Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread

[CaptRR]

Chapter 30

Linoris watched as the Last of his mines detonated itself against yet another invader, their seemed to be no end to them. Tactical had reported over 15 ships destroyed, but they kept coming.

The command deck of the Kornephoras had been busy to the point of panic the Last 2 minutes. No one had ever tried to invade the Kornephoras system. Even during the dark days when it looked like the Dravens and Weyrlings were going to go to war, no one had put much faith in an attack on the Draven home system, it was just too bold of a move, the system was too well dedended, yet here someone was sending what seemed like waves of ships against his mines.

His tactical officer looked at him, her look was one of death, �Sir,� she said, her voice, almost cracking, somehow she kept it under control. �We have identified the ships, they are Draven.�

�What?� Linoris started to breath hard, he had just destroyed 15 draven ships, what the hell was a Draven doing trying an unauthorized transit, what was going on.

�Communications get me in contact with whoever is in charge of that fleet, find out what the hell is��

�Commander, the commander of the fleet is signaling us.� She paused for a second listening to her ear piece. �We are being ordered to power down our weapons, and deactivate warp point defense systems, if we do not comply immediately we will be attacked.�

Linoris was speechless, what was a Draven ship doing threatening his stations. This was mad. �Tell the whoever is in command over their that we will not power down our weapon system�s until we know what is going on.�

The communications officer nodded, and began talking into softly. The computer automatically separated his voice from the background noise and sent the signal out. It only took a moment to get a response. �The fleets commander is requesting a visual.�

�Agreed.�

Waiting for a visual took a little longer, encryption keys had to be exachanged but overall Linoris�s communications officer was able to expidate the process rather quickly, in less than a minute the screen on his console blinks, and on it appeared the image of a familiar Draven. Linoris gasped in surprise.

The voice spoke with the same pride that had been seen on countless holovids. �Commander, I am Prince Dravel, if you do not comply with my orders I will be forced to open fire.�

Chapter 31

Dravel watched the holographic image of the commander. The man was young for his position, but that wasn�t so unusual these days. The recent war with the Terrens had propelled many through the ranks much faster than they otherwise would have. What did come as unusual was the fact that he hadn�t been fire upon yet. The three base station�s guarding the warp point were capable of tremendous fire, despite their age. Dravel was sure he could take out the stations before his fleet was destroyed, but he would take losses. Losses he couldn�t afford.

The surprise on the commander�s face made it evident that he hadn�t expected a Draven fleet. He probably didn�t even expect a real attack through the warp point, after all the Kornephoras warp point defense was suppose to be one of the most boring assignments, with several systems of friendly territory between it and the nearest neighbor it wasn�t expected that an attack would just come out of nowhere.

The Commander seemed to get control of himself. �I�m afraid I can�t do that sir, my orders are not to let anyone into the system without authorization, and it�s clear by your entry that you do not have permission to pass.�

�Commander,� Dravel said, his voice pleading, he didn�t want to fire on the station if he could help it but he was being left little choice, �We have 15 Landing City class dreadnaughts pointing shield skipping weapons at you, you won�t Last 10 minutes in a firefight. Commander, I�m pleading with you, don�t be a fool, we are here to free the Republic, Yalare is not worth dieing for.�

The commander sighed; Dravel wondered what thoughts were going through the young Draven�s mind. In the end Dravel got his answer, �Sir, I am ordering you to stand down your weapons, or I will be forced to defend this system.�

�I can�t do that commander.�

The expressions of Linoris�s face said it all, he was a man trapped by duty. Since his days in the academy he had it drilled into him that the defense of the Republic was paramount, now he was in a dilemma. The Republic was corrupt, he knew that, but it was still the rightful government, a government he had sworn to protect. �In that case sir, you leave me no choice.�

The image instantly disappeared. Draven could hardly restrain himself. �That stupid fool! He�s outnumbered, outgunned, why won�t he just give up.�

It was Sosha who answered, �He�s doing his duty Prince, at least what he feels his duty is.�

Dravel looked at her, she was right, but damn how he wished the young man would have just surrendered, instead of throwing his life away.

A voice boomed over the loudspeakers in the F-COM, it was the fleet Tactical officer, �Base stations have opened fire, all hands brace for inpact.�

Dravel looked at the plot the bright red lines arched themselves across the screen. A time to inpact notice shown over them, as well as weapon type, and hit percentage. Already the Third Generation Alliance Jammers were lowering that percentage down at a staggering rate. A few would hit, but the damage would be far less than Dravel had feared.

Dravel took a breath, he could feel the pit of his stomach fill with vile at his next word, Father forgive me, he said to himself. �All hand�s return fire.�

The Base stations had huge power draw from their fusion rectors could put out twice as much power as that of a ship. Add to that their massive size, and the fact that they didn�t need heavy propulsion systems, and you have a heavily armed beast. Each station mounted 7 Telekenetic Projectors, but they were of an old variety. From the moment that the base�s had fire, ECMS had lashed out at the Base�s guidance systems. As guidance was lost each of the Telekentic projections began to veer of course. 21 shots had been fired from the Base�s of those only 3 hit their targets, and those were easily shrugged off by the dreadnaughts shields.

Now Third Fleet brought its own fire to bear. The Landing City Class of dreadnaughts sported a new weapon. The Phased Polaron beam was a new alliance development. After realizing that soon all empires would have the ability to shield their ships, alliance HQ had began work on a way to bypass an enemies protective shield. After almost 3 years of work the Phase Polaron Beam was developed. The weapon used a small amount of antimatter, which is brought slightly out of phase with the resonance of the universe. The antimatter is for all intense and purposes invisible to any type of energy shielding. However once it is brought into contact with �real� matter, it is brought back into phase rather violently. The only flaw was that only a small mount could be brought out of phase at a time.

The alliance had figured that the trade off was worth being able to bypass shields, and ordred the weapon developed. Unfortunately it wasn�t ready in time for the end of the Terren War, but all new alliance ships were being built with this new weapon system. Now a wall of phased anti-matter was ejected at near light velocities towards the lumbering base ships. As designed the anti-matter passed through the base�s shield as though they weren�t their, and sliced deep into the hull of the massive fortresses.

Explosion after explosion ripped into the base�s without protective shielding only armor was left to absorb the energy being released, and that didn�t Last long. Layer after layer was ripped away, and giant sections buckled and fell away, but that wasn�t the end of it. After all the punishment the bases were still standing, weakened, yet still operational. Their shields gone, most of their weapon systems disable or destroyed, they attempted to fire on third fleet again. They never got the chance though, behind the wall of Phased anti-matter came an equally impressive wall of telekinetic projections from third fleets smaller vessels. The weakened bases were no match for this, and one of them disappeared in a ball of plasma, it multiple reactors going critical.

The remaining two took this as a sign, and immediately shut down their remaining weapons. By this point though they were basically floating scrap metal, already escape pods were flowing from their mangled hulls, a sure sign that it was over.

Dravel looked at the carnage he wrecked, he hadn�t lost any ships, but he had just sent several thousand Dravens to their grave. He tried to take a calming breath but it didn�t seem to help, �Pick up survivors, then head towards Kornephoras X, its time we end this. If anyone needs me I�ll be in my quarters.�

Without even waiting for an acknowledgement Draven turned and left the room, he felt sick and needed to be alone.

Sosha watched as her prince turned and left, if everyone hadn�t been too busy trying to search for survivors they would have noticed the thing line of a tear down the side of her face.

[Ruatha]

Ah, Duty, so misguided!

[Raging Deadstar]

Great Chapter, seems a shame for honourable dravens to perish needlessly but i guess change and peace comes at great cost. I'm looking forward to seeing more!

[Ruatha]

CaptRR I want more.
And Tbontob, if you ever get time, what happened to Strong-In-Arm and the rest of them?

[Ruatha]

Originally posted by Ruatha:
CaptRR I want more.
And Tbontob, if you ever get time, what happened to Strong-In-Arm and the rest of them?

Still valid

[CaptRR]

You know in all my work I forgot about this thread completely

Since play by web appears to be down for a few days, I think I can use that time constuctively.

I actually just checked on my comptuer, I apperently have a few chapters that I have not yet posted, but I wanted to use this time actually complete the story before pbw comes back up

I'm back working on it now.

[Ruatha]

Goodie, I can wait!

[CaptRR]

Well maybee not the end of the story, but the end is near. Hopefully I'll update a little more than Last time.
______________________________________________

Chapter 32

It was a beautiful night at the Headquarters of the Central Powers, but you couldn�t have told that by the semi-empty streets in the city. Josha noted this with the other reports coming in. All over alliance space the Weyrlings were recalling parts of their population. Even here at HQ over 90 percent of the representatives from the weyrling delegation had left. In a world where the population was evenly split between the 3 races of the Alliance it had become noticeable. Add to that the reports that warp point going into Weyrling space were being closed as well. Any other time Josha would have just though they were being prudent, just reducing the routes for a future invasion to take. But the points they were closing were major trading routes.

Despite all of this, the Weyrlings were continuing to push their shipyards at war time rates. With the loss of revenue from trade, they had to be running a huge deficit. Frankly it looked like the weyrlings were taking on an isolationists policy, but that didn�t explain the increased build rate.

Josha sighed, and looked at his watch. It was late, and way past the time for most government facilities to close down, but the Central Powers Speaker had insisted on a meeting at this time. When Josha asked why, he simply changed the subject. More peculiar was the location. Instead of the speakers office, he had insisted on meeting in the Alliance VIP space port.

The port was empty, more so now that almost a third of the population seemed to have left. The VIP space port was located deep in the city center on top of one of the Alliance administrative buildings. It was used exclusively for visiting statesmen, and of course the speakers Yacht. It also had the distinguished honor of being one of the most glorious ports in known space. It�s view of the alliance headquarters had inspired many artist to paint pictures of the skyline, and many a poet had said the view was a gift from the creator. But today it filled Josha with dread. The 3 sections of the city could be seen easily from here. Both the Dravel and the Thermolians sections could be seen clearly, their huge skyscrapers reaching to the heavens, glowing with life. The story was much different with the Weyrlings section. It looked almost abandoned. Only a light here and their came from their buildings. In effect that section of the city looked like a ghost town.

It was a grim reminder that the Weyrlings were facing a dramatic shift in their attitudes towards the universe, an attitude that didn�t include the Alliance.

The sound of steps snapped him back to the present, and Josha turned to see the speaker of the Central Powers walking towards him. He was followed by several other Weyrlings. Josha recognized them as his aids, one of them wore the outfit of the Weyrling Navy, his approximate rank equal to an Admiral in the Draven Republic.
As the speaker approached Josha bowed, his show of respect was repeated by the speaker and his aids.

�I hope you are well, Draven Josha. I must apologies for the location, but I�m afraid time is short.�

�It is ok speaker�

The Weyrling, gave his races closest approximation of a smile. �Still, hopefully after we finish you will understand my haste.�

Josha looked over the speaker and his aids, over the years he had learned to read Weyrlings pretty well, but all he saw now while he looked over them was a mask. Whatever they were up to they were playing it close to their chest.

�Draven Josha, I�m afraid it is time for us to part ways.�

Josha tried to look surprised, but he had to admit he was expecting this, instead he settled for a courteous nod. �I expected as much, Mr Speaker.�

�You are a smart for a Draven,� now Josha could see that Weyrling smile cross the cat like creatures lips, �so I had no doubt that you would have noticed our sudden withdraw from this planet.�

Josha nodded, �Yes, I had noticed,� he swung his arms towards the window, indicating the darkened Weyrling buildings, �it was after all hard to miss, what I don�t understand is why.�

�Draven Josha, I will try to explain as best as I can, but in many ways it will still seem strange to you. After all the alliance still considers the One to be a myth, but you see Draven Josha, The One is real, and it is so much more than any kind of God. The One is everything to us, it is our beginning and our end, our future and past all rolled into one. To be honest there is no word in your language to describe The One.�

The Speakers aids nodded in agreement. Whatever this One was it was something that they believed in with all their hearts.

�Ok, Mr Speaker, I understand this One is important to you, but what does that have to do with you leaving?�

The Weyrling nodded his feline head, �I�m afraid Draven Josha you understand nothing of the one, but that�s all right, you don�t need to. You will of course remember it was a Weyrling fleet that did the initial occupation of the Terrens. What we found was� disturbing.� The speaker seemed to shudder visibly.

�And this is the reason you are leaving? Something you saw while occupying the terrens?�

�No Draven Josha, its not something we saw, its what we learned when we probed deep into the minds of the Terrens. We saw hate, as pure and evil as anything we had ever experienced, and it was aimed at the Weyrlings.�

Josha was about to voice his objection, but the Speaker cut him off.

�I know what you are about to say Draven Josha, but the hate we saw was deeper than something as simple as war could produce. That hate was woven into the very fabric of their being. Do you understand what I am saying? The Terrens were breed to hate Weyrlings!�

Josha froze for a moment, the implications of what was being said were staggering. Most of the known races were offshoots of Terrens in some way. That included the Dravens.

�Speaker that can�t be, the Dravens have no hate for the Weyrlings.�

�Perhaps not now, after all, the trait seems to have been repressed in the Dravens. But, it is bound to come out eventually, maybe not now, but in the future for sure. It might take a hundred generations before the effects begin to become noticeable, and when that happens the Dravens will turn on the Weyrlings as well.�

�Speaker this all sounds too implausible, could their have been some kind of mistake.� Josha was pleading, almost begging, he couldn�t believe that what the weyrling was saying could be true.

�We have studied the facts as conclusively as possible, and from what we have been able to determine, all races that spawned from terrens, as well most of the other known races have this hate buried in them, waiting to come out. We also believe we know the source.�

That riveted Josha�s attention. �The source?�

�Yes Draven Josha. You see 65 thousand years ago, before even the Terrens had developed on the planet that you call Earth, the Weyrlings spanned across all of known space, and beyond. Our records, indicate that despite our relative size we were very poor technologically speaking. Our ships operated off solar wind, and journeys took centuries even with the help of the warp point network.�

Josha tried to take all this in, what the speaker was telling him couldn�t be true, no one had ever suspected that the werylings were as old as he was now claiming, but something in the speakers voice convinced him that all that was being said was true.

�Dispite the huge gulf between stars we were all One. The One kept us together, even if we were to never see another Weyrling we knew that we were always one. For thousands of years we lived this way. We never invented better technology because we simply didn�t need it. What was several hundred year journey when we were never alone.

We traveled the stars and found life everywhere, but none was advance as us. Oh sure their was potential, but it was thousands of years distant. We were content that we were the only intelligent species in the Universe. At least that is what we thought.

We still don�t know who they were, but we knew they wanted us extinct. Their physic abilities were unmatched, and even as their massive swarms of ships came down upon us they used their physic abilities to turn our own people away from the one and against us. It took everything we had to beat them. Trillions of Weyrlings died in the conflict, but we managed to drive them back to their home system.

We had thought it was over, but in the end they unleashed the worse weapon imaginable. It took the strength of every Last one of them to project a psychic virus.

All of a sudden billions of our own people went what could only be explained as mad. We destroyed ourselves in such numbers that they could not be recorded. We think this is when some of our scientists began to alter the genes of developing species. Instilling a hate for the Weyrlings in every life bearing world they came across.

We survived, but not before we lost almost 99 percent of our species. The one was scared deeper than words can convey, and we withdrew inward, into just 3 planets. From their we started to rebuild. The one knew that we could not survive another war like the Last, so it went into seclusion, and let our own competitive instincts build the technology needed to win the next war. It took us a long time develop better ways to travel the stars, and when we finally ventured out of our own warp points we found that the Galaxy was filled with life.

We never suspected that life had been altered by our ancestors, until we looked into a Terren and saw what we most feared. Hate for ourselves, the very hate we had thought was behind us, beried forever.�

Josha just stared at the Speaker, not sure what to say. What was being said was amazing, it was so unbelievable he could not see how anyone, much less an entire race could have made it up.

�That Draven Josha is why we must leave you. We cannot live in this Universe beside you. Your own nature would eventually turn against us, and we cannot fight off everyone. Instead we have come to learn, that the time of the Weyrlings has past, the future is now with you, and it is a future we cannot be a part of.�

Josha searched for words, �But what of the Alliance, surely the alliance cannot hold without you.�

The Weyrling looked up though the space ports huge glass dome, and for a moment stared at the stars in the night sky. The view was breathtaking, and Josha realized this would be the Last time he would see the Weyrling, they were right the Weyrlings could not live in this Universe anymore, the actions of their ancestors had made that impossible. No, the future belonged to the other races.

The Weyrling looked back down at Josha, �You are correct, the alliance cannot hold, but perhaps it was never meant to. With only three races, we are not diverse enough to stand off the CCCP and its vast resources, but if others we aligned together maybe you might just have a chance.�

�The enemy of my enemy is my friend� Josha muttered softly, for some reason that phrase seemed appropriate.

�Indeed, Draven Josha, Indeed� With that the Weyrling bowed, as did the rest of his guests. Josha stood and watched as the Speaker got into his yacht and vanished into the night sky. For many hours Josha just stood their in the space port staring out the windows. For some reason the Universe seemed a little more frightening.

Chapter 33

Yalare paced his office. The news of the invasion fleet reached the Capital just a few hours after they entered the system. The amount of ships the enemy had were not many, already home fleet which outnumbered them 2 to 1 was already on an intercept course. No the invasion fleet was not the problem, what was a problem was who was leading that fleet. Of all the Dravens in command it had to be Prince Dravel, the rightful heir of the Presidency.

Even though Yalare had placed a lockdown of all media word had gotten out, that Prince Dravel was coming to free the people from Yalare. Almost every floating city had been having riots continually. Yalare knew that if the Prince managed to get troops on the ground, then the people would rally around them. Yalare may have an extensive security force, but they couldn�t fight off an entire planet!

Yalare wanted to run but he couldn�t. He was sure the Prince would be killed when home fleet managed to crush the Princes little fleet. The word of the princes death would enrage the population, and Yalare would be disposed of like any other dictator in history.

It wasn�t fair, he told himself. All he was trying to do was help the republic, and now that same republic had turned against him! Fine if that was the way they wanted it, he would make them pay.

Slowly Yalare reached into his desk and took out a small black box, it looked almost antique and mesured 15 centimeters across, with an old style keypad being its only feature. Yalare rubbed it with his hand.

�Oh yes, if they want me that bad they can have me, but they will pay more dearly than they could imagine.�

[Ruatha]

I like it!
It was a good description of the Weyrlings far history and a good farewell!
Things start to look bad for that scumbag Yalare! Good!
But what is he up to now?
Has it something to do with the cloaked CCCP ships??
Or is it another bomb??

Why are the Weyrling shipyards working so? They have 130+ planetary SY3:s so they can output alot if needed, but what are they doing now?

Suspension!!!

[ August 07, 2003, 11:34: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[Raging Deadstar]

Great update! I've been eagerly awaiting the next few chapters of this story and i'm impressed. It gives us a great insight of the Wreylings. Hope you find time to write more soon!

*Round of Applause*