[sachmo]

Consolidation

2406.7

Governor Luciano Raillo looked out over the surface of the planet Norak. The world that the Norak had once called home was a bLasted, shattered land. Fires from the orbital bombardment still burned over the horizon. Great craters could be seen from low orbit, the only remaining indicator of the previous existence of a Norakian city. The scale of the destruction made him shiver. Maybe we should have named this planet Cinder, he thought.
It was his job to establish this planet as a Remorhaz colony. He was determined to rebuild this world, but on the bones of two billion Norakian corpses. How would that sit with the colonists? It was a good thing they had a larger than usual Army compliment with them. That should help keep everyone in line…for a while. He looked up into the night sky, and could see the bright stars that were actually Remorhaz ships. They needed Norak as a forward supply base, and so that was the priority. Raillo turned back to his work, and tried not to think about what the future held.

On the edge of the Lapzooli system, Nemesis and her fleet raced to intercept the Norak Ampara destroyer that was trying to run for the wormhole to Wurtuy. It would be three frigates against one destroyer. Gina wanted to take this ship down to atone for her defeat at The Battle of the Rocks.
As they approached the quadrant where the Ampara was, Gina worked out the battle plan with Captain Jennings and Captain Reed. Nemesis would try and hold the destroyer’s attention while Hyperion and Furious took up positions on his flanks. The Norakian had longer-range missiles, and flanking him might be their only hope of getting a hit in on him.
The Ampara fired first, locking up Hyperion at extreme range and firing off a salvo. Captain Reed kept his ship out of harm’s way as Nemesis and Furious closed range. The Norakian captain fired and moved, targeting whichever ship was closest. Gina got a wonderful surprise, as a flight of missiles from Furious approached the Ampara were knocked out of the sky by some type of point defense laser mounted on the ship.
We need get some of those! Gina thought. Suddenly, the Ampara fired at Nemesis. Gina moved the ship out of range while the other two Remorhaz ships closed. Suddenly, the Norakian closed within missile range of both Nemesis and Hyperion. Both ships emptied their tubes, and the Ampara now had four missiles streaking toward her. The flight from Nemesis struck first. The point defense weapons knocked one of the missiles down, but the other streaked in for the kill. Before the missile could hit the hull, there was a tremendous bLast as the missile struck some sort of shield surrounding the Ampara.
“Son of a *****!”
“Captain, the missiles from Hyperion are closing on the target!…Captain, direct hit with both missiles!”
Gina watched the tactical display that hovered before her eyes. The two shots from Hyperion had hurt the Norakian destroyer. She could see two holes in the ship where the engines had been, and a large hole in the starboard “wing”.
She watched the missiles from Furious bypass the remaining point defenses and slam into the destroyer, shredding her port side. The Ampara was crippled. Gina watched in horror as Hyperion turned into the Norak missiles and headed for her position.
She stabbed the com link. “Reed! You still have two missiles homing on you!” She came in on the middle of a frantic conversation on the bridge of Hyperion.
“Belay that turn, Helm! Damn it, Mr. Douglass, what were you thinking?”
The com went dead as the two Norakian missiles struck Hyperion on her starboard side. One missile crashed thru the thin hull and continued into the rear of the ship before exploding in the engine room. All but two ion engines were vaporized in the explosion, along with the entire engineering crew. The second missile exploded right outside of the hull next to “broadway”, the main corridor stretching the length of the ship. Ten crewmen were killed instantly in the explosion, and another two were sucked out into space before the section could be sealed off. Hyperion was out of the fight.
It didn’t matter much. One Last salvo from Nemesis finished the Ampara. The missiles must have struck the engine core, because an explosion started in the aft of the destroyer and tore thru the ship, finally splitting her into pieces before the fireball burned out in the vacuum of space.
Gina sat back in her command chair. “Nice shooting, Weps. Get yourself a cup of coffee. Sensor, let me know if you see any sign of survivors.”
She keyed the com unit again. Both Captain Reed and Captain Jennings faces appeared on screen.
“Walt, how is Hyperion?”
Walter looked haggard. “Most of the fires are under control, and the exposed areas are sealed off. I would like it if you could take my wounded, Gina?”
Gina nodded. “We’ll come along side, Walt. What happened?”
Captain Reed got a concerned look on his face. “My XO made a bad decision. He was trying to open up the range from the missiles, but didn’t get the intercept angle correct. Ahhh, I should have been watching closer. I take full responsibility.”
Gina shook her head. “Walt, we’ll get it straightened out back home. Right now, let’s get you to port, ok?”
Captain Reed managed a weak smile and nodded. He broke the link.
Gina looked at the com unit. “Rita, I need you to cover us while we transfer the wounded, alright?”
Rita nodded. “Anything else you need, Gina?”
“How about a month of shore leave and a nice bath?”
They both laughed. It would be a while before that would be a reality.

Remorhaz sent a colony ship to colonize the Yukra system. There was a large rock planet with an oxygen atmosphere there. Admiral Urian dispatched Falcon to escort her.

2406.8

Commandant Shawn Hunter looked over at his staff. They had been working at this for months now, and he believed that they had all of the kinks worked out. Since pretty much everything up until now regarding space to surface invasion had been theory, everything that they were working on was groundbreaking. Hunter and his officers had been up in orbit, dropped from a modified berth in the Space Yard that simulated a troop transport (none had been built yet, but Hunter had a design), and simulated a hot landing in the one prototype assault carrier that had been built. They had been running computer simulations and writing documents. They had been observing the training of the new Space Marines, ensuring that the Space Marine Corps doctrine was being instilled into these new recruits. Over the Last few months, these men had earned their pay, to say the least. All of that hard work seemed to be paying off, however, as it seemed that they had covered most of the bases.
Hunter picked up his data unit and glanced at the final unit structure. They would raise one complete division to start. The troops would come from all over the society, and each planet would have a training base established on it. The basic Space Marine Corps unit outline was as follows:

Platoon-the basic fighting unit of the Corps. The platoon could actually be divided into two squads, but most of the time would fight as a cohesive unit. The platoon was structured around a manpower goal of 20 men, as that was the troop capacity of the new assault carriers. A Sub Lieutenant commanded this unit.
Company-5 platoons made up a Company. A Captain or a Major commanded this unit. It consisted of about 100 men and the company staff.
Battallion-4 Companies made up a Battalion. This unit was 400 men and was commanded by a Major or a Lieutenant Colonel. This formation was the smallest formation to have heavy artillery integrated into it.
Brigade-4 Battalions made up a Brigade. A brigade consisted of 1600 men plus the commanding Colonel and his staff. The Brigade would have a complete staff and be capable of operation as an independent entity for extended periods of time. Most planetary assaults would be carried out in Brigade strength.
Divison-3 Brigades made up a Division. This was the largest Marine unit, and was commanded by a Brigadier or higher-ranking General. This unit would hardly ever be gathered in one place. It consisted of around 5000 men and a total of 330 assault craft. Also assigned to it were multiple transport shuttles, speeders, and other transportation mediums.
In an operation, the ranking Space Marine Corps officer would be in charge of the planetary assault. The basic doctrine for an assault was the assaulting of key points on an enemy planet by Battalion side units, or smaller. Only on rare occasions would an entire Brigade be dropped for an assault upon one objective.
The assault craft were an integral part of the Space Marine Corps fighting unit. Not only did it serve as the drop ship for the troops, but also once on the surface its guns would provide fire support at the platoon level. It’s high speed and rough terrain maneuverability made the Space Marine platoon a force to be reckoned with.
Some of the officers were toying with the idea of assigning Space Marines to ships, allowing them to act as boarders or become an extra security force for the ship. There was a lot more research to be done before this was even attempted.
Hunter wanted to instill esprit de corps into his men, and train them mainly in assault operations. At times the Space Marine Corps would act as garrison troops, but their primary mission was planetary assault.
The Space Marine Corps was coming together. Hunter listened as his staff gave him figures on the various training operations going on throughout the Society. It looked as if the officers and non-coms brought over from the other services were really building a team spirit, and believing that they were becoming an elite fighting unit.
As night approached, Hunter sent all of his officers home for a night of well-deserved rest. For him, there was no rest. He had to write up his findings for the Chairman.

2406.9

The Repair Ship Icelus moved into position to begin repairs to Hyperion. The fleet had been creeping along at a snails pace, but some underway repairs should get them to Norak sooner. Captain Jager watched in wonder as the ship mounted repair bay went to work on the damaged frigate. I sort of looked like a giant insect was feeding on Hyperion with all of the arms from the repair ship moving about, cutting something here, removing something there. Well, the Admiral was right, she thought. The fleet is definitely becoming self-sufficient. It was a good thing, too. They had to find out where the rest of the Norak worlds were, and eliminate or capture them. It made Jager uneasy to thing of Lapzooli as Remorhaz space. She kept expecting the Norak to come charging thru a wormhole with an armada which they had no chance of stopping coming to claim their birthright. Then again, maybe they were on the edge of extension.

In the Xillantha system, RSS Hawk jumped thru the wormhole where Eagle met her fate. Lieutenant Commander Harry Norton was expecting to find the Rage home system there, but instead was greeted by an empty system populated with asteroid fields. This system looked to be another key junction in the galaxy. If they could hold this system, they might be able to eliminate any Rage threat to the Lapzooli system. Commodore Lu requested a satellite field be laid in the wormhole as soon as possible. The more early warning, the better.

2407.0

Governor Kalashnikov woke to the sound of his com unit ringing. A full nights rest is all that I ask for, he thought. Every night for the past year it seemed as if something required his attention. Couldn’t anyone handle things by themselves? Imitative! That’s they key, boys! He told them that time and time again, and yet here he was, wiping the sleep from his eyes. Whoever it was had better have a good reason for waking him. He pushed the button to answer.
He was greeted by the face of Rear Admiral Shiro Sakazawa. “Sorry to wake you, governor, but I’m issuing a Class One alert for the colony. Sensors picked up a large Rage fleet, and it looks like they are headed our way at full steam. I think you should get your people under cover, as much as possible.”
“Thank you, Admiral. Shall I switch production to defensive systems again?” Honestly, Kalashnikov was getting a bit tired of this. He had been governor of Fort Justice for a little over a year, and he had put his colony on alert three times before. Each time, the Rage fleet turned away. This time, he honestly didn’t care.
“Do what you think is best, Governor. We will be up here protecting you throughout.”
Kalashnikov shook his head. More of the same non-committal chest thumping. These Navy types had a flare for the dramatic. Life didn’t work out that way, in his experience. Life was messy. It wasn’t some heroic epic to be sung for eons.
“Thanks for your help, Admiral.” With that, Kalashnikov broke the connection. He considered going back to bed, but decided against it. If the Rage did attack, hopefully some of his people would survive. He doubted very much that the “grand fleet” would.

On Norak, the resupply base was finished. Commodore Lu ordered an expeditionary fleet be organized to check out the wormhole thru which the Norak destroyer had appeared. For this mission he detached Nemesis and Furious. They were to check the system for Norak presence. If they did detect the Norak, they were to gather as much information as possible and await further instructions.

To be continued...