Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread

[Ruatha]

Who ho, even shorter than yours CaptRR!

2407.2 Weyrling Empire:
-----------------------

Elyssandra sat in her chamber looking over the strategic map of the Weyrling territory.
So far the borders towards the Ghouls clan had been shut down. The new intra-empire warp-point network was starting to unfold, much was left to be done but everything was going as planned.
What was most disturbing was that the former ally of the Weyrlings, the Argon confederacy had started sending in small attack ships into Weyrling territory. Targetting unarmed freighters and asteroid miner ships.
Not a threat but a nuisance.
And the Central Powers alliance wasn't much to count on these days.
The Dravens had refused to declare war upon the Argons and the CCCP, claiming that there wasn't really any actual real war involving them and the Weyrlings, only diplomatic problems that the Weyrlings ought to resolve themselfs.
The Central Powers charter needed all three partners to agree if the alliance itself was to declare war upon another nation.
The Thermolians had said that they would support the Weyrlings if the alliance got involved in the war, but sofar the Weyrlings had never seen an actual Thermolian warship in action, they were to busy with their war against the Infernal Realm.
Elyssandra let out a deep breath, it seemed as if the only ones that really put up any effort to support the other members of the alliance was the Weyrlings.
Weyrlings had died when the Weyrlings had sent ships into the Thermolian-Infernal realms war. And the multitude of lifes that had been sacrificed to defend the Dravens from the Terrans was still an aching wound in the collective mind.
No Dravens or Thermolians had even been wounded in the defence of Weyrling space!
Elyssandra was more and more convinced of the righteusness in the isolation decision.

Thurya was expected home tomorrow. Elyssandra had tried to speak to her since Try's death. The death of her son had been a hard blow to both Elyssandra and Ilian, but Thurya seemed to be the one that was affected the most.
She wasn't alone in her opinion but surely the one that voiced it most loudly, she thought the isolation decision was an abomination.
Elyssandra belived it was a reaction to Try's death, but when she tried to raise that with Thurya she only got abuse back,
"You are petrified in your thoughts and you've dragged the One along with you!" was the Last thing Thurya had voiced to her before shutting Elyssandra out.
Life wasn't fun anymore, Elyssandra thought. She got up and headed for the bed, she seemed tired all the time now.
Ilian was at the lab experimenting with the One.
It took along time before sleep finally shut away her thoughts of her dead son.

Thurya was expected home tomorrow.
She didn't look forward to it.
She would surely have to meet Try's old emotionless old haggard to mother when she arrived.
Thurya was somewhat of a hero herself now, after all, she had been involved in some way in the bLast that ended the Terran war.
She wasn't sure of how to use this, but the one thing she was sure of was that this isolationist thought that was predominating Weyrling life at the moment had to be stopped.
Surely it must be obvious that the Weyrlings would again stagnate if they isolated themselfs.
Hadn't the one once chosen the long sleep so that the Weyrlings would go out into the universe and interact with others?
How did the collective belive that things had changed so radically to be able to ignore that fact?
Somehow, this had to be stopped!

[ April 16, 2003, 20:41: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[tbontob]

Hi Ruatha.

No, I haven't given up.

Just haven't had the time.

It is so bad, I haven't even read your stories yet.

Hopefully soon, I will be able to participate.

[CaptRR]

Chapter 24

Josha watched as Fifth fleet accelerated away from Acamar VII. It was a strange feeling, watching a fleet as large as this one leave without so much as a mention. Usually when large fleets left their home station families and friends would gather in the orbital stations to see them off. This time though, operational security had made that impossible. As far as the families of the Dravens manning the fleet knew they were just leaving on a standard training cruise within the system.

Josha took a breath, he had taken a shuttle up to one of the orbital shipyards to clear his mind. He figured that watching the ships speed off might give him some perspective. Instead it filled him with guilt. Guilt at sending the Prince on an almost impossible mission, against his own people, and guilt at the lives that would be lost in the months to come.

Still Josha smiled, he had no idea what would happen when that fleet showed up in the home system, but he was sure their was no one more competent to lead it than Prince Dravel. He was young, yes, but he had his father's flare, add to that his keen tactical sense, Josha was sure if victory could be found Dravel would find it.

Josha turned from the large windows overlooking the planet, and headed towards the hatch that would take him to his shuttle. He had a full schedule ahead of him. The Weyrlings were making some strange ship movements, nothing major. A shipyard gearing down here and there, and the occasional warp point closure. Those things in themselves were not alarming the Dravens themselves had begun to close unnecessary warp points themselves. The gearing down of shipyards however was strange, after all technically they were at war with the CCCP, and the Argon's weren't exactly being the most friendly to the Weyrlings right now either. Nothing overt had happen, but they had been harassing Weyrling freighters, and if Intelligence reports were correct the Argon Confederacy wasn't exactly acting as a single entity.

For years the CCCP and Argon intelligence corps had been running major operations against each other, but the CCCP with its vast resources had been much better at it than the Argons. The results were major uprisings all over the Argon Confederacy, ships missing, and leader's being assassinated. The Draven Intelligence Agency predicted that unless something major happened the Argons would begin to splinter very soon. Josha didn't exactly look forward to having an unstable empire right next to Draven Territory, but at this point he couldn't do anything about it.

Josha almost laughed, the Dravens weren't exactly the symbol of unity right now on the verge of a civil war. Somehow though Prince Dravel had to pull it off and win back the Repubic. Then and only then could they start to repair all the damage done by Yalare. It would be hard to win back the trust of the Weyrlings, if Josha were in their shoes he would have left the alliance a long time ago. The Weyrlings at least seemed to be leaving the alliance in place, even if they had began to regard it as a burocratic mess, and even stopped asking for assistance from the other members.

As Josha entered the landing bay, he saw his aid standing beside his personal shuttle. As the aid spotted Josha, he began to walk towards him. Once he was within a few meters he produced a pad and began to skim its contents while giving Josha a summarized Version.

"Sir, I got a message from SysComm."

Josha nodded, SysComm was short for System Communication Center. They handled all faster than light, and slower than light communications going in and out of the Acamar system. The center actually contained representatives from all member of the alliance, since Alliance HQ was in the system, but the Dravens primarily ran it.

"Are they going to be able to meet our requirements?" asked Josha.

His aide looked at the padd again, "more or less, they said they can block all Draven communications going out of the Acamar system, but since we don't control the Weyrling or Thermolian communication nets someone could route though their communication networks and bypass ours completely. It seems more likely that someone would use the Termolians though."

"Why's that?" Asked Josha.

"Well sir, for some reason the Weyrlings communication nets have been almost unused. About the only thing that goes over the lines is Messages from other races going to their homeworld, if someone tried to use their net it would stick out like a sore thumb. The Thermolians on the other hand have an almost saturated net, it would be much easier for someone to use their net without them knowing about it, it would simply get lost in the static."

"I see. Well it will have to do. All we have to do is stop Yalare's official orders from going to the Alliance HQ, as long as we can do that we can stop him from asking for help from the Alliance."

The aide looked at Josha thoughtfully, "You really think the Allinace would give him help after how many time he's repeatedly thrown them to the wolves?"

"I doubt the Weyrlings would, but the Thermolians haven't had to deal with Yalare too many times, they would just be abiding by the Allinace Charter."

"I see" said his aide as they walked to the shuttle, "But isn't the Alliance going to get a little suspicious when they lose all contact with most of the Draven Republic?"

Josha nodded, "they most certainly will, but thats the purpose of our meeting with the Speaker this afternoon."

"What are you going to tell him?"

Josha srugged, "The truth, that Yalare is a madman, and that the military has been forced to uphold its constitutional duty and stop him. Considering the speakers past dealings with Yalare I don't think he will complain too much. Mostly though I just want them to stay out of this, we don't need Yalare using the Weyrlings as a propaganda tool. If the Draven people thought that they were being invaded it would make the princes job harder."

Josha and his aid entered the shuttle and took their seats, as they did Josha looked out the window. Just outside the launch bay he could see the Last glimmer of Fifth fleet disappeared.

"Good luck Prince. Let the creator watch over you."

Chapter 25

Comrade General Speratii was not a happy man. Another of his ships was having trouble with its stealth generators. If Speratii could have shot the tech responsible for the generators he would have. As it was though all he could do was send the ship back for repairs. He couldn't take the chance of his force being spotted, not this deep in hostile territory.

Slowly he took a deep breath and let it out through his mouth, he used the moment to calm himself. It wouldn't do him a lot of good to scream at his subordinates no matter how much he wanted to.

"Comrade Colonel Lackcheck, that makes the third vessel we have had to send back this month. What is the problem?"

The young Comrade Colonel squirmed slightly, the man had danced around an explanation for the Last hour, attempting to bury his commander in so many details that he wouldn't see the overall trend. It was common trick for someone who didn't want to answer the question.

"Well uh..." squirm "Comrade General... uh... the Generators were never meant to run this long. When Stalin himself laid out the uh... requirements for the generators it was never mentioned that they be designed to run for so long without a break."

Speratii leaned back; satisfied that he had finally beaten the explanation out of the younger man. "So" he said slowly, "you are blaming Comrade Stalin for your failure."

The Colonel's face got white as a ghost, and he stuggled for words, "No Comrade General... I was just noting that it wasn't a requirement that is all."

"Any decent Fleet Maintenance officer would have planned for our long stay," observed Speratii, "If you failed to plan the only conclusion I can make is that you are incompetent, and should be sent back to home world in disgrace. With might I add a full copy of you actions in this room. I'm sure Comrade Stalin would be very interested in how it is his fault that you are unable to do your job."

Now the maintenance officer was on the verge of panic, "No Comrade General I didn't mean it that way, I was just..." He stammered for a moment trying to find any way he could do get himself out of the situation. "I just meant that..."

"Colonial," said the General cutting off the Lackcheck sharply, "I will make you a deal. I will not punish you for your incompetence this time, but so help me if another ship falls out of the fleet I will have you thrown out an air lock, and I'm sure your family would get a call from Internal Security. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes Comrade General," Said the Officer, still scared to death.

"Good, in that case get out of my office" Lackcheck obeyed instantly, and Speratii was left back to his maps. Speratii actually had no intention of throwing the man out the airlock, or turning in his family to Internal Security, but it made a great motivation tool, and right now he needed every member of his fleet operating at 100%. If he was spotted, the entire plan would go up in flames, and Speratii was sure that Stalin would not make the same idol threats that Speratii just did. He would simply carry them out, and hang his head up for all to see.

Comrade General Speratii went back to looking over the star charts. It showed the current traffic patterns, which were quite heavy, as usual in this system. In the center of the maps was the major population centers, and quite major they were. The entire system was among the most populated in the known universe, and the Industrial capacity of system was greater than any single in the CCCP. Slowly Speratii made some calculations, and estimated that he would have more than enough firepower to accomplish his goals. That is assuming the Intelligence people were doing their jobs. The Last thing that Speratii wanted to do was face the defensive fire from those planets, he doubted a strait battle with them would Last 10 minutes.

Yes if everything went as planned Speratii would accomplish the greatest strike in history of the CCCP. He looked down at the target area of his map, the fire patterns were perfect, his ships would have clear fire paths at the planet and her shipyards. Speratii smiled as he read the name of the planet "Kornephoros X".

The Dravens were in for quite a surprise.

[mlmbd]

CaptRR, you did yourself proud. I imagine the twist came from the beginning of the unseen, from Ruatha isolationism. Whether or did or not. The chapters 22 and 23 were great! Now 24 is awesome!

The Dravens were in for quite a surprise.

So are the rest of us, I imagine!

Ruatha, very nice, Sir! I think there is something going on here! Not sure just what. But I do get the feeling there is, something yet undone. Might be wrong!

mlmbd

[Ruatha]

Phew!!
Reading that I was afraid that the CCCP had infiltrated my home system!!!
What a relief that they where somewhere else

[CaptRR]

Originally posted by Ruatha:
Phew!!
Reading that I was afraid that the CCCP had infiltrated my home system!!!
What a relief that they where somewhere else

Ya but they are in the Draven home system! As if the Draven Republic doesn't have enouph problems.

[Ruatha]

CaptRR, please go ahead and write, you don't have to wait for me. I'm lacking direction here now.
Will have to wait for my musa to wake up!