Empire of Man (continued)

[Starhawk]

A new Front

It had been twenty years since the devestating battles against the Goa'ould left tens of thousands dead, it had been twenty years since the fall of that enemy and their damnedable allies and for twenty years the Empire of Man saw only peace and exploration.
Hundreds of new ships had been built and millions of personel had been brought into the ranks of the building Imperial Military Machine as it expanded to protect the growing Empire it was responsible for defending. And the Military had changed quite a bit in those twenty years, more aliens had been brought within the folds of the armed forces then ever before, even Jaffa who once served the vile Goa'ould had joined the ranks of the Imperial Marines and were proving themselves as excellent soldiers once trained out of their suicidal tactics of prior centuries when their "gods" cared not whether they lived or died.

But all that ended the morning of the ninth month of the year 2447 when for reasons unknown the Emperor of the EoM and the Ruler of the Manticore star kingdom declared war on one another and the first occured between the Manticore's Alpha fleet and the Imperial 2nd Fleet, though it was an easy victory for the Empire with only a single destroyer lost to the 14 enemy starships destroyed it signaled the start of the largest and possibly most costly war the Empire of Man had ever fought in it's long history.

As it stands there have been seven engagements between Manticore and Imperial fleets and nearly two dozen smaller single ship engagements, although all of these have ended with overwhelming Imperial victories inteligence reports show that the resources of the Manticore kingdom are slowely but surely shifting into a wartime footing, churning out warships, fighters, and other materials of war and the Empire is not wasting this respit either, nearly every shipyard in the Empire is buisily turning out new warships and volunteers and pressed soldiers in their hundreds of thousands are joining the ranks of the Imperial military as it gears up for the largest interstellar war Humanity has ever seen, and to make it all worse for the Empire of Man was that this enemy was not some insectoid race like the Xi'Chung or some parasite like a Goa'ould, they were 100% human and that could make them all the deadlier....in the year 2448 two human Empires are at war and only one would survive.

OOC: I may be switching over from the (story by story) basis of the first thread to a more linear story with a (chapter by chapter) style because since I have only one enemy on only a few fronts most of the same characters would be constantly recurring anyway

Oh and as it stands the Manticore have engaged my navy seven times in major fleet engagements, unfortunately for them 6 of those times they were facing a force at a warp point and didn't stand much of a chance, on the 7th occasion they were just so totally outgunned it was a one sided battle from the second my ships entered firing range.

Thus far I've taken out around 100 Manti ships only 70 of which were warships the rest are colonial or mine related ships. I've lost 2 heavy destroyers and had nearly 30 ships crippled. But don't start feeling sorry for the Manticore yet they have PLENTY of ships being built and LOTS more already on active service, they are currently trying to take out one of my minefields so that the fleets on the other side can jump through.....ooooh now that will be one helluva story as the Last time I looked I saw about 86 Manticore warships and I have a feeling there are a few more cloaked ones .

[Renegade 13]

Great story Starhawk, I had been wondering why the stories had quit for a while. Glad they're back, I really enjoy them!

[Starhawk]

The Debate Continues

The Emperor paced the halls of the nobility on Sparta as he listened to Lord Admiral Montimer, commander of his majesty's forces in the Adin sector.

"Majesty, My Lords and Ladies the commanders of both the 2nd and 10th fleets have both informed me that multiple enemy ships have been hunted down and destroyed by their warships, and on two seperate occasions enemy warships attempted to make the jump into one of the Adin sector systems only to be intercepted and destroyed by one of the blockade fleets on duty and....." a shout stopped Mortimer in mid sentence as one of the de Vince sector senators stood up.

"Then WHY should we break the blockade? Hmmm Lords Ladies why should the empire risk valuable warships and their crews to invade the Manticore star Kingdom when it appears to me that the Empire can hold off any pathetic assaults they've launched against us? Senator Powler was a fat man with an ill temper and a big mouth but unfortunately he was also very popular with the people of his sector because he was one of the few senators that refused to instate press gangs on the worlds in his system.

"This blockade costs the Empire Billions of credits every year, it is foolishness to keep it in place, the Navy has proven it's ability to destroy any fleet that is coming through the warp points, and keeping these fleets at their bases would be far cheaper then having them near the warp points!" Senator M'lady Daladia, the senator from the Acuben system was one of Powlers strongest supporters in the Senate normally but when it came to the blockade they were bitter opponents.

The Emperor continued sat down on his thrown in the middle of the senate chamber and listened for the "polite" ammount of time while the two senators argued with Admiral Mortimer bitterly before he finally stood up and his master at arms tapped his staff of office against the floor to gain the Senate's silence.
The Senate was divided into two parts the Civilian Lords and Ladies who ran anywhere from one system to an entire sector (up to three systems) depending on their feudal title and the Military Lord Admirals and Generals who commanded the armed forces of the Empire, to a limited extent this allowed a semi-democracy wherein the nobility was allowed to vote on actions within the Empire. Though they could vote on a topic the Emperor could in theory veto any such votes should he decide, however it was often safer not to.

This situation however was out of control within the Senate, the Military portion and at least some of the Civilian senators wished to take the war to the Manticore while others wanted either to uphold the blockade or return the navy to it's bases in those sectors and risk intercepting enemy battle fleets in open space, what those fools did not seem to realize however was that the navy was not all powerful and that meeting a Manticore fleet in open space could lead to defeat and exessive losses that may very well lead to an assault by the still untrustworthy Norak Empire.

The safest bet was to launch an offensive against the Manticore Empire and risk a warfleet to gain ground instead of risking ships on the defensive and waiting for the enemy to come to their doorstep and so the Emperor decided to use his power in this case of emergency and side with the military lords and ladies, especially since he knew that they had been mobilizing a battlefleet in secret, without informing the Civilian senators.

"My Lords and Ladies of the Senate, as Emperor I am afraid I must agree with Lord Admiral's Mortimer and Drake, the Empire must not allow the Manticore to stay on the offensive or give them the time they would require to build a warfleet with which to invade our space, and so I must insist that we deploy the navy, several battlefleets will be required and although for the short term this will weaken our sector defenses and increase the risk of piracy we must decide which is more important, the short term stability and peace within the empire which will come to a crushing end when the Manticore go on the offensive, or the long term peace and stability of the empire which can only be wrought with the defeat of the Manticore star Kingdom!" The Emperor heard many of the Admirals, Generals and Senators who supported the offensive begin cheering and clapping, and soon they were joined by many who had initially considered themselves neutral or opposed to the invasion of the Manticore. The debate was not fully over however and for over an hour those senators opposed to the whole operation "politely" disagreed with their Emperor until eventually after many rousing speaches from various supporters and after the Emperor called in a troop of his personal Commando body guards to keep the order in the senate those opposed to the offensive were voted down and within a month a battlefleet would leave the Empire and invade the Manticore Kingdom possibly risking the entire future of the Empire on a single gambit, only time would tell for now the debates began on who should be appointed commander of this invasion fleet.

[Starhawk]

Sacrifice Brave and True

Alarms blared and Klaxons hooted throughout the entire 10th fleet as the enemy fleet came into sensor range. Somehow 49 enemy warships all top of the line Dreadnoughts and bigger had slipped past the Imperial detection network and entered the Adin system through the ungaurded jump point.

Admiral Tyler was already monitoring the situation from the bridge of his flagship, the super monitor Rights of Conquest and his look was grim, 49 top of the line enemy ships and already 3 dreadnoughts had seperated from that fleet and were headed towards 2 worlds in the Adin system. Tyler's teeth were grinding as he realized he could not dispatch even a single one of his warships to intercept those stray vessels as he would need every bit of firepower he had against the oncoming enemy ships.

"Sir we are two hours intercept, enemy fleet is closing and three enemy dreadnoughts are breaking formation, their destination is unknown at this time. Should I order some of our ships to intercept?" Captain Bright was a seasoned officer and looked at his Admiral frowning, he was asking for the record even though he knew fulwell they could not dispatch support to the doomed worlds.
"Captain Bright, please tell all commands to ready for full scale fleet engagement." Tyler's voice was hollow as Bright gave a sympathetic nod and issued the necessary orders to all the captains and commanders of the fleet 60 vessels of the 10th.

Two hours later the 10th fleet and the Manticore fleet had finally closed into weapons range, the Manticore managed to fire first and several new stars lit the sky briefly as several Imperial warships were destroyed by the powerful weapons of the enemy dreadnoughts and super dreadnoughts. The Imperial fleet was spread out over 2 light minutes and the "left" flank had just engaged the enemy, the right had already lost several warships including a dreadnought and super dreadnought and the enemy was still advancing along that flank.

"All batteries loose fire at will!" Admiral Tyler barked as his ships closed range with the Manticore warships, space lit up as the Imperial warships opened fire, beams silently connected Imperial warships to their targets as every ship in the fleet brought their considerable firepower to bare.
"Target destroyed!" Captain Bright announced as the super dreadnought the Rights of Conquest had targeted broke apart on the vid screen and left an expanding ball of plasma. The flagship rocked as two enemy dreadnoughts closed in on her and fired their outdated Phased Polaron weapons, all of the enemy fire from those two dreadnoughts simply glanced off the shields of the massive super dreadnought.

Meanwhile on the left flank another Imperial warship died but it was soon avenged as three Imperial Dreadnoughts picked out an enemy super dreadnought and soon reduced it to slag, the Super Monitors of the Left flank had still not reached weapons range and if they did not arrive soon the left flank would be lost, more stars were born as the Imperial gunners managed to destroy several more enemy dreadnoughts, the fighting was heavy as both fleets closed to point blank, and at that range even the most powerful of warships would only Last for a matter of minutes under such savage firepower.

"Sir! The Saber is going down, damnit!" The tactical officer announced as the super monitor INSS Saber was overwhelmed by a squadron of enemy Super Dreads, Tyler grimmaced and a sudden resolve took over him as he watched his tactical display and noted that he had four other Super Monitor class vessels right next to his.
"Captain Bright order the other Super Monitors to join us, form a flying wedge we are going to plow through their flank, I want our ships in position to support the left as soon as possible." Tyler's voice was inspirational and to the young crewmen and women around him it sounded as though the Admiral was sure that there was no way his fleet would lose and for the first time in the battle confidence swelled in the Imperials and they undertook their task with a renewed vigor.

The five Super Monitors that Tyler commanded personally led the way, bLasting through enemy warships, crippling or destroying a dozen vessels by themselves as they closed on the left flank to provide support. The Imperial capital ships on the left had suffered heavily, many were crippled and those that weren't were hard pressed by the superior numbers of the Manticore as they continued to stay at point blank range and blaze away at one another.
"Sir! Their lines are broken the rest of the right flank have destroyed all enemy ships and are slamming into the left flank, several enemy ships are withdrawing from the field, your orders?" Captain Bright was on the verge of breaking down in tears of joy as the tactical display showed a handful of enemy ships withdrawing from the battle. With a nod from the Admiral, Bright ordered the marines aboard ever super monitor in the fleet to prepare to grapple and board with the enemy.

Two hours after it had begun in a blaze of fire and death it ended, several Manticore dreadnoughts and super dreadnoughts had been taken, and Admiral Tyler dispatched the Last Super dreadnought in his fleet the INSS Shadowblade to intercept one of the enemy dreadnoughts which had broken formation with the Manticore fleet, but alas the Warship arrived too late and Adin VI lay in ruins, 30 million Imperial citizens died and the enemy dreadnought sat in orbit triumphant.

The commander of the Imperial Super dreadnought did not let this disaster go unavenged and brought his warship into a successful engagement with the enemy, a super monitor soon arrived and captured the enemy vessel and the crew was executed for crimes against the Empire.

Only a month later however a larger fleet number 79 enemy vessels exited the warp point and engaged the badly mauled 10th fleet, 33 Imperial ships died valiently against the enemy fleet and somehow managed to acheive victory against all odds even though what was left of the 10th fleet was no longer a combat viable unit for the time being.

Casualties of the First Battle for Adin

INSS Cobra 0020
Class: Heavy Destroyer
Crew: 50
Status: Destroyed

INSS Saber
Class: Super Monitor
Crew: 10,000
Status Destroyed

INSS Pitbull
Class: Cruiser
Crew: 500
Status: Destroyed

INSS Carpathia
Class: Super Dreadnought
Crew: 3,200
Status: Destroyed

INSS Cobra 0001
Class: Heavy Destroyer
Crew: 50
Status: Destroyed

INSS Cobra 0005
Class: Heavy Destroyer
Crew: 50
Status: Destroyed

INSS 0017
Class: Heavy Destroyer
Crew: 50
Status: Destroyed

INSS 0018
Class: Heavy Destroyer
Crew: 50
Status: Destroyed

INSS Cobra 0023
Class: Heavy Destroyer
Crew: 50
Status: Destroyed

INSS Deathbringer
Class: Super Monitor
Crew: 10,000
Status: Destroyed

INSS Graph Spee
Class: Super Dreadnought
Crew: 3,200
Status: destroyed

Adin VI

total Losses: 20,27,200 dead (27,200 fleet personell)

Casualties from the Second Battle for Adin:
33 ships (unknown as yet their size and crew losses)
Adin I (1 billion dead)


The same month that the second battle for adin took place a battle between Imperial 4th fleet and a 36 ship Manticore fleet took place, the Manticore were defeated and several of their starships were captured leading to the end of the Manticore offensive against the Empire at this time, the losses to both Imperial navy and citizenry however have been high, and due to such heavy losses the Imperial 1st fleet was reasigned from Sparta to the Adin system to hold that system until the 10th can be brought back up to strenght.

OOC: So there you have it the first 3 major space battles took place between my empire and the Manticore, my 10th fleet was devestated and most of it's surviving ships are crippled some have 0 components left intact and their crews are considered to be abondoned ship or dead.
I lost Adin I which was a vital shipyard in that system and Adin VI which was a major inteligence base for my entire empire.
Even though I won the overall engagement it will take at least two years to replace all that was lost.

[Starhawk]

The Empire Goes on the Offensive

The debates and arguments finally came to an end 8 months ago when the Manticore launched a devestating offensive that effectively destroyed the 10th fleet as an effective fighting force and inflicted heavy losses on the civilian population in Adin.
Still several senators complained and bickered about the planned offensive claiming that the ships and troops planned to take part in that operation should be better used protecting the three systems surrounding the main Manticore system in Imperial space.

During those months of bickering, Admiral Clara Duane and Marine General William Sherman continued planning the offensive in the Prozhi system, which had been the source of both the fleet that devestated the 10th fleet and another fleet which had just Last month inflicted heavy casualties on the 6th fleet which resulted in the deaths of nearly 10,000 men and women. The Emperor had decreed months ago that the blockade fleets would not be enough but with the devestation wrought on the 10th fleet the opponents of the offensive had managed to stall for months claiming security reasons.' However when the clearence came through Duane and Sherman's plan had already been completed and the Battlefleet designated (Battle Fleet Alpha) was mobilized, and in their midst a cruiser of unusual configuration sat silently, waiting for the orders that would change Imperial history forever...
But now all that was finally moot, and Admiral Duane sat proudly on the bridge of her flagship the Super Monitor INSS Warhawk and looked out upon her fleet with a sense of awe, there were over 45 super capital ships in her fleet and the largest grouping of Super Monitors outside of the 1st fleet, but more then that even there was the expermintal cruiser that would "Change the future of warfare forever" or so the tech had said when she asked him what exactly this cruiser would do for her.
"Captain Flanders, inform all commands, my compliments and prepare to leave Imperial space." Clara folded her hands in her lap as she often did when she was nervious dating back to when she was a young Ensign aboard Unrelenting during the Goa'ould wars all those long years ago. As the orders were relayed to all commands a single small cruiser began slowly winding it's way through the fleet of giants around it and moved away from the gravity field of Phillidelphia, slowely a blue energy field began emanating from the hull and began twisting and expanding, as the field grew larger it began to swirl and twist until a warp point formed in space and every member of the battlefleet stood in stunned silence for several moments, as did the population of Phildelphia which for the first time in memorable history a warp point was visible from a planetary atmosphere.

After allowing her crews a moment Clara snapped "Take us out mister Omar!" to her helmsman, the crew snapped back into action as they approached the first warp point ever created by a sentient species in the history of the galaxy.

Moments later the battlefleet was in the Prozhi system and the warp point faded and closed in on their targeted world, the system's space port was deemed the best target because the need to stop resource flow from at least one entire star system within the manticore kingdom was deemed top priority by the Admiralty and Congress of Lords.

The target world had a population of 480 million and a large defense force consisting of 200 heavily armed soldiers and roughly 1,000 militiamen on the surface plus 180 space born interceptors which had already begun launching form the surface and heading at full thrust towards the approaching battlefleet.

"Admiral I am reading 180 enemy fighters I repeat one-eight-zero targets approaching fast, orders?" Ensign Mullin was a green officer but it was still a rather stupid question as the other ships in the fleet had already begun launching their long range missile batteries into the swarms of incoming fighters.
"Well mister Mullin unless you plan on snapping your fingers at them perhaps you should open fire?" Captain Flanders barked as the gun crews continued asking for targeting data frin the bridge.
Mullin turned red with embarassment as he punched in targeting data and the glow of missile trails finally rippled away from the ship.

As space lit with dozens of explosions the Super Monitors of the battle fleet continued their advance and within minutes beams tore across space and into the massed fighter formations destroying every enemy fighter in only a single volley. The space battle ended as the massive form of a Super Monitor sized troop transport named General Patton began deploying it's thousands of heavil armed marines to the surface of the enemy world.
The first target to fall was the spaceport and within hours the entire world had been so totally overwhelmed that the land battle was hardly worth mentioning in Clara Duane's final report. However the battle was just begining and 6 worlds remained in Prozhi alone.

OOC: The land battle really would not have been worth mentioning because it was just such a one sided battle that Lasted one little explosion.

[Starhawk]

OOC: I am going to try and have a starmap up soon so that you guys can see what is going on okay.

[Intimidator]

Great story again...........

[Starhawk]

Defense of Zekrat
As the invasion of Prozhi was underway another important battle was begining as 32 Manticore starships came through the warp point and engaged the 6th fleet, taking the blockade squadron by suprise.

Fortunately for the Imperial navy their extremly disciplined crews of the Imperial ships went streight into action, as the heavy guns of the fleet went into action several Manticore ships turned into expanding balls of plasma and wreckage as their reactors went.
The Imperial fleet was arrayed in a wall formation but due to the way the Manticore fleet came through that formation was broken in half with most of the heavy ships were too far away to be useful against the enemy heavies and the first few Manticore ships destroyed were just carriers and only a handful of the enemies own dreadnoughts.
The return fire by the enemy super dreadnoughts quickly destroyed several of the smaller Imperial cruisers and killed hundreds of their crewmen, a dreadnought too was soon destroyed by the enemy fire as the Imperial heavies feverishly tried to get into firing range of their counterparts in the enemy fleet. Cruisers and battleships opened fire on the superior ships and actually managed to inflict some damage, killing three enemy dreadnoughts.
For nearly twenty minutes the Imperial ships and Manticore ships struggled to gain the advantage, both sides suffering losses but all the while the 6th fleet was gaining ground using their superior combat experience to make up for their lack of numbers and ship sizes. In the end the 6th fleet finally destroyed the Last of the Manticore ship but they had paid the price in lives and ships.

Imperial Losses:
King Arthur
Class: Dreadnought
Crew: 2,500
Status: Destroyed

Vanguard
Class: Battlecruiser
Crew: 1,000
Status: Destroyed

Cobra 0026
Class: Heavy Destroyer
Crew: 50
Status: Destroyed

Cobra 0016
Class Heavy Destroyer
Crew: 50
Status: Destroyed

Moriarti
Class: Battle Cruiser
Crew: 1,000
Status: Destroyed

Ankorage
Class: Heavy Cruiser
Crew: 800
Status: Destroyed

OOC: Minor battle but it was a close call and if that enemy fleet had made it through it would have been the end of it for the entire Zekrat system as the nearest fleet would be three months away at least.

Oh and go ahead and click my link if you'd like to help me out with a game .

[Raging Deadstar]

Great Writing as usual, I quite like the new way you've began to piece this story together, And the Manticore are always an interesting enemy. I look forward to more

Your Story is updated to the latest chapter at SpaceEmpires.Net