OOC: Thanks for the link to that library deal...
And for the praise I am sorry I havn't typed recently but I've had a lot of stuff to work on.
The Last battle of Cephedri
The Primus Imperium fleet under Grand Admiral Thadius had been sitting in Cephedri for nearly a year now and conquered most of the worlds in the system except for one, Cephedri I which had multiple weapons platforms that had destroyed the bloodhawks storm troopers chapter almost down to the Last man, as well as four other Imperial warships, total imperial losses against this one world were around 50,000 and Thadius had pulled the fleet back because of this.
As Thadius sat at a small metal desk in the corner of his darkened cabin he pondered over the recent reports from the Imperial naval command, as it had been feared the alliance mobilized a warfleet in the Cretrik system and had launched a devestating invasion on the world of Menshara killing all loyal Imperial soldiers and laying claim to the population. The Imperium having no choice sent the dreadnought Avalanche in to quell the problem but sadly the population had to be exterminated from orbit as they would not agree to return to Imperial rule.
Worse news still came as the old battle hardened admiral read on, the alliance fleet had moved on to two other Creterik colonies and completely destroyed the inhabitants without mercy or attempt to capture. Thadius felt his throat tighten as he caught a glimpse of the casualties and nearly crushed the flexipad as he clenched his hands into fists and nearly screamed in rage, "Nearly 800 million dead, and for what! we tried to capture those bastards worlds intact and they do this!" he thought to himself as he moved on to the next flexipad from within the empire and saw that Admiral Shimizawa had captured one of the two alliance systems within the Empire and was moving on to the next. After several hours of reading various reports and Messages Thadius saw a single blackened flexipad with a red iron cross along the back showing that this pad was of a top secret and probobly "illegal" nature.
As he tensed Admiral Thadius read that the single planet killer starship that the empire had was already on it's way to the Cephedri system to destroy the Last holdout of the alliance within this system and it's 2 billion people on the basis that it would cost too many ships and men to secure the world and to his own surprise and slight disgust Thadius realized that he just didn't care anymore, then he found himself suddenly jerked out of his thoughts as the battle klaxons and general quarters alarm screached throughout the decks of the massive baseship Leonidas which had recently been added to the fleet and to which Thadius had transfered his flag.
"All hands all hands, sensors detect alliance battlefleet closing on our position I repeat we have an alliance battlefleet closing on our position, all hands report to battle stations!" the voice of Captain Rodriguez was calm and stern as he announced the approaching enemy ships to the fleet.
Thadius came onto the bridge at a run and nearly plowed over the two Marines that guarded the door to the Leonidas command deck.
"What's our status mister Rodriguez?" The older man nearly shouted as he took his command chair between the two tiers of the Leonidas' command deck.
"Sir we have two-zero enemy warships closing on our position, we detect that at least have of them are combat ships the others are minelayers and support craft." Rodriguez said as he looked up from the tactical display he had routed to his own chair's display console.
"Alright get our troop ships and support craft to detach from the fleet, leave six dreadnoughts to escort them, order all base ships and other combat vessels to follow Leonidas into the assault, we can't risk them getting in system." Thadius knew that if he brought his own support craft into the fray they would simply get in the way of his combat ships and would most likely just become targets for the enemy warships.
Within a day the Imperial warfleet of over 90 combat ships had managed to intercept the 20 ship fleet of the Alliance assault force and as the two fleets closed in Admiral Thadius nearly grimmaced, since he wondered why in the universe would anyone with 12 combat ships engage a fleet of over 90 combat ships!.
But as the two fleets came together it became obvious that the Earth starships were not as disadvantaged as it appeared, they were equipped with shield depleters and powerfull AP cannons, and as the 12 combat ships closed with the vanguard of the Imperial warfleet they opened fire and space was rent with the colors of AP vollies and of shield depleting weaponry, within moments two Imperial battlecruisers were destroyed by the twelve combat ships of the earth forces and a baseship was crippled.
With such early losses Thadius ordered his entire fleet into the fray and as his massive ships closed within wave motion gun range of the hostile ships they let lose with a vollies of powerful wave motion guns and nearly instantly destroyed three Alliance warships.
As the battle raged on two more Imperial dreadnoughts fell beneath the cruel vollies of alliance ships leaving only a single survivor of the vanguard squadron. The rest of the fleet still tried to close with the enemy starships in a futile attempt to save the vanguard squadron only to have the earther ships outrun them and retreat.
Thadius was becoming extremely frustrated now, 5 out of six starships of the vanguard INCLUDING the base ship Andromeda were destroyed by these thrice damned earthers and the alliance had only lost 4 ships to his own fire....in desperation and frustration Thadius pulled his entire fleet together and began advancing as a single cohesive force to decimate any alliance warships that were fool enough to close with him, yet again to his frustration Thadius noticed that the tactical display showed a single Void Stalker dreadnought had survived the vanguard's decimation and was now so far ahead of his own fleet that there was nothing that could be done to save it. Yet it bravely or perhaps foolishly advanced on two enemy dreadnoughts.
The Hemlock's captain watched his display and saw that he was in an irrecoverable position on the battlefield, his squadron including his squadron flagship were destroyed and it was only by what seemed a miracle that his ship had not taken any hits when the enemy fleet had closed in on his squadron.
The two dreadnoughts his ship was pursuing turned around to engage his ship and opened fire with the full might of their guns, fortunately for the Hemlock most of the enemy fire missed and those shots that didn't were absorbed by it's shields. The valiant dreadnought charged in point blank with the two closest enemies and divided half it's fire between each, the powerful Null space cannons cut through enemy shields and armor and practically destroyed the two enemy ships leaving both of them out of combat.
A dull cheer went up from the crew as they had won a chance to fall back to the rest of the fleet and survive this engagement.
After a few hours of battle the Last earth starship was finally destroyed by the guns of the Imperial warfleet, yet the losses to the Imperials themselves had not been cheap. 7 Starships including 2 base ships had been lost in the engagement and the losses was nearly 40,000 men and women dead in the name of the empire. Yet the battle was a victory and the crews were welcomed back to their base as heroes.
Only a month later due to "mysterious" circumstances the Last alliance holdout world suffered a core disturbance and exploded killing 2 billion people and ending the resistance in the Cephedri system.
Re: The Icaran Empire (a late game story)
Linear Mode
