The Empire of Man (series of short stories)
 

Okay this is going to be written rather differently than other stories that I've seen so far, since my "Rise of Icara" has pretty much come to a halt for the time being I am going to make a series of short stories all taking place within another game of mine that is rather young yet, The lead race as you may have guessed by the title is the Empire of Man (tribue to Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle stories) but for the most part "main characters" will be on a story to story basis although somewhere along the lines they may connect.

Anyway I will write the first of these stories tonight and I would like you guys to tell me if you even this kind of short story writing will be a good idea or not in a game such as SE?

Re: The Empire of Man (series of short stories)
 

Absolutely it is a good idea - I look forward to reading it.

Re: The Empire of Man (series of short stories)
 

Shoot !!!!!

Re: The Empire of Man (series of short stories)
 

A serpent strikes

A distress call had arrived from the newly established colony on Golkus I telling naval intelligence that a Norak assault carrier had recently docked with several Goa'Ould transports for reasons unknown and that for a month now the warship had not responded to any signals being sent by the colonial governor.

Governer Micha was worried that the single General class battlecruiser patroling his system would stand no chance against such a ship and so he requested that Admiral Renner of the 6th fleet send immediate aid. And so Renner sent in a nearbye Heavy Cruiser and sent word that the Super Monitor INSS Unrelenting would head to the location at maximum speed to reinforce the local forces.

That was sixth months ago and now all Captain Park was concerned about was the fact that his crew had been undergoing six gravities of exceleration of days on end and up to 3 gravities when it was deemed necessary for his crew's health for them to decelerate and now he had just entered the system and could look forward to another 5 gee's of acceleration as soon as his breifing with captain Anders of the battlecruiser INSS Liberator was ended.

"Sir Captain Anders and His Excellency Governor Micha have just arrived in docking bay two on an atmosphere reentry shuttle. I have sent a platoon of marines as honor guard sir." Commander Rawlins said in her typical crisp tone as she looked over the readouts on her station.

"I'm sorry Rawlins did you say Governor Micha is aboard?" Park just barely hid the contempt in his voice as his XO nodded confirmation. " I guess his Excellency decided he was too valuable to risk should the Assault Carrier turn hostile" he thought as he stood up and headed for the hatch that led to the breifing room where he would meet with all the relevent staff, and the governor, it was just then that Park almost smiled realizing he was finally experiencing the low grav environment normally kept on naval ships, it kept the crew's bodies adjusted to a normal grav situation of course because between the HI gee thrust and low gee standard that a warship went through the crews would have enough time to exercise and keep up their mustles as they should.

Five minutes later Captain Park sat in the small breifing room just aft of the bridge and looked at the 3d map of the system, 12 inhabited worlds 3 of which were major worlds with a total population of nearly 2 billion throughout the system, and only 3 warships to protect it. Heh the fleet was spread even thinner on the frontiers then even Park suspected. The map zoomed in and showed the assault carrier orbiting Golkus I and it's moon and Captain Anders grimmaced as he realized the situation. Park just barely heald a frown in check as he noted that Governor Micha hadn't said a word.

"Sir the assault carrier has moved into blockade position around Golkus I and her moon, if we accelerate at 6 gee's we may be able to arrive in time to intercept them should they turn hostile but sir we can't be sure." Commander Gorvochev of the Rightious Fist had managed to get a lock on the position of the assault carrier with his radar just before it went and hid behind the shadow of Golkus Ia.

Gorvochev cleared his throat and stood as he punched a few buttons and the holoprojector filled with the image of the assault carrier, top down and side on.

"Ladies and Gentlemen this is a Sete Lagoas II class assault carrier, she is equipped with the latest in Norak tech, she carries ten missile tubes and a level X phased shield generator, she carries an unknown compliment of fighters and our objective as ordered by Admiral Renner is to board her and take her to Golkus shipyards for dismantling and examination. Whispers went through the room as those gathered considered the meaning of those orders.

Two hours and 6 gees of thrust later and the three Imperial warships were in position to intercept the assault carrier.

"This is Captain Park of his majesty's warship Unrelenting to Norak assault carrier you have violated Imperial space without even making contact......Identify yourselves and your purpose in this system or I will open fire on..." Park paused as he heard his tactical officer's voice rise to a shout.

"SIR THEY'RE GOA'OULD I REPEAT THEY ARE GOA'OULD!" the young man was obviously nervious but his training instantly paid off as he signalled general quarters for all 3 imperial ships.

"Ga'damned snakes must have killed the Norak crew and taken her." Rawlins said as she alerted the Imperial Marines and Spacers of the boarding force to man their stations.

"Enemy assault bombers launching Captain and she's rippling missiles from all tubes." Midshipman Stanley reported as he watched his screen's intently and continued "Sir they are firing on Golkus Ia mining colony!"

"Is there anyway we can intercept mister Stanley?" Park said as he watched 100 blips headed torwards the planet (those would be the missiles he knew but he also noted that the 30 larger slower blips would be the fighters).
"No sir as it is we are 15 minutes out at maximum speed....sir incoming message from Liberty "
"Put it up mister!" Rawlins snapped as Captain Park lifted his head from the 3d projector he was standing next to.
" Liberty hailing Unrelenting, sir my ship is faster then yours it may be that we can intercept them before you are in range we won't stand much of a chance sir but we can hold them up for you." Anders looked grim as the screens showed the first volley of missiles impact on the surface of Golkus Ia destroying multiple facilities and killing thousands.

"Negative Anders I will not let you waste your crew's lives on a futile assault, now follow us in and prepare to target the enemy bombers, take Commander Gorvachev with you, I'm taking my ship right down that carrier's throat."

After 15 minutes the three ships had finally gotten within range to fire, but by them 350 million citizens of the Empire had died and both worlds were completely destroyed. And all that was left for the squadron to do was gain revenge.

"Sir all ships have fired long range fighter killer missiles, most of those bastards are down but the survivors are headed streight for Rightious Fist at maximum speed." Stanley looked scared but angry as he made his report, Park simply nodded.

"Order our gunners to fire at maximum range, let's give those snakes a suprise shall we?" A few seconds after park gave the order he watched as the screen showed multiple beams silently connect his ship to the enemy fighter squadrons, within a half a second the sweeping beams had vaporized all enemy fighters leaving the three Imperials unchallenged accept by the carrier's heavy missiles.

"Mister Hanson bring us into boarding range."
"Lieutenant order the shield depleter crews to hold fire until we are within range and all gunners to hold fire, we want that ship intact is that understood?!" Park barked as he watched a salvo of 100 missiles explode as his own anti-missile missiles and point defense lasers swept them from the sky.

After six hours of pursuit Unrelenting had finally caught up to the Gou'ld ship and crippled her shields, after a few seconds of maneuvering she came along side and the Boarding crew knew it was time for them to do their jobs.

"Allright all platoons you know your jobs, watch that friendly fire but don't be too worried about shooting in their, it's just full of Jaffa and Goul'ds and you can kill as many of'em as yah want." Captain Hodgkins said as felt the gently thump of the boarding airlock connect to the hull of the enemy ship. He shifted uneasily in his armored space suit and waited as he heard the hissing sound of the airlock acheiving preasure, he looked at the other armored marines in his platoon and felt a swell of pride as his men and women moved into position....then it came the explosion that signalled the breaching of the enemy hull, within a split second the door slammed open and marines fired laser rifles and cluster guns into the corridor ahead of them slicing what must have been a squad sized group of jaffa to peices.

"Alright move it you junkyard dogs!" Hodgkins shouted as his squad advanced into the ship, the sound of a cluster gun firing drew Hodgkins attention to his left as he saw one of his marines turn a Jaffa into goo with the rather fierce projectile weapon, unlike laser rifles that fired a coherent beam of energy into a target a cluster gun fired a series of explosive pellets into it's target and was never used on board ones own ship as it tended to call what the brass called "colateral damage".

"Check left!" A marine shouted just before he was decapitated by staff bLast, the jaffa who fired the shot didn't even get the chance to pick another target as a green beam lanced his chest and he fell with a crash. Twelve other Jaffa followed up behind him and opened fire on the scrambling marines.

"Get to cover damnit get to cover!" Hodgskins shouted as he dropped a jaffa with a bLast from his cluster gun, he saw two more of his marines go down as staff bLasts cut into them, but the jaffa didn't have any cover and quickly fell to the disciplined fire from the marines.
"REPORT!" Hodgkins looked over the situation and even though it appeared that all the jaffa had been neutralized he wasn't about to take any chances.

"Sir three marines down, all dead, all boarding parties report that they are advancing on their objectives." The thick new Irish accent of Seargent O'rourke came over the comnet as Hodgkins waved his party forward.
Six more firefights later Hodgkins marines had finally managed to secure the ships engineering and shut down the ships engines and targeting equipment.

"Captain Hodgkins this is Fleet Captain Park, all boarding teams report objectives completed we have secured the ship, wait for the prize crew to board before you leave your station....and Captain tell your men, we proud of them." Park's voice sounded cheerless as he informed the boarding parties of their success.

In the end the tally came in, 600 million Imperial Civilians had died 2 planets had been destroyed, 26 Imperial Marines were killed and 32 wounded in the boarding action, 22 Imperial Spacers also died in the boarding action with another 18 wounded, and a Goa'ould ship had been taken, over 300 Jaffa were killed as well as 2 Gou'lds.

A mission that was both a success and a failure, 2 worlds destroyed millions dead, but a priceless peice of material was even now being escorted back to the shipyards by an Imperial battlecruiser to be disected and examined.

Re: The Empire of Man (series of short stories)
 

So the snakes have left the stargate and got into a SE4 empire lol - are they like the borg out of star trek - a single race who takes over all in their way like a parasite and host situation.

Good work on the story though

Re: The Empire of Man (series of short stories)
 

Very good, will there be a next story ???? (please)

Re: The Empire of Man (series of short stories)
 

Very good Starhawk, it sums up the Goa'uld perfectly. I enjoyed this and i look forward to more. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

Permission to add these to Spaceempires.net fanfiction section? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: The Empire of Man (series of short stories)
 

Wow absolutely you can add them.....as long as you give me credit lol http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif (j/k I know yah will).

Interlude

Admiral Renner commander of the undermanned underequipped and over stretched 6th fleet had just finished reading the after action report of the Unrelenting and wretched when he read the number of casualties. Renner stood up sharply and threw the report pLasti onto his teak desk as he thought about the colony's only survivor, His Excellency M'Lord Micha and couldn't help but resent the whole of the nobility at that very momeny because of the damn coward had been a navy Man Renner would have had him flogged for leaving his station and then shot for desertion.

Casually Renner walked over to a small desk and picked up a bottle of New Chicago brandy and poured himself a small glass taking slowe indulgent sip, imported nearly 70 lightyears and costing a small fortune, but entirely worth the cost he thought to himself. It was then that the door chime sounded, "Oh Lord's teeth who is it this time?" he whispered to noone in particular as he pushed the button to open the door.
A pleasent suprise awaited him for when the door slid open Renner saw a beautiful Human woman wearing a female Version of the dress blue's of the Imperial Navy. the young woman snapped to attention and saluted the Admiral nerviously, Renner casually saluted with a grin on his face as he watched the young Lieutenant squirm, naturally it took him a second to speak in order to keep from sounding overly amused and humiliating the poor woman.
"What can I do for you Lieutenant..?" He paused indicating that he'd like her to give her name.
"Carla Zurita sir!" the woman had a thick Torjan accent and Renner couldn't help but notice that if he paid closer attention to the young woman she looked every bit the Trojan, short by Sparta standards at only about 5'4 long black hair and an olive complexion that was typical of worlds colonized by Latin nations prior to the unification of the Empire and the abandoning of Earth all those centuries ago.
"Well Carla Zurita what can I do for you?" Renner had already asked that question and it was unusual for a staff officer to ask the same question twice especially to such a junior officer but the Admiral remembered what it was like to be young and nervious and decided to give the kid a break.

"Sir naval intelligence has sent me to discuss a series of reports from the frontier sir, if your not buisy at the moment may we begin now sir?" The young woman entered the room as Renner waved her towards one of the comfortable looking chairs placed in front of the old desk.
"Now Lieutenant Zurita, why does naval intel want to tell me about, aside from the Golkus incident the 6th fleet hasn't had any combat action since the incorporation of the Crystlonites about 15 years ago." His voice held sarcasm in abundance as Renner sat down and tabbed a button on a comp pad at the edge of his desk.
"Sir moral in this sector is at an all time low since the Golkus, Intelligence wants to find a hero type figure in the Imperial Navy or Marines to boost the moral of the population sir and they want your help." Her voice was tough and calm but Renner still saw raw nerves in her eyes as she handed him a pLasti with what appeared to be a report of some kind on it.
"So is this one of your candidates for hero Lieutenant?" Renner said curtly as he took the pLasti.
"Possibly sir." she said as absently as the admiral began to read.

Re: The Empire of Man (series of short stories)
 

This is getting interesting Starhawk, Its a different approach of writing and it's looking good.

Also this story is now up on Spaceempires.net for viewing, I'll update it when new additions are added for you http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Looking forward to more http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: The Empire of Man (series of short stories)
 

A Battle Of Necessity

From: Captain Thomas Rothman (commander INSS Denmark [LC].
To: Fleet Admiral Lord Frank Renner
Subject: Battle of Winep System

The Goul'd had finally declared open war on the Empire and it was just at that time that our sensors discovered a force of six Norak battleships that had apparently been taken over by the Goul'd Empire and that they were inbound on heavily populated regions of our space. Unfortunately my ship INSS Denmark is only a Gerard 2 class light cruiser and I knew I could not stop the enemy fleet by myself.

Knowing that my light cruiser didn't stand a chance I sent a distress signal for any Imperial Ships of the Line to come to my aid, after an hour I had managed to get hold of Captain Park aboard the super monitor INSS Unrelenting, Captain Anders of the INSS Liberty a General class battlecruiser and Commander Gorvochev of his majesty's heavy cruiser INSS Rightious Fist.
It is my beleif that the swift intervention of these ships saved millions of Imperial Citizens from death, enclosed is the combat recording report of the action as recorded aboard INSS Liberty.

(begin playback)
"Sir signal from Unrelenting we are to cover the left flank..accelerate at full thrust with the rest of squadron and engage on Captain Park's command." The Young Ensign Raleigh reported from his station as the screen displayed 6 distant orange blips showed the engine flare of the enemy ships as the engaged max thrust towards the Imperial squadron.

"Alright Ensign follow on Park's left, and start scanning for targets." Anders was calm but also nervious, three Imperial warships against six advanced enemy battleships didn't look good but he had to trust in his crew and comrades on the other two ships to pull off the victory no matter the cost.
Three of the enemy approached from the left and the other three from the right, a classic flanking maneuver Anders noted and a rather dangerious one considering how few ships the Imperials had.

"Sir Unrelenting has signalled, all ships are to target the three ships coming up from the right first, then we are to neutralize the left flank." Raleigh said crisply as he listened to the comns officer from the flagship inform the other imperial cruiser of their plans.

In a matter of moments the three Imperial warships had managed to close the gap before the enemy could fire, and several green beams jutted from Unrelenting, within a split second the targeted battleship's shields had failed and the reactor had gone critical, within another split second a small nova appeared where the battleship had formerly been. It was still too far away for the other two Imperial's weapons to get involved or even for a direct visual of what had just happened over a light second out.

"Sir the other two battleships in that squadron are closing, they're firing!" Ralleigh said methodically as the screen lit up with bluish pulses from the nearest battleship, the mighty battlecruiser rocked as it's shields absorbed the enemy fire, fortunately the second battleship had focused it's fire on the massive Super Monitor who's shields didn't even flinch under the fire they had taken.
"Sir the other three ships are closing, firing!" The shields flared again and the ship rocked and then the sound of an explosion roared through the ship.
"Sir! Impact on hull I repeat they've struck home, shields down." Ralleigh was trying to stay calm but the shock in his voice was clear, no one expected to be hit so quickly in the fight.
"Damage reports coming in Captain, we lost C battery and the gunnery crew manning it, armor took the rest of the fire sir." Brevet Commander Saunder reported as he braced himself against the next volley from the enemy.
"Sir we are within range." Ralleigh reported brightly as the Liberty moved within 100 miles of one of the enemy battleships.
"Well then, Miss Dale give them a volley would you." the Captain tried to sound smug and unworried so that his valiant crew would know that they could emerge victorious.

The gunners aboard the mighty battlecruiser picked their target well and fired, the orange beams of the phased poloron cannons sliced into the shields of the enemy ship reducing them to less then half strength, but the gun crews had no choice but to cease fire or risk overheating their cannons.
Thankfully Commander Gorvochev of the Rightious Fist fired on the same battleship, knocking out her shields and gouging several holes in the hull, a breach on the port side sent Jaffa spilling out into space flailing and unprotected against the vaccum.
"They don't even wear pressure suits in battle?" The voice of a bridge officer behind Anders sounded shocked and amused by the folley of the Goul'd. The entire crew of an Imperial warship donned hard pressure suits, and marines donned battle armor whenever entering battle so that if the hull breached they would still have a chance of life but then again the navy actually cared about it's spacers while the snakeheads saw their jaffa as little more then slaves.
As the fire from the Heavy cruiser rent the Battle ship the Unrelenting managed to aquire a target from the squadron approaching the Imperials from the right and within seconds another ship went up in a brilliant fireball unfortunately for the Imperials 3 battleships remained and two of them fired directly into the Rightious Fist bringing down her shields and knocking out most of her guns, all along the Heavy cruiser the hull began tearing open spilling crew and debris into space.
The Imperial counter attack proved nearly useless as most of their fire missed and the shots that did strike home did little damage to the battleship's shields.
"Sir the Rightious Fist is being pounded, what are your orders?" the ensign knew that there was little his ship could do but it was just human nature to try and save one's comrades.
Anders didn't reply because he knew the answer would only demoralize his crew, it was likely that most of the other cruiser's crew was already dead and there was nothing that could be done for them now.
It was then that the ship rocked again and the bridge lit up with a brilliant flash and the sound of crashing wreckage, Anders felt himself flying for an instant then a solid impact on what must have been the forward helm station, Anders managed to pull himself up and realized that his arm was badly broken, as he looked across his bridge he saw a pair of legs in his XO's seat and a massive peice of hull where the rest of the body should have been. Trying to survey the damage Anders saw that most of the bridge was a wreck and most of the crew there were dead.
"Any survivors?" Anders asked in a horse voice as he reached for a handheld fire extinguisher to put out the flames nearbye.
"Aye aye Captain." It was Ralleigh still at station and Private Weiss of the marines who was walking over to the helm."
"Weapons, shields, are all gone sir, I am reading multiple hull breaches and casualty reports are coming in from all over the ship sir." Weiss looked rough, his marine armor had clearly saved his life though as a sharp peice of metal stuck clean out of the side of his armor, just barely stopped by the pLasteel layers.
"Sir the Rightious Fist" Ralleigh uttered as he pointed at the screen displaying video feed from the ship's backup camera.
It was even worse off then his ship, barely anything was left except superstructure and a few sections of hull, but even that was not enough for those bloodthirsty snakeheads as one of their battleships fired another volley of Mesons into the wreckage tearing it apart, ther was so little left of the cruiser that there wasn't even explosion as the hull just fell apart and bodies floated away.
The enemy battleship didn't have time to celebrate their victory however as the Unrelenting fired her main cannons into their rear blowing the reactor the seconds the shields failed, a new star was briefly born and then died out as the enemy ship exploded.

Anders watched with grim satisfaction as the flagship took hit after hit on her armor but didn't even flinch as she kept advancing on the Last remaining ship firing her powerful guns into it's shields, it was clear that Park was putting his own ship between that snake bastard and the crippled wreck that was Liberty and within minutes the massive warship had closed within boarding range and latched onto the hull of the enemy ship. Fifteen minutes later and another Gou'ld ship had been taken by the Unrelenting adding two to her tally.

Shuttles from the Super Monitor scoured the area for survivors as their mothership docked with Liberty to take the survivors off and tend the wounded.

After two hours the search shuttles came in from the void of space carrying only 28 survivors and all of those were from Liberty, a prize crew had taken over the enemy ship and repair teams were already working on the damaged sections of Unrelenting but Anders felt miserable, more then two thirds of his crew had been killed or wounded by the enemy and his ship was left floating until a salvage vessel could be sent to recover her. He was likely to be facing a court martial reviewboard within a week and he was very unsure of what his future would be.
(recording ends)

From: Captain Charles Anders former captain INSS Liberty
To: Fleet Command Gamma Sector
Subject: The Captain and Crew of his majesty's ship of the line INSS Unrelenting.

Sir I recomend you put Captain Park in for the star cluster for saving the lives of me and my crew, their bravery in putting themselves between the enemy and ourselves saved the lives of 400 Imperial spacers and marines and it is my strongest desire that even if my career is ended that Park's crew and my crew as well receive comendations for accomplishing their duties under the worst conditions possible. They did nothing less then save several million colonists from certain death and many of those brave spacers died to do it.

Captain Anders
6th fleet Gamma Sector

From: Captain William Park CO INSS Unrelenting
To: 6th Fleet Command
Subject: Casualties suffered at Winep

My Lords the following is a list of Imperial assets involved and casualties taken.

INSS Rightious Fist
Captain: Commander Alexi Gorvochev
Crew: 1,500 officers and ranks
Classification: Heavy Cruiser
Status: destroyed
Casualties: 1,500 dead

INSS Liberty
Captain: Captain Charles Anders
Crew: 2,150 officers and ranks
Classification: Battle Cruiser
Status: Abandoned until salvage ship arrives.
Casualties: 1,700 dead, 50 wounded.

INSS Unrelenting
Captain: William Park
Crew: 10,000 Officers and ranks
Classification: Super Monitor
Status: Escorting prize back to shipyards
Casualties: 85 dead, 189 wounded

Total Imperial casualties: 3,285 dead, 239 wounded, 2 imperial warships lost or abandoned.

Enemy losses: 5 battleships destroyed 1 captured, 6,000 dead.

[ July 04, 2004, 22:09: Message edited by: Starhawk ]

Re: The Empire of Man (series of short stories)
 

This was great. I loved the way you played into the huge ammounts of crew these ships would carry. When in tactical combat and you see one of your ships blow up you just don't feel the deaths of 1,500 men and women (or it's if you are a weird alien race http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ) Another great piece of writing and i get the feeling it's not over yet

I've added this chapter up on Spaceempires.net too Lol, Working fast today http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: The Empire of Man (series of short stories)
 

Thank you very much I'm glad you are enjoying it and I hope that there are many many more stories to come.

Interlude

"So Lieutenant did you know that this is the second report about Captain William Park I've read today?" Admiral Renner smiled politely at the pretty young woman who sat across from him looking over another pLasti that she had brought with her.

"Yes Admiral, and that's why intelligence beleives he can become a figurehead, a herofigure to boost the moral of our people in Gamma sector, make them feel safer knowing that there are men like Park out there." Her voice was finally starting to get over that timmid tone and she was actually showing the beginings of a smile.

Renner thought for a minute before responding "Indeed it would but this report might actually demoralize the very same people, 2 ships destroyed thousands dead including an Imperial captain that was well known to the people of Gosluk system." he put the pLasti on the desk and took another sip of his brandy.
"And besides that Lieutenant from what I here our mister Park pressed fromer Governor Micha into the navy, made him a bloody able spacer no less, not even a midshipman." the Admiral laughed quietly as he saw the look on the young womans face. Since governor Micha saved his own *** while the rest of his colony burned he just happened to be dismissed as governor, and since he was already aboard Unrelenting he was a very convenient man to press into the navy....and it only took two Marines to drag him out of Park's quarters kicking and screaming to the able spacer's birth.

The young woman too began to laugh at the image of an Imperial noble being dragged down the corridors of a warship kicking, screaming and crying as he realized that he saved his *** only to be condemed to service in the navy on the very ship he was hoping to escape on.

"Well sir, I think it might make Gamma sector citizens proud to know that their young men and women were so willing to go into unbeleivable odds to protect their fellow citizens, no matter the cost to themselves." she sounded convinced but she was young and didn't necessarily understand the politics of ruling a sector of space that knew all too well they were the frontier of Imperial space.
"I'll consider it Lieutenant, but for now let me see what else you've got." The Admiral said as he took the other pLasti that she was handing him and took a look at the report's title.

Re: The Empire of Man (series of short stories)
 

The Salvage of INSS Liberty

It had been about six months since we had received our orders to go salvage the Liberty and we had finally arrived in system after four warp jumps and months of high gee acceleration, I was just glad to be able to get to work after such a long trip and when the alert sounded that standard ships gravity would be restored I heard half the crew cheer and I too felt like we had just been freed from prison.
You see that's the funny thing about Imperial ships they have inertial dampers so that we can accelerate roughly 100,000 mph without feeling any gee's but once you hit .C even the best inertial dampers will only help in somuch as not to keep you from turning into a puddle, but as you got closer and closer to C (what we call the speed of light) the gravities increase on your body, and so in normal space the Navy refers to acceleration in referance to Gee forces, the higher the gee's the higher the speed and my ship had been accelerating at 5 gee for 6 months between jumps....needless to say the crew was miserable and very sore when we finally dropped back into the standard ships gravity which is .82 standard Spartan gravities. Well anyway we all know basic ship's physics here so I'll move on.

Well the alert had just sounded and my three bunk mates and I unstrapped from our grav couches and stood up, with some effort mind you. After about five minutes of just regaining our legs we responded to the ship's gym to begin freefall exercises until our shift started.

"Hey Brad, have you ever seen an Imperial Battlecruiser before?" Rodrick Tou was a new boy from some backwater colony that didn't even have an official name yet but all in all he was a good guy.
"Heh, I've seen an entire fleet massed before Rod it's just you backwater boys that rarely see anything bigger then a light cruiser." I liked teasing him about his backwater roots every now and then but like I said he was a good kid and he took it in stride.
Well after the standard hour of freefall exercises we reported to the ship's mess to eat the standard freefall meal that had the standard pLasteel taste to it.

After all that I was finally able to report to the bridge and imagine my suprise when I ran into a squad of marines! I hadn't even known marines were attached to Grasp until then, they must have done their exercises and eaten their meals in another part of the ship, but I still wondered how I didn't see em coming on board with the rest of us when we left Port.
Well I figured it'd be best not to try and talk to the marines so I just went on to the bridge to get my orders from the captain.....okay actually it was just so that I could get to a screen and see what Liberty looked like.

When I got to the bridge Cap'n Schmite and the bridge crew were already moving us into position to dock with the wrecked battlecruiser, it was finally coming on screen and my Lord she looked like someone had taken her to hell and left her to roast for a year, entire sections of her hull were gouged out, her engines were wrecked and the few remaining intact sections of the ship were open to vaccum.
"Mister Williams we are docking with that ship in five minutes, I want your salvage team and the marine squad to be ready in three minutes is that clear." Schmite barely paused long enough to look at me when he ordered me to get my team assembled but I just couldn't resist asking the question I knew my team would ask.
"Sir, if I may ask why are there Marines on board?" I wasn't really expecting the Cap'n to answer so when he turned his chair around to face me I was a little suprised.
"Because mister Williams the Navy and Marines decided that since this ship is not officially an Imperial Navy ship it is not necessarily a good idea to leave us unprotected should smugglers, pirates or scrappers happen to be aboard that wreck, now get your team moving mister." with that he turned back around and I walked to my team's birthing and had everyone don preasure suits and get their gear together so that when we boarded the battlecruiser we could begin repairs immedietly instead of having to wait.

Five minutes later my team and the squad of marines was at the airlock waiting for that thump that meant we were attached to Liberty ten marines five salvage techs to be divided into five survey teams.
"Ensign Williams Navy orders state that my team is to go in first, your salvagers are to come in only after we give the okay, understood?" Seargent Thompson was posterchild for the marines, he was hugely muscled man and 2 meters tall at least with a standard marine buzzcut that was hidden by his armored preasure suit so I decided it would be best not to argue with him as he would easily win. So when we docked the marines went in first and we listened in on their communications.
From what we heard there were still bodies on board, a lot of them which I admit none of my salvage team was used too but it also wasn't much of a suprise as she had been abandoned in the middle of a battle and the navy couldn't spare a ship to come clean the bodies out, until now of course as my ship had been tasked with full cleanup detail.

"Allright Ensign bring your team in, but watch your step." I knew Thompson was just trying to be a good soldier but I couldn't help feeling a little insulted about being told to be careful, I mean afterall salvage was what we did. When we stepped out of the airlock we felt an immediate feeling of weightlessness until our maglock boots established a seal and we were able to walk somewhat normally.
The corridor that we were in looked battered to say the least, debris and scorched metal was everywhere but what was really disturbing is how quiet it was, since the entire section was exposed to vaccum there wasn't any sound whatsoever except for what we heard over the comn links and it even had the experienced salvagers a little on edge myself included.
The marine squad came back at a rather casual pace and Seargent Thompson began assigning the teams, I considered myself lucky as I was assigned to Private's Whelch and Vierra (Vierra being a rather stunning 19 year old female) and began heading towards engineering, it was a long walk as engineering was two decks down and the lifts were offline but I wasn't about to complain as the marines had made that trip twice now and I didn't want to look bad in front of them, well okay I didn't want to look bad in front of the only woman my age I'd seen in person in a year.
When we reached engineering we were rather surpised to find a large pile of debris blocking the door, it was good that the marines came with us afterall as Vierra stepped in front of me and stood next to Whelch.
"Step back Ensign we don't want you getting hurt." Go figure I thought, first time a girl talks to me in a year and it's to crack wise. Well I stepped back anyway and watched as her and Whelch fired their laser rifles on sustaining beam mode until the debris turned bright red and begam melting into the floor. After about four minutes of waiting the debris was finally gone, but the marines insisted on entering engineering first "just to be sure".
When they finally waved me forward Vierra put an armored hand on my chestplate and looked at me grimly "Ensign, the engineering crew didn't get out, there are bodies in there....just to warn you some of them are not in good condition." She sounded sincerly concerned and to tell the truth I was a little nervious about having to enter a room full of bodies especially since I knew what "not in good condition" meant.

When she turned around to reenter engineering I gulped hard and worked up my nerves then I stepped into the room...eighteen bodies some of which had been badly mangled waited for me when I stepped in, eighteen people some of whom that still had recognizable faces looked about my age, some looked about 13 or 14 and others were just too badly burned or mangled to recognize, I almost threw up a few times as I went to work on the systems that we'd need to get on-line. I kept going by realizing that 1. The marines had been trained to deal with this and they could deal with it so could I. and 2. I just kept moving from one system to the next without looking up or to my sides at the corpses floating all around me.
I was glad to be out of engineering after I got the power turned on because when gravity came on and those bodies fell to the deck with some rather disgusting sounds and a rather nausiating splash of gore from some of those bodies who had only their preasure suits holding in their internals until that is grav came on and shattered the already damaged plates of their suits well let's not talk about that anymore, needless to say I threw up my lunch and embarrased the hell out of myself in front of Vierra and Whelch, although neither of them joked me about it even after a month went by and we were still working on getting the ship ready for tow back to a Naval base.

Two months of hard work repairing systems and bagging over 300 bodies later and we had newly designated Liberator ready for tow back to base, and me, Vierra and Whelch ended up good friends. You know for marines they weren't bad folks.
Well I was glad to hear that I would be part of the team taking Liberator (not yet newly christened but we all knew what her name was to be) because Vierra and her squad were going to be coming with me and a twelve man salvage crew which gave me another month of getting to know Miss Vierra.

I was proud that we got the battlecruiser back on-line and that she'll rejoin the fleet in only a few months but I still remember the bodies, those men and women were a lot braver then I was and they died protecting my sorry *** and those of millions or even billions of other colonists. You know before this salvage I thought of the navy and marines as a bunch of glory boys just out there cruising the stars not doing any real work but after this I realize just how dedicated and self sacrificing they are and I don't think I'll ever make any more mud jumpers or laserbrain jokes about the marines....in fact I am considering putting in a request to join the corps when we get back to port, hey maybe I'll get lucky and assigned to the same ship as Vierra...maybe not but I just can't wait to see the looks on my parent's faces when I come home in a marine uniform.

Personal log Salvage Tech Ensign Willaims.

Re: The Empire of Man (series of short stories)
 

Great again, please hurry with the next part http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: The Empire of Man (series of short stories)
 

Good stuff here.

Re: The Empire of Man (series of short stories)
 

Oooh compliments from the master http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif .....thanks Sachmo.

The Invasion:

Battlegroup Venerable had been en route to Bynous for nearly a year now as fleet intel showed this to be the home systems of a hostile race known as the Xi-Chung, the fleet was a squadron of ships of the line dispatched out of Sparta, at the invasion fleet's heart was the massive form of Alexander the Great which was a troop ship the size of a super monitor and more heavily shielded and armed then a heavy cruiser but still had room enough to carry 10,000 soldiers into battle. Right now though she carried only 7,000 imperial marines who would be deployed on Bynous IX to establish a base for future fleet operations in this sector of the galaxy.

Admiral Hursh who led the assault on Bynous IX from the bridge of his dreadnought INSS Venerable watched proudly as the landing barges from the massive super transport were breaking through the atmosphere, as he watched a young tactical officer turned to face him with a rather grim look on his face.
"Admiral sir, sensors detect nine enemy starships closing on us, from the opposite side of the planet, they are nine hours out sir and closing at six gee." Admiral Hursh was suddenly hit with quite a problem, if he waited for the enemy to close in on the planet then they could do serious damage to the landings before his ships could intercept but he couldn't afford to dispatch his full combat group to intercept them because if there were any Xi-Chung ships waiting in hiding they could decimate the landing forces and the troop ship before anyone got back.
Hursh felt a lump grow in his throat as he quickly thought about what ships he could deploy, his flagship had been ordered to remain with the rest of the battlegroup so he couldn't lead his ship into the fight. After a moment of thougt Hursh quickly ordered the other two Imperial 2 dreadnoughts INSS Acoma and INSS Landstown to leave the battlegroup and engage the entire enemy fleet by themselves. Hursh didn't hold out much hope for the two warships but what he needed at that moment was time and those ships and the 10,000 men and women on them could save the lives of over a hundred thousand of their comrades if they could just hold up that task force long enough for the drop to be complete and the fleet to become mobile again.


Aboard INSS Landstown gunnery officer Ensign Miko Takinowa sat at her station with the other two members of her gunnery crew able spacers Thompson and Parry both of whom were only seventeen which made them practically kids compared to Miko's twenty six years of age, and both of em had eyes for her and tried to do everything in their power to impress her any chance they got, it was a little strange but overall they were good kids and she couldn't ask for a better gunnery crew when she knew they were about to go into battle against an entire Xi-Chung squadron.
"Ma'am we've still got six hours to intercept the little bug bastards, why do you think they have us at alert already?" Thompson was probobly just fishing for a reason to talk to her, before she could answer Parry cut in with his typical good humored barritone. "Because if the little bugs have a ship or five hiding in the gravity fields of one of these planets we won't see em and we sure as hell don't want em riding up our assess while we ain't looking." His remark was met by a grin from Miko so he turned back to his station with a rather self satisfied smirk on his face.
"Well six hours to intercept, anyone got a deck of cards?" Miko knew that Thompson always carried a deck of playing cards in his breast pocket for luck so it didn't suprise her when he and Parry turned their chairs around to face her station, the next six hours went by with them playing various card games that Parry and Thompson let themselves lose on more then one occasion, just not to each other.
When the Klaxons sounded Miko had just finished winning another hand of Athenian hold em and quickly turned to face her station as Thompson put his cards away.
"All hands this is the captain, we are two lightseconds out from intercept, all gunnery crews stand by." Miko smiled to herself as she turned on her station's targeting monitors and knew that in a few moments she could finally get to work.
Miko switched her targets through the nine ships to find out just what her ship would be facing, three heavy cruisers, four light cruisers, 2 cruisers and a small carrier. which was even now unloading 30 fighters.
From her station's camera Miko could see the Acoma and couldn't help but feel completely outgunned, sure in Imperial history a single dreadnought defeated a squadron of cruisers by it's self and not more then six months ago the Unrelenting had destroyed 4 Goul'd battleships single handedly, but that was no real comfort to the young ensign as she heard the ships speaker's boom "ALL GUNNERS FIRE AT WILL!" and quickly locked on to the target designated by the bridge command station and pressed the button that brought her battery to life and connected their ship to the enemy cruiser with a silent green beam that began playing off the enemy shields in a rather beautiful mix of colors and light.
Miko heard the thumping of the ship's point defense cannons as Parry and Thompson aquired locks with the portside PDLs, in the left hand monitor next to her main visual station the display showed to green blips that she knew represented the two Imperial dreadnoughts, but now it also showed about 30 red blips which signified the enemy fleet that was even now closing with them all the while firing.
Miko nearly cheered as she saw her next volley connect with the enemy cruiser's hull and burn through, only two more shots from the main guns and the enemy cruiser went nova as her screen quickly refocused on the next ship, another nova lit up as the other dreadnought scored a kill on one of the Xi-Chung light cruisers.
Suddenly the ship rocked as the enemy heavy cruisers came into range and returned fire with their powerful organic beam weapons but oddly the shutter only Lasted for a second as the enemy cruisers began targeting Acoma instead of Landstown. The tactical display suddenly flaired to life with several hundred tiny red blips and Miko knew that to mean that enemy missiles were coming in. Suddenly the quiet thump of the point defenses that were destorying the enemy fighters was replaced with the rapid screetching noise as the PDLs went into fully automatic and the ships defense missiles launched to intercept the enemy missiles tearing great swathes out of the red blips, but not enough of the missiles were intercepted as dozens struck home on the shields of Acoma severely weakening them as the enemy beam weapons lanced out again cutting into the shields.

Within a half an hour most of the enemy cruisers were destroyed and the enemy light carrier had been shot to peices but the remaining heavy cruiser and beam equipped cruisers tore into Acoma's hull burning great swathes out of the dreadnought, Miko watched in horror as a great flare on her screen showed that the other imperial dreadnought's reactor went critical and erupted in a nova blowing peices of wreckage screaming towards the shields of the Landstown.
Parry and Thompson who had never seen action before froze in their seats, eyes glued to their monitors.
"Dear lord, what do we do now?" Parry asked in a horrified tone as the bright bLast was finally fading on screen, three more enemy ships remained and they had a job to do but for a quick moment it seemed that the entire universe stopped as if in awe of the sudden loss of such a great ship and so many lives in an instant. But as the horror wore off Takinowa managed to get her voice up "Get back to work we've got three targets left, let's blow em to hell." her voice was filled with hatred as she spat the words.
Within an hour two out of the three enemy ships had been destroyed and Miko was glaring at her screen as the Last cruiser was being burned through by a volley of beam fire and began breaking apart under the strain of such a concentrated volley, the crew didn't cheer as they were still Imperial navy and their discipline and training forbad such a thing, but there was a universal feeling of releif as the Last enemy ship blinked out of existance and the Landstown began accelerating at half combat speed to rejoin the invasion in orbit of Bynous IX.

Two hours after the battle a memorial service was held for the 5,000 officers and crew of the Acoma and a messenger drone was launched from the flagship to inform the fleet HQ of the loss of an Imperial dreadnought.

Re: The Empire of Man (series of short stories)
 

Great again.............thanks

Re: The Empire of Man (series of short stories)
 

A Victory on all fronts?

"Good evening, you are watching the Imperial News service I am reporter Llana Williams and tonight our late breaking news stories include, The surrender of the Gou'ld forces and the execution of Lord Apophis by the Imperial Marines. The Mobilization of the 6th fleet, the creation of the 10th fleet and the planned occupation of the rioting systems that once belonged to Apophis.

(comercial break)

Our first story tonight is brought to you by INS reporter Johan Weiss stationed aboard the INSS Venerable flagship of battlegroup Venerable, Johan are you there?

"Yes Llana and I must say I am excited to be able to bring you this report, this very ship I was stationed on was nearly destroyed while it engaged 3 Xi-Chung heavy cruisers single handedly. Right now I am onboard INSS Unrelenting which is the flagship of the newly named 9th fleet which is simply an expansion on the battlegroup that orginially entered this sector."

"Johan can you tell us the mood of the spacers and marines in your battlegroup?"

"Well it's hard to say, these are hard times for the Imperial soldiers in this fleet, the Goul'd surrendered in response to Admiral Hursh demand but the Xi-Chung have thus far refused to surrender and there have been nearly a dozen seperate engagements since the surrender of Apophis and although all of them have been victories for the Empire there has been a price, in the course of the Xi-Chung campaigns the Navy has lost two of it's proud Dreadnoughts Acoma and Concord taking the lives of 10,000 spacers and marines, added to that the loss of the Cruiser Cortez which cost another 500 spacers and marines. The land invasions have claimed the lives of 500 marines and have injured 1,200. The Imperial Navy and Marine Corps both say that these are acceptable losses and from the crews I've interviewed they all agree. But even with the joy of the Gou'ld being out of the picture it is a hard time for at least 1 Xi-Chung world remains and that world has a small fleet guarding it and multiple weapons platforms which are capable of destroying even a dreadnought."

"Indeed it must be hard on the families and friends of those brave soldiers that died in the invasions but back home we can say that there is also a great swelling of pride for the Fleet and Marines back home with the recent surrender of the Gou'ld and the coming defeat of the Xi-Chung. Can you tell us what the Admiral Hursh' plans seem to be for this sector?"

"Well Llana Admiral Hursh is already building up shipyards on two captured Xi-Chung hive worlds as well as mining outPosts and factories, Hursh says that given a year his Naval Engineers and Marine Combat Engineers will have the former Xi-Chung worlds becoming a fully functional Imperial Province."

"Well stay safe Johan we have to move on to our next story."

"Have a nice night Llana."

(commercial break)

"Our Next story is about the mysterious mobilization of the 6th fleet under Admiral Lord Tyberius Renner, this report is brought to us by field reporter Janet Price."

"Hello Llana right now I am standing on the obs deck of the 6th fleet Headquarters and I have a brilliant view of the entire 6th fleet from this window. Well almost all of them, several ships are still in the drydocks being retrofit with the latest of Imperial tech."

"Janet I think what everyone wants to know is, have you heard any reason for the mobilization? Is there a new threat out there that our people should be afraid of?"

"Well Llana right now Admiral Lord Renner is being very tightlipped about the whole affair, though rumor has it the fleet is mobilizing in preperation for an invasion into the Cluk-Ruk republic worlds that are currently under a treaty of Subjagation with the Empire."

"If this is true Janet how do you think our viewers would respond? I mean in just the course of one year we have already forced the Gou'ld to surrender and are on the verge of complete integration of the Xi-Chung hive, does the Imperial nobility in gamma sector really beleive our people would want another war so soon?"

"I really can't say Llana, yes rumors abound that the 6th fleet is going to invade the Cluk-Ruks but so far Imperial command insists it is simply a precautionary measure in case the Norak Empire gets too cocky after their recent victories over Manticore and Sonne forces."

"Janet Imperial command has always complained that the 6th fleet is undermanned and underequipped if this is true then do they really think the 6th could stop a Norak battlefleet should they decide to betray us?"

(comn circut cut)

"Janet? Janet are you there?.........It seems we are experiencing technical difficulties with 6th fleet HQ at the moment so we'll just move right along to our next story when we come back."

(commercial break)

"Hello and welcome back I am reporter Terry Rourke filling in for Llana as she got ill and needed to go home. Our next story is about the recent creation of the Imperial 10th fleet in the Aden system. We as yet have no field reporters stationed with the 10th but we do know that command has been given to the newly Promoted Reer Admiral William Park the Hero of Golkus. And that his flagship is currently the dreadnought INSS Kraken but that he will be reasigned when a new Super Monitor class vessel is completed within the next few months. Field reporter Lidia Finch has had the fortune of being on one of the ships that joined the 10th fleet a week ago and she'll give us as much of a report as possible."
(pause while comn is established)

"Lydia can you tell us how many ships are currently apart of the 10th fleet?"

"Well right now Imperial Command is keeping that a secret but rumors say anywhere from 13 to 25 vessels with more planned. A new feature of this fleet is it's large numnber of Cobra class destroyers whose mission is to act as the ancient torpedo boats back in the wet navies of earth. They are fast beyond beleif and for their size they pack quite a wollop. I had the fortune of getting to be aboard Cobra 0012 during her shakedown cruise and weapons trials before she joined the 10th and I must say it was very exciting."

"I'm sure it was Lydia (laugh) Well can you tell us what the Mission of the 10th is?"

"Well that i can tell you, the 10th fleet under Reer Admiral Park is assigned to the Adin system to act as a rapid response fleet in the event of an alien invasion, you see most fleets are stationed to protect only their sectors of space which can be anywhere from 3 to 10 systems in size the purpose of the tenth is to help take up some of the responsibilities currently heald by the 6th fleet. And with elements of the 1st fleet headed towards the 6th fleet HQ at half thrust the 10th will also take on some of the patrol duties assigned to the 1st fleet's squadrons."

"Very interesting, do you know what specific areas the tenth is currently assigned to?"

"No Terry right now the 10th fleet is still being formed up around New Scotland, right now they don't even have a base station like the other fleets."

"So do we know anyhting else about the 10th?"

"I'm afraid not Terry and right now I'm being called away by the captain of the cruiser Denmark.....This is Lydia Finch signing off."

"Well there you have our major stories citizens, when we come back news regarding the scandal surrounding former Governor Alexi Micha who was pressed into service aboard Unrelenting after he abandoned his colony, and about his recent transfer to the Kraken. Also the Imperial Marines assault on a drug running operation out of Astarsha and the capture and execution of the infamous druglord Paul Smith. All this and more when we return to INS news....the only news there is."

Re: The Empire of Man (series of short stories)
 

Good story but what happened to janet - did she get sick because of some sort of "offical" action lol - did she get bumped off never to eb seen again for reporting the action the 6th fleet was being set up for lol. But keep the stories coming - though the norak would have to be invaded eventually.

Re: The Empire of Man (series of short stories)
 

PLEASE ANOTHER ONE ????!!!!?????

Re: The Empire of Man (series of short stories)
 

[b]A father's letter(/b]

It had been five months since the report on INS telling of how the 6th fleet was mobilizing for reasons unknown, and informing citizens all over the Empire of the defeat of the Goa'ould and a lot had happened in those six months. The hated Xi-Chung hivemind surrendered to Imperial forces and the 9th fleet under Admiral Hursh was now establishing garrisons as it moved on into former Goa'Ould space to quell the massive riots being caused by minor Goa'Oulds with their small Jaffa forces trying to vie for power.

Meanwhile at the other end of the Galaxy the rebel alliance's Last worlds surrendered to the Empire bringing an end to their treacherious activities against the common good of mankind. And although the Empire of Man was larger then ever the fear prevailed that it's military was not any stronger then it had been prior to incorporating three races in the period of only 12 months time...fleet shipyards like those above my homeworld of New Scotland were even now building more cruisers,battleships,dreadnoughts and flagships, to support the cause you see. But those of us who lived on the ship producing worlds also had a benefit of our industry, one we got a lot of money from the Navy and two we were exempt from the military draft because of the need for so many workers on a world that does nothing but build starships, now of course like any other planet in the Empire we are required to keep our home guard regiments at strength and of course we are responsible for the construction of orbital minefields and weapon platforms but as far as any of us were concerned we were happy with our own tiny bit of the universe and we didn't need to go see any other planets anyway.

Well now that was the feelings of most of the older generation like myself, we build ships we don't fly em or fight em, but you see the young people had heard about the wars and the conquests and more and more they were volunteering to join the Imperial Navy, and especially volunteering for the ships headed to the 6th fleet because of the rumors that they were going to yet another glorious conquest for the empire, unfortunately for me one of those foolish young people was my daughter Elanora, now I don't mean foolish as in stupid because my little Elanora is one smart girl she graduated the Imperial Highschool in Edinberough at 15 and when she came home her mother and I were so proud. Well the pride was soon overridden by shock as our little girl came home wearing Navy blues with a young man at her side, a bloody lieutenant to boot, her best friend Paul Reinher was in system after a year away stationed at 6th fleet HQ, waiting for a ship of his own he said..go figure he convinced our daughter that the stories were true and that the navy was like the bloody circus where everyday was an adventure and where everything you did was important.

Well my daughter still has 4 months before her comission becomes active aboard the new dreadnought being built (in my very own shipyards of all places!) so when she came home the other night I tried to talk her out of letting herself be activated, I tried to tell her to quit to leave the fleet before she was assigned but that girl has too much of her mother in her Admiral and if your smart you'll end up giving her a command of her own by the end of the year, Lord Tyberius my only request of you is that you make sure my daughter comes home alive when she is under your command, now I don't know if the rumors are true and that you are headed off to war but if you are and if my daughter does not come home as I'm sure many sons and daughters won't I will hold you personally responsible Admiral my Lord and if you survive where she does not you and I will have an appointment on the field of honor the very day you return.

Signed: Scott Cargill Master of the New Scotland yards .

OOC: Okay no action in this story, just a letter from a distraught father to a Lord of the Admiralty but right now the universe is quiet for the Empire of man as all of it's enemies have fallen.
For a little info on what's going on in the universe at large:

The Norak and Manticore star kingdom (both allies of the EOM) are at war and have been for about 20 years, not much has come of this though because my empire lies between them and only their occasional fleet run into each other, usually leading to a swift defeat on both sides as what few ships are left limp back to their ports. Basically it's a stalemate and I intend to leave it that way because I am making Millions off of those two http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

The only other races left are the Sonne clan who is powerful and also at war with the Norak ('nother stalemate) and is involved in a trade and research alliance with me.

The Cluk'Ruk republic who just happened to unfortunate enough to be dead smack dab in the middle of a major Manticore Norak engagment, for the most part they are out of the fight, they are still surviving though and under a treaty of subjagation with me.

The Krill, well similar boat to the Cluk-Ruk they pissed off the wrong guys when they invaded Manticore systems and were swiftly beaten back by the Superior Manticore forces and that counter attack turned into an all out offensive bringing the krill down to 3 planets no ships and under my dominance http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

The general flow of power goes like this:

Norak are the most powerful with
39 systems
712 planets
1,000+ starships.

The Sonne clan come up a close second with
24 systems
410 worlds
930+ ships.

The Empire of Man come in 3rd with
33 systems,
417 worlds
424 ships

The manticore come in 4th with:
25 systems
358 planets
405 ships

Kluk-Ruk are 5th (neutrals) with:
3 systems (dunno don't ask me)
25 Planets
9 ships

Then comes the Krill in LOL 11th place with:
1 system
3 planets
0 ships

I am hoping the allied Sonne and Manticore kill the Norak, or at least cause all sides so much devestation that I can move in and pick up the peices but right now the Norak are mainly fighting on the Sonne front as they are closest to each other. And my scout ships only witnessed small 2-8 ship battles so I don't know what's going on there.

When some action happens I promise I'll make a nice action packed story but for now you can look forward to stories about people, and espionage agents and assassins http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[ July 14, 2004, 22:03: Message edited by: Starhawk ]