[sachmo]

Strength

2408.2

Captain Will Crowley watched the tactical screen as the Sensor Officer ran a scan of the Lundra system. Nothing but asteroid fields and the lonely blue star that held the system together. Commodore Gordon Lu was also present on the bridge of his former command, RSS Intimidator. He had expected to catch a glimpse of a Rage battle fleet. On all of the other occasions, when a Rage fleet would enter the Xillantha system from the wormhole in Fezzran, a supporting fleet would enter from Lundra also. Sure enough, Rear Admiral Sakazawa reported that a Rage fleet was detected in the Xillantha system. It had indeed warped in from Fezzran. Commodore Lu believed that he would spot a Rage fleet transiting Lundra, and that fleet would give chase as he took Gamma Fleet back thru the wormhole to Lapzooli and Norak. At the end of that chase Gamma Fleet would make a stand, supported by defense satellites protecting the lip of the Lapzooli-Lundra wormhole. Now that there was no Rage fleet detected in the system, he could not spring his trap. At least Loxias would be able to deploy the spy satellite in the system. Commodore Lu made a decision to wait for a few weeks, and see if a Rage fleet appeared. The problem was that the Rage never seemed to do anything the way he wanted them to.

Back on Hera, the research guild had completed a number of tasks. First, they had perfected the design of the Urban Pacification Centers. They now had the proper psychological tools that would be required to indoctrinate any Norakians captured into Remorhaz Society life. Already, the xenopsychologists were experimenting with effective way to deal with Rage worlds, and possibly Ukra-Tal worlds also. Two other discoveries were also made which would be of particular use to the military; the Anti-Proton beam and the Ionic Disperser. The Anti-Proton Beam was the first military energy weapon designed. This beam had a shorter range than the DUC, and over range it lost power. However, it required no physical ammunition to be supplied, and could be powered by radioactives.
The Ionic Disperser was a much more specialized weapon. It had a very short range, but the beam would attack the core of the engines on the ship it was fired at, attempting to overload and destroy them. This weapon would be especially useful against the Rage, with their advanced engine designs. These weapons would be fitted on the Glory B Class Destroyers. All ship designs were updated to use the anti-matter drives, and both the Nemesis D Class Frigates and the Eagle D Class System Patrol Ships were outfitted with the emergency propulsion boosters. The ships of the fleet would be upgraded at the earliest convenience, but on a rotating schedule to keep the fleets at the highest strength possible. Immediately, the research guild began work on shield technology.

2408.3

Grand Admiral Urian was impressed. The shields held thru the test flawlessly. It had taken two hits from the depleted uranium cannon before the shield generator had given out. While the protection was light, it could make the difference between a killing blow and a damaging one. He turned to his counterparts from the other service branches, Field Marshal Gulman and Commandant Hunter.
“Well, gents, that gadget is going to save a lot of lives.”
Commandant Hunter nodded and smiled, “I need to get my eggheads working on scaling that thing down. If I could shield the Blazers…yes Marcus, it would save a lot of lives. I wish we had discovered this Last year. I’m sure it would have been welcomed by my boys on the way to Regotha III.”
All three flag officers nodded in agreement.

On Timerron, construction began on a new Space Yard. The transit time for new ships built at either the Remorhaz or the Glory shipyards was just too great to allow for an effective defense of the Yukra system and the colony of Timerron. It would take five months to complete the facility and a small hoard of resources, but the flexibility it would add could not be easily measured.
The same principle held true for the Lapzooli system, and so Norak also began construction of a Space Yard facility.

2408.4

Once again, the Rage fleet that had invaded the Xillantha system floated around and looked menacing, but did no actual damage. The people of Fort Justice had been obligingly fearful, but frankly the whole thing began to take on a sort of macabre humor to them. The Fort Justice Broadcasting Company began running a weekly serial play called “Spare Parts”, in which the actors portrayed members of the oft seen Rage fleet. The premise was that the commander of the Rage fleet was actually malfunctioning, but since he didn’t want to be “recycled” by the Primary Sequencer, he tried everything to keep it a secret from his crew. The Rage commander kept the fleet in Remorhaz space to avoid being discovered by the Rage “quality control druids”. The writing was brilliant, and the show quickly became a hit. It was even exported to the other worlds of the Remorhaz Society, and “Spare Parts” kept the plight of Fort Justice on the minds of all citizens. Soon the name Fort Justice became synonymous with tenacity and strength.
The stress of living under constant threat of nuclear annihilation had given the residents of Fort Justice a different view of life, to say the least. Governor Kalashnikov had noted to the Chairman that while the people worked as hard as they could, once they were back in their homes, things tended to get a little wild. The alcohol imports of the colony were 35% greater per capita then any other colony in the Society. The sale of recreational items was also very high compared to the other worlds, while less than 2% of the population had any personal savings to speak of. However, the exported resources from mining were usually around 101%-108% of projections. Live for today was the motto of the citizens of Fort Justice. The rest of the Society began to look up to them. Soon the more adventurous (some would say stupid, also) of the Society began packing up and heading for Fort Justice. The strength of this world began to become a symbol for the fighting spirit of the Remorhaz people.

On Remorhaz, the RSS Midguard was the first ship to be upgraded with the anti-matter engines. The engines preformed flawlessly, as did the emergency propulsion packs. The engineering crew was a bit uncomfortable with the whole process in which the component devoured itself, but it did no damage and did indeed fulfill it’s purpose.

Glory launched the RSS Apollo a Nemesis D Class frigate. She was to join the Xillantha Defense Fleet. Upon her arrival, Glory would detach from the fleet and head back to Glory Ship Yard for an upgrade.

The Space Marine assault fleet would reach Regotha III by the beginning of the next month. The first planetary invasion in Remorhaz history was about to become a reality.

To be continued...