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

[Starhawk]

kick! sorry my first chapter posting in 4 months I want it to be at the top for a little bit

Or are you guys getting tired of my characters and stories

Oh and if your reading this wonder WTF is the story? it's on the bottom of the previous page (previous means prior or just before this one just in case you didn't know).

[Hunpecked]

The story has taken an interesting twist. The "pirates" remind me of the Reavers in the Firefly TV series.

[Starhawk]

2445.7 The growing darkness
“In dark times sometimes dark deeds are necessary for the salvation of all.”
Praetanii Elizabeth I just before a nuclear bomb detonated over Berlin and ended the Nazi Rebellion.

Admiral William Jefferson Ross was still rubbing the sleep from his eyes as his cutter began the twenty minute flight from his flagship to the Imperial Palace on New Icara; the summons had come at 0430 ship time when four Praetor’s Own guardsmen came aboard with an Imperial messenger. Ross had been woken up allowed only enough time to dress in full dress mess uniform, alert Commodore Fujita to meet him in the boat bay and get aboard the cutter that had taken the Praetorians and the Messenger to collect him.
Needless to say Ross was confused as to what could be so important that the Praetor would send four of his personal bodyguards-who could kill the entire 5,000 marine detachment aboard Ross’ own flagship-and an Imperial messenger to summon him and his second in command at such an early hour.
The Imperial messenger and the Praetorians came with Ross and Fujita for the fifteen minute flight and made Ross even more uncomfortable since none of the five Imperial representatives had said anything since the messenger passed the summons to Ross.
As the cutter passed over the Imperial capital Ross noticed absent mindedly that the cutter’s targeting alert was already sounding as dozens of weapons emplacements sighted on the small craft and at least two squadrons of Atmospheric fighters began scanning them.

Far below Ross finally saw the Imperial palace, the bright “sunlight” of the artificial morning gleaming off of the white stone buildings that made up the palace, acre upon acre of administrative buildings, barracks, apartments, vehicle parks, gardens, pools, a small lake, and landing strips were visible from altitude but it was not these that truly caught Ross’ attention it was the massive domed building at the center of all this, gleaming golden domes and spires of the palace its self shown brightly in the light of morning. In the midst of all these buildings the Icaran Admiral could just barely make out thousands of people moving about their daily business, also visible were thousands of red and gold clad figures, the soldiers of the Praetorian regiment, also visible were several APCs and tanks moving along the streets or keeping the perimeter secured. Ross could hardly believe the amount of firepower that was visible from this altitude; as he turned to Rukia to comment on this fact Ross tensed as the cutter made a sudden sharp descent toward the nearest landing strip.

Once the cutter touched down the Imperial messenger smiled –more a wicked grin then a smile- and gestured that Ross and Fujita should follow him and the Praetorians through the hatch. Once outside the cutter Ross noticed for the first time that several other cutters had touched down, each with Admirals, Generals, Commodores, Colonels and Praetorians stepping off of them. He didn’t know why they would call together what appeared to be the entire Flag-staff of the mobile forces to the Imperial Palace rather then the thousand click plus military base on the other side of the sphereworld.

“What’s going on Messenger?” Ross asked in as commanding a tone as he could manage through his tired confusion.
“The mobile forces commanders are being called together Admiral, that’s all I have been permitted to tell you.” The messenger said, completely unflustered by the way the Admiral was talking to him.
Ross turned to Fujita who simply shrugged and went to join the small cluster of staff officers that was forming between the cutters. After a moment of pure irritation William couldn’t help but grin, he mimicked Rukia’s shrug and walked over to join the other staff officers.

Several minutes passed before a small fleet of ground effect cars carried the gathered flag officers to a small corner of the palace which was surrounded by at least five companies of Praetorians with a tank platoon mobilized at the outer most perimeter. As the ground effect cars approached the building a massive door silently slid open allowing the cars to enter, inside what had appeared on the outside to be a small building there was actually a small roadway leading down deep beneath the surface of the sphereworld. A vast dome complex of hardened blastcrete and battle steel waited at the other end of the road and Ross for the first time in his life suddenly felt quite claustrophobic as the tunnel that surrounded the road way went from the transparent lidrium walls to the darkness of a blastcrete tube.

Not much was said on the short drive but once the car came to a halt and the doors opened to let William and Rukia out the Admiral stretched in the almost perfect “sunlight” and took in a deep breath finally feeling the claustrophobia beginning to pass.
Rukia gently nudged the Admiral with her elbow and smirked at his quizzical look.
“Look around sir……doesn’t it look familiar?” Her voice held a mixture of amusement and awe as she looked around her.
“Damn, it’s a battlemoon’s boat bay, except with artificial sunlight generators.” Ross noticed that the other officers in the vast “cave” of the battlemoon class boat bay were looking around in equal awe, any spacer knew that a ship’s light gave off only enough sun like qualities to keep a human healthy beyond that ship’s lights were dim and clearly artificial; sunlight generators on the other hand were massively expensive and only ever used on colony ships and some passenger liners, the presence of these generators suggested at the very least that they were not on an official naval battlemoon.

The Praetorians led the officers through the boat bay to the lift and finally to a huge room patterned exactly after the briefing room of one of the new Valiant Warrior class battlemoons that were still under construction. The officers took their seats and waited, a few muttering to one another others quiet.

Even as Ross took his seat he looked around for Lin, he had been seeing a lot more of her lately then he was used to, which he found to be the only good thing about the whole battle strength of the Navy being pulled back to home system, they had spent a few days with one another here and there over the past few months, she had been given command of Third fleet though so much of her time was spent scraping together a new command team for the massive “purifier class” fleet that she had been given.

Ross had been both happy and anxious over Lin’s new assignment, happy in that she was finally getting a line command which was something she had wanted for years, though it was an honor to command Home Fleet most “fighting admirals” like Lin wanted to get into action that you otherwise would hopefully avoid in command of the Home Fleet.
Even while he was overjoyed about her being given the command of her dreams he was terrified because commanding a line fleet meant going into battle against real enemies that would be trying to kill her…..something William found himself trying to forget as he saw Lin step into the briefing room with two of her aides, a Commodore Lia Tarmen and Commodore Gerald Patrick McDoogan whom she usually referred to as “Macky” when she and William were alone.

Chapter Two:

Five minutes had passed and still there was no word of what was going on, William turned from watching Lin to glance at Rukia and just as he was about to comment on the oddness of it all the light in the room dimmed and a commanding voice rang out “All rise!” a second passed where the room was in shock but slowly they all rose and stood at parade ground attention.
A door slid open silently and six massive figures stepped through and formed two lines on either side of the door, their distinctive gold and red power armor and long multi-purpose rifles showing them to be Praetorians, each one’s armor, weapons and training as expensive as an old frigate like the original Saber.
An instant later another figure came through the door, he was a tall man and powerfully built even for an Icaran, he wore a magnificent uniform similar to that worn by naval flag officers, except for its golden lace and braids, among other features that made it stand out as expensive, one such feature less noticeable unless you knew what to look for was a void shield generator in the belt and impact armor built into the tunic.
“My God it’s him….” Someone whispered a little louder then they meant to, it took William and most of the others a moment to register what was going on but once they did the entire gathered group of officers snapped salutes, and bowed at the waist. It was the first time most of them were seeing the Praetor himself, the ruler of the 700 plus billion humans of the Icaran Empire.

Praetor Rodric had grown from a shy yet confident young man to a mature, charismatic and brilliant leader in his decades of service as Praetor since his father’s tragic death when treachery destroyed the whole star system that he was touring. Rodric the second had in fact become the new shining hero of the Icaran Empire, revered and respected by almost everyone, he brought peace within the Empire’s core worlds, he was reorganizing the Federal Security forces to deal with the fringe worlds that even now rioted against the beacon of civilization and culture. Under Praetor Rodric the second the Empire had grown farther and faster then his father or any other Praetor in history could ever have imagined and because of this and his numerous other accomplishments Praetor Rodric was perhaps the most important single person in the galaxy.

“Ladies and gentlemen” Rodric spoke softly but confidently his voice a deep rumble of command, and his eyes deep and bright with thought. When he spoke the entire room fell so silent it was as if you could hear the very breath of a grasshopper.
“I have been lax in my duties of meeting with you all of late, in fact for far too long I have been a distant observer of the military, a voice hidden behind a curtain, I want to change that.” He made a sweeping gesture that encompassed the whole room “I want to be a Praetor who shows my respect for the military, not just a man who uses it as a tool when it suites him……that is why I have summoned you all here today so that I personally may brief you on perhaps the single largest threat posed to our Empire today.” Rodric paused again and tabbed a control on his wrist, the lights dimmed and a massive hologram materialized above the gathered crowd of Naval, Army, Marine, and FedSec officers. The hologram was of a world that looked much like any other barren dust ball with no atmosphere, dust storms visible from high atmosphere pocked the surface as did craters, and dried up rivers and oceans. For a moment the audience sat silently, many Officers trying to guess at which world this was.
“Ladies and gentlemen this is a world the Bureau of Stellar Mapping has designated CX 552, it is totally uninhabitable but it is in fact one of the most important worlds that has come to our attention these past few months.” Rodric’s tone was grim and William felt himself sit just a bit further on the edge of his seat then could be considered “proper” for a fleet officer, but the amount of concern in his Praetor’s voice made the Admiral uneasy to say the least.

The hologram shifted a little bit as if the camera taking the image was in motion, which in fact it was as Rodric continued to explain “The image you are seeing is from the FedSec:space Peacekeeper class ship Shimata Kieko, she was sent with two full companies of FedSec:ground troopers to investigate and neutralize a reported Terran Cult that was hiding in the wasted ruins of this world.” Rodric paused the holo for a moment and turned to the assembled audience again “That’s right people the Cult that worships the so called “goddess terra” is very much alive, unfortunately it seems that Admiral Yu Lin Ross was deceived when she eliminated the one sect, not her fault obviously the priest that fooled her fooled us all.” Rodric made a dismissive gesture as if it was something not worth mentioning again “Unfortunately however he appears not to have been the leader of the cult, or for that matter even the leader of the cult on that world…..Admiral Yu executed the real leader while he disguised himself as a mere underling.” The Praetor continued to stand perfectly straight and confident as he had since the beginning of the briefing but the look in his eyes showed some slight anxiety.

“I dispatched the Shimata to this world with two full companies of FedSec:ground troopers, fully expecting to capture or kill the three thousand some odd cultists our earlier probes had discovered in hiding. Unfortunately what happened was quite different then what I had planned, and I am ashamed to say I may have placed further worlds in danger through my actions.” There was a general murmur of disbelief and denial that it was the Praetor’s fault but he raised his hands for silence and continued in the same level tone “It is my fault and there is no point denying it…..so please let me continue.” His hands went from a gesture commanding silence to an almost prayerful position in front of him as he tapped some controls on his wrist and the holo began moving again, this time with Audio.

“This is FNS Shimata Kieko on approach to target world CX 552 Captain Liam Grayson commanding FedSec:space element.” The voice off screen was higher pitched then William would have expected from a commanding officer of any armed spacecraft but the tone conveyed enough of the man’s confidence and competence that Ross couldn’t help but feel a little guilty at his brief moment of amusement at the man’s voice.
“We are preparing to drop Companies 112 and 503 in five minutes and take stationary orbit to prevent any private ships from escaping, intent is to board or destroy said ships.” Captain Grayson was obviously intending to make sure that Command knew everything he did as Federal Security didn’t have as much leeway as the Navy or Army did when it came to pacifying a world, which meant if he had to rain fire on that world he’d better damn well prove he had to or else his career would come to a screaming halt.

Once the dropships deployed the holo switched from a camera aboard the starship to the helmet cam of an officer, the first sight was of blood red dust and sand everywhere for miles in every direction that camera looked.
“This is the view from Colonel Abraham Ben-Judah of the Hebron colony.” Rodric said quietly as the holo continued to play above them. It was obvious enough that the Colonel was riding in a FedSec:ground APC as the turret was just visible underneath him, dozens of FedSec troopers were moving around beside and in front of the APC in a protective formation, their brown impact armor standing out against the blood red sand and dust blowing all around them.
“This is Alpha group to Command we are at the entry point to the Cultist stronghold….its too small for an APC, recommend APC and Infantry perimeter while my team moves in.” the voice was identified as that of Major Thompson in the hologram.
“Alright Major, all units form a perimeter around the sight while Alpha Group moves in.” Colonel Ben-Judah said calmly over the command channel, a moment passed and the APC the Colonel was riding in began moving again just before the screen went black for a second.

As the holo came back to life several FedSec:ground troopers came into sight, this time it was obviously at eye level so the feed was either from Major Thompson or one of the other troopers in his squad.
“Alright Rendowe blow the door, the rest of you…on me.” The Major said as he moved his team back from the barely visible blast door as the trooper called Rendowe placed a demolition charge that would create a shaped explosion nearly half a kiloton in yield.
After Rendowe came back a brilliant flash lit the holo, making everyone in the massive auditorium squint against the flare; the screen cleared quickly and when it did it became a blur of fast movement as Thompson led the twenty troopers of his entry team forward while the other thirty formed a tight perimeter around the entry.
Several minutes of inaction followed as the Major and his troopers cautiously cleared the massive first rooms of the Cult stronghold.
“Alright we’re coming up on an intersection, keep your eyes peeled and your heads down….Sergeant Gear get your…..oh [censored]!” the Major’s voice suddenly went tense as a few barely visible flashes came out of the darkness; a split second later and you could hear the whine and crack as darts slammed into the walls.
“Open fire, take them out!” Major Thompson shouted as he fired his own assault rifle down the dark corridor.
The firefight continued to rise in intensity as the FedSec troopers returned fire on their attackers, it was obvious by the noise alone that the FedSec troopers were dealing with their attackers fairly easily, the Holo just confirmed it as silence suddenly replaced the noise of gunfire. Major Thompson quickly looked over his troopers, one was down in the corner obviously dead and another two were only mildly wounded and were already getting back off the floor and on the line. Their attackers were not so fortunate, armed with civilian light darters that were mostly unable to pierce the full body impact armor of FedSec much less army or marine troops, most of the cultists were torn to shreds by the solid shot darts the FedSec troopers had been using, others lay silent with small clean holes all over their bodies as darts passed through their comrades and lodged in them.
“Alright we’re clear here….move on.” The Major said, still breathing normally and relaxed as he looked over what had to have been at least fifty cultist corpses before moving on.

For the first twenty minutes things had gone well, Alpha group was taking care of what pockets of resistance they came across and the perimeter up top had cleared out two small groups of Cultists who had somehow escaped the main compound. It wasn’t until the Alpha group reached a vast cathedral like room with the statue of a woman holding a globe in her left hand and a spear in her right did things start going badly.
“I think we’re in their center of worship, that’s probably their goddess Terra, I don’t see any life signs in here but stay frosty.” The Major looked around and the Holo moved with the motion of his head, the light from the trooper’s rifles was all that there was in the room and it wasn’t totally a surprise when a scream alerted the Major of a cultist ambush.
How they had hid from life signs detectors was anyone’s guess but seemingly out of nowhere dozens of cultists of all ages came screaming out of their hiding places, some wielding axes and daggers, others darters or their bare hands.
A man wielding a large axe managed to get the drop on a FedSec trooper in front of the Major, fortunately the trooper’s armor was able to prevent a killing blow but the trooper went down heavily, probably with a broken back. The Major fired a quick burst of darts into the big old man, sending him to the floor in a bloody heap.
It was only after a few seconds that the major noticed something else was moving in the room, slowly working its way through the cultists; who seemed to part before it like the old legends of the parting of the red sea. The holo blurred as the Major whirled around and opened fire on the figure, the ear splitting noise of darts ricocheting off armor split the air as the major and several other FedSec troopers opened up on it.
With an almost relaxed gesture the figure raised a long rifle and sprayed several troopers of Alpha group with high velocity darts that tore through their impact armor with terrifying ease shredding the troopers. An instant later the figure activated a thrust pack and leapt high into the air coming down in the midst of a group of FedSec troopers who never even had a chance to turn to face their attacker, it had drawn a monomolecular sword from it’s sheath and cut down the troopers it had landed between, body parts severed with startling ease and the screams of the wounded and dying came with terrifying clarity over the holo, the screaming didn’t last long however as the M-sword sliced through armor and flesh with terrible swiftness.
Only a moment later and the holo went black as the massive figure landed right in front of the Major and made a sweeping gesture with the M-sword probably severing the Major’s head.

The com came to life only a few seconds later as the armored figure attacked the troopers of Alpha group that had formed the perimeter around the main entrance and hundreds of cultists streamed out of hidden hatches around the perimeter attacking troopers and armored vehicles all along the perimeter.
“God we can’t stop him….sir we can’t…..” a scream interrupted the sentence followed by the sound of a heavy darter whining and more screams.
The holo showed the view from the Colonels APC again except this time the red dust and sand came to life with flashes and color and the troopers in front of the APC were firing their rifles into the dust storm and the APC’s own energy cannons were firing into the distance.
One of the troopers in view suddenly went down in a spray of blood and gore as heavy darts tore a hole through the trooper’s torso. There were explosions visible through the dust storm as well as the menacing light in the background that signified heavy energy weapons being fired.
Another APC pulled into view of the Colonel’s firing it’s energy cannons and bringing it’s squad of troopers up to the fight, suddenly out of the dust the massive armored figure appeared, it’s long rifle coming to bare on the second vehicle, an emerald green beam lanced out with an incredible whine and tore a neat hole through one side of the APC and out the other, it took a split second for the vehicle to actually explode and in that split second the armored figure was already amongst the FedSec squad that had just disembarked, it’s M-sword tearing through impact armor and flesh with ease, it’s long rifle now firing heavy darts again, tearing troopers to pieces at such close range.
A rocket tore through the sky and the armored figure reacted with blinding speed firing a burst of explosive shells in the rocket’s path destroying it several meters short.
An instant later the figure aimed its long rifle towards the Colonel’s APC and a flash of green made the holo go dark again.
The holo view switched to close in orbital and it was obvious from the zoomed in image that the FedSec:ground forces were being torn apart, the armored figure was cutting a swathe through the APCs and their guard squads, while the cultists were launching massive human wave attacks at point blank range against the FedSec troopers, some coming out of hatches close enough to troopers to use axes and daggers to batter the FedSec personnel to death.
Shock was on the face of everyone in the room, it was replaced an instant later with sheer terror as the com from the Semata began playing.
“We’ve got a hull breach on deck seven….security reports….we’ve got boarders!” a voice said in shock.
“Get whatever FS:ground troopers we have left down there now, order all personnel to arm and armor themselves to repel boarders…..and find out how the [censored] they got on my ship!?” The Captain was obviously furious, but at least had the presence of mind to switch the holoview to internal security cameras.

The images were startling to say the least, a single armored figure equipped with a long rifle and M-sword being followed by about two dozen cultists were making their way through the corridors, a squad of Fedsec:ground troopers that had met them in the corridor was turned to a cloud of gore and blood as the armored figure fired a violet energy beam through them. Crewmembers and other ground personnel that set up ambushes managed to kill all of the cultists in the first few minutes of battle, but that armored figure simply wouldn’t go down to the darters of any of the fedsec personnel, some brave or foolish souls had actually managed to get close enough that they were forced to try using stun battons….with no effect except getting the trooper sliced apart by the M-sword or simply shattered into blood and pulp by an armored fist.
After barely ten minutes of action the ship’s speakers were blaring the surrender order and the armored figure now began methodically rounding up surrendering crew and taking them to the flight bay, where it proceeded to cuff them and sit them against crates or ships, the last image was that of the Captain being taken to the boat bay, his left arm missing and his right leg obviously broken in multiple places.

As the holo image vanished and the lights came back up Praetor Rodric cleared his throat loud enough to draw attention and silence the few officers that were muttering in shock and disbelief. “Ladies and gentlemen, you probably don’t recognize that powered armor, or the long rifle, unfortunately that is because under my orders NavInt has kept these particular soldiers covered up for morale reasons.” The praetor shrugged and frowned “They are the Mobile Infantry Rangers, the elite shock troops of the Citizen Federation’s ground forces.” The Praetor paused as shocked and sickened officers tried to collect their nerves. “Yes ladies and gentlemen I said Citizen Federation, our supposed allies have secretly sent two of their deadliest soldiers into our Empire to aid the Terran cultists establish military capabilities and fight against us.” The Praetor suddenly looked as if he was staring off into some distant chasm; when he spoke again his tone had changed to a quiet almost penitent shadow of the proud booming voice Icarans were used to hearing from Rodric “It is my fault they have done this, I allowed warp points into the Federation to remain open because I allowed myself to trust these people, all the while it would seem they have been filtering munitions, funds, and now even elite soldiers to insurrectionists that would tear our very empire apart…..our best scientists now tell me the Federation has somehow manipulated the warp in several of our systems, new warp points are forming even now that lead to territories within the Mantisoran United Kingdom, the Neo Star Empire, and the Citizen Federation its self” A general murmur of disbelief ran through the gathered officers, to the Icaran public the warp points to outside of the Empire had been closed, or were now guarded by massive fortresses, no one knew that the Federation had been allowed to enter the Empire, and no one knew where those warp points were….except for Praetor Rodric and a few of his staff members, as well as certain corporations who were trying to get their hands on certain Federation technologies.

“Why do we not simply close these warp points highness….that is when they open?” Admiral Lady Selene Powel, commander of Home Fleet spoke up first, immediately drawing the attention of every eye in the room.

“Good question Admiral Lady, the answer is that the Science Ministry believes that to do so would permanently destroy the connections to warp space within those systems, when I say that the Federation has manipulated the warp I mean they have not simply opened or closed a point within the warp, somehow they are opening a tear within the warp that leads to the systems they have targeted.” Rodric’s voice held no contempt or shock at an underling speaking to him, merely a matter of fact almost lecturing voice.

“Do we know why the Citizen Federation is doing this Highness?” Commandant of the Marines Harris spoke this time, unlike Lady Powel the Marine held no noble titles and so by ancient custom would have been forbidden to speak unless spoken too, but at the moment the sturdy Marine didn’t even flinch as more then one Praetorian Guard glanced his way.

“No, we do not, but we do know how.” Rodric paused a moment, always a fan of theatre he allowed the drama to build for just a second before speaking “The Admiralty and Shadow Daggers have known for some time that the Citizen Federation has set about altering the genetic structure of about a fifth of a percent of their population to allow a dormant genome responsible for telepathic and telekinetic abilities to re-assert its self within the population that carries it, they have been using these people and a set of technologies we don’t fully understand for years to power the weapons systems on their starships…..it would appear they are also manipulating the warp somehow” Rodric grimaced; the Icaran Empire had allowed the genetic therapies responsible for the Sustain treatments and for curing of diseases for over a century, but it was strictly forbidden by Icaran Law, and the faith of the Path to manipulate human genetics for the purposes of “improving” the species., even Sustain had come under fire in the early days because of the fact that it doubled human reflexes and senses, not to mention the centuries of life it added to the average human being; so now to learn of the deliberate creation of mutants by an ally was a bit of a collective shock to the Icaran officers gathered.

“Yes, we have known and done nothing; that is because we were afraid of what we knew would have to do should war come between us and the Federation.” Rodric’s voice fell once again, this time to a mournful tone “They have drawn first blood ladies and gentlemen, I do not relish the order I must give but we have no choice but to retaliate with overwhelming and crushing force and destroy their ability to sustain a fight, and so ladies and gentlemen I will leave this briefing up to Lord Marshall Valerie as this is his plan of operations.” The Praetor stepped aside and the massive screen behind him came to life, the man on the screen wore a uniform that was a mix of styles from the Icaran military, including an old fashioned metal breastplate the likes of which hadn’t been worn by soldiers in millennia.
“Lord Marshall, the Count Pacifica, Heir to Lacerta Duke of the Empire Martin Shieldstorm.” A voice intoned; the man on the screen bowed and looked out upon the gathered officers, by all rights he was the highest military authority within the Empire besides the Praetor himself, this man could order the Grand Admiral to lick his boot if he was so inclined and to see him giving a briefing meant something major was going to happen.
“Admirals, Generals, Soldiers of Icara through various intelligence sources we now know that the main staging area and breeding area of these Psychic mutants is the Tammuz-An star system, there are just over two billion psychics in system, two billion potential weapons for our enemies.” Shieldstorm clenched his fist as he continued to speak “It is because they are weapons that I have made the difficult decision to cleanse Tammuz-An……to totally and completely destroy ALL traces of life within that star system and in so doing destroy the Federaton’s psychic population once and for all.”
“My God a cleanse operation against humans?” Admiral Lord DeSoya of the still forming eight fleet said in shock, too stunned to remember to keep his mouth shut.

“No Admiral, not a cleanse against humans but against mutants, dangerous mutants that can invade the mind of a loyal citizen, mutants that can be used to power some of the most powerful weapons in the universe…….mutants that threaten the very survival of this Empire and the billions who live here.” Shieldstorm said ferociously as he stared out over the officers.

“Who is in command of the assualt your Excellency?” William heard Rukia’s voice from beside him but was so busy thinking on the gravity of the situation he wasn’t really paying attention…….until the Lord Marshall gave his answer.

“This operation is going to the 1st Fleet under Admiral Lord William Ross, his loyalty and ability to carry out this mission is unquestioned, and his fleet’s crews are some of the best in the Empire.” The Lord Marshall smiled “With his Majesty’s Permission this briefing is over, I want all of you to return to your units and tell them of this new threat, make them understand that the very survival of the Empire is at stake and that we will never bow to tyranny or threats no matter the cost.” The screen faded and three was only the silent briefing room again.

“Admiral Ross, you will be given more detailed orders in private later today, I will send forty of my best Praetorians on this mission with you, just in case you run into any of those Rangers………and to all of you godspeed and may God forgive us for what we are about to do.” The Praetor saluted the gathered officers, all of whom out of simple muscle memory and reflex also rose and returned their Praetor’s salute.

“My God Rukia, what is this universe coming to.” William whispered as he and Rukia made their way for the exit of the briefing room.
“Well…..it could be worse.” Rukia said with a dry tone, William paused a moment and stared blankly at the young Commodore, trying to figure out how it could possibly worse then the full blown war that was at the most months away.
Rukia simply smiled and kept walking before muttering “Well it could always be worse, you could have to listen to my mother give you a speech about settling down and giving her grand children before you go off to another battle, risking the whole family line and all…” She smiled again and patted William on the shoulder, as the joke dawned and the still baffled Admiral he couldn’t help but smile, he had listened to one such lecture from Rukia’s mother back when he first met her and she was still recovering in the hospital……..the two Officers walked silently down the corridor and William thought with a twinge of guilt that he was almost happy he would be too busy to see Lin before he left, he didn’t want her to see him when he was about to go out and commit mass murder on fellow human beings, mutant or not, war was one thing, the deliberate and methodical destruction of civilian HUMAN lives was another and he didn’t want to his beloved wife to see him again until after he had seen a Priest of the path and been forgiven for the sins he was about to commit on God’s creation.

[rdouglass]

Cool stuff!!

[Starhawk]

Thanks.....and don't worry I fully intend to continue the adventures of the Forlorn and her crew

[Starhawk]

The Gathering Storm
“Oh what evils man is capable of when he believes he is right, even the greatest of men can drown in the blood of their self righteous slaughters.” Aeiptus circa IY 20 after the fall of Sparta to the Icaran Empire.

Chapter One:

It had taken time to mobilize the first fleet, recall all shore leave, repair and refit the warships as necessary, ensure the ships were in good shape to fight and dozens of other tasks required before a battlefleet can leave for the front lines. Star Admiral Lord William Ross had been very grateful for the months of busy work that the preparations required of him, it allowed him to think about anything but the upcoming mission; he had been a part of purification operations before, but always against Xenos, fowl creatures barely worthy of the term “sentient” but this time he would be a part of the slaughter of over two billion human beings, mutants yes, abominations to God yes but still human.
“Admiral, all commands report ready status.” Commander Evans’ voice jolted William back to the present and he looked around the large command deck of his battlemoon, Commander Evans stood by the comns section and was looking back at his Admiral expectantly.
“Give the word, all commands prepare for warp, when the warpship opens the point, divisions one through five are to take point the rest of the fleet will follow fifteen seconds later.” William folded his hands together and forced himself to keep composure, he wasn’t scared about going to battle, he had been in so many battles and in such smaller and weaker ships then this that the prospect of death in battle had become almost common place….he was more worried about how history would see his people for what they were about to do, he had over 1,340,000 good men and women under his command and he felt sick at the thought of them some day being considered butchers and murders.
“Admiral……” Rukia said softly enough so that only William could hear her “I know what’s got you bothered sir, but don’t beat yourself up over it.” She smiled faintly at her suffering Admiral but he continued to stare at the command screen ahead; watching as the artificial warp point was beginning to form.
“Rukia….Lin and I want children.” William finally said, almost mournfully “How will they look at their father when they hear he murdered billions?” William kept his expression calm and blank out of decades of self discipline but his eyes showed the pain and fear his expression didn’t.
“Sir, they will look at you like any child looks at their father, with love and understanding…..your a good man William….”she paused as if in surprise that she used his first name in “public” “Please don’t let this kill you sir, your too young and have too long to live to keep tormenting yourself.” She laid her hand on his shoulder for the briefest of moments before turning her seat to face the navigation and astrogation section.
“Astrogation what’s the status of the warp point?” She said crisply, trying not to look as if anything was wrong.
“Ma’am warp point will stabilize in five minutes, divisions 1-5 are advancing in wedge formation and the rest of the fleet is tied in and following us.” Captain Bradley, commander of the Astro/Nav section replied in her typical nasal voice that tended to grate on Rukia’s ears.
“Thank you Captain, alright order the two flag monitors to form up with the Crusade and have their SD escorts take up position around them, I want maximum free-fire coverage possible when we get through that warp point.” Rukia as commodore was in the day-to-day command of fleet operations, and the “real” commander of the battlemoon Holy Crusade out of centuries of naval tradition she would give the pre-battle orders to form up the squadrons as best she saw fit as long as the fleet Admiral had no objections or corrections to make, and William and Rukia had gone over formation and tactics planning for the past several weeks so both of them knew exactly how they wanted things to go.
“Rukia……” William spoke softly but this time he seemed to not be as melancholy “Thank you……now do me a favor.” William’s voice seemed to finally marshal its usual crisp confident tone.
“Yes sir?” Rukia said as she turned to face William.
“Don’t tell Lin any of this okay.” He looked around and managed a small hint of a grin.
“Tell her what sir?” Rukia said with a conspiratorial grin and an unashamed wink.

As the warp point finally stabilized the beautiful flash made up of almost unreal colors was visible for over five AU in every direction, and the 1st fleet looked almost angelic for a moment as the sleek super dreadnoughts, bulky flag monitors, and moon sized flagship were bathed in the heavenly light which danced across the silver hulls like an aurora across a pond, it was at that moment the speakers of every ship in the fleet came to life and Priest of the Path Lorn Doggit began to speak in a rumbling bass voice.
“To all the brave soldiers of the Empire in the first fleet, you go now to do dark deeds, as all war is dark but know this, God knows that through darkness can come light, that night always proceeds the dawn and that you his brave children do this out of faith and to protect your fellow man…..and so he will watch over you through these trials as he has watched over the Empire for millennia.” The Priest paused a moment and when he began speaking again every Icaran that was a follower of the path bowed their head, “Divine creator in who’s image we are made, who’s breath gives us life, who’s words give us strength, and who’s love shields the Empire we ask your forgiveness for these brave men and women who are about to go to war and cleanse your universe of a fowl mutation of man.” The Priest then spoke in the ancient language of Icara; the Icaran prayer of absolution was something everyone had heard, especially those in the military but somehow this time it meant more to those listening and some of the soldiers even shed a tear or two as the prayer came to an end.
A moment later Chief Rabbi Abraham Rosenburg spoke a Hebrew prayer and the Jewish members of the fleet, some 10,000 in all bowed their heads and prayed with him, not many Icarans understood Hebrew as Jews made up less then one percent of the Empire and Judaism it’s self had barely been granted legal status when the Empire first absorbed Hebron and New Bethlehem but because of their loyal contributions to the Empire, including the three million Jews that had volunteered for the armed forces or Federal Security the Icaran government had decided to allow the Rabbi’s to pray with their people before battle out of respect.

The prayers ended and the disciplined crews of the Icaran Royal Navy returned to their stations without another word, moments later the first units of the 1st fleet moved through the warp point into the Tammuz-An star system and though they couldn’t know it at the time by this single operation they were plunging Icara into one of the largest bloodiest wars in human history.

Chapter Two

The bizarre thing about warp travel is that while it is instantaneous and has none of the pesky time dilation issues that a conventional FTL drive would impose it does have a strange effect when it comes to distance, when a ship passed through a warp point, whatever speed it entered at it exited at, however the faster a ship entered the further it was “thrown” out of the warp point which had been a big problem before the invention of the GFG as this sudden increase in thrust would turn a crew into chunky bits of goo; it also meant that while blockading a warp point was theoretically possible it was very difficult to do with automated devices such as drones and satellites as computers never seemed to be able to grasp the logic defying properties of a warp jump. For decades this had made warp point battles bloody affairs as both the fleet exiting the warp point and the fleet blockading the warp point would suffer a moment of “jump shock” as both sides computers tried to calculate where the fleet had exited into real space. For decades it had been considered nearly suicidal for a fleet to attempt to break a warp point blockade unless they had far greater numbers or technology on their side, so the Icarans had developed the tactic of sending advance divisions through a warp point several seconds before the main fleet, as the enemy fleet locked onto these advance divisions it would provide the Main fleet with the time to lock on and engage the enemy. This tactic however was often bloody and resulted in severe losses for the advance divisions; with the development of the technology that made opening and closing warp points nearly at will possible the Icarans had gained an extreme tactical edge over their enemies as they could totally bypass a blockade fleet and emerge in an enemy system from a totally unexpected point.
Unfortunately for the Empire the Psykers of the Citizen Federation were somehow able to ‘feel’ changes in the warp space and even before the 1st Fleet had emerged from the warp point which had opened above the Tammuz-An VI colony there were 67 Federal warships waiting for the lead divisions, with dozens more Federal warships moving in from throughout the system.

It was barely five seconds after the main fleet warp jump had been made when Admiral Ross along with several other members of the bridge crew gasped as the battlemoon’s shields deflected the floating wreckage of the HMS Dortmunder which had perished only seconds after it had made the warp jump with the advance divisions.
“Repeat this is Saladin to main fleet, it was an ambush Federal warships and land bases opened up on us before we even recovered from jump shock, enemy fleet is closing………” the comns went dead as a vast green beam from the colony’s surface cut through the Saladin’s midline like a knife through cloth, the beam simply vaporized whatever it hit and in less then a second the three kilometers of battlesteel and 6,000 lives of the HMS Saladin simply ceased to exist as the GFGs malfunctioned and the ship vanished in what looked like a miniature warp point.
The Icaran fleet had lost three super dreadnoughts before anyone even knew what was happening but thanks to the discipline of the Royal navy and the shock to the Federal Forces of seeing a battlemoon up close and personal for the first time the 1st fleet was able to reform it’s lines, and green beams began at last to lance out at Federal warships.
An enemy destroyer squadron that was making a run on the superdreadnought [/i]Able[/i] were the first enemy ships that a battlemoon had fired upon in an actual battle, all three destroyers simply vanished as the huge battlemoon fired it’s secondary batteries, it’s spinal guns had locked onto and utterly destroyed 2 enemy battleships at the same time.

The Icaran fleet’s disciplined fire and superior firepower didn’t even seem to make the Federal Forces pause as they valiantly attacked the Icaran warships on nearly suicidal charges, one enemy superdreadnought after losing it’s main armament to the Icaran Superdreadnought, Majestic accelerated to nearly 1,500 gee’s killing it’s own crew instantly but giving it enough velocity to make it impossible to avoid by any Icaran warship, as the huge enemy ship began baring down on the Majestic the Captain of the severely damaged Nemo made a valiant choice and accelerated her own warship into position where it struck the enemy warship amidships, the two vessels seemed to simply freeze for an instant before explosions slowly began tearing the vast warships hulls apart.
As the battle raged however the sacrifice the Nemo had made to save the Majestic proved in vein as two enemy superdreadnoughts cut the Icaran warship off from its division and traded broadsides with her until her shields and armor finally gave out destroying her with all hands.
The Holy Crusade and it’s flag monitor escorts had continued to slaughter the enemies capital ships while the bulk of the fleet attempted to disable the planetary weapons platforms and destroy whatever Federal ships tried to attack them. In the end Icaran numbers, discipline and gunnery proved too much for the brave soldiers of the Federal Forces who had stood before the Icaran fleet.
“Admiral damage and casualty lists are still coming in, rescue crews are already working to recover escape pods from Starrider and Jackal, there are no escape pods from the Federal Forces sir.” Rukia’s voice was cold and calm as it always seemed to be, but William could tell from her tone that her adrenaline levels were still a little high.
“Target planet is mostly inhospitable sir, only the poles are cool enough for human inhabitants and we detect that both poles have large cities and habitation centers, estimated planetary population is six million.” Commodore Ericka Deville of the 18th SD division had begun giving her report as soon as Rukia had finished hers, the 18th SD division had been the one to finally destroy the planet’s weapon platforms, and took detailed scans of the world as they had.
“Do you want my squadron to bombard the planet sir?” Deville asked quietly with a tone that almost pleaded for William to choose someone else, and of course he could not let himself allow one of his subordinates to do something he would not do.
“No Commodore, this battlemoon will take up position for a polar kill, pull your division back to a blockade position in case they attempt to launch any ships.” William frowned but felt somewhat better when he saw the Commodore visibly relax and heard her unintentionally sigh in relief.
“Sir…..a Polar kill?” Captain Bradley asked from her station, a “polar kill” operation was only a theory that no Imperial warship had ever put into practice as it would totally ruin a planet for inhabitation, not to mention the sheer amount of firepower it would take was mostly beyond the capabilities of anything short of a Battlemoon.
“Yes Captain, now inform all commands.” William snapped, somewhat more harshly then he had intended.
“Aye sir.” Was the simple reply and William noticed that everyone on the bridge seemed to be deliberately avoiding looking in his direction, not out of disgust but out of some odd sense of pseudo-fear.

The battlemoon moved into a position directly above the Planet’s North Pole and turned to aim it’s vast arsenal at the planet’s surface, a single seventy meter diameter spinal gun locked directly onto the center of the colonial city beneath the vast Icaran warship.
“Admiral we are being hailed from enemy colony, they are broadcasting their surrender.” Commander Sho said from his station in Communications.
“Guns, do we have lock?” William said hoarsely.
“Aye…….spinal gun eight locked.” The gunnery Captain replied in an almost whisper.
“Polar kill,…….fire.” William forced himself to sit back down calmly, even though his legs almost collapsed on him.

The single vast spinal gun glowed with full power, a split second later a seventy meter diameter green beam lanced out and almost before you could blink the beam struck the center of the North Polar city, the explosion and fireball that followed would have engulfed North and South America if it had been Terra, but even that devastation only covered the true damage that was being done as the beam continued through the surface of the planet, atomizing the soil, rock, bedrock, and then the very magma within it’s path as it continued to pass through the planet, a minute later the beam emerged in the center of the South Polar city and the explosion while less dramatic then that of the northern pole was enough to totally destroy the city and it’s three million inhabitants…..the beam finally stopped but the damage had been done and parts of the planet began to implode as the planet began caving in on the vast “hole” that had been made by the passage of the beam.
The entire Icaran fleet seemed to fall silent for a moment and Star Admiral William Ross could only manage to utter “God forgive us.” Before he heard Rukia’s calm voice asking for the list of the next targets and for battlegroups to be formed for the operation that would finish the destruction of the rest of the colonies and warships in this system.

Casualties:
6 Million Federation Colonists are killed
HMS Dortmunder (SD) Destroyed (6,100 dead)
HMS Farragot (SD) Destroyed (6,100 dead)
HMS Jackal (DN) Destroyed (5,800 dead)
HMS Saladin (SD) Destroyed (6,100 dead)
HMS Nemo (SD) Destroyed (6,100 dead)
HMS Majestic (SD) Destroyed (6,100 dead)
HMS Starrider (SD) Rendered a hulk (5,000 dead)
Total Icaran losses: 41,300
Total Federation Ships lost: 67

[Starhawk]

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I am continuing this story dang it now that my life has finally seemed to settle down some

I'm still alive and this story is too so read on!