Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread

[Ruatha]

2405.5 Weyrlings:
=================

Good Evening.
These are the news from the Last month 2405.5 presented by the Weyrling Imperial Broadcasting Cooperation.

Reports from survivors from the disaster that struck Landing City half a year ago are starting to trickle through to our empire. Rumours of sabotage are coming from the Draven Confederation. Hovewer there has been an effective news blockade from the authorities in the region stopping us from bringing you any real facts even after all this time. That has been a source of several rumours aswell, why all this cloak and dagger stuff? Dravens, present us with facts, the population in the universe is shouting.

In the same region of the universe the Terran Galactic Imperium are flexing their muscles. They have cancelled all treaties with our empire, the implications of this is not all clear today.
Matriarch Elyssandra hovewer, being cautious as always has dispatched the Light Cruiser "Reconsider" to the area to teach the Terrans to show their neighbours respect! Ouch, I can already hear their painful shouts after our glorius military has spanked their behinds! Political commentators speculate that it won't be long before they come crawling back, begging for forgivness!

In the south the menacing Ghouls Clan are increasing their provocation against the empire by launcing a massive colonization effort around our borders. They have aswell sent a large warship, the "BCR 3 0011" to threaten our population in the region.
Matriarch Elyssandra tells the news that we should keep calm;
"There is no signs that they are intending anything agressive at this point, and if they do the people in the south can sleep comfortable with the knowledge that there are enough forces in the region to protect them. This is also to be seen as a warning to the Ghouls clan to avoid an arnament race in the region!", Matriarch Elyssandra stated yesterday from the Destroyer "Responder".

In the Northwest the state of emergency has been lifted and the forces are standing down from their hightened alertness. The new leader of the Earth Alliance has stated that he wants to normalize relations with us. So far the Earth Alliance has proven these words by withdrawing their warships from the Irith system.

Our great scientists has been able to create a planet! Yes, you heard right, not a molecule or a pineapple, an entire planet!
The colonization agency states that this is the beginning of a new era, now we can continue our expansion without military means. No need to upset our neighbours, we can colonize new planets at home.
They urge those who has been reluctant to leave their relatives for the colonization program to rethink; Now you can colonize a frontier world at home, with only a short voyage back to your folks!

The military are also trying to recruit more personal, the Ship yards has produce lots of new ships, hovewer, alot of them has been forced to be decomissioned as there aren't any crews to man them. So sign up today and do your duty for the empire. Remember, Matriarch Elyssandra started as a junior officer and today she rules the Weyrling Empire, can you repeat that??

The grumpy Sons of Thunder has been given a outstanding trade deal by the Matriarch. The entire Ahab system with nine inhabited planets, two of wich are oxygenated. In exchange for the disputed planets the Sons of Thunder are currently occupying inside Weyrling territory. Albeit most of the population in the Ahab system are deported criminals, but nevertheless, what a deal!
Rumours has it that a similar deal is being drawn up for the Earth Alliance.
Wether the Sons of Thunder will agree to this trade or not is not clear at this time. The Sons of Thunder embassy refuses to answer any questions, as if that should be any news!

Scientists are also stating that there are no real need to be concerned about the "mind-control devices". Currently it is belived that the devices can't really control their victims. So if you belive you have an alien artifact implanted in your central nervous system you can now relax, it isn't that bad afterall!

The Ymer Scout ship in the south has reported large Romulan force movements. These ships are hovewer not heading towards Weyrling space and as the Foreign affairs minister so wisely put it when he heard the news; "Good, any figh in wich we aren't involved is a good fight!"

In the east the Argon Confederacy has sent yet another frigate into territory populated by the Weyrling Empire. But as we haven't claimed the system as ours and the Argons seems to be a really nice people no official protest has been made, that we know of.

From the Delari system reports has it that the Dravens are strip-mining the asteroid fields. Without concern for the future generations thay are wasting all resources today. This the Resource ministerium says with a strong voice, is not something we as Weyrlings would ever do, we do belive that the universe should be protected, and it's up to us Weyrlings to protect it.

This is all from the News this month.
Good evening.

[CaptRR]

Rutha sort of painted me into a corner with his news broadcast, so now I have to attempt to roll with it . Anyways heres chapters 5 & 6, alot shorter this time though.

Chapter 5

Commander Dravel stared at the purple orb of Kornephoros X. From 700 kilometers up it looked so calm, so peaceful, a kind of subdued beauty that only ones home world can have. Its endless clouds did not show any of the chaos that had happened nearly 15 hours ago. Dravel trembled at the thought of those endless hours, he was sure they were the longest of his life. Such horror such pain, so much loss.

Among the dead was his Father, the President of the Republic. Several senators had died as well, but those losses paled in comparison to the death totals that had come across his desk not 15 minutes ago. There were so many names on that list. More names than he had ever seen, names that burned in his mind, not hundreds, not thousands, but hundreds of thousands.

The image of the city disappearing into the vastness of Kornephoros X replayed itself in his mind again. He had felt so helpless at that moment, unable to do anything as the very people he had sworn to protect were lost. The hours that followed he had tried. Oh creator how he had tried. Dravel had used all of home fleet's resources, every shuttle that was capable of atmospheric flight had been sent to search for survivors, but except for the few that had made it out on skimmers, they found nothing. Nothing but light wreckage of Landing City that had some how gotten caught in the endless wind currents of Kornephoros X.

Still while he had been searching for survivors others had been searching for answers, but there were precious few to be found. Most of the evidence had been lost with Landing City. It was known that a nuclear detonation had erupted on the eastern side of the city, but beyond that no one knew how it had gotten there, or who had placed it. The republics nuclear specialists had flocked to the location where the doomed city had once been, looking for answers in the clouds around it, but after 15 hours they had, had little to report.

Not long after the disaster he did his duty and contacted the Prime Minister, to tell him that the President of the Draven Republic was dead. Yalare had of course given his condolences , and promised that he would use all the governments resources to find those responsible. Dravel had stared at the screen for long seconds after the Prime Minister had cut the circuit. His father had never liked the Prime Minister, the two had battled for control of the government ever since Yalare had been elected prime minister. His father had outmaneuvered Yalare when he took control of the Defense Committee, and Dravel suspected that Yalare had never forgotten that. Now, the game had changed.
The Presidency was an inherited position, technically Dravel was now the President, but the Republics constitution mandated that a new President could not take office until the next general election. Until Dravel took office the Presidents duty's entire fell upon the Prime Minister, who by law was the only one who could call a general election. Dravel got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, Yalare could postpone calling an election for at the most 4 years, but until that time the Republic was being controlled by one of his father's worst enemies.

Chapter 6

Yalre stood in the center of the Great Hall of the People's Committee. Both the upper and lower committee's were here today for this emergency session. There was no doubt as to the reason, word of the disaster at Landing city had spread across the whole of Kornephoros X, and would soon spread across much of the Republic. Yalare knew that the response to the news would be panic, especially for the residents of the floating cities, something had to be done, and quickly.

Yalare cleared his throat. "Senators of the People's Committee I am here today under the Gravest circumstances. We have been attacked, our people have been murdered, our President is dead." He paused for a moment letting his words sink in. "The cowards who did this did not attack from a starship, they did not make any demands, they simply slaughtered innocent Dravens without mercy, without thought. These monsters planted a nuclear device within Landing City, their goal simply to kill as many men, women and children as possible."

"However, my fellow Dravens, their effects will be much worse. Already people are trying to abandon the great floating cities of Kornephoros X, for fear that they may be next. Soon this scene will be repeated all throughout the Republic." He paused, and watched the terror seep into the eyes of the senators, and they imagined the floating cities, the lifeblood of the Republic, abandoned in an endless sea of clouds. "We cannot allow this to happen, we cannot allow the Republic to slip into the ashes of history, we cannot allow it, I will not allow it!" His Last words came out with such force that few in the room could doubt his resolve.

"That is why I am here before you today, to ask that you help me save the Republic from its own fears. Later today I will propose a resolution to enforce martial law across all worlds of the Republic." Muted conversation suddenly lit up around the room, no one could believe what they were hearing, martial law had never been declared in the republic.

Yalre held his hand out for silence, "I wish there were a better way, but unless we stop people from leaving the floating cities we will see an end to all that we hold dear. We must gain control of the transportation, and communication systems if we are going to be able to stop this madness from spreading everywhere. We must act now!" He banged his hand on the podeum, as the room burst in exploded with applause, and in his mind a lone voice, encourage him, always convincing Yalare that what he was doing was for the good of the republic.

At the end of the day over half the Senators voted in favor of martial law, none of them knew that they had signed their own death warrant.

[tbontob]

Originally posted by CaptRR:
Rutha sort of painted me into a corner with his news broadcast, so now I have to attempt to roll with it .

Yeh, he kinda does that doesn't he? But then I have probably painted him into a corner as well. Maybe, more times than he has painted me into one.

Anyways, that is what makes this thread so interesting. We think we are going in one direction and then someone does something that forces us to change direction.

Ruatha shocked me when he killed off his alter-ego the God-emperor Ruatha. It forced me to re-evaluate and re-assess my long term plans on the unfolding relationship between the Wreylings and the Zax. I wrote about it (among other matters) in the "Ingame Stories" of the Newbie Galactic Conflict site.

All I can say is "roll with the punches."

[tbontob]

Re: Zax Society
posted by: tbontob Posted Less than 1 min ago
Thu, Feb 6 at 05:01:25 EST
----------------------------------------------
THE LOCATION: THE SEMI-OVAL OFFICE OF ZAX CENTRE
THE TIME: STARDATE: 2405.5
THE PEOPLE: ZAXXON, R2D3, Dip-low-Mac-Sea, Spiii, Strong-of-the-Arm Custer and Cord-Ill-Era

Stong-of-the-Arm Custer was morose. He was getting a new fleet with all the new up-to-date technology and with it he should be able to "whup some ***". But there was a problem.

Custer was saying, "The hulls of the new battle cruisers have been built and the engines installed. However, the installation of the other components is being held up because of the electronics shortage. If the shortages continue much longer, the ships will be outdated before they leave the yards."

"Dip-low-Mac-Sea, what news of the contact with the Wreylings?"

"I have some unsettling news." Dip-low-Mac-Sea said.

"Yes, what is it."

"Well, it would seem we do not have not made contact with the Wreylings."

"What happened?"

"Well, it seemed like one of the inventors picked up a strange signal which he thought was in the Wreyling language."

"And?"

"Well, it wasn't"

"What was it?"

Dip-low-Mac-Sea turned a beet red and then answered, "It seems he was able to pick up certain sounds in a building close to him and er...ah...ahem...."

"Yes, yes, get on with it!"

"Well it from a couple who were doing their duty to increase the Zax population, sir. The female in particular was loud and vociferous in her shouts of...ahem...passion."

"How in the world could he mistake that for the Wreylings?"

"Well, with all the grunts, groans and squealing, he thought it must be the Wreylings talking among themselves."

"Hmmm. Well, keep the diplomatic message ready. If and when we are able to make contact with the God-emperor Ruatha, I want you to send it immediately."

After a pause, Zaxxon continued, "With all the dislocations caused by the reward, I am inclined to withdraw the reward and..."

"I wouldn't do that!" Cord Ill Era interjected.

"Who are you?"

"Cord Ill Era of the Department of Motherland Safety, sir."

"And why shouldn't we withdraw the reward?"

"In simple terms, the people would riot. If you think things are bad now, they will be impossible if you withdraw the reward."

"R2D2, how is the research in communications progressing?"

"Very well, sir. We now have instant communications between adjacent solar systems."

"And how much is the communications budget?"

"Five percent, sir."

R2D2 carefully watched Zaxxon carefully as Zaxxon performed some mental calculations. When he noticed the Zaxxon's color suddenly turning beet red, he quickly said, "But with the emergency, I intend to increase the communications budget."

"Do it, we need a solution to this crises."
===========================================
THE LOCATION: Sod Dum, a provincial capital.

Eston had almost finished packing when Loy Al tew deBone walked in.

"I'll be glad to get to Elstonile Castle and get this over with!" Eston said in an irritable voice.

"Ahem. Ah, well, ah, we are not finished."

"Not finished?"

"We do not have the seal of Zaxxon."

"The seal of Zaxxon? Why do we need it?"

"Whenever the Zaxxon takes a trip the seal is always openly displayed on the vehicle he travels in. If you do not have the seal, the Zaxxonness will know you are not Zaxxon."

Eston groaned! It seemed nothing was going right. "All the seals are kept in Zax city. How can we get one here?"

Loy Al tew deBone responded with, "Well I know this forger. It will be expensive..."

"Impossible! No-one can duplicate the seal."

"Yes, I agree. Except this forger is exceptional which is why it will be expensive."

"More money! Where is this...ah...acquaintance of yours?"

"In Go More Ah. It's the capital of the state adjoining this one."

"When can we get it?"

"We will have to see him first. I have already arranged the meeting. We should leave now to see him."

[CaptRR]

More of the story, this should give Rutha some room to manuever.
___________________________________________

Chapter 7

Jasha sat in his office and thumbed the data card his hand, so much had happen in the Last 2 months since the Landing City Tragedy. He had expected to be relieved of his Committee chairmanship when Yalare took over, but the exact opposite had happen. Instead he had been ordered to proceed to the Central Powers Headquarters, there he hadn't had a lot to say. The original reason for his trip was to update fleet status, but once he had gotten to HQ he had been bombarded with questions, all having to do with Landing City. Unfortunately he had no answers to give, so he had stayed at Headquarters for the Last 2 months, listening to the trickle of news that was coming out of the Capital nowadays.

Josha tried to get updates on what was happening at home, but he had found that his own department was reluctant to give him information, citing security. When the Landing City tragedy happen it was all over the news, now suddenly it was gone, as if someone was trying to hide it. Josha knew that Yalare must have taken control of the communication channels, but the Peoples Committee would have blocked any such move. He had heard a few leaks, rumors mainly, about how the Prime Minister had declared marshal law, but every time he tried to follow up on it, he had been stopped cold. The Prime Minister's Last com, had made it clear that he wanted Josha to stay at Central Powers HQ, as far away from the Republic as he could be sent.

He was interrupted from his thoughts, but a movement at his door, for a second he was startled, but that soon faded as he recognized the figure entering the small office. "Jobe, how are you doing?" He stood and walked around the table to greet his friend.

Jobe, was a tall man, taller than most Dravens even, and he carried an air of confidence that was seldom for a man of his stature, that was part of the reason he had been made the chief Representative to the Central Powers Alliance Representatives. It was one of the proudest positions in all known space. Something was wrong though, his friends normal confidence was gone, he looked tired, worn, as though he had gone been in a street fight, and lost.

"Jobe, what's wrong?"

Jobe took a deep breath, there was no way to make it sound good, "Mr. Chairman, I'm afraid I have some rather unpleasant news."

Josha retook his seat behind his desk, Jobe was hardly ever formal with him, only when he had some important, usually bad, news did he drop back into the formal titles he had used during his upbringing. Josha motioned for him to continue.

"As you know, we lost 2 Central Powers Representatives in Landing City." The statement was cold fact, already known, but something was different in the way he reported it. "Well normally when a representative dies his replacement is appointed by the President. We thought that the Alliance would allow our Prime Minister to appoint a replacement in the place of our President since he too died at Landing City, and up until today that's what we thought would happen." He stopped as if struggling for the words. "Unfortunately, Mr. Chairman, the rules for our inclusion in the Central Powers Alliance do not give us any leeway, only the President may appoint a representative if one is dies in office, and we will not have a President until the next Election cycle."

Josha sat back heavily in his chair, what was happening was now dawning on him, and it scared him even more than when he heard the news of Landing City. "Great creator, it can't be."

Jobe looked at the floor, he knew how his friend felt, he felt the same. He had tried to debate it over the Last several hours, but in the end he had no leverage to work with, it was law after all, and it was unchangeable.

Over a minute must have passed before either man said a word, finally it was Josha who broke the silence, "Who?" was his only word.

"I'm afraid I don't know that yet, Josha, but there's one thing for sure, with the loss of those two votes, the New Governor Of the Central Powers Alliance will be from the Weyrling delegation."

Josha couldn't believe it. He never thought he would live to see the day that the Republics future rested on Rutha's Empire.

Chapter 8

Yalare worked diligently over the terminal in his office, it was small for the position he now held, but it suited his needs, and most of all it was secure. But it didn't matter right now, he had a major problem, the Republics Budget problems were getting worse, he had thought that with the loss of the President he would be able to scale the Military back, but that had not happen, the Terren Galactic Impereum had rebelled against their old leader, no one knew what happen too him, but the important thing was that he no longer in control of the Terrens. A new leader had arisen from the death of the old one, Mao Dzendun. Yalre would have welcomed the new leader, and used the opportunity to negotiate the border, so that he could stop this insane military spending.

Mao Dzendun had other ideas though, he had begun by blaming the Republic for the the problems that the Terrens were now having, and even go as far as to cut trade relations. Mao Dzendun had also accelerated his own military buildup, claiming it was to protect against the imperialist Draven's. Yalare was no military genius but he knew that scaling down the military now would mean the end to the repblic, but with the spending staying the same, and no increase in income he saw no way out of this problem.

"You know what you have to do." Yalare froze it was the voice again.

"Wha-what are you talking about." Yalare stumbled for the words, he was beginning to hear more and more from the voice, what scared him most was that he was beginning to agree with it on many things, it was as if Yalare was losing himself.

"You can't fool me remember, you know what you have to do, for the good of the Republic."

Yalare's heart was racing, what the voice was suggesting was impossible, 'I-I can't, it would kill millions."

The voice was as calm as ever, calculating in many ways, "Millions now or billions later, you choose."

Yalare, wanted to say it was wrong, to show where the voice had been mistaken in some way, but he couldn't it was cold, hard logic. Yalre picked up a small datacard and inserted it into his terminal. He looked through the report until he found the line he wanted, his hand flowed gracefully yet slowly over the keyboard. He didn't change much on the short report, just one word, but it was enough to change report entirely.

He finished, saved the document and reached for the send switch, his finger stopped just short of it. "I can't do it" he said, his voice crackling slightly, he couldn't believe what he was doing.

The voice was there again, always there, "Millions now or billions later, you choose." Yalre's finger pushed the send button. He froze there for several minutes, it was done, he had just paved the Republics Future, unfortunately it would be paved with blood.

[Ruatha]

Weyrling Empire 2405.8
The Weyrling Destroyer "Responder"
-------------------------

Captain Areia was sitting at the helm discussing with her second in command Anselm Thurya.

"-Thurya, you seem to always know what's going on. Have you heard anything about the Light Cruiser Reconsider that was sent out towards the Terrans? I mean the official Version of them hitting an asteroid field at full speed is pure bull****. No Weyrling ship would be able to such a mistake!"

"-Well Areia, When we resupplied at that Draven planet Troiken IV I happened to get some time over to visit a local pub. And the Dravens have an altogether different Version of what happened the Reconsider going around.
They said it was destroyed in a battle with a Terran Destroyer, and that we Weyrlings are so embarrased about loosing our first ever ship to ship combat that we are covering it up. But hey, I'm not saying that our headquarter are lying, but that's what I heard anyway."

"-I wouldn't put that beyond them. Our fleet hasn't got such a glorius reputation before, and if we lost a LC to a destroyer that would upset some people at home!
Remember all that fuss that was stirred up Last time we were at war, the four destroyers, glory of our fleet. Killing an unarmed colony ship and then being wiped out by mines! What a success!"

"-As Captain, do you know when the Matriarch will leave our ship. It's quite nervous having her around. I mean, she's nice and all that but I don't know how to treat her. I mean she's a war hero, our military leader and civilian leader. And Last week she was trying to chat with me! I didn't know what to say; Beutiful weather, eh? Was all I could blurt out, 2 standards away from the nearest planet!! She must have thought I'm daft."

"-I think she's a down to earth type. We've had some good talks during the trip. She's been teaching me some strategy and tactics. Trying to get me to apply for the Fleet Grand Officer school!
Yesterday she said we'd meet up with the Indestructible next month, and then shell transfer flag to that ship.
Not to be disrespectful but I too feel it's cumbersome. Here I am, fresh on my first command and I'm piloting the Flag ship of our fleet!

When you were at that Draven bar, did you find out what this buildup is all about?
I've never seen so many ships at the same location before!"

"-Well, this is as I said before pure speculation.
It was said that their Chairman of Defense Relations, someone called Josha was trying to get the Central Power alliance to go in and end the Infernal realms war. It seems he doesn't think the Thermoilans can handle it. I don't blame him, have you ever seen a Thermoilan? Scary people!!
On the other hand someone said that the Thermoilans had demanded that the entire CP fleet be used in a attack against the Sarnak. It seems the Sarnaks, never heard of them before mind you, has declared war on the Thermolians several times.
One guy said we were going to spank the Terrans butts for destroying Landing City and implanting the Devices into us Weyrlings. I can tell you that there is still a lot of upset feelings about Landing City, never mind what we don't hear in the news. There were even some there who insisted it was us Weyrlings who had destroyed the city.
Another rumour was that the Argon confederacy was planning a surprise attack on us and that we were planning a counter attack, the one telling this story insisted that the Argons already had attacked us, and conquered half the CP territory. And that it was just a gigantic coverup that was keeping us all from knowing. I guess if that was true though, we wouldn't see so many ships outside the hatches as we do today!
But there might be some merit to this story. I heard from reliable sources, the Matriarchs secretary, a real nice guy if you catch my drift...I'm going to get alot of more sleep when he leaves with the Matriarch!", Thurya started laughing.

"-If you can focus your thoughts for a second Thurya, please!
What did this hunk tell you?"

"-He said that there had been alot of communications with the Argons recently, and that the Matriarch, altough not revealing what it was about, seemed very disappointed after the Last communication with them!"

"-That's not much evidence of an Argon attack if you ask me, maybe you should go and pump him for some more! Information I mean", now both officers laughed.

"-If that's an order my Captain, I'll do my best to comply, for the Empire!", Thurya raised up and left.

[Ruatha]

Will post next tomorrow (* this is a shameless bump*)

Ahh, Tbontob where are you?? I'm waiting for the next episode (No pressure here...)

[ February 15, 2003, 17:36: Message edited by: Ruatha ]