleet got tarred pretty bad trying to take out a Mantisoran controlled colony.” She paused for a moment and her eyes darted about the room like she was trying to do anything but look at the shocked expression on Ross’ face.

“Is Lin….?” He felt the words stick in his throat and he couldn’t manage to force them free.
“She’s uninjured Sir but she’s under review by the Admiralty, they don’t think she did anything wrong per se but she lost all but one of her fleet’s SDs and one of her Flag Monitors took a beating.” Rukia stepped closer to Ross and resisted the urge to put her hand on his shoulder, an official review by the Admiralty would not likely end Lin’s career but it could easily be seen as a black mark on her permanent records, but more then that Ross knew how Lin would feel about losing so many of her own ships and crews taking over one planet.

“Well as long as she’s alright she’ll pull through this, how are things on the military front I hear there are some strange reforms in the works?” Ross managed to keep his voice more casual this time and he could barely contain the mix of Relief and worry knotting his belly.

“Actually yes sir, the fleets are all being pulled back to Norvor and many of our outlying worlds are being isolated via warp point closing ships. Our orders for now though don’t include falling back to Norvor at this time but it probably won’t be much longer.” Rukia sat in the chair Ross waved her too before continuing “Sir its only scuttlebutt but it makes sense since so far everyone except us has been recalled to Norvor and the fleets are being reorganized as the battlemoons come on line, we’ve also got word that all production of Super Dreadnoughts has temporarily ceased until the fleets get back home.”

William frowned thoughtfully and rubbed his forehead, in a way it made sense to recall the fleets if the frontier worlds were rioting and the United Mantis Kingdom was reorganizing into more effective defensive and offensive units, word had reached the Navy that most of the so called “new frontier” worlds had fallen to the Mantis navy months ago and even the Royal Navy couldn’t be everywhere so continuing to take worlds they couldn’t hold made no sense.
“So when does the new building program begin?” Ross was more curious then grim this time, he knew there was no way in hell Rodrick would let the navy sit on the defensive for long but the frontier worlds had to be reminded that no matter who they once belonged to they were now Icaran citizens, and Icaran citizens don’t riot.
“Well it’s supposed to start early next year once everything back home has been cleaned up and we get the fleet reorganized.” She managed a brief smile, she had been back on Icara for the past year and a half with a mix of recovering from her injuries and helping get the crew of the Holy Crusade up and ready for launch so she had actually looked forward to getting back out on the front lines, but Ross and most of First fleet hadn’t even seen Icara for almost three years and she knew they’d look forward to the recall for at least a little while.

“So tell me more about what’s been going on back home.”

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Nice to see your still going and not a bad chapter.

Still it does seem odd 'word reaching then navy' I mean they of all people need to know what the enemy is doing.

Stil going with TWs I see, nice fudge on those technobabble focusing lense by the way http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif. Still may I introduce you to the simple joy of KE weapons: Take one 6kg lump, accelerate up to 0.1c and it will do about the same damage as one of those spinal I-Lasers (in pure MT terms at least) as well as being far smaller. Something to think about perhaps?

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Well remember they don't have FTL comms all the messages are sent via messenger ship or warp drone. And Warp drones are expensive so they are very rare except for absolute emergencies on a fleet wide scale.

So "Word reaching the navy" is because it would take time for he message to reach the intelligence branch and then time for that message to reach the Navy as a whole.

Yeah but solid shot wouldn't punch through the null space (void) shields so it wouldn't really be a good idea http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif besides that energy weapons don't require a large magazine while solid weapons do.

And yeah Terawatt seems to work for now http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Large magazine for a railgun or huge reactors, inductors, cooling systems for energy weapons. Hmmmm....

One point. If you want to do a tech manual, or just put in some tech background in the books, you are going to have to drop the cool sounding words.
For instance, I remember you saying the I-lasers weren't lasers but fusion beams. Well 'Fusion Beam' may sound nifty but it means nothing. Same for 'Null Space' shields. Unless you are actually using a shielding system based on mathematical solutions to matrix problems. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

The other problem with the tech manual is you commit yourself and people ask difficult questions, like "Why rail guns can't pierce null space shields, but other things can?"

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Well I don't know what you would call a beam that creates a fusion reaction with just about any solid object it comes in contact with? (basically turning hull plating into a micro fusion explosion)

As far as "null space" goes basically think about it like this the GFGs focus a "wavelength" of subspace around the ship to create a "void" around the ship. Basically it's kind of like putting a bubble of subspace around the ship to absorb impacts.

Now why would solid shots not work? Simple because the solid impact would simply break apart on the shield, it's a matter of kinetic force vs something that negates the kinetic force. NOW why does the energy weapon work? Becuase of the fact that when the two energies mingle you get a hell of a lot of force released eventually burning out the shield generators, however unfortunately due to the nature of the interactions there are shield "burn throughs" that take place every so often resulting in some of that energy striking the ship's hull directly causing damage and killing people.

Why then do ships have armor? Because ablative armor causes the fusion "bomb" to be shot off of the hull before it can actually cause the blastwave to go directly into the ship.

Why fight broadside? Simple because their shields are not "directional" like the shields on star trek where you can take a hit on the nose and just turn your side to the bad guy to releive that shield point until it regenerates a hit on the nose in the Icaranverse reduces the overall shield effectiveness, also due to the nature of shields weapons can not be fired "through" it either way which means that if a ship tried to fire through it's shields it would just be hurting it's own shields.

So the weapons are laid out mainly broadside so that when the ship opens "ports" in it's shields it's maximizing firepower while at the same time making sure it's getting more worth out of it's shield-to-fire ratio (basically why fire two weapons forward and lose the same amount of shield when they fire back when you can unleash 18 or more cannons?)

Now does this tech work with modern physics HELL NO but are the Icarans nearly two thousand years more advanced then us Yeppers and I am taking creative liscence given that 100 years ago no one thought powered flight would make sense, and given that only about 70 years ago some scientist said there was not enough fissionable material in the world to make a reactor or a bomb I figure who knows how far two thousand years worth of advancement will bring our knowledge of physics and technology.




(re: Magazine vs reactor)
The Icaran quantum reactors in the main turrets are rather small comparitavely speaking and you can get nearly unlimited fire out of them while the more rounds you wanted to fire with a solid shot weapon the bigger the magazine would need to be.

basically a reactor for an energy weapon could give you 1 shot or 1,000,000 for the same size while a magazine for a solid shot weapon would need to grow with every few rounds you add to the capacity of the ship.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Your right that doesn't work with physics, not even a little bit. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif It's the kind of stuff a star trek engineer would be proud to spout. Still that is the advantage of writing your own stuff, you can just make things up.

Tech will change and new things will be found out, but to paraphrase Scotty 'You canna change the laws of physics!" that reasoning on why solid shot wont work is so fundamentally wrong it's painful. So the work to counter KE doesn't stress the generators, but the energy release when a beam hits does stress them. To counter the KE of the sold shot you will need at least the same amount of energy, "Energy can neither be created or destroyed" and so on.

Take an 18" naval shell (say 1,500lb or ~700kg), accelerate to 0.1c. The shell now has a KE of 350PetaJoules. All that energy hits the shields and something has to happen to it, that is a fundamental law of the universe.


Or you just don't bother with explaining it and take the answer used about how Trek inertial dampers work, 'Perfectly well thank you.' http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

El_Phil writes: "Large magazine for a railgun or huge reactors, inductors, cooling systems for energy weapons. Hmmmm...."

If you're putting comparable energies on the target--whether "energy beam" or kinetic energy projectile--don't you need to control comparable energies at the source? For example, doesn't the railgun require a substantial "reactor" to generate the current for something like 3 million G's on its projectile (assuming its velocity of 0.1c is attained in one second or less)? If it's less than 100% efficient, it will also require cooling. I'm no engineer, but I suspect it would also require massive conductors, inductors, transformers, etc.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

True, but you aren't messing around with exotic particles. This vastly simplifies the entire process and reduces the losses in conversion (as there are less converions http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif).

Also although the total energy is the same, the peak would be lower. A 100TW beam would need a 100TW reactor to power it when it's firing. A magneic accelerated railgun slug builds up its KE over the course of its acceleration. So a 10TW reactor powers the magnets for 10 seconds and you've put the same amount of power into the final weapon, but with a reactor 10 times smaller. Or you use the same size reactor and get a 10 times more powerful weapon.:D

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Okay so there's no saying an energy weapon couldn't effectively create a fusion explosion when it meets a solid object or is there in physics?

Well to correct ol' Scotty you can change the laws of physics lol because we know about diddly crap about physics we just like assuming we know everything about it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I mean 100 years ago they "knew everything about physics" and now we look back at a lot of that and laugh (or so I hear) so in 2,000 years God only knows what "physics" will mean to an engineer.

Now take a 18' naval shell which requires something to propel it to 0.1c and you might as well remove the magazine that you would need to place there WITH the reactor the coolant and blah blah and just have the energy it's self, saves space http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Also think about the shield thing like this:
A bullet proof vest can stop a bullet but not a knife, a knife goes streight through it like butter.

Now a shield grid= bullet proof vest and the energy beam is the knife http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

The bullet needs to survive the impact to actually do any kinetic damage, if it gets vaporized the second it contacts the shield than it's not much good is it?

Now if you'd like to say something about the shields being a small bubble of subspace being "impossible" well howso? Who says that there won't eventually be a tech that lets you create a small pocket of subspace around a ship?

Let's face it you can't explain future tech easily or to necessarily fit our logic anymore then we could explain a jet fighter to someone from the 13th century (assuming they didn't burn you for witch craft before you got the chance to say "Yo" of course) It's simply a matter of what is possible NOW and what may be we just don't know.

Reminds me of what that one dude said about "Any technology advanced enough is indistuingishable from magic" or something like that.

I mean no offense here El_Phil but care to explain how you "know" all this is not ever going to be possible and I'll think about changing my tech a different way or not explaining it at all, in the meantime though my tech is from a totally different LEVEL of science so I can explain it however I want because unless someone from 2,000 years in the future parks himself in my living room and tells me what they actually have I can only play a guessing game here http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[edit] OH and energy weapon= lightspeed weapon meaning no chance to physically intercept said object.

Bullet at c fractional is still not lightspeed and you come up with a computer advanced enough you can send your own c fractional counter weapon back at it.

That basically means not only would you be adding a magazine to your ship which is not necessary you'd be giving your enemy an additional layer of defense against your weapons and whats the point in that?

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

You think you can stab a knife through a sheet of kevlar? Good luck to you there matey. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif You can stick a knife through the gaps between the plates of kevlar certainly, but not through the bullet proof slabs.

How do you vaporise the slug? Now you could just use 'handwavium', I've got no problem with that, its soft sci-fi and also you to get on with the story.

If you want to explain it you've got to say what happens to all the KE of the slug. It cannot vanish, and you've got to put some energy into vaporising the slug, thus chuck enough material at it and you'll overload the shields.

Everything we have ever seen, at every level, in every field from quantum physics through to cooking to parallel dimensions and black holes supports 'Energy can neither be created or destroyed.' It's fundamnetal, from comet orbits to falling out of a plane, everything obeys this. That's why I can say those shields will never work as you say, they will be vulnerable to slugs. You cannot just wave away all that energy.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Well you could say that since the KE is a non continuous energy force your shields will simply absorb it or shrug it off while a sustained energy beam would prevent the shields from simply absorbing it as it is still "pushing" against the shield.

As far as "chucking enough material" that would require a high rate of sustained fire which would mean BIGGER magazines and a still interceptable weapon, with an energy stream you still need that high rate of fire but not more material to chuck.

Besides a bullet is wasteful as it requires raw material and mass while an energy beam in a sense requires raw material (i.e power and in the case of chemical lasers the chemicals) it does not have any mass and so is far cheaper and more efficient then loading up a ship with tens of thousands of rounds of 18' shells.

Oh and BTW bullet proof vests DO NOT stop knives which is a problem US police have had for years and why the British designed a specialty vest specifically to stop knives. Saw it on a history channel and discovery channel show so I can't point out a web site if your going to bring that up.

To try and explain it the way the guy on the show did a knife actually has more "force" behind it in that once a bullet hits and it's energy is spread out across the vest thats it your done but a knife continues to apply that force and bullet proof armor is designed for that. Or something to that effect.


I never said the shield destroys or creates energy there is a difference between absorbing energy for a limited time and "creating energy" it's just that when two energies mix you can have a "surge" which is basically what I was trying to say with the burn through.

[edit] Oh and how do I vaporize the slug, high speed object hitting imovable object (i.e the shield) kind of like throwing a glass bottle at a wall except at .c fractional speeds that glass bottle would vanish[/edit].

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

These magazines aren't big. Use DU at 19kg/m3 you need a 0.3m3 slug at 0.1c to equal your biggest turrets total 5 second output. That's not alot of space in anyones book, not given the size of the ships.

An energy beam is far more wasteful, radiation losses, blooming and dozens more reasons. Of course as you've hand waved all that away I suppose that isn't a factor. :p

Here's what I think you mean about shields, your reactors generating at xKW, but the shields charge up, giving a total strength of 3 times x KW or whatever the charge up factor is. In that case surely the slug is more dangerous, all its power is concentrated in one burst, the turrets spread their power out over several seconds.

However given that your first and last paragraphs contradict each other I'm not sure what you do mean. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Well the first paragraph deals with what i mean about the Kinetic energy not the slug it's self http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif The kinetic energy is still there even after the slug is not (at least I think that's what you told me).

The last paragraph deals with the slug it's self which would pretty well vanish once it hit that shield no matter.

Now I have a question for you regarding the whole math, how do we KNOW what an object the size you described would do at C fractional speeds unless we've been able to propel an object C fractional and I just don't remember hearing about it lol.

Seriously though do scientists just "round up" from speeds we know about or do they pull it out of the air?

That's like the theory that if you press your hand against a table for a million years your hand and the table will merge, well considering neither your hand nor that table would possibly be there for a million years where did they get that from?



As far as energy loss goes assuming you get energy weapons I'm sure you'd know how to minimize energy loss (i.e focusing lenses and who knows what else) so assuming your hitting someone with 2 TW of power FOR 5 seconds (after whatever minimal energy loss you get) as opposed to hitting it with like 5 TW of power for about half a second.

Oh and I was trying to think of an analagy comparing the shield to the bullet with that brick wall bit not saying the shield is the literal equivilent of a brick wall because if you do that a marshmellow travelling at C fracionals would punch through it easily.

Their shields basically work in this sense (let me try to explain it as best I can) a split second energy burst wouldn't effect the overall stability of the shield, while a "drilling" sort of enery would.

My shields are actually inspired by the Langston fields form the Empire of Man series so I guess I could just flat out use the langston physics instead of trying to use my own lol http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Langston fields worked where kinetic weapons were useless because the second it contacted the shield it slowed down so much that there was practically no kinetic force at all so they used fusion torpedoes and lasers a lot.

But they still had to open "ports" to launch torpedoes or fire missiles because the field worked both ways.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

In which case Langston fields sound equally shaky, you've got to bleed off a hell of alot of KE to bleed off. If you want to use it go ahead, but don't say you can explain it. Or accept your going soft sci-fi. There's nothing wrong with that route.

The particles of the slugs have the KE, you can't seperate the two, the energy doesn't just float around after you vaporise the slug. You slow it down, wonderfull, that takes energy, you through in several very fast slugs at the same time and you can't produce enough power to slow them all down.

Behaviour of a fractional c body, well as I can walk at a fraction of c there's your answer. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif
Seriously though random atmospheric particles and cosmic rays travel at ridiculously high fractions of c, where Einstinean physics, not Newtonian, apply. Hence I've only suggested 0.1c, above that it's stops being 0.5mv2 and gets more complex.

The table merging is from the depths of quantum mechanics, which is a horrendous field I try and avoid. Consider quantum tunneling: You are trapped behind a barrier, say a prison wall. You could exist either side of that wall, but you lack the energy to get through the wall. However quantum tunneling says there is a chance you could just appear the other side of the barrier.

Of course that is epically unlikely, but possible. You can demonstrate quantum tunneling, (particles not people http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif) and so test assumptions and constants. It's proveable, demonstratable and repeatable. And mind bendingly complex.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Well actually I'll stick to my shields and accept I am going soft sci-fi in that field because I don't want to rip of Pournelle since i like his work and it seems wrong to rip off people who's work you like http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif they did inspire me though since aside from the Harrington (gravity fields) it's the most unique shields I've heard of in sci-fi.

Although I know I won't be able to explain the "exact" physics of how the shields work since they defy our current knowledge of physics I'll explain just generally how they work http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif (non physics department)

Hey look at it this way though as far as my beams that can create a mini fusion explosion that is actually possible I think I'm not sure though.

And you think I am going "soft" sci-fi there is a series involving some group called "The Culture" where they shoot freakin black holes at each other as standard weapons (I mean real full fledged black holes not mini black holes). Or so I've been told, it all sounds a bit strange to me.

Same thing with this group called the 5th Imperium (don't know where it's from just heard about them on the spacebattles forums) where the average ship is the size of a planet and where they shoot unbeleivably outlandish weapons at one another.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

"The Culture" novels are Ian Banks, who does hard sci-fi. Just because it's super uber powerful, doesn't make it soft sci-fi. You can, with enough power, do almost anything. Throw in very, very advanced AI and some more power and there are few limits. But that's the point, there are limits. Things that still cannot be done, at all.

It's the lack of hand waving and magical components or elements (dilithium crystals for instance http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif) and the consistency that determine hard or soft sci-fi.


For your story, a throw away line about how projectiles don't work (or work really badly) on the shields and don't pursue it, unless it's relavent to the plot/story. If projectiles work or not should only be mentioned if your main charcters (or minor http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif) meet an enemy who uses them.

I remember an Asimov book, one of the Laws of Robotics ones, which was awful for that. Plot and other points needed to be established, but it was done by characters telling each other what they already knew. Not all the time, but it wasn't good. However the ideas were new and interesting enough that it didn't matter.

In fact Dr A. is a good example, how the robots work just isn't discussed, unless the story needs it. Even then theres no (or little) extra detail, its distracting.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Hey I don't use "dylithium crytals" or anything that "hand wavy" http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

For that matter I didn't put any "throw away lines" about projectiles in my story just telling you http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif.

And for the most part I haven't mentioned anything "totally" unrealistic except maybe the shields but that's just subjective so you can't really just label mine "soft sci-fi" because you disagree with the one little bit about my shields and then turn around and say black holes being slung at people is 'hard' as that has to violate a whole lot more areas of physics then mine heh.

Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
 

Just for those wondering here is the Status of the Icaran Empire and the United Mantis Kingdom:

Icara:

Systems controlled: 85 (lets call it 82 as there are presently at least three systems totally engulfed in riots)

Planets: 676
Sphereworlds: 5

Population: 919.1 billion

Resources: 29.3 million

Research Points; 634.6k

Intelligence points: 818k

Tech Levels: 360

Units: 11475

Bases: 104

Ships: 1315


Icaran Military Breakdown:
1st Fleet
1 Battlemoon
2 Flag Monitors
149 Super Dreadnoughts
1 Picket ship
2 Repair ships
1 Minesweeper
Total Crew: 1,250,900

2nd Fleet
1 Battlemoon
2 Flag Monitors
149 Super Dreadnoughts
2 Repair ships
1 Minesweeper
Total Crew: 1,250,900

3rd Fleet
1 Battlemoon
2 Flag Monitors
149 Super Dreadnoughts
2 Repair ships
1 Minesweeper
Total Crew: 1,250,900

5th Fleet
1 Battlemoon
2 Flag Monitors
149 Super Dreadnoughts
2 Repair Ships
1 Minesweeper
Total Crew: 1,250,900

6th Fleet
1 Battlemoon
2 Flag Monitors
149 Super Dreadnoughts
2 Repair ships
1 Minesweeper
1 Picket ship
Total Crew: 1,250,900

7th Fleet
1 Battlemoon
2 Flag monitors
149 Super Dreadnoughts
2 Repair ships
1 Minesweeper
Total Crew: 1,250,900

Home Fleet:
2 Battlemoons
6 Flag Monitors
149 Super Dreadnoughts
2 Repair ships
1 Minesweeper
Total Crew: 1,610,900

(note I only included fully formed fleets minus their ground assualt units as I have not yet assigned troop support to the reforming fleets)


Mantis UK:

Systems: 110
Planets: 888 (1 sphereworld)
Population: 342.5 billion
Ships: 515
Bases: 32
Units 23115