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

[Starhawk]

I'm hoping to take some writing classes in the future

2416.6-2417.7
Two repair ships arrived to assist the 1st fleet back into a mobile state after the severe damage suffered during the Phong ambush at the warp point. Admiral Tyson Babcock established his flag aboard HMS Divinity after his first flagship was destroyed, he was still undergoing therapy for his injuries when he gave the order for the 1st fleet to launch an assault against the closest world in the Mestra system with the intent of capturing a forward base for his fleet.
Fortunately for the battered first fleet the invasion went off without a hitch and the self defense forces of Mestra VI didn’t inflict even a single loss to the Icaran Invasion forces. The forward base was set up rapidly after that and a State Security brigade was sent to keep the peace.

Cortina System:
“Admiral Ross, a Captain Yu to see you?” The marine sentry at Ross door chimed over the com panel and Ross jerked his head up in surprise as he tabbed the com panel.
“Captain Yu? Uh let the Captain in please.” Ross tried to keep his voice relaxed but he felt a tension rush up his spine, if it was Yu Chin then he would likely have an argument pending as the man was still resentful that Ross was given command of the third fleet after his father had been killed at the 3rd battle of Fornax. If it was his sister Yu Lin then God only knew what Ross could expect.

The door opened with it’s typical metal squeak and Ross heard two female voices coming from outside as the door paused before opening fully, his marine sentry of this watch was a woman, so the second voice must be the Captain. Ross tensed even further as the door opened all the way and a slim, relatively short woman wearing a captain’s uniform walked in. She removed her cap and Ross nearly tripped over himself as he went to stand, Yu Lin Pe was stunning, her jet black hair fell into a tight pony tail just between her shoulder blades, her almond eyes were alight with intelligence and she carried herself with a self assurance and grace that made her exotic beauty even more pronounced. She was one of the few Icarans that had Asiatic decent in modern times after the Asian portion of the Empire was abandoned to ancient China millennia before during the first great wars, she was even more rare because of the fact that her family line could be traced back all the way to the founding of Icara colony 200 years ago and had a heritage that even many nobles were jealous of.
“Captain Yu Lin Pe reporting for duty sir.” Her voice snapped Ross back into the real world, he noticed that she had been standing in salute for several seconds and that he had kept her waiting longer then was polite to return the salute.
“Welcome to the fleet Captain Yu.” Ross said stiffly as he returned her salute, somewhat embarrassed that he had been taken so aback.
“Thank you Admiral, Lenin was transferred to your fleet by order of Admiral Lord Tyson Babcock, commander first fleet stationed aboard His Majesty’s Heavy Cruiser Redoubtable.” Her tone was still formal but something in her eyes made Ross feel slightly more comfortable, but he still felt sick because he knew her ship had not received the messenger drone informing her of the Mestra incident.

“Lin, I’m sorry to inform you but Admiral Babcock was severely injured, the first fleet was ambushed at Mestra warp point and they lost Redoubtable and Rossevelt during the opening engagement. Several other cruisers were also badly damaged, heavy casualties are reported.” Ross’ felt his heart sink as Yu’s expression changed to one of tortured anguish.
“Oh God, William do you know how Tyson is doing?” her voice was heartbreaking to Ross and he barely noticed that she used his first name for the first time in years.

“He’s alright Lin, he’s undergoing therapy but the Last reports said that he’s recovering quickly.” Ross indicated a seat for Yu across from his desk and almost smiled when he saw the relief on her face.
“Thank God for that, he’s a good officer, and a friend.” She managed to smile uncomfortably as she seated herself and placed her cap on Ross’ desk.
“He’s also a tough old bird who wouldn’t go down without a fight.” Ross said with a smile, when Yu laughed gently he allowed himself to relax further.
“How have you been William?” Her smile faded slightly as memories flickered behind her eyes.
“I’ve been good, it’s been odd though, I still can’t get used to the fact I’m commanding a fleet.” Ross smiled sheepishly at Yu.
“Well you always did like being out on your own, exploring the unknown, that’s why they gave you Saber after all.” She smiled back, the same smile Ross remembered from the academy, that smile he thought, could light up a room and always managed to make him feel better somehow.
“Yeah well we all know how well that turned out, I was the first one to run into a Phong exploratory ship, and the first one to destroy it and we all know how that ended.” Ross said glumly and leaned back in his chair.
“It’s not your fault William, those damned Phong’s are the ones who started this war.” Lin smiled reassuringly. “We have a lot to catch up on William, let’s not make this whole meeting a depressing one okay?” her smile disappeared and a mock stern look replaced it.
“Alright I surrender, we do have a lot to catch up on, how are you Lin?” Ross waved his hands in a gesture of submission and Yu laughed again. They both relaxed at Last and spoke for hours before Captain Yu was called back aboard her ship for the training exercises she had scheduled the day before.

Top Secret Research Facility, Deep within Icaran space:
“High Admiral Hallice may I present Chief Scientist Doctor Donald Procter.” The younger scientist waved his hand in the direction of an elderly looking man who was bent over a computer screen, apparently looking at something important.
“Doctor Donald Procter.” Hallice held out his hand and was a little surprised when the older chap just put his hand up gesturing for silence.
“There it is.” The man spoke to no one in particular before standing up and looking at the Admiral as if he noticed him for the first time. “Aaah, Admiral Hallice, welcome to my facility, how are you?” Doctor Procter took Hallice hand and shook firmly.
“I’m fine doctor but I am pressed for time so please show me what your folks considered so important you needed me to come today?” Hallice was impatient, he didn’t like scientists much but especially when they made him wait, after calling him with “urgent” news.

“Aah of course, well Admiral, as I’m sure your aware Praetor Leonidas authorized the beginning of project “Star Warrior” three years ago, well I am pleased to say we’ve made some progress in that field about a month ago, we wanted to be sure of our findings before we notified the military but now that we have confirmed our findings, well here you are.” Procter rambled excitedly as he guided Hallice to a door.

“Well sir I am pleased to report that we’ve completed the I-Laser program as well as Talisman.” The old scientist smiled broadly, Hallice pretended patience as he waited for the weird old man to get to the point.

“Aaah anyway Admiral the I-Laser or “Imperial Laser” is actually a Fusion beam, we called it a laser because it uses a laser focusing beam, but I’m sure your not interested in that, it is a thirteenth generation weapon done in the energy stream research field, even more powerful then the Anti-proton beams you military types wanted to put into production years ago.”
“Doctor please get to the point.”
“Well sir we are ready to make refits to the existing General class cruisers in project “Midwinter’, heavy cruisers with Midwinter weaponry will have one hundred percent accuracy and more firepower then some of the other star nation’s battleship sized craft.” The scientist rambled for hours about the joys of his project’s completion until finally Hallice got the gist of it.
The “Star Warrior” project was a complete overhaul of military technologies to increase the fighting abilities of the Icaran Royal Navy, it consisted of multiple programs to reach that goal and finally after years of research most of these projects were completed.

The new Lord Nelson class dreadnoughts would take another six months to put into production because that is about how long it would take the scientists to get a working model of the “Solar Sail” which was really just a modified grav sail used to implement solar energies instead of warp space energy to propel a ship much faster.

The development of the Quantum reactors was complete, the Q-Reactor would enable not only infinite fuel for a ship using it but it’s development also had the odd side effect of enabling matter sequencing technologies to be implementable, this exotic new technology enabled a ship to turn waste products into consumables, though Hallice knew it would take some time for crews to be comfortable with eating and drinking products that used to be their waste no matter how many times scientists told them that the matters was completely broken down into it’s atomic basics before being turned into food or drink.

Project Talisman had also finally been completed, this device was a hyper advanced targeting sensor which would enable one hundred percent accuracy for the warship it was plugged into.

AI was also perfected and with these new computers aboard starships crews could be reduced to the point that more systems could be added to the warships of the Royal Navy, though no true navy man was willing to give total control of their ship over to an AI no matter how many scientists claimed that the Ais could handle every function of a starship without the need for a crew.



2417.8
Midwinter class heavy cruiser refits begin throughout the Royal Navy.

[Starhawk]

2417.8 End of an Era
Ross stood next to Yu in the Spaceyard’s gallery staring at the gutted hulls of their ships, both officers were frowning, the captain of Defender couldn’t even bring himself to watch his ship gutted like a fish Ross, and captain Farrin-Hawkwing’s new captain- had only stayed for five minutes before giving the yard master his compliments and beating a hasty retreat from the scene.
The General class heavy cruiser was obsolete and throughout the entire navy they were becoming extinct, gutted at the hands of yard dogs and completely overhauled with totally new systems and internal configurations, they were becoming the Midwinters and although they would be far more powerful then in their former incarnations it was still hard for captains who had lived and fought on the old Generals for nearly ten years now to watch them be opened up from stem to stern and have their innards torn out and discarded like old garbage.
Ross felt as if his firstborn had been sacrificed on an altar before the gods of “progress” when he first heard that the Hawkwing was going to be overhauled, the officers and crew of that old cruiser had fought, lived and died in her hull, their was blood fused into the metal of the bulkheads because of extreme heat caused when shields burned through, blood Icaran spacers who had died in the great metal beast had shed protecting the empire, and now it was all being torn out. Ross’ chest felt empty as he turned to Yu.
His depressed mood suddenly turned to curiosity when he saw the young woman smiling at her opened ship. “Why are you smiling? I thought you were just as sick over this as I was?”.
“I was Sir, but my ship has seen so much death, useless and needless death that seeing her get a new heart, a new -soul- if you will makes me feel better somehow, like she’s got a new life ahead of her now.” Yu’s smile faded, memories of the several disastrous engagements Lenin flashed in her eyes.

“Yeah, I forgot about what happened to your ship in Fornax, I suppose your right, that poor old lady deserves a new life after all she’s been through.” Ross felt something brighten in his own mood as Yu smiled at him again, to him it was like his ship was being gutted but to Yu, her ship was undergoing surgery to give it a new chance at a good life, it had been said that Lenin was cursed, for the first four battles she engaged in she was crippled or in the very least hulled, her crew had been reduced to 1/3 of it’s original compliment by the time she had been re-assigned to the 3rd fleet. That was when the curse it said was broken, for that transfer saved Lenin and her crew from the devastating ambush in Mestra where 5,000 Icarans had died in less then ten minutes.

Ross and Yu watched their ships for a short while before returning to their temporary duties on Wardo base, five months of planet bound duty while the heavy cruisers of 3rd fleet were retrofit to Midwinter specs. It was the end of an Era for the IRN as the largest of her Phased poloron equipped warships were given I-Laser cannons. The old cruisers and light cruisers of the navy could not handle the power requirements of I-Laser technology and thus were facing extinction as soon as enough ships of the ‘new generation’ were built and many captains and Admirals prepared their ’wakes’-the traditional farewell party to a valiant ship facing it’s retirement- as their ships names appeared on the ‘obsolete’ list that would soon lead to their scrapping

I'm proud to announce that my story covers 71 pages in font 10 in MSN Word!!! (passes around beers)

[Renegade 13]

Woohoo! Keep 'em coming!

[Starhawk]

Yeah I actually was sad to see my old General class be retrofit to a new unbattle tested class even though they are the same (ships).

I do need advice though, I am having economic troubles as of late and with recent developments such as my new ship building programs it's going to get tight for me for a year or two.

Well anyway the advice I need is this, should I scrap those old underarmed underspeed LC and CR or should I just keep them in service till they are destroyed?
Like I said my economics are tight and i have a lot of my newer ships under construction.

Anyway before I move too far forward advice would be nice.

[Atrocities]

I would mothball a few and if you have to later on scarp them or trade them off.

Prioritize your costs in the construction que and see what is costing the most to build. Put that on hold, or put low priority projects on hold.

Good luck.

[sachmo]

Well, I haven't had time to read the entire story, but I've enjoyed what I have read.

Just to let you know, I can see your skills improving as you write more (I've skipped around a bit!) and the characters are very interesting. Keep going, and don't burn out!

[Renegade 13]

Well, here's an idea for what to do with all those obsolete LC's and CR's. It might be considered kind of cruel to your Icarans, but....

Send all your obsolete ships to the most pressing front, assemble them into one large fleet, and make a drive into enemy territory. Your fleet, even though obsolete, should be able to do quite significant damage to the enemy, and run the fleet until it's completely destroyed. Don't bother repairing damage, as this is a suicide fleet. Like I said, adding this to your story would make your emperor look very very cruel, but that's your choice! Personally, that's what I do with obsolete ships that are eating up resources through maintenance.

[Rasorow]

Depends... Scrap some (most of the LCs) keep the CRs but gradually upgrade them to different functions.. Fleet repair, fast transport, small armed carriers, various speciality ships that at least I always seem to need at this point. If you have encountered a missle using or fighter using empire (I cannot tell how dependent on missiles from the story) then some of the CRs might be converted to AA ships (or is that AF - Anti-Fighter) ships. I would probably scrap most of the LCs if not all through.

Rasorow

[kerensky]

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 know that I would be happy to proof read your work (not like I've done that before)

As for Characters some of their personalities are based on folks I know with some slight changes to personality to fit a militaristic environment.

Would I be one of them??? granted I havn't actually read the story yet.. Am doing so now.

[Hunpecked]

Renegade 13 writes:

Well, here's an idea for what to do with all those obsolete LC's and CR's. It might be considered kind of cruel to your Icarans, but....

A variant on the suicide fleet theme is to send a single obsolete/expendable ship through a warp point ahead of the main fleet to detect a minefield or ambush (as befell the Icarans in the Mestra[?] system). Presumably the crew of such an [ahem] "elite scout" would be either very brave or very naughty boys and girls; either option might be the basis for a good chapter.