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

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

"SS"? Ok, I agree with you the German Imperial Eagle is a beautiful sign in itself but getting the Nazi elite military police into this.....? I know it's bound to be something military-ish, but still using "SS" as an acronym for a military organization is not considered kosher in most of the Norther Hemisphere..... still, nice story.

edit: [removed]

edit2: Removed the site, as it was superfluous and in German.

[Starhawk]

Strategia_In_Ultima said:
"SS"? Ok, I agree with you the German Imperial Eagle is a beautiful sign in itself but getting the Nazi elite military police into this.....? I know it's bound to be something military-ish, but still using "SS" as an acronym for a military organization is not considered kosher in most of the Norther Hemisphere..... still, nice story.

edit: [removed]

edit2: Removed the site, as it was superfluous and in German.

As stated earlier I mean no offense by this what so ever, the "SS" in this story simply stands for "State Security" and is in no way related to the Nazi "SS" which was in fact made up of two branches, one of which was little more then a bunch of criminals Hitler freed and allowed to "serve the fatherland".
The Icaran SS do wear black uniforms but that's mainly because the other colors are taken they are not military forces or the sadistic SOBs that the Nazi SS was, and in fact they are the Icaran police force.
I initially decided to call the SS the SSB "StateSec Brigades" but decided that that may in fact offend some Russian folks who though i based that on the "FSB".

Let's face it there are a LOT of modern organizations with security involved that would probobly involve the initials SS "Secret Service anyone?" and simply going after them based on the letters is a little odd imho, especialy since the Icarans are from a parallel history where the Nazi party was a minor rebellion that was squashed brutally.

Oh and btw there are Stormtroopers involved and I will admit that they are based on their German WWI counterparts, the elite and brave soldiers who charged the trenches and launched special assaults on targets regular units could not.
NOT the pre-WWII "brown shirts" who were little more then thugs and punks and ruined the rather honorable history of the true German Stormtroopers.

[Starhawk]

2428 was a busy year for the Icaran Empire, as the first carrier ever built by the Royal Space Navy boosted into orbit over Icara her name was HMS Hallice after the Grand Admiral of the RIN as a last parting tribute to the honored hero before he stepped down as Grand Admiral and left the position to Admiral Lady Tanya Bright.
The months went by and the carrier completed her shakedown cruise with flying colors, once she reentered Icara orbit the massive carrier met up with her fighter wing, which consisted of a full wing of the newest Bullshark attack bombers, each one capable of carrying multiple “baby nuke” missiles that could destroy either a ship or planet with equal speed and brutality.
In the meanwhile Yu Lin Ross was promoted to full Rear Admiral status and given supreme command of the Five Swords of Heaven in the name of God and Country, Sandra Fowler found herself on the end of a promotion as well as she was promoted to squadron commander (Commodore) within the home fleet.

Five Swords Strike:
Rear Admiral Lady Yu Lin Ross sat comfortably in her command chair, located in the massive Flag Bridge of the Sword of Icara flagship of the vaunted Five Swords of Heaven fleet, and one of the five most powerful starships ever created by any known empire human or Xeno alike, and those five gods of war were even now closing on their first target of conquest, the Neo-Star colony of Torque IV, the single Neo-Star ship in the system had proven to be a lowly colony ship and unfortunately for their 36 million refugees their crew was to stupid to yield and Sword of Wrath burned through its unarmored hull with ease and destroyed the colony ship with a single I-laser. Lin like most Icaran officers didn’t enjoy killing millions of civilians with such casual violence but they knew their duty and those civilians could have just fled to another world within Icaran territory and built up yet another colony, and that simply could not be allowed.
“Admiral, we are closing on target, 3 LS and falling.” the tactical officer’s voice announced crisply as he watched the master plot in front of him.
“Thank you tactical, inform Sword of Wrath that she will lead the strike on the planet to unload her storm troopers while we cover. Lin yearned to be back aboard Wrath instead of aboard the fleet flagship, even though her current station was far more prestigious and glorious the Wrath had been hers and now she’d watch that same ship go into battle without her.
“Aye Ma’am.” The tac officer’s crisp calm voice jarred Lin away from her train of thoughts, she un-strapped her shock harness and casually walked over to the massive holotank that displayed the entire system, it was something so marvelous and so large a dreadnought’s captain could only dream of it, yet in battle it was rather useless as it was a system wide display and not “local” to within the ranges a battle normally took place. Her expression became more tense as she filed away a mental note that ever other colony in this system belonged to the Sol Coalition, and worse still they had 2 battleships in system, and no doubt they were all watching the Icarans launch their strike against Torque IV with more then a little passive interest. She was certain that her ships could easily overcome any Solaran defenses in system but the truth was that they could possibly get a message out to their coalition as a whole and inform them of Icara’s actions, and no matter how confident the Admiralty was Lin was just not sure that the RIN could handle a war with the Solars, Neos and Anderman, and that was all excluding the fact that Royal Navy ship shad also intercepted and destroyed Remorhazian super monitors in Icaran space since the sealing and God only knew what would happen if the Remorhaz People’s Republic got word of that little tidbit.
“Admiral Wrath reports that she is being engaged by planetary defenses, all are those weird *** energy cannons their ships mount, only a lot bigger.” the tactical officer spoke calmly yet the tension in his voice spoke volumes, and as Lin watched her secondary plot she knew why he was so tense, the amount of fire those Neo weapon platforms were throwing into space would have been enough crush a dreadnought, or even a superdreadnought but the massive Flag monitor’s shields held without even burn through, and Lin felt her breath return for a moment, that was at least until two main cannons aboard Wrath came to life suddenly, their beams lashing out toward the planet like some mystical beast, the impact on the planet was visible even from this far out as the massive dust ring and brilliant flash indicated the destruction of the enemy weapon platforms, the atmospheric eruption that loosely an old Terran tornado signaled the destruction of the surrounding domed city along with millions o lives, Lin felt that familiar lump in her throat even as she watched the display signal the deployment of dozens of dropships carrying the 3,000 storm troopers of the “Death Wings” formation to their targets on the surface, one of which was a single weapon platform that had managed to survive the orbital strike.
As the hours passed Lin listened to the com chatter of the storm trooper forces and found herself shocked at just how quickly they were overpowering the planetary defense forces, even though the neostar PDF wouldn’t have stood a chance against a regular army Regiment it was still humbling to hear just how fast they were swept aside by the storm troopers.
There had still been a lot of armed resistance even after the Planetary Defense force had been wiped out, but with their disorganized “concerned citizens” these pockets of resistance were either forced to surrender or were crushed outright by the brutal efficiency of the advancing Icaran soldiers and in under two hours the world had been totally pacified and claimed in the name of God and country, but Lin knew in her heart that this was just the beginning and that once the “Final Crusade” began her fleet and the normal navy and army units would be deployed against proper military forces in numbers and then it was going to get very very ugly.

[Starhawk]

The New Year:
The admiralty building loomed like an ancient fortress in Icara city, it’s ancient looking stone construction lent it a look of authority and majesty that was second only to that of the mini-city that was the Praetorian Palace within the empire. A large formation of soldiers and tanks wearing the symbol of the “Praetor’s Own” oversized regiment ringed the admiralty in as much a show of authority as an actual security force, for any Icaran knew that wherever the Praetor went his elite oversized regiment assigned units to go with him, and today the showing was impressive as 1,000 soldiers and 100 tanks blocked all possible entrances to the building they surrounded, their glittering red, gold and black armor of the elite shining brilliantly in the Icaran sun.
Inside the building another 50 “Praetorians“ stood watch beside their regular army comrades to ensure that absolutely nothing could harm their Praetor while he met with some of the military‘s most prominent officers..

The massive holotank displayed the entire Empire, but two systems in particular flashed a golden hue as Grand Admiral Tanya Bright highlighted the home system and another system near the fringe where there had once been a border warp point to Sol Coalition space. The other officers present included Commandant of the Marines Patrick Harris, Star Admiral Tyson Babcock, Commodore Liza Adair, and General of the Army Lucas Bradly, the Praetor sat quietly with his chief advisor Countess Brandenburg Percilla Torry next to him, unfortunately Ambassador Lord Michael Branch, the leader of the so called “Peace Movement“ sat watching as well. As the systems on the map began to glow and Tanya Bright cleared her throat all eyes in the gigantic room focused on her.
“Praetor, lords ladies, colleagues these are the locations of our two major fleet formations, the 5th fleet under Rear Admiral Patrick Raley and the Home Fleet under Star Admiral Tyson Babcock as you can see the 5th fleet would take about a year to reach home system from it’s current location, unless we open a warp point to it and bring the entire fleet home.” Bright let that thought sink in for a moment before she began speaking again.
“Star Admiral Babcock and I have spoken in depth about the deployment of our forces and their effect on the plans for the Andermanian crusade and we’ve come up with an idea, As his Majesty and My Lordships know when we open the warp point from home system to the targeted enemy system we will not be able to close that warp point again for years due to the spatial disturbances that would be caused by such an action, since the amount of power required to generate such a long distance warp point is tremendous to begin with.” Her slow confident soprano echoed in the empty hall as she highlighted and focused the map onto a single star system, Lacerta the former Rebel Alliance capital system.
“What Babcock and I propose is that instead of us using a single deployment position and committing our entire mobile fleet to one point-specifically home system- we order 5th fleet and Shaman Squadron to rendezvous in Lacerta, where there is already a warp point ship waiting, if we can do this that will put 13 ships of the line together, and with your permission Praetor we were going to detach one of the army regiments from home fleet and instead give it to 5th fleet so that we can….” her sentence was cut off as a far less calm, and far less polite voice boomed over hers.
“That is preposterous! What you suggest is deploying the vast bulk of our military away from the entire Empire and sending them all on some wild goose chase into Anderman space, well My Lady” the title came out bitterly and Bright noticed with some odd amusement that the Marine Commandant tensed visibly as if he was about to pound the man who just spoke into a puddle of slime. “What if they get wise and realize we don’t have any ships left defending our space? Hmmm? What if they dispatch a fleet to attack us we’d be leaving a door wide open to the two most important systems in this empire!” Branch nearly spat his last sentence, but he remained staring at the Grand Admiral defiantly; the “ambassador” and his followers had started popping up about two I-years after the Phong crusades had ended claiming that “God had chosen them to bring peace to the Empire at last.”
And since then have been becoming more and more of a pain in the ***. Bright thought as she saw the rude nasty little man standing, practically demanding she play his game like so many other officers-unfortunately her predecessor among them- would have done, but she simply refused and stood perfectly relaxed as she stared at Branch, watching as his face further reddened.
“Well aren’t you going to say something!” he practically shouted, every eye in the room was now on him and he knew it but what he didn’t seem to ever comprehend was the disgust in those eyes.
“Actually my Lord, I was going to say before I was distracted that this two pronged offensive will ultimately prove safer for us, as it will give our front line forces 2 places to fall back to should there be any unforeseen problems, and it will also give us the ability to put 2 entire branches of our empire’s military production to work and get said units on the lines where the fighting is far faster then if we just used home system and attempted to route every ship here. As my lord may not know but that can take up quite a lot of time.” The Grand Admiral kept her voice calm and cold, as if she were addressing an impatient child rather then a Lord.
“Well there you have it Grand Admiral.” Branch’s voice grew venomous and quiet as if he had just won some sort of victory, he paused a moment to savor the feeling and then turned to the Praetor “My Praetor, as the Admiral has just pointed out, launching an Attack from just the Home System would indeed be too dangerous, but as she also just said we would be opening two of our three major regions of our empire open to invasion, and not just one system my lord but several would likely pay the ultimate price before any reinforcements could be drawn back home, and what if…God forbid of course….something accidentally happened and our warp points were sealed off, our poor military personnel would be trapped on the other side for decades before we could even reopen those warp points, it is my belief we should just remain happy with what we have and not leave to engage others and bring unimportant people‘s into our empire.” The Ambassador bowed politely and returned to his seat, an arrogant smirk on his face, but after a moment Praetor Leonidas simply nodded curtly and turned to face the Grand Admiral again.
“As you were saying My Lady.” he said softly, ignoring the sudden white rage that crossed Branch’s face.
“Well my Lord the ambassador’s arguments would have been valid if it were not for the fact that we will not be sending the warp ships through with the fleet as we first intended, instead we will deploy them to two reserve fall back systems in the event that we absolutely must seal the warp points in Home System and Lacerta, so no matter what we will be able to bring our military forces back home should the need arise.” her smile was outwardly nothing but polite but anyone who knew her realized that it was also a predatory smile, one of satisfaction as she knew one of her enemies had just fallen into his own snare.
“Very well Grand Admiral, but I must ask, what kind of forces are we talking about here? And how do you plan on keeping pace with the Anderman being that they outnumber us 2 or 3 to 1? Especially since we will in fact need additional ships as our operations grow broader, not to mention protecting home system and Lacerta.” The Praetor said softly making sure not to give any hint of giving ground to Branch as Lord only knew how far that man could run with it.
“Well Highness right now we have 97 ships of the line in home fleet plus 6 additional super dreadnoughts coming in under designation Delta an Epsilon groups, we also have 4 army regiments totaling 16,000 ground troops and 1600 tanks stationed with Home Fleet, with permission I would divert 1 regiment to 5th fleet, putting 5th fleet’s strength at 13 ships of the line, 4,000 ground troops, and 400 tanks.” She paused a moment and shrugged “To be honest Highness this operation will take up most of our military strength, but I would also like to recall Hallice carrier group from their assaults behind enemy lines, and of course the Five Swords and bring them in to protect Lacerta and Home System respectively, and when the Nimitz carriers are complete I will assign them to assist Hallice and the Five Swords.” Tanya bright paused once more and allowed the situation to sink in.
“Grand Admiral, that will indeed be a problem in the long term if we can not bring our ship tonnage up, and more importantly localize those forces were we require.” Commodore Liza Adair of NavInt spoke up this time, her tone was soft and respectful as she glared at the holotank. “The way I see it our shipyards with adequate work forces are too few and far between and that will become a major problem for us as our crusade expands.” she frowned again and was more then a bit surprised to see Tanya’s eyes twinkle.
“Commodore you have addressed the one problem I was hoping someone would, thank you, and you are correct presently our shipyards with any quality in manpower and more importantly numbers of workers are too few and far between and though that is changing it will still take far too long for enough of our shipyards to go into full capacity to affect the outcome of our present operation, not to mention travel times between our major yards. Fortunately Tyson Babcock and Bureau of Design were able to come up with something to help us there. Tyson?” She smiled as the younger man rose from his chair and placed a chip into the information feed of the holotank.
“Thank you Grand Admiral.” He said politely as the screen behind him lit with the schematics of a massive space station.
“Highness, Lords, Ladies, Mister Branch, I give you the HMSS Lexington, she is 36 kilometers long, 10 wide, and 3.9 high, and her purpose is to increase our production capacity while simultaneously increasing our stationary defenses, in short she is a heavily armed orbital shipyard and unlike planetary yards she can produce even a super dreadnought in four months, no matter what type of world she orbits or how large it’s populace, the way she is able to do this is because she will not have to worry about boosting the ship from a grav well or the atmosphere she is working in, unlike planetary yards which obviously do.” Tyson Babcock smiled broadly as he observed the stunned expressions on his colleagues faces, and the fuming expression on Branch’s.
“They also are heavily armed with the latest shield grids, point defenses, and I-Laser cannons which will no doubt provide heavy fire support should enemy ships breach our system.”
“How soon can you have them on-line Star Admiral, and when will the first ships be completed?” Liza Adair asked, obviously excited by the prospect of a new way to catch up in numbers to the Anderman and Mantis.
“Well Commodore we can have the first several yards on-line in eight months, most of the others in nine, and the very slowest in a year, the first super dreadnoughts will roll of the lines in twelve months, and as more yards become operational more ships will come off the lines.” Tyson’s smile changed into a grin as he saw the Intelligence officer’s expression turn positively glowing.
“And just how much MONEY is this going to cost the tax payers?! And how much valuable resources?” Branch spoke up again, trying to sound calmer this time but his anger was still apparent.
“Well mister Branch, the initial construction costs will be rather high, at 3.2 trillion Icaran Crowns, and as for resources we haven’t quite compiled that data yet, however we do know that our economy can easily handle both the cost in credits and in resources, our hardest problem will be getting enough trained yard dogs willing to work in orbital conditions.”
“Well then Grand Admiral Bright, Star Admiral Babcock let’s get down to it, put the drafts on my desk by lunchtime today and I will have them approved so you can begin construction immediately, I will also authorize your military plans.” The Praetor said in a surprisingly friendly tone as he rose from his seat and walked up to shake the military officer’s hands in turn, his guards staying just behind him the whole time.
“Thank you Highness, I’m sure we can get the personnel issue worked and initial deployment strategies by then.” Grand Admiral Bright said as she smiled and shook her Praetor’s hand firmly.

An hour Later Liza Adair briefed Praetor Leonidas in private of a top secret NavInt discovery, several Anderman soldiers had been captured alive from the 4 super dreadnoughts that had been found and destroyed by Icaran patrols and something most disturbing had turned up in their physicals, it appeared that the Anderman genetically enhanced their military forces, though for what purpose Icaran scientists still hadn’t discovered.
Even though this discovery was top secret Count 6-11 (Kevin Richards) a powerful man tied to the “Peace Movement” had somehow gotten word of it, and immediately turned the resources of his company “Delta Corp” to the training of a private army, and fleet with which he could launch his own personal assault into the Anderman territories and capture a world or two as laboratories.

[rdouglass]

Another great chapter. The storyline is becoming quite interesting. I for one, enjoy it a lot and look forward to the next.

Finally someone's building space-based SY's that build faster than planet-based!

And the Anderman line is very curious indeed but what about that snake creature? Or am I getting too far ahead? Anyways, great stuff.

[Starhawk]

2429.5 The Anderman Crusade (C-Day +4):
Wa’Tor system
It was hard to believe it had only been four days since they opened the warp points back home, leading o the enemy systems of Wa’Tor and Zerrzinbroduch, for Star Admiral Tyson Babcock, commander 1st fleet the first three days had flown by so quickly that it was just a blur of memory, his fleet had slammed into Wa’Tor VI like a Spartan Kraken through a herd of Osalynxes, the defenses had fallen in under an hour and the army regiment took out the planetary defense militia in a single well coordinated strike.
Now the 1st fleet was closing in on it’s second target, Wa’Tor IV the second target on his three planet list for the opening stages of the crusade, the three worlds closest to the warp point were selected not only because of their proximity to the warp point but because it was believed that the system’s governor was on one of them.
“Admiral sir, I’m reading two starships in orbit of target planet.” Tactical Office Manroe’s voice cut into Babcock’s thoughts suddenly, and gave himself a mental shake.
“Say again tactical?” Captain Susevni said as he took a step forward to stand beside his resident tac officer.
“Sir I am reading two unidentified starships in orbit of planet Wa’Tor IV, I don’t recognize their power signatures or their configuration.”
“Admiral Babcock I’m getting a com signal from one of those ships.” The com officer looked up from her station and frowned.
“Put it through.” Babcock fixed his tunic collar and rose calmly from his command chair.
The main screen rippled from the view of the planet ahead to be replaced by the image of a man wearing the uniform of an unknown navy, the man’s face was like cut granite, a deep frown and ice blue eyes completed the intimidating appearance.
“I am Captain Tamerlane Smythe of the ECANS Vulture, I demand in the name of the Earth Corps Alliance that you turn your fleet around and leave this system, failure to comply will result in hostile actions.” The man’s voice was calm and cold, startling Babcock with such a foolish demand two ships against 97 ships of the line, but if that captain was willing to make such a demand could a fleet be hidden somewhere?
Babcock managed to keep his expression completely blank as he looked at the man on his screen.
“Captain, I’ve never even heard of the so called Earth Corps Alliance, nor do I care what you want or believe, there are two of your ships battleships against my dreadnoughts and super dreadnoughts, you don’t stand a chance, now get out of our way.” The Icaran Admiral’s tone was subdued and almost respectful. Captain Smythe kept his own expression perfectly blank as he stared back at Babcock, those piercing blue eyes scanning the other man.
“Don’t you think for one moment Icaran that I will yield to you, I’ve studied history, we all have, we know what you were like when you ruled most of Earth, and we’ll be damned before we let you rule over any more worlds then those you have already subjugated.” This time Smythe’s voice held a deep resentment, and Babcock’s curiosity turned to anger, whoever these Earth Corps people were they obviously descended from a nation that Icara had conquered back in the days of old Earth and obviously that hatred had lasted for 400 years, but for a man who commanded two inferior ships to take on almost a hundred enemy ships was either very brave or very stupid, either way it was somewhat frightening.
“Birds in the air!” the shout cut through the air like a knife and barely a split second later the alarms started howling in response to the threat.
“Sir counter missiles responding!” The tac officer whirled around to face Babcock as the holo-tank lit to show a spread of dozens of tiny missiles closing the gap, unlike the incoming enemy missiles the counter missiles the Icarans were launching carried no warheads, but instead relied on inertial force to tear the enemy missiles apart and thus were much smaller then their targets.
As the two lines of dots converged on one another Babcock took a deep breath, those missiles couldn’t much hurt a warship but they could easily kill the troop ship the were closing in on if any of them got through, the two lines that represented the missiles and counter missiles became one for a brief instant on screen and in an instant winked out, Babcock watched his the main screen as several brilliant flashes lit space.
“Fleet, permission to retaliate, open fire!”
“Fleet, this is flag, loose weapons I repeat loose weapons.”
Babcock turned back to face the master plot as a single super dreadnought broke formation with the rest of the fleet and close the range with the two enemy ships, as the Superior‘s scopes zoomed in on the Despoiler closed the range with the two enemy battleships and turned her guns to face the enemy in a broadside, in a split second her port shields dropped and the entire portside arsenal was brought to bare on her targets, the green beams tore into the enemy’s shields and armor like they were nothing, and a split second after that two balls of expanding fire and wreckage were all that remained of two battleships and 4,000 lives.
Wa’Tor IV fell just as quickly, though they put up quite a tougher fight then the two ECA ships in space had, and 40 soldiers of the 1st Icaran regiment would never return home because of it.
Wa’Tor X fell the very next day, however 80 soldiers of the 1st Brandenburg paid the price for their victory, as 100 enemy regulars had joined the fight with their Planetary Militia comrades.

Meanwhile, in the Zerrzinbroduch system:
Rear Admiral Patrick Raley and his fleet had destroyed Zerrzinbroduch VI in their first assault against the enemy system in revenge for the 500 soldiers of the 1st Germania that had been killed when their transport was hit by planetary Weapons systems and even now her skies burned with fire a symbol of Icaran wrath and might to the other worlds of Zerrzinbroduch, including the world that the fleet was currently approaching, designated Z 5 by the command staff of the 2nd fleet, her defenses were far more impressive then VI’s had been which meant that they were being far more careful on this approach, keeping the Patton far to the back of their formation.
“Admiral, we are entering enemy weapons range, in 35 seconds and our own in 60.” Commodore Timothy Marks frowned as he read the report, he was in command of the 4th Dreadnought division, the only dreadnought division presently within the 2nd fleet, Raley had the dreadnought division closing range with the enemy, while the SD division of the 2nd fleet protected the Transport.
“Admiral we are…..” The screen suddenly filled with static, cutting the commodore off mid-sentence.
“Dear lord in heaven!” The whisper sounded almost like a curse as the ship’s scopes suddenly focused in on the Raven as massive purple beams lashed out at her shields, within moments the shields flared out of existence and 5 beams raked across her hull, tearing out gouges of armor, and shields, a 6th beam raked across her unprotected shell, shattering weapons batteries along her with solar grav sail, the scopes zoomed further and Raley felt a twitch of nausea as he saw bodies sucked into the void.
God hopefully they were suited up. Raley thought a silent prayer as he turned to the master plot and saw the other 5 ships of the 4th DD close in to their own weapons range, the five mighty warships unleashed a devastating broadside and wiped the weapons platforms that had injured Raven from the surface with ease.
“Send in the ground troops, and deploy SAR teams to recover whatever personnel were spaced when Raven was hit.”
“Aye Admiral.” The com officer began relaying orders with the quiet professionalism that the Empire demanded from all it’s armed forces.

Three hours later:
Rear Admiral Patrick Raley sat in his day cabin, drinking a cup of coffee as he read various reports from his department heads, trying to ignore the quiet discomfort in his heart as he waited for the casualty lists to come in, the admittance alert buzzed softly and Raley forced himself to sit calmly.
“Come in.” he kept his voice level as he looked up from the flexi pad with the latest engineering reports on it.
Captain Susan Lap walked in slowly, holding the flexi pad in her hand almost as if it was a frail piece of ancient glass, she paused and braced to attention, the look in her eyes made Raley’s gut tense even further.
“What is it Susan?” he was surprised to hear that his voice was level, he had almost expected it to sound as upset as he felt.
“Sir, we have the casualty lists, we have 300 dead from Raven, that brings our total up to 800 so far, and sir…..one of those killed was Captain Martin Fielding.” Her voice cracked as the name forced it’s self from her lips.
Raley knew that Fielding and Lap had gone to the academy together, that they had served together on the destroyer Enterprise and the battle cruiser Midwinter and that they had both received their first commands, him with Raven and her the Terror only three weeks from one another.
“I’m so sorry Susan.” he stood and placed a consoling hand on the younger woman’s shoulder, as he took the casualty list from her.
“Thank you sir, um, I have to go back on watch to oversee the deployment of those work control parties that are going to oversee the construction of that new Shipyard station.” Raley nodded gently and watched her turn around and leave, they had all realized that there would be losses on this crusade, just as there had been on the Phong, Xiati crusades yet Raley despised the fact that he had lost so many to achieve so little, and wondered how many more lives he would lose before the crusade came to an end.

[Starhawk]

2429.2
“Hello all and welcome to Fleet Live I am Jane Semore reporting for IIN state channel 1 from the flag deck of HMS Raven as we approach Zerrzinbroduch I as the 2nd fleet continues it’s conquest of Anderman territories, this is the third target this month as two other worlds have already fallen to our valiant fleet!” The young reporter who was speaking was wearing the standard navy skintight vac suit with a sealed helmet but even with that it was obvious she was a beautiful woman, even for an era where any wealthy snob could get themselves a face mold done to make them pretty, and her light cheerful voice made even some of the old salt spacers smile as the passed by her. She and her three man crew had just arrived two days prior on an IIN yacht to get interviews with the crew of a “Division flagship” even while another camera crew and reporter team were interviewing members of the fleet flagship’s crew and likely doing the same thing with the 1st fleet.
“Sir three-zero seconds to enemy weapon range, flagship commands all ships to hold line of battle, and prepare a counter attack in three-seven seconds.” The voice came from off camera, causing Jane to turn and look.
“As you can hear we are just now closing on the target world, again for those viewers in the home system and in Lacerta this is a live transmission to be rebroadcast throughout the empire, we are unedited and I ask that you have all children leave the room immediately.” She smiled into the camera with a casual air, but in the privacy of her mind she was terrified as this was her first battlefield coverage ever, though she thought with little humor, at least I’m not the ground cameraman.
“Sir energy spike, we’ve been tagged!” the voice from off camera sounded more urgent causing Jane a visibly startled reaction, even she knew “being tagged” meant that an enemy weapons system was even now pointed at her ship.
“We’ve Got FLARE!” another voice spoke up from behind Jane, the man’s voice an icy eerie calm brought by military training and experience.
The Raven bucked and lurched as beam after beam slammed into her shields the young reporter managed to compose her voice and looked back into the camera.
“What you are seeing ladies and gentlemen is the result of heavy beam fire coming from the target world, I don’t know what kind of weapons they are but even this great dreadnought is being buffeted around under the fire and….”
‘Damn it! Shields gone, brace for impact!” the familiar off screen voice bellowed sharply as a thunder rolled through the ship, followed swiftly by damage alarms and screams.
“Oh God, ladies and gentlemen Raven’s been hit dead on, and….” an explosion tore into the bridge, tearing splinters out of the battle steel hull like it was wood, one such splinter struck the cameraman straight in the head, tearing the top of his head clean off, another splinter tore through Jane’s causing a spray of blood to erupt from the arteries it had struck, her sobbing agony visible as the camera continued to record.
“Abandon ship, all hands get out, someone get that reporter.” a voice commanded, but it was already too late another beam tore the entire port side of the ship open like a tin can, and a hissing sound brought the camera up to high speed, a brief scream was heard but as the camera was sucked clean out of the ship it caught the gruesome glimpse of a body being torn in half as it slammed into the rent hull.
By a fluke of nature the camera was spun around 360 degrees, bringing into full view the burning hulk that had once been an Icaran ship of the line, as well as dozens of bodies floating around it like a grotesque parody of an old earth shark and it’s cleaner fish. The screen quickly reverted back to the view of another woman, one Janet Cranston, the her face was pale and sick, and the sound of crying could easily be heard over the camera’s audio feeds.

“Oh God, Jane can you hear us? Jane please say something.” Janet’s voice cut like a knife, as the sorrow and fear expressed it’s self. “Jane please, say something…” she said once more before pausing and looking down at her folded hands, a tear streaking her face.
“Ladies and gentlemen, it seems…. we have witnessed a tragedy today, I’m sure the navy will do everything it can to recover survivors but from what we just saw…..” she paused once more as this time the tears started flowing openly ‘But as we just saw it looks as if the possibility of any survivors is low, please stay with us as we continue to cover this breaking news story….and please Pray for those souls who may have survived this disaster….I’m Janet Cranston and you are watching IIN state channel 1.” as the screen faded the sound of the popular reporter beginning to sob was heard for a split second, before the commercial break replaced it. Billions of people had just seen an entire starship, and a blossoming young reporter extinguished in a matter of moments and though the news would later come in that the 2nd fleet had conquered the enemy world and that the first fleet had taken three more in the cause of victory, the news was also broken with three stories of tragedy.
HMS Raven flagship of the 4th DN division had been destroyed and all hands had been lost, including one young reporter named Jane Semore who’s body was recovered later by SAR teams, she had been awarded the “Citizens Cross” in recognition of the price she paid to bring the people of Icara the news, her body was cremated and returned to her family, she is survived by her sisters, brother, mother and father who shall never forget their daughter.
Commodore Timothy Marks had also died that day and was posthumously awarded the “Guardian’s Sword for Valor” as were all 5000, other Icaran officers and ratings who had died with him.

HMS Neptune of the 1st fleet had also paid a high price for her efforts in achieving victory at Wa’Tor, she had moved in the way just in time to protect the troopship Rodger Young as several massive beams lashed out, in the process of protecting the troop ship she was rendered practically dead, unfortunately 3,000 of her crew were killed, including her entire bridge crew, and another 1,000 wounded. The dead were all awarded the “Guardian’s Sword’ and buried in space-those who could be found- to make maters worse Neptune was left behind by the 1st fleet as she was no longer capable of fighting, currently she is docked at the Wa’Tor I space yard undergoing repairs as replacement crew are brought through from Icara Home System.

[Starhawk]

2430.2 Heroes:
Admiral Flynn forced herself to remain calm and appear confident and relaxed as her SD division along with the rest of the main line of battle closed in on the ominous Ulda Frav IV, she as most of the other flag officers in the fleet were concerned over the fact that the atmosphere of this world was so thick and stormy that it was hard to tell what was on the surface, and the thought of leading her SD division into an unknown situation ate at her nerves like acid.
“Ma’am, if you keep worrying like that you’ll give yourself an ulcer.” A cheerful teasing voice said from behind the flag officer, a thin smile crossed Flynn’s face as she turned around to face her Flag captain, Rukia Fujita was part of the first generation born on the colony of Sparta and looked every inch the Spartan girl, she was well muscled yet still enviously built, medium height for the empire and her face bore what had become a traditional tattoo, the teardrop just below her left eye was something everyone in her generation had been branded with upon birth, it symbolized that those who had died in the process of colonizing Sparta and defending the empire in her name would never be forgotten, Fujita also had that rugged Spartan attitude that was unsurprising for a world where just about everything on the surface was trying to kill you, Flynn often wondered if there was anything that would make Fujita nervous beyond men, and forced herself to hide a grin at the thought: Rukia Fujita was only 25 Icaran years old and had been part of the navy since she was 15, in just ten years she had proven herself countless times, and risen through the ranks with astounding speed and competence, her current command was received after a promotion from Sailing master for her heroic actions during the “Valhalla Incident” where the Blackbird had almost been overrun by mutated creatures of some sort, she faced all the dangers of the universe with a grim self assurance that would earn her a place among the best flag officer’s in the navy some day, yet for all that she still blushed and got flustered whenever men paid her good looks and nice figure any attention.
“Well if I do get an ulcer Rukia, I’ll just get Sanders to fix it for me, then I can go right back to worrying.” Flynn smiled at her flag officer for a moment before returning her view to the Flag bridge’s main plot. Technically Rukia should have been on the main bridge but for a reason even Flynn wasn’t sure of she had a gut feeling that made her reassign the captain to the flag deck instead, leaving Commander Orland in command of the main bridge.
“Admiral, we are closing on target, weapons range in 5 minutes.” Tactical officer Han’ cleared his throat in an attempt to hide his own nerves, but Flynn knew him to well and nodded with a reassuring smile.

“Admiral, sir we are closing on target, weapons range for main line of battle, 3 minutes and counting, Admiral Flynn reports that left flank is ready, all other commands report green across the board.” The communications officer reported from the main bridge’s com section.
“Thank you, order main line to accelerate and close the range at 50 gravities.” Babcock’s grim expression hid the fact that his stomach was a ball of raw nerve, he hated the situation, going in on a world who’s defenses were a total unknown, it wasn’t a good situation at all and the memory of the loss of Lord Nelson still haunted him.

“Flag, orders main line to accelerate to five-zero gravities, weapons range on enemy world in one minute at that speed.” Commander Orland relayed the order from the main bridge, as Flynn and Fujita watched the main plot, The only reason Babcock would order the fleet to accelerate is if he was afraid that if they went in at their current 1/3rd speed they’d be under fire for too long, that means he’s worried. Flynn thought to herself as she watched the distances close.
It was only thirty seconds later that it happened, a single light flare was seen on the main plot, before the massive volley of beams lashed out at the Tyrant herself, it had all happened s fast Flynn barely managed to bark out an order to brace before her body was turned into so much bloody wreckage as the flag bridge was shattered by a beam spray. A peace of shrapnel cut Fujita’s left arm clean off, but her scream of agony was cut short as another piece of wreckage slammed into her chest, crushing her ribcage and sending one of her ribs through her left lung, as the flag bridge depressurized Rukia Fujita heard the gurgling screams and brief shouts of agony from other officers who were killed in horrible ways as wreckage flew about the flag bridge like darts, even in her agony Rukia caught a glimpse of Lieutenant cutler being cut in half by a massive splinter as he ran for the bridge doors, the same splinter that killed him hurtled into Spacer 1st class Darwin slicing his throat open with horrible ease.
After what seemed an eternity Rukia felt her body go weightless and noticed that she was being pulled clear of the wreckage, another sharp pain cut through her like fire however as another shard of wreckage severed her right leg at the knee, then darkness took her.

“Dear God!” Someone on the flag deck swore angrily as the brilliant blue flash on Tyrant broke her apart like a toy, a second brilliant flash followed hurling wreckage and bodies away from the once mighty super dreadnought. Cairo too was hit, her shields were brought down in short order and half her armament was turned to wreckage and shrapnel.
“Silence!” someone else barked out, though they had just witnessed a horrible action in real time and at close enough range that they actually saw the ship die instead of just a simple light code winking out on a display, they were still Icaran spacers and discipline must be retained no matter what.
“Report now tactical!” Babcock’s mind raced back to the real world as he recognized the voice that had barked the order, Captain Michael Susevni’s firm baritone cut through the speaker’s in the flag bridge like a cold wind, and for the brief moment he had to think Babcock remembered how grateful he was for having an officer like Susevni on his ship.
“Sir, HMS Rodger Young is almost in position to drop troops, the 14th SD Division is moving to cover her, main line of battle is in weapons range in thirty seconds.” Babcock, heard the other stations replying, as the situation began to organize it’s self, but he still couldn’t shake a sinking feeling that something was still very wrong.
“Firing line achieved, all commands report firing solutions on enemy platforms.”
“Order all commands to open fire!” Babcock barked the order with more feeling then he had intended but that hardly mattered as his screen came to life, two SD Divisions of the 1st fleet’s main line of battle for this operation all opened fire simultaneously, unfortunately the planetary defenses got off another single volley and HMS Cairo vanished in a ball of flame and wreckage which started almost immediately burning up in the atmosphere of the enemy world, HMS Despoiler took several direct hits but her shields managed to hold somehow, barely saving her from the same fate of Cairo.
“Rodger Young is in drop position Admiral!” Captain Susevni’s voice strained over the com line.
“Drop troops, all ships cease fire!” Babcock’s mind raced as his ship’s scopes zoomed in on the troop transport containing the 1st Icara regiment, just as his weapons ceased fire the troop ship accelerated to 150 gravities and hurled loose over 360 drop ships as she raced clear of the planet’s atmosphere to prevent being destroyed like the two far stronger SD’s that had gone before her.

As planetary weapons fire was shifted from the fleet to the dropships, 4 vanished in small balls of flame and wreckage before they were even able to enter the atmosphere, the rest made it to the surface at 12 gee’s and unleashed the wrathful soldiers of the 1st Icaran in a single cohesive wave of destruction, unfortunately 40 more soldiers died as they dome city fell to the army, bringing the total army casualties up to 80 for this operation, but finally the remaining weapons platform fell silent and the warships in orbit were safe, Babcock immediately dispatched SAR teams though he honestly held out no hope of finding any survivors from the disastrous destruction of Cairo and Tyrant.

Ten minutes later however, while Babcock paced the main bridge the com lines buzzed to life as one of the SAR cutters returned to communications range. Babcock’s head whirled around as he all but ran to the com station to listen to the report.
“This is SAR one five, to base we have a survivor in stasis get med teams ready to meet us upon docking, I repeat we have a survivor, but we need medical teams right away.”
“Get medical teams to boat bay one, now, and tell Doctor Harris to prep sickbay for surgery.” Susevni said with a grim smile as he watched the cutter approach, one survivor, out of 12,200 crew, it was pathetic but at least it was something.
“What ship do you suppose the survivor is from Captain?” Babcock’s right eyebrow rose as he saw Susevni’s face turn into a mask of pain.
“Sir, it’s got to be from Tyrant it may sound horrible but if anyone survived Cairo they burned up in the atmosphere with the rest of the wreckage.” Michael looked down at the deck and frowned.

Sickbay:
Admiral Tyson Babcock walked through the doors to sickbay and flinched when he saw the wrecked body of Captain Rukia Fujita laying in a life support bed in the corner of the sickbay, a long black “box” where her left arm, and right leg had once been the bone molder nano-bots reconstructing the skeletal structure that had once been there, Babcock felt a momentary spark of happiness that the boxes were blacked out, he had seen videos of bone molders at work and the following flesh growth process and it always made him sick, he had distinct memories of vomiting on one Sharon Carlson back in the academy and how embarrassed he had been, especially since she happened to be one of the most attractive girls back in the academy.
His thoughts came to an abrupt end when he got close enough to see the real wreckage of Captain Fujita’s body, her chest was flat from the injuries she had sustained, and her face bore the scars of several pieces of glass that had apparently cut through her helmet.
Doctor Harris walked over to him, her face a mix of emotions, she braced to attention politely, more out of courtesy then any real necessity to do so since all medical staff were otherwise outside the chain of command.
“Admiral, I’m surprised to see you down here, are you alright?” Her soothing tone made him relax slightly but he still felt the sickening ache in his stomach at the thought of Rukia’s shattered body, and the 12,280 other lives lost just two hours ago.
“How is she Doc?” he kept his voice steady and calm though the grief he tried to hide showed through to the doctor and she placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.
“Well Admiral, her left lung was torn open, and her right was filled with stomach acid, we had to use two synthesized lungs to replace them, her stomach was literally knocked lose, which is how the acid got in her lungs, her ribcage was shattered, her heart was nicked by a piece of metal, her right arm was broken clean in half and her skull was fractured in two places, to be honest I’m surprised she made it as long as she did.” She paused as the Admiral flinched in response to hearing the list of serious injuries
“Will she make it doc?” he choked up again, remembering the losses that were so well embodied in the wrecked body of a young girl that was half his age.
“She’ll make it, but it’ll take time, her limbs must be re-grown from scratch, we had to replace her heart, lungs, kidneys and 4 of her ribs, the anti-rejection medicine will keep her body from rejecting the synth organs, but it will also keep her on her back for a few weeks, to be honest my biggest fear right now is for her mind, I’d like to have a psych tech take a look at her as soon as she is able to get out of sickbay.” Harris took her hand off Babcock’s shoulder and walked over to the bed that held Rukia, she pressed a button on the woman’s bed and Rukia’s eyes opened softly as she tried to look around.
“Your safe Rukia, I won’t keep you awake for long, but I think Admiral Babcock would like to talk to you, if you need anything you press this call button okay.” Carla Harris said sweetly as she turned back to Babcock.
“You can talk to her for five minutes Sir, after that I’m going to put her back under so she can get some rest.”
“Alright doctor, thank you.” Babcock forced a parody of a smile at the doctor and stepped closer to Rukia.
“Hi there Captain, how are you doing?” he felt stupid almost immediately upon asking the question, afterall how could she be feeling, her body was torn all to hell and she was the only survivor of a crew of 6,100 people
“I’m okay, sir.” Rukia whispered after a moment, and tried to raise her right arm in a salute, but Babcock gently took her hand in his own and smiled back at her.
“Don’t worry about that Rukia, you’ve earned a little rest I’d think.”
“Sir….my ship…how is?” her body was wracked with a coughing fit, Harris stepped forward to get a closer view of the monitoring equipment but stepped back and nodded at Babcock.
“Rukia, I’m sorry but Tyrant and Cairo were both destroyed, you’re the only survivor out of the two of them, and from what the doc says your damned lucky.” Tyson smiled thinly at her and patted her hand softly.
“Oh, God….it’s….it’s my fault.” Her voice was choked and her breathing became noisy as her body tried to let her cry, but failed.
“Don’t you dare think that Rukia, you listen to me, I ordered the fleet in, I ordered Flynn’s division to the left flank, not you, and don’t you think for one moment it’s your fault that you lived, God only knows how you survived, and it was obvious he didn’t think it was your time yet.” his tone was sterner then he intended so he quickly put his right hand on the young woman’s bandaged forehead.
“Rukia you are a lucky young woman, and your parents will be glad to hear your alive so please don’t feel guilty, as a matter of fact when you recovered I was intending to give you command of Rochester since her Captain has been promoted to Brevet Commodore.”
“Thank….thank you…sir…I.” she struggled to recover her voice but Babcock simply rubbed her forehead gently, and put up his other hand to stop her from speaking.
“It’s okay Rukia, you rest now…..I’ll talk to you again later.” His tone was so gentle that it surprised even him, Babcock had seen war wounded before, had seen men and women turned into twisted wreckage by flying debris and the weapons of war but for some reason he couldn’t put his finger on Rukia Fujita felt to him like he was looking down at his daughter and he couldn’t help but feel sorrow for her.
Harris tabbed a control on the life support bed and Rukia’s eyes slowly closed as her body relaxed back into a dreamless sleep.
“Let me know when she wakes up Doc, I have a lot of letters to sign to the families of those less fortunate then her.” Babcock patted the young woman’s hand once more then turned around and walked back out of the sickbay doors.

[Atrocities]

“Dear God!” Someone on the flag deck swore angrily as the brilliant blue flash on Tyrant broke her apart like a toy, a second brilliant flash followed hurling wreckage and bodies away from the once mighty super dreadnought. Cairo too was hit, her shields were brought down in short order and half her armament was turned to wreckage and shrapnel.

You stoled my ship names!

Great read Starhawk

[Starhawk]

Well you want other names

Despoiler
Dictator
Tormentor
Torture
Deathbringer
Hurricane
Typhoon
Harbringer

Yah get the idea of how my ships are named lol