The Empire of Man (series of short stories)

[Raging Deadstar]

This was great. I loved the way you played into the huge ammounts of crew these ships would carry. When in tactical combat and you see one of your ships blow up you just don't feel the deaths of 1,500 men and women (or it's if you are a weird alien race ) Another great piece of writing and i get the feeling it's not over yet

I've added this chapter up on Spaceempires.net too Lol, Working fast today

[Starhawk]

Thank you very much I'm glad you are enjoying it and I hope that there are many many more stories to come.

Interlude

"So Lieutenant did you know that this is the second report about Captain William Park I've read today?" Admiral Renner smiled politely at the pretty young woman who sat across from him looking over another pLasti that she had brought with her.

"Yes Admiral, and that's why intelligence beleives he can become a figurehead, a herofigure to boost the moral of our people in Gamma sector, make them feel safer knowing that there are men like Park out there." Her voice was finally starting to get over that timmid tone and she was actually showing the beginings of a smile.

Renner thought for a minute before responding "Indeed it would but this report might actually demoralize the very same people, 2 ships destroyed thousands dead including an Imperial captain that was well known to the people of Gosluk system." he put the pLasti on the desk and took another sip of his brandy.
"And besides that Lieutenant from what I here our mister Park pressed fromer Governor Micha into the navy, made him a bloody able spacer no less, not even a midshipman." the Admiral laughed quietly as he saw the look on the young womans face. Since governor Micha saved his own *** while the rest of his colony burned he just happened to be dismissed as governor, and since he was already aboard Unrelenting he was a very convenient man to press into the navy....and it only took two Marines to drag him out of Park's quarters kicking and screaming to the able spacer's birth.

The young woman too began to laugh at the image of an Imperial noble being dragged down the corridors of a warship kicking, screaming and crying as he realized that he saved his *** only to be condemed to service in the navy on the very ship he was hoping to escape on.

"Well sir, I think it might make Gamma sector citizens proud to know that their young men and women were so willing to go into unbeleivable odds to protect their fellow citizens, no matter the cost to themselves." she sounded convinced but she was young and didn't necessarily understand the politics of ruling a sector of space that knew all too well they were the frontier of Imperial space.
"I'll consider it Lieutenant, but for now let me see what else you've got." The Admiral said as he took the other pLasti that she was handing him and took a look at the report's title.

[Starhawk]

The Salvage of INSS Liberty

It had been about six months since we had received our orders to go salvage the Liberty and we had finally arrived in system after four warp jumps and months of high gee acceleration, I was just glad to be able to get to work after such a long trip and when the alert sounded that standard ships gravity would be restored I heard half the crew cheer and I too felt like we had just been freed from prison.
You see that's the funny thing about Imperial ships they have inertial dampers so that we can accelerate roughly 100,000 mph without feeling any gee's but once you hit .C even the best inertial dampers will only help in somuch as not to keep you from turning into a puddle, but as you got closer and closer to C (what we call the speed of light) the gravities increase on your body, and so in normal space the Navy refers to acceleration in referance to Gee forces, the higher the gee's the higher the speed and my ship had been accelerating at 5 gee for 6 months between jumps....needless to say the crew was miserable and very sore when we finally dropped back into the standard ships gravity which is .82 standard Spartan gravities. Well anyway we all know basic ship's physics here so I'll move on.

Well the alert had just sounded and my three bunk mates and I unstrapped from our grav couches and stood up, with some effort mind you. After about five minutes of just regaining our legs we responded to the ship's gym to begin freefall exercises until our shift started.

"Hey Brad, have you ever seen an Imperial Battlecruiser before?" Rodrick Tou was a new boy from some backwater colony that didn't even have an official name yet but all in all he was a good guy.
"Heh, I've seen an entire fleet massed before Rod it's just you backwater boys that rarely see anything bigger then a light cruiser." I liked teasing him about his backwater roots every now and then but like I said he was a good kid and he took it in stride.
Well after the standard hour of freefall exercises we reported to the ship's mess to eat the standard freefall meal that had the standard pLasteel taste to it.

After all that I was finally able to report to the bridge and imagine my suprise when I ran into a squad of marines! I hadn't even known marines were attached to Grasp until then, they must have done their exercises and eaten their meals in another part of the ship, but I still wondered how I didn't see em coming on board with the rest of us when we left Port.
Well I figured it'd be best not to try and talk to the marines so I just went on to the bridge to get my orders from the captain.....okay actually it was just so that I could get to a screen and see what Liberty looked like.

When I got to the bridge Cap'n Schmite and the bridge crew were already moving us into position to dock with the wrecked battlecruiser, it was finally coming on screen and my Lord she looked like someone had taken her to hell and left her to roast for a year, entire sections of her hull were gouged out, her engines were wrecked and the few remaining intact sections of the ship were open to vaccum.
"Mister Williams we are docking with that ship in five minutes, I want your salvage team and the marine squad to be ready in three minutes is that clear." Schmite barely paused long enough to look at me when he ordered me to get my team assembled but I just couldn't resist asking the question I knew my team would ask.
"Sir, if I may ask why are there Marines on board?" I wasn't really expecting the Cap'n to answer so when he turned his chair around to face me I was a little suprised.
"Because mister Williams the Navy and Marines decided that since this ship is not officially an Imperial Navy ship it is not necessarily a good idea to leave us unprotected should smugglers, pirates or scrappers happen to be aboard that wreck, now get your team moving mister." with that he turned back around and I walked to my team's birthing and had everyone don preasure suits and get their gear together so that when we boarded the battlecruiser we could begin repairs immedietly instead of having to wait.

Five minutes later my team and the squad of marines was at the airlock waiting for that thump that meant we were attached to Liberty ten marines five salvage techs to be divided into five survey teams.
"Ensign Williams Navy orders state that my team is to go in first, your salvagers are to come in only after we give the okay, understood?" Seargent Thompson was posterchild for the marines, he was hugely muscled man and 2 meters tall at least with a standard marine buzzcut that was hidden by his armored preasure suit so I decided it would be best not to argue with him as he would easily win. So when we docked the marines went in first and we listened in on their communications.
From what we heard there were still bodies on board, a lot of them which I admit none of my salvage team was used too but it also wasn't much of a suprise as she had been abandoned in the middle of a battle and the navy couldn't spare a ship to come clean the bodies out, until now of course as my ship had been tasked with full cleanup detail.

"Allright Ensign bring your team in, but watch your step." I knew Thompson was just trying to be a good soldier but I couldn't help feeling a little insulted about being told to be careful, I mean afterall salvage was what we did. When we stepped out of the airlock we felt an immediate feeling of weightlessness until our maglock boots established a seal and we were able to walk somewhat normally.
The corridor that we were in looked battered to say the least, debris and scorched metal was everywhere but what was really disturbing is how quiet it was, since the entire section was exposed to vaccum there wasn't any sound whatsoever except for what we heard over the comn links and it even had the experienced salvagers a little on edge myself included.
The marine squad came back at a rather casual pace and Seargent Thompson began assigning the teams, I considered myself lucky as I was assigned to Private's Whelch and Vierra (Vierra being a rather stunning 19 year old female) and began heading towards engineering, it was a long walk as engineering was two decks down and the lifts were offline but I wasn't about to complain as the marines had made that trip twice now and I didn't want to look bad in front of them, well okay I didn't want to look bad in front of the only woman my age I'd seen in person in a year.
When we reached engineering we were rather surpised to find a large pile of debris blocking the door, it was good that the marines came with us afterall as Vierra stepped in front of me and stood next to Whelch.
"Step back Ensign we don't want you getting hurt." Go figure I thought, first time a girl talks to me in a year and it's to crack wise. Well I stepped back anyway and watched as her and Whelch fired their laser rifles on sustaining beam mode until the debris turned bright red and begam melting into the floor. After about four minutes of waiting the debris was finally gone, but the marines insisted on entering engineering first "just to be sure".
When they finally waved me forward Vierra put an armored hand on my chestplate and looked at me grimly "Ensign, the engineering crew didn't get out, there are bodies in there....just to warn you some of them are not in good condition." She sounded sincerly concerned and to tell the truth I was a little nervious about having to enter a room full of bodies especially since I knew what "not in good condition" meant.

When she turned around to reenter engineering I gulped hard and worked up my nerves then I stepped into the room...eighteen bodies some of which had been badly mangled waited for me when I stepped in, eighteen people some of whom that still had recognizable faces looked about my age, some looked about 13 or 14 and others were just too badly burned or mangled to recognize, I almost threw up a few times as I went to work on the systems that we'd need to get on-line. I kept going by realizing that 1. The marines had been trained to deal with this and they could deal with it so could I. and 2. I just kept moving from one system to the next without looking up or to my sides at the corpses floating all around me.
I was glad to be out of engineering after I got the power turned on because when gravity came on and those bodies fell to the deck with some rather disgusting sounds and a rather nausiating splash of gore from some of those bodies who had only their preasure suits holding in their internals until that is grav came on and shattered the already damaged plates of their suits well let's not talk about that anymore, needless to say I threw up my lunch and embarrased the hell out of myself in front of Vierra and Whelch, although neither of them joked me about it even after a month went by and we were still working on getting the ship ready for tow back to a Naval base.

Two months of hard work repairing systems and bagging over 300 bodies later and we had newly designated Liberator ready for tow back to base, and me, Vierra and Whelch ended up good friends. You know for marines they weren't bad folks.
Well I was glad to hear that I would be part of the team taking Liberator (not yet newly christened but we all knew what her name was to be) because Vierra and her squad were going to be coming with me and a twelve man salvage crew which gave me another month of getting to know Miss Vierra.

I was proud that we got the battlecruiser back on-line and that she'll rejoin the fleet in only a few months but I still remember the bodies, those men and women were a lot braver then I was and they died protecting my sorry *** and those of millions or even billions of other colonists. You know before this salvage I thought of the navy and marines as a bunch of glory boys just out there cruising the stars not doing any real work but after this I realize just how dedicated and self sacrificing they are and I don't think I'll ever make any more mud jumpers or laserbrain jokes about the marines....in fact I am considering putting in a request to join the corps when we get back to port, hey maybe I'll get lucky and assigned to the same ship as Vierra...maybe not but I just can't wait to see the looks on my parent's faces when I come home in a marine uniform.

Personal log Salvage Tech Ensign Willaims.

[Intimidator]

Great again, please hurry with the next part

[sachmo]

Good stuff here.

[Starhawk]

Oooh compliments from the master .....thanks Sachmo.

The Invasion:

Battlegroup Venerable had been en route to Bynous for nearly a year now as fleet intel showed this to be the home systems of a hostile race known as the Xi-Chung, the fleet was a squadron of ships of the line dispatched out of Sparta, at the invasion fleet's heart was the massive form of Alexander the Great which was a troop ship the size of a super monitor and more heavily shielded and armed then a heavy cruiser but still had room enough to carry 10,000 soldiers into battle. Right now though she carried only 7,000 imperial marines who would be deployed on Bynous IX to establish a base for future fleet operations in this sector of the galaxy.

Admiral Hursh who led the assault on Bynous IX from the bridge of his dreadnought INSS Venerable watched proudly as the landing barges from the massive super transport were breaking through the atmosphere, as he watched a young tactical officer turned to face him with a rather grim look on his face.
"Admiral sir, sensors detect nine enemy starships closing on us, from the opposite side of the planet, they are nine hours out sir and closing at six gee." Admiral Hursh was suddenly hit with quite a problem, if he waited for the enemy to close in on the planet then they could do serious damage to the landings before his ships could intercept but he couldn't afford to dispatch his full combat group to intercept them because if there were any Xi-Chung ships waiting in hiding they could decimate the landing forces and the troop ship before anyone got back.
Hursh felt a lump grow in his throat as he quickly thought about what ships he could deploy, his flagship had been ordered to remain with the rest of the battlegroup so he couldn't lead his ship into the fight. After a moment of thougt Hursh quickly ordered the other two Imperial 2 dreadnoughts INSS Acoma and INSS Landstown to leave the battlegroup and engage the entire enemy fleet by themselves. Hursh didn't hold out much hope for the two warships but what he needed at that moment was time and those ships and the 10,000 men and women on them could save the lives of over a hundred thousand of their comrades if they could just hold up that task force long enough for the drop to be complete and the fleet to become mobile again.


Aboard INSS Landstown gunnery officer Ensign Miko Takinowa sat at her station with the other two members of her gunnery crew able spacers Thompson and Parry both of whom were only seventeen which made them practically kids compared to Miko's twenty six years of age, and both of em had eyes for her and tried to do everything in their power to impress her any chance they got, it was a little strange but overall they were good kids and she couldn't ask for a better gunnery crew when she knew they were about to go into battle against an entire Xi-Chung squadron.
"Ma'am we've still got six hours to intercept the little bug bastards, why do you think they have us at alert already?" Thompson was probobly just fishing for a reason to talk to her, before she could answer Parry cut in with his typical good humored barritone. "Because if the little bugs have a ship or five hiding in the gravity fields of one of these planets we won't see em and we sure as hell don't want em riding up our assess while we ain't looking." His remark was met by a grin from Miko so he turned back to his station with a rather self satisfied smirk on his face.
"Well six hours to intercept, anyone got a deck of cards?" Miko knew that Thompson always carried a deck of playing cards in his breast pocket for luck so it didn't suprise her when he and Parry turned their chairs around to face her station, the next six hours went by with them playing various card games that Parry and Thompson let themselves lose on more then one occasion, just not to each other.
When the Klaxons sounded Miko had just finished winning another hand of Athenian hold em and quickly turned to face her station as Thompson put his cards away.
"All hands this is the captain, we are two lightseconds out from intercept, all gunnery crews stand by." Miko smiled to herself as she turned on her station's targeting monitors and knew that in a few moments she could finally get to work.
Miko switched her targets through the nine ships to find out just what her ship would be facing, three heavy cruisers, four light cruisers, 2 cruisers and a small carrier. which was even now unloading 30 fighters.
From her station's camera Miko could see the Acoma and couldn't help but feel completely outgunned, sure in Imperial history a single dreadnought defeated a squadron of cruisers by it's self and not more then six months ago the Unrelenting had destroyed 4 Goul'd battleships single handedly, but that was no real comfort to the young ensign as she heard the ships speaker's boom "ALL GUNNERS FIRE AT WILL!" and quickly locked on to the target designated by the bridge command station and pressed the button that brought her battery to life and connected their ship to the enemy cruiser with a silent green beam that began playing off the enemy shields in a rather beautiful mix of colors and light.
Miko heard the thumping of the ship's point defense cannons as Parry and Thompson aquired locks with the portside PDLs, in the left hand monitor next to her main visual station the display showed to green blips that she knew represented the two Imperial dreadnoughts, but now it also showed about 30 red blips which signified the enemy fleet that was even now closing with them all the while firing.
Miko nearly cheered as she saw her next volley connect with the enemy cruiser's hull and burn through, only two more shots from the main guns and the enemy cruiser went nova as her screen quickly refocused on the next ship, another nova lit up as the other dreadnought scored a kill on one of the Xi-Chung light cruisers.
Suddenly the ship rocked as the enemy heavy cruisers came into range and returned fire with their powerful organic beam weapons but oddly the shutter only Lasted for a second as the enemy cruisers began targeting Acoma instead of Landstown. The tactical display suddenly flaired to life with several hundred tiny red blips and Miko knew that to mean that enemy missiles were coming in. Suddenly the quiet thump of the point defenses that were destorying the enemy fighters was replaced with the rapid screetching noise as the PDLs went into fully automatic and the ships defense missiles launched to intercept the enemy missiles tearing great swathes out of the red blips, but not enough of the missiles were intercepted as dozens struck home on the shields of Acoma severely weakening them as the enemy beam weapons lanced out again cutting into the shields.

Within a half an hour most of the enemy cruisers were destroyed and the enemy light carrier had been shot to peices but the remaining heavy cruiser and beam equipped cruisers tore into Acoma's hull burning great swathes out of the dreadnought, Miko watched in horror as a great flare on her screen showed that the other imperial dreadnought's reactor went critical and erupted in a nova blowing peices of wreckage screaming towards the shields of the Landstown.
Parry and Thompson who had never seen action before froze in their seats, eyes glued to their monitors.
"Dear lord, what do we do now?" Parry asked in a horrified tone as the bright bLast was finally fading on screen, three more enemy ships remained and they had a job to do but for a quick moment it seemed that the entire universe stopped as if in awe of the sudden loss of such a great ship and so many lives in an instant. But as the horror wore off Takinowa managed to get her voice up "Get back to work we've got three targets left, let's blow em to hell." her voice was filled with hatred as she spat the words.
Within an hour two out of the three enemy ships had been destroyed and Miko was glaring at her screen as the Last cruiser was being burned through by a volley of beam fire and began breaking apart under the strain of such a concentrated volley, the crew didn't cheer as they were still Imperial navy and their discipline and training forbad such a thing, but there was a universal feeling of releif as the Last enemy ship blinked out of existance and the Landstown began accelerating at half combat speed to rejoin the invasion in orbit of Bynous IX.

Two hours after the battle a memorial service was held for the 5,000 officers and crew of the Acoma and a messenger drone was launched from the flagship to inform the fleet HQ of the loss of an Imperial dreadnought.

[Intimidator]

Great again.............thanks

[Starhawk]

A Victory on all fronts?

"Good evening, you are watching the Imperial News service I am reporter Llana Williams and tonight our late breaking news stories include, The surrender of the Gou'ld forces and the execution of Lord Apophis by the Imperial Marines. The Mobilization of the 6th fleet, the creation of the 10th fleet and the planned occupation of the rioting systems that once belonged to Apophis.

(comercial break)

Our first story tonight is brought to you by INS reporter Johan Weiss stationed aboard the INSS Venerable flagship of battlegroup Venerable, Johan are you there?

"Yes Llana and I must say I am excited to be able to bring you this report, this very ship I was stationed on was nearly destroyed while it engaged 3 Xi-Chung heavy cruisers single handedly. Right now I am onboard INSS Unrelenting which is the flagship of the newly named 9th fleet which is simply an expansion on the battlegroup that orginially entered this sector."

"Johan can you tell us the mood of the spacers and marines in your battlegroup?"

"Well it's hard to say, these are hard times for the Imperial soldiers in this fleet, the Goul'd surrendered in response to Admiral Hursh demand but the Xi-Chung have thus far refused to surrender and there have been nearly a dozen seperate engagements since the surrender of Apophis and although all of them have been victories for the Empire there has been a price, in the course of the Xi-Chung campaigns the Navy has lost two of it's proud Dreadnoughts Acoma and Concord taking the lives of 10,000 spacers and marines, added to that the loss of the Cruiser Cortez which cost another 500 spacers and marines. The land invasions have claimed the lives of 500 marines and have injured 1,200. The Imperial Navy and Marine Corps both say that these are acceptable losses and from the crews I've interviewed they all agree. But even with the joy of the Gou'ld being out of the picture it is a hard time for at least 1 Xi-Chung world remains and that world has a small fleet guarding it and multiple weapons platforms which are capable of destroying even a dreadnought."

"Indeed it must be hard on the families and friends of those brave soldiers that died in the invasions but back home we can say that there is also a great swelling of pride for the Fleet and Marines back home with the recent surrender of the Gou'ld and the coming defeat of the Xi-Chung. Can you tell us what the Admiral Hursh' plans seem to be for this sector?"

"Well Llana Admiral Hursh is already building up shipyards on two captured Xi-Chung hive worlds as well as mining outPosts and factories, Hursh says that given a year his Naval Engineers and Marine Combat Engineers will have the former Xi-Chung worlds becoming a fully functional Imperial Province."

"Well stay safe Johan we have to move on to our next story."

"Have a nice night Llana."

(commercial break)

"Our Next story is about the mysterious mobilization of the 6th fleet under Admiral Lord Tyberius Renner, this report is brought to us by field reporter Janet Price."

"Hello Llana right now I am standing on the obs deck of the 6th fleet Headquarters and I have a brilliant view of the entire 6th fleet from this window. Well almost all of them, several ships are still in the drydocks being retrofit with the latest of Imperial tech."

"Janet I think what everyone wants to know is, have you heard any reason for the mobilization? Is there a new threat out there that our people should be afraid of?"

"Well Llana right now Admiral Lord Renner is being very tightlipped about the whole affair, though rumor has it the fleet is mobilizing in preperation for an invasion into the Cluk-Ruk republic worlds that are currently under a treaty of Subjagation with the Empire."

"If this is true Janet how do you think our viewers would respond? I mean in just the course of one year we have already forced the Gou'ld to surrender and are on the verge of complete integration of the Xi-Chung hive, does the Imperial nobility in gamma sector really beleive our people would want another war so soon?"

"I really can't say Llana, yes rumors abound that the 6th fleet is going to invade the Cluk-Ruks but so far Imperial command insists it is simply a precautionary measure in case the Norak Empire gets too cocky after their recent victories over Manticore and Sonne forces."

"Janet Imperial command has always complained that the 6th fleet is undermanned and underequipped if this is true then do they really think the 6th could stop a Norak battlefleet should they decide to betray us?"

(comn circut cut)

"Janet? Janet are you there?.........It seems we are experiencing technical difficulties with 6th fleet HQ at the moment so we'll just move right along to our next story when we come back."

(commercial break)

"Hello and welcome back I am reporter Terry Rourke filling in for Llana as she got ill and needed to go home. Our next story is about the recent creation of the Imperial 10th fleet in the Aden system. We as yet have no field reporters stationed with the 10th but we do know that command has been given to the newly Promoted Reer Admiral William Park the Hero of Golkus. And that his flagship is currently the dreadnought INSS Kraken but that he will be reasigned when a new Super Monitor class vessel is completed within the next few months. Field reporter Lidia Finch has had the fortune of being on one of the ships that joined the 10th fleet a week ago and she'll give us as much of a report as possible."
(pause while comn is established)

"Lydia can you tell us how many ships are currently apart of the 10th fleet?"

"Well right now Imperial Command is keeping that a secret but rumors say anywhere from 13 to 25 vessels with more planned. A new feature of this fleet is it's large numnber of Cobra class destroyers whose mission is to act as the ancient torpedo boats back in the wet navies of earth. They are fast beyond beleif and for their size they pack quite a wollop. I had the fortune of getting to be aboard Cobra 0012 during her shakedown cruise and weapons trials before she joined the 10th and I must say it was very exciting."

"I'm sure it was Lydia (laugh) Well can you tell us what the Mission of the 10th is?"

"Well that i can tell you, the 10th fleet under Reer Admiral Park is assigned to the Adin system to act as a rapid response fleet in the event of an alien invasion, you see most fleets are stationed to protect only their sectors of space which can be anywhere from 3 to 10 systems in size the purpose of the tenth is to help take up some of the responsibilities currently heald by the 6th fleet. And with elements of the 1st fleet headed towards the 6th fleet HQ at half thrust the 10th will also take on some of the patrol duties assigned to the 1st fleet's squadrons."

"Very interesting, do you know what specific areas the tenth is currently assigned to?"

"No Terry right now the 10th fleet is still being formed up around New Scotland, right now they don't even have a base station like the other fleets."

"So do we know anyhting else about the 10th?"

"I'm afraid not Terry and right now I'm being called away by the captain of the cruiser Denmark.....This is Lydia Finch signing off."

"Well there you have our major stories citizens, when we come back news regarding the scandal surrounding former Governor Alexi Micha who was pressed into service aboard Unrelenting after he abandoned his colony, and about his recent transfer to the Kraken. Also the Imperial Marines assault on a drug running operation out of Astarsha and the capture and execution of the infamous druglord Paul Smith. All this and more when we return to INS news....the only news there is."

[Paul1980au]

Good story but what happened to janet - did she get sick because of some sort of "offical" action lol - did she get bumped off never to eb seen again for reporting the action the 6th fleet was being set up for lol. But keep the stories coming - though the norak would have to be invaded eventually.

[Intimidator]

PLEASE ANOTHER ONE ????!!!!?????