Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread

[mlmbd]

Ruatha,

Hurray for our complete fanbase.

I don't think I am your entire fanbase. Lots of "LURKER'S" out there.

mlmbd

[Raging Deadstar]

Yep, unfortuantly my computer freezes up a lot on these forums so i don't get much of a chance to post in other threads beside the cantina and troopers race directory. But i am definatly enjoying the story, it seems to have gotten better since you abandoned the game and turned it complete fiction. Keep up the good writing, also ruatha, check out my fanfiction site thread as i have some suggestions that i need authors to reply on

[CaptRR]

Chapter 20

Commander, Prince Dravel looked out the window as his skimmer headed towards the surface of Acamar VII. The blue white world, grew as the small craft went through its decent. It was so different than a Draven world, Dravel thought. So much water, and actual land. Of course that was part of the reason Acamar VII had been chosen as home for the Central Powers Headquarters, it was jewel nestled in the Draven Republic, yet controlled by the Thermolians, and finally its location close to the Weyrling Empire made it the ideal choice for greatness.

It had been a month since Dravel received a cryptic message from Josha. The message basicly said that Dravel was need at Alliance HQ now, and to take any ship he needed was need at Alliance HQ now, and to take any ship he needed to there. Fortunately Dravel had been Agamar, where he was forced to retreat to once the news that the Sledgehammer fleet had been destroyed. He hadn't retreated back alone though, he had captured a Terren Battleship, once the scientists had finished looking it over, Dravel had conscripted a crew for it, and it was now the primary defense for Agamar, his ship the King Dravel was their as well, though it was in the yards for repairs. Fortunately a replacement ship was available, it was old, and it weaponry was outdated, but it was fast, and that is the only reason Dravel had made it to Acamar so fast.

But why had he hurried? The note that Josha wrote didn't go into too many details, but it did have a passing reference to the Troikens Pride. Something was definitely up, and Dravel knew if he had been hurried off the war front so fast, that something involved the Draven Government. He shuttered slightly, not for the first time he realized that he was soon to be the President of the Draven Republic, a post that he had not expected to inherit for a long time. He would go from being a mere commander in the Draven Space Navy to the leader of all the Draven people, it was a tough subject for him to get his mind around, but he had been groomed for this since he was a child, he knew he would succeed at it.

The skimmer began to shutter violently as its gear extended, and it made its final decent to the Central Powers HQ. He had a great view of the main building, it was known as one of the most beautiful structures in the known Universe, incorporating the best architects from 3 races into its structure, it's sweeping 1 kilometer tall towers, the administrative centers for each race, seemed to keep watch over the central structure that housed the actual heart of the Central Powers. It' simple beauty never showing the trouble that lied beneath, the fact is the Central Powers were in trouble.

The Weyrlings were in trouble, what should have been a great occasion for their race after they took over the leadership of the Alliance, had turned into a nightmare, first with the opening steps of the War, then with the CCCP declaring war on the Weyrlings, and now the incident with the Troikens Pride. The Allinace was on the verge of collapsing, and if that happens, the glacier that is the CCCP would swallow up the Draven Republic, and then the rest of the Alliance soon after.

It wasn't all bad though, the Weyrlings had made great strives against the Terrens, even if the Dravens had been less than successful in that regard. The CCCP while declaring war hadn't made any overt action towards the Weyrlings, but it was strange, why had the CCCP declare war against the Weyrlings, and not the Allinace as a whole?

The skimmer thumped as it came into contact with the ground, and a few minutes later the door opened. For the next couple of minutes Dravel was escorted by Josha's aid through the sprawling Central Powers Complex. The towers were even more stunning on the ground than in the air, they seemed to stretch to the edge of the sky, yet each tower seemed to hold just a touch of its maker. The ones designed by the Dravens, which were also the shortest, seemed to take inspiration from the floating cities, their bases were narrow, and then they got wider us they raised from ground. In an age before Anti-gravity those structures would have been impossible, but now they rose to astounding hights.

The Thermolians Towers were simple yet their paint scheme that changed color depending the angle that you were looking at it from. The sudden change in color could be daunting at first, but all the colors seemed mix well with each other. Little was known why the Thermolians decided on this paint scheme, but rumor was that each color represented each one of their First colonies.

Finally their was the Weyrlings buildings, they were the tallest as well, yet they were a far cry from the nomally strait buildings that littered the Thermilian and Draven sections. These buildings seemed to all curve towards a central point. Dravel had once been told that it had something to do with their Religion, their worship of "the one", but no one had ever confirmed this since little was known of the Weyrlings Religious beliefs.

After a short ride though the Draven compound, Commander Dravel was finally brought to Josha's Office. It technically wasn't the office of a Central Powers Representative, since Draven was just filling that role while the real Representative was back on Konoephoras X, supposedly in meetings with the Prime Minister.

In the mean time, the Chairman of the Defense Committee Josha was also pulling duty as the main Draven Representative to the Central Powers. As Dravel walked into Josha's office the Chairman smiled and rose.

"Its great to see you Prince, its been too long," Said Josha as he extended his hand.

Dravel took it, and returned his smile, "Yes sir it has, I wish you could come to the King Dravel more often, my crew really enjoys showing off their ship to the Defense Chairman."

Josha, continued to smile, but directed Dravel to some couches at the far end of the room, at the same time his secretary came in and laid drinks on a small table.

"I'm sure they do," their was a slight air of laughter in Josha's voice. No crew liked to have their ship inspected by the top brass, but it would have been impolite for Dravel to at least not offer. Amazing, Josha though, Dravel was the prince of the Republic, yet he never forgot that he is an officer in the Space Navy.

Josha's mood turned more serious though. "I' sure you are wondering why I called you here in so much of a hurry."

Dravel took a sip of his drink, and swallowed it. He then leaned back in his chair, trying to anticipate what was coming next, "I think it has something to do with the Troikens Pride, but the look on your face tell me it goes much higher than just one ship."

Josha nodded, "yes much higher. To put it lightly Prince, the Central Powers is on the verge of collapse, and our enemies are ready to capitalize on that collapse. I think Captain Jalan may have been working under orders from the Prime Minister himself"

Now he had Dravels full attention, and he sat upright, he was about to say something when Josha raised a hand, letting him know their was more.

"It gets worse, I think the Weyrlings are suspicious of this, and are going to take steps to capture Captain Jalan, and then use whatever methods to extract that information from him."

Now Jalan understood the nature of Josha's worry. If the weyrlings found out the Prime Minister tried to murder their matriarch they would rip into Draven space demanding they hand over Yalare. Of course the armed forces would never turn over their Prime Minister to any foreign government, no matter how righteous the cause. There would most certainly be a war, the Dravens had the Industrial strength and the Weyrlings had the Scientific and Military tacticians, the war would be bloody, and would probably end up leaving one race extinct.

Dravel spoke softly, "You want me to hunt down and destroy the Troikens Pride?"

It was not so much a question but a statement, something he had to do in order to save his people, but Josha surprised him.

"Creator no", Josha said with a slight yelp, "your father would role over in his grave if I sent you on a suicide mission." The mention of Dravels father caused a slight uncomfortable moment of silence, even after 2 years Dravel still felt he would never be quite the man his father was.

Josha continued, "No Prince, I have already dispatched 3 ships to take care of the situation. 2 dreadnaughts on search, and an unmarked stealth ship tailing the Weyrling search party have been dispatched. If the Weyrlings find the ship before we do, the Stealth ship will destroy the Troikens Pride, and then try to escape, if it can't escape then the stealth ship will destroy itself."

Dravel took a deep breath, "What about the crew's?"

"The stealth ship is mostly computerized to prevent the Weyrlings Psi corps from using their subverters, the rest know how important their mission is, and that they not be taken. As far as the Troikens pride, we built the ship, we know its weak points, it will be destroyed, quickly, or at least their will be no life left on the ship. To be honest, we will probably lose 100% of both crews."

Dravel understood why Josha had giving those orders, and how difficult they must have been. Even if the ship destroyed the Troikens Pride their was almost no way it would be able to get away from the Weyrlings, and if Dravel knew Josha, he had ordered the crew to not fire on the Weyrlings, he could not risk making things worse. That stealth ship was being sent into the fire, with virtually no protection, it would die, without it or the crew every even having a chance to survive.

Their was still one thing though, "Sir, why did you call me all the way out here it the situation was already under control?"

The deadpan seriousness in Joshas eye's frightened Dravel for a moment, "My Prince we cannot sit idly by and watch our Prime Minister destroy our Republic. I'm afraid we must remove him from power."

"What?" Dravel's mind was realing, what Josha was suggesting was an act of treason.

"I know Prince, I felt the same way, but I assure you there is no other option. I have been looking over fleet movements, if we don't act now, we will soon be unable to act. Yalare hadn't secured his power with all the Military, once he has all the Military loyal to him, he will be unstoppable, we act now, or we lose everything."

Dravel thought, and now it made sense that Josha had called Dravel here, he was the Prince, next in line to the Presidency, if he demanded that Yalare step down it would carry much more weight than an exiled Defense Chairman.

"Prince, I have to be honest, Yalare has placed a lot of commanders in strategic places, but he hasn't been able to get much headway in Acamar. Don't get me wrong, most of the military commanders are honest, but Yalare has control of most of the Admiralty, and its going to take a major effort to make the Captains turn against what they perceive is the rightful government. I'm afraid, Yalare won't go down without a fight."

Dravel, dreaded what he might have to do, never had a Draven ship fire on another, but if Yalare had that much control over the fleet he might have to. He took a breath, it was time to get down to business, "What kind of forces are up against."

Josha took a small pad out of his pocket, and read it over, "So far, I think I can get you 15 dreadnaughts, 7 battleships, and about 17 other smaller vessles. Oh yes, and I think I can get you a warp point opener and closer."

Dravel shook his head, "That's not enough, home fleet alone has twice that many ships, and that's not including the new ships that are coming out of the yards as we speak."

"I know, but it's all we have, my Prince. Yalare has been keeping most of the new ships close to home, and I'm afraid all we have been able to gather are whats being put out by the Acamar shipyards. On the plus side, the ships I'm giving you are among the newest in the fleet. They were originally scheduled to deploy as part of the second Sledgehammer fleet, but since the Weyrlings have the situation with the Terrens in hand I don't think we will need them for Sledgehammer."

Now Dravel looked Josha square in the eye, and spoke slowly, emphasizing his point, "We are going to have to tell the Weyrlings eventually, and when we do they are going to want Yalare's head on a platter, plus I imagine they will be quite upset over us not telling them earlier."

"I know," Josha said, "I know, but they Weyrlings aren't stupid. A little arrogant, and annoying sometimes, but not stupid. They will understand why we are doing what we are doing, even if they won't be very happy about it. Hell, I might even give them Yalare after all this is done, the Weyrlings would probably be a lot nicer than me."

Dravel smiled slightly and stood up, "well I better be going, it looks like I have a lot of work in order to get my Fleet together, is their anything else, Josha?"

Now it was Josha turn to smile, "a matter of fact there is, Commander. You do know that commander of a fleet is an Admiral's position, and we can't have people you are commanding outranking you now can we?"

"Uhh, I guess not." Said Dravel a little flusterd.

"In that case Commander Dravel, I know promote you to full Admiral, with all the rank and Privileges." Josha shook Dravel's hand and gave a picture perfect salute to the new Admiral. Dravel returned it just as perfectly, "My aid has you new rank insignia waiting for you, good luck Admiral."

"Thank you Josha, I'll need it."

Chapter 21

That fool! That stupid idiotic fool! That was all Commander Lancer could think right now. Here he was on a crippled ship, being hunted by two weyrling Cruisers, and now he had been forced to throw his Captain in the brig.

Lancer looked at the Tactical display, it wasn't good. The Troikens Pride was out gunned and was losing ground fast to the two Weyrlings Cruisers, that weren't even trying to use their stealth systems. And why should they? The Trokens pride was not in good shape, she had lost several Engines, and was down a Telekinetic Projector. To make matters worse, his only salvation, 2 Draven dreadnaughts were clear across the system. He had no chance of making it to them before he was overtaken by the Weyrling vessles. And it was all the fault of that traitorous fool Jalan.

Once the battle was over, and Indestructible had gotten away, it had taken only a few hours to find the sabotage, and when Lancer checked that sabotage it had Jalan's codes all over it. Lancer had wanted to shoot the fool right their, but instead had settled for throwing him into the brig. That didn't help his current situation though.

Lancer had thought about calling out to the Weyrlings, explain to them what had happen, but he knew that would do little good. If the Troikens Pride's sensor's were working correctly, those were Psi corps ships, the elite of the Weyrling fleet, and the most feared. They were sent in for search and destroy, or Lancer feared even more capture. It was doubtful the Psi corps would be in a negotiating mood, it was more likely they would feign talking in order to get a lock on the Troikens Pride, and when that happens, it would over.

If only the Indestructible hadn't hit their long range communications antennas, then he might have been able to call fleet HQ, and explain the situation. Instead the Troikens Pride was out here, all alone, with their own allied hunting them down.

Lancer took a breath, "Pilot, change course I want randomize our course as much as possible, maybe we can evade those Light Cruisers." Lancer knew their was no chance of that.

The young pilot though didn't give any indication that he knew, instead he nodded and began to plot a randomized course, trying to put as much distance as possible between them and the Weyrling vessels. It was a losing proposition, the Troikens Pride was just too slow in its wounded state.

Lancer looked once again at the Tactical readout, it was only a matter of time.

[Ruatha]

Ahh, goodie...
Much to work with!

[mlmbd]

CaptRR, another GREAT chapter! You get thumbs up from me!

mlmbd

[Ruatha]

The intersting hot-spots right now:

[Ruatha]

2407.0
In the Secunda Giedi System.
---------------------------
Aboard the Destroyer Runaway.
Only one of the three shifts of the crew was in service, of the 19 aboard two where at the command bridge, one in the engine room, one was preparing a meal in the mess and two where doing maintnance on the cloaking device.
The Runaway was a special ship in that it had no offensive capability, she was a fast personnel carrier and now she was running with only her crew aboard, making her innards a wast empty space. Something unusual for the Weyrling crew who was usually serving on ordinary ships.
The Weyrling ships where luxurious in the space allocated to every person aboard when compared to many other species, but to a Weyrling the ships often seemed crowded.
Serving in this huge empty innards was a different experiance for the crew.

"-Should we alert the captain?", Sergeant Krut asked anselm Roy who was heading the ship while he pointed at the scanner screen.
"-Negative, He's asleep, no use wakening him. Alert the Desperation that we might need some assistance and start to close the distance to them."
Krut got information from the One about who was in command of the Desperation right now and voiced to the captain of the Desperation:
"-We're seing an asteroid field in our way, are you picking up on it too?"
"-Yes, we are manning the point defense cannon turrets right now, it shouldn't be any problem, just stick close to us!"
"-Affermative"

As they closed in on the dense asteroid field the smaller Runaway destroyer closed the gap too the larger and better armed light cruiser Desperation.
Asteroid fields weren't really a threat as they were more vacuum than asteroids and usually the ships passed right through. Actually ships tended to avoid running through asteroid fields if they weren't pressed for time.
The Recovery task force hovewer was pressed for time and pushed straight through. Smaller grovel and minor rocks could be handled by the armour but larger rocks needed to be bLasted first.

"-Time to give a warning, no way around it but to waken the ship"
Sergeant Krut opened the ship wide intercom:
"Alert. We are entering a minor asteroid field and we might experiance a bit of bumps for a while, no need for alarm. Carry on as usual!"
A couple of minutes after the warning they felt the first bump as the ship hit a minor rock which was repelled by the armour. After that it started to become uncomfortable as the ship rocked almost constantly in a disharmonic beat.
The crew was experianced but still lay awake as this wasn't all that common, it happened from time to time but you didn't experiance it every year.
On the bridge the anselm and the sergeant watched as the Desperations point defence turrets opened fire now and then, most of the times the blocks they where firing upon didn't pose any threat but it was a welcome target practice and a break from routine.
An asteroid larger than a battleship showed up on the scanners ahead of the ships, the calculation unit quickly stated that it would be a near miss by half a kilometer, not dangerous but impressive as the huge block closed in at enourmous speed (actually the block was nearly still but the ships was travelling near maximum speed).
When they where almost there one of the Desperations turrets opened fire at the block, gunner Lise thought she might have time to etch a grand "L" on the block as they passed by.
The cannon rounds hit the edge of the block, chiselling out a mansized corner that shot out infront of the Runaway. No one had reflexes fast enough to act on the threat!
The block hit the Runaway on starboard below, tearing through the armour and punching a hole into the Runaway, coming to a halt three meters inside the hull, killing the captain instantly as it hit the captains quarters. The engines shut down immediatly and the Desperation accelerated for another second before they shut down their engines aswell.

"-What have I done, What have I done??", they could all hear gunner Lise's question that was voiced without direction. The loss of the captain was immediatly felt as a disturbance in the collective by the crews on both ships.

As the Runaway was dead in space due to ripped circuits that would take another week to repeair the decision was made to split the task force.
The Desperation would proceed to the Giik system and rescue Try. Thurya as senior officer without a ship position would be transferred to the Runaway and take command of that vessel.
She wasn't needed in the rescue as that would be handled by the marines.
The Runaway would do repairs and would meet up with the Desperation at the warp point between Secunda Giedi and Giik when Try had been rescued, then all personnel would be transfered to the Runaway and the Desperation would be left with the ship AI in command, programmed to perform it's final task.

As the Desperation entered the Giik system the crew was amazed at what they saw.
The scanners went wild.
The fleet of ships massed in the Giik system outnumbered even the once mighty Sledgehammer fleet, approximately 200 ships where in the system. Mostly Battleships but some smaller and some larger ships aswell, fighter Groups running all over the system. More than half of the fleet was Nyran but a sizable part was Terran.
"-Now we will see what is most advanced, our cloak or their scanners", the captain thought aloud.
But as they slowly approached the planet where Try was being held there was no indication that they had been spotted. It took two weeks to finally arrive at the planet. When the assault shuttles landed guards fired upon the marines.
But the Weyrling marines weren't unprotected spaceships crew, they had the best defensive and offensive technology availible to the Central Powers alliance and the ground battle was only going one way. As good as the Terrans might be in space battles the prision guards where no match for the Weyrling marines, bodies littered the yard as they swept into the complex.
Finding Try was no problem as they had constant contact with him and the One showed the direction.
After a quick retreat into the shuttles all marines and Try was soon aboard the Desperation which started to power up the engines.
There was only one enemy ship in orbit and that was on the other side of the planet.
The ships in the system seemed to be gathered at one point mainly with a lot of ships heading in that direction.
The advanced scanners could already detect several ships starting to alter course towards the planet, and several hundreds of fast fighters starting to head in the general direction of the prison planet.
The number of ships in the system wasn't anticipated but they had planned on being pursued.
The Desperation would under cloak head for the warp-point, then after having transferred the personell it would head to the star and blow up the entire system!
Seeing this incredible mass of ships in the Giik system the Weyrlings had thought of it as a divine gift. The Nyrans would suffer a terrible loss aswell, but they couldn't prove it was the Weyrlings, and even so, after this the Nyrans wouldn't have any force left to be afraid of.
Only a couple of hours after the sucessful escape a stellar event showed up on the scanners. At the point of the main mass of ships a new warp point was slowly being opened. The one instantly connected this with a similar event starting at the same time in the Kalzeron system some distance from Kalzeron prime.
In a week the Terran/Nyran ships would be in Kalzeron, which now was defended by only 6 destroyers!
That fleet would do more damage to the Weyrling empire than the Weyrling had managed to inflict upon the Terrans during the entire war. So this was the reasson the Terran ships weren't attacking. They had been diverted for this purpose.
Even though the One couldn't feel fear, it could sense that feeling amongst the Weyrling population.
The decision aboard the Desperation was easy, even without the guidance of the One, everyone aboard the sip agreed and the Desperation altered course for the Giik star.
The Runaway would continue to be an empty ship.

Both Try and Thurya wept alot the following three days as they where in constant connection up to the moment the Giik star exploded!
The Runaway waited outside the Giik system for the wave front to pass by the warp point before they could enter it, but the trip home would go much faster due to the new warp point between Giik and Kalzeron.

Inside the Lasat system:

The Psi corps ship Tomaten was slowly gaining on Troikens Pride, Gurkan had diverted in a semicircle intended to take it arround Troikens Pride, so that there would be no chance escape.
The Troikens Pride hadn't tried to contact them, that didn't alter things but the crew had thought that the Dravens would plea for their lifes. More peculiar was that they hadn't started to fire upon the Weyrlings, they must know by now that there was no escape! Yet still they continued their turtlelike escape attempt.
When Gurkan was well ahead of Troikens Pride and the psi Corps was sure of success they started to power up the alligience converters. Soon the One would get more insigth into the Draven mind!
Then space itself started to shimmer beside Tomaten, the crew on Tomaten understood that it was a ship coming out of cloak. Most propably a Draven ship.
Very well, they might be able to destroy Tomaten who had it's weapons trailing Troikens Pride but they sure wouldn't be able to take out Gurkan. One Psi corps ship was an afforable price for two Draven ships full with Draven crew, and the Draven ships tended to be packed with crew. Oh, how many minds to probe, the feelings in the Psi Corp crew was stil high when the Draven ship that materialized fired it's first salvo.
Aimed at Troikens Pride.
"-Noo", the captain of Tomaten cried out.
"Full ahead, put us between those two ships. Gurkan, capture Troikens Pride now!"
But it was too late, one round from those telekinetic cannons shouldn't be enough to destroy a ship such as Troikens Pride, but the Dravens obviously knew where to aim. The troikens Pride exploded in a ball of fire.
"-Gurkan, take that new Draven ship instead while they're firing upon us!"
Then the other Draven ship joined Troikens Pride in a ball of flame.
It was uncomprehensible. The Weyrlings hadn't fired a single shot, and now two draven ships was ashes.
What had happened here??

At Central Powers headquarter in the Acamar system:

Elyssandra was sitting in her quarters discussing with Prince dravel.
"-I'm glad you could make it here, but also dissappointed that you are leaving so soon!", she said.
"-Even though it's always a pleasure to meet you matriarch, I'm saddened that I must leave. But I must follow some leads that might explain this attack upon the Indestructible. Right now it's as hard to understand for me as it is for you. But I have been looking into captain Jalan's movements before the attack and I'll be questioning everyone he had contact with previous to the attack. And that goes for the late admiral Panar aswell.
I guarantee you that I will find answers, just give me time!"
"-I wouldn't have belived anyone else. But your father the King acted with great integrity when he kept us out of war when our races met.
So long ago it seems now.
I see that you are truly his son. Follow your leads prince Draven, I trust you in this, but keep us informed, our patience isn't endless!"

Days and weeks passed.
Elyssandra had given up any hope of getting ships from the Dravens. And had begun packing to return to Kalzeron and Ilian. The plan that was meant to send a warning to the Argon and the CCCP was promising to wipe out the Terran fleet aswell. Try was to be rescued anyday now, he could be home in a couple of months. To have the family gathered again, it had been so long since that had Last happened.

The Indestructible had been repaired and the trip to Kalzeron was a short one now that the weyrlings had opened a wormhole directly between kalzeron and Acamar.
After boarding the Indestructible they left for the wormhole to Kalzeron. Try had been rescued and Elyssandra was feeling great. She was on top of the world.
Then it hit her, the Terrans and Nyrans where opening a warp point into Kalzeron.
They wouldn't have time to open a warp point to the Sledge and Hammer fleets and bring them home in time. And against what was coming they wouldn't have a chance anyway. The only solution was painstakingly obvious, she would never se Try again. Her son!

Elyssandra was in the Kalzeron system when the star destroyer went off. When she arrived at Kalzeron prime she received a message from what remained of the terran goverment. They surrendered unconditionally. The Nyrans had declared war and allied themselfs with the Argon confederacy and the CCCP.
From the new Terran subjects the Weyrlings learnt the reason for the war declarations from the Argon and CCCP.
After torturing Try the Terrans had gone to the empires surrounding the Weyrlings and the Central Powers alliance and showed recordings of Try explaining about the One and the collective. The Argons and the CCCP having seen changes in the Weyrlings suspected that it was something infecteous and wanted to either isolate or annihilate the Weyrlings before the "disease" spread to their empires.
The Nyrans had been planning a war a long time, primarily against the Dravens but when the Terrans asked them to join forces against the Weyrlings they had gladly accepted. Thinking of the hundreds of rich planets in the Weyrling empire.

The Weyrlings now controlled all Terran territory. The Weyrlings asked themselfs: for what? They joined the war for the alliance and won a vicory and a prize they never sought. What to do with it?

The One and the Weyrlings had thought on the matter and a decision was made.
The Weyrlings would abandon their new possesions, the Terran territory would be handed over to the Central powers alliance to handle. All outgoing warp points from the Weyrling Empire would be shut off, the one to Acamar would be saved to Last.
Inside the Weyrling empire a intricate net of warp points would be opened, the resulting gravitational disturbances would make it impossible for someone to open a warp point into the empire.
With new ringworlds and sphereworlds soon being finished and 34 worlds already with breathable atmosphere and 121 more worlds soon to have breathable atmosphere, as the atmospheric converters where staring to operate, the Weyrlings would have ample of space to expand within their own borders.
This was to be kept a secret until it was to late for anyone to intervene. For all systems to be shut out with the new warp point network operative would take less than three years.
Three years to arrange for a future in isolation.
Three years to keep this secret from becoming common knowledge, no one not a Weyrling would be allowed to know.
The expulsion of aliens from Weyrling territory would have to be handled with some finesse, but out they would go. Soon, there wouldn't be any aliens left inside the empire.
The Central powers alliance wouldn't be allowed to know that it was about to loose one of its members, not until it was too late to do anything about.

If the universe didn't want to have anything to do with the Weyrlings, the Weyrlings could do without the universe. They had already learnt all they needed to know from the aliens.

[ April 09, 2003, 21:18: Message edited by: Ruatha ]