Rise of the Remorhaz Society

[sachmo]

Strength

2408.2

Captain Will Crowley watched the tactical screen as the Sensor Officer ran a scan of the Lundra system. Nothing but asteroid fields and the lonely blue star that held the system together. Commodore Gordon Lu was also present on the bridge of his former command, RSS Intimidator. He had expected to catch a glimpse of a Rage battle fleet. On all of the other occasions, when a Rage fleet would enter the Xillantha system from the wormhole in Fezzran, a supporting fleet would enter from Lundra also. Sure enough, Rear Admiral Sakazawa reported that a Rage fleet was detected in the Xillantha system. It had indeed warped in from Fezzran. Commodore Lu believed that he would spot a Rage fleet transiting Lundra, and that fleet would give chase as he took Gamma Fleet back thru the wormhole to Lapzooli and Norak. At the end of that chase Gamma Fleet would make a stand, supported by defense satellites protecting the lip of the Lapzooli-Lundra wormhole. Now that there was no Rage fleet detected in the system, he could not spring his trap. At least Loxias would be able to deploy the spy satellite in the system. Commodore Lu made a decision to wait for a few weeks, and see if a Rage fleet appeared. The problem was that the Rage never seemed to do anything the way he wanted them to.

Back on Hera, the research guild had completed a number of tasks. First, they had perfected the design of the Urban Pacification Centers. They now had the proper psychological tools that would be required to indoctrinate any Norakians captured into Remorhaz Society life. Already, the xenopsychologists were experimenting with effective way to deal with Rage worlds, and possibly Ukra-Tal worlds also. Two other discoveries were also made which would be of particular use to the military; the Anti-Proton beam and the Ionic Disperser. The Anti-Proton Beam was the first military energy weapon designed. This beam had a shorter range than the DUC, and over range it lost power. However, it required no physical ammunition to be supplied, and could be powered by radioactives.
The Ionic Disperser was a much more specialized weapon. It had a very short range, but the beam would attack the core of the engines on the ship it was fired at, attempting to overload and destroy them. This weapon would be especially useful against the Rage, with their advanced engine designs. These weapons would be fitted on the Glory B Class Destroyers. All ship designs were updated to use the anti-matter drives, and both the Nemesis D Class Frigates and the Eagle D Class System Patrol Ships were outfitted with the emergency propulsion boosters. The ships of the fleet would be upgraded at the earliest convenience, but on a rotating schedule to keep the fleets at the highest strength possible. Immediately, the research guild began work on shield technology.

2408.3

Grand Admiral Urian was impressed. The shields held thru the test flawlessly. It had taken two hits from the depleted uranium cannon before the shield generator had given out. While the protection was light, it could make the difference between a killing blow and a damaging one. He turned to his counterparts from the other service branches, Field Marshal Gulman and Commandant Hunter.
“Well, gents, that gadget is going to save a lot of lives.”
Commandant Hunter nodded and smiled, “I need to get my eggheads working on scaling that thing down. If I could shield the Blazers…yes Marcus, it would save a lot of lives. I wish we had discovered this Last year. I’m sure it would have been welcomed by my boys on the way to Regotha III.”
All three flag officers nodded in agreement.

On Timerron, construction began on a new Space Yard. The transit time for new ships built at either the Remorhaz or the Glory shipyards was just too great to allow for an effective defense of the Yukra system and the colony of Timerron. It would take five months to complete the facility and a small hoard of resources, but the flexibility it would add could not be easily measured.
The same principle held true for the Lapzooli system, and so Norak also began construction of a Space Yard facility.

2408.4

Once again, the Rage fleet that had invaded the Xillantha system floated around and looked menacing, but did no actual damage. The people of Fort Justice had been obligingly fearful, but frankly the whole thing began to take on a sort of macabre humor to them. The Fort Justice Broadcasting Company began running a weekly serial play called “Spare Parts”, in which the actors portrayed members of the oft seen Rage fleet. The premise was that the commander of the Rage fleet was actually malfunctioning, but since he didn’t want to be “recycled” by the Primary Sequencer, he tried everything to keep it a secret from his crew. The Rage commander kept the fleet in Remorhaz space to avoid being discovered by the Rage “quality control druids”. The writing was brilliant, and the show quickly became a hit. It was even exported to the other worlds of the Remorhaz Society, and “Spare Parts” kept the plight of Fort Justice on the minds of all citizens. Soon the name Fort Justice became synonymous with tenacity and strength.
The stress of living under constant threat of nuclear annihilation had given the residents of Fort Justice a different view of life, to say the least. Governor Kalashnikov had noted to the Chairman that while the people worked as hard as they could, once they were back in their homes, things tended to get a little wild. The alcohol imports of the colony were 35% greater per capita then any other colony in the Society. The sale of recreational items was also very high compared to the other worlds, while less than 2% of the population had any personal savings to speak of. However, the exported resources from mining were usually around 101%-108% of projections. Live for today was the motto of the citizens of Fort Justice. The rest of the Society began to look up to them. Soon the more adventurous (some would say stupid, also) of the Society began packing up and heading for Fort Justice. The strength of this world began to become a symbol for the fighting spirit of the Remorhaz people.

On Remorhaz, the RSS Midguard was the first ship to be upgraded with the anti-matter engines. The engines preformed flawlessly, as did the emergency propulsion packs. The engineering crew was a bit uncomfortable with the whole process in which the component devoured itself, but it did no damage and did indeed fulfill it’s purpose.

Glory launched the RSS Apollo a Nemesis D Class frigate. She was to join the Xillantha Defense Fleet. Upon her arrival, Glory would detach from the fleet and head back to Glory Ship Yard for an upgrade.

The Space Marine assault fleet would reach Regotha III by the beginning of the next month. The first planetary invasion in Remorhaz history was about to become a reality.

To be continued...

[sachmo]

Invasion

2408.5

In the Remorhaz system, a new domed mining colony was founded. Though not as efficient as a colony with an oxygen atmosphere, the short distance from the shipyards of Remorhaz more than made up for the cost of the new colony, which was named Vilnius. The colony immediately began building mining facilities, although it would have been best suited as a refining colony. However, the war effort required mostly minerals, and so that was the priority.

In Yukra, the RSS Virtue was able to join with Falcon and Peregrine and form the Yukra Defense Fleet. The Ukra-Tal sill had not made any movements into the system. If they could hold on for 3 more months, the space yard would be complete, and the fleet would grow in strength much quicker.

The Naval Design Bureau was excited to hear that in only a few short months, the Research Guild had been able to improve on the existing shield generator technology, doubling the strength while only increasing the size of the generator by 1/4th. The new shields were put into the Glory B Class Destroyer design. One missile tube was removed, but the extra shielding and a depleted uranium cannon were a fair enough trade-off.

In the Xillantha system, RSS Mercury arrived to join the Xillantha Defense Fleet, as all Rage fleets had vacated the system. Rear Admiral Sakazawa detached the frigate Manticore and the destroyer Honor and ordered them to Glory for refit. This refit was scheduled to take roughly 3 months to complete. Sakazawa hoped that the Rage decided not to press any attack while he was short of the two ship’s firepower.

In the Regotha system, the Marine Assault Fleet moved into orbit over Regotha III. Captain Jager brought all of the ship commanders from Zeta Fleet and the commanders from the Assault Fleet over the Nemesis for a strategy meeting. Also present was the senior Space Marine Officer present, Major General Steven Brooks. While he was the highest-ranking officer in the room, while the Space Marines were on board the transport, the senior naval officer was in command. That officer was Captain Gina Jager. Once everyone was seated, Gina began the briefing.
“Well folks, here we are. We are about to assist Major General Brooks in capturing the Last planet in the Norak Continuum.”
Laughter rippled around the table. Everyone seemed to be excited, which made Gina relax a bit.
“As all of you know, this is a first time operation. Everything up until now has been done with simulators and mock-ups. In 72 hours, the Space Marines are going to do this for real.”
Gina tapped some keys on her data unit, and a holographic image of Regotha III appeared. Multiple colored displays appeared on the image, marking potential targets, population centers, the drop zones, and other information.
“The Marines have brought along 135 Blazer Assault Craft, which represents an over-strength brigade. The entire force will be deployed in one combat drop. Zeta Fleet, along with Comet, is going to provide fire support for the Space Marines. The red triangles represent troop formations that we have already bombarded with missiles. The green circles…” Gina continued to brief the officers present.
The Navy was to remain in orbit, in direct contact with the commanders on the ground. They would provide instant fire support for any commander who called for it. Also, the ships could provide a picture of the battle that might not be readily available to the ground commanders. Major General Brooks be in overall command of the entire fleet and ground operations until the planet was secured. Brigadier General Henry Townsend would be the ranking officer on the ground. The brigade was actually under the command of Colonel Pedro Marquez, but Townsend was the division commander and wanted to be present for the actual combat drop.
“Ok, folks, that’s it for me. General Brooks?”
The General stoop up, and moved to the front of the room.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I have the utmost confidence in each and every one of you. We all know what we have to do, and we know how to do it. I firmly believe that we will be able to overcome any obstacle that stands in our way. Good luck and God bless.”
The Major General turned to leave. Everyone stood up and came to attention. When he left, the other officers left in small Groups, discussing various issues that had come up during the briefing. Gina watched as the room cleared. She noticed Captain Brennan, commander of RSS Artemis, watching her as he walked past. He nodded to her. Brennan had always given her the creeps. Even back when they had attended the academy together, he had always looked at her with that same cold stare. She knew he was a motivated and capable officer, as well as an excellent tactician. He was also incredibly arrogant. He always seemed to hold those who he deemed inferior in contempt. It made him come off to others as cold and unfriendly. She didn’t know him very well, but she did know that he seemed to view her as one of the “inferior”. Good, she thought. I hope it eats him up inside to have to take orders from me.
Another thought struck her. Would his feelings about her drive him to cause problems? So far, he hadn’t made any trouble for her, and in fact had been a model officer. Their days at the academy had shown her that Brennan could be a vengeful son of a gun, and she had been given command of RSS Eagle when by all rights it should have been his billet. Could he be holding a grudge against her still? Was it possible that he would do something intentional in the upcoming invasion to put her in a bad light, and take her down a notch? Was he capable of such a thing? The more she thought about it, the quicker she chased it from her mind. Brennan was a professional officer in the Remorhaz Navy. He was above letting his personal feelings get in the way of his duty. At least, she hoped he was.

Captain Brennan glanced at Captain Gina Jager as he walked past her on his way out of the briefing. He flashed her the most sincere smile that he could manage. So far, she had managed to not get all of them killed, a circumstance that made him eternally grateful. He was surprised by her performance in the operation so far, but he fully expected the pressure to get to her as the invasion progressed. Once things started to get hectic, everyone would see that she just wasn’t up to leading a fleet into battle.
It wasn’t that he so much wanted her to fail, as that would put people’s lives in danger. He just knew that she wasn’t a very effective leader. Not every officer was up to the task of commanding large-scale operations. He had watched her performance at the academy, and while she was not unintelligent, it wasn’t quite up to par with what he considered essential to becoming an effective officer. His greatest fear is that she would make a major mistake before he and Major General Brooks were able to avert it, and that mistake would be big enough to get a lot of Space Marines killed. He really did hope that nothing went wrong, but his gut feeling was that it would. When it did, he would be there to take her place as commander of the fleet.

PFC Jake Renton looked up toward the ceiling of the cavernous drop bay that made up the bulk of the Landing Ship RSS Mongoose. High above him, the bay was segmented by catwalks and platforms. Resting on each platform was the open troop ramp of a Blazer assault craft. Each Blazer was held in place by a series of electro-magnetic clamps. Once the Mongoose was in drop position over the planet, and her huge drop bay doors were opened, the clamps would release, and the Blazers would free fall into the upper atmosphere. Once free of the landing ship, gravity would take over. The Blazers would enter the atmosphere are the maximum possible angle, coming down at high speed to hit their drop zones in the minimum amount of time, while at the same time reducing the exposure time of the Blazers to enemy anti-aircraft fire. Just before landing, the retros of the landing sled would fire, and the Blazer would touch down. It would then detach from the sled and fire it’s own hover engines. From here, the Blazer would transport the Space Marines as close to their target as possible, until the troops were ready to assault, in which case they would disembark from the Blazer and attack on foot. The Blazer would follow along and provide fire support with its three depleted uranium cannons.
Renton had been thru one actual drop. When Mongoose had pulled into Nora to pick up the Last of their brigade, they loaded all of the troopers up into their Blazers and dropped them en masse upon the heads of the unsuspecting wildlife that inhabited Western Norak. The ride was like sitting in a runaway elevator as Renton had remembered it, but it was over pretty quick. Actually, now that he thought about it, it was more like sitting in a runaway elevator that was being smashed on the outside by thousands of hammers, and all the while someone was kicking you in the rear with a steel-toed boot. Yes, that was the sensation. Once they were on the ground, his training took over. They captured the mock objective, and their projected casualties were “only” 40%. Renton had hoped at the time that when they attempted a real combat drop that the experts were proved wrong about those casualty figures.
“Renton! Get your butt in gear!” The gravely voice of Sergeant Chuck Williams cried out. Williams was always mad about something. He was the guy who kept the platoon moving, though. He raced down the line, eyes locked on Renton. He was beside him in seconds.
“Renton, I was wondering if you noticed that we were deploying for a COMBAT DROP TODAY?”
Renton shouted, “Yes, Sergeant!”
“Then could you kindly get your thumb out of your butt and deploy to the Blazer? Am I asking too much, Private?”
Renton shouted again, “No, Sergeant!”
Sergeant Williams started to pull away from him. “Good. Thank you, Private First Class Renton. I guess I won’t have to kill you. The Noraks will still be able to do it for me! Move it, 4th Platoon! Get your butts into the Blazer! Move! Move! Move!”
The 20 marines of 4th Platoon, 1st Battalion filed into the Blazer and quickly took their seats. They secured their gear under their seats, and their rifles in the clamps beside their seats. Then they strapped themselves in for the drop. Sergeant Williams prowled the left side, and Platoon Sergeant Jefferson inspected the right. The sergeants inspected each Space Marine, and ensured that everyone was locked in correctly, and their equipment was stowed. A loose pack could turn into a missile during a high-g drop. After a few adjustments, everyone was deemed secure. Sergeant Williams stuck his head up into the crew compartment to inform the loadmaster that everyone was secure. Then Williams took his own seat, while the loadmaster double-checked everyone. Once he was satisfied, he headed back for the crew compartment.
Renton looked over at the Sub Lieutenant. His face was white as a sheet. He’s going to lose his lunch again, Renton mused. When someone's stomach empties in free-fall, it’s not pretty. During the Norak drop, Sub Lieutenant Mike Diamato had emptied his. Renton though that just having that experience would keep someone from doing it again. He imagined that his theory was about to be tested. He looked across the troop compartment, and watched the light display near the ceiling. It was still red, which meant that they weren’t ready to drop yet. Suddenly he could feel the Blazer shudder. He glanced at the light display again, which was now burning bright amber. The Blazers on the lower tiers were dropping.
Sergeant Williams shouted on Last time, “Remember to deploy in formation, troops. When that buzzer goes off, I want weapons in hand and your butts on that ramp. Got it?”
They responded in unison, “HOO RAH SERGEANT!”
The light turned green, and a muted clang was heard. Suddenly the world fell out from under them.

“Captain, all Blazers have been dropped. Mongoose is now beginning her climb out of orbit,” the sensor officer reported.
Gina didn’t look away from the tactical display floating in front of her captain’s chair.
“Weps, I want you ready to knock out anything you see. Pay particular attention to the mountain ranges. If we’re going to have trouble, it will come from there.”
“Aye, aye, Cap. I’ll hit whatever you tell me to.”
Gina’s mind whirled a mile a minute. She was trying to access threats from whichever quarter they may appear. Nothing so far, but the invasion had just begun.

PFC Renton opened his eyes. The entire drop was just almost a distant memory. He had just felt the sideways tug as the landing sled’s retro engines fired, braking the Blazer. In a few moments, they would be on the ground. He was half expecting to wind up scattered across the atmosphere, but that was not to be his fate today. Absently, he wondered how the other platoons were faring.
Suddenly there was a thud. That would be the sled touching down. The pilot of the Blazer was loose from the sled in moments. The hover engines of the Blazer began to whine, and the pilot moved her forward a bit. He then pivoted the Blazer on its axis, turning a full circle and scanning the horizon. No buzzer meant no enemy close by. After a few tense minutes of waiting, Sergeant Williams held up the ok sign for the sub lieutenant. That meant that the entire company had survived the drop. Then Renton remembered that the lieutenant had most likely been sick all over himself. He turned to look, and saw nothing. The sub lieutenant sat in his seat, attempting to get his headset back on. He looked a little beaten up, but he hadn’t lost his lunch. For some reason, Renton felt proud of the sub lieutenant. Enlisted men weren’t supposed to like officers, but maybe this one would turn out ok. He gave the sub lieutenant the thumbs up. The sub lieutenant, having gotten his headset back on, smiled warmly and gave Renton’s thumbs up right back.

On board Mongoose, Major General Brooks watched the battle unfold from his command center. The tensest moment had been during the actual drop, when the Blazers were sitting ducks falling thru the atmosphere. The Blazers had made it down in one piece, every single one of them. Since the planet only had one major landmass, the entire brigade moved from the three drop zones and converged 10 miles from the main city. Brigadier General Townsend ordered the entire brigade to assault the city. General Brooks watched closely, expecting troops to come swarming out of their hiding places to try and overwhelm the Space Marines. It never happened. The planet of Regotha III was taken without a shot being fired.

PFC Jake Renton was up before and standing by the ramp as soon as the buzzer went off. Sergeant Williams was the first in line, and shouting orders to the platoon.
“DO NOT fire unless you are fired upon. General Townsend has reported no resistance to our assault, and he doesn’t want any if he can help it. If you fire without provocation, you will be brought up on charges. Is that clear?”
As one, they replied, “HOO RA SARGEANT!”
Sergeant Williams turned around. “Ok, get ready…”
The ramp opened with surprising speed. Renton was out and on the ground before he knew it, his rifle pointing ahead. It wasn’t until he had a moment to access the situation did he become surprised. Choking the streets, lying prostrate before them, were millions of Norakians. They were chanting something, but they did not move from their positions. One Norakian moved from out of the crowd, his three legs making his move with a curious gait. Renton aimed his rifle at the Norakians head, and tensed. Suddenly the Norak stopped and shouted in a strange, lilting voice, “We wish to no more fight. Norak surrenders! Norak surrenders!”
A cheer rippled thru the brigade. Regotha III was theirs, and the Norak were out of the war.

Grand Admiral Urian and Commandant Shawn Hunter entered the Chairman’s office. He was sitting on his balcony, drinking what looked to be dachenberry juice.
“Out here, gentlemen. Join me outside and help me to enjoy the day.” The Chairman was sitting at a table, his uneaten lunch sitting before him.
Hunter cleared his throat. “Sir, we have news from Regotha III. We have taken the planet, sir. There were no casualties on either side. It appears just before the Space Marines dropped, the High Priest had a vision from their goddess. She told them that it was their destiny to join with us in harmony, and that we would form one society that would rule the galaxy. Sir, the Norak no longer oppose us.”
Both men saw the Chairman’s face flush with color.
“Gentlemen, this is a great day. You can’t know how happy this makes me. Also, it makes me happy that we did not have to wipe out their entire race. Thank you both for this. Without you, this would never have happened.”
The two officers beamed with pride. The Chairman invited them to stay for lunch. He had suddenly regained his appetite.

The people were buoyed by the bloodless victory. While there was still a long way to go in this war, the victory over the Norak was a sign that they might be able to come thru this war intact. Chairman Sachmo had Regotha III renamed Providence, in honor of the bloodless end to the conflict with the Norak. The 1st Space Marine Brigade secured the planet until regular Army troops could be brought in to keep the peace. Also, construction was immediately begun on the first Urban Pacification Center. The Chairman was determined to bring the remaining Norakians into the Remorhaz Society.

Artemis, Hawk, Mongoose and Comet were docked at the newly captured Providence Space Yards, and a refit was begun. Comet was to be refitted as a Nemesis Class Frigate. If there were a need for it, another planetary attack ship would be built, but Chairman Sachmo wanted to avoid the destruction of colonies, and so wanted to avoid using them, and specifically planetary napalm, if at all possible. Nemesis and Furious were ordered to rendezvous with Gamma Fleet at Norak.

2408.6

This month was spent mainly in consolidating gains and redirecting forces. Once Gamma Fleet had most of it’s assets reattached, they would attempt to access the position of the Rage forces. Since the Rage had a rather large fleet patrolling the Lundra system, Gamma Fleet would have to be very careful not to get caught in a bad situation. Once again, it was hoped that a Rage fleet could be lured into the defensive system outside of the Lundra-Lapzooli wormhole, but that couldn’t be counted on.
In the Yukra system, once the shipyard was constructed on Timerron, more ships would be added to the Yukra Defense Fleet. Once sufficient asset strength was built up, offensive operations could be considered, but the General Staff decided that the Rage would have to be knocked out first. After gaining more intelligence on the Rage disposition, the main offensive would begin. The target would be the Fezzran system, and the liberation of Cirius. It was time to turn the tables on the Rage.

To be continued...

[ July 11, 2002, 15:35: Message edited by: sachmo ]

[Atrocities]

more please.

[dumbluck]

I wouldn't want you to think that Atrocities was your only fan

[geoschmo]

Definetly not! This has become the first thread I look for when I come to the Shrapnel forum thesse days.

[sachmo]

Thanks for reading, guys. I'm glad you're enjoying it almost as much as I am.

[Ragnarok]

Dang, just finished reading the latest sotry. Great job.

[sachmo]

Things quiet down

2413.7

The work of the Research Guild continued to reap benefits for the Remorhaz Society on both the home front and the front lines. The advances in computer technology and scientific theory made possible a new research system that would instantly link all of the research done in one lab with what was being done in another, allowing efficiency of the research done in the labs to be increased by twenty percent. The new lab system was being installed first on the planet Hera, and would not be complete for another eight months, but the researchers were predicting a major increase in productivity.
Another successful project completed this month was the application of contra-terrene propulsion technology to missile weapons. These engines, which has already increased the range of the ships by fifteen percent, increased the missile range by twenty percent while also allowing a larger warhead to be mounted on the missile.
While experimenting with missile propulsion, a new class of missile was manufactured. Taking the principle of the emergency propulsion pod and its anti-matter core and combining it with the anti-matter warhead from an anti-matter torpedo produced a smaller but faster missile called the plasma missile. The biggest drawback of the plasma missile was its short range and lower damage at long range, but its quickness was a significant improvement.
The Design Bureau immediately upgraded all of the plans for the missile-carrying ships to incorporate the new generation of capital ship missiles, and began exploring the options that the plasma missiles would give them.

More mining plants opened on Correlia as the lull in fighting continued. Thanks to the exploits of the Navy in the many space battles over the planet, colonists began to arrive in greater numbers, eager to start a new life on the frontier. As more workers came, new industries had to be created to support them, and Correlia was rich in minerals, making mining the industry of choice on the planet.
The Ukra-Tal sent yet another single ship into the system. It moved to within one sector of Correlia before Rear Admiral Hitcher ordered the entire fleet to intercept the ship.
Over Iolo V, they caught up with it. The Ukra-Tal ship was yet another new design, the Hvittingfoss. It appeared to be yet another armed colony ship, this time a gas colonizer, and it was packed from bow to stern with Ukra-Tal colonists.
Hitcher ordered the ship to be hailed and offered surrender terms. This was, of course, not answered. The Remorhaz fleet destroyed the enemy colony ship in short order. The system was clear once more.

The feared and anticipated showdown in Lenoltris was not to be. Fleet Admiral Reed watched as the enemy fleet slowly withdrew closer to the Yukra wormhole, where he expected them to adopt a defensive posture. Instead, within a week, the entire enemy fleet entered the wormhole and headed back into their system. While it was true that they had a numerical advantage over the Remorhaz fleet, Reed had hoped that they might be able to goad the Ukra-Tal into attack Highrock, or splitting their fleet to go after multiple objectives, allowing his own forces to meet them on a much more even footing. Their retreat would allow him to absorb the ships from task force 1.1, and after that point if the Ukra-Tal came back with another large fleet, he could have more hope of meeting them on an even footing.
Two weeks later, Santos arrived at Highrock with his task force. Task Force 1 would be able to hold its own, now.

In Fezzran, the local industry worked feverishly to manufacture space mines. If they could get them built and launched in the next few months, they would be able to close the Last major hole in the Lenoltris front line. After that, the Ukra-Tal would have to fight to get through to the rest of the society.

[sachmo]

Recon in Force

2414.0

Deep under the surface of Correlia, men watched the skies. The Iolo system was displayed in the center of the room as a holographic image, and this image was always being watched by a team of naval officers, watching for any sign that the enemy was coming. For the past week, there had been signs, but as usual, they didn’t make much sense to the humans who watched for them.

The enemy was present in Remorhaz space, but they did not bring numbers with them. In Sector 4-10, a lone Gol class cruiser drifted lazily between the Yukra and Wanduk wormholes. It seemed that the Ukra-Tal commanders knew that their enemies would not chance leaving Correlia open to attack, and so would not molest their journey through the system.
Of greater concern to the underground watchers was the Rasbokil class battle cruiser in Sector 2-4, following a course that would lead it to Correlia. This ship was an unknown enemy, and had never been faced by the Remorhaz navy before. How much damage could it hope to do against Thom Hitcher’s task force 3 and it’s eight ships of the line?

Aboard RSS Odysseus, Hitcher had already decided to find out. It was vital to the rest of the fleet that the enemies rapidly changing capabilities be accessed and recorded, and if this could not be done by electronic spies, it would have to be done the hard way, in combat. Knowing that the battle cruiser would outgun even his most powerful ships, he decided to take the whole task force out the meet it, and hopefully destroy it.

The trip out was uneventful, and on the fifth day out of Correlia, they met the enemy ship. Hitcher divided his force into two units. He led the main task force, consisting of the destroyers Midguard and Narvik, and the light cruisers Odysseus and Orion. Commodore Landover led the second element, made up of the destroyers Shining Victory and Skydancer, and the light cruisers Mount Thunder and Xanthe. Landover flew his flag on Mount Thunder.

Hitcher watched from the command center as his task force cut through the darkness, bearing down on the Ukra-Tal battle cruiser at maximum speed. Long range scanners began to probe the enemy ship, and after burning through the enemy jamming, a clearer picture of the enemies capabilities began to form.
The Rasbokil was a barrage ship, loaded down with seekers. Hitcher could only guess that the Ukra-Tal had sent the ship to try to bombard Correlia from maximum range and then flee. With a stronger escort, the ship may have been able to do some damage, but Hitcher doubted it would survive very long against his own ship’s phased-polaron beams. He was confident his ships would be able to stand up to whatever seeker barrage the enemy battle cruiser could throw at them, and launch a counter-attack that would eventually wear it down to a hulk.

Hitcher keyed his com unit and switched to the command net.
“Gentlemen, let’s keep the formation tight. I want to maximize point defense fire.”
Then he watched as the two separate elements quickly closed formation, creating what he hoped would be a withering wall of fire to defeat all of the seekers fired from the Rasbokil.
At maximum range, the battle cruiser opened fire. A wave of over fifty parasite seekers screamed toward the Remorhaz battle line, but when they reached effective point defense range, they were all destroyed in short order. Employing usual tactics, the Ukra-Tal ship moved to keep at maximum range while his crew readied another salvo of their living seekers.

Hitcher was surprised when the Rasbokil quickly fired another salvo of seekers, minutes before he thought they should be able to.
“Weapons upgrade. That’s bad news,” he said to no one in particular. If the Ukra-Tal were able to put more ordinance into space in a shorter period of time, it would take away one of the advantages that the Remorhaz forces had over them, which was the ability to hit their ships between seeker salvos. His ships continued on, as the point defenses defeated the second wave of seekers without damage. However, the Ukra-Tal ship was able to keep ahead of the task force, matching their speed and retreating from close combat with the Remorhaz ships.

Hitcher weighed his options, and finally decided to take a risk. It was a small one, but he wanted to catch the enemy ship, and with his speed, he wasn’t sure he would be able to get close enough to hit him with his beam weapons. He opened the command net again.
“Beta element,” he said, speaking to Landover’s force, “split off and go for the fork.”
On the screen, his junior officer nodded.
“Yes sir. Executing fork.”
Hitcher decided to split his force into two elements again, hoping to catch the enemy ship between the two forces and cut off his options for disengagement. The downside of this maneuver would be that the point defense fire from either group would not be as strong as it would if the forces were together, and his ships were at greater risk. Still, he felt that they would still be able to defeat the Rasbokil’s attacks, and hopefully get some of their own in as well.

The forces moved apart, with Hitcher’s force continuing to trail the battle cruiser and Landover’s four ships moved off at a right angle to them.

Perhaps the Ukra-Tal commander guessed what the Remorhaz ships were doing, because he fired another salvo of seekers and moved quickly to cross in front of Landover’s force. If he could get past them without sustaining much damage, he would leave Hitcher’s force too far behind to do any good in the engagement, and then maybe he could pick off one of the Remorhaz ships. Midguard, Skydancer, and Shining Victory all fired small missile salvoes at the enemy ship, hoping to slow him down and allow the pursuit to catch up with him.
The point defense fire from Hitcher’s element defeated the seeker salvo, but the Ukra-Tal commander was extending his escape path. The Remorhaz salvo did nothing to slow him down, and he moved full speed to try to escape the outside of the “fork” maneuver. Mount Thunder was able to close within four hundred miles of the ship, but that was still about one hundred miles out of range. Hitcher frowned slightly at the thought of losing his quarry.

Finally, the task force got its chance. Skydancer was able to get within beam range, and they opened fire, but missed. Shining Victory also was in beam range, but also missed, mainly because of very heavy jamming coming from the enemy battle cruiser. Both ships fired missile salvoes. Mount Thunder lashed out with a powerful broadside of beams, but was only able to hit the Ukra-Tal ship once. Gashed appeared in it’s armor, but no major damage appeared to have been done to the huge ship.

The Rasbokil fired yet another parasite seeker salvo at the Remorhaz fleet, and Hitcher prepared to give chase. The enemy ship had escaped the gauntlet relatively unharmed, and it would be a very near thing if Hitcher hoped to catch back up with him. Then the enemy captain did something extraordinary. He reversed course, and made as if to fly directly between the two Remorhaz elements! Hitcher watched the plot with his mouth agape, dumbfounded by this maneuver. The ship had made good it’s escape, but here it was, charging his battle line like a mist bear with a thorn in it’s paw. He quickly recovered, and decided not to squander his good fortune.
“All ships fire at will,” he said calmly over the command net. Immediately, his order was obeyed. Before the beam fire opened up, the Remorhaz seekers did their damage, however. The Rasbokil fired its counter missile projectiles effectively, but they were quickly overwhelmed. Missile after missile slammed into the ship, but were unable to bring down the battle cruisers shields. Still, the shields were heavily damaged, and would not stand up to much more punishment. Some of the damage done to the hull be Mount Thunder had already been repaired by the living armor that covered the ship, but Mount Thunder got a second chance. The Rasbokil was only thirty miles from her when she opened fire, point blank range in space combat. Mount Thunder hit with every shot, and the phased polaron beams penetrated the ship’s shields without losing any energy. The beams burned down the length of the battle cruiser, burning off armor and weapons alike. When it was over, the Rasbokil was venting gas from a number of hull breaches, and two of its seeker launchers were destroyed. Orion closed in and bLasted the ship with two more salvos, igniting secondary explosions within the hull of the battle cruiser. Odysseus delivered the coup de gras, delivering a withering beam attack that finally caused the huge ship to explode.

Their mission accomplished, Hitcher turned his forces for home, allowing the Gol to live another day.

[sachmo]

Highrock Hold Em’

“The way I see it, ma’am, we have three choices,” Rear Admiral Hitcher said.
“One choice is that we abandon Guardian. We’ve done it before, at Nova.”
In spit of themselves, the other officers in the command center stared at him in shock.
“It wasn’t our most glorious moment, but it did allow the fleet to concentrate and then counterattack, and that counterattack didn’t stop until the Rage were crushed.”
He looked around the table, and met the eyes of his commander.
Admiral Gina Jager nodded.
“Go on, Thom. I want to hear everything.”
Hitcher nodded, and continued.
“The second choice would be to split the fleet between Guardian and Highrock. Both forces would be backed up by considerable ground batteries, and might be able to withstand a Ukra-Tal attack.”
He glanced around the room again, and sensed that this was the plan most of the staff agreed with.
“Third option is my favorite,” he smiled. A few of the officers laughed.
“We could engage the Ukra-Tal fleet in transit, see if we can whittle down their numbers somewhat, then fall back to Guardian or Highrock and meet what’s left in a defensive battle.”
Hitcher sat down and waited for the responses to come. Gina tapped the table with her finger while studying the holographic image of the Lenoltris system glowing over the table. On it she saw her battle fleet, Task Force 1, stationed over Highrock. The support task force, under Commodore Santos, was on station near the Yullado wormhole in sector 6-0. In sector 1-6, on a direct course to Guardian, was a fleet of thirty-two Ukra-Tal ships. Most of the ships in this fleet were cruisers, but also mixed in were three battlecruisers and nine light carriers. It was a very formidable force, and it was presenting her with a number of problems.

As she saw it, the biggest problem was that her fleet was not strong enough to defeat the Ukra-Tal force in direct combat. Even with the advantage of phased-polaron beams, the Ukra-Tal fleet would overwhelm her ships with their firepower. If that happened, and her fleet was destroyed, the Ukra-Tal would have a direct path to Remorhaz. Obviously, she couldn’t let that happen.
But she also couldn’t let forty-two million Remorhaz citizens die in a planetary bombardment, either. Then Remorhaz People’s Navy was created to protect the citizens of the society, and it was her job to carry out that mission. If there had been more time, and the defenses of Guardian had been built up a little more, the position would be much more manageable, but time was up. The Ukra-Tal were headed for Guardian, and they intended to destroy the outpost. What she needed was a way to goad them into attacking Highrock instead of Guardian, and subjecting their force to the heavy minefield here.

Commodore Hank Nivend was the first to speak up.
“Admiral, I’d like to second Rear Admiral Hitchers option of moving out to meet the slugs,” he said.
“We could see if we can get them to launch their fighters early, and take them out first. That would seriously weaken their combat power. Then we could close with the cruisers and do as much damage as possible before withdrawing.”
A few of the other officers spoke up in support of this plan, offering their advice on how best to conduct the operation.
Hitcher stood up. “Everyone, there is something very important to consider before we ride out to meet the enemy.”
The room quickly grew quiet, and all eyes were on him.
“We are all that stands between the Ukra-Tal and Remorhaz. If this fleet is destroyed, nothing will stop them from penetrating deep into the society. It will have to be a hit and run attack, because we just don’t have the assets to take that fleet on directly.”

Everyone in the room took Hitcher’s words to heart. It was natural for them to want to engage the enemy in combat directly, but the Ukra-Tal still held a big superiority in numbers and tonnage, and the Remorhaz forces were just not strong enough to do much more than defend what they had, and pick off Ukra-Tal ships when they could. A stand up fight would probably end badly for the Remorhaz side.

In the meantime, Gina thought she had a solution. She typed information into her datapad even as her staff continued to discuss all of their option. Quickly she finished, and the forces on the hologram started moving.
“Ladies and gentlemen, do you think this will work?”
Again, the room fell into silence as they watched the hologram play out Jager’s battle plan. Rear Admiral Hitcher chuckled as he watched.
“Gina, I knew there was a reason you were so good at poker.” The room broke into relaxed laughter.

Commodore Santos watched from the command bridge of RSS Scorpion as Task Force 1.1 moved into Highrock orbit and joined up with the destroyer RSS Firefly and the cruiser RSS Shiro Sakazawa. Once all of ships were in position, he ordered his staff to stand down. It would be days before they knew what the Ukra-Tal were going to do, and so wanted everyone in the task force to have a two day dirt-side pass. If they Ukra-Tal took the bait, his people were going to have company very soon, and he wanted his people to enjoy themselves as much as possible before the battle was joined.

Task Force 1 moved to Guardian, taking the bulk of the combat power in Lenoltris with them. Their course took them into extreme range of the Ukra-Tal scanners, to make sure that they got a good look at the Remorhaz force. They wanted to make sure that the enemy commander knew that they were going to make their stand at Guardian. What must have been outside of their scanner range was the exact composition of the force remaining at Highrock. Admiral Jager hoped that the enemy commander would come after Highrock, and be forced to deal with the deadly minefield that surrounded the planet, hopefully taking a number of their ships out before they came within range of the planet. If they survived that, the survivors would have to deal with the ground defenses and the two remaining combat ships, which she hoped would be enough to keep any remaining ships from tearing into the rest of Task Force 1.1, which consisted of unarmed support ships. Her gamble was that the enemy commander wasn’t aware of the minefield, and he would go after the target that presented him with the least resistance, which would appear to be Highrock, she hoped.
On the other hand, if they went after Guardian, Task Force 1 would make a stand there, backed up by the ground defenses there that would hopefully add some much needed firepower to the Remorhaz side. Either way, the Remorhaz forces had played their best hand. How much they stood to lose remained to be seen.

The Ukra-Tal took the Highrock bait. In the command center, Admiral Jager watched with growing satisfaction as the most effective weapon in the Remorhaz arsenal, the Correlia space mines, annihilated the entire Ukra-Tal fleet.
“No targets remain, Admiral,” one of the sensor officers reported as the Last enemy ship disappeared from the strategic display.
Gina allowed herself a tight smile.
“Alert Commodore Santos that there will be no breakthrough to deal with. Luckily for us, the slugs haven’t figured out how to spot a bluff.”