[Starhawk]

Well time for a new chapter, this one is less a "character" one though and more of a "big picture so far" story just to let you know in advance.

2420.3
“Welcome back, We promised to bring you up to date on the war against the Xeno Phong when we came back from our break and we always keep our promises, Hello Roy are you there?” the pretty news woman turned to face something off screen and as a voice came over her ear piece.

“Yes Madalin I’m here from the bridge of the flagship Conquest, with the 1st fleet where the invasion of Ogatha Tir has taken off like a missile. Admiral Babcock has politely denied our requests for an interview because he is very busy leading the fleet against the Phong Federal forces.” Roy Scheller was the premier field reporter of the Icaran News Network, wherever he was the hottest stories were and the people loved him, mainly because he was one of only a few field reporters that was willing to place himself in the midst of the action, though the Navy always denied him permission to drop with the ground forces during an invasion.

‘Roy can you tell us how it’s going so far?” Madalin Brice was the other kind of reporter, she never left the safety of the Icaran capital and though she was a well liked anchorwoman she was not as famous or well liked as some of her colleagues like the famous Liza Torrence of the nightly news.

“Well Madalin, in the past month alone the brave men and women of our armed forces have valiantly conquered Orgotha Tir, Eight, Six and Nine, without the loss of a single brave Icaran….The navy still won’t let me go down to the surface of any of the OT planets because they are afraid that the locals might see a reporter and attack him….” he laughed cheerfully “Even after I said I’d take a marine escort their afraid I’ll stick my “nose for news” out to far and get it shot off.” some of the military personnel in the background could be heard laughing at the reporter’s quoting Admiral Babcock.

“Well it sounds like you’ve gotten yourself quite a fan club over there Roy.” Madalin smiled into the camera.
Roy chuckled again “Yeah I’ve made a few friends is all, these people are great to be around, and given another two months and Admiral Babcock says this entire star system will have fallen to our forces, another step on our road to victory over the enemies of Icara.”

“Well Roy I’m afraid our time is up.” Madalin looked into the camera again “Ladies and gentlemen thank you for watching, we’ll see you tomorrow here on INN a subsidiary of the State Security Broadcast system.”

2420.5
Babcock’s estimate was correct, Ogatha Tir fell within two months and the first fleet was already mobilizing to move on to the next target of conquest on the Icaran hit list, Babcock had not lost a single soldier or spacer during the invasion, more then the capture of the entire system the Icarans managed to destroy a small fleet of Phong warships and an entire corps of Phong ground troops.

On the other end of the Phong front the 3rd fleet had finally been given the resources to go on the offensiv, the 1st Germania regiment had swept through the first three Phong bases in Cortina like a flood, sweeping aside all resistance and bringing the population of Cortina 1, 2, and 2a (Cortina 2’s moon) under the heel of Icaran Jackboots.
Admiral Ross had just received word of his promotion from Rear Admiral to full Admiral and Captain Yu Lin had just received the Fleet Service Medallion for her starship as it had managed to gain it’s 30th kill in only a few months of service.

Thus far the war was going well on the Phong front, yet on the NeoStar border the Icaran fleet was in a tense mood, the Neo Star empire was quickly growing more hostile and after three Icaran Merchantmen went missing on their borders the Royal Navy 4th fleet was ordered to ready it’s self for deployment in order to investigate the disappearances. Needless to say the Neo-Star Empire was less then pleased when they heard of this and began mobilizing one of their own sector fleets along the border, along with the usual diplomatic threats and accusations.