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

[Starhawk]

2405.6
“Stand by for warp point jump in five-zero seconds con.” Sarah Pallins voice sang out in her typical beautiful soprano as she sat cross legged in the captain’s chair, it was the middle of the third watch and Pallins couldn’t help but feel the real size of her ship at this time of night when only the bridge and engine room stood fully manned.
“Three-zero seconds con.” She said cheerfully as she took another sip of her coffee, or at least that’s what the navy called it, most of the civilian community wouldn’t touch navy coffee and even navy personnel joked about how it could seal a hull breach or patch a vac suit in an emergency. They were probably right too Sarah thought to herself as she read down the chronometer.
“One Zero seconds con.”

Ten seconds later and the Enterprise Squadron’s GFGs began melding with the brilliant blue swirl of the warp point; the familiar golden glow of GFG interaction was even more wondrous and magnificent then when a single ship made the jump.
The jump it’s self however was unusual for as her ship made that instantaneous transition from warp space to real space only one or two of her crew became nauseated and she herself felt an odd tingle that was actually quite pleasant.
Before she had any time to wonder about this new occurrence a brilliant flash on HMS King Roger brought her mind whirling back into the present, another flash on the destroyer leading the formation instantly brought the experienced commander’s hand slamming down onto the general quarters alarm.

The familiar battle klaxons howled and the GQ alarms joined in nano-seconds later, another flash on Kong Roger made Pallins wince, even more sickening was the stream of debris that floated away from the destroyer, debris that included bodies most of whom were not wearing vac suits.
“Sarah what the hell is going on?” The familiar voice of Captain Ross came behind Pallins and out of trained reflex she instantly stood saluted her superior and walked to her own command console.
“We are under attack sir, I can’t give you further details till our damned computers get over the jump shock.” Her voice was cold and professional but Ross recognized that sickened stress that she attempted to hide and he couldn’t blame her for he too grew sickened as he saw the bodies and wreckage drifting away from multiple hull breaches in King Roger.
“Sensors back on-line ma’am, I mean sir!” Tactical officer Rivera’s voice faltered as he realized his Captain had come onto the bridge….but he valiantly continued “Sir, three Phong Frigates have opened fire on our squadron King Roger and Manticore both ships are showing signs of heavy damage.”
“Thank you tactical, Guns do we have a shot yet!” Ross sat at his station and rubbed his hands together, trying to stop his sweating, his entire squadron had been ambushed and at least one of his ships was out of this fight.
“Gunnery crews have put in targeting coordinates sir, passing it to squadron wide and Firing!” Gunnery Officer Paul’s voice was the calmest on the bridge aside from his CO and the XO, and Ross allowed himself a brief second of appreciation that at least Lieutenant Paul was a combat veteran, the only one currently on the bridge aside from himself and Pallins.
The Frigate Saber and two destroyers still capable of firing Enterprise and Manticore lit space with their fire, each targeting an enemy frigate with a powerful missile volley.
The enemy point defenses nailed three missiles but all the others struck home burning holes in each of the enemy frigates, the highly trained cannon crews of the three Icaran warships soon chimed in with their own fire and within seconds one of the enemy frigates exploded in a brilliant golden eruption and another frigate was put completely out of action.
The third frigate died moments later as another missile volley struck her full on and tore her into multiple fragments and fireballs.

The after action report was not good for the Icaran squadron King Roger and Manticore had both been knocked out of action and were forced to retire to Handar base for repair and re-supply leaving only Enterprise and Saber to carry out their assault on the first Fornax base.

[Rasorow]

Nice - a real good read. Will the Comodore plunge fearlessly on now that over half of his squadron's effective fighting force has been eliminated?

Rasorow

[rdouglass]

Bummer. Not bummer story - GREAT story - bummer Posts.

Let me explain. I look at the topic and see a new post. I think "Great! A new chapter!" and then I get disappointed that it's only a comment.

I'm not discounting comments at all (in fact, I'm doing one now), I'm just thinking it'd be nice to have comments posted elsewhere. But then I'd probably never read 'em.

Just thinkin' out loud.....

[Starhawk]

2405.7 The cost of war
“Admiral Magill, Naval Command has sent priority one courier ship with a message reading “your eyes only.” Captain Parrin of the Rebel Alliance light cruiser Starburst sounded more then a little worried as he handed the data chip to his Admiral still sealed in it's armorpLast case.
“Thanks Rodge….” Magill inhaled sharply and placed the data chip in his compute, he tried to look relaxed as he read the orders but his lips began to twitch uncontrollably and soon a sneer crossed his face.
“Sir, what is it?” Parrin’s anxiety was clear as he watched his Admiral’s eyes wander over the screen again.
“It’s war Rodge, we are to set course for the Icaran’s Goin base in the Gaia system and “neutralize all resistance”, you and I both know that will mean destroying the entire colony when it comes to those Icarans.” Admiral Magill frowned again, he had met governor Averato and some of the people from Goin colony only a few months before and found most of them to be good people if a little backwards politically, and now to carry out his orders he would have to kill all of them and start a war with their nation.
“Sir, that makes no sense the Icarans have done nothing to us!” Parrin objected and began to say more but was silenced as Magill raised a strained hand.
“Rodge, the Icarans are expansionists pure and simple, their economy requires that they expand as does their population growth, our spies tell us they have a limited number of planets they can colonize within their own space, which means they will have to head elsewhere“ Magill paused and frowned deeply before looking back at his flag captain.. ”We can not risk them trying to expand into our territories and NavCom beleives Goin base would be their stepping off point into our territories.”
“But sir open war will push them against us for sure, and what if after we destroy Goin colony they decide to counter attack us?” Parrin’s voice was earnest as he pleaded with his Admiral but Magill simply stood up and waved his officer down.
“Relay the orders Captain, tell the entire task force we are headed to destroy Goin base and then the Icaran destroyer squadron.”
“Aye sir.” Parrin said in a resigned tone as he turned to follow his Admiral out.

Both rebel officers left the Admiral's quarters with a grim attitude, the Navy command believed they could destroy the Icaran presence in Gaia and thus force the Icarans to quell their expansionistic attitudes, at least in their part of the galaxy.

****************
The radiant purple skies outside of the massive colony dome of Goin base lit brilliantly as an EM storm passed overhead, the wondrous green and yellow lightning flashed in dancing patterns across the sky as “night” drew near and some of the populace sat in the local park to watch the rare and beautiful storm.
Millions of other civilians went about their work, mining raw ores, refining, construction and various other essential tasks little concerned with the storm overhead, when suddenly the noises of work were violently cut off as civil warnings howled throughout the colony and the four platoons of army troopers garrisoned in Goin began racing along the streets in skimmers trying to round up civilians.
The civil alarms meant only one thing, attack was imminent and in this region of space it could only be one group, the Rebels who had signed and broken a peace treaty in record times thanks to their “mob controlled” democracy.

Military personnel rushed civilians into shelters as fast as possible but their sensors had detected the rebels too late, thanks to the EM storm which had blanketed all sensor and com frequencies with static and haze and the first Rebel cannon shells began raining down on the dome while millions of civilians were still clogging the streets.
Explosive shells tore massive gouges out of the dome and the poisonous atmosphere began leaking into the colony, chocking and burning thousands of unprotected civilians, more disturbing was the lightning which now came streaking into the unprotected colony electrocuting hundreds and destroying buildings with amazing ferocity.
More shells rained down and with most of the dome gone they began striking the city and base directly, massive explosions erupted all around the colony and within minutes even more shells had slammed into the colony causing massive casualties and damage. Within an hour, the entire population of Goin colony had been killed.
********************
“Target destroyed sir.” The grim cheerless tone of the Starbursts’ tactical officer rang out from his station as the entire task force looked on at the devastation they had wrought.
“Helm take us out, and set course for those Icaran Destroyers, we have a job to finish.” Magill said grumpily as he turned off his visual display of the colony’s surface....or what was left of it.

*********************
“Sir I’m detecting the entire rebel task force over Goin base, cancel that they are headed out from Goin sir.”Victory Squadron’s chief tactical officer turned to face Captain Park. The Captain curtly as he watched his station‘s command repeaters.
“Are they headed for us Lieutenant Commander?” Park asked hoarsely as the realization sank in, the two destroyers of his squadron had detected multiple energy flares around and on Goin colony and the presence of a Rebel task force in orbit meant only one thing, Goin base was gone and war was coming straight down on Icara’s frontier.
“Aye sir, they are coming our way at maximum military power.” the answer was exactly what Park had feared, he had only one choice, he could not run or else he would open the entire system to rebel occupation but he knew all too well that his squadron would get pummeled by those damned democrats!, but he had no choice.
“Comns get in touch with Tiger tell her to follow us in, we are going to take on that squadron.”
“Um, Aye sir.” the startled comns officer replied as she tapped controls on her board, and a second later her quiet voice was passing his orders on to an equally startled com officer aboard the other destroyer.

Two hours later the Icaran destroyers were within missile range of the rebel task force and both Icarans spat out their missiles in a wall, 2 sprint and four capital killer missiles raced across the stars towards their intended victims like 6 tiny stars.

*********************
“Sir missiles incoming, I count two fast movers and four of their big ship killers!” The chief tac officer aboard Starburst announced.
“Already plotting intercept” The weapons officer announced as he began firing the light cruiser’s point defenses, monitoring their destroyer screen as it too opened fire on the incoming missiles.

*********************
“Captain we’ve scored a hit!” Gunnery officer Beasley smiled broadly as the enemy frigate fell away from their formation.
“Excellent job guns that only leaves 4 destroyers and a light cruiser” Park smiled thinly at his gunnery officer.
“Good sir, means more practice for me.” Beasley grinned back sharkishly before looking back at his targeting display.

*********************
“Sir Albunea has been hit, she’s lost two engines and is falling back.” Liza Adair’s voice chimed calmly from her station.
“Sir we’ve got more missiles incoming!” The chief tactical officer grimaced as the task force point defenses began clawing at the new missiles.
“Impact on Mothma she’s falling out of formation sir….she’s down to one engine and a cannon”.
“We need to get in close to those Icarans or we’re dead helm.” Migill’s anger was made all the worse for the fact that two of his ships had been knocked out of formation by TWO enemy destroyers and he had done no damage to them…but his task force was fast closing on those Icarans and he gritted his teeth as his three remaining destroyers and his own light cruiser closed in.

*************************
“Captain Park, they are closing fast sir!” The tac officer was watching nervously as the enemy squadron closed.
“Give them another volley guns.” Park’s cold tone was harsher then he had meant it to be, but if those Rebs closed the range then his two destroyers would suffer for it.
“Target that light cruiser this time guns, and tell Tiger to do the same.”
“Aye sir” Beasley replied almost absently as the two destroyers rippled off another volley.

*******************
“Admiral missiles closing fast!” The tac officer’s voice sounded panicked as his screens showed 6 incoming objects.
“What ship are they aimed at tac?” Admiral Magill feared he already knew as with their current trajectory there were only two ships they could be focused at the destroyer Roul and his own ship.
“Sir directly inbound on us!” was the simple reply as the tactical screen showed 3 objects still closing directly on his position even after their point defenses had intercepted the rest.
The Starburst rocked in agony as the missiles slammed into her hull, great gouges were torn out of her unarmored hull, damage and collision alerts howled as the light cruiser rocked again, her port magazine erupting in a swath of flames that completely encompassed six compartments on two decks.
“Admiral we’ve lost cannons two and three, engines one and four are gone, port magazine is gone, heavy casualties in cannon six.” Adair’s voice was cold with fear as the damage reports continued to spill across her screen.
“Sir we are in cannon range!” the gunnery officer reported almost triumphantly as his Admiral nodded and he depressed the firing tab that fed all the cannon crews plots into the computer, seconds later the light cruiser rumbled to her keel as her four remaining cannons fired.
The three remaining destroyers still in combat range also lit up their own cannons and within seconds the stars were filled with DU shells traveling at .3c.

*****************
HMS Tiger was the first Icaran destroyer hit by the Alliance ships, her hull shook violently as multiple shells tore into her, Park clenched his fists in rage as he saw yet another shell slam into his squadron mate and he imagined the scene of hell in those damaged areas.
“Guns fire our own cannons, tactical, com get me a report on the status of Tiger.”
“Aye sir target plotting underway”
“Sir Tiger reports she’s lost missile two, cannons one and two and engine five, Captain Anders says she’s going to stay in the fight though.”
“Thank you, Rourke, Beasley” Park nodded to both of the officers who had just spoken and tried to give a reassuring smile but couldn't quite manage it.

Victory maneuvered into near, point blank range with Starburst and locked her entire armament on the larger ship, 3 missile tubes and four cannons erupted into life as the Icaran destroyer made her pass on the rebel flagship….more holes were torn in the side of the massive craft as cannon rounds shattered hull plating and bulk heads, the missiles too were closing fast on their victim.
Tiger chimed in with her remaining missiles and cannons against an enemy destroyer but with her shot targeting systems both her shells missed and her ship buster missile fell easy prey to the enemy ship’s point defenses. The sprint missile met it’s mark however and two of the Rebel destroyer’s cannons vanished in an expanding sphere of wreckage taking it out of the fight. Another volley of cannon fire struck home and finished off the enemy ship.

********************
“Admiral I’ve got three birds closing in, our point defense is gone sir!” the tac officer’s voice sounded resigned as he watched the three deadly weapons closing in.
“Damn it, damn it! Can either of those destroyers intercept it?” Magill asked desperately, but it was already too late and he knew it…..the bridge erupted in flame and noise as the three missiles slammed into the already damaged rebel ship.
*********************
“Scored it sir!” Beasley’s triumphant tone was interrupted suddenly as Victory shuddered violently, one of the enemy destroyers had closed in behind her while she hit Starburst and three of it’s shells tore into the Icaran destroyer mercilessly.
“Sir missiles, one and two gone!” Tac officer Rourke nearly spat as three more shells from the other enemy destroyer slammed into Victory. “Gadamn, sir we’ve lost cannons one and four, engine 5 is gone and 2 is failing.”
“Well let’s pay them back for that, fire down that lead destroyer’s throat mister Beasley.” Park hardly noticed that Tiger’s remaining cannons had torn apart the second enemy destroyer’s point defense clusters and when when heavy missiles slammed into the enemy destroyer the magnificent flash caught him off guard.
“Sir Tiger reports she got a kill!” Rourke said unnecessarily as anyone on the bridge could see the erupting wreckage that had once been an enemy destroyer.
Victory fired her own broadside to a less brilliant effect, both her shells tore into the destroyer that remained but they only managed to take out two engines and a single cannon.
*********************
“Adair, are you still there?” Admiral Magill’s voice sounded numb as he dragged himself to a kneeling position and looked around the wreckage that had once been his flag bridge in horror, an arm stuck out from under a massive piece of debris but it was obvious whoever’s arm that was could not have survived as the wreckage lay flat across the deck, another body lay headless only inches from where Magill’s command station had been and he realized sadly that so far every one of his bridge crew was dead.
“Aye sir, I’m here.” the voice of Liza Adair sounded distant and pained in the Admiral’s ears, or rather his remaining intact ear, that Last missile had sent a piece of debris flying straight across the left side of his face and the old Admiral noted solemnly to himself that his left eye was probably gone and that was why he could not manage to open it.
The battle that had done this to his ship seemed distant now, almost like it had just been a bad dream but Magill looked around him again, at the wreckage and the bodies and knew in his heart that it had happened, even though his mind refused to believe the horror in front of him.
“Where are you Liza?” he tried to make his voice sound encouraging but it was mangled even to his own ear and he noted that his voice box had probably been damaged too.
“Sir, I’m here at my station…” her voice said painfully and Magill shook his head in horror. Adair’s station was buried in rubble and he thought there was no way he could move it all by himself with his injuries, but he told himself he had to at least try as he limped over to the rubble that contained what might be the only other survivor on Starburst and started digging away at it with his bare hands
*******************
Things were almost as bad aboard Victory and Tiger, both destroyers were bleeding atmosphere and trailing debris as they clawed back at the enemy destroyer that remained in combat range with whatever weapons remained functioning.
“Sir, Tiger reports her Last cannon is gone, she’s got a missile tube left but Anders reports that her damage control parties are still trying to clear it.” Rourke’s voice was hoarse as he reported the extent of the damage to his captain, and tried to ignore the corpsman that was tending to the hole in his shoulder that had been caused by the same piece of debris that had torn Beasley’s throat out.
“Tell Tiger to pull back while she clears her damage Rourke, our cannons should be able to finish this destroyer.” Park replied sharply as he looked around the damaged bridge, Beasley, Torez, Killroy, Mach all dead and his XO had been taken to sick bay nearly five minutes ago with a couple of ribs poking out of his uniform in a bloody mess of meat and bone.
Victory struck wrathfully at the enemy destroyer and this time her wounded foe paid for their inability to maneuver as the two cannon shells tore her shattered hull apart in a dim series of explosions along her hull.

Two enemy destroyers remained still but at their current speeds Tiger and Victory would take a substantial amount of time to reach them.

**********************
The shattered remains of Starbursts’ bridge was all to quiet as Admiral Magill finally tore the Last piece of rubble out of his way and got a glimpse of Lieutenant Adair. He tried to hide the shock as she reached what was left of her right hand up to him, he grabbed it as gently as he could but the horrible burns caused one of her remaining fingers to come off in his hand as he lifted her out of the rubble.
“Sir, you look like hell.” Adair said quietly as her shattered and bruised face attempted to form a smile.
“I know Liza.” Magill said with a tearful grin as he tried to lift the injured young woman up to get her to the escape pod but her cry of pain froze him in place.
“Liza I’m going to get you out of here.” His remaining eye filled with tears as he noticed her attempt to form another smile.
“I know you will sir.” she said in a shadow of her formerly energetic and youthful voice before passing out in his arms.

Magill managed to get her through the shattered bridge doors to the nearest life pod and started hooking her up to the life support systems and an emergency medical bed. He then stepped out of the life pod and picked up another two injured crewmen that lay near the pod and hooked them up to the life support and emergency medical beds that remained before activating the auto-launch sequence.
****************
“Captain Park, I’ve got a life pod from that light cruiser!” A startled Rourke said as he began locking his cannons onto the target.
“Rourke!” Park’s shout froze the tactical officer in his place as Park sprinted over to his side and spun his chair around. “Damn it Rourke we are Icaran Naval officers not butchers, you inform S&R that we have a mission for them right now, and stand down those weapons or I will have you shot.” Park’s bitter tone shocked the young officer but out of a mix of training and fear the young man managed to give pass on the message.
Fifteen minutes later S&R teams recovered the escape pod and brought it to the remains of the boat bay where a medical team and marine squad met it….

Meanwhile in the Fornax system:
HMS Enterprise and HMS Saber closed in on the first of two Phong bases in the fornax system, so far no targeting sensors had locked on to them and as far as the two warships could tell not a single Phong ship was in system, which made their job much easier.

“Ross this is Fowler, how about you let me take Saber in first, my ship’s smaller and if those Phong are hiding anything on that planet we would make a harder target for them then Enterprise.” Her voice sounded quite sincere and her advice was good but Ross smiled to himself as he wondered if the real reason the young officer wanted to take her ship in first was to get into the action faster, and ensure that she was not left “in reserve”.
“Alright Sandra, take your ship in first, but be careful the fact that your smaller also makes you a more vulnerable target if they do hit you.” Ross grinned at the pretty young face on his screen and her conspiratorial grin made him feel almost like laughing.
Her salute as she cut the com made Ross feel like laughing again if only because it was one of the few things that was stress relieving on such a grim day.

The two Icaran warships closed fast on the undefended Phong world and within seconds a volley of fusion missiles from Saber was screaming towards the surface targets that had been picked out by Fowler’s tactical officer and even as their volley of missiles was closing the frigate opened fire with her cannons.
Explosions erupted all around the Phong base as the devastating volley struck. The frigate’s second volley of cannon fire was joined by the missiles and cannons of Enterprise and even more devastation riddled the unprotected base.
Two more vollies later and the two warships had blown the Last pieces of the enemy base and millions of Phong into dust and glass as the nuclear rain stopped.

[Starhawk]

2405.8
HMS Victory and her squadron mate Tiger had finally managed to close the distance with the remaining Rebel starships, both sides vessels were pummeled to the point that they were barely combat capable and the four ships closed on one another like wounded animals.
“Sir Tiger reports she is in missile range, she is requesting permission to fire.” Rourke’s voice was quiet almost to the point of a whisper as he addressed his captain, he was still terrified of Park after he had snapped at the younger officer for what was probably just a precautionary action.
“Thank you Rourke, tell captain Anders she has permission to fire on the destroyer, we are going for the frigate since she’s closer.” Park said gently as he watched the distances close ever so slowly.

The crippled enemy destroyer did the unexpected as it turned about and began to withdraw from the field, the frigate however began closing, it’s two cannons searching for a target to kill. As she bore down on the larger Victory she fired both of her cannons and a single shell slammed headlong into the destroyer’s engineering section, reducing her to only one engine.
The frigate’s lucky shot did little good for it’s own life however, as Victory fired her own surviving cannons the shattered hull of the frigate stood no chance at sustaining such impacts and a brilliant flash signaled the end of the frigate and her crew.
As the missile volley from Tiger burned out and went ballistic far short of her mark and the destroyer continued to flee and was already too far out for the battered and maimed Icaran warships to follow and Park gave the order to let it go, knowing he would risk even more damage or even destruction if he pursued her further.
Icara’s Navy had scored an unbelievable victory, they had killed a light cruiser, 3 destroyers and a frigate with well over 3,000 Rebs perishing, but that victory had cost them dearly, out of 800 Icaran spacers involved in the battle 500 had died and another 100 were wounded, both destroyers too had been put out of action and it would take them months to reach the colony which had been set up during the very hours of their opening shots with the Alliance task force.
Captain Park did show Icara’s mercy however when he dispatched his search and rescue teams to pick up whatever alliance survivors they could without risking the survival of any Icaran navy personnel, however only three life pods had made it away from the wrecked alliance task force and with them only 12 Alliance survivors.

“Ms. Adair wake up……can you hear me? Liza can you hear me?” a voice unfamiliar to the young woman called out to her from the darkness and she shook her head gently, trying to arrange her senses as best she could. “Miss Adair wake up now!” the voice called out stronger and she tried to open her eyes but found that only her right would cooperate.
“I am Captain Dylan Park of the HMS Victory your in our sickbay I need you to wake up and talk to me.” His voice was kind and gentle but Adair was shocked and terrified as the realization hit, if she was on an Icaran warship that meant her squadron had been forced back or destroyed….a tear came out of her only working eye as she remembered the horrible look on Magill’s face when he first saw her injuries and she wondered just how horrible she did look.
“It’s alright Miss Adair, we are not going to harm you, however it is my duty to inform you that you are a prisoner of His Majesty Praetor Leonidas’ Royal Navy.” the voice was still kind and gentle but to Adair it may as well have been the devil speaking to her.
“Where is Admiral Magill?” she managed to squeak out through a badly bruised mouth as she slowly opened her eye, seeing a rather hansom young looking man standing over her, wearing the dark red tunic of the IRN officers.
“Miss Adair I’m afraid he didn’t make it, he died of his injuries shortly before our search and rescue people pulled you aboard, our medical team tried to save him but I’m afraid there was nothing they could do.” His apology sounded sincere but somehow Liza doubted he meant it, after all it was Magill who’s squadron destroyed the Goin colony and killed millions of Icaran citizens.
“I need to ask you a few questions miss Adair.” Park asked quietly and Adair settled herself in as best she could to not answer any questions that may reveal any of the few state secrets that she knew.

The questioning went on for hours before Adair was allowed to rest for the day, the next day the questions went on again, and the day after that and again after that for weeks, all the while her healing process went on and even she could not deny that the Icaran medical staff treated her with as much care as any of their own who had been injured during the battle, though she also noted that no one would let her see a mirror.

In the Fornax system a new messenger drone raced towards the warp point to brink back glorious news, that the second Phong base in the Fornax system had finally been eradicated by Brevet Commadore Ross and his Flag Captain Sandra Fowler. A new colony ship had already been launched from Handra base and was en-route to the ruined remains of the second base.

2406.3
Two Messenger drones arrived in the Icara system, one from either end of the Icaran Empire (such as it is) and both bore good news for all Icarans, the Neo-Star Empire who had been threatening the 6-11 and Awer systems had signed a peace treaty with Ambassador Franks informing him that they sought the better unity and peace of all human Star nations.
From the other end of the empire Handra sent a messenger drone to inform Praetor Leonidas that due to their massive losses in Fornax the Phong had requested an “equitable” trade and research alliance that would benefit Icara’s economy and allow the Phong government to save face in front of their people.

2406.4
In a horrible act of treachery the Neo-Star empire dispatched two squadrons of light cruisers, one into Awer and the other into 6-11 their orders were deadly and simple and they carried them out with a ferocity unmatched in the Icaran history books.
Awer colony, population 300 million was destroyed outright by 6 Neo-Star light cruisers, the colony’s plea of surrender was ignored even as the bombardment began and the colonists were still issuing their surrender.
6-11 met it’s death more defiantly but it met it’s death all the same, 5 light cruisers had destroyed the colony and all 120 million Icarans in residence died,
With no survivors from either world reports that came back were little more then rumors and speculation, the only confirmed information throughout the empire was that indeed both colonies had been destroyed by the ferocious Neo-Star fleet.

2406.5
A month after the destruction of 6-11 base HMS Warhawk and the new HMS Claw closed in on the single Neo-Star light cruiser that was patrolling the inner system.
“Captain Davidson, this is Captain Paris, we know that these bastards can chew us up if we get close, keep Claw at missile range only, I don’t want any more Icarans dying at the hands of that cruiser, understood?” Davidson’s grim face on the com panel nodded as he passed on the orders to his crew, both men knew all to well what had happened to Bounty and the first Claw at the hands of those devastating energy weapons and neither man wanted to give that cruiser the chance to do it again.
As the two destroyers closed in on the massive light cruiser they each fired off their missiles in rapid succession and within moments six missiles streaked across space towards the enemy warship, but as the Light cruiser’s point defense cannons came to life and thousands of shells sprayed the stars only a single missile died, the other five screaming on un-phased.
“Missiles closing Sir.” the tense voice of Gunnery officer Keon was hardly audible to Davidson as his eyes fixed on the holotank display as it showed 5 little yellow dots closing in on the red light code that represented the neo-star light cruiser.
Seconds later a brilliant flash lit the holotank as all five missiles reamed the hull of the enemy light cruiser, tearing out massive gouges of the hull, completely crippling her.
No mercy showed in the eyes of Davidson as he ordered his ship in for the kill, as his cannons tore the enemy ship apart Davidson felt nothing but joy at the deaths of those bastards who had destroyed two colonies and killed half a billion Icaran civilians for no reason and all that after signing the damned treaties!

2406.6-9
The Neo-Star Empire claimed it’s attacks on Awer and 6-11 colonies was justified as being a self preserving measure, and claimed that the governors of both worlds had been secretly planning an assault into Neo-Star space. After the loss of their light cruiser on patrol in 6-11 and the establishment of Mandow base on the former colony world in the same system the Neo-Star Empire realized they had been outmaneuvered by the Icarans and it this reason alone that most of the Icaran Lords believed the Neo-Star Empire resigned the peace treaty. However this time 6-11 would not be caught off guard and Warhawk squadron was formed with Warhawk and Claw as the first of four planned ships to be on station.

Liza Adair frowned openly as she watched the battered wreck of the sole surviving Alliance warship withdrawing back into alliance space, only a third of it’s crew still alive and throughout the system the colonials felt nothing but relief as both of the Icaran Warships present were still in port undergoing extensive repairs and re-manning.

2407.1-9
The battles against the Neo-Star Empire and Rebel Alliance had actually brought some good to the Icaran navy beyond battle experience.
University of Sparta had developed a new weapon that used phased polarons in concentrated beams to do devastating damage at medium range.
An odd result of the phased polaron research actually led to the development of the first shield generators which used the EMW power source that had been used on the original PPB prototypes to generate an energy barrier around a starship and protect the hull from direct damage.
Another breakthrough in the Icaran Bureau of ships R&D department led BuShips to believe they could design and build a larger warship based on the ones they had seen in both the Alliance and Neo-Star navies, the light cruiser and plans were underway immediately for the budgeting of projects to expound on that hull design and make an even larger warship with which Icara could ensure her naval dominance.

[Renegade 13]

Another series of awesome stories

Have you ever thought of writing a book? Based loosely perhaps on SEIV? I think you could do it, and I'd sure as hell read it. There seems to be a lack of good sci-fi writers out there, and I think you'd do quite well if this is an example of your writing capability. But then again, what do I know?

[Starhawk]

thanks, and yes I have thought of writing a book which is actually why I'm writing these stories.
I'm hoping I can get enough practice so that when I do write a book it won't have as many gramatical errors as this story. And so I can learn character development and flow of writing.


2408.9
"Praetor saints preserve us from the NAVY!!!!" Lord Michael Branch, leader of the so called "Peace Movement" said as he stormed to his feet as if he was about to attack Grand Admiral Hallice.

The House of Lords had met to discuss the construction of the new Cruiser sized starships and the overall expansion of the navy which currently numbered only 18 warships. Two Retribution class light cruisers had already been authorized by the Admiralty but for something as expensive as these cruisers were going to be needed to be authorized by the House of Lords and no one knew how much of a heated topic it was going to be until Michael Branch and his Peace Party showed up.

"Excuse meM'lord?" Hallice kept his voice level but the Admiralty's contempt for the peace party was well known throughout Icaran space, the Peace Party were idealists who beleived that if they kept the Royal Navy small with only enough power to patrol Icaran space then they would not draw the hostilities of other star natons or aliens.

"You heard me Admiral, you navy people have been sapping at our economy too much as it is and now you want to build even more ships! and BIG ships to boot, tell me Admiral are you trying to destroy Icara?" Branch asked angrily as he looked down at the Navy man and his attache.

"Actually My Lords the Navy is here to defend Icara, but to do that we need more then 18 warships, I assure you other nations probobly have far more, so far we've run into minor powers such as the Phong, an the Rebel Alliance who's navies are probobly no larger then our own. But NavInt beleives that the NeoStar Empire's navy may outnumber ours two to one and,...." Hallice was cut off by Branch's snort of disgust.

"Oh PLEASE Hallice, we are at peace with the Neo Star Empire and have been for months now, who cares if their navy outnumbers ours, if you navy types would pull your minds out of warfare for just one minute maybe you would stop planning on attacking them and instead plan on stronger economic balance with them." Branch was an egotistic blowhard and everyone knew it, but he was also born to a high ranking noble family and so figured he had every right to act in such a fashion, however little his fellow nobles liked him for it.

"Well My lords as we've all seen just by burrying our heads in the sand and wishing the universe would be nice to us does not work." Hallice paused while the bulk of the Lords and Ladies chuckled and grinned himself as he noticed Branch and his collegues fuming.
"Now we are at peace with the Neo-Star Empire at the moment, we've all seen that they're peace treaties are hardly iron clad as they destroyed TWO colonies and killed 300 million Icarans." His voice was much more serious as he continued but he still made a point of not looking at any of the Peace Party members.

"Admiral are you saying...." This time Branch was cut off as Halice conveniently closed a folder just a little bit lowder then he needed to before continuing on.

"Anyway My Lords, My Ladies these new cruiser sized starships would greatly increase our nation's ability to both defend it's own borders and expand outward against nations like the Neo-Star, or Rebel Alliance. The Phong continue to press our ambassadorial service with requests for a tighter alliance, would it not be better to go into such an alliance as the Dominant rather then the subserviant?" Hallice said calmly and polietly and shot a sideways glare at Branch, who was still sputtering in anger.

"My Lords! My Ladies! we must put this to a vote now so that we can better advise our Praetor, I say we vote now." The Count of Icara it's self said as he too cut Branch off before he could go on another navy bashing spree. His demand for a vote was echoed from every other noble in the house, except for those of the peace party of course.

When the vote was made it was 75% in favor of the construction of cruisers and the expansion of the navy leaving Branch and his followers storming out of the House of Lords like overgrown children.

[Gandalf Parker]

Starhawk said:
thanks, and yes I have thought of writing a book which is actually why I'm writing these stories.
I'm hoping I can get enough practice so that when I do write a book it won't have as many gramatical errors as this story. And so I can learn character development and flow of writing.

You can do a book now. There are "Book on Demand" sites that will accept your manuscript and create a page where people can order your book. They set a printing/shipping price and you can charge whatever you want over that. Like if they say they can do this story at 9.99 then you can charge 19.99 or 14.99 or 9.99 even. It still provides people with a nice bound Version of your book. There are also sites that do the same for eBooks.

My favorite "on demand" site lets everyones website add tshirts, mugs, Calendars, and books/music that are specific to their web site.
http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/sell/books.aspx

[Starhawk]

I don't think I'm a good enough writer at the moment I mean people wouldn't even likely read a book that I wrote since I'm a no name author But I will look at that site for the future, thanks Gandalf.

As for the next chapter (unfortunately not much has happened except for what I posted and that all happened so fast that there is not much story element to it)

2409.3
Captain Ross paced his deck anxiously after the Admiralty had sent word via messenger that he was going to lose command of his current starship and thus the entire squadron and report to HMS Saber as she returned to Icara once the two light cruisers arrived. Ross Began to wonder if getting half his squadron crippled had put him dirt side, but all he could do now was wait for the two light cruisers and return home as ordered, the fact they were recalling Saber too hit him like a weight.

Icaran Spaceyard
The massive length of HMS Reliance was elegant yet deadly, her sleek gray hull with it’s gleaning white and blue prow dwarfed every other ship in the Icaran navy, she carried 6 phased poloron cannons two shield generators and a crew of 2,000 officers and Ratings plus 100 marines.
Reliance and Defiant were the first two cruisers to launch from Icara and Brandenburg but they would not be the Last plans were already underway to begin full fledged production and with these powerful new cruisers coming on-line Icara’s fighting strength would more then double.
In the meantime however Reliance silently slipped out of her port under the command of Captain Allison Hanks for her shakedown cruise and firing range tests.

Gaia System
Captain Ali Mahamed Ben Salim sipped at his tea quietly reading the reports of his “cargo's” well being, when he first joined the Icaran colonial service Captain Salim was looking forward to seeing new worlds, conquering space through force of wits and instead of force of arms like those in the navy. What he hadn’t expected was so much paperwork on a one way trip, but the colonial governor had complaints about his quarters and thousands of civilians were claiming other unimportant things that he still had to look over.
Well at least they were at the warp point, he thought and then only another week before they reached their destination, Salim decided that getting a few hours sleep for a change would be a good idea and he tossed the Last signed flexy pad aside and went to bed.

Alarms howling and the sound of civilians screaming or arguing woke Salem up in the middle of the night, he lay in place frozen for a moment as his mind raced down all the possible causes for the noise and as he reached the most logical conclusion he darted out of bed and donned his gray colonial service uniform before racing out the door.

“What’s going on up here mister Jackel?” Salem asked anxiously as he reached the ark ship’s bridge.
“Sir there is a light cruiser out there, they are closing fast….wait…..they’re hailing sir.” Jackel said nerviously as he routed the message to the Captain’s command station as well as his own.

”This is the Sol Coalition warship Yellowstone you are to surrender yourselves immediately and lead us to your government, you are renegades as far as we are concerned and thus if you do not surrender we will open fire on you. the voice sounded quite sincere but Salim just couldn’t believe it, Sol after all these centuries now Earth came looking for them?

‘What does he mean renegades?!” Jackel’s voice was angry but more frightened then angry as he realized their ship did not stand a chance against a warship, and they were already to close to the gravity field of the warp point to escape.
“It doesn’t matter mister Jackel, we can not lead them home and we can’t escape.” Salim sat silently for a moment, trying to decide whether he should bother to warn the civilians, at the Last minute he decided against it, let them live their Last few minutes in peaceful ignorance of what fate had dished out to them.
After a moment Salim bowed his head and began to pray for himself, and his family who were still back on Icara, his right hand slipped to the control panel and the alarms stopped howling.
The Sol cruiser hailed again but the Icaran ark ship did not surrender and so they carried out their threat, they had a single powerful Depleted Uranium cannon and it’s first shot killed millions of civilians as it blew out entire unarmored sections of hull, the engines were next and still it continued to fire without mercy.
Seconds later the colony ship and 120 million Icarans were gone and all that was in their place was a cloud of debris.

2409.5
HMS Victory had been detached from her patrol in Gaia to destroy a Rebel base that NavInt had located and captain Park wasted no time, he located the base and immediately closed range with the colony, a single volley of cannon and missile was all it took to exterminate the base.
Park’s return trip was not a joyous one however for he remembered young Miss Adair who had been offloaded at Haron for physical therapy and further question, and remembered that though these Rebel Alliance people had started the war they were still Human and many of them were not unlike Icarans, and he had sent over 50 million of them to their deaths, the thought made him slightly ill in his stomach as he continued to read the after action reports.
A mystery awaited them at the warp point as well as they scanned a massive debris field that had not been there on their journey out-system, Park made a mental note to inform the Admiralty and find out just what had happened, little did they know they had scanned the wreckage of what had once been an Icaran ark ship.

[Starhawk]

2409.6
The Sol Coalition light cruiser had hovered around the Gaia system ever since it had destroyed the colony ship at the warp point and Governor Averato was unwilling to dispatch the single destroyer that remained in his system after HMS Hydra went missing.
Finally with the construction of HMS Trafalgar the Gaia system had a ship strong enough to face off against the Sol warship.
The Captain and crew of Trafalgar never even got the chance to do a shakedown cruise, they immediately proceeded directly from port on a course to intercept the enemy warship.

“Captain Peters, this is governor Averato, if you believe that taking on that ship gets too dangerous for you I want you to fall back to Goin and join up with the Victory is that understood?” Averato’s baritone voice sounded odd to Captain Peters’ he had never known Averato to sound worried but this time, there was fear in his voice.
“Yes sir, but if Trafalgar can’t take that ship on I doubt Victory will be able to help us much.” Peters frowned at the face in the com screen “Well sir that just means my crew will have to even better doesn’t it?” His frown quirked slightly until he was grinning.
“Captain if you take out that ship I’ll give you a thousand crowns to buy your whole crew a drink!” Averato smiled before cutting the com.

“Tactical, time to intercept?” Peters looked across the large bridge and felt a swell of confidence, this cruiser was a magnificent warship, 500,000 tons of raw power with a crew of 2,100 of the best spacers in the galaxy. But still they were facing a ship that was only slightly less powerful then they were and it had unknown weapons and shield capabilities.
“Five-zero minutes sir, possibly less if they turn about to intercept us.” The tactical officer replied, she was young and green but then again almost everyone was green, Peters himself had only been an ensign back on HMS Saber when she first launched almost ten years ago but most of the navy was fresh out of the academy when they were given ships. Captains were drawn from the original crews of the first three ships to have launched from Icara but even they were new to command.

“Sir, they are turning about to intercept us!” the tactical officer shouted just twenty-five minutes after her initial assessment. “Revised time to intercept is one zero minutes, we’ll meet them just outside of Gaia seven orbit.” her voice calmed but the excited tone was still there, and Peters could hardly blame her his own excitement was almost painful.

The Icaran cruiser closed on the Sol Coalition Light Cruiser with amazing swiftness and finally they closed to weapons range.
“Alright guns, open fire!” Peters had to force himself not to shout as he watched the gunnery crews lights signal their readiness.

The six phased poloron cannons tore across space, to the shock of all gunners all but one beam missed it’s target by a wide margin, and the single beam that struck it’s target was blocked easily by the Sol light cruiser’s shields.
“What happened guns?” Peters asked coldly as he watched the enemy ship continue to advance on his ship
“Sir I don’t know, we are getting all sorts of sensor ghosts from that Solaran and she’s got phased shields.” the gunnery officer simply shrugged at his captain and turned back to his station.
Just as Peters looked back at the main display screen two thin orange beams raced out from the enemy warship and the shields of his cruiser flashed and flared as if they had been struck by some divine wrath. Peters expected damage alarms to start howling or collision alerts but instead he just heard the confused voices of his tactical and executive officers.
“What is it?” his voice was harsh as his tactical display showed his cruiser’s shields simply disappear, it was impossible by what the Icarans knew about shields, when shields collapsed a portion of energy that had dropped the shields would carry through the hull and cause damage to the ship’s hull, yet there were no damage reports.
“Incoming, three zero five by niner two!” The tactical officer shrilled, but it was already too late, by time the sensors had detected the incoming shell it had already impacted on the unshielded hull.
An explosion rent a massive hole into the portside of the Icaran cruiser and flames spouted out into space for a nanosecond before the vacuum consumed the flames.
Damage and collision alerts began sounding throughout the ship as if the cruiser were a wounded beast howling in pain.
“Phase cannons five and six are gone, neither crew made it out, 14 dead, engine five gone, portside fire control gone switching to starboard, reactor room two is gone, 20 confirmed dead, we’ve got damage control parties trying to seal the breach sir.” Chief Daine’s voice was strained as he finished listing the damage sustained by a single high yield cannon shell.
The battered cruiser returned fire and almost miraculously all four shots hit the enemy ship and finally brought down the enemy vessels shields and causing a burn through that destroyed two engines.

The return fire was brutal however and another shot tore another gaping hole in Trafalgar destroying another engine and killing over a dozen crewmen. The Icaran cruiser limped forward defiantly, she brought her cannons to bare again but this time all four shots missed, and she rocked under the devastating shell that was spat back at her by the enemy cruiser.
“Sir if we take any more hits like that structural integrity is going to fail!” The executive officer breathed in sharply as he saw two of their own shots impact on the enemy ship’s hull and it’s shield generators exploded.
“Captain, the sensor ghosts are gone I’ve got lock!” The gunnery officer shouted triumphantly as his gunnery crews achieved positive locks.
Another enemy shell came screaming towards Trafalgar and Peters expected to die this time around but jus as it closed in on them the shell continued on into the void of space before exploding 100 clicks off the Icaran’s battered port side.
“Oh thank God and all the Saints!” Peters’ exec sighed in relief, that shell could have done vast amounts of damage if it had hit the battered port side of the cruiser.
The Trafalgar closed to point blank and loosed another volley with her four remaining cannons, without those ghosts every single shot hit right where it was aimed and this time the Solaran light cruiser suffered, whole sections of it’s hull melted away before the devastating energies unleashed upon it, internal explosions lit across the shattered hull and finally the enemy starship flared into a brilliant ball of light and wreckage before winking out of existence along with 1200 of it’s crew.
Trafalgar had suffered her own losses however, 500 personnel had died and another 250 wounded, she was limping home at 2/3 speed and her supplies were almost completely destroyed when her portside supply hold was blown out by the enemy ship, but she had emerged victorious and saved the Gaia system from even more deaths.

2409.8
Admiral Tyson Babcock Given Command of 1st Fleet (Stationed out of Icara Naval base)
Admiral Yu Hing Pe Given Command 3rd Fleet (Stationed at Handra Base)
Rear Admiral Patrick Raley Given command 2nd fleet (Stationed in Gaia system)