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

[Starhawk]

Thank you for your generous statements you guys, you're all definitely building up my confidence and interest in writing a story.

Though I still have a lot of work ahead of me to become a real writer, for example I still sometimes have issues with making a story "flow" from paragraph to paragraph and I still have the occasional embarassing gramatical error lol.

[Starhawk]

2419.9 Another Step on the Long March:
“Scopes show ten enemy light cruisers, most of them look like the new Stargazer class of theirs, a single shield generator and rather weak armor, but they pack a little more punch then the previous models of Phong warships.” Lin looked at the faces around the briefing room making sure the command staff of the fleet knew what they were up against before she continued.
“It is my belief that the Yu Hing Pe could take on all ten of those ships by herself with confidence of victory, our weapons and shields are light years beyond anything the Phong Federal Navy possess, and it would be a good opportunity to test out the Royal Navy’s newest warship under live fire circumstances instead of taking the Bureau of ship design’s word based entirely on simulated battles.” Captain Yu again glanced at the officers in the room, looking from face to face to see if she was hooking them.
“Captain, I am not sure it is the best idea to risk one of only three currently existing super dreadnoughts based entirely on the theory that she can take on ten enemy warships by herself.” Captain Fowler said skeptically as she looked over the schematics of the newest Phong warship again.
“With all respect Captain Fowler your dreadnought has taken on and destroyed eight enemy ships in a single battle by herself, my ship is larger and militarily superior to yours, it is my belief that whatever your ship can do a super dreadnought should be able to do better.” Lin shot a cockeyed glance toward Fowler, who had a seriously sour expression on her face as she was reminded of her ship’s “inferiority”.

Ross rolled his eyes, Fowler had seniority and probably saw receiving a smaller command as an insult by the Admiralty especially since she had been the prestigious Flag Captain, now she was just a squadron commander like the other two in the fleet and Yu who was several years her junior had been given priority for the newest flagship just because it bore her father’s name…..of course Ross knew that the ship’s name was not the only reason they gave her to Lin instead of another captain but at the moment neither Fowler nor Yu needed to know why the Admiralty gave Lin the super dreadnought over her seniors. As the two captains stared each other down Ross began to wish he had just put his flag aboard [/i]Warden[/i] instead.

“Captains Please we all know that the Shadowclaw and her crew have earned a magnificent record for themselves and that she has over 30 kills to her name, but we do have to face the facts, the Yu Hing Pe is a larger more heavily armed warship which does make her innately superior to the dreadnought, however we all know that the ship’s technical superiority does not reflect poorly on the crew of the Shadowclaw any more then it did when the dreadnought replaced [/i]Hawkwing[/i] as the flagship unless of course you see an older ship as inherently inferior?” Captain Bradford of the Hawkwing tented his fingers and grinned at the two captains wickedly. Though he had not come right out and said it he had almost dared the two Captains to continue their arguments over “technical superiority“-which they could not do without implying dishonor to the captain of the Heavy Cruiser by saying his ship had proven inferior to theirs (which in Naval tradition was a big no go for a ship with the Hawkwing‘s battle honors)- his grin grew all the more wicked as the two Captains simply looked at one another and nodded.
“So do we have a decision Admiral?” Yu looked at Ross expectantly, she knew that he could just as easily send Warden to carry out the intercept if he decided too, and she also knew that he would not base that decision on their personal friendship.
Ross whispered to his squadron commanders before returning his gaze to Yu, “Captain We will proceed with the intercept, however I will have Shadowclaw standing by close to support us should something go wrong, understood?” It was not a question, and Ross stood up, shook the hands of the other officers in the room and left quickly. The room cleared rather quickly, except for Fowler and Yu who hung back.
“Miss Fowler do you really have that much doubt about my ship and myself?” Yu asked straightforwardly as she leaned against the holo tank’s shut down control panel.
“What ever gave you the idea I lack confidence in you and your ship Captain?” Fowler had taken on the same impersonal and icy tone she used during a battle and the implication was not lost on Yu.
“Ma’am with all due respect my super dreadnought is well, that is to say she was designed for heavier combat then your ship, still you seemed absolutely confident when your ship faced down eight enemy warships yet you openly criticize my ship’s ability to face down a mere two ships more, this tells me you either doubt my ship or myself.” Yu paused a moment, swallowed hard before she continued with what could easily be considered an open (slap in the face) “So which is it ma’am do you doubt me or my ship?”
Fowler looked honestly taken aback by such a blunt wording of such a dangerous question.
“Captain Pe.” she began in a tone that was surprisingly friendly considering her previous icy one, however Yu’s guard remained high as she fully expected a political “pat on the hand” to cool the tension “I neither doubt you or your ship, in fact you have proven your skill time and again aboard Lenin even after all the beatings she took. To be honest captain I just don’t like the thought of this ship and Admiral Ross going into battle alone and not being able to do anything but watch….Ross is a friend of mine, and I know he and you are friends as well and that even if you weren’t you would do everything in your power to fulfill your duty and protect the fleet commander and carry out your mission, but I just don’t like having to sit on the sidelines and watch, do you understand?” Fowler leaned back in her chair and gazed into the eyes of the younger woman, watching the wheels churning in her mind.
“Yes Ma’am I understand what you are saying, however I do request that next time you not question the abilities of my ship in front of others until I have at least had a chance to prove her in battle.” Yu’s own icy tone had dissolved and her typical soft tone returned, Fowler nodded thoughtfully before rising.
“Very well Captain Pe I apologize for my earlier remarks and any insult you may have taken.” Fowler’s tone was neither bitter nor submissive but instead it was formal and polite.
“Thank you Captain Fowler, no hard feelings and I look forward to serving with you.” Yu smiled as she took Fowler’s hand and shook firmly.
Captain Fowler turned about to leave, but stopped and turned around as she heard Lin clearing her throat.
“Oh and Miss Fowler, it’s Captain Yu not Pe, I am of Chinese extract and in many parts of China it was tradition to put Clan name first followed by family and then surnames.”
“Really? I’ve never heard that before?” Fowler cocked her head with curiously.
“Yeah, not many people do as most of the Chinese extracted Populace of Icara still lives on Brandenburg, in New Beijing where they were found about 200 years ago since old traditions of not mixing the bloodlines dies hard.” Yu smiled at the other woman and was genuinely surprised by her interest, Fowler was like the bulk of the Icaran populace, over millenia of intermarriage had made it so that it was impossible to tell her direct decent just by looking at her, but unlike the bulk of the Icaran population she seemed interested in learning about the more ancient and “multicultural” portion of the Empire.
“Fascinating, I’d like to hear more about your decent some other time if you wouldn’t mind.” Fowler actually cracked the first genuine smile of the day.
“Of course Captain Fowler, I’d be honored, but first I’d like to apologize for implying your ship was inferior to mine.” Yu lowered her gaze to the floor (much the way her mother did whenever she was apologizing),
“Don’t worry about it Lin, we both acted like ****wits if you ask me so I suppose we sort of canceled each other out in the needing to apologize department.” Fowler smiled again as she turned around to leave.

Two days later the massive super dreadnought sped across the stars on her intercept course with the ten enemy warships, Ross and Yu spent hours on end watching the tactical displays as the light codes indicating enemy ships and the light code indicating Yu Hing Pe began to come closer and closer.
“Sir ETI (Estimated time to Intercept) is 15 minutes for us, Shadowclaw is still eight hours away at maximum speed.” Commander Styles said cheerfully as he idly drummed his fingers on his control station.
“Thank you Commander, continue countdown every five minutes please.” Lin’s demeanor was icy but Ross knew her well enough to know that she was tense, it was the first combat deployment of this class of ship and no one knew if it would really work in battle.
After a seemingly endless closing time and three more time counts the tactical readouts finally showed only a few seconds till intercept range.
“All gunnery crews have acquire target locks on the leading four enemy ships.” Chief Gunnery officer Chen’s voice sounded like music to Yu after such an agonizing wait.
“Bring us to broadside and fire as she bares mister Chen, let’s turn those four ships to ash.” Lin clenched her hands into nervous fists as her ship turned about to execute her maneuver, she was amazingly fast for a ship of her size which startled the bridge crew, most of which were veterans of the older Midwinter class heavy cruisers which were slow to maneuver and unwieldy at the helm, she rapidly came about as her broadside came to life with an amazing roar of energy and light.
Four Phong warships vanished in a number of expanding balls of plasma and wreckage, yet the other Phong continued to advance, seconds later another salvo from the Icaran super dreadnought reduced two more Phong warships to rubble and sent another spiraling into space, it’s control surfaces, weapons and engines totally destroyed.
“Weapons, switch to slicing mode, helm take us straight in at them, I don’t want to give them a chance o retreat.” Lin sounded venomous and dangerous as she gave the order to move in for the kill.
With equal speed and grace the Yu Hing swung herself around to charge into the remainder of the enemy force, her beams sliced out in wrath cutting one of the enemy cruisers clean in half neutralizing the reactor, which prevented the remnant’s explosion. A second cruiser’s entire forward hull vanished as the slicing beams of the Icaran’s secondary batteries sliced through her shields and armor like a knife, it’s reactor went critical seconds later causing it to vanish in a brilliant flash of light.
The third enemy ship actually managed to bring it’s weapons to bare and fired defiantly into it’s vastly superior foe, the shots were exploded on the heavy shielding doing absolutely no damage, the same could not be said of the Icaran’s return fire however, the Phong crew didn’t even feel what killed them as the heavy I-lasers sliced through their ship.

“Admiral Ross, I’m reading survivors aboard the crippled vessel and that other ship that we cut in half, should I open fire?” Every face on the bridge turned to Ross, thus far in the war Icara had taken no enemy Naval personnel alive, not through any act of mass murder or the like but very few people survived the destruction of even an Icaran starship and the Phong’s were far less advanced in the technology required to increase survival, the little bastards hadn’t even invented a proper vacsuit and were still using the bulky astronaught type suits that humans used back on earth during the nineteenth century, which could hardly be donned in an emergency.
“Send over marines, take the crews and destroy the ships.” Ross felt Yu glaring at him and he completely understood her hatred of the Phong but he was not about to turn the crew of an Icaran warship into butchers.

Mestra System:
The entire 1st fleet was forming up to make the warp jump out of Mestra, the entire system had finally been deemed conquered as the Last Planet fell a week ago, every world had a full State Security brigade on it, and the navy was ready to advance the war into the Ogoth Tir star system.
Admiral Babcock sat n his day cabin smiling as he watched his fleet forming up, it always amazed him how such beauty could wield such deadly power, earlier this very year he had been forced to destroy an entire Phong world with 350 million Phongs on it simply because his troopers were occupied elsewhere and his deep range scans showed the world fortifying it’s self it only took two dreadnoughts to do the job, two ships with a total of 10,000 people killed 350 million so easily. Babcock hated the Phong but he also hated this damn war and the fact that it had turned him and those under his command into mass murders, or heroes it all depended on who ended up writing the history books.

Well a new system a new beginning, Ogoth Tir would fall to the first fleet, and the system after that and the one after that too until there was not a single Phong stronghold left in the universe, but it would take time and cost lives, there was no option of peace now, no chance what so ever but to continue on until the end even though intelligence had sent him several communiqués informing him that the Manti Star Kingdom had begun to apply a great deal of pressure on the Icarans to stop their war with the Phong. Whether or not the Manti’s would attack was still an up in the air issue and the 4th fleet and Home Fleet had been put on high alert just in case the Manti warships traveling through Icaran space were to attempt an assault on Icaran assets.
Babcock downed a shot of whisky and continued to stare out of his window at the beautiful killing machines that made up his fleet, he looked down, remembering the paperwork he had been neglecting, shrugged to himself and returned to the monotony of life between the battles.

2420.0
The very next month the Yu Hing proved herself again and decimated an eight ship taskforce of light cruisers carrying supplies and satellites to the colonies in the Cortina system, with the confidence in this class spreading throughout the navy the old Reliance class cruisers began being retired out of service and scrapped as their resources were desperately needed to prop up the currently struggling Icaran economy.

[Rasorow]

Nice.... question - what mods if any are you using in your game.. I know you are using shipsets but what about game mods... I didnt see a reference to those..

Rasorow

[Starhawk]

Well Yeah I'm using my own creation for the Icaran shipset I'm proud to say

As to the mod I'm using it's a moderatly modded Devnull, I added two new weapons:
I-Laser (a 13th generation AP beam with extended range and more firepower -20% accuracy +a LOT more expensive) Oh and it's green

Frag Cannon: (Fragmentation Cannon) Ultra short ranged ultra light moderately powerful 7th generation Meson bLaster weapon designed mainly for bases guarding warp points or anti-fighter weapons (more power then a fighter missile +10% accuracy but a range of 4).

Best part is the AI will research BOTH new weapons I know this because I ran a quick (play as the AIs) a while ago to see if they were researching properly and i saw a warship of another star nation with Frag Cannons

Plus I added a new ship size but that's going to be a suprise

Any more questions from anyone?

[sachmo]

How many planet are under Icaran control now?

[Starhawk]

Here is a total breakdown of the Icaran Empire at this point and time:

Systems: 33
Planets: 170
Population: 54.3 Billion
Units: 2768
Ships: 117 (roughly 90 are combat ships and only about 30 are dread and super dread designs)

Economic Income:
Minerals= +10,305
Rads= +180143 (I wish I had resource converters)
Organic= +82111

Ranking: 2nd

Other Star nations contacted:

Neo-Star Empire (offically partnered unoficially they are in a state of cold war)

Maggellan Corporation (Military Alliance of convenience, the Icarans and MCs don't like one another)

Manti Star Kingdom (military alliance of necessity, Icara is not strong enough to defeat the Manti at this time)

Sol Coalition (Partnership treaty, the Solars are begining to be considered a trusted ally of Icara)

Citizen Federation (Trade and research alliance, mainly because the ICarans havn't seen a single CF ship in nearly 12 years)

Phong Federation (A state of open war exists between the Phong Federation and the Icaran Empire, a war Icara is thus far winning easily)

Political Status (Aka average planetary happiness):
All "True Icaran" worlds including those of the former Rebel Alliance are for the most part happy and absolutely trust the Praetor and House of Lords thus far.

The Recent "acquisitions" all have SS brigades stationed on them and have thus far been easily pacified on the few occasions they've attempted rioting.

[sachmo]

You have a partnership wtih the Sol Coalition?

That seems...odd.

[Starhawk]

Well their attitude towards me is murderous and mine is the same towards them, the treaty was first signed when the Phong attacked me, and I was actually outclassed by both them and the Solars....as I said it was out of my survival though the partnership treaty was actually the first thing they proposed and I took it

Besides that my economy is in shambles at the moment and I need their resources and above all else the Icarans are survivors and if it takes allying with a hated enemy for the time being then ally they will.

[edit]: Oh and remember these are Icarans we are talking about when I say "trusted" ally I simply mean one that is not making any immedietly threatening moves against me.

[Starhawk]

Well time for a new chapter, this one is less a "character" one though and more of a "big picture so far" story just to let you know in advance.

2420.3
“Welcome back, We promised to bring you up to date on the war against the Xeno Phong when we came back from our break and we always keep our promises, Hello Roy are you there?” the pretty news woman turned to face something off screen and as a voice came over her ear piece.

“Yes Madalin I’m here from the bridge of the flagship Conquest, with the 1st fleet where the invasion of Ogatha Tir has taken off like a missile. Admiral Babcock has politely denied our requests for an interview because he is very busy leading the fleet against the Phong Federal forces.” Roy Scheller was the premier field reporter of the Icaran News Network, wherever he was the hottest stories were and the people loved him, mainly because he was one of only a few field reporters that was willing to place himself in the midst of the action, though the Navy always denied him permission to drop with the ground forces during an invasion.

‘Roy can you tell us how it’s going so far?” Madalin Brice was the other kind of reporter, she never left the safety of the Icaran capital and though she was a well liked anchorwoman she was not as famous or well liked as some of her colleagues like the famous Liza Torrence of the nightly news.

“Well Madalin, in the past month alone the brave men and women of our armed forces have valiantly conquered Orgotha Tir, Eight, Six and Nine, without the loss of a single brave Icaran….The navy still won’t let me go down to the surface of any of the OT planets because they are afraid that the locals might see a reporter and attack him….” he laughed cheerfully “Even after I said I’d take a marine escort their afraid I’ll stick my “nose for news” out to far and get it shot off.” some of the military personnel in the background could be heard laughing at the reporter’s quoting Admiral Babcock.

“Well it sounds like you’ve gotten yourself quite a fan club over there Roy.” Madalin smiled into the camera.
Roy chuckled again “Yeah I’ve made a few friends is all, these people are great to be around, and given another two months and Admiral Babcock says this entire star system will have fallen to our forces, another step on our road to victory over the enemies of Icara.”

“Well Roy I’m afraid our time is up.” Madalin looked into the camera again “Ladies and gentlemen thank you for watching, we’ll see you tomorrow here on INN a subsidiary of the State Security Broadcast system.”

2420.5
Babcock’s estimate was correct, Ogatha Tir fell within two months and the first fleet was already mobilizing to move on to the next target of conquest on the Icaran hit list, Babcock had not lost a single soldier or spacer during the invasion, more then the capture of the entire system the Icarans managed to destroy a small fleet of Phong warships and an entire corps of Phong ground troops.

On the other end of the Phong front the 3rd fleet had finally been given the resources to go on the offensiv, the 1st Germania regiment had swept through the first three Phong bases in Cortina like a flood, sweeping aside all resistance and bringing the population of Cortina 1, 2, and 2a (Cortina 2’s moon) under the heel of Icaran Jackboots.
Admiral Ross had just received word of his promotion from Rear Admiral to full Admiral and Captain Yu Lin had just received the Fleet Service Medallion for her starship as it had managed to gain it’s 30th kill in only a few months of service.

Thus far the war was going well on the Phong front, yet on the NeoStar border the Icaran fleet was in a tense mood, the Neo Star empire was quickly growing more hostile and after three Icaran Merchantmen went missing on their borders the Royal Navy 4th fleet was ordered to ready it’s self for deployment in order to investigate the disappearances. Needless to say the Neo-Star Empire was less then pleased when they heard of this and began mobilizing one of their own sector fleets along the border, along with the usual diplomatic threats and accusations.

[Starhawk]

2420.6
Tyson Babcock dropped wearily into the big comfortable chair he had brought aboard Conquest when she became his flagship, with tired hands he unbuckled his tunic and unhooked the button that held his collar. Sighing deeply, he started to think about the past few year.. His fleet had conquered 2 systems, no wait 3, yet they still had so long a way to go ahead of them before he could finally return to Icara and see his home by the western ocean: he thought to himself as the burden of the day finally started to lift from his shoulders, yeah they had a long way to go but his troops could handle it, no matter what he would return to Icara one day, he didn’t care whether it was as a war hero or just another soldier who did his duty, he just wanted to go home again after all even now his ship was in orbit of the most recent conquest MunjumbIX. The tired Admiral started to slip off to sleep when the com unit chimed, he ignored I at first but the chime became an irritating whistle. “Accept the call, audio only!” he groaned irritably and cussed to himself.

“Admiral Babcock Colonel Drago on the com for you from the surface.” The com officer paged Babcock in his quarters, much to his irritation, that com officer had a bloody bad habit of paging him at bad times in awkward places, Last week the young man paged him with a needless message while he was in his quarters with Countess Dorothy Rallins. The tired Admiral buckled his tunic again and dragged himself out of his chair and walked over to the com unit.
“Alright put him through Ensign.”
The old grizzled Colonel’s face appeared on screen, Tyson shrank back a moment when he saw the expression on the colonel’s face.
“My Lord Drago what’s wrong?”
“Admiral, there’s been an incident down here, there are a lot of our people dead here sir and a lot of Phong as well.” his voice was calm but Tyson could tell that the man was worried more then he had ever been before.
“What kind of incident?” Babcock demanded
“An explosion sir, an entire Phong Factory was blown to hell….and sir.. It was, it was with a compressed nuke sir.”
Tyson went white, with shock, a compressed nuke was only used by Icaran Royal soldiers, the Phong didn’t possess it.
“Sir, it wasn’t an Icaran nuke, the bLast pattern was totally different, but we know the Phong don’t have that kind of tech as you know, which only leaves one other option, someone else triggered the nuke, I need tech teams brought down though sir, I’ll keep a squad of my troops on site to prevent anyone from getting involved in this until they arrive.” Drago frowned deeply as someone of screen handed him a flexi.
“Admiral, I’ve got a confirmed list of casualties, 82 Icaran engineers and marines dead, 1,025 Phong dead on scene and 32 killed elsewhere by shrapnel, Admiral when can I expect those teams?”
“In one hour Colonel.” Tyson paused a moment to collect himself “I want you to get to the bottom of this, if there is someone out there that thinks they can get away with deploying a nuke on an Icaran facility they’re wrong, and I intend to show them that.” He cut the com circuit and left his quarters to get to the bridge, he had a good idea who might be behind the attack but until he could prove it he wasn’t about to say anything to anybody.