A War for the Stars

[Erax]

Atrocities : Thanks, will investigate.

To all readers : Have a little patience, folks. A LOT of stuff happened on 2404.9, I'm still trying to sort it out chapter-wise.

[Erax]

Seeker II, Captain's log, SGY 2404.9:

Our present location is Chorax, a barren system consisting of a few asteroid clouds drifting around the solid core remnant of an eons-old destroyed star. We are on a course back to Arkonne and then to the hyperconduit on the other side of that system. Sector astrographers hoped to find a connection to the Tachung system, but there is none.

The other Arkonne hyperconduit is more promising. If the system on the other side connects to HolLastin, we can take that route and resupply at Klozar.

CODED TRANSMISSION
From: Dr. Lorn Joh, Sector Research Division
To: Admiral Wiers

Syned I, 2404.9

Admiral,

Nova VIII has finally landed on Klozar VII. Our research teams, which joined the colony ship's crew when they stopped here to resupply, were out of the craft before the engines had cooled. They soon located the source of Captain Stran's energy readings - a huge, long-abandoned fortress-like structure located on an otherwise unremarkable plain.

Their initial findings indicate that this was a ground-to-space defense installation of some kind, similar to our own anti-orbital ion cannons. But the grand prize was the main emplacement itself, a nearly intact ion beam weapon. We are still analyzing tha data being transmitted to us by the onsite research teams, but we have ascertained that while this weapon is similar to the Empire's ion cannons, it is much more efficient.

I need not tell you the implications of this. We may have in our hands the first artifact that confirms the existence of the Ancients - and if the Ancients did in fact exist, then their servant races may also be real.

[ May 28, 2003, 12:13: Message edited by: Chief Engineer Erax ]

[dogscoff]

Still loving this story=-)

Atrocities, I followed you to that other forum. What a great place! I've stopped into your thread to say "hi".

[Erax]

I'm not sure if I'll be posting anything from this story there - it's too specialized (blow-by-blow turn report style) to interest anyone but SEIV players. However, if you have any comments / criticisms, send them to me via PM, I'll see what I can do. Please be kind, like Atrocities' story this one is my first. And I must say it's great therapy, I think I even lost weight.

[Erax]

Admiral Wiers' private log, SGY 2404.9:

I have appointed a team of naval designers to review the findings of Dr Joh's scientists on Syned. They are to determine possible military applications for the planetary defense weapon discovered on Klozar VII; assuming, of course, that we are able to understand this alien technology and replicate it.

On another note, construction programs have been concluded on some planets, which leaves us with a small but positive metals balance this tenth.

Fyrine IV has been launched on Berlin III and is on her way to the capital to pick up colonists, which will be transferred to the Syned system. Comet VIII has been launched here at the capital; she will refuel at Berlin III and Gandle Ott IV before colonizing Aram IV, the former Yakrin world that the Alliance depopulated. It is a small but fully colonizable world with excellent mining potential, just what we need at the moment.

We must occupy the Aram system quickly, to deny the Alliance that direction for expansion; they are quite powerful already as it is.

Black Saber I has launched from Gesaril V and is currently at Gesaril II, from which sector starfighter operations are being directed. She will carry a full squadron of TIE fighters and seven TIE bombers, which make up the remainder of the bomber squadron that did not board Black Sword III. She will also carry a full wing of fighter pilots who will man the defense starfighter forces in the Aram system. TIE fighters can be manufactured on a captured planet's industrial facilities, but we will have to import the pilots until we have a sizable human population in the system.

Alliance carriers will reach Aram I in the next few hours. If all goes well, this could be the decisive battle of the war.

[Erax]

Seeker I, Captain's log, SGY 2404.9 (first part):

The Alliance carriers came straight for Aram I as our Fleet waited on the other side of the planet. The two massive craft slowed down and began to release one wave of fighters after another. The fighters approached the planet and our ships like a giant, angry cloud of death.

We had Fyrine I and II in position over the enemy starport and spaceyard facilities, ready to drop our troops. Our current simulations showed that the Yakrin ground forces were too well entrenched on their mainworld for our meager invasion forces to stand a chance against them, but Fleet Command believed there might be a chance that they would surrender to us if the alternative were to be bLasted into dust by the Alliance. As the Alliance fighters approached, this chance was rapidly fading. The Yakrin refused to answer our signals, they were about to die attempting to defend their world.

We could do nothing but watch as the fighters deployed around the planet and poured a relentless storm of depleted uranium shells on the population centers below. We saw them destroy mining facilities, industrial complexes, even farms. They would show no mercy, this would be Aram IV on a much larger scale. And we could do nothing. The Alliance stubbornly maintained comm silence, as did the Yakrin. Neither would so much as admit our presence in this battle.

We watched as one quarter of the planet was depopulated. Then one third, then half of the planet. Their main starport was vaporized right under Fyrine I's nose and still we could only watch and update our planetary assault scenario.

The computer finally gave us the green light after nearly two-thirds of the planet had become a lifeless, crater-ridden wasteland. Fyrine II dropped her landing craft over the heavily-defended spaceyard complex, then moved away as Fyrine I approached. Ground-to-space fire was intense, and a quarter of the landing craft never made it to the ground. Many of those that did land were destroyed on the ground, before they could disgorge their Stormtrooper squads. The troopers that did make it out of their craft were soon involved in intense firefights in and around the spaceyard.

They did secure enough of the landing fields to allow Fyrine I's shuttles to land safely. The Army troopers of the First Planetary Assault Regiment helped turn the tide of the battle for the spaceyard, but by then there were barely enough functional Stormtroopers to make up a company.

Still they refused to let the Army finish the battle, and kept taking the point against surviving Yakrin militia units until the Last Stormtrooper fell. Casualties among Army personnel were also heavy, but after the battle around the spaceyard, enemy resistance fell off rapidly. In a few days, Aram I was ours, at the cost of all our Stormtroopers and 20% of our Army personnel.

To their credit, the Alliance fighters ceased their bombardment as soon as our troops approached the planet. They have since gone back to their carriers, which are now responding to our comm signals. We captured the entire Alliance operation on holo and transmitted the images to Starfighter Command on Gesaril II for analysis.

Now we must pick up the pieces down on Aram I. We will be sharing it with the Yakrin who survived and more than a billion alien ghosts.

[Erax]

Seeker I, Captain's log, SGY 2404.9 (second part):

While we were dealing with the Alliance incursion over Aram I, another battle was taking place in the system's outer reaches. The main Yakrin fleet, which had been following the Alliance carriers, made a twenty-five percent* turn to port and intercepted the TIE fighter group which had destroyed their satellite layer just outside Aram III, a barren methane-ammonia iceworld.

Our fighters had already expended too much of their fuel chasing and destroying the minelayer, so instead of engaging the enemy fleet Lieutenant Haad played an elaborate game of cat and mouse with the enemy, hiding behind the planet, darting in and out of range and firing the occasional pot-shot at their ships while dodging their bursts of depleted uranium shells.

We chose some of our best pilots for this mission and it paid off handsomely, two of the enemy frigates were all but disabled by well-placed shots to the bridge. This slowed down the enemy fleet considerably, allowing our fighters to break away and escape without a single casualty. They did, however, fire off a shot too many and now lack the fuel to make it all the way back to the Fleet on their own. We will have to send a carrier out to recover them, it would be a shame to lose them now after such an awe-inspiring display of skill.

We now have two intact Yakrin frigates closing in on Aram I and five frigates, two of which are crippled, drifting around Aram III. The Fleet is at full readiness, perhaps we can deal with all the Yakrin ships before this tenth is over.

* - The Imperial measurement system divides a circumference into 100 percentile points, so 25% = 90 degrees.