Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread

[Ruatha]

Weyrling Empire 2406.7
-----------------------
At Kalzeron prime.

Illian sat in his lab discussing with the One, this is something he had been occupied with alot since the awakening.

The Weyrlings were in a completely new and henceforth unknown situation. What capabilities have they gained and what limits does the One have, this needs to be ascertained Illian belives.

"-How comes that you still exist while we retain our individuality? There shouldn't be enough neurons for you to use should there?", Illian asked in his mind and directed the question towards the one.
The use of their newfound capabilities where becoming easier and easier for each day, and more and more of the uses of it was discovered.
To speak with someone, you no longer had to be in the presence of that person, you could just voice a sentence in your head while picturing who you wanted to receive it, one or several individuals. If you wished you could send the sentence or tought or emotion blindly for anyone to hear but that was generally not appreciated, others could shield away your thoughts but it was thought that it was the senders obligation to make sure where the thought was sent.
When the awakening happened everyone had sent blindly and it had been hard to make out one's own individual thoughts even though the One had let the individual minds up to surface again. It had taken weeks before people began feeling themselfs again, clarifying the boundaries of their own individualites.
Most Weyrlings had come through this phase without problems. Those who where in contact with aliens though where an altogether different matter.
It had quickly become clear that they couldn't contain their joy over not being alone anymore, so the One had retained control of all Weyrlings who had contact with aliens, only letting their individuality take control when they where alone. This didn't leave them enough time to train their new abilities and clear out the borders of their own individuality. All these people where slowly being replaced and sent home so that they would get enough time on their own to deal with the new situation. Meanwhile the One was seeing that the aliens where noticing the difference in the Weyrlings they met, still it didn't want to try to mimic emtions as it thought it propable that it would insert the wrong emotional response, no response was better.

"-I use the neurons in the Weyrlings that are asleep, and a proportion of every Weyrling brain is used by me. If you where to make extensive tests you would find that the cognitive functions of the Weyrlings has degraded some since I awoke, but at present we do not have tests precise enough to show this. The wast amount of Weyrlings means that I don't have to use very much of each brain to function, but I'm nowhere near my original thought capacity though.", the One responded.

"- So now we have telepathic and teleempathic capabilities, but sadly enough we haven't found any aliens who have the Celia vortex so we can't scan any aliens. That would have been great though!"

"- Yes, it would have made my understanding of the aliens much easier, I still cannot understand their motivations and thoughts. It will make it hard for me to deal with them, therefore most of the dealings with aliens are best left in the hands of the individuals, not the collective."

---------------

Weyrling Empire 2406.8
----------------------
The Starship Indestructible located in the Lasat starsystem:

Matriarch Elyssandra was sitting in the command bridge of the Indestructible, admiral Gryt was leading the battle.
After they had entered the Lasat system the Troikens Pride had slowly placed itself in a position behind the Indestructible.
Captain Jalan had stated that his intent was to protect the vulnerable rear of the Indestructible which where out of the Indestructibles weapons aiming arch.

During an uneventful passage between some asteroids the second in command Larissa had sat at the helm when the Troikens Pride had opened fire with all four of it's telekinetic cannons. The Indestructibles shields had flared up but held most of the incoming fire away and the ship had escaped the first volleys unharmed except some minor dents in the armour. Admiral Gryt and Elyssandra had run to the helm when the ship was shaken by the incoming fire and the ship's crew had instantly taken their battle positions. When Gryt and Elyssandra reached the bridge they where fully informed, their new telepathic capabilities had it's advantages.

Admiral Gryt barked out his orders;
"-All weapons fire at will, use your opportunities!
Heading 250 by 180 and full reverse!"

The Indestructible seemed to do a loop and came out beside the Troikens Pride some time later and then their powerful phased polaron beams started to fire. The Indestructible was a battlecruiser but had only two main weapons, large mounted phased polaron beams of the fifth level. The beams penetrated the Troikens Pride's shields as if they hadn't existed, but the Troikens Pride had advanced ECM capacity and mots of the beams missed, the only damage inflicted upon the target was some severed antennas sticking out from the hull.
Despite being a light cruiser the Troikens Pride carried more weapons then the Indestructible who was a command ship and was geared towards defence with shields and heavy armour.
The Troikens Pride opened up again with it's telekinetic cannons, this time Captain Jalan didn't fire them all at once but in a sequence and aimed at the same point on the Indestructible. The first three rounds where caught by the shields who sent out bright lights as the energy ate away at the incoming projectiles, the Last round hovewer pierced through the hole left in the energy barrier by the presedent shots, it struck the Indestructible in the front of the ship, creating a man deep crater in the thick armour, this didn't cause any fear in the crew as the armour was three times as thick as that. Some melted metal struck the portholes in one of the polaron beam turrets but it didn't block very much of the view.

The Troikens Pride altered course, now it was on a straight collision course which unaltered would ram the larger Indestructible just below the command bridge.

"-Roll 180 and present another side to the target!
Then come around zero by 180 and full ahead. Take us away, this isn't a battle we wish to fight"

The Indestructibles engines spewed out massive amounts of ions as the throttle was pressed to the bottom.
The more modern engines were slowly accelerating it away from the Troikens Pride, even though they would soon be out of eyesight of each others they would still be within fire range for a long time.
The polaron beams fired again and again, there was a massive exchange of projectiles and beams between the both ships but the advanved ECM on the both ships made it almost impossible to gain a lock on the target.
Elyssandra could imagine Jalan laughing at their combat capacity, but she couldn't fathom why he had started this fight.
Another round of telekinetic cannon fire was caught by the shields, this time the aim wasn't as precise and the rounds hit different parts of the shields and caused no damage to the ship.

The Troikens Pride was no longer within sight so the gunners where relying on the target scanners to aim their shots. The gunners fired their beams at their own will and there was no coordination between the shots, that wasn't really necessary as they didn't need to concentrate their fire to penetrate any shields or armour, if the beams hit they would deliver all their destructing energy to the vulnerable innards of the Troikens Pride.
As the Indestructible fired her two beams over and over again while the generators spewed out the massive amounts of needed energy they made an impressive light show, but no real damage until one beam hit straight on. On the scanners they could see the beam hit in the middle of the light cruiser leaving no visible entry mark on the hull but instantly one of the telekinetic cannon turrets exploded outwards, sending debris in all directions. A moment later the Troikens Prides engins went dead. Now the distance between the two ships increased quickly.
On the bridge they could through the scanners see an EVA team leave the Troikens Pride heading for the engines, propably some debris from the exploding cannon that damaged some vital component in the fuel distribution cutting of all fuel to the engines, was the analysis by the bridge crew.
The Troikens pride was still firing its two remaing cannons but at the quickly increasing distance their aim was very bad and the rounds almost didn't make it all the way.

Elyssandra was somewhat upset. Her tail was wagging wildly from side to side and her fangs where visible through her tight lips.
"-Gryt, take us to alliance headquarter as quickly as possible.", Elyssandra ordered. Continuing but not speaking out, only voicing her thoughts and sending them to the One she continued:
"We need an explanation to this attack at once! Are the Dravens going to war against us or was this a madmans attack? Also we need to send in some ships to try to capture the Troikens pride, that might be our only chance to get true answers. Detatch the Psi corps ships from the Sledge fleet and send them here to try to capture the Troikens Pride. If they can get captain Jalan to convert his alligience to us we will have the answer.
And get the Speaker in the allaince headquarter to question the Dravens, if they need to know how we got the information so fast to headquarter womba**** them!"

The voice of the One responded at once in her head,
"-Womba****? We have no wombacats at the headquarter and so no defecations from them either."

"-Sorry, it means that you should come up with a lie, and in this case as they are the aggressors it can literally stink, just as womba****. They will be so occupied with providing answers that they will propably not dare to question any explanation we might give."

At the Central Powers Alliance Headquarter:

Speaker Farth was sitting on the podium staring down upon the Draven reprasentative Josha.
"-So, what explanation do the Dravens have as to why they have tried to assasinate our leader, an unprovoced attack upon the very symbol of the Weyrling Empire?
Does this mean war? Our fleets are gathered at Terran space and with the wormhole openers they can be in Draven space within weeks, is that what you wish? If so speak up and we will grant your request!
You may be sad to know this but the Matriarch survived this surprise murder attack and is heading here at this moment, she isn't pleased with our Draven allies right now!
We are right now discussing this with the Thermolians and they are as shocked by the Draven actions as we are.

Now, Draven Josha. You may leave, but return quickly with a good explanation if the alliance shall have any chance of surviving your deeds!"

In the Kuat system aboard the Destroyer Responder:

The new tactic was working.
The Hammer fleet had entered the Terran home system Sladden by a wormhole which closed behind them.
They had already landed troops at two of the Terrans homeworlds and captured them intact, destroying masses of construction star bases orbiting the planets. The resistance had been sparse. A few weapon platforms had put up a token resistance before surrendering.
The Terrans had some starships in the system but they seemed reluctant to attack the large Hammer fleet. Many of the Terran ships where leaving the system towards Nyran space. The reason for this was uncomprehensible to the Weyrlings.
A single Terran Battleship had been converted to the Weyrling side by the Weyrling intelligence service. That ship had the Last month alone glassed three Terran worlds, depriving the Terrans of resources. Still the Terrans seemed unwilling to commit their ships to battle even against this single ship.
The same pattern was seen in the neighbouring Kuat system where the Sledge fleet was glassing planet after planet with little resistance. The main Terran fleet was still located at the wormhole connecting Kuat to the Terran homesystem Sladden, unwilling to leave that strategic point even though the Sladden system already was compromised.
Thurya though that perhaps they had already destroyed so much of the Terran infrastructure that the ships were stuck due to inadequate resupplies. The Weyrling fleet was equipped to fight far from home in enemy territory, but the Terrans had planned on fighting at their known territory with ample resupply bases present. Those bases where now being destroyed in a faster and faster pace. In the Kuat system only two planets remained, more than ten worlds where now uninhabited.

The Responder had been given new and appreciated orders. Up to now they had been doing flank protection for the fleet while they went from world to world and burned millions of people to ashes, largely unapposed.
Not a very actionfilled assignment but Thurya hadn't complained, rather nothing to do than participate in the killing of millions of unarmed civilians. She could se the necesseity of it as the superior Draven fleet hadn't been able to put a dent in the Terran fleet. Attacking them would be suicide, and if she had to choose she'd rather fry some Terrans than die herself.
These new orders where appreciated though as they might indicate some coming action.
Intelligence weren't reporting any major enemy fleet movements in the neighbouring systems apart from the Sladden system. Now the Responder was assigned to recon duty, they should pass through the closest wormhole and check out the next system, if it seemed safe the Sledge fleet would follow as soon as the Last Kuat planets had been turned into artistic glass sculptures.
Thurya edged her ship closer to the Wormhole and seeing no danger she gave the order to pass through.
On the other side everything seemed calm when suddenly something started to shimmer on the left side of the ship.
Try who was manning the main gun on that side voiced to Thurya;
"-Thu, it's a ship coming out of cloak, it shouldn't be a terran ship as we've never gotten any indication that they have that kind of technology."

"-It could be a Draven ship, if it is fire as soon as you get a clear shot. We know what they tried doing to the Indestructible and we don't have that kind or armour!", Thurya sent.

"-No, it's not a Draven ship, it looks like a CCCP ship but not quite.... Hey, it got Terran markings!! Targeting, Firing!"

The Responders four Phased Polaron beams opened up almost at the same time. The Terran ship hovewer wasn't where they had thought it would be and all shots missed widely. The Terrans constantly changed their tactics and pressed their ships to unbelivable prestations, making them almost impossible to hit.
The Terran destroyer opened fire with some kind of beam and hit with the first shot, the beam wasn't fired as the Weyrling polaron beams in short bursts but rather as a continious beam.
First they could feel the ship vibrate but it didn't seem to take any damage but then the warning lights on the bridge started flaring. The ion engines magnetic inducer coils where being overloaded and started melting. The cooling system couldn't cope with the incoming energy and the cooling gases started boiling and vented out into space, sending geysers of white fumes out through the emergency vents. The engines shut down and the Responder was dead in space.

The Terran ship was closing in, the Responders weapons franticly tried to get a lock but the Terrans had engaged advanced ECM's making it hard to aim correctly. The Terran ship opened up with a polaron beam of their own, blowing one of the Responders four main guns into debris and sending the gunner out into space in small pieces, the emergency vacuum doors on the ship closed immediatly. Another beam from the Terrans evaporated all reamins of another Weyrling Gunner along with her gun turret.
"-Abandon ship!!", The One's voice echoed in the heads of the Responders crew. All the crew headed for the escape hatces, grabbed the emergency packs and said godbye to the Responder. Before leaving Thurya armed the automatic self-destruct mechanism and then joined the others abandoning the ship.
The small objects the individual Weyrlings posed were too small for the Terrans to track and the emergency packs containing oxygen and fluid refreshers and nutrishments would enable them to survive for a month. Previously it was belived that anyone out there wouldn't make it that long, propably not more than a week before they would open their suits to the vacum to end the intense loneliness they would experiance. Now when they were in constant contact with each other and the One they would propably survive.

The Terran ship docked with the Weyrling ship and troops swarmed aboard, finding an empty ship.
Try had been caught in his tower that had been damaged by debris from the exploding gun turrets so he hadn't been able to get loose and abandon ship at the same speed as the others. There hadn't been any fear that he shouldn't make it, he just had to wind the turret into the correct position by hand and should have had ample of time before the self destruct destroyed the ship.
Rounding a corner towards the closest escape hatch Try ran straight into a Terran marine, there was no meaning of putting up any struggle, it would have been a one-sided match. On one side a Terran marine in combat armour with a phaser gun and on the other Try in a exposure suit and no weapon.
The Weyrlings might look fearsome but against an alien they where not very god in close combat, originating on a low gravity world they where quite weak. They looked strong and fearsome with fangs, claws and big muscles, but the muscles weren't very effective, they had developed for use against other low gravity animals.
Try was quickly ushered over to the Terran ship that severed it's bonds with the Weyrlings ship. Finding it virtually deserted the Terrans quickly suspected something was wrong, and they didn't intend to stay and see what surprise the Weyrlings had planned for them.

Floating in space seperated from the other in the crew Thurya voiced to Try,
"-Hang in there my love, we'll come after you."
"-I know you will Thu!"

Thurya saw her ship explode in a consuming fire ball, the escape hatches had air pressure catapults that threw the crew safely away from the ship so there was no big risk of being hit by debris. Thu could see glowing pieces pass by her as the tears flowed down her cheeks. She was a warrior now, finally she had fought her first battle. But she didn't feel as a warrior, she felt alone."

[ March 31, 2003, 06:48: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[mlmbd]

Ruatha, the addition is just 'excellent'. It was well worth waiting for. Your decription of a de-cloaking ship was amazing! Good stuff!

mlmbd

[Ruatha]

Hi Mlmbd and thanks for the reply!!!!!

What posed the biggest difficulty was how to decribe the tie between the Indestructible and the Troikens Pride.
Earlier in the story I've said that battles continue until one side wins, that withdrawing from battle is very hard, as it is in SE4.
But in the simulation between these two ships they kept on missing, scoring one hit each during all the combat until the time ran out!
The Troikens pride took damage as described but those gunners on these two ships where absolutely stinking.
They couldn't hit a barn from the inside with a cannon!

And why that Terran fleet won't move from the wormhole I can't understand, some AI problem?
I'll have to run some more turns and see what happens.

Do you want the turns mailed to you, CaptRR and Tbontob? They aren't necessary for the story but they help me with the plot.

[ March 30, 2003, 19:10: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[CaptRR]

I had to slick my hard drive and I didn't back up NGC so I'll need one of the turns emailed to me so I can get my galaxy map back. As far as emailing all the turns, it probably won't matter, I'm about to take a big left turn in the story, one that the game has no way to simulate, I've been hinting at it in my Last submission, and it will be interesting to see what the Weyrlings do once this errr... event takes place.

About the gunners, you have to remember that both ships have some of the best Alliance Tech in them, even if the Troikens Pride is a little older. I think I will amoung other things write an addition tonight that explains what went on onboard the Troikens Pride.

[CaptRR]

Chapter 18

Captain Jalan sat silently in his chair; he always did that just before a battle. It was a time to contemplate what he would do, to weigh his options so to speak. Sometimes this time would give him the opportunity to change his strategy, but he knew he could do no such thing here. His plans has been laid out weeks in advance.

Jalan was amazed that his plan had been this easy, well most of his plan had been easy anyway. Jalan knew that his crew would never attack an allied ship unless that ship had attacked them first. So the trick was to make the crew, or at the very least the Command Deck crew think that the Indestructible had initiated an attack on the Troikens Pride, it would have to be convincing too, but not debilitating, after all the Indestructible was almost twice the size of Trookens Pride, and she had better shielding too, but Jalan had the element of surprise, and he knew that would help balance the scales dramatically.

Slowly Jalan had sought allies to his plan, it hadn't been that hard either, Troikens Pride hadn't exactly been the symbol of Draven Pride. In fact his ship had become sort of the dumping ground to much to the Republic's problem cases. The result was an almost endless list of people who were just begging for a little bit of revenge on the Republic. Jalan had chosen just 2 other people to help him in his plan, the Simulations Officer, and an environmental tech that had been sent to his ship after he had beaded most of the air out of a compartment that was being worked on. The tech and the work crew had been having some problems, and while it was never proven that the tech did anything, there were some suspicions.

Together the 3 co-conspiracier's worked on Jalan's plan, and with his command codes it had been easy to insert the program into the Tactical, and enviromental networks. In fact the hardest part had been waiting until the time was right, that part had taken 2 weeks.

Now here he was, the time was almost perfect, but their was a problem, and his name was Commander Lancer. Unlike most of the ships crew, Lancer was an exhalent officer. As far as Jalan could ascertain the only reason he was on Troikens Pride was to keep an eye on Jalan. Lancer was smart, too smart, he had even questioned the logic of moving behind the Indestructible when Jalan gave the order.

"It's not a good defensive position, and will weaken our combined point defense" Lancer had said in respond to Jalan's order several hours before. Still despite his objections, he followed the order, but Jalan was sure that if Lancer ever suspected what he was doing, that the man would take his sidearm and shoot Jalan dead on the spot. He would watch Lancer, if he gave the slightest indication of figuring it out, Jalan would kill him.

Right now though, Jalan had other things to worry about, it was almost time for his plan to kick off, the program had been set into motion even before the order to move behind the Indestructible had been given. Jalan looked around the command deck, it was the night shift, and it was at minimum staffing, only about 5 people in all. Commander Lancer was studying something at his desk in front of the main plot, beside him sat the night shift tactical officer who was going over something with the pilot. The other two officers were at their stations on the side walls engaged In their duties.

Suddenly a loud explosion echoed through the ship, almost instantly the battle stations siren sounded. Jalan knew it was the shuttle bay that had suddenly depressurized as per his program, the resulting sudden decompression would cause a lot of noise, and a few rattled shuttle bay tech, but otherwise no other damage. The damage computers on the other hand would report an explosion.

Jalan put on his best game face, and tried to look surpised, "Commander what going on!"

Lancer had jumped out of his seat and run to the damage control station and was quickly punching in commands. "Sir, theirs' been an explosion in the shuttle bay, no idea of the cause yet, we are reading loss of air pressure on that deck."

By now the Tactical officer had pulled up the main plot and run through a scan, Jalan knew that what she was actually seeing was a program super-imposed over the current scans, they showed her exactly what Jalan wanted. "Captain, if these reading are correct..." she trailed off quickly tapping buttons on her console, obviously double-checking her readings.

"Lieutenant, what is it!" Jalan's annoyance wasn't an act

"Y-yes sir, if these readings are correct, the Weyrling's fired at our shuttle bay.

"What?" it was Lancer "why would they do that, they are totally out of position."

"It doesn't matter, commander, Tactical, get me a firing solution on the Indestructible."

Lancer was at his side almost instantly, his voice lowered so the rest of the bridge couldn't hear it. "Captain, this doesn't make sense, they are totally out of position for a fight, we need to contact the Indestructible."

Jalan didn't bother to lower his voice, "Commander, we have been fired on by our so called allies, its obvious that they intended to hit our shuttle bay to prevent us from launching escape pods. Now I will defend this ship and if you try to stop me, you will be shot!"

Lancer didn't budge for a moment, and Jalans hand slowly gripped his phaser weapon. He was stopped by the sound of his tactical officer, "Captain, the Telekinetic Projectors are on line, and we have a firing solution plotted, shield will be up any moment."

"Good," Jalan looked back at Lancer, the first officer was moving to his station, obviously not wishing to press the argument now. "Pilot go full thrust, Tactical you can fire as soon as you are in point blank."

Jalan felt the ship suddenly accelerate, and the image of the Indestructible grew in his screen.

"Firing in 4, 3, 2, 1." The ship seemed to thump as the Trokens Pride's 4 telekinetic Projectors ripped through space, and into the Indestructible's armor. The damage though was minimum, and ever so slowly the Projectors recycled.

The Indestructible didn't wait though, the damage to her armor had been superficial only, she was a command ship and was heavy on the defensive systems, she also had good engines, and those engines went to 100 percent as her Captain accelerated in wide maneuvers designed bring Indestructible's weapons to bare, at the same time her RADAR image was lost in a hail of ECM.

"We've lost her on sensors," it was Lancer, he was running both the damage control station as well as the Sensor station, a double duty for sure.

"Tactical, estimate their course from the Last reading and forward them to the pilot." Troikens Pride shuddered at the sudden violent course change. Jalan wanted to curse, he had hoped to do more damage on the first volley. He still had the advantage, but only slightly. If he knew the Weyrling Captain, he would be trying to assess his damage, he wouldn't to contact Triokens Pride yet; it would give away his position if he did.

Space was big, and rarely did combat resolve itself quickly, that was certainly the case here. For 3 hours Indestructible and Triokens Pride volleyed for position, their ECM's keeping the other from getting an accurate lock on the other. Occasionally the two ships would come out of their ECM interference and exchange fire, but these shots rarely hit once the Indestructible had managed to come close and sheer off some comm. antennas. Jalan was getting impatient, this should have been over quickly, the first volley should have taken out Indestructible's engines, If the ship was unable to move her ECM's would be worthless.

"Sir," it was the tactile officer, the head one. By now the main command crew had come to their stations, also everyone was in EV suites, just in case their was a breach. "We are getting a several sensor ghosts off our port."

"Can you get a solution."

"Working on it, they have some good ECM on that ship."

"Work Faster" Jalan snapped.

Several minutes passed, suddenly the tac officer yelled, "Clear reading on our port."

The bridge erupted in activity. Quickly the coordinates where sent to fireing control, and a solution was plotted, and the Telekinetic Projectors opened up at the Indestructible. Most missed, but some got through the ECM. The shields on the Indestructible absorbed most of the volley, but their was few systems that could stop that fury for long, and inevitably a hole developed in the Indestructible's protective layer.

The tactical officer noticed this, and the remaining Projectors opened fire on the weakened part of the shields. Armor was torn from the Indestructible's hull like paper being blown off by a bazooka, but the armor did its job, and protected the vulnerable hull beneath it.

"Direct hit, I think we got some though, ecm is still playing hell with fire control"

"Noted" Jalan thought for a moment, the Indestructible's damn ECM had to be eliminated, and the only way to do that was to get in closer, use his Radar to burn though the ECM's, all he needed was one clear shot. "Pilot, bring us in closer, I want to get below its ECM curtain."

Lancer spoke up, "Sir? That will also make our ECM less effective."

"I realize that Commander, but we have more weapons than they do, so follow my orders or I will have you removed."

The command deck was silent, Commander Lancer wanted to remove the Captain, but in the middle of a battle? Lancer would be court marshaled for sure, no he had to play along, and just hope Jalan didn't get them all killed. "Pilot, you heard the Captain, take us in closer."

"Yes Sir."

The Troikens pride accelerated towards Indestructible, but Indestructible suddenly changed direction and began accelerating away, firing polaran beams as she retreated. Jalan was furious, he had been tricked, now he would have to slow his acceleration and then redouble back onto Indestructible in order to get a clear shot.

Jalan began to pace around the command deck. He was losing the advantage. If the Indestructible got away it would most certainly warn HQ, and his ship would be hunted down. That was when, a polaron beam finally made it though the Troikens Prides's ECM. It was a lucky shot, and hit right on the ships Telekinetic Projector, the shrapnel from the exploding projector hit several of the engine pods and ripped through them. Almost instantly 80% if Troikens Prides thrust vanished and Indestructible began pulling away quicly. Jalan knew the battle was lost.

Chapter 19

Josha went back into his office like a hurricane. He had just got the dressing down of his life by the Central Powers Speaker, the Weyrlings were furious, and who could blame them. A Draven ship had attacked the Matriarchs vessel, it was all Josha could do to keep the Weyrlings from sending their fleet into Lasat to take out Troikens Pride personally. Creator, what had that madman Jalan done!

Josha rubbed his head, it made no sense, why had Jalan been put into a position of escorting the matriarch in the first place, and why hadn't the approval for those orders come to him. Something was up, someone was trying to kill the Matriarch. Quickly Josha opened his computer, and began searching all the deployment orders concerning Troikens Pride. It didn't take long to find the order for deployment with the Indestructible. Then Josha looked in shock at what he saw. The approval had come through the Prime Minister himself.

Josha sat frozen for a second, not believing what he was thinking. The prime minister knew Jalans history as well as anyone, the only reason he would have approved the orders, were if he was hoping Jalan was going to do something. But that would meant the Yalare had plotted to kill the Matriarch.

Josha sat in his office for a long time, not knowing what to do. He couldn't tell the Weyrlings, they would tear into home systems, and while the new ships would probably stop them, it would be bloody, the Weyrligns were good generals, but the Dravens had probably the most Industrial Empire in known space. No this was a Draven problem, the Central Powers need to stay out of it, but what can he do. Slowly Josha took out a the keypad and began typing a letting to Central Powers speaker, he knew some of explanations seemed flimsy at best, but they should be enough to keep a war from breaking out. Although it would mean sacrificing Trokioens Pride, unfortunately he would have to offer up that ship as a sacrificial lamb to satisfy the Weyrlings while Josha took care of bigger problems. His second letter was to Commander Draval.

[ March 31, 2003, 02:38: Message edited by: CaptRR ]

[Ruatha]

Quick response CaptRR.
I'll send you a turn file later.
Just write on and I'll follow your plot!

I dont have any general empire spanning storyline anymore so I can follow you. My future plans mostly involve Try and Thurya. But the war against the Terrans will go on unless I'm diverted

Will write my next episode in a couple of days.

[Ruatha]

Weyrling Empire 2406.9
----------------------

Aboard the Light cruiser Desperation:

The ship was running in cloaked mode, it was one of the newest light cruisers the Weyrling empire had built, encompassing the newest and most advanced technology that could be found in the empire.
The ship didn't actually need any crew as it was run by an AI computer core that was capable of making intelligent decisions based upon it's orders and the current circumstances around it.
Despite this the Weyrlings didn't feel comfortable letting a machine capable of destroying worlds run on it's own without supervision, so there was a skeleton crew of three officers aboard.
One would have thought that there would be ample of space aboard this ship but that was not the case.
Aboard the Desperation was 323 Marines and an extra fleet officer, Thurya.
Their goal was to free Try, he was the first and only prisoner that the Terrans had taken and the Weyrlings weren't going to let them get away with it, it was time to send a signal to the Terrans and all other races out there, you don't mess with the Weyrlings!

The Weyrlings had become worried, the war against the Terrans was going to good, the Terrans should have defeated the Weyrlings by now but they seemed unwilling to go into battle.
The Weyrlings had lost two carriers, a light cruiser, a space yard ship and a destroyer since the sledgehammer operation was launched. Meanwhile they had glassed 18 worlds, invaded and occupied the three Terran homeworlds and destroyed 22 orbital space yards and three battleships. Something was wrong!
It would be easy to sit back and relax but that might be a fatal mistake, the Terrans had an impressive fleet, some of which was in the Kuat system but many ships had also left for the Terran-Nyran borders, and there was no war between those two races, this was uncomprehensible.
And now the Dravens, attacking the very symbol of the Weyrling empire!
The Argon confederacy, previously good allies, had declared war upon the Weyrlings as had the CCCP empire aswell. Still there hadn't been any hostilities from them but that might just be coming. There hadn't been any explanation for the war declarations, and with the Central Powers alliance on the verge of collapse and most of the Weyrling forces concetrated in Terran space the situation could turn critical very fast.

Aboard the Desperation was also a new device that had never been used before, it was time to send a signal, and it would be heard all over the galaxy!

The crew aboard the Desperation was in constant contact with Try and knew his location at all times, well almost all times.
There had been a lapse of a few days when Try had been comatose after to hard torture resulting in a brain bleeding. The Terrans had operated and treated him so that he had recorpurated before they started the torture again.
Try had told them all he knew, about the force concentrations of the Weyrlings, the awakening of the One, everything. But still the torture continued, coupled with psychoactive drugs. The Terrans had no psychic technology and if it weren't for this, Try would have been lost.
Along all this Thurya had been in constant contact with him, shared his pain. She had needed some medication of her own to cope with it but she wouldn't abandon him. Her burden was eased some by Elyssandra and many more who also shared Try's pains in some degree, but the close connection between Try and Thurya would have made it impossible for Thurya to shut out the pain even if she wanted.

Try was being kept on a facility on a barren moon deep inside Terran space close to the Nyran border, guarded by a battle ship in orbit, in the system was also a large concentration of Terran warships, posted there for an unknown reason.

Going along with the Desperation was the destroyer Runaway, also under cloak.
There would still be some weeks before they could get Try out, if they where successful. But with the pleasure the Terrans was getting out of torturing Try they wouldn't let hime die, he was the symbol which they could take out all their anger and revenge upon for the millions of Terrans killed by the Weyrlings and the billions living under Weyrling occupation.

Inside the Lasat system:

The two Psi corps light cruisers Gurkan and Tomaten was scanning the system with their long range scanners.
So far there was no sign of the Troikens Pride, but it was only a matter of time. They knew it hadn't left the Lasat system, and if it was here they would find it, and if they found it they would get some answers.
Captain Jalan would be happy to give them all the answers he could, he would love the Weyrlings when the Psic corps was through with him. He would be useless afterwards as his undying loyalty would be all that he could focus upon, the greatness of the Weyrlings.
The only reason he would be able to provide answers was becourse he would do his utmost to please his new masters.
The Psi corps personnel couldn't wait to get him under their care, they had never been allowed to test their arts on any Dravens before and now they had a whole ship to their disposal, this would be fun!
The only problem right now was the two Draven dreadnoughts that had entered the Lasat system, claiming that they would assist the Weyrlings in hunting down the Troikens Pride.

At Central Powers Headquarter:

Elyssandra was sitting with down with the Draven Josha, prince Dravel hadn't been at alliance headquarter when she arrived so she would have to do with this represantative.
The Draven assured Elyssandra that the Dravens had no intention of cancelling the alliance, that captain Jalan was somekind of renegade rouge and please, go ahead and destroy the Troikens Pride, he said.
How could it be that the Troikens Pride had been dispatched to escort duty, Elyssandra wondered.
It had all been Admiral Panars decision and unfortunatly he was no longer alive to be questioned, was the answer she got.
Hovewer she tried that was the brick wall she came up against, Panar was dead and if the Dravens had their way Jalan would soon be aswell, they seemed to think that the Weyrlings would destroy the ship in retaliation. Something Elyssandra thought was strange, the Dravens had access to psychic technology aswell and knew that the Weyrlings had Psi Corps ships equipped with alligiance converters in the vicinity of the Lasat system. But Elyssandra wouldn't point this out to them, if they wanted Jalan dead, let them think that the Weyrlings would do it for them.
Now she just had to find a way to get those Draven dreadnoughts out of the Lasat system, and she thought she knew how.
"-Now see here Josha, we have two state of the art Light cruisers in the area, well equipped to destroy the Troikens Pride.
But in the Lasat system neither you nor we have any forces right now.
Our Sledge fleet left that system to hunt down the Terran cloaker that we discovered in the neighbouring system, unsuccesfull by the way. Thereby leaving a heavily populated oxygen world with it's colonized moon in the Lasat system.
Your two dreadnoughts are well placed to go in and take out those planets, our two light cruisers can't stand up to the forces in that area. We lost two fighter carriers and a light cruiser that was dispatched to destroy those worlds.
To recall the Sledge fleet would cancel the momentum that our forces are having, the next month we will glass 15 more worlds if we can continue as planned."
"-I can't make a desicion alone on this Matriarch", Josha answered.
Ellysandra was growing impatient,
"-You are the Draven represantative to the Cental Powers alliance, if you can't decide that what are you doing here??".
"-Come now dear Matriarch, things aren't that easy! Could your represantive here decide the movements of your forces?"
"-Farth? Ofcourse he can if he thinks it's necessary.
Now you see to it that the Terrans are deprived of that world in the Lasat system, or that Terran fleet in the Lasat system might resupply and head into Draven space! SOmetimes I'm not sure why we fight this war for you, it's time you start doing some damage to the Terrans aswell. If your forces had followed orders this war should've been over by now.
If you can't decide what your forces will do, get me prince Dravel instead, he atleast does what he says. I'm sure the king would have been proud of him, but perhaps not with the rest of you Dravens."

With this she stood up and walked out of the room and went back to her quarters.