The Icaran Empire (a late game story)

[Starhawk]

Hmmm no replies maybe not a good omen

The Long Road to Victory

It had been a month since the offensive against the Earth alliance had begun and thousands on both sides had died in the assault. Praetor Leonidas paced the halls of his palace on Icara and read the flexy pads in his hand with a stressed glint in his eyes, he would be making his speach to the Icaran population in a few moments and he was unsure of how his people would feel, he knew they were loyal to him and would follow his orders to the Last but he was afraid that they would lose hope.

"My Lord Praetor your on, please the camera crews and writers are here." A young woman shrank behind her notepad as Leonidas looked at her, picking up on her fear Leonidas gently smiled at her and in a soft voice thanked her as he walked towards the press room.

As he walked into what was more like a grand hall then a press room Leonidas noticed that there were many aliens in the news teams and remembered reluctantly that these aliens only added billions more citizens that he would have to care for. As he stepped up to the podium and the holo scanner registered his image and projected it all accross the Human portion of Icara the camera crews from the other parts of the Empire focused.....then the hall fell silent and Leonidas cleared his throat softly and began to speak.

"My fellow Icarans one month ago the brave soldiers and spacers led the starting offensive of the first Star Crusade. Unique among the history of Icara was that not only Humans took part in this offensive but an entire regiment of Borbora soldiers was launched with the first fleet....among this advance in culture the first of our Imperial Storm Troopers struck an Earth world with the full might of our glorious empire, they suffered the fewest casualties of any unit involved in the invasion and if this trend continues it may be some day that all Imperial Guard forces have detachments of Storm Troopers, bringing about a new age of military technology and making our Guard regiments even more the bane of those who would appose the will of Icara!" as Leonidas waited for these words to sink in he rubbed his right hand through his grey hair and thought for a moment.

"Our Crusade against the Earth Alliance is not just to bring Icaran rule to the galaxy freeing our people from the constant struggle of war against these alien races and our ancient Earth enemies but it will finally give our people true and undeniable victory over our enemies and bring peace throughout this galaxy. A long War is ahead of us and those brave crusaders that right now fight accross the planets of our enemy to bring YOU MY PEOPLE......OUR SONS OUR DAUGHTERS RIGHT NOW FIGHT not for me, not for my rule, or my sainthood but for you my brave and loyal people! They fight and die for you so I ask you now, join the service, join the workforces of industry and support our soldiers and spacers in their goal to bring you victory, to bring us all out of this long night of strife and death into a new age of peace and prosperity where our worlds are guarded by the largest and most honorable military ever formed!"

The Icarans were a warrior people and no one knew this better then their Praetor, he thought to himself that millions or maybe even billions would die in this horrible war but by sheer force of will he would make sure that it was the Last his people would have to face for generations.

The praetor answered a few questions and then calmly stepped off the podium and towards a squad of his golden armored storm troopers who escorted him to his waiting transport.

The Crusade Continues

In the Xillantha system the 1st fleet continued it's advance against the Earth Alliance, in one month they had lost 2 starships, 50 bombers and 10 storm troopers which made Fleet Admiral Shimizawa more then a little concerned for the stability of his fleet and it's ability to conquer the remaining Earther colonies within the Empire.

Scanning only a single weapons platform he ordered just one base ship named Hotspur foward to remove the weapons platform and allow the 1st Cadian regiment to prove themselves in battle. Although personally he did not fully trust the loyalty of these alien Borbora he would never question an Imperial order passed down from the Praetor himself.
As Shimizawa watched the Hotspur make it's approach he was shocked by the sheer firepower that the single Earth platform put out....however when the Hotspur came in range his shock only increased when he realized that the powerful Wave motion guns of the Hotspur were not enough to destroy the earth weapons platform. When he saw the counter fire from the surface Shimizawa grimmaced, as the beams lanced from the surface of the Earther world they cut massive gashes in the hull of the Hotspur taking down it's weapons and killing 200 crewmen.

"Damnit all, send forward two more base ships NOW! damnit take some fire off of the Hotspur before she's destroyed."

A very angry fleet Captain Michael Chen barked out orders to the captains of two of the fleet's base ships. Although he and Shimizawa had both come from the world of Mandow and was familiar with the reasons for the Admiral's tactics he had previously warned his Admiral that they should advance with at least three warships from the start yet the Admiral's unwillingness to listen cost the lives of 200 spacers...

Watching grimly as the enemy platform opened up on the new threats Admiral Shimizawa ordered the 1st Cadians to advance even though his ships had not yet cleared the platform arrogantly beleiving that his base ships could do anything if given the chance.

Fortunately for the thousands of soldiers aboard the three advancing ships Shimizawa was correct in his bold plan and the platform was destroyed quickly enough by the wave motion guns and the 1st Cadians were able to drop on the surface.

Bravely clearing out the Earth soldiers and leading many bloody charges against the Planetary defenders clearing out nest after nest of the enemy warriors leading to a swift and brutal victory over the Earthers.

But all of the men and women of the fleet knew that this was only the begining and that yet more planetary offensives against the Earthforce soldiers laid ahead and that when they were finished cleansing Icaran space of Earth colonies they would join Grand Admiral Thadius in the main Crusade against the rest of the Earth Empire....many wondered rather hopelessly whether or not they had any chance of survival in a war that seemed so overwhelming in it's scope when the odds seemed so great against them.

The true question was, would Icara win through and bring a new stability to the universe or would they fall before their ancient enemy and hundreds of billions of their people die and their civiliation be forgotten or worse played up to be evil?

________

Another chapter to follow when I can So far the war goes well but most of their fleet still remains hidden from my view and I am sure that many of my outer colonies will fall which is why I evacuated them of billions of people and created an entire sphereworld just for them.

And by outer colonies I mean worlds that are dozens of jumps away from my empire...these guys were just a bunch of aliens that surrendered to me.

Oh and please tell me what you think okay?

[ February 26, 2004, 04:27: Message edited by: Starhawk ]

[Puke]

holy shmoly man, you have a back story going back to roman times, and a standardized TOE with descriptions of units!

is there a test later?

I like it. Please continue.

[Starhawk]

The Battle for Cephedra

"Alright Ladies! Our mission in Cephedra is far from over and we just got a new assignment." Lieutenant Jackson's voice boomed out over the whine of laser torches and wrenches as the tank crews tried to fix whatever damage had been done to their vehicles.
As Jackson came out of the shadow of a tank and Kemper caught a full glimpse he couldn't help but be intimidated by the massively muscled and war scarred officer who stood before his unit. Kemper stood frozen in front of his squad as Jackson walked passed him and down the line of squad leaders.

"It appears command wants to end the Campaign against the Cephedra system a little earlier then planned. Captain Mila Drake has been given a squadron of warships and a single Imperial Guard regiment by Grand Admiral Thadius in order to take Cephedra III....and your not gonna believe who they assigned for that sad sorry little mission." As a grin crossed The Lieutenants face a chill crept up Kemper's spine as memories of the first mission came flashing into his head and the thoughts of his friend Tye lying bleeding on the ground with an arm less then she should have. He felt lucky that she had indeed been saved by the battlefield healer's and her arm had been replaced with a genetic clone but still the nightmare of seeing that wound continued to play in his mind until a hard blow cought him in the chin and he felt himself falling to the deck.

"I said do you understand your assignment KEMPER! Now get your grabasstic peice of candyass off that deck and answer me!" Jackson stood over Kemper and looked down at the obviously startled Seargent with a grimmace on his face that Kemper swore would frighten even the devil to his marrow.

"Sir....I'm sorry sir I didn't hear you!" Kemper said as he tried to stand up only to have Jackson backhand him again and break his nose in one clean shot.

"Why my old grandmother would make a better Seargent then you Kemper...I said your squad is to join the 3rd and 20th squads 1st Company in an assault from behind enemy lines and take out the enemy command center!" Jackson had an odd canter to his walk when he was angry and right now that swagger showed clearly as he walked away from the still dizzy Kemper and continued barking orders down the line until he finally ordered the dismissal.

As the Lieutenant stormed off in a huff and glared at Kemper as he walked by Kemper felt a hand touch his shoulder and jerked to awareness.
Looking over his shoulder he caught a sight of Sarah Tye and abscently noted that the hand she was touching his shoulder with shouldn't even be there. He noticed a smile cross her face and grimly accepted her help to his feet with no little embarassment.
"You have one hell of a way with the Lieutenant there Eric keep it up and he'll either promote you or blow a hole in your head." She said with a laugh as Kemper playfully jerked his arm away from hers and glared.

"Alright, alright you heard the Lieutenant and unless you wanna invoke divine wrath we better get it in gear...MOVE OUT!" Kemper barked as his men began grabbing their combat equipment and donning the flak armor that they would need when they finally made the drop....


Three hours later Kemper's regiment was hidden behind the battle lines of the advancing Delta Squadron that Mila Drake had been given in order to take Cephedra III while Grand Admiral Thadius led the bulk of the fleet against Cephedri VIII.

__________________

At the same time as the Delta Squadron was leading it's attack against Cephedri III Grand Admiral Thadius was leading the Primus Imperium Fleet against the enemy world of Cephedri VIII.

"Admiral We are in orbit, standing by to fire on planetary defenses....they're own weapons have fired innefectively against the base ship Desolator who is standing by. Your orders admiral?" tactical officer Winston's voice was impassive as he counted off the numbers of Imperial warships compared to the two platforms that waited below.

"Order the Desolator and the Zues to open fire, then send the Blood hawks in and remove any trace of enemy defenses." Thadius rubbed his hands together and thoughtfully put them back in his lap to keep from rubbing his hair back again as he often did when he was anxious, especially now that it had turned grey with age.

The Zues and Desolator easily destroyed the weapons platforms, then for the first time Admiral Thadius had ever seen a chapter of storm troopers was dropped via landing craft onto the surface of the enemy world.
As the ships camera's zoomed in on the action taking place on the surface Thadius and the rest of the bridge crew sat in stunned silence as the Storm Troopers unleashed the hellish firepower at their disposal.

Earth troops were cut to peices as the Storm Troopers fired their AP battle rifles and ran at inhuman speeds through the perimiters of the enemy cities defeneses. But the slaughter did not stop at the enemy perimiters wherever anyone wielded a weapon even so much as a butcher knife against the Storm Troopers they were cut down without mercy, cowards trying to hide behind hostages found their efforts useless as advancing storm troopers fired through the hostages. The people defending the mineral mines didn't even see what hit them as Storm Trooper squads ripped them apart with APCs equipped with Auto cannons and Storm Trooper infantry ripped apart enemy troopers with their power armored hands or cut through them with AP rifles. The domed city was alight with fire as the storm troopers continued their brutal advance against the enemy.

"My lord they aren't human!" Thadius heard from one of his bridge officers as they watched the massacre. Thadius himself grimmaced at the fact that not only had these Blood Hawks cut enemy soldiers apart but at the unnecessary destruction of valuable facilities, including the poorly defended Atmospheric modification plant which would have come in handy.
If those were the future of warfare they truely would make the Empire invincible, simply for the sake that none would want to challenge such brutal soldiers.

________________________

Captain Mila Drake paced her bridge as she led her squadron into the battle aboard her flagship, Price of Whales. So far the enemy defenses had already crippled the dreadnought Mammoth and another dreadnought named Victory had been forced to fall back when the enemy breached her shields and knocked out her armor and two of her engines.
"Ma'am planetary defenses have fallen under our fire, should we send in the Imperial Guard?" her flag officer asked rather uselessly as he already knew the answer to his question.

With a Kurt nod young captain Drake ordered in the single regiment at her disposal and quietly prayed that she could pull this off, because if they couldn't then her orders were to glass the colony and kill millions of Earthers.

As the Ascension closed on the planet and began unleashing her landing barges a single small vessel darted out from the port side of the massive vessel, it's cargo was a platoon gaurdsmen from the regiment, their orders were to infiltrate the capital city of the enemy world and destroy the Alliance command center. She knew that these orders were unorthadox and that if they failed the the Platoon was lost then she would probobly face execution for negligence but she had to take the risk because unlike other worlds that the Icarans had taken from the Alliance which had their cities spread out accross the planet with large varieties of environment this world was an atmospherically engineered world and it's cities were tightly packed together meaning that millions of Alliance citizens were within a small area and if they could be organized by their military commander then a single regiment would do nothing against such an organized foe.

Platoon Lieutenant Jackson smirked coldly at Kemper as their drop ship came to a landing and the doors opened. Unlike with the main landing operations where the entire unit would charge foward immedietly this time they silently unloaded from their ship that had landed on the outskirts of the capital city of Cephedri III, as the advanced through the small wooded area on the outskirts they heard the sounds they were waiting for, the silence of mid morning was torn with the shrieks of AP rifles and the thunderous roar of auto guns and main battle cannons.

With a silent hand gesture Lieutenant Jackson waved his platoon foward and Kemper's squad moved up the center their rifles heald ready for battle.
As the reached the city limits an Alliance security squad caught a glimpse of them and opened fire with their PPGs catching one of the guardsmen in the shoulder and burning into the flak armor.
The order to fire was passed down from the Lieutenant and relayed by the three seargents of his command. As the guardsmen took aim and opened up with their rifles the alliance security troops took cover their black suited forms crouching behind transport vehicles and garbage cans and anything else they could use for cover.
Kemper took aim at one of the enemy troopers as they stood to fire and caught him full on the chest, with a brilliant orange gold flash on his vest and a dull scream the enemy shouldier fell dead over the hood of a ground car. The other security troops opened fire and another guardsmen took a hit on his flak armor and shrugged it off.

Finally one of the heavy weapons troopers was able to come forward and he sighted carefully down his grenade launcher and fired two grenades into the enemy position. After the sound of surpised screams and the eruption of magma grenades melted just about anything and anyone in the area where the enemy squad had once been Jackson ordered his platoon to advance again.

The stench of burnt flesh and materials was sickening as the platoon advanced through the gore and wreckage that had once been ten living men. Suddenly from the right flank Kemper heard a shout and what sounded like PPG fire met by AP fire. "Get down!" was all he managed to bark out before a PPG shot flashed past his face, as the platoon took cover and returned fire Kemper noticed two unmoving guardsmen lying in the street and realized that the Earthers must have set up a killzone in the narrow alleyway in an attempt to decimate his platoon before they could reach their objectives.

Hand grenades tossed by the guardsmen of the 20th squad pushed the Alliance troopers back enough for the 20th to charge them and slaughter most of them while the others quickly surrendered.
With their prisoners knocked unconcious and the other enemy soldiers dead the platoon moved on to their objective.

The military command center was a near fortress, two squads of enemy soldiers were visible and worse still was that they weren't the simple security troops that the guardsmen had just fought through, these were Earthforce marines and skilled soldiers that had seen the rigors of open battle before.

"Allright it's gonna get hot, but we can do this, grenade launchers keep back and start shelling them to cover our advance, flame throwers move to the center of your squads we're gonna want to burn em down once we reach em. Riflemen take point." Jackson's tone sounded like that of a drill instructor giving traning instructions to a recruit squad back in boot camp. With a volley of frag grenades from the grenade launchers the platoon advanced at a run torwards their objective.

Enemy soldiers ran for cover as the grenades exploded all around them sending many of their number falling to the ground with shrapnel in their bodies.
As the platoon advanced though at least some enemy troops secured a perimiter and began firing into them, several guardsmen fell dead or wounded at the enemy fire but the withering fire returned by the guardsmen cut down most of those enemy troopers that heald their ground.

As the enemy fell back inside the building the flamethrowers came forward and sprayed the hall with fire burning the enemy soldiers down where they stood or gagging them with the smell of incinerator fuel and burnt flesh.
Kemper's squad took point and charged into the building weapons blazing, cutting down multiple enemy troopers and even some of the staff that worked at the facility.
Placing a magma charge on the door that led to the enemy command center Kemper waved back the other guardsmen who were advancing.
"Unless you guys wanna melt I'd back up" he said with a grin as his unit fell back into the next corridor. As he ran back into the corridor Kemper pressed the button that detonated the charge and melted the doors into the enemy command center.

Taking Point Lieutenant Jackson fired his pistol streight into the heart of the enemy general as his men secured the rest of the command center neutralizing the enemy marines and command staff with ease.

"Send out the message Kemper, we've taken the base and all Alliance forces are neutralized." Jackson's voice sounded cheerful compared to it's normal tone and as Kemper saluted and spoke into his comns the rest of the platoon ensure the base was secure.

At the end of only a day's battle two more worlds had fallen to the Icaran Empire in the Cephidri system with minimal casualties sustained by Icaran forces.
In the Xillantha system too another world had fallen to the Icaran advance and it appeared that the Praetor's star crusade was going well for the Empire and at long Last it might be possible for the whole of Human race to come together under a single rule for the good of mankind.

[ February 26, 2004, 19:29: Message edited by: Starhawk ]

[Starhawk]

The Taste of Victory....bittersweet.

"Today on the Imperial News Network our top story is the Imperium's grand victory in the Xillantha and Cepheri systems. Our valiant soldiers have decimated any Alliance resistance and brought two new star systems into the Imperial fold.
Praetor Leonidas has declared an Empire wide day of celebration and prayer to honor our valiant warriors who brought us this victory and to mourn those 12,000 soldiers and spacers that died for the everLasting glory of Icara." The voice of the news anchor was full of practiced calm as she read the reports of the first victories in the grand crusade against the vile Earth Alliance and their unpure forces.
As the people watching were begining to cheer and celebrate the victory in these two systems which had taken six months and 12,000 young lives as well as the reported advance into Nizzorum and the capture of another world already there a single flexy was handed to the news anchor.

Anyone watching the news broadcast could see a sudden pallor come to the normally beautiful face of the news woman, tears began streaming from her face without control as she managed to find her voice.
"May I have your attention please, there has been an.....incident a terrible assault has commenced on the outer colonies in the Creterik system, the Icaran world of Menshara was captured by thousands of enemy soldiers and was then destroyed by the I.N.S.S Avalanche 124 million of our brothers and sisters died....an enemy fleet has begun moving through the system and has also destroyed the colonies on Creterik four and seven, the loss of life is." Her voice gave way into a soft cry as she put her head in her hand and her fellow anchor put his arm around her, his face to streaming with tears.
"The loss of life has been staggering, 1 billion Icaran and Toltayon lives ended, the earth assault fleet decimated the entire populations of these worlds without even attempting to capture them, they also destroyed both I.N.S.S Avalanche and it's 5,000 men and women and an unknown base ship and it's 15,000 man crew. Please call naval intelligence and civilian migration authorities for names of the dead and be aware that Imperial forces can not make it into Creterik in time to save the other worlds as far as they beleive, this means that billions more lives will likely be lost...." as another flexy was handed to the news woman she managed to staunchly read on.

"Our Praetor in his divine compassion has ordered an empire wide day of mourning and has vowed that this Crusade will not end until the Earth it's self lies either under the boots of our Guard and Storm trooper forces or until it is destroyed by our Navy whichever comes first.. Please stay tuned for further updates and pray for mercy on those lives that still remain in the Creterik system and in the systems that were mainly evacuated nearly five years ago today.. and of course for our brave men and women who will lead the charge against our enemy. God bless Icara and may he see her through this darkness stronger then ever."


I'd really like feedback because if you guys don't like this story well then I'll stop typing

[ February 29, 2004, 06:24: Message edited by: Starhawk ]

[Puke]

Originally posted by Starhawk:
I'd really like feedback because if you guys don't like this story well then I'll stop typing

i guess my vote only counts once. I know more of these hosers are reading the story, maybe they will speak up. I mean, dont get me wrong, this aint no pulitzer winning stuff. but its darn good fan-fic, and better than alot of trade paperbacks i have had the misfortune to read.

The battles are alot of fun, the characters are interesting enough to keep me coming back for more, its not overdone or totally cliche. Im not going to sit here and jerk you off by telling you its gods gift to literature, but its enjoyable. Better than some stuff thats posted here, nearly as good as some other stuff. I'd place it in the top 1/3rd of se4 fanfic.

If thats not high enough praise, consider that im being totally straightforward and honest, and not just yanking your chain out of politeness. If no one else responds, i dont know what to tell ya. maybe no one else reads story threads anymore.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

you must study, young grasshopper. study with the best.

http://www.baen.com/library/067157793X/067157793X.htm

the baen library. totally free, totally legal.

[Shrapnel]

I'm reading it.
Pretty good so far