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

[Starhawk]

New Orders:
With Praetor Rodrick’s much more aggressive policies towards the Anderman Alliance the military quickly found it’s self being reassigned to more aggressive positions, the 3rd fleet had been ordered to take the Duroon and Palpatine system’s as well as secure the Eridani Gamma system.
The 1st fleet had been ordered to continue their push into the Cyrilla system and then further into the crumbling Remorhaz Republic and engage their navy as much as possible to destroy their military forces.
The 2nd and 5th fleets were quickly returning to military readiness and when they did their orders would soon come in to begin their own invasions of enemy space while the 4th fleet continued to move it’s SS transports from rioting world to rioting world.

The Goddess Terra:
Admiral Lady Yu Lin Ross of the Home Fleet had been leading her troops against the various upstarts and single planet “governments” that had been cropping up around the worlds of the Sol Coalition and Andermanian alliance that had been cut off from their home Empires for decades. She had heard of one such small “government” on Trammis IX except that State Intelligence believed that this particular world was run by a maniac who called himself the “Prophet of Terra” whatever that meant. Her fleet was currently approaching drop range and Lin was sipping calmly at a cup of coffee as she continued to scroll through the data files compiled on this so called “Prophet” his real name was Johan Von Kepler of the Sol Coalition and the son of a rich merchant to boot, he had come to Trammis on a business trip when the warp points were cut off twenty years ago and had apparently gone off the deep end.
“Admiral Lady we are being hailed by a group calling it’s self the Conclave....they want to talk to the CO of the approaching infidel forces.” The com officer shrugged as she passed on the message from one of her com techs.
Lin felt a slight giggle rise in her throat as she heard herself and her fleet called the “infidel forces”. “Alright put them on coms let’s see what these people have to say.” She straightened her uniform as she stood and faced the main screen.
An elderly looking man-which hinted at a medically primitive culture or a very very old man indeed- wearing a hood came on the screen, he had a thick beard and hid his eyes behind the shadows of the long brown robe.
“I am Father Ezikiel, representative of the Prophet of the Goddess Terra, we are under her divine protection and do not fear you infidels, however if you would turn your backs on your heathen sinful empire and join with us as the fighting arm of her divine will we are always willing to embrace those who seek the embrace of Terra.”
Lin rolled her eyes and forced her self not to sound rude as she replied “Father Ezekiel is it?” the man nodded “Alright listen I have the Icaran Home Fleet and three regiments of stormtroopers under my command, now can begin the invasion of your world at any time, however if you are willing to surrender peacefully and allow yourselves to be incorporated into the Empire then we will not be forced to use violence.”
“Be silent infidel, you who would serve the forces of Satan and betray the Goddess even when her prophet so generously offers you a place within his flock, we will not yield to your heathen ways or be lured by the sinful pride of your empire, now leave this world before you all die!” the screen went black and Lin turned to her com officer.
“Son of a ***** cut you off ma’am.” The com officer shook her head and frowned.
“Well I guess we infidels are just going to have to pay them a little visit, deploy the Star Wolves regiment, tell the Deathwing to stay in reserve in case these fanatics put up more resistance then normal.” Lin snorted irritably as she watched the screen switch views from the planet to the Sword of Vengeance’s launch bays as the hundreds of dropships raced towards their landing zones on the surface/

[three hours later]:
“Ma’am these bastards are insane they’re charging our tanks with freaking suicide bombs even though most of them don’t even get close to us and the ones that do just bounce off the shields……they’re throwing their damn babies strapped with grenades at our infantrymen because those *******s in their “conclave” are telling them their children will be embraced by “terra” and taken to the holy land.” The Stormtrooper commander looked haggard and worn as he made his report.
Lin’s clenched her fists in rage, Icarans had in the past made great sacrifices including suicide runs during the long march but never…..never would they simply throw their children at enemies because some insane bastards told them too.
“Harris…..” she paused and cleared her throat “Harris I want you to find each and every member of the conclave, I want you to find their “prophet” and I want you to bring them to me…..alive if possible dead if it’s too much of a risk for your soldiers.” Her eyes burned with hate as she turned away from the Stormtrooper.
“Yes ma’am, we’ll do what we can, so far I’ve only had injured men they don’t have much in the way of weapons that can kill a man in Stormtrooper armor but we still have to fight back against their “milita” units” Harris said softly as he turned away from his own com screen before cutting the channel.
“Bring that bastard to me” Lin thought to herself as she went back to reading the most recent reports, which had pretty much confirmed what Harris had already told her, these followers of the “Goddess Terra” were insane or brainwashed to such extents that boggled the mind to think about.

The invasion and securing of the “conclave” took two days to complete for the stormtroopers as the fanatical cultists had exhausted thousands of lives in a futile attempt to throw the “infidel demons” off their precious world. And as she had promised Lady Yu Lin had all seven members of the conclave, and their “prophet’ lined up on her bridge with a camera crew hidden from view and a squad of marines standing behind them. She had the cult leaders tied up and on their knees in front of her as she walked calmly from her command chair to where they were kneeling.
“Gentlemen, you told me that if I resisted your Goddess would destroy me and my fleet, apparently you were mistaken…..”she took a step forward and paused when she noticed the “Prophet” was uttering something under his breath.
“Care to share what you have to say heir von Kepler?” she said coldly, the man’s expression went pale with shock.
“You know who I am?” he said arrogantly as his lackeys looked around at one another.
“Oh yes, and I also know your no prophet your just a merchant’s prissy little brat who decided to play rich man and take over a mining colony for his daddy…..but how you became a so called Prophet is beyond me.”
“I am the chosen Prophet of the Goddess of Terra you *****! How dare you speak to me in such a…..” his sentence was cut off with a grunt as a gloved hand smashed into his face tearing his lip open with a spray of blood.
Lin calmly wiped her bloodied glove on the robes of one of the conclave members and then drew herself back up to her full height, and smiled almost sweetly.
“I am Admiral Lady Yu Lin Ross of His Majesty’s Royal Navy, I am the commander of the home fleet that just conquered you and your pathetic rabble of scum….” She paused a moment, her smile growing even colder and more venomous “I…..heir Von Kepler am your executioner!” she calmly drew her dart pistol and leveled it at the head of one of the conclave members and waited just long enough for the stormtroopers to get out of the way before she pulled the trigger turning the man’s head into splinters in a spray of blood and gore, quickly bringing an end to the life of “Father Ezekial”/
She turned her gun to face the so called prophet but a squeal of terror caused her to pause for a moment as the squirming screaming “prophet” looked in her direction.
“Stop! for the love of God stop! I have information that can be useful to you just don’t kill me!” his voice was shaky and panicky and utterly without dignity.
“Oh, really?” Lin said coldly pointing her weapon towards the deck.
“I know where Earth is…..I can give you the coordinates please just don’t kill me!” the other members of the conclave looked on in shocked silence as their “prophet” squealed and begged like a child.
Lin turned to one of the stormtroopers and whispered “Get the information from him, then shoot him in the head and dump him out of an airlock.” After the trooper nodded she smiled again at the men in front of her, waited for the stormtrooper to drag the “prophet” away by his collar and for the other stormtroopers to line back up behind the members of the “conclave”.
“You gentlemen are found guilty of crimes against humanity, murder and incitement to murder children, conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism, and Heresy, your sentence is death to be carried out immediately….may your souls burn in hell for what you’ve done.” She nodded at the stormtroopers lined up behind the men and suppressed a shiver as the troopers took efficient aim and in sequence squeezed the firing studs on their rifles....

Kepler joined his conclave less then four hours later after he passed on the location of the “sol” system to the Icarans which was where old Terra was “supposed” to be though if it were the true location of Earth or not was just a myth these days after so much information had been lost hundreds of years ago. His stormtrooper guard followed his orders and as soon as the information was loaded into the flagship’s computer a headless corpse drifted clear of an airlock.

[El_Phil]

OK I've gotta be honest. A bit shaky. The prophet either actually believes or is a conman. If he actually believes he wouldn't of crumbled at the end, if he's a conman he wouldn't of squared up against an entire fleet.

Or that's how I read it. If your fanatical enough to do all the things he did then the collapse at the end just doesn't seem any good. Of course he'd talk eventually, eveyone does, but to crack just like that... Lets it down at the end.

Still that aside another pair of good chapters. Nice to see your still writing.

[Starhawk]

To be honest the end was a little rushed because I was being nagg about "GET OFF THE COMPUTER!" so I typed out the end and printed it before I had to quit, I probobly should have left it for today to finish though.....that would have allowed for a better end.

I wanted it to end more with the impression that the "Prophet" is a conman but his "conclave" are a bunch of insanely true beleivers and that's why THEY not HE squared off against an entire battle fleet and tried to convert them.

[El_Phil]

But it's the prophet who talks to the fleet. So that doesn't hang together.

So here's a slight re-write: Fleet talks to random old man who isn't the prophet. The prophet doesn't speak to infidel say. Goes as normal. When they finally capture the entire conclave in a hideaway in the mountains you have the prophet breaking down then as he's had nothing to do with it, it's the insane true believers acting in his name who did this.

So he told them to stop and talk, but they took it as "proof that even the godess' chosen one has doubt, but the godess will overcome" or some such rubbish. That might hang together better. Just off the top of my head

[Starhawk]

I think you misread, actually the fleet talks to "Father Ezekiel" not the prophet.... she just knows that the Prophet is actually Von Kepler who was the son of a rich merchant from the Sol coalition.....I may do a rewrite and repost some time however to make it end better....hehe.

[El_Phil]

It still doesn't hang together, although I'll admit I did miss-read abit (whoops ).

I am impressed at people who can do re-writes, I know I can't. I am too much of a 'Write it and never again' type of person. I think it's a habit I picked up at Uni, too many report subjects I never wanted to even look at again.

[Starhawk]

A wee tidbit of a chapter because nothing really interesting happened these last few months other then tiny battles that are ONE broadside deals

2438.2 News Report:
“Good evening ladies and gentlemen I’m Lisa Prat for State Channel One news service, Today’s top stories are:
The Janus and Cylla were ambushed on their way to rendezvous with the 5th fleet Janus was destroyed killing all 6,100, Admiral Tanya Bright calls it a tragic loss of life that unfortunately could not have been foreseen by the Navy and mourns the loss of all those lives lost.

Our second story comes from the 4th fleet Admiral Andrew Markowitz led the 4th fleet to victory over 8 Anderman warships destroying them all and capturing twelve hundred Anderman crew who are currently en-route to the military POW camp 107. Adding to this victory a detachment from the 4th fleet engaged and destroyed two more Anderman super dreadnoughts and all with out a single Icaran loss of life

“And now ladies and gentlemen we send you live to the 1st fleet in the Cyrilla system with reporter John LeGuan”
“Hello Lisa I’m here with the 1st fleet which has scored another triumphant victory for the Icaran Empire, the Cyrilla system has fallen and the last resistance is even now being suppressed by Planetary Militia forces, Star Admiral Tyson Babcock informed me earlier this morning that not only did the 1st fleet crush all resistance in this system on a planetary scale but they actually engaged a Remorhaz fleet that had been sent to retake or sterilize all the occupied worlds several months ago. Sadly the 1st fleet did lose a ship in the engagement along with several thousand spacers and marines however the thirty Remorhaz ships that had engaged the 1st fleet were utterly destroyed and enemy casualties are estimated at around twelve thousand.” The young reporter was wearing a modified version of the Navy’s enlisted vac suit which bore the bright blue and white shoulder patches of the civilian news corps, he wasn’t wearing the vac helmet however as the 1st fleet was not heading into any battles.
“John where is the next destination for the 1st fleet, if it is alright for you to say that is.” Lisa smiled into the holocam while she waited for the time delay of the “warper” drones that allowed this form of communication.
Several seconds passed before the reporter on the other end of the line could be heard speaking again.
“Well Lisa, the Caitia system is our next destination as that is where the bulk of the remaining Remorhaz power structure lies, once that system falls the Admiralty believes they can force a surrender on the part of the Remorhaz People’s Republic, however Admiral Babcock has informed me that they are expecting staunch resistance from the remnants of the Remorhaz People’s Navy and says that this particular campaign may take several months.” The reporter paused and looked off screen for a moment nodding in response to someone the camera couldn’t see.
“Um Lisa I’m afraid I’m going to have to end this interview, the “warper” drones aren’t going to have the range to the Caitia system and from now on all FTL probe launches are strictly forbidden unless they are military messenger pods…..I’m sorry.” The reporter paused again as a person wearing a Navy officer’s uniform walked over and whispered something.
“I have to go now Lisa….” The line suddenly went black for several seconds until the view returned to the studio and a baffled looking Lisa.
“Well I suppose that’s all for the major news tonight, stick around for your planet’s local news services to cut in, have a good night…..”

[i](note): A “warper” drone is a civilian modified messenger drone, they create micro-warp points that are totally unstable for periods longer then a few seconds, the drone launches through the warp point, unlike a military messenger the “warper” is designed to both transmit and receive video streams at a faster rate thus allowing a semi-real time conversation to take place.
Military Messenger drones are designed strictly to pass on information and not to enable a “conversation” like a warper drone, making it ten times cheaper and much more expendable by military standards.

[Starhawk]

2438.3 They Died Icaran!:
The 4th fleet was hardly what one could consider a “proper” battle fleet it was a hodgepodge of warships that were scraped off of the other battle fleets, nothing emphasized this fact more then the Horatio its long gleaming white spindle of a hull with the hammerheads at either end obviously singled it out from any other Icaran warship in service, for in it’s past life this proud flagship of the 4th fleet had served the Mantis Starfleet as a “monitor” class warship.
The 4th fleet didn’t even have proper infantry support but instead had nearly 10,000 SS troopers assigned to quelling riots in the frontier worlds that had once belonged to the Corian Commonwealth and the Earth Corps Alliance which was in fact the only reason the 4th fleet had even been created and many naval officials looked down on the 4th fleet a as a mere “police detachment” and refused to mention it as a fleet during their briefings.

Commodore Vincent Moriarty was a young man at only 37 but he had risen to through the ranks with amazing speed as he earned a name for himself during some of the early battles of the Phong crusades, he had been on the flag deck of Saber during the first battle against a Phong warship and had been there on the deck of the Retribution when the original 3rd fleet was ambushed at the third battle of Fornax and now he was out on the frontiers quelling mere riots instead of doing what he should be, fighting on the frontlines of the Anderman crusades. Moriarty had been assigned to the 4th “fleet” as a “promotion” from his position as the 14th SD division commander 1st fleet, but as the months went by and he watched report after report of how the frontline units were doing he began to feel his current assignment more as a punishment than a promotion and often wondered which Admiral had given him the “honor” to begin with. To make matters worse the 4th fleet had been stuck “guarding” the Glakka system for nearly a year, which made Vincent feel as if his entire fleet were told “it’s too dangerous, stay here and guard the car.” So here he was “guarding the car” with 9,100 SS troops and a group of powerful capital ships that could make a difference on the frontlines, and he had no where to go because the system’s beyond Glakka were deemed “too high a risk” for the undermanned formation he commanded.
Vincent felt another surge of anger swell up as he paced his command deck, the Horatio was huge even by Icaran standards, she was only slightly smaller then one of the Artemis raiders yet had much more firepower to match her size her command deck was also a sprawling two tiered area nearly three times the size of any Superdreadnought’s command deck which Vincent was grateful for as it gave him plenty of room to pace without being disturbed “Why the hell did those dicks at command assign me here!?[/i] he thought yet again as he turned to resume his pacing; he came to a sudden halt when a startled voice came from the second tier.
“WARP fluctuation I repeat we have Warp fluctuation there are ships coming through!”
Vincent hurried back to his command chair and took a moment to fume at the fact that the ship didn’t even have a proper main plot.
“Get me an ID on who it is ASAP tactical.” He barked as he brought up his own micro-tactical display to see the fluctuations for himself.
“There are too many of them coming through to be a convoy, and none of our fleets are scheduled to enter this system until the 2nd fleet is finished with their repairs…..CONFIRMED WE HAVE HOSTILES three-one Anderman warships have just made transit!”
The bridge suddenly darkened as the entire ship switched over to battle stations barely a second later the klaxons and GQ alarms howled throughout the ships of the 4th fleet.
“All ships open fire full volley, and tell those transport commanders to get the hell out of here and warn the Admiralty.” Vincent found his own town surprising for it’s calm, he turned to his Captain as she walked up and saw in her eyes the same dread he felt, the simple numbers were all to clear and their enemy wasn’t some Xeno species, this time it was a well trained highly equipped enemy with the same level of technology as he had, all the 4th fleet could hope for was a fighting withdrawal and ensuring he got the transport fleet to safety but even there the odds were against them, the Anderman had acceleration on their side and the Icarans would have to start up cold and gain accel.
“Unless we at least slow those Ander bastards down they’ll outrun the transports easily…” Vincent whispered to Captain Lia Keyes and felt a pang of guilt as he saw the almost imperceptible nod she managed to force, she was even younger then he was and unlike him this would be her first real battle…..and her last. He thought bitterly as he turned back to the displays.

The stars lit up with brilliant and beautiful glory as the 4th fleet turned their desperate broadsides against the oncoming foe while they still recovered from their transit, the first salvo arrived unopposed and proved devastating as the I-lasers sliced through armor, shields, and hulls with the startling ease that modern energy weapons were capable of and with that single salvo nine enemy ships were torn apart creating nine wondrous new stars for barely a split second before they faded back into nothingness.
”At least we got some of them” Vincent thought with a small spark of pride as he saw the Anderman ships turn their own guns upon his fleet and braced himself for the hellish impact as the two fleets traded salvos.
Even as her guns sliced into an Anderman’s shields Danu’s hull was rent and torn as another Anderman ship fired a devastatingly close range and accurate broadside into her, as the energy cut into her the great Icaran ship lurched for a moment as if shouting her defiance before she broke cleanly in half spilling wreckage and bodies into space.
Horatio to lurched with fire as three enemy warships focused their broadsides upon her and Commodore Vincent Moriarty was thrown from his command chair as a beam burned through their shields and impacted just forward of the bridge, the unfortunate souls on the second tier were crushed or thrown to their deaths as wreckage tore through the entire forward portion of the bridge.
“Damage report!” Moriarty shouted as body crumpled to the deck next to him and he recognized the grey green eyes of Captain Keyes staring blankly toward the ceiling her throat sliced open by a piece of shrapnel.
“We’ve only got four guns remaining, life support on decks 20 through 30 is gone, engines are gone, gravitics are gone we are operating on emergency support systems, deck 27 is totally gone sir….” The damage report seemed to go on forever but Vincent barely took notice as he watched the flickering main screen.

The Icaran 4th fleet fought like devils even as the Anderman regained control of their fleet, Yukon who’s shields and weapons were shattered plowed into an Anderman superdreadnought turning both ships into careening pieces of wreckage as the explosions and secondary blasts tore out chunks of once mighty starships.
Despot spat broadsides to the last until one shot finally breached her reactors and she turned into a mini nova though not before she killed two Anderman warships on her own.
The transports continued to flee as they had no guns to turn to the aid of their comrades, meanwhile the rest of the fleet fought to buy the thousands of troops aboard the transports even a slim chance at life.
Horatio turned her four remaining guns on a nearby SD and scored three direct hits, which were enough to tear through the already damaged warship with hellish fury and seconds after the third beam struck her the enemy ship drifted away from the battle, not a single sign of life aboard her.
“Status of the fleet?” Vincent said coldly as he knelt down and closed the dead eyes of his former captain.
“Commodore Suffolk and Europa are undamaged and continuing the fight, Al-Batani is nearly crippled but she remains on station, Justin Alverato is totally crippled, everyone else other then the transports is gone.” The tactical officer’s voice was the mechanical disciplined tone that all “proper” Icaran naval officers used during battle but Vincent heard the despair in that young voice and knew that there was nothing he could say that would make anything any better, the 4th fleet would inflict heavy damage on the enemy before they died but still in the end it would make no difference, none of the warships would escape alive and God’s grace alone would save the transports. It was just then that a brilliant light engulfed the bridge and one split second of pain registered in Vincent’s mind before his life along with the hundreds of survivors aboard Horatio were simply washed away by the broadside of an Anderman Super dreadnought.
Justin was destroyed almost out of hand only a moment later as an Anderman super dreadnought raced past to catch up the fleeing transports, it would never catch up to them however as the almost totally crippled Suffolk rammed into her in a last act of retribution.
Europa’s crew would die much more slowly as their ship was cut away inch by bloody inch by Anderman weapons and as fires burned through her corridors choking the lucky and burning the unlucky alive as they tried to reach escape pods, an unfortunate handful of crew did reach an escape pod only to have a burning piece of hull plate drop into the pod with them as it ejected from the ship.
The shattered Al-Batani suffered a death caused by her own weapons which had been so severely damaged they overloaded on her last attempt to fire tearing her apart from the inside and ensuring that none could have even hoped to survive.

As Commodore Vincent Moriarty had feared the transports were quickly overtaken by the Anderman, and a single super dreadnought destroyed three of the small transports in a single sweep of her forward chase mounts, the other transports too died running as the Anderman overtook them and mercilessly butchered the defenseless ships ending the thousands of lives aboard with what was almost a fleeting swat of the hand for the powerful warships.

So ended the 2nd battle of Glakka, not a single Icaran soldier survived the brutal hour long engagement but for their deaths they had made the Anderman pay dearly in lives and ships with 15 of their warships completely destroyed and two disabled by the valiant Icaran soldiers.
No more would it be said that the 4th fleet was not a “proper fleet” no more would they be called “a hodgepodge of warships” from that day forth the valiant soldiers spacers and state security troopers of the 4th fleet would be recognized as heroes of the Empire who died in a battle against the enemies of Icara and did not feint or flee before their foes but instead did their duty to the last.


4th Fleet Destroyed in Glakka
15 Enemy ships destroyed
Icaran Losses:
HMS Dare (SD) 6,100
HMS Danu (SD) 6,100
HMS Yukon (SD) 6,100
HMS Despot (SD) 6,100
HMS Al-Batani (SD) 6,100
HMS Suffolk (SD) 6,100
HMS Justin Alverato (SD) 6,100
HMS Europa (SD) 6,100
HMS Horatio (MN) 10,400
SS Large Transport 200 crew- 4,000 SS troopers
SS Transport 01 50 crew- 2,000 SS troopers
SS Transport 02 50 crew- 2,000 SS troopers
SS Transport 03 50 crew
SS Transport 04 50 crew- 1,500 SS troopers
Total Casualties: 69,100 dead
Anderman Crusade Casualties: 380,601 (civilian losses number in the billions)

[Starhawk]

How shall they be remembered?:
A long time ago the Icarans came with ships, guns, and bombs, they saw our species and looked upon us as inferior because we were not human and so my race was doomed to slavery on the "sphereworld" they have built to house us.
My parents told me when I was a youngling how my race once roamed dozens of worlds, free and happy and any where you went you could see the sky and the stars, but that was all before I was born, before they came and took away our homes and our worlds and killed hundreds of millions of our kind because we dared resist them, our warriors fought valiantly but in the end these Icarans were overwhelming, and all of our soldiers were killed in battle after battle trying to hold back the encroaching darkness.

I have read the human history files for long hours and understand now why they have beaten us, it is not just because our technology was not as good as their's or because our people were not as brave, it is because in the end humans are warriors they don't give up until they are shattered and even then they resist, they do not forgive easily and they never forget what others have done to them. The Icarans once ruled over most of their species' home system because of their genius and military skill, and yet as all things human it was their own race who destroyed that once great empire.

Humans, they are curious yet arrogant, brutal yet see themselves as moral, harsh if we do not behave and yet gentle if we are submissive they feed us well yet slaughter us if we riot or fight, they tell us we are safe in their protection yet we are in the end their slaves. They are a constant contradiction of themselves and yet they do not notice this because it is so natural to them.

My parents and the elders had told me when I was young that one day my race would return to the stars, that one day humanity would look upon its self and see how wrong they were to enslave entire species just because they were different, they said that one day our descendants would step again under the beautiful green and brown skies of our worlds.....I am sad to say that my parents and the elders were all too wrong, our worlds are no longer the green and brown jewels they once were they are now a vile blue with white swirling clouds and disgusting green continents!

Icara, to us that name means slavery and the loss of our once glorious homeworlds, some say these Icarans are a punishment from the great gods for our sins, others say they are a tool of the evil ones, but they are neither of things, in some ways they are much worse then that they are us and we are them, mere mortal beings who collide in a galaxy of little importance to the rest of this grand universe.
Icara, conquerers, monsters, the shadow that washes away whole worlds, whole cultures and entire species, Icara the very word makes a thousand worlds tremble in fear. Icara cursed and spat upon, Icara the name that crushes stars kills billions and brings eternal slavery to those not human, Icara! the one name in this galaxy that will change the destiny of untold millions of worlds!

How then I wonder will Icara be remembered? No doubt to their descendants this generation will be considered heroes, virtuous crusaders bringing justice, peace and stability to the universe....and who is to say that is wrong? For these people rose from a devestated system's ashes and created for themselves not just a new world but an Empire that brings fear to any who would resist it, is that not heroic? Is that not valiant? I do not know for sure. But no matter how Icarans are remembered my race and whoever else they enslave in their brutal conquest of the stars.....will we even be remembered, our history our glorious triumphs and catastrophic downfalls and how might things have been different if we had met Icarans in peace and not war?

[Hunpecked]

I like the segment about the 4th Fleet. In my game against AIs, I also have a couple of fleets with older ships (mostly light cruisers). They've been retrofitted and so are still useful despite their age, but like the Icaran 4th Fleet they wouldn't last long against the enemy's latest designs.

BTW, the "Second Battle of Glakka" reminds me of the action off Samar in 1944, when a motley force of American escort carriers and destroyers was surprised by a Japanese battle fleet.