[Starhawk]

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.