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

[Starhawk]

The Reformation:

On Icara the Imperial Palace shined like a brilliant wall of pearl as the summer morning sun climbed high in the sky, outside of the palace nearly 15 million people crowded outside of the palace walls, all of them waiting for the Praetor to make an announcement that had been the focus of rumors and speculation for five months. Everyone in the Empire knew that things were changing; the government was in flux as the new Praetor began to reshape the very organization of the Imperial bureaucracy.
The hours passed and still the Praetor did not appear but more and more people on Icara began arriving outside of the palace, so many in fact that the Praetor’s Own Regiment had to call in three Imperial Marine detachments including an armored brigade to help them ensure the security of the Palace. Entire State Security brigades were also arriving to secure various perimeter positions and ensure that no riots or problems occurred.

At exactly 15:00 hours the massive palace doors opened and a tall figure wearing the dark gray tunic and space black trousers of an Imperial Official, his cap was plain and unadorned and he carried only a saber and a sidearm with no other adornments. The lone man walked up to a podium at the end of the pathway leading from the palace doors to the gates of the palace grounds. For a moment the crowd expected the man to announce the Praetor or for drums to begin playing, it was not until every news camera in the area focused in on the man that the crowd realized they were looking at Praetor Rodric himself; and for a long moment a stunned silence came over almost the entire crowd bringing an eerie silence to the Palace grounds, there was none of the pomp or circumstance people expected of the Praetor, no trumpets or guards lining the pathway it all seemed to quiet, and except for the humming of tank and APC engines the moment seemed frozen in time until the Praetor cleared his throat and the crowds began cheering.
After a moment Rodric lifted his hands to call for silence and the crowd slowly responded, Rodric smiled; an almost embarrassed expression on his young face.
“Ladies, Gentlemen and fellow citizens of the grand Empire of Icara, as you all know our people have been engulfed in an almost endless war for the past 30 years, in fact we’ve been at war since before I was born and entire generations have been swept up in battle and warfare and millions of our people have died. Yet it is with pride and honor I say that we have not wavered, that you my people have not wavered in our great cause even though we have all become tired of warfare and even though many of us have lost those we love to the Crusades.” Rodric paused and cleared his throat for a moment.
“My friends, my people it is with all my heart I swear to you that the wars will end within our generation if there is anything I can do about it, I have begun increasing military production, and have raised entire regiments of soldiers to go to the front lines and I have given our military commanders the control they need to take initiative and to crush our enemies!” the crowds began cheering again but Rodric quickly raised his hands for silence “However….” He paused as the crowds began settling down again “However, we have a long dark road ahead of us, and there will be much more blood shed in the cause of Humanity, and it is because of this long dark road that I have chosen to reform our security forces, as such I am hereby dissolving the State Security and changing responsibility for our citizens security to the newly formed military controlled Federal Security Division, it is my belief that placing this officer under the control of the military will help with some of the disciplinary problems that some of the SS brigades have suffered from in the past due to poor leadership choices made by civilian leaders including certain nobles who have raised SS brigades as a private security force.” The Praetor paused long enough to allow this momentous statement to sink in, the SS had been with Icara for over a thousand years but it was true that it had been becoming a more and more controversial and corrupted organization but to have it replaced in one fell swoop would still be shocking to most citizens who were used to the “Status Quo” of the Empire.
“I am also reforming the Army so that Regiments may be raised from any loyal world with enough populace and not simply those who are core worlds, the Navy and Marines have also promised that they will begin recruiting from all loyal worlds no matter their heritage, whether they are pure blood Icaran or are one of our conquests.” Rodric swallowed hard and waited as the crowds thought about what had just been said, some openly began shouting and screaming down the proposal others just stood in stunned silence, allowing non “pure” Icarans to raise entire regiments and to be recruited into the Fleet and marines seemed outlandish, it took generations for a world’s population to be considered “pure” Icaran but it had only been 20 years since many worlds had been brought into the Empire.
“This is necessary if we want to end the wars within our lifetimes, we can no longer afford to allow millions of people that could serve our Empire on the front lines go unused simply because they have not been part of this Empire for generations.” Rodric spoke calmly over the crowds shouting and gently nudged his mic volume up several levels to ensure he was heard.

After several hours the crowds calmed and the Praetor’s edicts went into effect, the office of State Security was dissolved as well as several of the “discipline challenged” brigades the rest were absorbed into the new Federal Security Division and the new officers and officials took over. The other reforms were quietly taking place as preparations for raising several regiments on worlds previously considered unacceptable was underway as well as the creation of armory worlds, who’s entire industrial base was switched over to the production of arms and munitions for the newly expanding military machine.

Throughout the Empire preparations for a war on a scale never before seen progressed slowly but ominously as hundreds of thousands of men and women were undergoing training to march against worlds many of them had never even heard of before and many had to come to terms with the fact that in all likelihood they would never see their homeworlds again.

[cshank2]

Wow, sounds like the Imperial Guard from WH40k, I like.

[Starhawk]

Well more like the way the English used to raise regiments but since WH40k based the IG recruitment style on that than indeed they do sound much alike either way glad you like.

And hey guys you can all be happy now I have officially disbanded the SS for the SD please tell me there are no evil organizations out there with the initials SD hehe.

[El_Phil]

Uhhhh sadly yes there is. The SD did stand for the Sicherheitsdienst which was another Nazi 'security' organisation. You don't have alot of luck with these acronyms do you?

[Starhawk]

Holy crap on a stick your joking!

:Charlie Brown: AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGHh

Screw it SD is final as I've never heard of them before lol

[Mephisto]

Uh, most Germans will know the SD for sure. Many Jews will. The Reichskristallnacht was mostly done by the SD, not the SS, if I'm not in error. Well, anyway, if you every want to publish in the German countries, SD will be a "nono" by law.

[Starhawk]

Meat to feed an angry beast:
The world of Thorsburg was a buzz as word spread from city to city that the Icaran Empire had finally decided to pay this former Rebel Alliance world some attention after decades of being nearly ignored beyond the production of starships. The manner of that attention though was the source of much strife within the political offices and even on the streets. The Royal Navy had arrived two days ago with twelve dreadnoughts and two massive currently empty troop transports and what they brought with them was an edict of levy which required Thorsburg to form two entire regiments of troops for His Majesty’s Royal Army to be dispatched on the grand crusade to conquer the Andermanian alliance.

To anyone on Thorsburg over the age of thirty it was a hard thing to be sure as they had seen their own alliance conquered by the Icarans, and now they were being told that they had to muster 8,000 of their young men and women and send them to fight and die in a war to conquer another democratic nation that the average citizen of Thorsburg only heard about on the news. In the streets of many cities “demonstrations” were assembled to protest the demand to raise regiments and hundreds were injured as local FSD brigades marched in with riot gas, stun batons and armored riot breaker vehicles.

********

The chancellery building was a relic of a bygone age where democracy governed Thorsburg and the young and promising “Rebel Alliance” was first stepping bravely out into the galaxy after shirking their oppressors it’s massive stone walls were made to resemble the buildings of the old Greek cities of long ago, the beautiful white stone still showed the horrible scars where the Rebel emblems were burned from the walls by the old “SS” brigades as the “pacified” the world and it’s population, it’s old fashioned fence was reinforced by an invisible “blast screen” and an entire FSD brigade was assigned to provide on sight security, inside was the first meeting the local Icaran governor had dared assemble with the local civilian government since his installment by the Praetor less than two years ago after his predecessor was hung for treason when it was discovered he had deliberately prevented tens of thousands of his people from joining the Royal Navy. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss this newest demand which the Empire had placed upon Thorsburg.

“Charlie those bastards have practically ignored us for the pats 20 years except when they send in crew transports to get the ships we build for their war machine, now they want us to raise 8,000 soldiers for them….it’s ridiculous!” Günter Heinz was governor of one of the cities that had seen the FSD deploy two brigades to break up a demonstration, in the process he had seen them inure hundreds of his people and arrest over a thousand others who have not been heard from since.
“Actually Günter it’s more like 28,000 including technical support staff, 4,000 combat troops and 10,000 support staff times’ two regiments.” Harold Schmitt spoke up from the corner and blushed slightly when everyone turned to him, he was a junior adjutant to the planetary governor and his main job was “work force” management so blurting out the actual numbers was only natural to him.
After a moment of silence Governor Ervin Katz grinned at his adjutant “He’s right gentlemen, 28,000 of our young people will be called upon to fight in a war that is hundreds of light years away and that does not even affect us, but there is nothing we can do about that, if you haven’t noticed there are twelve Icaran super dreadnoughts sitting in orbit and although the majority of people simply see them as escorting the transports, enough people know that they are really here to remind us of what happens to worlds that don’t fulfill their duties to the Empire and I don’t intend on making them prove it with a broadside.” The room fell silent again as the government officials present frowned in agreement, there was nothing they could do but provide the two regiments demanded of them.
“So how do we get those 28,000? No one from the planetary defense militia can be counted on, too many of them are ex alliance army soldiers, and those that weren’t are not exactly willing to leave home.” Günter said heavily as he pulled a flexi pad out of a pocket with the list of units in the PDM and their commanders.

Rudolf Heinrich, governor of a northern city spoke up “I’m afraid he’s right Charlie, however with the zeal our young people seem to show for the Empire and its armed forces we shouldn’t have a problem raising the recruits.”
The “zeal” that Heinrich mentioned came in the form of an almost religious respect and admiration the young people of Thorsburg had for the Royal Armed forces, they had grown up seeing thousands of soldiers, spacers and marines and they saw them as valiant heroes and adventurers who got to see the wonders of the galaxy, and the fact that a great many of these soldiers were only 15 and 16 inspired the youth of Thorsburg.
The vast majority of teens and school kids even sported the so called “trooper style” fashion to show their admiration as their clothes resembled the various uniforms of the Royal armed forces minus emblems and insignia of course.
“If that fat bastard Stein had just allowed our people to join the navy perhaps they never would have asked for two entire regiments to be raised.” Precinct Governor Ulrich spat as he mentioned the previous governor of Thorsburg.
“Maybe….maybe not Ulrich but that doesn’t matter anymore, this demand has been placed upon us and there is nothing we can do now but answer the call and begin recruitment of two complete regiments.” Charles paused a moment and turned to the chief financial advisor “Adolf how much money will this cost us? And how fast can we do this?”
The young man pulled out several flexi’s and passed them around the table “Well sir the cost in material is the first major problem, we’ll have to provide the recruits with food for at least two years, not to mention uniforms, weapons, and vehicles for at least 12 armored companies assuming the standard six per regiment.” Adolf Schultz paused as the others gathered around the table read off tonnages in metals, food and fabrics.
“The cost in credits would easily come to twenty eight billion credits per year as the regiments are being raised which our best estimates place at 26 months comes to a grand total of roughly seventy four billion credits after that the Empire will take control of paying salaries and maintenance costs.” Schultz winced as a woman slammed a palm on the desk.
“Damn it Governor that’s more than two years taxes to the Empire, and don’t forget we’ll still have to pay those taxes while these regiments are being raised.” Edwina Markov shrank back into her chair with an uncharacteristic blush “My apologies governor it’s just that, this seems unfair to our people.” She said more calmly and folded her hands on the table.

“Don’t worry about it Miss Markov, you just said what we’re all thinking….and your right this will prove a problem, we’ll have to raise local taxes to raise this regiment and still pay our tax to the Empire but we can and will manage it.” Charles lowered his head and spoke more softly “Alright ladies, gentlemen, let’s be about it we’ve got to feed an angry beast and he won’t wait for long.”

A week later recruits from all over Thorsburg were lining up at naval, marine and “regimental” recruitment offices all over their planet preparing to serve their Empire and join the ranks of heroes and adventurers that they had seen all their lives, many of those anxious new applicants were only 15 or 16 and had no idea what war really was like or that hell awaited them in war zones on planets they had never heard of before.

[Starhawk]

2438.7 Assault on Caitia:
Admiral William Jefferson Ross had been in the Royal Navy for over 40 years now even though it didn’t even exist as a functioning force until about 38 years ago, he had seen some of the most devastating warfare the galaxy had ever known, and he had met some of the bravest and greatest men and women his generation would ever know and he had seen far too many of them vanish in a plume of fire or worse lost forever in the depths of space and he often wondered how long this war could last, how long the Icaran people could sustain themselves with a war that never seemed to end except for long periods of boring patrols and station keeping while the higher ups decided who needed killing next.
Ross spun his command chair around to face the master holoplot on his flag bridge and thought with a wry grin Well William they’ve certainly given you an interesting job, he stared for what seemed a long time at the slowly revolving map of the Caitia system, the capital of the fledgling People’s Republic of Remorhaz and their last real holdout since most of their frontier worlds had fallen to the pack of hyenas that was the “Anderman Alliance” after the bulk of their navy was destroyed by Ross’ 1st fleet.
The plan to invade Caitia was simple the main subjugation fleet would strike against Caitia IV, the most heavily populated and defended world of the system, afterwards two strike forces consisting of a full Super Dreadnought division and a Regiment of Royal Army troopers would break away from the main fleet and take Caitia I and II in rapid succession forcing what few military assets the Remorhaz military had left to spread themselves against three targets which would put the superior Icaran forces at a distinct advantage.
As Ross ran through his plan in his mind a klaxon sounded throughout the flagship and a proximity alert howled from the tactical section and a halo began to glow around Caitia IV,
“Tactical what’s going on?” Ross turned to see his tactical officer turn almost grey as he read something from his displays. “Answer me tactical!” The Admiral barked as the young officer hesitated.
“Sir, I count two hundred Remorhaz satellites in orbit of Caitia four.”
Ross cursed under his breath as the numbers were confirmed by other ships in the fleet, their satellites had poor sensors and weak weapons, but two hundred would at least slow his fleet down and if he got in too close even primitive satellites could cut apart his fleet.
“Helm, tactical work together to keep us just inside our own bombardment envelope and keep us out of their own firing pattern.” Ross turned back to face the master plot and within moments saw his orders being carried out as a battle line formed and the fleet began trading fire with the satellites in orbit of the enemy world.
Fortunately for the Icaran fleet the Remorhaz sensors on these satellites were worse then even Ross had believed and though several Icaran warships took damage none were destroyed as they fired into the ring of satellites. The worst part of the engagement for Ross was the time taken by the bombardment even with the number of warships he had and their targeting sensors the bombardment took almost a day as Ross wanted no slip ups accidentally leading to tragic results on the planet below.
As the last satellite vanished in a ball of plasma the HMS Alexander took up a geosynchronous orbit over the enemy world and opened its massive bays revealing 390 drop ships tucked neatly into their drop racks, 3,900 soldiers of the 1st New Haven regiment waited anxiously as their mothership spun on her side, turning her drop bays to the planet.
The familiar dull metallic thump of docking clamps releasing came seconds before the sudden jerk of acceleration and then the jostling and gut wrenching twisting of atmospheric entry at high velocity as the dropship formations raced through atmospheric turbulence in an attempt to dodge the triple A that the enemy would unleash.
As expected the night sky of Caitia IV’s target zone lit up with brilliant flashes of light and fire as planetary defense batteries opened up on the Icaran invaders, most of the enemy fire was in vein as Icaran sensor decoys and drop pods baffled sensors, unfortunately for the Icarans not all of the enemy fire missed and a dropship carrying the 4th squad 2nd platoon Fox company burst into flames as superheated plasma tore into it’s hull, as the stricken dropship spiraled out of control and began breaking apart bodies and equipment were thrown into the surrounding skies and several dropships were splattered with blood and gore as bodies impacted.
A second dropship was shot apart killing twelve more soldiers before they could even touch the ground another dropship was destroyed as a tank from the other dropship landed on it.

The nightmare had only just begun for the soldiers of the 1st New Haven as they landed only to be met by a maelstrom of fire from Remorhaz Space Marines and planetary militia troops.
Major Liz Torrington, commander of C Company was forced to order her troopers to dig in as Remorhaz marines and militia troopers opened up on her company with a barrage of artillery and rifle fire. An entire squad had been killed in the first five minutes of the engagement as an entire Platoon of Remorhaz Space Marines stormed their position and fought at close quarters with bayonets and las pistols alike.
“Watch the right damn it, the little bastards are coming up on your right!” a voice on C Company’s com net shouted and Major Torrington turned in time to see what had to be a company sized force of Remorhaz Militia charging headlong into her heavy weapons platoon.
“Five platoon, get your asses over their and help heavy weapons out, Charlie Company dig in I repeat dig in.” Torrington paused for a moment when she heard the voice of 5th platoon Echo Company’s commander on her com.
“Ma’am that’s a negative we are pinned down, enemy artillery has a pretty good fix on us and the [censored] kickers aren’t letting up.” A shrill sound caused Torrington to yank her headset away from her ear. “Son of a *****” Torrington grimaced as she realized that 5th platoon must have just been jammed, she raised her binocs to her eyes and watched as the Remorhaz Company slammed into 3rd platoons position forcing the heavy weapons unit to defend it’s self rather then provide fire support for the other platoons in her company.
The heavy weapons platoon was barely holding off the enemy Militia Company, even as their auto-cannons and heavy slug throwers tore Remorhaz soldiers apart the Militia units returned a withering fire of their own and continued to charge forward.
Torrington turned to her own platoon and stood up and raised her right hand, as she did this her entire platoon stood up with her, she turned and faced the heavy weapons platoon and with a slicing motion signaled her platoon to advance through the hell storm of enemy fire to come to the aid of their comrades.
Enemy mortars whistled in with terrifying frequency and more then one of Torrington’s troopers was torn apart by a mortar, she herself was knocked to the ground by the legless body of a trooper who was thrown a meter into the air by a mortar shell. With a grimace Liz Torrington forced herself back to her feet and pushed forward until finally the Remorhaz soldiers that were attacking her soldiers were in sight, she quickly brought her rifle up to the ready and dropped to a kneeling position along with several of her other soldiers and almost in unison the trill of AP rifle fire and the burst of purplish blue spheres erupted from Torrington’s platoon killing or wounding dozens of Remorhaz militiamen.
Energy weapons were not the clean and civilized things that the people of previous centuries had assumed they would be, they caused horrific wounds which were usually un-survivable and a “lucky” person was one who only lost a limb as an energy weapon burned through their flesh and Torrington noted with only a slight twinge of disgust the acrid smell of burnt meat as she picked her next target and dropped a young Remorhaz woman who dropped her gauss rifle, a moment of shocked horror on her face as the life oozed out of her but Torrington didn’t have the time to pay any mind to this as she stood up and continued to advance with her platoon.
The Remorhaz troops fought valiantly and forced the Heavy weapons platoon to abandon their defensive position but with Torrington’s platoon swiftly flanking them the Remorhaz militia troopers soon found themselves at a massive disadvantage but they still would not yield and instead used the craters and trees they had just driven the Icaran HW platoon out of as a defensive position of their own.
With the Remorhaz militia unit pinned Torrington was able to order her heavy weapons platoon and her own infantry platoon to simply trade fire with the enemy soldiers at range and thanks to the devastating firepower of her HW platoon’s auto-cannons the Remorhaz soldiers were killed or wounded to the last man, with not a single one surrendering voluntarily.
The night was not over for C Company as it was sent in to assault several more enemy positions throughout the course of the night, fortunately for Torrington Dog Company had taken out the artillery positions and she didn’t have to worry about mortars cutting her company apart any more. The battle for Caitia IV lasted two weeks as the 1st New Haven regiment fought against the Remorhaz defenders tooth and nail for every inch of ground but in the end the Icarans simply had the technology and the air superiority to win the battle. However for the soldiers of the 1st New Haven it was a brutal meatgrinder that cost them a 85 soldiers.

Even as the battle for Caitia IV raged two more worlds in the Caitia system were under attack and these worlds were no less stubbornly defended by the Remorhaz soldiers stationed on them, and 215 Icaran soldiers paid with their lives to secure victory. Ross felt his optimism quickly fade as he noted that there was still an entire system to secure, and tens of millions of Remorhaz citizens attempting to flea the system, people he would have to order killed in order to prevent the Remorhaz from causing the Empire more trouble.