Rise of Icara (cont'd)

[Starhawk]

Okay so I can't find my original Rise of Icara thread so I'm afraid I'm going to have to continue it here.

Okay so the setting is it is now the year 2505.4 The Icaran Empire has spread throughout 34 star systems with 364 planets under it's control (14 of which are sphereworlds).
The population is now 1.6 Trillion and Icara has only one competitor left in the galaxy, an opponent from hundreds of years prior back when Icara was still dominating the Earth...an enemy that Icara has been fighting in space now for 40 years without end and to horrible casualties on both sides.
The Earth herself stands between Icara and their conquest of the known universe and Icara has finally launched what has become known as "The Final Crusade" to rest control of the hundreds of worlds under the control of Earth and bring the entirety of humanity under the iron grip of Icara.

(an overview of the main fleets)

Imperium Prime:
Number of ships: 239
Number of Imperial Army Regiments: 17
Number of Imperial Legions: 2 (Space Wolves, Reaver Clan)
Main Mission: Final Crusade speartip
Commander: Fleet Admiral Lord Byran Alexander Nelson.

Imperium Secundus: (status Mobilizing)
Number of ships: 16
Number of Imperial Regiments: 1 (currently)
Number of Imperial Legions: 1 (currently) (Carnivores)
Commander: Fleet Admiral Lord Tyler William Braddock.

(Important Persons of the Empire)
Leonidas XVII (The Emperor of Icara)

Fleet Admiral Lord Byran Alexander Nelson (commander Imperium Prime fleet and Commander in cheif of the Final Crusade)

Captain Jack Menson (Flag Captain to Nelson aboard his imperial majesty's base ship Emperor)

General Lord Oscar Bradly (General of 1st army and both legions in the Imperium Prime Fleet)

Important Imperial Worlds:

Icara (former homeworld of the Icarans, named after the ancient earth based nation of Icara which was destroyed by the Earth Alliance 500 years ago)

New Icara (New capital of the Icaran Empire, a fortified sphereworld with a massive population and industrial capacity located around the Icarus star Icaran system)

The Fortress (The single most fortified sphereworld in the whole of the Icaran empire, this sphereworld lies at the warp point that leads to the Icaran empire and was involved in repelling over 40 fleets of hundreds of ships and is still the single most strategic world within the Empire)


The Crusades: When The Icarans finally rebuilt their shattered civilization on their adoptive world of Icara the Icaran population decided they would no longer allow themselves to be the targets of hostile nations (or races). And thus the first star crusade started 100 years ago during the reign of Leonidas the XVI and this crusade nearly led to disaster for Icara. 3 alien races declared a unified war against the Icarans and destroyed 3/4 of the Icaran navy, it took Icara 20 years and hundreds of thousands of lives to rebuild and repel these foes.

This attack by 3 alien races led to the 2nd star crusade only 20 years after the 1st, This one met with great success as the Icarans conquered all 3 enemy races of the course of 5 years.

It is at this time that Icara met their old nemesis of the Earth alliance who did not even seem to remember the Icarans which proved usefull as Icara built it's military might and conquered another 3 races bringing billions of people into Icara. However this brought the Earth Alliance into direct opposition with the Icarans and they soon declared war and launched a devestating offensive which resulted in either the capture or destruction of over 30 Icaran Worlds and an entire the loss of an Entire Icaran fleet.

The Final Crusade: This crusade began 40 years ago as the Forces of Icara mobilized against the larger and more powerful Earth Alliance Empire, thus far this crusade has only taken 3 star systems from the Earthers, and retaken only 18 former Icaran colonies which were taken by the Earthers during the early stages of the Earth Offensive against Icara. This crusade may take generations but it is the solemn vow of all Icarans that by the time it ends either Icara or Earth will stand dominant over this galaxy and the other will lie in ruins at the feet of the victor.

(The Imperial Military)

The Stellar Imperia (Imperial Navy): The brave men and women of the Imperial Navy have formed the first line of defense and attack against non-Icaran powers for over 100 years now and as such has sustained the most devestating losses of the war with millions of spacers dying in the name of Icara.
The Stellar is also responsible for the troop transports carrying the Exercitus Imperia into battle and as such is responsible for C&C for the bulk of the Imperial Fighting Forces.

Exercitus Imperia (The Imperial Army): The Imperial army consists of professional soldiers armed and equipped on any number of different worlds to fight the bulk of the Imperium's Wars.

The Army has an interesting structure that goes back millenia wherein each regiment (400 medium troops) is raised on a single world at one time and then placed on a single transport ship for the duration of it's service to the empire. This goes back to when Icara used to raise a single regiment from a single city state at any one time so that the troops already have a sense of brotherhood and companionship as they all have the same background.

This structure of raising troops also serves to strengthen the backbones of any soldier that might cower and run from battle as everyone in that regiment is very concerned with keeping the honor and reputation of their particular homeworld intact and many times throughout history cowardly soldiers have been killed by their fellows.

Even though it is the bulk of the Imperial ground force the Exercitus is not allowed to have their own transport craft as Imperial command fears if they gave a regiment a troop ship under it's overall command an over ambitious Colonel may decide to invade another Imperial world and claim it as his/her own.
(note a regiment is given an official number designation based on it's homeworld and order of raising for example the 5th New Icaran is the 5th regiment raised from the Sphereworld of Icara however many regiments also have unofficial names such as the 1st Spartans who are also known as "The Iron Regiment" because of their unwavering defense of the Darjon Line on the World of Dornot III)

Legio Imperia (The Imperial Legions): These soldiers are the best the Empire has to offer, they are equipped with advanced armor and weapons to that of the Normal Exercitus trooper and are given better training and pay.
The legio's history dates back to the dawn of Icara when the Exercitus were mere drafties from conquered citystates and the Legio was the Icaran born elite of the fighting forces that kept the other troops in line and acted as the hardest hitting portion of the Army.

In the modern Imperial military the Legio no longer need to keep the regiments in line, however their other duties are still much the same as they were millenia ago, to be the hardest and fastest hitting of the Imperial ground forces.

A legio trooper carries an advanced Anti-Proton stream rifle and wears a semi-power armored combat suit in battle which automatically gives them an advantage over the flak armored, AP pulse rifle equipped troopers of the Exercitus. But more then this a legionairre receives up to 2 years of challenging training before they even see combat and as such are far superior in combat to the Exercitus troopers on a 1on1 basis. The Legio are also given their own troop transports as their commander's loyalties are never in question by the time they are deployed.

Unlike the Exercitus the Legio are raised from multiple worlds at any one time due to the lenght of time it takes to train and equip these elite warfighters. (A legio is 400 heavy troops)
(Legions are given direct names and no number designation for example 3 legio that currently serve in the Imperium are the Space Wolves, the Reaver Clan, and the Carnivores, with the Death Bringers in the process of training in the Cephedri system).
A legio that was wiped out during the EA offensive was the Blood Hawks which were lost defending an outlying Imperial colony when their transport ship was lost with most of the Legion still aboard.

(Actual story will come when I renew my offensive against the EA but for now I'll just say you havn't missed much fun stuff only me capturing a few worlds and repelling fleet after fleet of EA starships. They still outnumber me in worlds, ships, and troops but for some reason I'm back in first place)

[ May 10, 2004, 03:11: Message edited by: Starhawk ]

[Atrocities]

Very nice read.

[Starhawk]

The Marjoram Offensive

Admiral Nelson paced the deck in his cabin aboard the mighty base ship Emperor often but tonight it was different, because tonight he was wrighting up estimated casualty percentages and looking over his resources.
It had been decided that the final crusade would make it's full start in the Marjoram system, a vital system to the enemy's scientific endeavors and a perfect jumping off point for the offensive against the Earth alliance, but it was also heavily fortified and the second the invasion fleet had entered the system they had detected over 100 EA warships waiting at the other end.

The Prime fleet was now only one day's journey away from Marjoram IX and the 1st Spartan Regiment was preparing for their role in the invasion of the enemy planet. But the enemy fleet was still sitting menacingly at the other end of the system, apparently just waiting but the only question was for what? Nelson threw the datapad over to his desk and sat down on his cot, unbuckling his jacket he began to wonder how many soldiers and spacers he would lose in the coming days.

24 Hours Later:

The might of the Imperium sat in orbit over Mirjoram IX and was preparing for the enemy fire, however Admiral Nelson was pleasently suprised to find only 2 weapons platforms and 28 star fighters waiting for his fleet.

"This is Admiral Nelson to the Normandy and it's escorts advance on target, the fleet will sit 500 kilometers off in support." Nelson looked at the display as three dreadnoughts, two base ships and a heavy troop transport broke formation and began advancing on their target world.

28 Enemy fighters burned through space and opened fire on the base ship Montana but soon found themselves outgunned by the mighty imperial attack squadron, the dreadnoughts Tortega and Python opened fire with their main AP batteries and the Montana brought it's massive mount AP guns to bare on the foolish EA fighters, within seconds all that was left of the Earther attack squadron was debris.

However engaging the enemy fighters brought the squadron into range of the Weapon platforms on Marjoram and as it's powerful Anti-Proton guns tore through the blackness of space the Tortega rocked as it's shields absorbed the first volley from Marjoram. But as the squadron advanced the second volley tore through the Tortega's shields and crippled several of her guns, forcing her to withdraw from the battle.

Two more vollies knocked the Python out of the engagement leaving only 1 dreadnought and 2 basesships to escort the Normandy as it brought it's precious cargo within dropship range.

The Captain of the Montana requested permission to open fire on the planet's surface and destroy the Weapons platforms however the farsighted Nelson forbade such an action and ordered the warships simply to screen for the Normandy until it dropped it's troops.

A few seconds later after the massive weapon's platforms opened up several more times the only warship left to escort the Normandy was the Montana herself as the others had been forced out of the engagement due to shield failures and crippled systems.

Despite the hellish firepower brought to bare and the lack of counter fire from the Imperials the Normandy made it into dropship range and unleashed her cargo....400 dropships launched from the cargo bays of the Normandy each carrying 10 troopers and a light tank into battle.

Within seconds the 1st Spartan regiment was on the ground and engaging enemy mechanized infantry units and planetary milita. The 4,000 Troops and 400 tanks of the 1st Spartan advanced in one massive front on the capital city of the enemy colony and within minutes had reached the Earth Force lines.

The advance was quick and nearly bloodless to the Spartans as their massive armored might rolled over the enemy trenches and their Infantry followed up cutting down over 1,200 EA soldiers and milita leaving the city wide open to assault....the first assault had cost the lives of only 24 Spartan soldiers and the destruction of 2 tanks while the Earth colony and it's 1.2 billion people were swiftly brought into the Imperium's grasp.

In Marjoram IX' capital city the entire Spartan regiment entrenched and began to round up any Earth alliance citizens that would become troublesome including local governing persons and executed them quickly, before placing a "trustworthy" local citizen in charge as governor. Plans had it that the 1st spartan would occupy Marjoram IX for at least one month before leaving a loyalist milita force to guard the planet.

Nelson smiled humorlessly when he recieved the reports, 80 Imperial soldiers and spacers had died and nearly 200 more were wounded but the first world had fallen to the Imperium and soon the real battle would come and he would test the mettle of his fleet for real.....the first world he thought ironically one world out of over 400 that still belonged to the cursed Earthers.

[sachmo]

Good luck with this!

[Fyron]

Would you like your story archived on SpaceEmpires.net?

[Alneyan]

The previous thread should be here.

[ May 10, 2004, 18:12: Message edited by: Alneyan ]