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

[kerensky]

Hey would antone be interested in a ms word format of the story with all grammer/speeling errors fixed (no offense star)???

If so, I could attach the file.

[kerensky]

Hello.....?????

Is anything happening here????

[Rasorow]

We are patiently waiting on the next chapter.. but it is Christmas so we may have to wait until after the holiday...

I wouldn't mind a copy of the file.

Rasorow

[kerensky]

Okay, I'll post up a file as soon as I get my computer back up. My registration period for XP has run out and I'm currently in the process of getting a code for it. Hopefully I'll be back up after Christmas.

[Starhawk]

Sorry all I've been busy writing a Prelude to a fantasy book I'm writing

Well here's the next chapter,I hope you like it.

2421.3 One War Begins As another begins to close
“The 1st and 3rd fleets have continued to conquer even further into Phong space, yet they still will not surrender, Gentlemen to make matters worse the Praetor has bowed to the Manti Star Empire and the Neo Star Empire and declared all out war on the Maggellan Corporation, and we still don’t know the full capabilities of the Corporation.” Grand Admiral Hallice frowned deeply as he looked at the holomap, the planet hopping campaign was going well for the Empire, entire systems were falling in a matter of months but even at such a rate it would take up to three years to end the war and that was simply unacceptable considering the fact that this war had raged on and off for nearly 18 years now.

“I’m afraid we have to end this war in one fell swoop gentleman and ladies, we need to find the Phong home world and take it out of the equation, either by invasion or orbital bombardment, but it needs to be removed.” Hallice paused as the Admirals around the table murmured.
The Empires best intelligence operatives couldn’t find the enemy homeworld no matter how hard they tried, yet they expected the navy to find and neutralize it in a matter of months, assuming the Phong home world still existed, after all naval intel had shown that the yellow freaks were also at war with a race called the Crystallin Republic, whether these were humans or xenos was still unknown however.

“Well there you have it, we are to conquer the entire Phong empire in under three years as ordered by the Praetor himself, however ladies and gentlemen I will not let this get sloppy, if we fail our mission I will be forced to resign, but damned if I will allow even one life to be lost because I am in a hurry to save my own political ***, understood?” Hallice said bitterly, the other Admirals knew that “Getting sloppy” meant wasting lives on suicidal attacks simply to prove “progress was being made” and they all knew how the Grand Admiral punished such actions but to take over an entire race in under three years seemed impossible.

The entire Admiralty general staff left the room feeling rather grim and doomed by their orders, but Icaran naval officers never failed the Empire before, not even during the Final March all those long centuries ago when they were driven from their Earth and the entire Icaran military was destroyed, if there was a way to conquer the enemy in 3 years they would.

2421.3 Five Swords of Heaven

The five worlds chosen for project “Five Swords” were buzzing with activity, their entire population centers were cut off from the outside Empire, even the capital world Icara was cut off, all communications stopped, the home fleet had even been deployed in a blockade orbit of Icara, ensuring that no ships either entered or left.
All that was known of the Project was that it was a new “ultimate weapon” and that the entire project would take two years to complete.

Meanwhile the war weary troops of the 3rd fleet invaded three more enemy worlds, conquering them all in under a month’s time, Ross ordered the fleet to hold position over their most recent conquest, to allow his troops a rest as well as secure the supply transports captured from the Phong merchant guild.

Ross sat quietly on the bridge of his flagship and watched the video recording that had just arrived from the Admiralty, it was the usual monthly report but this one was special, it had video clips taken from the 1st fleet, showing entire worlds decimated by Imperial guns, Admiral Babcock had destroyed 4 enemy worlds killing a total of 600 million Phong, Ross knew how Babcock must be feeling, even though the Phong were simply xenos the Empire had killed billions of them and would likely kill billions more before the war was out yet the Admiralty put a positive spin on the whole thing, telling the public of the Navy’s heroic victories over dangerous Xeno scum and the Church spun it as a holy crusade purifying the universe of the enemies of God, but here, on the front lines it was butchery pure and simple, it was to preserve the human race and ensure Icara’s survival but it was butchery none the less.

“William, penny for your thoughts?” Ross heard a gentle voice behind him and turned away from the pad playing the video clip, seeing Lin he felt his mood improve almost instantly.
“What’s a Penny?” Ross, tried to sound cheerful but his old friend knew better and patted him on the arm, her smile warmed his mood but even she was getting weary of this ongoing war.
“It’s an old form of currency, haven’t you ever studied Pre-Antimatter economies?” she just smiled quietly after that and sat next to him, both of them just needed to see a friend even if they had nothing to say, they had seen so much death and knew that there was so much more coming.
After several minutes of silence Ross turned to Yu Lin “I hear the Blackbird scored 4 kills earlier this month.”
“How about that, she’s going to be getting some serious battle honor if she keeps this up.” Yu said cheerfully, after that they began some casual conversation, all the while avoiding the most recent reports that an entire SS brigade was destroyed when the Phong blew up one of their own worlds. The 35th SS brigade had recruited Ross youngest niece Meleena when she was 17, she had gone with them to that world and was among the 400 other dead Icarans of that brigade.
Ross felt angry at himself for feeling so hurt by her loss, he had only met the young lady twice and she was only one out of millions of Icarans who had died in this war, but for some reason he couldn’t shake the feeling of loss and sorrow.
Lin knew more then most how the sting of such a loss felt so she just stayed quiet, and waited for her “stoic leader” to bring it up on his own time and in private, she knew the two of them were getting closer as time went by and she found herself becoming more and more comfortable with that thought as well, even though it made her a little nervous. Ross too was enjoying their knew closeness, in his mind it was the only good thing coming out of the whole damned war.

[kerensky]

Okay, so now I have my computer back (got a copy of XP for christmas). Is anyone still interested in a word format of the story???

[Rasorow]

Yes

Rasorow

[Starhawk]

Bump, I've got more chapters coming I've just been taking a break and trying to write a real book

Well next chapter to follow soon please stay tuned in the meantime you can download the word format of the story and catch up.

[Starhawk]

2421.5
At the same time throughout the whole of Icara all vid screens all and all channels suddenly went black for a moment, seconds later the Imperial Anthem began to play softly in the background as the Imperial Eagle, with a world held in it’s right claw and a starship in it’s left appeared on screen. Throughout Icara billions gathered around screens to see what was happening.
Then the face of the Praetor himself appeared and throughout the Empire people fell silent in curiosity and fear as they waited for their beloved leader to speak.

“My fellow Icarans, my friends, brothers and sisters today I come before you with news both great and terrible, for this month two things have happened that may forever change the fate of the empire.
The Great news is that our brave men and women have found and conquered what they believe to be the Phong homeworld, though it’s population numbered less then one billion we believe this to be a great blow to the enemy, especially as the rest of the Berchest system fell to the 3rd fleet swiftly, those worlds that could not be conquered were sterilized for the safety of all humanity. Also the Briggia system suffered a similar fate, several hundred million Phong have been sterilized leaving their worlds open to human colonization.” all over Icara people cheered, the war was finally drawing to a close as more information scrolled across the bottom of the screen with information that the HMS Shadowclaw had just entered a third Phong system and was preparing to sterilize all worlds therein.

But the cheers came to a swift and sudden halt as the Praetor raised his right hand, palm facing the screen. “However my dear people, there is terrible bitter news that I must inform you of, for the HMS Tigerclaw and HMS Satuki have both been lost to a new star nation known as the Andoran, 4,400 sons and daughters of Icara perished in the brutal attack launched by an Andoran battleship. Now though we are angered by this situation I must remind you that 4,400 lives are nothing as compared to the billions of Icarans that would be put at risk should open war come between ourselves and the Andoarns, because of this I have ordered our Political bureau to send ambassadors to the Andorans in an attempt to bring peace, know this however though peace may come they will be made to pay for the lives they took on the 3rd of this month.

As always my friends I will guide and protect our people, Praetor Leonidas signing off.”

2421.6
Admiral Babcock sat numbly in his command chair, when his fleet had entered the Zerg system they had fully expected to find Phong worlds, instead they found more Xeno’s of the Xiati variant, the same ones that had lost an entire squadron to a single Icaran super dreadnought, and in a single broadside to boot.
Deciding that since the Xiati had proven hostile from the start Admiral Babcock directed his infantry regiment to launch a direct assault on the first Xiati world in system.

Landing the troops was easy enough as the world had no weapons platforms or orbital defense satellites what so ever, but once the infantry of the 1st Icara landed they soon discovered that the Xiati were totally unlike the Phong, they were tall brown skinned and over 30% of their body mass consisted of cybernetic enhancements, fortunately for the invading soldiers the Xiati world was defended by only a small force of lightly armed militia and fell swiftly.

On the Phong front the Shadowclaw had “sterilized” three entire worlds held by the Phong in the Fyras system, the 3rd fleet had just entered the Arich system and soon it too would fall before the might of the glorious Icaran Empire.

[Starhawk]

2422.8 It ends with a Whisper
“War Ends not with a Glorious Trumpet, or a shout of victory, War ends with a quiet prayer by the enemy, a quiet plea for mercy that only the victor can answer or ignore, war ends with a whisper.”
(Hung Sun Lee, Earth 1575 when the Icara-China war comes to an end)

“In the fires of death life springs anew.”
(General Tamara Jordan, 1st Hunnic Regiment, Earth 1910)

Admiral Ross and Captain Yu Lin sat stunned on a silent bridge, the entire crew seemed to be frozen in place as the Com’s officer played back the message, the 3rd fleet had conquered two and “sterilized” one of the worlds in the final system of the Phong yet they had expected the enemy to fight on even longer, but just five minutes ago the Icaran Ambassadorial services’ messenger drone had just arrived with a message informing the crews and soldiers of all Phong front forces, the war was over, the Phong had surrendered unconditionally.
Ross and Yu heard a quiet “Thank God” from several positions on the bridge but no cheering, no joyous celebrations, right now only stunned disbelief that a war some of their men and women had been fighting for their entire lives was finally over. Ross gently and discretely slipped his hand into Yu’s and squeezed her hand gently and smiled softly when she squeezed back.
“Admiral Ross, Captain Yu.” the com officer said quietly, Ross looked over at the young woman and smiled.
“Yes Ensign”
“Sir, redeployment orders have just come in, we are to report to aid 1st fleet in neutralizing the Xeno star system neighboring this one, it belongs to the Xiati variety of Xeno sir.”
Ross hissed internally, they had just finished fighting one war, he wanted to give his crews and soldiers time to rest and at least a little time to relax, but instead they would be sent to a system that belonged to a Xeno race that they were still not “officially” at war with.
“Helm, lay in a course, comns give me fleet wide please.”
“Aye”
As the fleet wide alert chimed Ross stood up confidently, clearing his throat and fixing his uniform.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the fleet, we have done our great task at Last, the Phong forces have surrendered unconditionally, yet we do not have time to rest at this time, for we have one more system to conquer at the moment, just one before the Admiralty will allow us to return to Icara in triumph, with our brothers and sisters of the first fleet by our sides, so I ask you, be brave and true now more then ever not for me, not even for the Praetor but for your families back home and for future generations, so that they will no more have to fear the threat of a Xeno or a mutant, return home with me my comrades, once our job is done, return with me not as heroes but as servants of a glorious heritage! God bless, Ross out.”

An hour later the 3rd fleet was en route to it’s newest war zone, Lin and William sat quietly in her quarters, both of them a little to surprised by the days events to speak immediately.
“You know William, that the first wave of Atmospheric conVersions took place today?” Lin smiled sweetly while she stabbed at a piece of sushi with her fork.
“Really? I wish I could have seen it, I hear it looks amazing as an atmosphere changes from a hostile non-breathable gas ball to a beautiful blue jewel of a world for the first time.” Ross’ eyes glowed as he thought of how amazing that site must have been.
“You probably will someday, maybe we both will.” Her voice changed to a more alluring tone, but her smile remained the same sweet smile that Ross loved so much about the young woman.
“Tell me Lin, what do you think about this “eternal war” that the Praetor declared?” his voice was quiet as if Ross felt like he was asking something dangerous (which indeed he was) but Yu simply shrugged in response as if he had asked a question about the weather or some such.
“I don’t know, I’d like to see home again someday but we knew when we signed up that this may go on for our entire lives, but at least we’ve ended two threats to our people, and a third I soon to join the list of conquered foes.” Her smile faded slightly and she shrugged again “But let’s not talk about such depressing things, how’s your mother?”
The two laughed and talked for hours before Ross excused himself and went to get some sleep before his fleet shipped out in the morning.