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

[kerensky]

Sorry Stratagia, I was refering to Starhawk.

[Starhawk]

The next "chapter" is coming later today or tonight, however due to it's sheer size I may break it down to two posts to make it "easier on the eyes", so far I think this new chapter is headed towards the 1,000+ word stage so heh two posts seems good.

Anyway in a wait for that here is the breakdown of the command chains of the 1st and 2nd fleets, this may also give you a feel for the sheer size of the Imperial navy and the ships involved in the Andermanian Crusade:

Important Ships an People of the 1st fleet:
HMS Superior, 1st fleet flagship:
Star Admiral Tyson Babcock
Captain Michael Susevni

HMS Jackal
1st Dreadnought Division Flagship
(Brevet Commodore) Sampson Hendricks
Captain: Paul Robins

HMS Neptune
2nd Dreadnought Division Flagship
Commodore Bradley Sharp
Captain John Serinopolese

HMS Bear
1st SuperDreadnought division Flagship
Commadore Carla Sanches
Captain Jeow Lung
(2nd division destroyed)

HMS Crystal
3rd Superdreadnought Division Flagship
Commodore Richard Scott
Captain Tomas Purechskia

HMS Dreadful
4th SD division Flagship
Commodore Luis Martinez
Captain Linda Carstairs

HMS Guardian
5th SD division flagship
Commodore: Chao Hai
Captain Paul Stanza

HMS Hotspur
6th SD Division Flagship
Commodore Horace Fahalad
Captain Leona Parks

HMS Julin
7th SD Division Flagship
Commodore Aaron McPherson
Captain Alexi Numenkov

HMS Nagglefar
8th SD Division Flagship
Commodore Tony White
Captain: Sarah O’Dell

HMS Redoubtable
9th SD Division Flagship
Commodore Linda Grayson
Captain: Emanuel Jackson

HMS Sabertooth
10th SD Division Flagship
Commodore Michael Eddison
Captain: Achmed Feyr

HMS Sato
11th SD Division Flagship
Commodore Theo Mullins
Captain: Agnis O’Leery

HMS Starrider
12 SD Division Flagship
Commodore Hoshi Kuchiki
Captain: David Sandoval

HMS Tiger
13 SD Division Flagship
Rear Admiral Donald Littlefield (2nd in command 1st fleet)
Captain: Julia Gates
HMS Rochester
14th SD Division Flagship
Commodore Tina Larz
Captain: Rukia Fujita

HMS Yu Hing Pe
15th SD Division Flagship
Commodore Paulo Sanches
Captain: Teya Leosan

HMS Rodger Young
General Peter Braun (ground forces commander 1st fleet)


Important Ships and People of the 2nd Fleet:
HMS Terror, 2nd Fleet flagship
Rear Admiral Patrick Raley
Captain Susan Lap

HMS Jupiter
1st Dreadnought Division Flagship
(Brevet Commodore) Lana Fitzgerald
(Brevet Captain): Orson Greer.

HMS Shaman
1st Super Dreadnought Division flagship
Commodore Kara Valerie
Captain: Daniela Thrace

HMS Kirasowa
2nd SD Division Flagship
Commodore Preston Louis
Captain: Sarah Troy

HMS Superator
3rd SD Division Flagship
Commodore Lea Thomas
Captain: Paul Hart

HMS Lysander
4th SD Division Flagship
Commodore Tony Piscotelli
Captain: Martin Sweeny

HMS Patton
Ground Forces
General Edward Marshall


Remember now there is also the Home Fleet which consists of the 5 Swords of Heaven as well as a super dreadnought division, the Lacerta fleet which consists of a super dreadnought division.
And the 3rd fleet which consists of seven SD divisions plus 2 regiments of infantry (800 units) when their training is complete.

Now those numbers don't even include the new "Project Artemis", the warpers the various support ships and the lone patrol dreadnoughts and super dreadnoughts. Heck I actually found an old General class HVC floating around lol.

(note)The 1st fleet does not have a 2nd SD division as their entire 2nd SD division was destroyed, along with the death of Commadore Sandra Fowler.

[Starhawk]

Reverence and Heroes

HMS Reverence had been detached from the 4th SD division 2nd fleet right after the battle of DNX-N1 VII, much to the chagrin of Captain Willard Scott who hated sitting on the sidelines while the 2nd fleet took out two more enemy worlds, but since there were no spier sats in this system Admiral Raley had decided to detach an SD to protect each of his three newest conquests while the 2nd fleet moved on.
Yeah moves on and leaves us here to play babysitter Willard tightened his grip on his coffee mug as his anger rose again, he had been here for a week now and he often scolded himself for what he thought of as a childish anger, Of course your not going to be left here for good idiot! he told himself once again and forced himself to relax and take a sip of coffee, as the liquid touched his tongue Scott let out a noise that loosely resembled a hiss and turned bright red as several of his bridge crew made a concentrated effort not to turn their heads, a chuckle made him turn brighter red as he turned to face his exec.
“Navy coffee eh skip?” Sailing Master Nikki Leung was tall for a Brandenburger, at about 179 centimeters she was a good 15 centimeters taller then the other Brandenburg women Scott had met, though he admitted to himself he hadn’t met all that many and for some odd reason Leung often had an odd effect of making him stare at her, she was pretty yes but it was more the fact that Scott was so used to seeing “Icarans” which after so many years of mixed relationships, it was nearly impossible to tell someone’s heritage just by looking at them. But Brandenburg had been a fluke of warp travel, two of the ESS colony ships that were with the Solar evacuation colony had crashed on Brandenburg’s surface and remained isolated there for over fifty years, which had kept their bloodlines far more “pure” then Icara’s had ever been, though these days Brandenburgers were joining the military in large numbers-with most of their naval recruits being women- they still tended to remain “ethnically proud” and many outright refused any relationship with a non-Brandenburg Icaran, Nikki’s mother and father had been like that and when Scott first found out that his exec was a Brandenburger he prayed like mad that she wasn’t going to be one of the “ethnists” that still plagued her homeworld, and fortunately she hadn’t been, unfortunately she was outspoken and often brazen when it came to her Captain and Scott had resigned himself to the fact that it was just her nature.
“If you can call this syrup coffee Nik.” He grimaced at her as he looked down at the thick liquid in his cup again.
“Well you should try tea more often anyway sir, that’s the problem with you Icara born people after all, your always drinking caffeine, it amazes me you ever get any sleep.” She grinned wickedly at his expression, she had tried introducing him to tea a few months earlier with something called “liquorish root” but that was so rich it made him gag, he was about to say something else when his tactical officer’s voice cut through the air like a siren.
“Enemy ships uncloaking, seven point niner five light seconds out and closing!” Willard quickly laid his coffee mug aside and slammed his palm down on the button which brought up his tactical display.
“Sound actions stations, all hands beat to quarters!” Commander Leung’s voice was smooth professionalism as she brought up her own chair’s tac displays, seconds later klaxons and drums sounded throughout the ship followed swiftly by the sound of running feet, as crewman and marines raced to their battle stations.
“Can you get me a count on the enemy, tac?” Willard turned to face the tactical station and saw the tac officer of the watch going from one of his crewmen to the other, trying to get a definite plot.
“Sir our sensors can’t seem to agree on count, Lscan One detects 5, Lscan Two detects 9 and our lightwave telescopes seem to think there are 8 of them.” the tactical officer reddened with embarrassment as he reported what was supposed to be impossible, they should know easily how many enemy ships there were by drive signals alone but…..but why couldn’t they?
“Alright tac let’s assume it’s 9 can you tell me what size enemy ships we are dealing with?” Willard forced the agitation out of his voice as he watched his own display change count on the enemy ships every few seconds.
“Aye sir, I can tell you that they are some of those small battleships the Earth Corps Alliance uses.” the tac officer’s voice sounded almost relieved as he was able to answer at least one question.
“Sir I can get us a better read of numbers if we get closer.” one of the Lscan operators whispered to her tac officer and blushed as she realized her voice had carried further then she meant it too as Willard’s gaze turned to her or a moment before turning back to the tac officer who simply shrugged and nodded.
“Alright helm, break orbit, navigation plot a soonest intercept course for the enemy ships, tactical….try and get me a clean picture before we get into shooting range please.” Willard paused and turned toward another bridge station “Astrogation plot the enemy ships’ current excel, course and velocity and see if you can tell me where they came from.”
“Aye sir plotting course.” The helmsman sang out
“Aye sir course plotted time to intercept one five niner minutes.” navigation rang out
“Focusing scans on mid range aye.” the tac officer said as he punched in some calculations.
“Plotting enemy drive signature aye.” the chief astrogator replied.
“Well I guess we’re going to be very busy.” Leung said sardonically as she toggled her tac display’s modes, Willard simply grunted a reply with a brief grin of his own.

Two and a half hours later the enemy signature had become all to clear, there were eight enemy Danube class battleships inbound at maximum military power, each one equipped with eleven fusion capital missiles and one heavy mounted I-laser cannon. When Willard heard the numbers his blood ran cold, not a single enemy troop carrier in the mix which meant either they were here to nuke the planet and it’s four hundred million people to keep it out of Icara’s hands or they were here for some other purpose that Willard couldn’t understand, and either way they were probably going to destroy his ship to do whatever it was they were here for.

Bridge: ECANS George Washington:
“What the hell is an Icaran doing here?” Junior Rear Admiral Brian Monteghue said angrily, his tactical section had detected the Icaran’s barely an hour ago which he knew meant they had detected him long before that.
“I don’t know sir but whatever she’s doing here she’s alone.” Commander Alex Stark said grimly as his own readers showed the enemy ship closing, he knew that for his Admiral to cuss in public he was worried, no matter how calm he looked.
The 5th battleship squadron Northern fleet had been ordered to proceed under cloak and maximum power to DNX-N1 VII in order to retrieve the planetary governor and his family before the Icaran StateSec forces “purged” the government officials and their families to ensure compliance. Personally Commander Stark was terrified by the implications of an enemy Superdreadnought holding a parking orbit over an ECA planet, had they already purged the government? Or worse yet did thy know the battleships were coming somehow? The media had broadcast reports of tragedy befalling the 36 ships of the Southern Cross fleet but no one knew for sure how the Icarans had engaged them, if there were any survivors from that battle the Icarans certainly weren’t about to tell anyone and so absolutely no information got out. Stark’s thoughts suddenly became more grim, he had heard from the Anderman reports of the atrocities committed by Icaran Naval and Army forces, entire world’s burned simply because there was no available troopship to secure it, or “no time”, entire governments wiped out because they might insight riots, the billions of Andermanian and Allied lives lost because Icaran warships intercepted and destroyed dozens of colony ships and population transports….wherever the Icarans struck it was as if a shroud engulfed the region, no one ever heard from the conquered worlds again, and even now billions of people were behind that ever growing shroud of darkness and whether or not the Icarans could be stopped was a question that terrified every inhabited world in their path, the mere name Icara brought terror and tears where it was uttered and even though Andermanian newsies had said that their valiant 9th fleet had driven the Icarans out of Nepsis Stark knew the grim fact was that the only reason the Icarans left is because after they destroyed the Andermanian 12th fleet and the combined Alliance minelayer/sweeper task force they were simply too banged up to engage the 9th, and Stark felt with grim certainty that when the Icarans did return to Nepsis the 9th fleet was only going to slow them down.
“Admiral, enemy ship is closing the range with us, she’ll be in our weapons range in two minutes, we’ll be in hers in three.” the tactical officer sounded surprisingly confident considering the enemy ship outstripped their’s by an order of magnitudes but if they could saturate that bastard’s point defense with missiles and keep the range open then maybe they could take her out and get to the planet to retrieve refugees.

HMS Reverence
“I can’t believe those sons’a’*****es are going to nuke their own world just to keep us from getting it.” CPO Anders murmured from his station at Lscan Two, Willard was tempted to chew the Petty Officer out for breaking military discipline but he had just said what they were all thinking, Icaran news services had told them all how the ECA and the Andermanian alliance had destroyed several of their own worlds just to keep them out of Icaran hands, rumor had it that’s what happened in Nepsis when the 1st fleet was forced to pull out the Andermanian 9th had just moved in and laid waste to the planet.
Willard Scott would be damned before he let those hundreds of millions of Icarans die at the hands of that ECA naval task force.
“Captain I have an idea…..though it’s a little risky sir.” Leung whispered as she looked up from her tactical repeaters.
Willard could almost feel her grin as she said “risky” like it really mattered at this moment, he turned around and saw not a grin but a sharkish smile as she returned her attention to he repeaters.
“By all means Commander don’t keep me in the dark.” He managed a light tone even though his nerves were frayed and her habit of sinking into her work so much that she forgot the world at large tended to make that worse.
She looked up from her displays, with that same Sharkish smile “Well sir, I think we should let them fire their missiles off at us, if they do the might just try to get into energy range and bring our shields down before their missiles finish us off, and well as you know sir we could easily win a gun duel with them….” she paused again for a moment in thought before her smile grew broader “Well Captain I think we could actually manage a broadside into their formation before we are forced to break range to keep from getting our asses blown off, but after that broadside we’d be restricted to chase mounts only if we want to keep our range open enough that we have time to get out of the way of their missiles….but if we are off by even one second we’ll have about 88 missiles roaring up our rather large tailpipe.” her smile became a grin as she realized how cocky she herself sounded.
Willard quirked an eyebrow as he thought it over, if he got off a broadside with his full arsenal he could destroy at least two of those battleships, even at maximum range but his XO was certainly correct in her math, if they were off by one second 88 missiles would tear them apart like so much tissue paper.
“Alright Nikki let’s play risky.” He tried to smile back but he knew that she was just as afraid as him, and that her smile was pure nerves, for some reason it reminded him that she had once mentioned that she used to giggle like an idiot whenever she got nervous, and he was glad at least that she had outgrown that. “Helm, cut accel in half, I want to have the velocity to turn a broadside on those targets, but prepare to go back to full military power on my orders.”
“Aye sir.” the bridge suddenly went quiet as the crew focused on the tasks ahead of them, the chief gunnery officer sat on the edge of her seat, her two gunner’s mates were keeping themselves busy checking and rechecking the status of the gunnery crews and their weapons.

George Washington
“Admiral sir they are cutting their accel in half, and it looks they are changing course to bring themselves to a broadside to us.” the tactical officer frowned as he read off the numbers, the Icaran was indeed cutting her acceleration and turning broadside to the task force.
“Thank you tactical…..guns how much longer to range?” Rear Admiral Monteghue said softly as he looked over his shoulder at the gunnery station.
“Thirty seconds to missile envelope, fifty before we reach energy range.”
Monteghue turned to face Commander Alex Stark “They are either overly cocky, or they’ve got a longer range then we suspect Alex.” his voice was quiet enough that only the commander could hear him and his face was expressionless, but his eyes showed he was worried and Alex couldn’t blame him one whit.
“Either she’s got a cocky dumb captain or they’re confident they can stand up to us all….and if it’s the latter we’ve got a lot to worry about Alex.” The Admiral turned back towards the display and saw the lone enemy super dreadnought turning her broadside to his fleet in defiance.
“Missile lock, all tubes firing!” the sudden announcement turned just about everyone’s head, unfortunately for them the tactical display showed a massive “wall” of light lance out from the Icaran towards two battleships as the SD fired it’s broadside….

Reverence:
The two battleships that were hit rocked as their shields flared to life for barely a minute before imploding and the huge energy forces made contact with the hulls of the two battleships, as the beams lashed out the green beams slashed through decks and hull plating with ease, it wasn’t quite accurate to say the two battleships exploded, it was more like they just broke apart spilling wreckage and bodies into space.

“Incoming missiles, I count sixty six birds!” The tactical officer said coldly as the Reverence’s own tactical displays came to life with the light codes of the enemy capital missiles.
“Helm hard about…now!” Captain Scott clenched his right hand into a fist at his side as he saw the enemy battleships closing to within their own energy range, seconds passed and almost imperceptivity a light streak glowed to life on the displays as the ECA beams lashed out from their battleships, out of the six beams only two struck home but it was enough to reduce the shield power of the SD.
The massive warship spun about with surprising ease and grace as her main engine burst to life sending her at the full 500 gees of military acceleration back towards the planet she was fighting to protect.
The enemy battleships continued to close however, and even though the were slower to accelerate they would eventually gain on their prey.
“Gunner crews, aft chase mounts pick a target and open fire!” Scott barked the order out like a curse.

George Washington
“Holy mother!” The tactical officer blurted angrily as the Icaran’s aft chase batteries came to life burning through the Valley Forge‘s shields with amazing ease.
The battleship’s hull plating collapsed before the wrath of the beam fire and within moments all that remained of the once mighty battleship was an expanding ball of fire, and wreckage.
“Admiral, no one could have survived that….”Alex Stark said grimly as he watched the last flare of light die out.
“Alright keep the remaining ships together in a tight formation, if we’re going to take that bastard down we’ve got to focus our own fire.” Monteghue forced his voice to sound unemotional, even as his own heart was aching as the realization of what was happening to his command struck home, 3 battleships were blown out of the sky before they had even reduced their enemy’s shields, there were at least a thousand survivors out there floating in escape pods or vac suits but that still left almost five thousand of his people dead or dying.
The three remaining ECA battleships returned to energy weapon range and fired again, this time all three of their shots hit the enemy SD and it’s shields weakened even further, barely a minute later 66 more missiles rippled from the battleships and the closest 11 actually managed to strike home but her acceleration took her away from the remainders.
“Their shields can’t have much power left sir, we might just have…..bastard!” Alex swore louder then he intended as he saw the enemy’s chase mounts unleash another volley, this time James Madison was torn open from bow to stern like an old tin can, hull plating and atmosphere formed an icy cloud as they spilled free from the sliced hull, her power systems flickered for a moment and then stopped as she slowly drifted away from the fight, escape pods launched from her in droves as she continued to drift, until finally her hull began to break apart.

Reverence
The two remaining enemy battleships fired their I-laser turrets again and this time it had a dramatic effect as the Reverence rolled up on her starboard with the force of the enemy beams, her shields flared for a moment and then failed outright under the enemy fire, the only thing that saved the Reverence from direct damage was that just as her shields failed the energy pouring into her through the enemy beams faded.
“My God that was close…” Scott whispered to Nikki, and turned to see that she too was pale with the shock, by all rights those two cannons should have sliced into her armor and killed Lord only knew how many crewmen.
“Helm take us in, guns give me a lock on both those ships hold fire until we are point blank, then let’s end this.” Scott winked at his XO and grinned “I said we’d play it risky didn’t I Nikki.” She nodded nervously and his grin faded as he turned back to face the main screen, they both knew just how risky it was to run straight into two enemy ships without any shields, even in a super dreadnought.

George Washington:
“Sir she’s turning about to engage us!” A voice called out from the tactical station, but by then everyone already knew that the enemy ship had turned about and was closing in at maximum military thrust.
“She’s got no energy field around her, she must have lost her shields.” Stark stared at his display even as he spoke, his heart seemed to stop for an instant as he realized what the Icarans were doing, They’re going to try and finish us in one fell swoop they know they can’t keep taking us on with only they’re chase mounts or we’d be guaranteed a lucky shot on her eventually. his mind raced as he saw the enemy ship closing, it seemed an eternity but finally the two ECA battleships fired straight at their massive foe. The commander’s thoughts turned to his family, and his own failure to achieve their mission objective, for unless a miracle happened he knew that these were his last few seconds of life.

Reverence
The one enemy ship’s sensors had targeted one of the many sensor ghosts cost by the ECM generators carried by all Icaran warships and missed by over a kilometer, the second beam however passed barely a meter over the forward hull of the massive Icaran super dreadnought so close that a long streak of paint boiled with the heat. But her fire proved much more accurate as she opened fire on the Lake Superior tearing her apart with a hellish beauty.
George Washington too was struck, and went up in a brilliant flash of light as her reactor breached, there wasn’t even a chance for anyone of her crew to reach the escape pods, the only fortunate thing for those poor souls was that they never even had time to feel pain.
As their last opponent disappeared Scott felt an odd mix of triumph and horror, eight battleships meant 16,000 lives and Scott had been through battles before and had indeed been aboard a super dreadnought that was crippled during the earlier months of the Andermanian crusade, he knew what it was like for the crews of those ships in their last few moments of life.
“Sir I’ve got escape pod and vac suit rescue beacons, from all over the place, should I order out SAR teams.” Nikki’s voice startled him back into the present as he pulled his eyes away from the still sparkling debris of their final victim.
“Yes, deploy cutters and take us around to pick up as many survivors as we can, damned if I’m going to let those people die out here….” Captain Willard Scott’s expression turned pale for a moment as the sheer destruction he had just unleashed, and the luck of his own ship’s survival sank in.

The SAR teams launched by the Reverence picked up 2,018 survivors from the eight enemy battleships, these POWs were then taken by StateSec transports to Icaran POW camps in the home system where they could receive medical care, food, and basic-albeit uncomfortable- living quarters until the war ended.
Neither side ever figured out what the other was doing there, as the survivors the Icaran’s recovered refused to speak of their final mission to their nation, and because not one ECA soldier ever returned home from the 5th battleship squadron their homeland would never know that the governor and his family were all still very much alive, though in political prisoner camps far away from their home world.

[Fyron]

Bah! Here I am in the process of formatting this for SEnet, and you write more!

heheh, just kidding. Keep up the great work!

[kerensky]

Starhawk said:

Anyway in a wait for that here is the breakdown of the command chains of the 1st and 2nd fleets, this may also give you a feel for the sheer size of the Imperial navy and the ships involved in the Andermanian Crusade:

That is what you may think is sheer size, but wait until you have seen my empired navy, hehehe....

Anyways, keep up the good work SH.

[Starhawk]

Important Worlds of the Icaran Empire:

[i]Planet Icara:
This world was colonized in the late twenty-first century by the Icara/Empire of the Shining Star evacuation fleet after they were driven from the Sol system by the Sol Coalition forces.
Population: 3,216,000,000
Distinguishing Traits:
Icara's capital city "Venture" is one of the few Icaran cities that kept to the old earth design school.
Icara also boasts one of the most active and friendly ecologies of the Empire.

Planet Brandenburg:
Brandenburg was an accidental co-colony of Icara, after a lone ESS transport crashed to it's surface after being thrown through the same stellar anomoly as the rest of the evac fleet, contact was reestablished during the late twenty second century after an Icaran survey craft overflew the planet.
It was fully rehabilitated into the empire in the year 2400 by Countess Percilla Tory.
Population: 1,553,000,000

Distinguishing traits:
Brandenburg's female population outnumbers it's male populace two to one.

Brandenburg also boasts one of the few "pure bred" populations in the Icaran Empire, as the vast bulk of this world's populace is Asian in origin, and fo the most part due to traditions many of the world's population still refuse to intermingle with others not of their race.

Their largest contribution to the armed forces of Icara is female personnel.


Planet Sparta:
Sparta was colonized early in the expansionist years of Icara and her early years were not easy as nearly every life form on the planet-including many plants-were hostile to human life by either proving non-edible or openly predatory against human life.
However the brave colonists eventually learned to thrive on their homeworld and to this day claim they are the toughest Icara has to offer.
Population: 544,000,000

Unique Traits: Every member of Icara's population born to the "first generation" has had a teardrop tatoo beneath their left eye symbolizing that they will never forget the sacrifice of the first colonists from Icara.

Sparta also boasts a large populace of former Brandenburgers who were drafted by the colonization branch of the Icaran government, these colonists unlike many of their counterparts on Brandenburg have since integrating into the general populace of Sparta in part due to the hostile nature of Sparta.

The Spartan Kraken is the largest and most ferocious predator in the known galaxy, being larger then an old earth elephant and brandishing claws and fangs that can rend battle armor in a single swipe.


Planet New Haven:
The exact colonization date of this world is lost to history, it is the former home world and Capital of the Rebel Alliance which surrendered to the Icaran Empire during the early years of expansion.
Population: 4,000,000,000

Unique Traits: Former homeworld of the Rebel Alliance, this world has the largest non "true blood" Icaran population of the Empire.


Planet Mandow:
Homeworld of the Delta Corporation Mandow rules over the entire 6-11 system like it's own private Empire, StateSec troops that are normally seen on Icaran worlds are instead replaced by Delta Corporate Security and many rumors are flying in the Court that the Delta Corporation is building it's own private military force for some sinister reason.
Currently 6-11 and thus Mandow are being "observed" by Icaran Shadowdagger agents.
Population: 8,000,000,000

Unique Traits: Mandow is a semi-autonomous state within the Empire.
The Solstoy shipyards in orbit are rumored to be producing more then just merchantmen and transports, many people say that they are buidling an entire division of SuperDreadnoughts flying the Delta Corporate flag and crewed by ex-pats from several of the conquered star nations in Icara's borders.


Planet New Brisbane:
Colonized after the destruction of the original Handra colony, New Brisbane served as the jumping off point for the Icaran invasion and subjugation of the Phong Federation.
Population: 697,000,000

Unique Traits: Of the 697 million people on New Brisbane 300 million are military personnel or under military employment aboard the two massive orbital shipyards that float above New Brisbane.

Sphereworld: Phong Isolation
The Phong Isolation was the first sphereworld ever constructed by the Icaran empire, it's sole purpose was to isolate the Xeno population from the rest of the Icaran empire.
This massive sphereworld contains a population of 19 billion Phong, and when fully occupied will contain every last Phong in the empire.
It is a grim dark world used as a massive work camp by the Icaran empire, the Phong who live here have nothing but work in their future.
Population: 19 billion and growing.


Sphereworld New Icara:

This mighty construct is totally unlike the Phong sphereworld, it is a glittering jewel in the Icaran home system of Norvor and currently has a population of 12 billion Icarans, including many Andermanian ex-pats which were captured when their colony ships were seized by the new "light raiders" of the navy's Artemis project.
Population 12 billion

[El_Phil]

Ahhh a treachorous evil corporation with diabolical plans for domination. Doesn't eveybody galaxy need at least one of those?

[Starhawk]

This segment is rated R for Graphic violence, language, and scenes of gore if you are offended by such material please skip this chapter:

The Goddess of the hunt
To: Grand Admiral’s Office
From: Rear Admiral Alan Hindecker, His Majesty’s Bureau of Ship Design
Re: Project Artemis

Grand Admiral your excellency it is my happy duty to inform you that the Artemis project has finally born fruit, the two Nimitz class carriers are already in my yards being retrofit for the Artemis heavy raider configuration with the extended marine barracks and shield depletion weaponry, fortunately due to the size of the Nimitz carrier’s we’ve also been able to give her more individual firepower and shielding then we originally thought, she can easily destroy an enemy super dreadnought in a single broadside and can take enough punishment on her shields to get within boarding range.
The light raiders designed to capture rather then destroy those colony ships and transports we’ve been having to destroy will begin production shortly after the Artemis heavies have been tested in combat.
Unfortunately the Light raiders will not be able to take on capital ships or any proper heavy warships, so they must operate either in larger groups or with the protection of Royal Navy dreadnought or super dreadnought units.
Your Faithful Servant
Rear Admiral Hindecker

One Month Later:
His Majesty’s Ship Nimitz had once been a mighty carrier for the Royal Navy, however her and her sister ship had been gutted, her flight bays and munitions storage facilities had been removed and replaced with extended marine barracks, small arms armories, briefing rooms and “tubes” carrying the new breaching pods Her personal armaments had been dramatically increased though, with massive mount I-Las cannons and massive shield depleter cannons. Captain Harold Kimmel paced the command deck of his new “raider” configured command, that too was nothing like it’s carrier configuration no air boss, no CAG liaison officer or flight ops stations, now there were marine boarding command stations, armor suite monitors and a lot of other equipment that went with being an independent raider, including the latest and greatest cloak detection and long range scanner systems the navy could offer.
But even with all that High Tech equipment Captain Kimmel felt little better about his situation, they had been dispatched to pursue a lone Neo-Star super dreadnought that had been detected by a system’s spier satellites, but what made this a bad situation in his mind was that his lone little “raider” was now in a frontier system that was 350 light years away from any Naval base or even starship and the warp point which had brought him here had been closed to ensure the enemy ship did not escape him.
They don’t even know we can detect them why the bloody hell would they try to escape us? he thought irritably as the numbers ran down and the distance between his starship and his prey closed.
“Marine boarders to stations, tactical time to intercept.” Kimmel paused his pacing and looked at the officer he had just addressed, the young woman looked at her screen for a long hard second before returning her captain’s gaze levelly.
“Three minutes to intercept, one point five to boarding pod range.” Kimmel nodded at her and returned his gaze to the screen once more, three minutes and we’ll see if this new idea actually works.

Three minutes passed like an eternity as the massive raider closed on her much smaller prey at her maximum available accel until she had closed in with her weapons range, the only sign the enemy commander had that the raider had actually seen him was when the orange beams of massive shield depletes reached out from the raider and reduced his shields to less then half power, the following massive I-laser mount shot tore through his shields with incredible ease, unfortunately for the NeoStar super dreadnought the burn through knocked out two of her engines making her slower then the massive raider that was even now closing on her.
A few pot shots from the SD actually impacted on Nimitz shields but the huge raider shrugged off the blows like a Spartan Kraken shrugged off darter shots, as Nimitz passed broadside to broadside with the enemy starship dozens of strange objects darted from her side at speeds just lower then that of a missile volley, though in many ways their payloads were much deadlier then any missile, as the NSE crew was about to discover.

“Alright marines lock and load five seconds and we’re in!” Sergeant Nick “Sharktooth” Monroe grinned as he smacked a dart magazine into his auto rifle, the other marines in his breaching pod were also smacking their magazines into place, except of course for the one marine who was carrying a breacher gun, corporal Sally Faucet fed the “shells” into her heavy weapon’s hopper with a devlish look on her face, Monroe’s platoon had three heavy weapons operators, two carried the breachers which were the equivalent of a 14th and 15th century shotgun prior to the development of magnetic accelerated weapons, a breacher fired 12 micro explosive darts at a target with gruesome effect, it was a perfect weapon for boarding and breaching actions because of the sheer hell it could unload onto any poor bastard caught in it’s range. The third heavy weapons operator carried a perdition rifle, which fired balls of “energy” hotter then the core of a star, it’s purpose was pure and simple personnel extermination as anyone or anything caught in that energy ball would vaporize rather quickly even though the energy ball only lasted for about three meters before dissipating.
The rest of the marines were equipped with the simple auto rifle- which fired either explosive, incendiary or solid darts at a rate of 300 rounds per minute when at full auto, though most marines preferred firing their weapon in a burst in order to increase accuracy and save ammunition.
After a moment of absolute silence a thundering crash echoed through the breaching pod like the wrath of God, Sergeant Monroe smiled at his marines as the all unhooked from their shock harnesses and move into their positions with silent well practiced discipline.
Monroe counted to 10 silently and then slammed his fist against a green button at the end of the pod, a hissing replied as the pod sliced through the last layer of armor plating between the marines and their target, as the front hatch erupted forward in a sparkling fireball Monroe and his marines charged forward like wild animals leaping upon their prey.
An enemy security detachment was unfortunate enough to be caught by the marines right after the sparkling eruption had dazed their senses, Sally Faucet’s breacher hiccupped twice and turned five enemy soldiers into a cloud of blood and torn flesh as the explosive darts tore them apart, a sixth enemy soldier was reduced to a crying heap of shattered flesh as an explosive dart tore her legs apart.
“Alright marines get moving, we have an engineering section to secure.” Monroe hissed as he watched the crying spasming woman on the deck, he sympathized with her but he couldn’t afford to detach one of his marines to secure her so he simply walked passed her with the rest of his unit as the advanced over the blood slicked deck.
After a moment the sobbing screams died away and Monroe flinched absently at the thought, he shook off the feeling after a second only to hear the whine of darter fire erupt ahead of him, one of his marines went down as a half a dozen darts tore his chest open even with the armor and sent him down as blood geysers erupted from his wounds and the gruesome sewer smell of bowels loosed in death filled the corridor, Monroe switched his helmet to internal oxygen and was grateful as the smell of purified oxygen replaced the death stench that surrounded him, the breaching guns hiccupped several more times as auto-rifles whined, another marine went down, with a solid shot through his throat, his gurgling death throws audible over the din of weapons fire.
Monroe moved up and saw what looked like an entire platoon of enemy security personnel blocking the corridor, a few bodies and blood splattered corridors told Monroe that at least some of the enemy soldiers had been killed, he aimed his rifle at an enemy security soldier and let off a burst of deadly accurate fire, the enemy trooper didn’t even have a chance to scream as three darts tore through his helmeted head with ease, splattering blood and brain material everywhere.
Monroe nodded at the heavy weapon marine carrying the perdition rifle, and as the other marines laid down covering fire the world suddenly turned on it’s head and shook as the amazing sound and vibration caused by the powerful weapon firing momentarily stunned the Icaran marines, the lucky enemy soldiers had been caught full on in the blast and vaporized, other less lucky enemy soldiers could be heard screaming in agony as burnt remains of limbs dangled from their bodies, others could be heard screaming “my eyes” as they clawed at the burning eyes that would never see again.
Monroe’s marines moved up with practiced speed and the quick bursts of auto-fire brought a merciful end to the grotesquely wounded NSE soldiers pain and their shrieks of agony.
Seconds later the platoon was outside of the massive blast doors that sealed off the engineering compartment, however several well placed perdition rifle shots turned the doors into molten slag, just as the doors melted away the whine of a dart pistol from within the compartment split the air, and the ominous crack of bone and armor jerked Monroe around just in time to see another dart slam into the wounded marine, knocking him on his back, the wounded soldier jerked and twitched as the pain overrode shock.
One of the marines carrying a breaching gun fired three times in rapid succession destroying the handful of armed engineers with disgusting ease.
The rest of the marines charged forward into the surviving unarmed engineers, feet and hands flew as the marines struck down their enemies, the sounds of bones breaking and of people screaming in fear and pain echoed through the compartment as the marines advanced, several used their rifle butts with deadly effect on any of the engineers who resisted, and with their suit’s muscle enhancers the rifle butts struck like a grav sled, shattering bones with little work.
In under a minute the engineers who had survived the breaching gun were lying unconscious, or in the case of two younger engineers who panicked and tried to fight back they lay dead, their skulls broken.
The com signal passed over the command channel in less then fifteen minutes, the NSE super dreadnought Roma was officially in Icaran control enemy losses were in the hundreds and the Icarans had lost 23 marines but the first combat test of the new Artemis project heavy raiders had been a success.
Two weeks later the Nimitz had secured two more NSE dreadnoughts, the three enemy ships and the Icaran raider returned to Norvor, the three enemy ships were scrapped shortly after and added considerable resources to the troubled economic situation Icara was currently suffering from.

[Starhawk]

OT: Oh btw I am starting college on the 12th of this month so I'll try to keep up with story chapters but lord only knows how much free time I'll have.

[El_Phil]

Nice chapter, lets face it boarding was never going to be easy with the other side rolling over like most SEIV boarding has it. Keep up the good work fella.

OK I am right that US college is much like UK university? If not skip the rest of this post.

So you'll have loads of free time, which is all spent in pubs, bars, clubs and various other non-SEIV things. Especially at the start, really don't miss any of those events, the stuff that happends then is the basis of jokes that will last your entire time their.