Here is my feeble attampt to add to the story line. Be warned, I'm not a very good writer, or a very good speller, so as long as you don't go in expecting much, you won't be disappointed.
The silence. In the years and decades to come that is what he would remember most. It had started out as any other day, the normal routine of life in the great floating city. Over half a million souls called the huge structure home, and twice that number visited it every cycle. But as Prince Dravel watched it crumble through the clouds into the deep oblivion below, all he could remember as he watched from high above was the silence, and in the silence he knew that everything had changed.
Chapter 1
Galactic Standard Year 2404.9
"You have done a most excellent job, Josha" President Dravel the VII of the Draven Republic said as his skimmer drifted high above Landing City, "A most excellent job indeed, this years founders celebration will be the grandest ever."
The slightly overweight man next to him smiled slightly and allowed himself to take in the view. It was remarkable indeed. Landing City, was not so much a city on the ground as it was a huge immobile star base. On its base where huge anti-grav generators that actually held the city in the upper atmosphere of Kornephoros X, one of the Galaxy's largest Gas Giants. The city measured nearly 35 kilometers in Diameter, with over 40 main levels, and that wasn't including the 15 or so 70+ story buildings that littered the cities landscape. Below on the city "streets" many hundreds of people labored to erect stages, and other decorative structures over the usually featureless buildings.
"You give me more credit than I deserve Mr. President."
Dravel snorted, then gave his companion a stern look, "Didn't you learn not to argue with your president, Mr. Chairman."
Chairman of Defense Relations Josha, leaned back in his seat, "I am a low dweller Mr. President, you know how we are with matters of Etiquette, we just don't have a highlanders sense to shut up and agree."
Dravel laughed, nodded his head and then turned his attention back to the scene below. Him and the Defense Relations Chairman had nibbled at each other's upbringing since they were children, and despite that upbringing they had both become good friends. "At least you have more sense that a Terran, the damn fools, rejected our Last territorial concession."
Jasha whipped his head around at that Last statement. "How bad?"
"Bad. They are now claiming the entire Lasat system, and they have been hinting at Acamar too."
"Acamar?" Josha was astonished by that. "I can understand Lasat, its only two jumps from their home worlds, but Acamar too? We have deep roots in that system, surely they know we'll never give it up without anything short of a full blown war.."
There was a silence, then the President spoke, "Politics my friend, have never been your strong suite. They know we'll never give up Acamar, but they figure they can use it as leverage against us. Force us to give them some territorial concessions in exchange to keep them completely out of Acamar."
Josha rubbed his hand against his temple, he hated politics, he could balance fleet figures all day, and deal with any Admiral, but he knew he was completely out of his league when dealing with politicians. If ever there was a bunch that deserved to be lined up and executed it was politicians, present company excluded of course. Dravels words brought him back to the present, "To make matters worse our scout ships have detected a huge fleet movement in the Ansuroer system."
Josha let out a sigh, "Yes Mr. President the report came across my desk this morning, I haven't been able to draw too many conclusions over the obvious of course, it seems like a stupid thing to do." The Ansuroer system was just one jump into Agamar, part of the Republics' settled territory. What didn't make sense was that Agamar was an almost totally worthless system. It's five planets were far from hospitable, and only a modest number of citizens had settled there, making most of their income from trade tariffs between the Jophur Republic and the Terrans. In any war plan that Josha had overseen he had almost always given up Agamar, it just wasn't worth defending, it had no modern shipyards, and worse little natural resources. "Our scouts estimated the number at 35 Destroyers, most of them are of that new Strike Carrier class, naval intelligence guesses that they are some kind of mini fighter carriers, no info on payload though."
"The Wyrlings disagree with your intelligence operatives", Said President Dravel, "They think they are a type of missile ships."
"Mr. President, as far as I can see it doesn't really matter, our response is still the same, we need to increase our expenditures for the fleet defender project. Besides, I have a hard time trusting the Weyrlings Intelligence operatives, ever since that maniac Rutha was killed they haven't quite been the same. They are still some of the best worriers I have ever seen, but before when Rutha was alive they seemed tempered, only wanting to go to war as a Last resort, despite what their leader said. Now, though, they seem to crave the fight, even hinting at a war with the Terrens as a means of reducing the Alliance's trade defecate."
The President turned back to his friend, and rubbed his chin like so often did in situations like this. "I don't know, I've met their new Matriarch, even if it was just over a com link, she seems as reasonable as any Weyrling I have ever met. Certainly not as crazy as that madman Rutha."
There was a few seconds silence, "None the less, it doesn't really matter, I don't think the new Matriarch will try to do anything in contrary to what the Central Powers HQ says. So far as I have seen she seems content to follow their advise."
That brought another subject to the surface, "Do you think we will hold majority in the Central Powers Alliance Representatives next year?"
The President looked worried, "I don't know Josha, before Rutha kept his empire in such chaos that he never had a chance to mobilize any support in representative elections, now though, this new Matriarch seems to be contacting the Thermolian's and even a few worlds in our own republic to vote for Weyrling representatives. I fear we may lose our single seat majority, and with that our ability to control the Alliance.
There was several more seconds of silence, then the President smiled, "Why are we talking of such gloom subjects on this day? The Founder celebration is tomorrow, we should be raising a drink to our ancestors."
Josh sighed, "I'm afraid I can't join you Mr. President, I have to head to Central Powers Headquarters tonight and update them on our treaty talks with the Terrens."
Dravel frowned, "That's a shame Josha, we could have painted the city, like the old days."
Josha almost laughed at that memory from his childhood. "Oh well," said the President his mood now starting to lighten back up, "I trust you are not going to make my son's ship escort you there?"
"No sir, him and the King Dravel the first will be doing an atmospheric pass over Landing City as part of the Celebration. He's been looking forward to this for a while, I'm afraid he would retire if I tried to pull him away."
The president smiled at the thought of his son. Despite being the prince, and next in line in the Presidency, his son had insisted on joining the Peoples Navy, and with no help from his father, not from the lack of offers mind you, he had moved up the Ranks, and distinguished himself as one of the Republics best officers. Prince Dravel had made his father very proud the day he had taken command of the 'King Dravel the first', it was at that moment, the President had known his son would make a fine successor when the time came, even if the kid was still a little too headstrong for his own good sometimes.
"You know despite you not being here to witness the celebration that you helped set up, I think this will be one of the best Founders Celebrations ever, and certainly the most memorable."
The Presidents skimmer continued to drift high above Landing city, but down below a group of people labored to move huge unmarked box through the city streets. Normally a box of this size would have been stopped and examined by the local Police, but in all the commotion of the city this day, the box was moved undetected.
Chapter 2
"... and that about sums it up Prime Minister." Prime Minister Yalare was jogged out of his internal thoughts, he cursed himself, he had let his mind drift again, sign of the times, trying to solve the trade defecate that the President had dropped in his lap had been taking more and more of his time, and sleep was becoming more of a luxury with the increased time constraints.
The Prime Minister cleared his throat, "I'm sorry Golman, I was distracted what was that you were saying about the time table."
Goleman inhaled and began again, he was obviously annoyed that he had to repeat himself, "As I was saying Sir, if current military buildup continues as the Defense committee recommends then the trade defecate will reach critical in about 10 years. That is of course assuming that domestic stays at its current rate of growth."
Yalare tilted his chair back, purposely he looked away from his young aid, he didn't want the young chap to see his anger, anger at Dravel and his crazy military build up against a threat that didn't exist. The treasury was running bare trying to support the maintenance costs of all those ships, and that wasn't even including the current ones under production. If something wasn't done in the next 15 years those ships would have to be abandoned, the Republic wouldn't be able to keep them manned, and that most certainly would bring them to the notice of their neighbors. Seeing a financially strapped Republic is all but an invitation to invade. No, Yalare would not allow it, he had been elected to make sure that didn't happen. But what to do? The President controlled the Defense Committee, Yalare had been fooled into giving it to him for control of the Budget committee. At first it had seemed like a great idea, he could simply control the military by controlling their budget. The plan had failed though, Dravel had gotten public support behind an unprecedented military buildup, a "Build-up For Peace" he called it. With the public behind him, Yalare had no choice but to approve the military's budget.
That left him with a major problem, to get elected he had premised to increase social spending, if he failed to deliver he certainly would no longer be Prime Minister come next election cycle. So Yalare had done the only thing he could, went into deficit spending, using the trade income to supplement it. The public loved it, more gravy programs flowed, and they also had a first class military, the envy of the Galaxy, but Yalare knew the truth. They could not keep going like this forever. Something had to be done, and quick.
"Sir." It was Goleman, Yalare had almost forgotten about him.
"Yes, Goleman, upload the report to my terminal before you leave, I'll look some more into it tonight." Goleman nodded and after a courtesy bow left the room, shutting the old fashioned door behind him.
Once again Yalare was alone with his thoughts. The President had too much power, that was the problem. The prime minister could seize power, for a short time, but he needed 75% of both the Upper and Lower People's Committees to vote no confidence in the President. With 35% of the Representatives being in favor of the Presidents initiatives, getting the votes he needed was going to be impossible.
Yalare hated the way he had too play along with the President. Yalare was the rightfully elected representative of the Republic, not some idiot born with a silver spoon in mouth, that had simply inherited the job! Hate burned inside of him. Hate for the founders, who had stuck him with this idiotic Government. Hate for the military that was shooting black holes into his budget. But, most of all he Hated President Dravel.
Yalare took deep breaths; he had let his anger get the best of him for a moment there. He rubbed his hands over his yellow rough temples. Like all Draven's, he had much in common with Humans, but long ago the Founders had genetically modified themselves to live in the harsh Gas worlds. The result had been thicker skin, and the ability to breath a much thicker atmosphere. Still though Dravens had to live in the floating cities that had been built inside of the gas giants, like Delta Citythat he was in now. Dravens still respected their human heritage, and even celebrated many of the known human holidays.
"You worry too much," Yalare froze. As usual the words seemed to come out of thin air.
Yalare took a few moments to regain his composure before he responded. "I have done as you ask," he said, paying no particular heed to any of his surroundings, "why do you continue to visit me."
The voice didn't even take a heartbeat to respond. "I am part of you."
Yalare snorted, "Don't give me that, I know exactly what you are." That was only partially true, he knew that he had been infected by one of the same organisms that had caused so much trouble in the Weyrling Empire, but this one was different from the one's that had infiltrated them. When his doctor had discovered it, he had noted that it seemed to be of Draven origin. Sure it shared the same qualities, especially in the brain interface, but this one had no physic transmitting abilities, at the time the Doctor wrote it off as an attempt to infect the Dravens like the Weyrlings had been infected, but it had to be modified sense Draven's were immune to what was being called in intelegence circles as the Weyrling brain drain. The doctor took note but assure Yalare that the device was inert.
Years past, and Yalare never paid much attention to the device in his head. That had changed one day though after he had taken his seat as Prime Minister. He began to hear voices when no one was there. At first it was a word here, or a sentence there, nothing that Yalare couldn't write off as hearing things. Then one day, he had been sitting in his office, and he heard the voice, it sounded dark, mysterious. What made it worse was that he was able to talk to the voice and the voice answered back. The voice never gave much detail as to what it was, or what its ultimate objective, but it had promised certain benefits to its host, for just a favor every now and then. If he agreed he would gain untold mental abilities, if he did not accept he would die of a heart attack in moments. The "voice" could not control him per say, but it could effect certain involuntary functions.
Yalare agreed reluctantly, and the voice had been merciful in its requests, it had just insisted on giving low interest loans to a small corporation in Landing City that dealt with the Disposal of Radioactive material from inert missiles. In return Yalare had gained the ability to recall information, any information he had ever seen at will. He could read, at unheard of rates, all in all it wasn't a bad deal. He still didn't like the idea of a parasite crawling around inside his brain though.
"Part of me huh? Why did you want those loans?" The voice said nothing, as usual whenever he asked a question the voice was unable to answer, or as Yalare thought, unwilling, it simply didn't say anything, he guessed it was limited programming, but he couldn't be sure.
He took a breath, and began going over the reports for the day, he knew he wouldn't get any information out of the voice, he never did. As he read over the reports an blinding speed, he never realized his right hand shaking slowly.
Chapter 3
Manning, watched the gauges in front of him, and frowned. "That's not good, we'll have to take down the center antigravity generator." Deep in Landing city, was the Antigravity control room that controlled the great generators that actually kept the city from falling into the depths of Kornephoros X. Normally 9 generators kept the city aloft, the city could float with as few as 3, as long as they were space around the cities' perimeter, and not in one area. Now though the central generator 1 was acting up, it was located in the center of the city, probably the best place for a generator to go bad, but still manning hated taking any of the generators off line, even for a short time.
His assistant was already making the call to shut the Center generator down, at the time manning had no way of knowing he had just doomed 500,000 people do their deaths.
Commander Dravel, prince of the Draven republic sat in his command chair, and watch the hallo of the festivities below. He wished he could be there in person, but he was going to be doing a low high altitude pass over Landing city soon, he knew his place was here, on the flag deck of his Ship. Around him was the sound of a ship of war. Its people doing a thousand vital duties in order to keep the great bulk of King Dravel the First operating at peak efficiency. He smiled as he his father took the stage.
His father the president was a great speaker, probably the best the Commander had ever seen, and he loved to have a crowd. Certainly there was one there today, more than Dravel had ever seen on Kornephoros X second largest city. His father cleared his throat and began to speak.
"My fellow Draven's welcome to the opening day of the Founders Celebration," a burst a cheers flooded out the sound of the Halo's speaker, and distorted it for a moment, but just as quickly as it had started, the cheers subsided, the President continued, "500 years ago the founders began construction on this very city, spawning the creation of the greatest civilization ever seen." More cheers, this time even more intense, Commander Dravel smiled, his father truly was a great speaker.
Most of the traffic was still pouring into the docking ports of Landing City, the traffic was more than any of the controllers had ever seen, so much that they discounted the small skimmer that left an unregistered docking port at over 5 times the speed that was allowed by Landing City regulation. The traffic controllers simply moved traffic away from the renegade skimmer, after all they had his transponder code, and could always ticket him later. Besides they had had to clear the traffic lanes so the King Dravel could make its flyover.
Chapter 4
Prince Draven and the King Dravel had been descending for over 30 minutes to get into the upper atmosphere of Kornephoros X. If timing was right, he would pass 50 kilometers over Landing city at 10 seconds after 17:00 hours, just after his father finished his speech. The large vessel buffeted slightly as its drive field hit the atmosphere of the planet, Dravel smiled, yes this will be a sight to remember.
President Dravel, was loving the attention, this was the largest crowd he had ever spoken too outside the Capital, and he would enjoy every moment of it, "and with that my Fellow Dravens' I want to wish every one of you a very great Founders Day..." He never finished his sentence for at that moment less than 400 yards from where he was speaking a 1 kiloton Nuclear bomb exploded.
Landing City was designed to take a nuclear bLast from an orbital bombardment. In such a case it would simply bring up its shield generators, and attempt to ride the bombardment out, but this was different. The bomb was placed on the eastern half of the city, well inside of shield generators, there was nothing to stop the explosion as it ripped into landing city like a shotgun tearing though paper.
The bombs bLast wave destroyed everything within 800 feet in an instant. The president, and most of the crowd never knew what happen, they were simply there one second and not there the next. The massive wave of heat that expanded outward from the explosion annihilated the several of the cities tall buildings, another 65,000 died with the collapse of those massive structures. Radiation rippled through the city mortally poisoning those that would survive the initial bLast. Still the worst of the bomb was neither of these. The Electromagnetic Pulse, that proceeded the radiation and the bLast ripped into the cities critical electronic systems, among them were 6 of the Cities antigravity Generators. The pulse left 3 generators on one side intact. Suddenly the entire load of the City shifted to one side. The generators were never meant to hold the load of the entire city on one side. The computer systems that were left tried to compensate for the missing generators, they had the thrust, but it was concentrated in too small of a area. Slowly the city began to tilt.
The King Dravel was only 25 seconds from its flyover, when a great light flashed in front. Alarms all over the ship went off. Commander Dravel's response was instant "Break off run," The pilot was already responding, pulling back as far as the computer would allow.
"Sir," it was Saha, the communications officer, "we just lost Landing City Control."
Dravel was about to question him further, but his wepons officer broke in, "Sir, sensor systems are picking up an Electro Magnetic Pulse.
Behind him the navigator, gasped, "Great Creator!"
By the time Dravel turned to see what she was looking at. At the front of the command deck on the forward monitor, was displayed Landing City. Black smoked bellowed out of a great hold on its eastern side of the city. But most concerning of all was the 35 degree tilt, the entire city was on, and it was increasing every second. It was also slipping deeper into the planets atmosphere. Small skimmers darted from everywhere on the city, trying to escape the doomed city. And on the bridge of the King Dravel, they could do nothing, but stare in silence..