From the Begining New Chapter Added (9/12/06)

[Starhawk]

The other side of the Wall:

President Sajumi sipped his Terran whisky and shook his head with a grimmace, he had led the Anderman Empire and now was a senior partner the Mantisoran Mutual Defense League but today he felt like a child who had been given a gun and thrown into a warzone.
No one had expected those damned Icarans to spread so fast or be so furocious in battle, or so merciless, seven billion people were already dead and hundreds of millions were assumed lost, evacuation ships fled in all directions and unfortunately for them most of them had ended up either warping into the Icaran sector or had run into one of those light raiders of theirs and been destroyed.

Whole worlds were simply gone, it was as if there was a curtain in space, where the Icarans struck successfuly everything just went so quiet, and still no one knew what these Icarans wanted, for years they had remained in their own silent little sector of space until suddenly two Icaran battle fleets invaded the Andermanian empire from galactic North and Galactic south, it seemed so long ago now, by time the messenger sloops had arrived in the Capital city four entire star systems had vanished behind the shadow of Icaran war.

A gentle buzz jerked Sajumi's thoughts back to the present, his granddaughter was on one of those "gone" worlds and two of his three sons were in the Navy which was still trying to recover from their earlier defeats.
Sajumi tabbed a button on his desk that brought a security camera around to face the man at the door, it was General Harold Moore flanked by two Presidential guards and Sajumi felt his throat tighten as he tabbed another key that opened the door.

General Moore walked up to the other end of the desk and snapped a formal salute, the two presidential guards in their pale blue uniforms braced to attention as well but Sajumi waved them off and offered his hand to the General, who clasped firmly in return and smiled glumly.
"I'm afraid I don't come with good news Mister President." Moore's voice sounded haggared and weak but his eyes burned with the same strength and confidence that Sajumi had come to depend on.
"It seems there is very little of that to go around these days Harry, what is it this time?" Sajumi seated himself and offered a glass of whiskey to Moore who accepted gratefully.

"Well sir the confirmed allied casualty list has just gone up to 8 billion, it seems the Icarans dispatched on occupation force to bring an end to the rioting in the former Corian commonwealth and in the process took out four Mantisoran and one Sol Coalition world, the death tole was just over a billion souls, apparently they decided that their StateSec forces are inadequite for taking a planet." Moore downed the whiskey with a sour expression as he muttered the last sentence, from what allied intelligence sugjested the Icaran StateSec or SS was inadequite for taking over planetary targets but the thought of exterminating just over a billion people as if they were nothing of consequence made him sick.
"Were there any survivors Harry?" Sajumi kept his voice from sounding depressed somehow but when the General gave only a half nod Sajumi's heart sank.

"Yeah five light cruiser colony ships made it out with about five hundred million Mantisorans, mainly women and children of course, unfortunately they proceeded through the warp point that we now beleive leads to the Icaran staging system, possibly even one of their home systems, we know for sure two of the colony ships were destroyed because an Empire of Man dreadnought passed the word to the Mantis that they discovered the wreckage, then we lost contact with the dreadnought...." Harold Moore downed another glass of whiskey as he stood and began pacing.
"Sir.....the other three were captured by Icaran raiders, officially we don't know that for sure but those 5 colony ships were hanging pretty close together when they ran from the Icaran occupation fleet and if they were captured by raiders there is hope that at least some of them are still alive." The General suddenly looked years older then he actually was as he continue to pace.

"Anything else troubling you Harry?" Sajumi asked, half dreading the reply as the other man's back streigtened and he clasped his hands behind him.

"Mister President I'm afraid allied military losses are also increasing, we've lost 23 Sol Coalition cruisers, 8 Mantisoran super dreadnoughts, 3 EOM dreadnoughts plus one missing and presumed lost, and the entire 16th allied fleet which consisted of 5 Andermanian superdreadnoughts and a monitor.....that's not including the loss of over 20 allied swift colony ships.....taken into account that the Icaran Empire's population is larger then that of the entire Mantisoran Mutual Defense League and we are talking some bad numbers." The General just about collapsed onto a big sofa and covered his face with his hands in thought.

"It sounds like you say we're losing this war Harry, is it really that bad on the front?" Sajumi folded his hands and rested his elbows on his desk.

"Sir the only reason Icara hasn' totally destroyed Andermanian space is because we hurt them, not as bad as they've hurt the allies but they are operating hundreds of light years away from their shipyards and population centers, we can hold them at bay right now, prevent them from advancing and destroy their combat assets but in the end if they gain enough of a foothold here....we couldn't beat them, they have more warships and more experienced crews, not to mention the fact that those bastard Dark Star alliance people keep raiding Allied worlds which means we have to dispatch warships to retake or protect those worlds." The General's eyes watered as his voice cracked slightly, no military leader ever wanted to admit the possibility of defeat, especially not when it meant the fall of not only his nation but of an entire alliance of nations.

"The war is not all bad news sir, at least as far as the alliance goes, in some sick twisted way it's actually benefiting the other nations that we are the ones under attack so heavily...." Moore cocked an eyebrow at his President's baffled expression.
"It's simple sir, we, the Andermanians have lost five systems to the Icaran advance, the Earth Corps alliance has lost three and the Mantisorans have lost one, they've lost a lot of ships and a lot of people but nothing they haven't been able to rebuild in the past year." Harry frowned again for a moment and pulled out a peice of paper.
"Well because of the Icaran's focusing on us the Mantisoran Navy has taken over five Icaran occupied systems, and is in the process of taking out the Nian system which is only a small advance but still it's something, and they've promised to send battlefleets to aid our navy when they've finished of the Icaran presence down there." Moore winked as Sajumi shook his head with an almost amused chuckle

"Of Course when Mantisoran ground troops retake our fallen worlds they'll be more then happy to protect and add to their own territories." Sajumi shook his head again.

The two men talked for hours and when General Moore left both men had to figure out how to keep the Andermanian people from collapsing into a depressed and fatalistic mindset, even though neither of them saw any hope for their nation to win the war their only hope seemed to be that they may be able to keep the Icarans at bay for at least a few years more which would hopefully give the damned Mantisorans time to actually come to the aid of the rest of their "allies".