Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread

[Ruatha]

Ahh, goodie...
Much to work with!

[mlmbd]

CaptRR, another GREAT chapter! You get thumbs up from me!

mlmbd

[Ruatha]

The intersting hot-spots right now:

[Ruatha]

2407.0
In the Secunda Giedi System.
---------------------------
Aboard the Destroyer Runaway.
Only one of the three shifts of the crew was in service, of the 19 aboard two where at the command bridge, one in the engine room, one was preparing a meal in the mess and two where doing maintnance on the cloaking device.
The Runaway was a special ship in that it had no offensive capability, she was a fast personnel carrier and now she was running with only her crew aboard, making her innards a wast empty space. Something unusual for the Weyrling crew who was usually serving on ordinary ships.
The Weyrling ships where luxurious in the space allocated to every person aboard when compared to many other species, but to a Weyrling the ships often seemed crowded.
Serving in this huge empty innards was a different experiance for the crew.

"-Should we alert the captain?", Sergeant Krut asked anselm Roy who was heading the ship while he pointed at the scanner screen.
"-Negative, He's asleep, no use wakening him. Alert the Desperation that we might need some assistance and start to close the distance to them."
Krut got information from the One about who was in command of the Desperation right now and voiced to the captain of the Desperation:
"-We're seing an asteroid field in our way, are you picking up on it too?"
"-Yes, we are manning the point defense cannon turrets right now, it shouldn't be any problem, just stick close to us!"
"-Affermative"

As they closed in on the dense asteroid field the smaller Runaway destroyer closed the gap too the larger and better armed light cruiser Desperation.
Asteroid fields weren't really a threat as they were more vacuum than asteroids and usually the ships passed right through. Actually ships tended to avoid running through asteroid fields if they weren't pressed for time.
The Recovery task force hovewer was pressed for time and pushed straight through. Smaller grovel and minor rocks could be handled by the armour but larger rocks needed to be bLasted first.

"-Time to give a warning, no way around it but to waken the ship"
Sergeant Krut opened the ship wide intercom:
"Alert. We are entering a minor asteroid field and we might experiance a bit of bumps for a while, no need for alarm. Carry on as usual!"
A couple of minutes after the warning they felt the first bump as the ship hit a minor rock which was repelled by the armour. After that it started to become uncomfortable as the ship rocked almost constantly in a disharmonic beat.
The crew was experianced but still lay awake as this wasn't all that common, it happened from time to time but you didn't experiance it every year.
On the bridge the anselm and the sergeant watched as the Desperations point defence turrets opened fire now and then, most of the times the blocks they where firing upon didn't pose any threat but it was a welcome target practice and a break from routine.
An asteroid larger than a battleship showed up on the scanners ahead of the ships, the calculation unit quickly stated that it would be a near miss by half a kilometer, not dangerous but impressive as the huge block closed in at enourmous speed (actually the block was nearly still but the ships was travelling near maximum speed).
When they where almost there one of the Desperations turrets opened fire at the block, gunner Lise thought she might have time to etch a grand "L" on the block as they passed by.
The cannon rounds hit the edge of the block, chiselling out a mansized corner that shot out infront of the Runaway. No one had reflexes fast enough to act on the threat!
The block hit the Runaway on starboard below, tearing through the armour and punching a hole into the Runaway, coming to a halt three meters inside the hull, killing the captain instantly as it hit the captains quarters. The engines shut down immediatly and the Desperation accelerated for another second before they shut down their engines aswell.

"-What have I done, What have I done??", they could all hear gunner Lise's question that was voiced without direction. The loss of the captain was immediatly felt as a disturbance in the collective by the crews on both ships.

As the Runaway was dead in space due to ripped circuits that would take another week to repeair the decision was made to split the task force.
The Desperation would proceed to the Giik system and rescue Try. Thurya as senior officer without a ship position would be transferred to the Runaway and take command of that vessel.
She wasn't needed in the rescue as that would be handled by the marines.
The Runaway would do repairs and would meet up with the Desperation at the warp point between Secunda Giedi and Giik when Try had been rescued, then all personnel would be transfered to the Runaway and the Desperation would be left with the ship AI in command, programmed to perform it's final task.

As the Desperation entered the Giik system the crew was amazed at what they saw.
The scanners went wild.
The fleet of ships massed in the Giik system outnumbered even the once mighty Sledgehammer fleet, approximately 200 ships where in the system. Mostly Battleships but some smaller and some larger ships aswell, fighter Groups running all over the system. More than half of the fleet was Nyran but a sizable part was Terran.
"-Now we will see what is most advanced, our cloak or their scanners", the captain thought aloud.
But as they slowly approached the planet where Try was being held there was no indication that they had been spotted. It took two weeks to finally arrive at the planet. When the assault shuttles landed guards fired upon the marines.
But the Weyrling marines weren't unprotected spaceships crew, they had the best defensive and offensive technology availible to the Central Powers alliance and the ground battle was only going one way. As good as the Terrans might be in space battles the prision guards where no match for the Weyrling marines, bodies littered the yard as they swept into the complex.
Finding Try was no problem as they had constant contact with him and the One showed the direction.
After a quick retreat into the shuttles all marines and Try was soon aboard the Desperation which started to power up the engines.
There was only one enemy ship in orbit and that was on the other side of the planet.
The ships in the system seemed to be gathered at one point mainly with a lot of ships heading in that direction.
The advanced scanners could already detect several ships starting to alter course towards the planet, and several hundreds of fast fighters starting to head in the general direction of the prison planet.
The number of ships in the system wasn't anticipated but they had planned on being pursued.
The Desperation would under cloak head for the warp-point, then after having transferred the personell it would head to the star and blow up the entire system!
Seeing this incredible mass of ships in the Giik system the Weyrlings had thought of it as a divine gift. The Nyrans would suffer a terrible loss aswell, but they couldn't prove it was the Weyrlings, and even so, after this the Nyrans wouldn't have any force left to be afraid of.
Only a couple of hours after the sucessful escape a stellar event showed up on the scanners. At the point of the main mass of ships a new warp point was slowly being opened. The one instantly connected this with a similar event starting at the same time in the Kalzeron system some distance from Kalzeron prime.
In a week the Terran/Nyran ships would be in Kalzeron, which now was defended by only 6 destroyers!
That fleet would do more damage to the Weyrling empire than the Weyrling had managed to inflict upon the Terrans during the entire war. So this was the reasson the Terran ships weren't attacking. They had been diverted for this purpose.
Even though the One couldn't feel fear, it could sense that feeling amongst the Weyrling population.
The decision aboard the Desperation was easy, even without the guidance of the One, everyone aboard the sip agreed and the Desperation altered course for the Giik star.
The Runaway would continue to be an empty ship.

Both Try and Thurya wept alot the following three days as they where in constant connection up to the moment the Giik star exploded!
The Runaway waited outside the Giik system for the wave front to pass by the warp point before they could enter it, but the trip home would go much faster due to the new warp point between Giik and Kalzeron.

Inside the Lasat system:

The Psi corps ship Tomaten was slowly gaining on Troikens Pride, Gurkan had diverted in a semicircle intended to take it arround Troikens Pride, so that there would be no chance escape.
The Troikens Pride hadn't tried to contact them, that didn't alter things but the crew had thought that the Dravens would plea for their lifes. More peculiar was that they hadn't started to fire upon the Weyrlings, they must know by now that there was no escape! Yet still they continued their turtlelike escape attempt.
When Gurkan was well ahead of Troikens Pride and the psi Corps was sure of success they started to power up the alligience converters. Soon the One would get more insigth into the Draven mind!
Then space itself started to shimmer beside Tomaten, the crew on Tomaten understood that it was a ship coming out of cloak. Most propably a Draven ship.
Very well, they might be able to destroy Tomaten who had it's weapons trailing Troikens Pride but they sure wouldn't be able to take out Gurkan. One Psi corps ship was an afforable price for two Draven ships full with Draven crew, and the Draven ships tended to be packed with crew. Oh, how many minds to probe, the feelings in the Psi Corp crew was stil high when the Draven ship that materialized fired it's first salvo.
Aimed at Troikens Pride.
"-Noo", the captain of Tomaten cried out.
"Full ahead, put us between those two ships. Gurkan, capture Troikens Pride now!"
But it was too late, one round from those telekinetic cannons shouldn't be enough to destroy a ship such as Troikens Pride, but the Dravens obviously knew where to aim. The troikens Pride exploded in a ball of fire.
"-Gurkan, take that new Draven ship instead while they're firing upon us!"
Then the other Draven ship joined Troikens Pride in a ball of flame.
It was uncomprehensible. The Weyrlings hadn't fired a single shot, and now two draven ships was ashes.
What had happened here??

At Central Powers headquarter in the Acamar system:

Elyssandra was sitting in her quarters discussing with Prince dravel.
"-I'm glad you could make it here, but also dissappointed that you are leaving so soon!", she said.
"-Even though it's always a pleasure to meet you matriarch, I'm saddened that I must leave. But I must follow some leads that might explain this attack upon the Indestructible. Right now it's as hard to understand for me as it is for you. But I have been looking into captain Jalan's movements before the attack and I'll be questioning everyone he had contact with previous to the attack. And that goes for the late admiral Panar aswell.
I guarantee you that I will find answers, just give me time!"
"-I wouldn't have belived anyone else. But your father the King acted with great integrity when he kept us out of war when our races met.
So long ago it seems now.
I see that you are truly his son. Follow your leads prince Draven, I trust you in this, but keep us informed, our patience isn't endless!"

Days and weeks passed.
Elyssandra had given up any hope of getting ships from the Dravens. And had begun packing to return to Kalzeron and Ilian. The plan that was meant to send a warning to the Argon and the CCCP was promising to wipe out the Terran fleet aswell. Try was to be rescued anyday now, he could be home in a couple of months. To have the family gathered again, it had been so long since that had Last happened.

The Indestructible had been repaired and the trip to Kalzeron was a short one now that the weyrlings had opened a wormhole directly between kalzeron and Acamar.
After boarding the Indestructible they left for the wormhole to Kalzeron. Try had been rescued and Elyssandra was feeling great. She was on top of the world.
Then it hit her, the Terrans and Nyrans where opening a warp point into Kalzeron.
They wouldn't have time to open a warp point to the Sledge and Hammer fleets and bring them home in time. And against what was coming they wouldn't have a chance anyway. The only solution was painstakingly obvious, she would never se Try again. Her son!

Elyssandra was in the Kalzeron system when the star destroyer went off. When she arrived at Kalzeron prime she received a message from what remained of the terran goverment. They surrendered unconditionally. The Nyrans had declared war and allied themselfs with the Argon confederacy and the CCCP.
From the new Terran subjects the Weyrlings learnt the reason for the war declarations from the Argon and CCCP.
After torturing Try the Terrans had gone to the empires surrounding the Weyrlings and the Central Powers alliance and showed recordings of Try explaining about the One and the collective. The Argons and the CCCP having seen changes in the Weyrlings suspected that it was something infecteous and wanted to either isolate or annihilate the Weyrlings before the "disease" spread to their empires.
The Nyrans had been planning a war a long time, primarily against the Dravens but when the Terrans asked them to join forces against the Weyrlings they had gladly accepted. Thinking of the hundreds of rich planets in the Weyrling empire.

The Weyrlings now controlled all Terran territory. The Weyrlings asked themselfs: for what? They joined the war for the alliance and won a vicory and a prize they never sought. What to do with it?

The One and the Weyrlings had thought on the matter and a decision was made.
The Weyrlings would abandon their new possesions, the Terran territory would be handed over to the Central powers alliance to handle. All outgoing warp points from the Weyrling Empire would be shut off, the one to Acamar would be saved to Last.
Inside the Weyrling empire a intricate net of warp points would be opened, the resulting gravitational disturbances would make it impossible for someone to open a warp point into the empire.
With new ringworlds and sphereworlds soon being finished and 34 worlds already with breathable atmosphere and 121 more worlds soon to have breathable atmosphere, as the atmospheric converters where staring to operate, the Weyrlings would have ample of space to expand within their own borders.
This was to be kept a secret until it was to late for anyone to intervene. For all systems to be shut out with the new warp point network operative would take less than three years.
Three years to arrange for a future in isolation.
Three years to keep this secret from becoming common knowledge, no one not a Weyrling would be allowed to know.
The expulsion of aliens from Weyrling territory would have to be handled with some finesse, but out they would go. Soon, there wouldn't be any aliens left inside the empire.
The Central powers alliance wouldn't be allowed to know that it was about to loose one of its members, not until it was too late to do anything about.

If the universe didn't want to have anything to do with the Weyrlings, the Weyrlings could do without the universe. They had already learnt all they needed to know from the aliens.

[ April 09, 2003, 21:18: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[Raging Deadstar]

Very good Ruatha, i'm curious what will happen between the dravens and the wreylings now the wreylings are shutting themselves out. A very good chapter

[mlmbd]

Ruatha, another great addition, Sir! I am enjoing this story!

I was wondering as RD about "what will happen between the dravens and the wreylings now the wreylings are shutting themselves out."

mlmbd

[CaptRR]

Grumble, grubble.... damn Isolatinists Weyrlings ...

[Atrocities]

Damn it took me most of the day to get caught up on this thread. I eagerly away another installment.

[Ruatha]

CaptRR> Anything coming up soon? (Don't wanna press you, just eagerly anticipating the next chapter.)

Tbontob> Given up on this story?

[ April 13, 2003, 13:02: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[CaptRR]

Yep, got one coming really soon. Your isolationism, through me for a loop

I had to delete what I wrote, and re-write it, no biggie. I'll have anouther chapter by the end of the day.