Rise of the Remorhaz Society

[sachmo]

Originally posted by Atrocities:
Please keep posting stories if you can. Your work is as adictive as the game.

Thanks! I am trying to find time, but with my new daughter, it looks like I'm pretty much limited to weekend nights. Thanks for reading, though. I'm glad you are enjoying it!

[geoschmo]

[quote]Originally posted by Puke:

it is imperitive to the morale of a man fighting in space that he believe that he can be rescued, and that his comrades in arms will do anything in their power to rescue him.

This might be true from a military doctrine perspective. But what the soldiers tell themselves to keep sane during a battle, and what the actual circumstances are usuallly difer wildly. I was talking about more from a believable story perspective. A ship sunk at sea anywhere on earth is a few days at most from a friendly port. It is entirely possible that survivors could be recovered before they run out of supplies, even in a hostile area controlled by enemy forces.

However in space generally, and in Sachmo's story specifically, this ship was at best three months from the nearest Remoraz colony, and well behind enemy lines. The chances of a succesful recovery are at best extremly remote. And that would require an immediate military operation to return to the sight of the initial battle. Without that the chance becomes zero. It's not as if the men can open the hatch and drink rainwater and rig up a fishing line to catch some food. Unless you make the case that they could find a habitable planet in the system to hide on. That idea has some possibilities.

On the other hand a P.O.W. camp would be fairly believable, and interesting arc for the story. And then there would be some chance at repatriation down the road.

Geoschmo

[capnq]

This is a good excuse to plug Timothy Zahn's "Conqueror's" trilogy (_Conqueror's Pride_, _Conqueror's Heritage_, _Conqueror's Legacy_). One of the main characters is a P.O.W. whose escape pod was retrieved by the enemy in the first chapter.

[sachmo]

A small victory

2409.5

At the University of Manticore, scientists from both the Navy and the university were able to apply the principles of anti-matter to the weapons field, and the first anti-matter torpedo was successfully test fired. Also, the capital weapons project harnessed the power of meson bursts to a meson bLaster. Mesons were an effective weapon against armor because their density allowed them to penetrate further into the material then a solid shot weapon would be able to. The depleted uranium cannon was still a superior weapon, but the meson bLaster would open all sorts of possibilities for the next stage of capital ship weapons. Both weapon types would be able to be made into miniaturized Versions, for use as troop weapons. The Army and Space Marine Corps began working together to construct a prototype for a handheld meson bLaster for the infantry, and trials were begun to test the effectiveness of the meson bLaster when attached to the Blazer assault craft. The General Staff of both services were hoping that these new weapons would increase the lethality, and in turn the survivability, of their troops. In the meantime, the Research Guild focused all of its efforts on designing the next generation of spacecraft…the light cruiser. It was hoped that with enough light cruisers, any technological gap between Remorhaz and their enemies could be overcome with superior firepower. The light cruiser would be able to bring a large amount of firepower to any fight. The research was expected to take a little over half a year.

Gina Jager watched the viewscreen as the space yard at Norak faded in the distance. Nemesis and Furious were heading to the Lapzooli-Lundra wormhole on patrol. The fact was that Grand Admiral Urian had wanted to send a more powerful patrol out, but these two frigates were the only two ships on which all upgrades had been completed. Gina was confident that they could slow down anything that the Rage sent their way. With this latest refit, she felt that her ship had vastly improved its combat power. They were equipped with the latest Contra-Terrene engines, point defense cannon, and the latest generation of capital ship missiles. Also, her crew had been able to take liberty on Norak, and so was much fresher than they had been when they had arrived back in system months ago. She knew that eventually, everyone would want to get back to his or her home planets, but since they were engaged in a two front war, everyone was in it for the long hall.
Captain Jager was in command of Task Force 9.5. She was ordered to patrol the wormhole and eliminate any threat presented to the Lapzooli system in that area. This gave her a lot of tactical flexibility, but she intended to keep everyone alive and not do anything foolish. She quietly hoped that her crew would get a chance to strike back at something. Everyone in the fleet had been on edge since the Ukra-Tal had wiped out Timerron. While the capture of Nova was definitely a moral booster, it might as well be on the other side of the universe. Her people needed to feel like they were doing their part. Maybe they would get the chance, but she would be damned if she would be goaded into doing something stupid just to satisfy those urges. As Grand Admiral Urian had reminded her before they had left port: above all else, her duty was to get her people home.

Chairman Sachmo picked up the hardcopy of the communication that Ambassador Mulatti had sent to him. Early this morning, a ship, presumably equipped with a very powerful transmitter and stationed in Rage space, had broadcast a message to the Remorhaz Society. It read:

“Your pathetic ships must be removed from the Xillantha system.”

No one knew quite what to make of it, as that was all that the message said. Was it a request, stating that if the Remorhaz presence in the Xillantha system was removed, there could be a possible peace? Was it a ruse? There wasn’t really any way to know for sure. Ambassador Mulatti felt that it was a boast, a sort of diplomatic slap in the face by the Rage. He thought that they were daring the Remorhaz Navy to try and stop them from taking the system. Well, Sachmo knew that the Rage had entered the system many times, but they had been unwilling, or unable, to attack Fort Justice. Chairman Sachmo didn’t see much different this time, so he decided to fight fire with fire.
He spoke into his com unit. “Yarboro, get me Ambassador Mulatti on the line, please.”
“Yes, Chairman.”
The Chairman and the head of the Remorhaz Diplomatic Corp discussed the matter at length, but in the end it was the Chairman’s idea that they decided to go with. Norak would broadcast a message, directly to the Primary Sequencer, stating that the Remorhaz would not withdraw from the Xillantha system under any circumstances, and in fact demanded that the Rage remove their colony on Lezzari IV A immediately, or that colony would be “annexed” by the Remorhaz Society in due course. As he dictated the message, Sachmo smiled. That response ought to get the Primary Sequencer’s chips in an uproar, he thought. It was time to teach those machines that humans can be as unpredictable as they are.

The shipyard on Remorhaz turned out the only ground assault ship in the Remorhaz Navy, the RSS Quasar. The destruction of Timerron had driven home that face that the enemies of the Remorhaz Society had no qualms with destroying innocent colonists. While the policy of the Remorhaz government was still to spare the lives of as many noncombatants as possible, these ships were found to be of immeasurable value during any opposed planetary assault, and needed to remain in the fleet. The Chairman hoped that it and its load of planetary napalm would be used sparingly.
Next, the Remorhaz shipyard began construction of another Mongoose class troop transport. This vessel would join the fleet in Xillantha. From here the Navy would be able to launch the “left hook” of its two-pronged assault on the Rage Collective, with the intent of recapturing the Fezzran system. To do this, more Space Marines would be needed, so many of the planets in the rear area of the Society began calling up reserves with the intention of forming another brigade. If the Rage presence in Fezzran could be eliminated, Lenoltris would only be threatened from one direction, and Xillantha would finally be safe from direct invasion.

On Nova, the Rage variety of an Urban Pacification Center was constructed. Since the Rage were sentient machines, it had been quite a challenge for the Remorhaz xenopsychologists to uncover the secrets to pacifying a captured population. What they had come up with was simple. The pacification center would broadcast, on millions of frequencies, information packets that would illustrate to the Rage population the concept of free will. Since the Rage would communicate on different frequencies to convey emotion, no one was quite sure how the Rage would respond to these broadcasts. Tests with individual subjects had been inconclusive, but most tests with isolated Rage beings usually turned out the same way. The success of this pacification center would have to be observed on the Rage population as a whole. Needless to say, this first month would prove to be one of frayed nerves for the Space Marines and Remorhaz government officials on Nova. Not knowing if you were about to be suddenly faced with over 26 million angry, sentient machines would do that! The Space Marines had the small consolation of knowing that the scientists were right there with them, and if something did go wrong, they would be in as much danger as everyone else.

In the Wanduk system, Cherek was finally able to complete the system spaceport. The mining companies on Ymoria were more than happy to pay for the initial shipments of resources over to Cherek, as the spaceport would allow them to finally transport their cargo out of the system, and to get paid for doing it. The Wanduk system had become a key resource supplier for the Society in less than a month.

2409.6

Fort Justice completed construction of a shipyard. The fleet would now be able to complete repairs on station, and new ships would be able to be launched from here. The first task of this new shipyard was to refit RSS Honor. Eventually, all ships in this system would be upgraded, and aggressive patrols of the Fezzran system could begin.

In the Regotha system, RSS Mongoose took on a population of 8 million Norakians. These colonists would populate Nova, and the Rage on this planet would accompany the assault fleet to Lezzari IV A, where the Space Marines would again invade a Rage colony. While the transfer of colonists was taking place, most of the Space Marines were given liberty. They bought everything that they could find, drank everything put in front of their noses, and ate everything that wasn’t still alive, and even in those cases exceptions were made. If the Norak had been impressed with the Space Marines at work, they were doubly awed at their ability to carouse and find whatever fun there was to be had when off duty. For many Norak citizens of Remorhaz, it was another huge lesson in the advantages of a free society. They learned that these men, who months before had been their bitter enemies, were now quite easily able to relax on a planet filled with Norakian beings. The Space Marines seemed to treat the Norakians as fellow citizens, and not as a conquered people. Quite a few of the more liberal thinking Norakians had even made a few friends among the Space Marines before they shipped off for war again. The impression that was made upon many of the Norakians by the Space Marines would soon become apparent.

In the Lundra system, Task Force 9.5 moved into range of a single Rage Furious Class Destroyer. Jager deployed Nemesis and Furious in a wall formation. She ordered Furious to go high and left to try and draw the Rage missile fire. Scanners indicated that the enemy destroyer had already sustained significant damage. Jager was wary of a trap, but the Sensor Officer assured her that the scan was clean. If only she could be so sure that nothing would come out of the wormhole…
Jager closed to within range. The Rage ship had superior missiles, and fired a salvo first. Gina felt her heart skip. She was pinning most of her hopes on the new point defense cannon. She had seen them work in vids of the tests, but actual combat was a whole different world.
“Helm, get ready to move with best speed.”
“Yes ma’am,” Ensign Ernst Dorland responded. Gina could her the doubt in his voice. He also was of the opinion that the best defense against missiles was to open the range before they hit you.
“Weps, make sure that those PD cannons are working properly. This is going to be a short fight if they aren’t.” She looked at the tactical display. All of the readouts for her point defense cannons looked good, but it never hurt to be sure.
“Aye, aye, Cap’n,” the Weapons Officer replied.
The Sensor Officer spoke. “Captain, Icelus is closing off of the port beam. She’s coming very close, Cap’n.”
Gina felt sweat break out on her forehead. She hoped that the combined firepower of her PD cannons and the PD cannons on Icelus would be enough to knock the Rage missiles out before they hit. If not, and those missiles hit Nemesis, Icelus wouldn’t stand much of a chance against the Rage ship.
The combined firepower of the PD cannons was enough to save Nemesis. Gina watched the tactical display as the Rage missiles were quickly disabled or destroyed by thousands of super-accelerated shells. She could see the ghosts that the shells fired by Icelus left on the viewscreen as they streaked across the blackness of space, and then the red and yellow blossoms that would appear as the shells found their targets.
The Rage Furious Class destroyer was able to withstand eight missile hits before her main reactor went and she was vaporized. Gina’s crew cheered as their spread of missiles finished the Rage ship off. Gina allowed herself a brief smile. It was a small victory, but it cheered the crew and buoyed their confidence. Now the Rage knew that there would be no more free passage thru the Lundra system. The Remorhaz Navy was intent on challenging their power in this system. No doubt the Rage would return with more ships, but this time the Remorhaz Navy would be waiting for them.

To be continued...

[geoschmo]

Sachmo, a request. Could you post a screen shot of the galactic map so we can see where these systems are? I am getting confused.

[CW]

Gee sachmo... I gave up SEIV months ago because my exam results were nose-diving. Now I've an urge to head over to PBW and join a game!

[sachmo]

Starmap of Remorhaz Space and other points of interest

code:

---

  

Knoglam-----Regotha		Tudran-----Zanthris-----Koltan



    |         \		           |		|	   |

Lezzari	      Lapzooli-----------Wurtuy-----Neckron----Velocitas	

    |		|		   |		|	   |

Jethanis—Aldan--Lundra----------Xillantha---Yullado-----Organtrix

                                   |	        |	   |

	                       Fezzran-----Lenoltris----Ultrinox

                                                |	   |

                                              Yukra-------Iolo

                                               /	   |

                                         Devonshire	Wanduk

---

System Information
1. Velocitas- home system, this is where Remorhaz is located along with Vilnius
2. Neckron- home to Glory, Black Hills, and Salvation
3. Wurtuy- asteroid filled system with no planets. Was site of many battles with Norak
4. Tudran- first system captured from the Norak, home to Spitfire and Hera.
5. Zanthris and Koltan- Empty systems.
6. Lapzooli- former home system of the Norak Continuum, now home to planet Norak.
7. Regotha- Last system of the Norak, now home to Providence and Prospect
8. Knoglam- asteroid filled system.
9. Lezzari- home to Nova, first planet captured from Rage
10. Jethanis and (UE)- home of Rage colonies, unexplored system is suspected home of Rage Collective homeworld.
11. Lundra- asteroid filled system, main transit system for Rage, now to be interdicted by Remorhaz
12. Xilantha- home to Fort Justice and front line system in war with Rage.
13. Yullado- home of Deniper, small planet which mainly serves as a resupply base. Early in the war, a Rage colony in this system was glassed.
14. Organtrix- empty system with rouge gas giant traversing system
15. Fezzran- Rage controlled system which houses former Remorhaz colony Cirius. Objective of next Remorhaz offensive.
16. Lenoltris- not currently colonized, but system is claimed by Remorhaz. Wormholes from this system to Fezzran and Yukra are seeded with defense sats.
17. Ultrinox- empty system filled with organic growth
18. Yukra- Ukra-Tal controlled system which is home to former Remorhaz colony of Timerron. Here is where Peregrin met her fate.
19. Iolo- home to Correlia, lynchpin to right flank of Remorhaz society.
20. Devonshire- Ukra-Tal system. Not known if this is homeworld system or only flank.
21. Wanduk- home of Cherek and Ymoria. Quickly becoming major industrial center for Remorhaz Society.
22. Aldan- home of Texrak Hegemony

If anyone has any questions/comments, just let me know. Hope this helps, Geo!

[ August 10, 2002, 09:28: Message edited by: sachmo ]

[sachmo]

Preparations

2409.7

Captain Brennan sat down in the captain’s chair aboard his new command, RSS Fortitude. She was the first capital ship built by the Providence shipyards, and she was twice as powerful as Artemis was. She was also his reward for his performance in the invasion of Nova. His actions had helped save Comet from destruction, and his attacks against the surface defenses on Nova had been so effective that the Space Marine landing had gone virtually unopposed. Because of that, Naval Command had decided that his task force needed more firepower, but Brennan would get the first ship out of the yard. That was a very high honor indeed.
Brennan cast a glance around his bridge. It would take time for him to mesh with the new crew, but he was confident that they would all be on the same page before they went in to attempt to take Lezzari IV A. They would not reach Nova for approximately three months, and when they did they would face the daunting task of recolonizing the planet with Norak colonists. He didn’t expect that mission to go smoothly. He didn’t understand much about the Rage as a species, but if they were anything like Humans they would not like being moved from their planet. For once, he hoped that in this instance the Rage were very different, otherwise this mission could get very ugly.

Task Force 9.5 entered the Aldan system in the first week of the month. They were expecting the system to be Rage held, as this was one of the wormholes from which Rage fleets had been observed jumping from. When the scanners made a system sweep, it wasn’t the Rage that they found, but a race known as the Texrax Hegemony. Gina immediately started the first contact protocol, and sent a message back to Norak.

Chairman Sachmo was just finishing reading a new bill proposal when the com unit range. Yarboro’s voice chimed thru informing him that it was Ambassador Mulatti. The Chairman quickly accepted the call.
“Good afternoon, Sangi. What can I do for you?”
The ambassador looked serious. “Sir, Captain Jager has made contact with a new race, the Texrak Hegemony. Their home planet is in the newly explored system of Aldan, which is west of Lundra. This was a system we had hoped would be the Rage home system, but we were shocked to discover that there was a previously unknown race inhabiting the system.”
The Chairman did not dare let his hopes get the better of him.
“Oh, this is important news. Hopefully, these Texrakians are a peaceful people. I don’t think we need any more enemies.”
The ambassador shook his head. “Chairman, the initial reports are that they are moderate towards us. This is the best initial contact we have had with a race since the very early days with the Norak.”
“Well, Sangi, I have every faith in your abilities to keep us peaceful with them. If we get any information from them, please let me know as soon as you can.”
The ambassador nodded. “I shall, Chairman. I have already begun assembling a diplomatic team that should reach the system in a month. I will update you as soon as we know anything else.”
The Chairman smiled. “Thank you, Sangi. Have a nice evening.”
With that the closed the connection. Immediately, he had Yarboro connect him with Grand Admiral Urian. He wanted to be sure that the Navy was ready, and in a position to hold their ground against these Texrakians . He would not allow another Timerron to happen again.

This month, 4 million Remorhaz colonists set out from Glory to colonize the Lenoltris system. It was deemed worth the risk by the government since the Fezzran system would soon be under attack by Remorhaz forces anyway, and that action should keep the Rage from counterattacking in the Lenoltris system.

Remorhaz finished construction of the RSS Badger, a Mongoose Class Landing Ship. This ship moved out to the Neckron to pick up the newly organized 2nd Space Marine Brigade, and would then move into the Xillantha system to join up with the rest of the fleet. From there, Fezzran would be the target. Remorhaz began construction of a supply ship for this attack fleet.

In the Yukra system, RSS Falcon abandoned it’s station outside of the wormhole from Lenoltris and attacked the undefended Ukra-Tal colony on Timerron. Her depleted uranium cannons destroyed the colony completely.

2409.8

Chairman Sachmo felt as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Of course, it was only the beginning of a negotiation process, but the Texrak Hegemony had approached the Remorhaz Society offering a Trade Agreement. With this treaty would come a non-aggression pact, and valuable cultural input from another race. He hoped that this treaty would come to fruition, and that eventually the Texrak would fight alongside the Remorhaz Society, but not having them immediately declare war on the was a start, and a nice change of pace. The Chairman began to wonder to call this day when it became a Society-wide holiday. He was thinking “Harmony Day”, but he would have to get the input for his staff. Maybe they could tie it in with the Norak somehow…

Norak launched the RSS Faith, another Glory Class Destroyer. She moved into the Lundra system to help Task Force 9.5 hold the Lundra-Lapzooli wormhole. The Navy took the discovery of the Texrak Hegemony as a serious threat, and until the treaty was signed they would be treated as so. Norak began building a colony ship to occupy some of the smaller, incompatible worlds in the Lapzooli system.

RSS Shining Victory and Skydancer arrived in orbit over Correlia. If the Ukra-Tal made a push for the Iolo system, the Iolo Defense Fleet should be able to at least slow them down. Once Correlia finished construction of it’s shipyard, then the fleet would grow in size and eventually move back into the Yukra system.

2409.9

Remorhaz launched the RSS Jenny Cushman, a Cyllene Class Fleet Supply ship. She headed out for Fort Justice to join up with the Xillantha fleet.

On Nova, the population transfer went off without a hitch. One of the keys that the Remorhaz xenopsychologists discovered about the Rage population was that in order to function as a society, there needed to be a sequencer to issue orders to the population. In fact, without the presence of a sequencer, the local population would cease to function. While there were still many holes in the knowledge of how this entire process worked, the scientists were able to make an amazing discovery on Nova. They found that a human could be substituted for a sequencer and the population would treat this human as their “controller”. At this time, Governor Mitchell Cantberry was the human “sequencer”. Governor Cantberry was able to issue orders to the population and have them carry them out with absolutely no question. Through this method, he was able to keep the population completely peaceful and productive.
There was, of course, a downside to this arrangement. He always had to have at least one Rage being around at all time, to act as a “herald” for Cantberry. Since he was human and could not communicate through the instant link that the Rage population seemed to share, there had to be one Rage being to pass Cantberry’s orders on to the rest of the population. So when it came time to load the Rage population onto the Mongoose, it only required a few simple orders from Cantberry to get the entire population moving. What he would discover soon was that he was going to have to move with them, as they refused to allow the ship to leave orbit if their “sequencer” was not with them. So Cantberry agreed to travel to Lezzari IV A with “his people.” The process that began here was sure to be repeated as more Rage systems came under Remorhaz control.

2410.0

In the Lenoltris system, Remorhaz colonists landed on Lenoltris II and renamed it Highrock. This huge planet had a methane atmosphere, so the colonists would be forced to live in domed communities. The planet also had absolutely no native vegetation, and the surface was covered with granite continents. This harsh world was rich in mineral resources, and would be mined as soon as a spaceport was constructed.

The Texrak Hegemony agreed to enter into a Trade Alliance with the Remorhaz Society. Ambassador Mulatti had his men establish an embassy on their homeworld, and personally traveled to Norak to bring their diplomats to Remorhaz. Immediately, traders from both sides began exchanging star charts so that they would be able to navigate each other’s space ways. Not long after, ideas began to move back and forth between the empires. Hopefully, some scientific advances would come from this.

At Providence, Comet was repaired, and a new Glory Class Destroyer, RSS Liberation was launched. Both ships immediately headed for Nova to join with the rest of the fleet for the eventual assault on Lezzari IV A. They were set to arrive in system in 2 months.

The Navy Design Bureau was able to create a larger hull size for their ships- the light cruiser. The prototype of the Ganymede Class would be created at Glory, while a second would be launched from Fort Justice. The first cruiser was scheduled for delivery in just under two months. Along with the ability to build the light cruiser, the physics of the hull design also would allow the building of a larger class of transport craft. These ships would be introduced when practical. The next project was an attempting to upgrade the anti-matter torpedoes. Command felt that these weapons might be able to tips the scales even further toward the Remorhaz Society, as point defense weapons could not defend them against.

In the meantime, a Rage fleet of seven ships jumped into Lezzari. Since no one could be sure what the Rage intentions were, the assault fleet remained in orbit over Nova. If it seemed like they had no chance, the fleet abandon the planet and fall back to Providence.
Captain Brennan didn’t like the idea of running, however. He was prepared to send these Rage ships to hell.

To be continued...

[Atrocities]

Right on Target. Very nice read indeed.

[ August 12, 2002, 13:16: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[Ragnarok]

Nice story once again.