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Old November 6th, 2004, 01:23 AM
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Default Re: A new Game story (From the begining)

2405.8
HMS Victory and her squadron mate Tiger had finally managed to close the distance with the remaining Rebel starships, both sides vessels were pummeled to the point that they were barely combat capable and the four ships closed on one another like wounded animals.
“Sir Tiger reports she is in missile range, she is requesting permission to fire.” Rourke’s voice was quiet almost to the point of a whisper as he addressed his captain, he was still terrified of Park after he had snapped at the younger officer for what was probably just a precautionary action.
“Thank you Rourke, tell captain Anders she has permission to fire on the destroyer, we are going for the frigate since she’s closer.” Park said gently as he watched the distances close ever so slowly.

The crippled enemy destroyer did the unexpected as it turned about and began to withdraw from the field, the frigate however began closing, it’s two cannons searching for a target to kill. As she bore down on the larger Victory she fired both of her cannons and a single shell slammed headlong into the destroyer’s engineering section, reducing her to only one engine.
The frigate’s lucky shot did little good for it’s own life however, as Victory fired her own surviving cannons the shattered hull of the frigate stood no chance at sustaining such impacts and a brilliant flash signaled the end of the frigate and her crew.
As the missile volley from Tiger burned out and went ballistic far short of her mark and the destroyer continued to flee and was already too far out for the battered and maimed Icaran warships to follow and Park gave the order to let it go, knowing he would risk even more damage or even destruction if he pursued her further.
Icara’s Navy had scored an unbelievable victory, they had killed a light cruiser, 3 destroyers and a frigate with well over 3,000 Rebs perishing, but that victory had cost them dearly, out of 800 Icaran spacers involved in the battle 500 had died and another 100 were wounded, both destroyers too had been put out of action and it would take them months to reach the colony which had been set up during the very hours of their opening shots with the Alliance task force.
Captain Park did show Icara’s mercy however when he dispatched his search and rescue teams to pick up whatever alliance survivors they could without risking the survival of any Icaran navy personnel, however only three life pods had made it away from the wrecked alliance task force and with them only 12 Alliance survivors.

“Ms. Adair wake up……can you hear me? Liza can you hear me?” a voice unfamiliar to the young woman called out to her from the darkness and she shook her head gently, trying to arrange her senses as best she could. “Miss Adair wake up now!” the voice called out stronger and she tried to open her eyes but found that only her right would cooperate.
“I am Captain Dylan Park of the HMS Victory your in our sickbay I need you to wake up and talk to me.” His voice was kind and gentle but Adair was shocked and terrified as the realization hit, if she was on an Icaran warship that meant her squadron had been forced back or destroyed….a tear came out of her only working eye as she remembered the horrible look on Magill’s face when he first saw her injuries and she wondered just how horrible she did look.
“It’s alright Miss Adair, we are not going to harm you, however it is my duty to inform you that you are a prisoner of His Majesty Praetor Leonidas’ Royal Navy.” the voice was still kind and gentle but to Adair it may as well have been the devil speaking to her.
“Where is Admiral Magill?” she managed to squeak out through a badly bruised mouth as she slowly opened her eye, seeing a rather hansom young looking man standing over her, wearing the dark red tunic of the IRN officers.
“Miss Adair I’m afraid he didn’t make it, he died of his injuries shortly before our search and rescue people pulled you aboard, our medical team tried to save him but I’m afraid there was nothing they could do.” His apology sounded sincere but somehow Liza doubted he meant it, after all it was Magill who’s squadron destroyed the Goin colony and killed millions of Icaran citizens.
“I need to ask you a few questions miss Adair.” Park asked quietly and Adair settled herself in as best she could to not answer any questions that may reveal any of the few state secrets that she knew.

The questioning went on for hours before Adair was allowed to rest for the day, the next day the questions went on again, and the day after that and again after that for weeks, all the while her healing process went on and even she could not deny that the Icaran medical staff treated her with as much care as any of their own who had been injured during the battle, though she also noted that no one would let her see a mirror.

In the Fornax system a new messenger drone raced towards the warp point to brink back glorious news, that the second Phong base in the Fornax system had finally been eradicated by Brevet Commadore Ross and his Flag Captain Sandra Fowler. A new colony ship had already been launched from Handra base and was en-route to the ruined remains of the second base.

2406.3
Two Messenger drones arrived in the Icara system, one from either end of the Icaran Empire (such as it is) and both bore good news for all Icarans, the Neo-Star Empire who had been threatening the 6-11 and Awer systems had signed a peace treaty with Ambassador Franks informing him that they sought the better unity and peace of all human Star nations.
From the other end of the empire Handra sent a messenger drone to inform Praetor Leonidas that due to their massive losses in Fornax the Phong had requested an “equitable” trade and research alliance that would benefit Icara’s economy and allow the Phong government to save face in front of their people.

2406.4
In a horrible act of treachery the Neo-Star empire dispatched two squadrons of light cruisers, one into Awer and the other into 6-11 their orders were deadly and simple and they carried them out with a ferocity unmatched in the Icaran history books.
Awer colony, population 300 million was destroyed outright by 6 Neo-Star light cruisers, the colony’s plea of surrender was ignored even as the bombardment began and the colonists were still issuing their surrender.
6-11 met it’s death more defiantly but it met it’s death all the same, 5 light cruisers had destroyed the colony and all 120 million Icarans in residence died,
With no survivors from either world reports that came back were little more then rumors and speculation, the only confirmed information throughout the empire was that indeed both colonies had been destroyed by the ferocious Neo-Star fleet.

2406.5
A month after the destruction of 6-11 base HMS Warhawk and the new HMS Claw closed in on the single Neo-Star light cruiser that was patrolling the inner system.
“Captain Davidson, this is Captain Paris, we know that these bastards can chew us up if we get close, keep Claw at missile range only, I don’t want any more Icarans dying at the hands of that cruiser, understood?” Davidson’s grim face on the com panel nodded as he passed on the orders to his crew, both men knew all to well what had happened to Bounty and the first Claw at the hands of those devastating energy weapons and neither man wanted to give that cruiser the chance to do it again.
As the two destroyers closed in on the massive light cruiser they each fired off their missiles in rapid succession and within moments six missiles streaked across space towards the enemy warship, but as the Light cruiser’s point defense cannons came to life and thousands of shells sprayed the stars only a single missile died, the other five screaming on un-phased.
“Missiles closing Sir.” the tense voice of Gunnery officer Keon was hardly audible to Davidson as his eyes fixed on the holotank display as it showed 5 little yellow dots closing in on the red light code that represented the neo-star light cruiser.
Seconds later a brilliant flash lit the holotank as all five missiles reamed the hull of the enemy light cruiser, tearing out massive gouges of the hull, completely crippling her.
No mercy showed in the eyes of Davidson as he ordered his ship in for the kill, as his cannons tore the enemy ship apart Davidson felt nothing but joy at the deaths of those bastards who had destroyed two colonies and killed half a billion Icaran civilians for no reason and all that after signing the damned treaties!

2406.6-9
The Neo-Star Empire claimed it’s attacks on Awer and 6-11 colonies was justified as being a self preserving measure, and claimed that the governors of both worlds had been secretly planning an assault into Neo-Star space. After the loss of their light cruiser on patrol in 6-11 and the establishment of Mandow base on the former colony world in the same system the Neo-Star Empire realized they had been outmaneuvered by the Icarans and it this reason alone that most of the Icaran Lords believed the Neo-Star Empire resigned the peace treaty. However this time 6-11 would not be caught off guard and Warhawk squadron was formed with Warhawk and Claw as the first of four planned ships to be on station.

Liza Adair frowned openly as she watched the battered wreck of the sole surviving Alliance warship withdrawing back into alliance space, only a third of it’s crew still alive and throughout the system the colonials felt nothing but relief as both of the Icaran Warships present were still in port undergoing extensive repairs and re-manning.

2407.1-9
The battles against the Neo-Star Empire and Rebel Alliance had actually brought some good to the Icaran navy beyond battle experience.
University of Sparta had developed a new weapon that used phased polarons in concentrated beams to do devastating damage at medium range.
An odd result of the phased polaron research actually led to the development of the first shield generators which used the EMW power source that had been used on the original PPB prototypes to generate an energy barrier around a starship and protect the hull from direct damage.
Another breakthrough in the Icaran Bureau of ships R&D department led BuShips to believe they could design and build a larger warship based on the ones they had seen in both the Alliance and Neo-Star navies, the light cruiser and plans were underway immediately for the budgeting of projects to expound on that hull design and make an even larger warship with which Icara could ensure her naval dominance.
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Old January 4th, 2006, 07:33 PM
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Default Re: A new Game story (From the begining)

2445.0 Returning Home:
“It’s good to finally be getting back to Icaran space.” Star Admiral William Ross said with a smile as his fleet emerged from the Wa’Tor warp point into Norvor, the home system of the Icaran Empire. Commodore Rukai Fujita smiled at her Admiral’s cheerful tone as she looked up from a report.
“What you really mean sir; is it’s good to be where Lin is after so long.” She made sure her voice was just loud enough for only Ross to hear it and she smiled again when he turned his nose up at her playfully.
“Why Commodore you shouldn’t be so rude to your elders, we are a little sensitive in our dotage you know.” William kept his face appropriately grim as he spoke, which only caused Rukia’s grin to grow broader.
“With all due respect Admiral but dotage my ***, your only sixty-two, that’s not even middle aged.” William chuckled at her overly respectful tone and turned back to face the video display that showed the tactical display of Norvor.

One of the first things William noticed as he looked at the display is how much Norvor had changed in the seven years he’d been there, the system’s total population had gone from around twenty-two billion to an almost unbelievable eighty-six billion as colonists from all over the Empire flocked to the New Icara sphereworld to bolster the population, he also noticed sixteen shipyards in orbit of the worlds of Norvor with signs that more were under construction.
“Lord, it’s hard to believe this much industrialization could have happened in only seven years.” Ross tone was suddenly much more serious and for the first time Rukia could remember it was full of awe.
“Well the Praetor ordered more shipyards built so that we could produce enough ships to fight this war properly, and planetary yards take too long to build capital ships because they have to worry about boosting all of the segments into orbit and then having orbital construction teams assemble the pieces, the government decided it’s cheaper and faster to just boost the raw materials into orbit and work on assembling the entire ship in an orbital yard, and that’s nothing once New Icara’s built up she’s going to have five orbital yards.” She walked over to stand beside William who just nodded, an expression of awe still on his face.
“Admiral Icara orbital is ordering us to proceed at maximum safe thrust to New Icara orbit; all ground assault elements are to proceed to Cadia orbit.” Captain Jones said from the com section as he ran through the final checks a ship underwent before proceeding to “anchor” as it were.
“Very well, helm lay in a course for New Icara orbit order all ground assault elements to proceed to Cadia; best thrust.” William kept his voice professional even as his own excitement was growing to finally be home; And Rukia was right; I’m looking forward to seeing Lin. he didn’t quite let the smile reach his face but when he turned and saw the twinkle in Rukia’s eye he playfully shot her a glare before looking back at his displays.
“ETA New Icaran orbit?” Rukia turned back to her station as she watched the main plot.
“ETA three hours New Icara orbit ma’am.” The helmsman responded in the professionally bland monotone most naval crewmen reserved for battle and Rukia kept the grin off her face only through a profound act of willpower.

Three hours later and the first fleet was finally in visual range of the huge artificial construct that was the size of a star, actually bigger then a star Ross corrected himself as he remembered that New Icara had been built around the Norvor star as soon as the other planets in the Norvor system had been outfitted with the latest in “artificial star” technology.
And God and some geeks in lab coats only knew how that bit of technology worked William thought with a wry mental smile, I wonder if God wears a lab coat….. his train of thought was cut off the second the main display faded from tactical overlays to real time images of the sphereworld.
“Holy mother.” William croaked out as he saw the clouds of super dreadnoughts around several small moon sized warships, all of which were around the massive Sphereworld in the largest concentration of metal he had ever seen.
“Sir I’m getting message traffic from, second, third, fifth, sixth, seventh, and home fleets all salute, and bid welcome to first fleet and Star Admiral William Ross.” The com tech sounded as awestruck as everyone else on the bridge felt at seeing so many ships in one place.
“Thank you com; pass on my compliments to all fleets.” William’s voice was quiet as he stared at the fleet that could only be home fleet as it had two battle moons and the only Five Swords class ships currently assigned to fleets.
‘My Lord I am reading four more battle moons in system, and a beacon belonging to eight fleet who appears to still be mobilizing and twelve more flag monitors!” Rukia shook her head as she looked at the sensor readouts she had patched into from various sources in the Norvor system.
“Sir Com from New Icara fleet HQ, message reads; Admiral Ross and Commodore Rukia to report to HQ immediately upon arrival.” William nodded at Rukia at the com tech’s report.
“Captain Jones you have the bridge, com tell flight bay to prepare a cutter for immediate launch.” With that William and Rukia headed for the lift William couldn’t help but wonder how Lin was doing or how the review went and had to deliberately keep his pace slow and casual as he walked beside Rukia.

A few minutes later and Ross was staring out of a portside window of his cutter, still awestruck by the sheer number of capital ships assembled in one place, not to mention the swarms of cutters, skiffs and supply craft buzzing about the fleets as they carried out a myriad of tasks required to prepare any fleet for war.
William and Rukia’s cutter, as well as their escort cutter however were headed for the sphereworld its self and the massive fleet HQ which had been built there a year before in order to rally the navy for the upcoming operations against the UMK. Although he had seen the vid chips of the construction William was still taken aback that humans could ever build something as massive as the sphereworld that was steadily growing in the view ports.

The bulky cutter gracefully flew over New Phoenix city on its way to the military spaceport and Ross noticed that New Phoenix was a sprawling metropolis, bigger even then Icara city back on homeworld. He turned to Rukia who had been here before and jutted his thumb in the direction of the small viewport.
“How many people live in that city?” he turned gaze back to the view for a second and noticed a huge mustering field outside of the city limits.
“Currently there are about sixty-five million people in New Phoenix, though with so many warships in orbit we have a lot of navy and marine personnel down here on leave so it’s probably closer to sixty-eight million.” Rukia grinned at Ross’ expression and decided not to mention that New Phoenix was smaller then Ionia back on the New Sparta sphereworld which had roughly eighty two million people living there at any given time.
Rukia had come to know William better then most of his subordinates had, and she decided that he liked it that way, after Sandra Fowler was killed William had stayed pretty aloof from the rest of his officers; howver over a year of her hard work later Rukia was proud to note that her Admiral had finally started to open up a little more, of course he was a full Star Admiral and wouldn’t likely spend any time down in the Middie birth or Lieutenant’s country but he had finally opened up a little with the senior officers. Rukia smirked at that thought, there were five full captains and 22 Commanders and “baby Commanders” on board the massive battlemoon that had become the flagship of first fleet and William had only started talking on a casual basis with two of the Captains and five of the Commanders. But it was better then nothing she decided and gave a little mental shrug and went back to reading the status reports for the Holy Crusade.

Alexander Hallice naval base and starport sprawled out before the two hundred ton naval cutter like an ocean of lights, the base its self was a city covering a two thousand square kilometer radius, with dozens of landing pads, kilometers upon kilometers of roads, and hundreds of buildings containing barracks and myriad other facilities which had purposes to myriad to think about.
William never pretended to understand the science behind artificial star technology, planetary grav generators or the technology that went into creating a full scale atmosphere for a “planet” bigger then a star; but as he looked at the sprawling military base in front of him he felt even more baffled by the sheer effort and scale of the sphereworld his cutter was now flying over. As he stared out at the wonders in front of him Ross remembered back only some forty years when the “Empire” was a single world with a “navy” smaller then a modern division, made up of ships that were smaller then a single Super Dreadnought’s primary gun turrets and he thought with some pride of how far humans could come in such a short period of time. Ross swiveled the cutters’ camera up to the sky and saw the battlemoons that were the pinnacle of starship design, each one was rated by navy standards as a 15 megaton craft which referred only to the weight in weapons, engines and primary equipment, the actual “weight” in metal of a battlemoon was in the billions of tons just like the super dreadnought actually weighed over one hundred and sixty million tons when fully loaded. But all that paled in comparison to this absolute marvel of modern construction which weighed more then a sun. A construct that had entire cities and military bases built onto its surface, not to mention hundreds of factories and industrial molecular sequencer facilities.

Suddenly Ross’ thoughts all came to a screaming halt as he saw the landing pad growing as his cutter came in. There was a small party of people already visible from the cutter’s window and against his will Ross felt a swelling of fear that Lin would not be among that party, for news had still not reached him on the result of her Naval review.

Chapter Two:

As the cutter’s hatch opened and a ramp slid silently to the landing pad’s battle steel surface a flute shrilled the traditional notes that greeted all high flag officers upon arrival.
Ross calmly walked down the ramp, flanked on either side by his two marine guards, as he reached the bottom of the ramp a small barrel chested man in a civil service uniform stepped forward and reached out his hand excitedly.
“Admiral Ross welcome to New Icara I’m Aaron Kreel; and might I say we are all pleased to meet a legend like you….yes very excited sir.” The man’s voice was surprisingly deep and sounded almost inappropriate considering the unseemly display of hero worship this Aaron had just spouted.

Ross forced a smile and shook the man’s hand; but he was glad when a woman wearing the uniform of a full Star Admiral stepped forward and gently nudged the overexcited Kreel out of the way.
Ross looked at the woman’s severe and unattractive face for several seconds before recognition finally dawned on him and his smile turned genuine and his hand came up in salute “Admiral Lady Selene how are you?”
She returned his smile and brought snapped up her own salute “I’m well Lord Ross, and from the looks of things in orbit we are all about to become very busy.” The closing part of her sentence was ominous and Ross felt the hair on the back of his neck rise; however he was not given a chance to dwell on these thoughts for too long as he quickly went about greeting the other members of the party that had met him at the landing pad; most of whom where Admirals, and Civil service leaders.

*******
An hour after the meeting at the landing pad Ross was in a ground car heading for the new Admiralty that Grand Admiral Bright had set up when she transferred naval command from homeworld to the sphereworld New Icara.

Lady Selene sat across from Ross and after a rather forced bit of small talk Ross swallowed his nerves and asked the questions that had been haunting his mind ever since he had returned to Norvor.
“Selene, what’s going on in the Empire these days, I’ve heard lots of rumors but being out on the frontier for five years doesn’t exactly help with information flow.” He frowned and leaned back into his seat as Selene folded her hands and frowned thoughtfully.
“Well William we’ve got some problems in the frontier, whole worlds are breaking out in riots all along the fringe and demanding independence and quite frankly the FSD is still trying to pull their pants back up after the SS got bootstamped by the Praetor; so we’re having problems suppressing these damned newly conquered worlds.”
Ross had heard of only some small local rioting in the frontiers and felt sick for a moment as he realized the entire frontier was being torn apart by some damned rebels who couldn’t see the benefits of being Icaran worlds…..worlds he and his soldiers had fought for; that so many young men and women had died for.
“There’s also some bad news in the military, you know Admiral White?” Selene’s voice dropped to a whisper and Ross sat up straighter and leaned a little forward.
“Not well, I only met her once in passing.”
“Well she led the 5th fleet against some frontier worlds that had rebelled, anyway she lost two warships and about 15,000 of her people trying to take one of the worlds…..so she bombed it to hell and killed everyone.” Her voice held a note of disgust that Ross had never heard in her before and his own shock and nausea seemed to grow.
“My God how many people did she kill?”
Selene winced as his voice raised higher then he meant it too and she shrugged “I don’t know, some say a few thousand but most think that she destroyed a colony of about thirty-million men, women and children…..either way she earned her fleet the nickname “Death’s Hand” which as you can imagine is a big morale killer with them.” Selene’s face grew dark for a moment as the anger of an Icaran Admiral doing something that horrible to innocent people!
“What has the Admiralty done about this mess?” William clenched his hands and stared blankly at the woman sitting across from him. Just a few hours earlier he had been marveling at the advances the Empire had made, and now this….it felt like the whole universe was caving in around him.

“Well….she was brought to trial last week and executed last night, not that this is about to become public knowledge mind you, as far as the public will be concerned she died in a cutter accident.” The woman’s severe face looked even harder as a scowl crossed her lips.

“That’s it? So what is the official word on what happened to that world?”
Selene’s scowl turned into a grim smirk as she looked out of the groundcar window “Well William with nothing but five mile deep craters covered in fused glass there isn’t exactly a lot of evidence that we have to worry about leaking to the public.”

William leaned back again and sighed, what White had done was wrong, but he told himself that at least the Empire would have a hope of bringing stability back far easier without this information spreading throughout the galaxy.

“How is Lin?” the words came out hoarse and Ross felt a split second of embarrassment.
“Her review was completed just before the so called “Death’s Hand” incident; fortunately the Navy didn’t feel there was anything she could have done otherwise, and actually decided to transfer her to the 7th line fleet instead of Home Fleet.” She paused and looked intently at the massive building that was coming into view.

“Anyway we’re at the New Admiralty so I’m sure you’ll get the rest of the information you want in the briefing tomorrow morning…..uh in the meantime I’m sure you and Lin will have to *ahem* catch up with one another.” Her grin turned wicked and as the car came to a halt she quickly opened the door and slipped out.
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When life gives you lemons take them and squeeze them in life's eye until it gives you the oranges you asked for!

"If men build things to look like our penis such as towers and ships does that mean female achitects represent women having penis envy?"
A line that made me chuckle, I can't remember where I heard it I just know it made me laugh.

"I'm not really a slapper....I mainly punch and gouge."
Tammy Lee my kung fu instructor/sifu's daughter when asked if she ever slapped a boy for saying something nasty to her.
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Old January 6th, 2006, 12:08 PM
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Default Re: A new Game story (From the begining)

Hmmm newness of much lenght. There was me thinking it was dead. Something chimes wrong with me though.
*** Search the archive ***
Oh here it is

"Throughout the Empire the victory was portrayed as a heroic act of revenge for those lives lost during the attack on the 4th fleet, what the average citizen did not know was that the destruction of the colony was not because of enemy numbers, nor because of armed weapons platforms but simply because one Admiral had chosen to pass down an order out of her own personal anger for the tens of thousands of lives lost."

Either people knew or they didn't. Continuity is a good thing.
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Old January 6th, 2006, 01:58 PM
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Default Re: A new Game story (From the begining)

They knew about the so called victory not about HOW MANY died or how I probobly shoulda phrased that better.

And heck if you read Selene's statement you know that even the MILITARY doesn't fully know how many died considering she thinks only 30 million died (that's 100 million short).
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When life gives you lemons take them and squeeze them in life's eye until it gives you the oranges you asked for!

"If men build things to look like our penis such as towers and ships does that mean female achitects represent women having penis envy?"
A line that made me chuckle, I can't remember where I heard it I just know it made me laugh.

"I'm not really a slapper....I mainly punch and gouge."
Tammy Lee my kung fu instructor/sifu's daughter when asked if she ever slapped a boy for saying something nasty to her.
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Old January 9th, 2006, 07:49 PM
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Default Re: A new Game story (From the begining)

It's good to see that Starhawk is continuing with this story despite his other distractions. In this latest episode, I like the emphasis on the sheer scale of Icaran achievement, and the foreshadowing of a titanic conflict in the near future.

A few nitpicks:

Admirals usually don't take over a ship's bridge and give orders directly to the helm. They issue general instructions to their captains and let them give the detailed orders to carry out their assignments. Of course Admiral Ross may have taken direct control just for the fun of running a ship again.

"Two thousand square kilometers" isn't a radius, it's an area. A circle with an area of 2000 km^2 has a radius of just over 25 km.

Our sun contains about 99.85% of all the mass in our solar system. To build a sphereworld with the mass of our sun, the builders would have to import the mass of about a thousand Jupiter-sized worlds. Not to worry, though. Freeman Dyson estimated that a sphere 3 m thick could be built around our sun at a distance of 1 AU using all the mass of the planets and other "debris", or several cm thick using only elements with atomic number greater than 2.

When I looked up Dyson spheres I was surprised to learn that Dyson's original vision wasn't for a solid shell, but rather for orbiting stations in such numbers that they intercepted all of the local sun's output. Although SE IV uses the term "sphereworld", authors can interpret that concept in various ways to suit their stories.

References:

http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/dysonFAQ.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere
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Old January 16th, 2006, 07:20 PM
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Default Re: A new Game story (From the begining)

Blimey you do indeed learn something every day, although I do struggle to think of a time I will need to know about Dyson Spheres in everyday conversation.

Anyway to topic: Mr Starhawk will we be seeing more of this soon or is another several month break in the offing?
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Old March 2nd, 2006, 06:46 PM
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Default Re: A new Game story (From the begining)

Hi all bet you thought this was dead eh Well suprise!

Okay this following chapter is a two parter (I am still working on part two) but here is Part One, sorry it took me so long to write this but this chapter and the one that follows it had a big emotional effect on me for personal reasons and though I enjoyed "writing" it I found some of the imagery hard to describe without being TOO graphic.

I will warn you all right now the Icaran universe is going to becoming darker and more gritty as the chapters go on, this is not to "gothify" it but is to show that no matter how staunch and devout a culture is that it is impossible for decades of war and billions of deaths to pass without effecting a nation (or in this case galaxy) at it's very core.

I've edited and re-edited the following segment so I hope you all like it.


Warning the following two chapters are RATED R for:
Nudity
Rape
Intense descriptions of gore and mutilation
Adult Language
Adult Conent

Please do not read further if any of these offend or scare you.


Alone in the Dark
Be near me when my light is low... And all the wheels of being slow.
Alfred Lord Tennyson


His Majesty’s Light Cruiser LC 303 formerly known as HMS Repulse before a modern Super Dreadnought took her name, was an old ship the last of the old Retribution class light cruisers that had not been turned into a museum or scrapped.. In fact even after her retrofit with modern weaponry 303 wouldn’t even scratch a modern warship if she fired all of her guns at the same time….and so she was assigned one of the most boring jobs in the Royal navy….patrolling the inner “frontier” systems while her crew (which was mostly inexperienced recruits or washouts that couldn’t cut it on an SD) ran the standard anti-smuggler and anti-piracy duties that were normally assigned to the new Federal Space Security Division.

Commander John Dexter, her current CO thought of it as a disgrace for spacers in the Royal Navy to be babysitting the inner frontiers while the real warships and their crews fought for the very survival of the Empire. But he was an officer in his Majesty’s navy and though he was young for his rank (only twenty-two standard years) he was an exceptional officer who ran his ship and his crew as if he were on the most important mission in the entire Empire.
It had been two months since 303 which Dexter and the crew had unofficially named “Forlorn” had left Neurenburg naval base on Dexter’s second cruise in command; and so far it had been the standard run of the mill boredom as the old warhorse which had once served on the fighting lines of battle fleets did her bit for Praetor and Country.

Tellus 1st:

Commander Dexter sat in the small command center of Forlorn sipping a cup of naval coffee, slowly chewing the jelled mix that had started to form as the “coffee” cooled….though the rest of the crew thought he was nuts John genuinely liked the taste of the jell better then the coffee it’s self so he’d heat up a big mug and let it cool after a few hours and chew the little chunks of mix as they formed and floated in the remaining water, it was part of his daily routine and after a few months even his bridge crew got used to it. But today he had honestly forgotten all about his coffee as he read reports that his section leaders had turned in earlier that morning.
“You look worried sir?” Lieutenant Commander Harriman’s voice surprised Dexter who swallowed a chunk of jelled coffee hard as he almost tossed the flexi pad with the reports on it across the bridge.
“Damn it Alex I told you to stop doing that….one of these days you’ll give me a heart attack.” Dexter glared even as the impish grin he rarely shared with anyone but friends came involuntarily across his lips.
“Well skipper if ye’ e’er do have a heart attack I’ll be sure to call a medical team for ye’……o’ c’urse that’d be after I assumed command o’ this old rust bucket.” Harriman said returning his Captain’s grin.
Harriman was nearly three time’s Dexter’s age and had joined the navy back when ships like the Forlorn had still been the queens of space; and though he was a gruff fowl mouthed old spacer that could make most snot noses cringe in fear without even raising his voice; Harriman was a good officer and had taken an almost instant liking to his new Commander; especially since like Harriman himself Dexter had risen from the ranks of the enlisted to become an Officer.
“Hell if I’d leave an vacuum eater like you in command Alex you’d probably end up blowing up a planet or something….and how would that make me look?” Dexter said as he placed the flexi aside with an exaggerated gesture.
“Aye, with my damned lot o’ luck I’d probably do just that sir’ but seriously ye’ do look a mite bothered and befuddled skip….if ye’ don’ mind me sayin’ so o’ course.” Harriman’s drawling voice had turned more serious as his commander’s grin faded into a grimace.
“I don’t mind you saying so Lieutenant Commander, these reports are depressing…..this ship was once a ship of the line! A warship in his Majesty’s service with the best crew and equipment, but now……” he shrugged and looked to the “sky”.
“Ah so that’s it is it sir? Well most of this crew is green, and granted ol’ Forlorn is not what she used to be but this old warhorse has some fight in her still, and she’ll surprise ye if she gets the chance.” Harriman patted the arm of his chair as if he were petting a beloved old hunting dog and Dexter couldn’t help but feel a little guilty that he could never really bring himself to thinking of Forlorn as anything but an old scrap heap that didn’t deserve the title of “warship” in this day and age but he knew Harriman had served on her not only during the Phong Wars where she survived the disaster that had been the third battle of Fornax but he had served on her ever since staying with all nineteen of her captains until they got promoted and moved onto the “modern navy”.

“Well to tell the truth I’m less worried about the ship then it’s new crew….most of these kids are just out of boot, and OCS and it’s starting to show in our performance…..we’d barely make muster if we were a line ship.” John sighed as he looked at the face of his chief weapons officer who was in fact a seventeen year old girl that had just come out of OCS with the rank of Ensign on her first cruise.
“Aye they’re kids….and they’re green but if you give me another few weeks I’ll kick their green arses all over the decks and leave each of ‘em with a boot stamp the size of a dreadnought until they shape up….or by god I’ll space the lot of ‘em” Harriman’s drawl had gone harsh as he eyed the bridge crew and made sure his voice carried enough for all of them to hear him.
And it was all Dexter could do to keep from smirking when the lovely young ensign at weaps blushed so red he thought she was about to explode.
“Well Sailing Master I think on that note I’m going to go to my quarters….such as they are. And get something to eat…..you have the Com.”
“Aye Sir I ‘ave the com, see ye’ in a few hours.” Harriman said with a mischievous wink that told his Commander to expect some drills over the next few hours that would probably make the crew wish they had gone into battle instead.

Tellus 2nd:
The attack had been a total surprise and had come in the middle of the night, a single pirate ship that was roughly the size of a Federal security Peacekeeper class starship had just appeared out of an asteroid belt and jumped the Forlorn engaging in a brief energy duel before deploying grapnels and boarding the small Icaran warship.

“Marine’s report to deck six I repeat report to deck six, we are being boarded….damage control parties to…..uh….decks five and three.” Ensign Caldwell said nervously as his eyes raced over the incoming reports from his section.
“Gou Shi! Caldwell what section do you want us at down here we don’t see the boarders!” The marine sergeant’s voice barked back.
“Ta ma de! They’re on deck five marines…..fire control get to deck six now.” Caldwell panicked as he tried to organize just what was going on, and was in the middle of panicking when the fire control party on deck five comned the bridge.
“Damn it command this is DC team seven we are under fire and ….” Automatic weapons fire cut off the end of the sentence and Caldwell’s face turned white as he realized what his mistake had done.

“Thank ye’ mister Caldwell yer damn fool SCREW UP just cost me eight member’s of my crew.” Harriman’s voice cut across the bridge like a cold wind silencing the chaos almost instantly as the weight of that simple statement sank in.
“Commander Sir, Reactor one is going critical engineering is trying to lock it down but they don’t think they can.” Ensign Paris said coolly as she looked up from her bridge readouts of the engineering deck.
Harriman turned to face her, his eyes hard enough to stare death himself down “Ensign ye’ know there’s only one thing ta’ be done….so just do it a’ready.” his voice was quiet and cool, unlike it had been only seconds before and the young woman stared back at him frozen for a second as her mind raced.
“Commander there are fifteen engineers in reactor room one if we eject it we kill all of them.” She stared for a moment and when Harriman did not respond she nodded and pressed a series of commands “Reactor one has been jettisoned reactor room has been vented….there is no longer a danger of breach sir.”
“Very well Ensign.” Harriman said simply as he monitored the situation from his command interface calmly even as dozens of voices shouted over the comns, including a dying message from marine fire team three which by the sound of things had just been wiped out.
“Commander! A group of boarders has breached into reactor two….marine fire teams Delta and Vega are engaged.” Caldwell’s voice was over excited for an Icaran Naval officer but at just this moment Harriman did not care because if a group of boarders got to the only remaining reactor and shut it down then Forlorn would lose all of her power and be helpless.
“Got that Ji Nv!” Fire Control officer Ensign Blake shouted as her guns finally struck the raider’s hull instead of its shields; as large debris and atmosphere poured from the open wound another I-Las shot struck the enemy ship tearing off it’ entire portside arsenal as the beam raked it.
“One more hit and she’s mine sir.” Blake said hungrily as she fed target data to the gun crews….just then the entire bridge sank into darkness and a low hum sounded the loss of all power.
After a few seconds of silence the lights came back up and all power was restored, the damage control board went green and all comns went quiet.

“Well great ladies and gentlemen we’re dead….or at least we would be when those pirates decided to send over more boarding parties.” Commander Dexter said as he stepped back onto the bridge; he had been declared a casualty in the opening exchange and had stepped off the bridge to monitor the simulation from the Damage control room instead and his mood had only gotten darker as the simulation went on.
“All department heads are to report to the briefing room in one hour, in the meantime Sailing Master Harriman I would like to speak with you in private.” When Harriman nodded Dexter simply nodded back and turned around, leaving the bridge in silence.

An hour later and the small briefing room was crowded with the various department heads, Ensign Blake, Fire Control; Ensign Caldwell Damage Control; Lieutenant Geer Marines, Lieutenant Elizabeth McClain Navigation, Ensign Walker Astrogation and Ensign Paris Engineering.

“Alright ladies and gentlemen let’s get right down to business, Harriman here will give each of you a review of your departments and their performance during our latest simulation.” Dexter gestured to Harriman who stood up and cleared his throat.

“First off ye’ were all caught with yer pants down and that lad’s and lassies is just plain unforgivable during a deep range patrol, Gawd forbid those’d been real pirates out there tonight instead of a simulation.” Harriman eyed each of the young department heads fiercely letting each word sink into their heads before continuing “My lord Caldwell led EIGHT crewmen into an ambush by pirate boarders because he got his bloody deck layout confused, not only that but he neglected to inform TWO marine fire teams of boarders in their sections leading to those teams being wiped out as well.”
Caldwell went ghost white as the other department heads looked at him, Lieutenant in particular was glaring at him because Geer had been in one of those two fire teams that got ambushed and wiped out.
“I’m sorry sir, I don’t know what happened.” Caldwell managed to choke out even as he nervously played with the buckle on his belt, slowly tracing the Imperial eagle with his thumb.
“I know what happened lad’ Ye’ screwed the pooch because ye’ panicked and that is something we are going to train out of you.” Harriman said more calmly as he saw the anguish in the young man’s face. “Besides your not the only one who screwed up….now Ensign Blake, if I may say so Captain.” He looked at Dexter with a small smile “Performed very well and her targeting data gave our gunnery crews several good shots before the “boarders” In reactor two took out our power.” Harriman nodded at the young woman with the barest hint of a smile on his lips.
“Now on to Navigation…..Miss McClain you unfortunately were declared a casualty shortly after the engagement began so I will not lay too much blame on you, for your performance.” Harriman paused just long enough to let the words your performance hit home. “However your navigation crew did terrible in this simulation, one wou’d think they didn’t know how to perform a bleedin’ evasive maneuver.” Harriman glared at her for a moment longer and to his surprise she simply nodded.
“Yes sir they screwed up and I intend to make sure it never happens again.” Her voice was totally unshaken and her eyes burned with a sureness that impressed the gruff old Spacer; she knew her department had made a mistake and she didn’t try to whitewash it or make excuses she simply accepted it and set herself to the task of correcting it, something most people her age never bothered with.
“Now as for…..” Harriman was about to continue when a voice over the room’s intercom cut him off.
“Captain to the bridge…..Captain to the bridge……we are receiving a class one federal distress signal.” the voice was almost mechanical over the com unit but even then the shock was audible and Harriman and Dexter exchanged brief glances before both rushed for the door.
“Everyone report to your stations now!” Dexter said as he left the briefing room on Harriman’s heels, several of the officers present immediately followed after Dexter as their stations were on the bridge….Lieutenant Geer however raced to get to the marine barracks while Walker went to check up on her engineering crew before reporting to the bridge.

Harriman and Dexter calmly entered the bridge and reported to their stations, even though Dexter felt anything but calm as the dread over receiving a code one federal distress call meant…..it was better known to spacers as a “Banshee call” because it was the last message a ship would ever send before being destroyed or it’s crew killed.
“Alright Ensign Toumas let’s hear it.” Dexter forced his voice to stay calm and casual despite the bile he could feel rising in his throat, after a second the hiss of the bridge com and then a desperate young voice cut through the silence.
“I repeat this is the Federal Security ship Pontus we are being boarded, they came out of nowhere and are overwhelming our security forces, they have already taken the lower decks…….I am declaring distress if anyone can hear me please respond……” The voice belonged to a young man who despite what he had just reported sounded eerily calm.
“Com put us through…..” Dexter waited for a moment until the com officer nodded “This is Commander John Dexter of the LC oh three to Pontus who is attacking you and what is your status?” he already strongly suspected the status of the Federal security ship but it made no sense…..they were in a core system, who could attack a FedSec ship out here?
“LC oh three, we don’t know who’s attacking us it’s an older Sol Coalition battleship that’s been refit……..status is not good they are already working their way to the bridge I hear the gunfire…..the captain and most of the crew are dead, I was ordered to stay here and relay information to anyone I could. Sir they’re not just killing our people they’re doing……horrible things to them.” The young man’s voice cracked for just a moment and Dexter felt his heart ache.
“Alright Pontus what are your coordinates we will be there as soon as possible.” Dexter turned to face Harriman and shook his head slowly.... all the Forlorn could do was get revenge for the FedSec ship because by time they got there it would all be over…..and what made it worse was that poor young man on the other end of the line already knew he was dead.
“Sir I’ve transmitted coordinates……they just set off a demolition charge at the bridge door sir one more and they’ll be through…..please make them pay for killing us sir.” The young man’ sounded more angry then sad and it was a feeling Dexter could understand.
“We’ll get them for you Pontus I swear it.” John Dexter said coldly, and after another second of silence a large explosion on the other end of the comn line sent a shiver up his spine.
“They’re through three oh three……God take our souls!” The sounds of screaming and gunfire were intermingled with a horrible sound that Dexter couldn’t quite place a sound of crunching and tearing…..and then the com went silent.

Seconds passed but it seemed an eternity until Dexter finally spoke again, using every ounce of will he had not to cry “Helm lay in a course for the Pontus last known location.”
Harriman patted his Commander’s arm gently “I hate to hav’ to say it sir but if they cou’d kill a Peacekeeper class starship so easily shou’d we really be engaging ‘em in naught but a light cruiser?” Harriman seemed to want to spit after suggesting that they simply turn around and abandon a fellow Icaran starship. Unfortunately it was true because though it was only a FedSec ship a Peacekeeper had almost twice the firepower of the Forlorn not to mention a much larger ground combat force.
“I know it’s probably not the smartest idea Harriman, and we’ll certainly launch a messenger drone to the nearest naval base but we have to at least try to see if there is anyone to save.” John looked at Alexander Harriman’s eyes and saw a glint of pride in the older man, and couldn’t help but feel somewhat more confident.
“Aye lad we ‘ave to at least try.” Alex Harriman said with a grim smile before turning back to face the screen “Time to intercept?” He barked, his voice back to it’s old give ‘em hell tone.
“Sir ETA eighteen hours, they are at the far edge of the system on the other side of the Herman asteroid belt.” Lieutenant McClain answered her voice still as stony and confident as it had been during the briefing.
“Very good…..pass the word, the marines run anti-boarding drills and have all crewman don armor and side arms.’ John looked at his bridge crew one more time and began to wonder if this would be the end for him and his crew….a crew who had been utterly beaten in a simulation against boarders.

Tellus 3rd:
It had been eighteen hours since the Forlorn had received the distress signal from the Federal Security Peacekeeper Pontus and finally the slow old light cruiser was coming up on the coordinates of the battle that had claimed a Federal security ship and it’s crew.
“Tactical what have we got?” it had been the first time in hours that anyone on the bridge had even spoken and John could almost feel the stir of tension as everyone on the bridge waited to hear from tactical.
“Sir I’m detecting the Pontus on short range sensors now, she’s dead in space as best I can tell…..multiple breaches along the hull that look like they were made by grapnels…..there’s not much air on her sir.” The tactical officer’s voice droned on professionally listing the damages the Pontus had suffered until his voice suddenly raised in surprise “Sir I’ve got life signs, it’s too hard to tell how many or even where they are but I’ve definitely got life signs!”
John Dexter didn’t even wait before slamming his fist down on the com button he had set to Geer’s com earlier “Attention Lieutenant Geer I want a squad marines and a team of Corpsmen to the launch bay in two minutes.” John was optimistic for the first time since he had heard the distress call….life signs meant survivors and that could mean that somehow the Pontus had repelled her attacker in the end.
“Aye sir……I’ve already got Alpha squad and Corpsmen Burke and Riley down in cutter six with your permission we’ll launch right now.” Geer’s voice was toneless as he pretty much admitted over the com that he had violated procedure and had his marines board a cutter. Dexter grinned for just a moment and turned to Harriman to see the old spacer smiling outright.
“Aye sir there’s hope for this crew yet.” Harriman said under his breath before turning his attention back to his tactical plot.
“Very good Lieutenant you have the go ahead…..get over there and bring those survivors back.” Dexter said more seriously before cutting the com circuit “Tactical can you get me a visual yet?” he rotated his chair to face the ship’s main screen as Tactical Officer Cherenkov’s hands raised over the controls.

After a few seconds the screen came to life and the optics began to focus on a huge grey and red object…..a few more seconds passed as the optics zoomed in to reveal what was left of the Peacekeeper class vessel Pontus.
“My God…..she’s been blown to hell.”
“How could anyone survive that?”
“Her entire superstructure been shot off!”
The whispers across the bridge were brought to a quick end as Harriman cleared his throat and leveled a look around the bridge that would have brought down a Spartan Kraken.
“Sir it looks like whoever did this tried to capture her intact but was forced to destroy too much of her for it to be worthwhile…..the grapnel hits are in non critical areas and as best I can tell other then the superstructure being destroyed there is very little actual hull damage.” Cherenkov’s tone remained bland even as the rest of the bridge crew’s nervous whispers had to be quieted.
“Sir marine cutter six has launched and will board the Pontus in under one minute at max acceleration.” Ensign Walker reported from the astrogation section almost offhandedly as his eyes remained fixed on the screen along with the eyes of almost every bridge officer.

A dull thump announced the marine’s breaching a damaged section of hull as their cutter latched onto the outer shell and fired off a breaching charge. Barely five seconds passed before the first fire team marines zip lined down to the deck, weapons at the ready. As the first four marines spread out to give the second fire team room to drop their rifle mounted flashlights shown eerily in the smoke filled darkness of the Pontus corridors
“Alright fire team one you’ve got the upper decks, fire team two your with me Burke your with team one, Riley your with me.” Lieutenant Geer whispered over his helmet com, just in case anyone hostile was here Geer wasn’t about to make a commotion.

As Geer’s fire team got past the wreckage in the corridor where they had first entered the ship the marine on point suddenly stopped short causing the marine behind him to bump into his back.
“Gou shi Henderson what’s wrong with you?” the second marine’s voice hissed over the com line as he recovered from the initial shock of bumping into another fully armored marine.
“Look…” Was all Henderson managed to croak out, hearing the tone in the marine’s voice Geer pushed forward and aimed his rifle’s flashlight at the deck.
Geer stopped up short and felt his stomach wretch, he had seen battle casualties before but the bodies that were laid out in front of him were not simply killed they were mutilated, their guts carved out and their skin flayed….by the look of agony on what was left of one man’s face it looked like the mutilation had happened while some of them were still alive.
“This couldn’t have happened during a firefight…..not even if the ship took a hit…..my God sir someone did this to them….I mean deliberately…..carved them up like meat.” Corpsman Burke’s voice barely registered as Geer raised his rifle and aimed it down the corridor ahead…….more bodies or parts of bodies were strewn about the deck as far as he could see.
“Alright…..enough……we’ve still got survivors on the deck below us and damned if I am going to let them die here when what’s left of this ship’s atmo vents because we couldn’t get a hold of our own nerve…..move out” Geer barked the last two words more to keep himself from vomiting then to sound in charge and as he passed through more of the charnel house that had once been a ship’s deck he found it harder to keep his breakfast down.

As Geer and his marines made their way down to the next deck more horrors awaited them, including female crew members stripped naked and tied to various pieces of debris along the bulkheads their bodies were in a state that would make any Icaran sick but Geer and his marines couldn’t afford that as the air supply was even now running out for whoever it was that managed to survive this massacre. As the marines reached crew quarters they found more bodies with the females being tied to the hatches the marine’s motion detectors began chirping, as the marines got closer the realized it was coming from one of the rooms that had a naked and mutilated woman tied to the hatch.
“Loren, get it open, Horrowitz, Janec provide cover.” Geer raised his rifle toward the corpse strung hatch as Loren advanced and checked for any improvised explosives. After a moment the marine slung his auto rifle and pulled out his combat knife to cut the cords that secured the woman to the hatch.
‘Who the cao could do this sir?” Marine Loren said as he gently cut down the mangled woman’s corpse and laid her aside to get through the door she had been tied too.
“I don’t know Marine but whatever xeno scum did this is going to burn.” Geer said icily as Loren opened the hatch to reveal another group of dead bodies, this time all male who had apparently been dragged in to the quarters after being injured, where they were then tortured and killed.
Loren paused as he approached the head and heard a rustle in a closet; he quickly made a gesture that alerted the other marines to what he was looking at, Geer and Horrowitz took up the flank while Janec was signaled to fall back and protect Burke.
As Loren carefully approached the door he heard a quiet thud and felt his heart begin to race, if it had not been for his training he would have unloaded his weapon into the closet right then and there but he kept his nerves under control and carefully slid the door aside.
A high pitched whine pierced the air as a dart pistol fired square into Loren’s breastplate, knocking the marine back a few inches.
Just as the two men who had been flanking him were about to open fire Loren screamed “NO! She’s one of ours God don’t shoot!” and stepped into the closet, another dart shot rang out and again Loren’s breastplate had a chip of armor fly off before he finally grabbed the pistol and threw it clear of the person inside the closet.
“Get away from me you bastards……get away I’ll kill you!” a young female voice shouted followed by some words even Geer had not heard used before, quickly the two other marines slung their rifles and rushed over to help Loren secure the struggling victim without causing her harm.
After a few seconds of struggle that seemed an eternity the naked writhing figure who’s face none of them had managed to see in the darkness suddenly stopped moving altogether and for a moment Geer felt a sick pang, fearing that she had died in her struggle.
“Burke get your *** over here, she’s hurt!” was all he managed to get out before the corpsman physically moved him out of the way and was kneeling over the nude and battered young woman. For over a minute the corpsman said nothing as he ran scans over her slowly inspecting her for any major injuries he would have to treat there, it was when that he moved the hair that had been caked in blood and blocking her face to place the oxygen mask on her did the true horror of the situation become apparent.
“Oh dear god….she’s a kid…..she couldn’t be older then fourteen” One of the marines….Geer couldn’t quite tell who at that point quickly opened their visor and went to the corner and began vomiting violently as the other two stood with him in numb horror. ”Burke…..what’s her status?” Geer kept his voice battlefield calm even though everything in him was afraid he already knew the answer.
“Sir…..she’s been raped and beaten, as near as I can tell multiple times, she’s got broken ribs and her one lung has a rib gone clear through it, she’s also got internal bleeding in several places…..I think whoever did this to her left her to die slowly on purpose.” Burke gently unhooked the greatcoat from his armor and wrapped it around the young girl before injecting her with a stasis fluid and placing oxygen on her.
“We’ve got to get her back to the ship now sir….” Burke looked up with a fire in his eye that Geer had only ever seen in combat personnel, a fire that cried for blood and revenge but tempered with months of medical training and compassion for the young woman that was lying broken on the floor in front of him.
“Alright Burke, once stasis sets in we’ll get a stretcher and get her out of here…” Geer’s voice was still filled with hatred as he tried to force himself to look away from the young woman that was lying on the floor. Less then four minutes later the marine cutter was on it’s way back to the Forlorn with two survivors, both women and both in the same condition…..a fourteen year old Fed Sec Spacer named Allyson Landry the other survivor was Commodore Liza Adair NavInt which just added new questions like why naval personnel were on a FedSec ship?

What the crew of the Forlorn could not know was that the hardest and most trying fight they’d ever face was only days away for as the marines were bringing the two survivors back to the Icaran light cruiser, she was being stalked by a predator who had already butchered one FedSec Peacekeeper class patrol ship’s crew along with others that the inexperienced crew would only later find out about……

To be Continued
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  #8  
Old March 3rd, 2006, 05:43 PM
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Default Re: A new Game story (From the begining)

Nice switch from the frontline "Glory Navy" to the rear echelon "Working Navy". I think Starhawk has correctly portrayed the crew of such a ship: rookies, screw-ups, and pre-retirees.

The young crew members of both ships in Part 1 remind me of the Royal Navy in the age of sail, with its teenage midshipmen and pre-pubescent powder monkeys. However, given the size of the Icaran Empire, the navy's ability to draw on both manpower and womanpower, and the Icaran life span, I doubt the armed forces would need to recruit children. Moreover, the complexity of interstellar craft relative to sailing ships would seem to make an advanced education a prerequisite for service. Finally, adding "jailbait" (of both sexes) to the crew of a man-o-war on extended duty would seem to be a recipe for trouble, no matter how thorough the Icaran indoctrination and crew screening techniques.

As for the "pirate" ship, I was expecting it to strike when the Forlorn's crew was slightly weakened by the departure of its boarding party. I'm curious to see what circumstances the enemy considers even more favorable.
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Old March 3rd, 2006, 05:54 PM
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Default Re: A new Game story (From the begining)

Hey Hunpecked it's always great to hear from you I really learn a lot from your critique of my story and it helps me find what i need to correct or go into more depth on.

Yeah I figure that since the "Ships of the Line" of the Icaran Royal navy only engaged in full on battles since you obviously wouldn't dispatch a squadron of your most powerful battleships to capture a few smugglers. There had to be someone to do the "scut work" that had no glory, or "honor" to it, they simply do the ugly job no one wants like stopping smugglers or pirates.

As far as the young crew, Icaran society is not quite like ours in the regards to children in the work force, they are considered adult at 13 and are usually pretty well educated by then (remember the advanced schooling techniques I mentioned way back)additional schooling from that age on is pretty much what we would consider "college" level and higher. They also perform less "tech related" jobs aboard ship while they undergo training, for example they are mess cooks, gun crews, "janitors" that sort of thing. It also depends greatly one which Icaran world they come from.

For example on a world like Sparta it's actually SAFER aboard a navy warship then it is back at home (which is also oddly enough why the bulk of the Spartan soldiers are women) so the naval recruitment age on Sparta is 14. Many worlds are like this as well as it is on some worlds seen as merely a further education, or even a right of passage.

On many core worlds like Icara, Brandenburg and the like the minimum recruitment age would often vary, usually to around 16-17 years old.

As far as "jailbait" goes, well that's hard because as far as being attracted to a 14 year old "child" goes, well I think any adult whether aboard a warship or not would know better then to do something with her/him, remember there are fully adult crewmembers aboard ship it's not like they'd go months with nothing to look at but pre-teen girls/boys.
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"If men build things to look like our penis such as towers and ships does that mean female achitects represent women having penis envy?"
A line that made me chuckle, I can't remember where I heard it I just know it made me laugh.

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Tammy Lee my kung fu instructor/sifu's daughter when asked if she ever slapped a boy for saying something nasty to her.
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Old March 4th, 2006, 12:02 AM
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Default Re: A new Game story (From the begining)

Starhawk, thanks for clarifying the Icaran view of adulthood. It's interesting that the advanced educational practices in the story result in a social situation reminiscent of "primitive" Napoleonic Europe, when "children" labored alongside adults in the fields, shops, and armed forces, and often married in their early teens. The lack of automation in Icaran society (explained in an earlier post, as I recall) would tend to provide ample opportunities for inexperienced workers.

However, recent scientific studies suggest that the Icarans may be employing more than just advanced education here. Apparently the part of the human brain affecting judgment, self-control, planning, and organization doesn't fully develop until age 20 or after. If so, it would seem even highly trained teenagers would be at a disadvantage in unfamiliar situations, compared to their older peers.

On the other hand, the Icarans can probably pick and choose the best young recruits (even for the Working Navy), and teenagers tend to live up to what's expected of them. Under a strict merit system, the Icarans can promote the mature teens and defer promotion of the late bloomers. I found it interesting that the youngest crewman mentioned in the story is a female; even in the future, perhaps females still mature earlier than males?

As for jailbait, if the Icarans only recruit "adults" then the "problem" doesn't exist (presumably the age of majority is also the age of consent). However, the view that all the older "adults" would prefer their own company to that of the younger "adults" seems a bit naive--the novel "Lolita" isn't entirely a work of fiction. As an Icaran ship's captain, I'd tend to keep the cabin boy away from the chaplain, "adult" or not.

PBS's look at the neuroscience of adolescence:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontl...ows/teenbrain/
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