Rise of the Remorhaz Society

[sachmo]

Preparations

2409.7

Captain Brennan sat down in the captain’s chair aboard his new command, RSS Fortitude. She was the first capital ship built by the Providence shipyards, and she was twice as powerful as Artemis was. She was also his reward for his performance in the invasion of Nova. His actions had helped save Comet from destruction, and his attacks against the surface defenses on Nova had been so effective that the Space Marine landing had gone virtually unopposed. Because of that, Naval Command had decided that his task force needed more firepower, but Brennan would get the first ship out of the yard. That was a very high honor indeed.
Brennan cast a glance around his bridge. It would take time for him to mesh with the new crew, but he was confident that they would all be on the same page before they went in to attempt to take Lezzari IV A. They would not reach Nova for approximately three months, and when they did they would face the daunting task of recolonizing the planet with Norak colonists. He didn’t expect that mission to go smoothly. He didn’t understand much about the Rage as a species, but if they were anything like Humans they would not like being moved from their planet. For once, he hoped that in this instance the Rage were very different, otherwise this mission could get very ugly.

Task Force 9.5 entered the Aldan system in the first week of the month. They were expecting the system to be Rage held, as this was one of the wormholes from which Rage fleets had been observed jumping from. When the scanners made a system sweep, it wasn’t the Rage that they found, but a race known as the Texrax Hegemony. Gina immediately started the first contact protocol, and sent a message back to Norak.

Chairman Sachmo was just finishing reading a new bill proposal when the com unit range. Yarboro’s voice chimed thru informing him that it was Ambassador Mulatti. The Chairman quickly accepted the call.
“Good afternoon, Sangi. What can I do for you?”
The ambassador looked serious. “Sir, Captain Jager has made contact with a new race, the Texrak Hegemony. Their home planet is in the newly explored system of Aldan, which is west of Lundra. This was a system we had hoped would be the Rage home system, but we were shocked to discover that there was a previously unknown race inhabiting the system.”
The Chairman did not dare let his hopes get the better of him.
“Oh, this is important news. Hopefully, these Texrakians are a peaceful people. I don’t think we need any more enemies.”
The ambassador shook his head. “Chairman, the initial reports are that they are moderate towards us. This is the best initial contact we have had with a race since the very early days with the Norak.”
“Well, Sangi, I have every faith in your abilities to keep us peaceful with them. If we get any information from them, please let me know as soon as you can.”
The ambassador nodded. “I shall, Chairman. I have already begun assembling a diplomatic team that should reach the system in a month. I will update you as soon as we know anything else.”
The Chairman smiled. “Thank you, Sangi. Have a nice evening.”
With that the closed the connection. Immediately, he had Yarboro connect him with Grand Admiral Urian. He wanted to be sure that the Navy was ready, and in a position to hold their ground against these Texrakians . He would not allow another Timerron to happen again.

This month, 4 million Remorhaz colonists set out from Glory to colonize the Lenoltris system. It was deemed worth the risk by the government since the Fezzran system would soon be under attack by Remorhaz forces anyway, and that action should keep the Rage from counterattacking in the Lenoltris system.

Remorhaz finished construction of the RSS Badger, a Mongoose Class Landing Ship. This ship moved out to the Neckron to pick up the newly organized 2nd Space Marine Brigade, and would then move into the Xillantha system to join up with the rest of the fleet. From there, Fezzran would be the target. Remorhaz began construction of a supply ship for this attack fleet.

In the Yukra system, RSS Falcon abandoned it’s station outside of the wormhole from Lenoltris and attacked the undefended Ukra-Tal colony on Timerron. Her depleted uranium cannons destroyed the colony completely.

2409.8

Chairman Sachmo felt as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Of course, it was only the beginning of a negotiation process, but the Texrak Hegemony had approached the Remorhaz Society offering a Trade Agreement. With this treaty would come a non-aggression pact, and valuable cultural input from another race. He hoped that this treaty would come to fruition, and that eventually the Texrak would fight alongside the Remorhaz Society, but not having them immediately declare war on the was a start, and a nice change of pace. The Chairman began to wonder to call this day when it became a Society-wide holiday. He was thinking “Harmony Day”, but he would have to get the input for his staff. Maybe they could tie it in with the Norak somehow…

Norak launched the RSS Faith, another Glory Class Destroyer. She moved into the Lundra system to help Task Force 9.5 hold the Lundra-Lapzooli wormhole. The Navy took the discovery of the Texrak Hegemony as a serious threat, and until the treaty was signed they would be treated as so. Norak began building a colony ship to occupy some of the smaller, incompatible worlds in the Lapzooli system.

RSS Shining Victory and Skydancer arrived in orbit over Correlia. If the Ukra-Tal made a push for the Iolo system, the Iolo Defense Fleet should be able to at least slow them down. Once Correlia finished construction of it’s shipyard, then the fleet would grow in size and eventually move back into the Yukra system.

2409.9

Remorhaz launched the RSS Jenny Cushman, a Cyllene Class Fleet Supply ship. She headed out for Fort Justice to join up with the Xillantha fleet.

On Nova, the population transfer went off without a hitch. One of the keys that the Remorhaz xenopsychologists discovered about the Rage population was that in order to function as a society, there needed to be a sequencer to issue orders to the population. In fact, without the presence of a sequencer, the local population would cease to function. While there were still many holes in the knowledge of how this entire process worked, the scientists were able to make an amazing discovery on Nova. They found that a human could be substituted for a sequencer and the population would treat this human as their “controller”. At this time, Governor Mitchell Cantberry was the human “sequencer”. Governor Cantberry was able to issue orders to the population and have them carry them out with absolutely no question. Through this method, he was able to keep the population completely peaceful and productive.
There was, of course, a downside to this arrangement. He always had to have at least one Rage being around at all time, to act as a “herald” for Cantberry. Since he was human and could not communicate through the instant link that the Rage population seemed to share, there had to be one Rage being to pass Cantberry’s orders on to the rest of the population. So when it came time to load the Rage population onto the Mongoose, it only required a few simple orders from Cantberry to get the entire population moving. What he would discover soon was that he was going to have to move with them, as they refused to allow the ship to leave orbit if their “sequencer” was not with them. So Cantberry agreed to travel to Lezzari IV A with “his people.” The process that began here was sure to be repeated as more Rage systems came under Remorhaz control.

2410.0

In the Lenoltris system, Remorhaz colonists landed on Lenoltris II and renamed it Highrock. This huge planet had a methane atmosphere, so the colonists would be forced to live in domed communities. The planet also had absolutely no native vegetation, and the surface was covered with granite continents. This harsh world was rich in mineral resources, and would be mined as soon as a spaceport was constructed.

The Texrak Hegemony agreed to enter into a Trade Alliance with the Remorhaz Society. Ambassador Mulatti had his men establish an embassy on their homeworld, and personally traveled to Norak to bring their diplomats to Remorhaz. Immediately, traders from both sides began exchanging star charts so that they would be able to navigate each other’s space ways. Not long after, ideas began to move back and forth between the empires. Hopefully, some scientific advances would come from this.

At Providence, Comet was repaired, and a new Glory Class Destroyer, RSS Liberation was launched. Both ships immediately headed for Nova to join with the rest of the fleet for the eventual assault on Lezzari IV A. They were set to arrive in system in 2 months.

The Navy Design Bureau was able to create a larger hull size for their ships- the light cruiser. The prototype of the Ganymede Class would be created at Glory, while a second would be launched from Fort Justice. The first cruiser was scheduled for delivery in just under two months. Along with the ability to build the light cruiser, the physics of the hull design also would allow the building of a larger class of transport craft. These ships would be introduced when practical. The next project was an attempting to upgrade the anti-matter torpedoes. Command felt that these weapons might be able to tips the scales even further toward the Remorhaz Society, as point defense weapons could not defend them against.

In the meantime, a Rage fleet of seven ships jumped into Lezzari. Since no one could be sure what the Rage intentions were, the assault fleet remained in orbit over Nova. If it seemed like they had no chance, the fleet abandon the planet and fall back to Providence.
Captain Brennan didn’t like the idea of running, however. He was prepared to send these Rage ships to hell.

To be continued...