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

[Starhawk]

You don't think that Last chapter was too corney do yah? I mean a wedding and all in the middle of a galactic war? I thought it would add a touch of humanity and besides that Yu and Ross have been dating by that point for 4 years and would have known each other for about 30 so hehe

[kerensky]

Okay, so finally here it is, the word format of the story. It's current up to this post, but is not completely edited for typos...

Enjoy

[kerensky]

Don't despare!!! I talked to starhalk today and he said he was working on the next chapter, so be prepared for it soon.

[Starhawk]

2426.6
The third fleet entered Icara’s orbit as triumphant heroes, thousands of pleasure yachts and small craft darted about as tens of thousands of people rushed to see the magnificent site of their glorious warships and their righteous crews returned home from their holy crusade to liberate worlds from the vile clutches of Xeno’s of a most foul nature, nearly two dozen worlds were “purified” by the “holy fire” from the fleets of Icara and with those worlds millions and billions died freeing up those worlds for eventual colonization by humans, the true masters of the galaxy.
For the warriors of the 3rd fleet it was a time of celebration not because of their triumphant return, nor because of the glorious parades and parties held in their honor, no to the vast bulk of returning soldiers the celebration was in the simple warmth of Icara’s nights, the cool soothing breezes from the oceans, and the laughter of children, they were finally home after twenty five years of war and struggle in space, some had left home when they were but twelve and returned to home as thirty year old plus men, tired from a lifetime of endless war aboard the vast metal leviathans that were the warships of the Royal Navy.
For William Ross and his young wife Yu Lin the celebration happened in private, they stayed away from the parties and the parades and the endless banter from reporters and admiring citizens, they hid away in a cabin that had once belonged to her father enjoying each other’s company and inviting only a few friends over for simple gatherings and dinners were no reporters clacked away with holovid cameras or constantly jabbered in their ears, waiting for a famous quote for the history books.

Little could the celebrating population of the Icaran empire suspect that a threat more harrowing then Xeno’s more devious then the Andorans and darker then the heretical cults that were being suppressed by the SS. A threat that silently spread to the world named Valhalla, people vanished one day and appeared the next but they were changed somehow, distant, quiet and some would say hollow, the authorities searched for a cause but none could be found, days went by and eventually the entire world seemed to be distancing it’s self from the neighboring worlds and systems of the empire, the local governor began sending only vague reports from his world, more and more citizens began to become fearful that whatever was happening on Valhalla would spread to their worlds, but no one wanted to inform the military for fears that they would make an ere in judgment and face the wrath of an angry military commander should their fears prove baseless so instead the governors in that system remained silent and watched to see what would happen later…..something that would soon prove a most dangerous mistake.

[Starhawk]

Memories:
It was a long time ago now, it seemed like years now, though it had only been one year since the warp points to outside space had been sealed, since Jack Alderson’s ship had heard the final alerts by the navy to any stellar capable ships to make the warp jump before the points were sealed off. Jack had been on a passenger liner, the LNS Star Sparrow when the first warship appeared in his system and alerted the dozens of Civilian ships to make top possible speed for the warp point, they had only been given two days to make it and some of the poor bastards knew right off the start that their craft couldn’t make it before the point was sealed.
Jack remembered the panic, the screaming and crying of scared children, the sobbing of people who realized that even if the liner made it to the warp point they would never see their families again, some even demanded that the liner return to one of this world or that in the system but they were quickly overpowered by those people who were desperate to escape the system that was seen as doomed.

For hours upon hours the ship cut through space at full speed, other ships joined her, liner’s, freighters, bulk carriers, even civilian yachts that would never make the jump were trying to keep up, hoping to dock with some of the bigger ships and offload their passengers. It was like a scene of some holodrama, some small yachts even tried forcibly boarding an armed merchantman that was carrying over 6,000 souls that they had managed to pick up from one of the outer worlds, it was a strange space battle to say the least, none of the combatants had the weaponry of a warship and one of the three attacking yachts only had auto cannons with which to attack the behemoth of a ship, the merchantman returned fire with her frag cannons and quickly destroyed one of her attackers, tragically the exploding yacht slammed headlong into a school ship, destroying it instantly killing dozens of children. Jack remembered watching from the ship’s main view port and remembered wondering why the waiting Icaran warship didn’t even try to help that merchantman and save those six thousand souls, Jack just felt glad that he could not hear the com traffic that the crews of the surrounding ships could hear it must have been such a sad and desperate plea for help.
Another armed yacht darted into the fray, bringing it’s anti-proton cannons to bear on one of the armed yachts, the first shot missed entirely but the second volley cut into the raider’s engine housing causing the craft to spin out until the merchantman’s frag cannons locked on her and finished the job.
Unfortunately by that point the merchantman had suffered massive amounts of damage, whole sections burned with the fury of plasma fires and atmosphere was rushing into space from holed sections along the cargo pods that carried thousands of people, Jack thought back with a shiver as the site of people being sucked out into space by the hundreds as more and more weapons fire raked their ship, and the thoughts of how many people must have died in the fires or when the oxygen was sucked out of their cargo pods. It all ended when the raider tried to latch on to the merchantman and commence boarding operation, tragedy struck however when the other armed yacht scored a hit on the raider’s starboard engine forcing it to flame out, because it was latched onto the merchantman with grapplers however it did not spin away harmlessly but instead spiraled directly into the main compartment of the cargo ship causing a massive chain reaction, destroying the entire ship and killing thousands of innocent people.
More raids followed as desperate individuals attacked jump capable ships, and boarded them, though not every armed ship was in the hands of a desperate pirate, many armed yachts and racers patrolled the rag-tag fleet fighting off raiders wherever they could, hundreds of these brave people died as raiders engaged the fleet, one raider even scored three hits on the Star Sparrow killing dozens in the aft compartment before it was rammed by an armed racer that was acting as an impromptu fighter.
Jack remembered the feelings of anger and frustration as he saw a naval dreadnought just sitting there watching as raiders and “militia” fought for control of the jump capable ships, he had just come on this ship for a week long cruise around the system and now he was involved in a battle with other Icarans! And worse yet he had no weapons with which to fight back. He looked out his window just in time to see three armed racers and a yacht fly by his ship in formation, almost instantly one of the racers exploded in a ball of fire as a “merchantman” opened fire on the fleet with an I-Laser cannon, a second shot from the deadly cannon struck home on one of the poor freighters destroying it’s engines and life support systems outright. The fleet was only two minutes from the warp point and finally the dreadnought opened fire to protect the fleet, the raiding merchantman erupted into a ball of wreckage and fire.

Jack finally felt the gravity waves engulfing his ship and looked through his window long enough to see the dreadnought racing past his ship into the warp, warships were much faster in warp speed because of their higher quality GFGs and gravity sail generators that were the size of the Star Sparrow‘s entire engine block, which meant that the warship would already be thousands of kilometers off before the first civilian ship even entered the warp point it’s self.
The space around the civilian fleet was alive with colors as a Last wave of raiders tried to board the bigger ships to save their own asses, the brave few people left protecting the fleet raced out to meet them. A handful of the armed racers that had been damaged in battle managed to land aboard some of the larger civilian ships just before they made the transition into the warp.
The Star Sparrow was one of the slower ships in the fleet thanks to the damage she had suffered during the raider’s abortive attack against her, that left her and only two other ships with roughly eight thousand souls between them lagging at the back of the fleet and it was this that spelled their doom.
Jack remembered the tormented screaming and whaling coming from the forward compartments, just before the entire compartment he and dozens of other passengers were in turned red, a noise indescribable to anyone who did not hear it began and it was the noise more then anything that caused the screaming of agony, for the second the sound started every cell in Jack’s body erupted in fire, his body felt like it was twisting and distorting, his eyes lost sight for what seemed an eternity and the vision that greeted him when sight regained only made him wish for death even more, the other passengers were changing, their bodies were becoming distorted and the decks began dripping with blood as some of the passenger’s bodies liquefied because of the warping effects. It seemed like an eternity of pain before they finally exited the warp, the three ships that had been cut off from the rest of the fleet appeared light years off course and those poor souls that had survived could no longer be called human, Jack remembered the feeling of fear at first but then that feeling began to change, he felt a calling stronger then anything else he had ever felt before, the calling to find others like himself, those that had survived being cut off from the warp those that had turned into whatever it was that he had become, days passed and they had found eight other ships with other mutants like themselves, Jack had taken charge of the mutants through sheer force of character and will, and even now he had forged the 11 ships and about twelve thousand mutated individuals that had been ‘sacrificed for the good of man”, little did those bastards in the government know that they had survived the warp, their ships and bodies mutated beyond recognition but they had survived, and now they would claim vengeance upon the empire that had abandoned them to death for the sake of a numbers game!
And it would all start here, on Valhalla, he had already taken an advance team to the surface and even now their workings of sabotage and plans for the population were well underway, the entire planetary com system had been destroyed and thousands of people had been brought under the mutant’s sway, soon they would have their vengeance, very soon.

[Crazy_Dog]

Mutants ???
Is that a possibility under the rules of SEIV G ?

[Starhawk]

lol not at all but I am going off track of the game for that portion of our story, so ladies and gentlmen please remain in your seats until the ride has come to a complete stop.

[Starhawk]

Apendix of Terms taken from Heinkle's 25th century Dictioanry (not Alhpabetical order):

Xeno: Xeno, short form of Xenobiological or Xenoterrestrial,
1.meaning not human or of Earthly origins.
2. Slang form of Xenoterrestrial
3. Derogative word for alien species

I-Laser: Short for Intensive Plasma Laser

ShellBuster: Term used to describe an explosive charge capable of breaching a hull.

Credit: A unit of Icaran Currency.

Crowns Crowns refers to a coin used to represent 5 credits.

Billy Hopper: A citizen of the Empire unauthorized for interstellar flight, who hides on a interstellar transport. The term "Billy Hopper" comes from the fact that the first recorded case of such action was taken by a man named William, the hopper refers to the fact that most of these "Billy Hoppers" must stow away aboard several ships before reaching their destination.

Mutant: Describing one who has mutated.
1. A human being who has suffered genetic or biological mutations of some form.

Xenocide: Refers to the systematic annihilation of a non-human species.

Slambred: Slambred, meaning one bred in a slam or maximum security Penal colony. Slambred citizens are often drafted into the Icaran marine corps or Imperial Guard regiments, following extensive "re-socialization" processes.

Re-Socialization: A series of drug, hypnotic, and brain print treatments which allow an otherwise unsuitable citizen to operate as a normal human being.

Joey: A marine

Bootstamp: Referring to the imprint left after a kick from an Icaran Jackboot, meaning chewed out by one's superior. ex: "John just got a bootstamp from his Commander for sleeping in."

Dancing a Molly: Refers to a hanging, the standard sentence for traitors and heretics.

Sweetjuice: Slang term for an illegal Phong drink which has intoxicating results on said species, and toxic results to humans.

Heretic: One who defies the existance of the divine, an atheist, a cultist, or one who has defiled the name of the Praetors.

Blackshirt: Slang term used by military personnel to refer to a State Security trooper.

Dragger: A dragger, an unproductive citizen, a lazy individual.

Warping Willies: A humorous name for warp sickness, caused by the effects of the warp on some humans.

Bouncing Brenda: Slang for a landmine used by Icaran State Security, it pops up from the ground prior to exploding when triggered.

Kissing Steel: Slang term for being slapped by the flat of a sword, punishment inflicted on undisciplined recruits.

Spanking Anna: Crude Slang for slapping a charge/magazine into a rifle, origins unknown.

Darter: Weapon used by State Security and Ship Board Marines. Fires a micro explosive "Dart" at transonic speeds via magnetic acceleration.

Auto-Rifle: Refers to an automatic darter assault rifle carried by SS and Fleet Marines.

Green Meanie: Stimulant pill used by the military during long periods where sleep is not available, side effects include explosive vommiting and diarrhea after prolonged use, as well as headaches.

Vac Suit: A soft form fitting suit worn over clothing aboard starships during combat incase of sudden exposure to vacuum.

Hard Suit: Refers to a Marine or Army armored Vac suit.

Slasher: Slang term for an energy blade carried by marines for hand to hand fighting aboard ship.

Charlie Foxtrot Polite version of Cluster ****, used to describe a situation where an officer who does not know what they are doing is placed in charge of those who do. See also goatscrew.

Slam: Maximum Security Penal colony.

Halfer: A being of mixed species, also classified as mutants.

Glassing: The destruction of a world by orbital bombardment, comes from the fact that energy weapons and fusion weapons turn soil to glass upon impact.

OpFor The Opposing Forces

Burner: Used by navy pilots to describe afterburners, by land forces it is used as slang for a flamethrower.

Bessy: A Mk12 Bessamalt Arms assault Rifle.

The State: Refers to the body politic, government as a whole throughout the Empire.

Nugget: A new pilot

Mud Eater: A ground pounder, generally army personnel.

Expect a New Chapter soon btw you guys don't mind me going a little off game for a bit do you?

[Starhawk]

Anyone still reading this

BTW don't worry about that link anymore it stopped working about two weeks ago

[Atrocities]

Yes, still reading. To bad about the link.

Hey don't worry if you don't get any posts in this thread. People often read but seldom post. I have found that writing for review is less rewarding than writing just to write.

So please keep writing, and we will keep reading.

Also check out this site, it might be of interst to you. http://www.lit.org/