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.
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When life gives you lemons take them and squeeze them in life's eye until it gives you the oranges you asked for!
"If men build things to look like our penis such as towers and ships does that mean female achitects represent women having penis envy?"
A line that made me chuckle, I can't remember where I heard it I just know it made me laugh.
"I'm not really a slapper....I mainly punch and gouge."
Tammy Lee my kung fu instructor/sifu's daughter when asked if she ever slapped a boy for saying something nasty to her.
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