Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread

[CaptRR]

Remember I'm a little behind Rutha in the stories department, I'm catching up and my next one should have me caught up to him, until then though...

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Chapter 9

Commander Dravel was deep in a dream when the com woke him. Which was probably a good thing, since the dream was more of a nightmare, he had been having nightmares ever since the tragedy, he could not even remember one time that he had gotten a good nights sleep. He would always wake up in a cold sweat, images of people dieing by the hundreds of thousands, and he would see himself, helpless to do anything about it. Could do nothing as his people and his father were killed. No not killed, murdered, there was no doubt about that, someone had deliberately murdered all those people.

Dravel wiped the sleep from his eyes, his military training, and years of being woken up in the middle of the night was already beginning to take effect, in a few minutes he would be alert. Alert for what though? He had transferred to Agamar, system a few weeks ago. Apparently there was some intelligence reports that the Terrens who had just got through a major power struggle might try to take advantage of the Republics weakened distraction with the Landing City Disaster. But that was neither here nor there, right now he had a message he had to answer.

He rolled out of bed, and did a small stretch and activated the com on his desk, on the small screen Sasha immediately appeared. Sasha was beauty as far as Dravens go, and being one of the few females on a Republic ship, she was quite popular with the crew, but anyone who thought that she slept her way to the top would be mistaken, below the beautiful exterior was dedicated officer, and despite being in the communications field she was also a gifted tactician. Dravel had tried many times to move her up the chain of command, even trying to get her, her own command. She had turned him the offer's every time, her reply was that she simply "wasn't ready". He suspected that the young officer while being a genius lacked confidence. That would have to change, if she was to advance much higher than Captain.

Dravel suppressed a smile, had she not been in his chain of command Dravel would certainly have tried to court her, but alas it was never meant to be, Navy regulations strictly forbid it. "This is the captain"

Here voice was as beautiful as ever but there was something in it, a dread that seemed to permeate every sound, "Uh, Sir, sorry to wake you, but something just came over the News Service and I thought you would want to know."

Dravel became worried, something bad had happen he knew it, could the Terrens have attacked? No that didn't make since, they were in lightly defended Agamar, a battle fleet would have invaded through here first, so what else could it be. He took a breath, he knew he wasn't going to like it, "what is it Sasha?"

"Uh sir, I..." she stammered for a second, "I think you ought to take a look for yourself." A heartbeat later the com switched, it now showed a lady seated at a desk, there was a lot of activity behind her. Dravel recognized it as the Headquarters of the Dravel News Agency, and the reporter at the Desk was Lelar, the head reporter for the DNA.

She was already talking, Sasha much of patched his com into the raw news feed. "...this startling news comes as no surprise to some, but to most it is a real eye opener, For the first time we now know who is responsible for the Disaster at Landing City."

Dravel Froze, breathing seemed labored, every breath was a struggle. This is what he had been wanting to know for 3 months. Now that he was close to learning it he felt fear, if Sosha's reaction was any indicator he knew that the news was not going to be good, and that there was not going to be any trial, something bad was about to happen, Dravel could feel it.

The reporter continued, "For those of you just joining us, The office of the Prime Minister today released the findings on the investigation into the Landing City Disaster. Most of report was general information about how Landing City was destroyed, but the most stunning of part of the report was the source of the Nuclear Weapon." Lelar, paused as the screen was replaced by a graphic of the letter, 1 sentence was highlighted and enlarged so it could be seen clearly. Lelar read it out as well. "It is the findings of this commission that the Nuclear weapon was in the 1 Kiloton range, and Isotopes taken from the clouds surrounding Landing City at the time, had been able to Identify the origin of the Fissionable Material as Sphinx."

Dravel could feel the room spinning, he fought for balance, and gripped the table as tight as he could, he wanted to scream, to take his ship into Terren space and kill everyone in sight, ravage their planets. Make them feel the same pain that they had caused him. He fought back the tears. It could not be, he thought, what the Terrans had done is and act of war. They had killed half a million people, including several Central Powers Representatives, and most of all the President of the Republic. Certainly they must know that the Draven people would cry for revenge, and the Central Powers would almost certainly be drawn into the conflict. It didn't make sense, but it was true, and the repercussions were obvious.

Commander Dravel looked back at the screen, Sasha was on it now, how long had she been watching him? He had no way of knowing, he calmed himself the best he could, "Sasha, did any other orders come in with the news cast?"

Sasha hesitated for a moment, distracted at seeing her captain, no her Prince, after all he was destined to inherit the Presidency soon, in pain. She had to admit he was an attractive man, and as a women she had often fantasized what it would be like, to be joined to the Prince. All little girls dreamed of that fantasy ever since they heard the fairy tales that had been passed on from generation to generation. Most of those stories involved dragons and castles, and while modern time had neither the romantic air that surrounded it was still there, but Sosha pushed that thought aside, it was dangerous to think such things, it could spell trouble. If he ever knew how she felt it would destroy her carrier, at the very least she would be sent to another ship far away from him.

"Yes sir," she stammered for the words, her thoughts still trying to come out, if only she could speak up, to go to him, hold him in his time of need. She would give him everything she had, some of her strength to help her prince, but it wasn't meant to be. "Yes sir," she repeated again this time with more confidence, "we are to proceed to the Agamar-Ansuroer warp point and wait for orders. If invasion of the system looks imminent we are to take any steps that we see fit to protect Agamr."

"Thank you Sasha," he was able to see a hint of smile on her lips, but just a hint, "Tell the Navigator on duty to proceed to the warp point, when we get there put us on tactical alert, I don't want anything sneaking up on us."

"Yes sir," and with that the connection was cut. Once again Dravel was left alone in the still dark cabin, the wine of the engines was the only sound, and while he new that a war was coming and he dreaded the massive loss of life that was to come, a part of him cried out for revenge, for his people, and for his father.

Chapter 10

"Members of the Central Powers Alliance, the course that we must take is clear, our very future is at stake," Josha sat in the great hall of the Central Powers Alliance Headquarters and listened as the speaker of the Alliance made his speech. The Weyrling was tall, and could most be associated with what was once called a cat, although no one would say that to their face, everyone in the known universe had heard that a Weyrling could tear almost any creature in half with those sharp claws, although that was probably fiction, no one wanted to put it to the test. The new speaker a relative of the Weyrling's Matriarch had rocked the statuesque very little, much to Josha's surprise, but that was changing now as this speech was demonstrating. It had been barely 2 weeks since news of who caused Landing City's demise was released. The news agencies, which Josha suspected were now under the control of the Prime Minster, had shown massive protests, some wanted the Terren's leader's head on a plate, many more though wanted to take the fleet into terren space and wipe out everything.

Josha had never seen such an outcry, and it was showing in the central Powers Representatives. Josha had tried to urge caution, tried to get the Representatives to wait, but he had failed. When the Weyrling's introduced a resolution to plan for military operations against the Terren Galactic Imperium, it had almost been Unanimous. Some Dravens voted against it, but not many. Josha knew that the representatives from his own Republic were up against a wall, the citizens wanted revenge, and if the Representatives tried to get in the way, they would be taken out of the way either at the next election cycle, or perhaps more forcefully. Emotions were running that high.

The speaker continued, Josha could see the speakers mouth moving, but the translators took a second to catch up, "We have already voted for war, that is not the discussion, we must now allocate the funds to initiate the opertion this alliance had voted to initiate." Josha looked down at the terminal in his lap, being the Chairman of the Dravens Defense committee he had been put in charge of planning the Draven side of the campaign, despite his objections to the war, the plan he had put together was elegant and simple. The Weyrling's had put together a similar plan, when the two were combined it looked like a sure fire way of fighting the opening stages of this war. Sledgehammer was its codename, and it seemed to fit, never had any empire or alliance fielded the amount of ships there were to be used in this operation. At first Josha could not believe it himself, the logistics of it were mind boggling, the cost of it was more so, that's what this meeting was about, who would pay the bulk of the cost for the war. The Weyrling's wanted the Dravens to pick up the tab. The Dravens wanted the Weyrlings to. In the end it would probably be a combination of the two, but first the politicians had to play their little political game and see who could squeeze the Last credit out of who.

Josha looked through the names on the list, ships, well over a hundred would be involved in the main fleet, and there would be even more before this is was over. The Dravel shipyards were operating at 110% now, and the newest Battleships were just coming off the lines, a new dreadnaught class was already in the works, again the cost was staggering, but no one seemed to mind now. Everyone was caught up in the fever of revenge, already the battle cry "Remember Landing City" was being circulate around the Draven ships. No one was concerned about the massive loss of life that was to come. As far as Josha knew a war of this scale had never been faught in the known universe, a war that didn't make sense. Why had they bombed Landing City? Certainly they must have known we would find out, and when we did, no peace talk would stop us.

Josha forced himself to relax, the war was on, already the Terrens had declared war because they had been told to leave Draven Space. Although they had attacked no Central Powers Ships, it was obvious they they were staging for a massive attack. The Draven-Weyrling fleet was going to be assembled soon, and Josha knew of nothing that would stop the armada from destroying every Terren in its path.

[CaptRR]

Originally posted by Ruatha:

As to CaptRR.

Who planted the Nuke??
Who is controlling that device??
You're building a real mystery here....
Tension is arising!

It wouldn't be much of a story if I gave away the ended now would it. Oh well, I guess I can tell. The name of the person responsable for everything is......

Oh well dinners ready, talk to you all later.

[mlmbd]

CaptRR, very nice chapter. Tis going to be a 'Great' story. It shows!

mlmbd

[tbontob]

Originally posted by Ruatha:
[QB]Hi Tbontob.
The real reason I killed of Ruatha is quite simple.
In my single player Games I always called my race's leaders for Ruatha.
When I started Newbie Galactic Combat I for some reason didn't.
When I started writing I didn't think of this but then I started getting in-game Messages adressed to Matriarch Elyssandra.
So I had no option but to change leader someway to make the game and the story consistent.

I'm planning on developing Elyssandra some and Thurya more. So from now on Thruya is the real "main" character.
I don't know why I suddenly stand with alot of female characters and a shortage of male ones.
And I hope the "Respodner" doesn't get killed in the coming combats. Their first combat was a small one and a victory. More on that in next episode though. But I suspect there will be lots of battles in the future, now that I'm at war.

About your story.
I do find it amusing.
I really liked their addiction/fear of bubblebaths! (I actually laughed for real when reading it!)
Some elements though I belive are too obvious, as to what will happen I mean. But I'm not sure (Thinking of the future death of a certain official who is spending alot of money...) if I'm right though??
My favorite name is Loy Al tew deBone, I would like it if he proved to be a traitor, but on the other hand that would also be too obvious!
And will the reverse engine tech lead to something ? I can't wait for this revolutionary tech to be finished!QB]

I wondered why Ruatha was killed! I can see the necessity of it.

I look forward to seeing how your "new" characters respond to crises.

As to comment on what will happen to the certain official and Loy Al tew deBone will be to let the cat out of the bag.

Up till now, I have been inputing my stories into the little screen on the PBW site. There were a number of problems with this, the most current one being there was no "save" feature. With the family crisis, I didn't have a large enough block of time to write the next chapter of the story.

So, I am going to do something different and write in Word and then post it here. I will also post it on the PBW site, but as you know there is the problem of the PBW site messing up the punctuation. My plan is to provide a link from the PBW site(if it can be done) to this site for the readers who look for the story at the PBW site.

I am hoping this will work. Consequently, my next chapter will probably be quite short as a part of its purpose will be to test to see if this will work.

[tbontob]

Well, here is the next 'partial' installment of the story. Hope this works.
=================================================
The Zax Society
THE LOCATION: Go More Ah, a provincial capital.

Eston and Loy Al tew deBone were wending their way down the narrow crooked street of the poorest section of the city. The buildings were crowded together. Most were two or three stories with the second or third story extending over into the street. On occasion they blocked out the sunlight and pitched the ground into shadows and darkness.

Eston thought the buildings were charming. It was drizzling and the overhanging buildings protected them from getting soaked.

But, he didn’t like the stench! A yellow stream flowed in the gutter along the curb of the street. Feces, rotted food and other material he couldn’t identify bobbed along as the miniature river ran downhill towards the river.

“You tell me he is willing to do it for 20 Zaxxonites, so why does he need to see me?”, Eston asked Loy Al tew deBone.

“He is an eccentric. And he didn’t exactly agree to it. It is a small fortune and since he knows I do not have the money, he deduced I was asking for it on behalf of someone else.”

Eston observed that Loy Al tew de Bone was unusually vigilant. Often the guard’s gait would slow as he scanned the shadows of the buildings they were to pass. Eston was starting to get nervous and tension was building in his shoulders. In exasperation, he said shouted, “So?”

Loy Al tew de Bone responded with “Ssssshhhhh…” stopped, looked about carefully and continued with “It is his policy not to do any work unless he meets the person who wants it.”

“But why does he …” Eston gasped with shock and pain as he was suddenly slammed into a building wall by Loy Al tew deBone’s shoulder. The watery contents of a bucket of feces fell at the spot where they had been standing just seconds before.

Eston exclaimed loudly, “What the…” but was cut off in mid-sentence by the hand of Loy Al tew deBone covering his mouth. Scant inches from his face, he could see the guard’s eyes frantically scanning the street to see if they had drawn anybody’s attention.

“Quiet!” he hissed. Seconds passed and then he slowly removed his hand with “Come, there is a basement pub over there where we can talk.”

Eston looked about and could not see a pub or even anything that looked remotely like a pub. The guard took him across the street to a stairway which was so narrow that two people could not pass by each other. At the bottom was a heavy oaken door. The guard’s fist pounded on the door, and a slot in the door flew back and a voice demanded, “Yeh?”

“We want a beer.”

“Sez who?”

“Blackheart, of the Sick Illian clan.

“He’s dead! So fuc…”

“If you don’t let us in, I will personally cut your heart out and eat it for lunch!”

A long pause and then the door opened. The doorman stood respectfully back as they entered.

“Come, let’s take that corner table!” As they seated themselves, Eston noticed that Loy Al tew deBone took particular care to ensure his back was to the corner of the room.

“Wad ya want?” asked the barmaid.

“Two Ke Ne Edians and make sure the government seals are intact!”

When the barmaid left, Eston whispered, “What the hell is going on? Who are you? How do you know of this place? Who is Blackheart? Why doesn’t your service record show your connection to Go More Ah? What is…”

Loy Al tew deBone sighed. “I was hoping to avoid this.”

“I am the eldest son of the drug lord of the Sick Illian clan. Until a few years ago, I was the consigliore of the clan which effectively put me second in command.”

“Our clan is engaged in all types of businesses including prostitution, numbers and drugs.” If it was illegal, we did it. My name was Blackheart and I was very good at my job. Our clan grew in strength from eighteenth place to second.”

“Another clan grew envious of us and kidnapped my wife. They forced her to take a drug which is so addictive, so damaging, so life-threatening that…”

“No!” injected Eston. “You don’t mean….”

“Yes, the most addictive drug we know of.”

“But it has been Banned on pain of death. Having any connection with it at all is a certain death sentence.”

“Yes. But those who are addicted to it will pay any price to get it. The profits are enormous and our clan peddled the drug without conscience. And it is easy to administer, either by a needle or by drinking it.”

“So, they kidnapped my wife and forced her to drink Kokka Kolla. I was too late to save her. As you know, drug rehabilitation is 99% ineffective. Worse it is a poison and after 100 or so fixes, the victim dies.”

“I did everything to find a cure or an anti-dote. I tried to buy the formula of the product from the humans. But no one knows the formula except a few humans in a place called USSA and they wouldn’t sell. My efforts to kidnap them were unsuccessful. Our attempts to analyse it also met with failure.”

“So, my wife died. I went crazy. I kidnapped the drug lords who were responsible. And their families including wives and children. Then I forced the drug lords to watch Kokka Kolla being administered to their wives and children. A few drug lords went crazy and tried to stop it. When one of them tried to interfere, we just hacked off a limb and cauterized it. As you know cauterizing a limb prevents it from regrowing which is an eventual death sentence in our clans as it is an obvious sign of weakness”

“But even I grew sick of the suffering. Especially the little children. But it was too late to stop it.”

“After that, my heart was not in my job and I left the clan and entered government service.”

“But there is nothing of this in your record.” Eston stated.

Loy Al tew deBone responded, “Yes, it is amazing what money and connections can buy. I am telling you this so that you know the danger we are in. No one, and I mean no one walks alone here. To do so is a sure sign of weakness and invites an attack.”

“Walking with a non-resident is tantamount to walking alone as non-residents are viewed as weak and slow-witted. That also invites an attack. So, it is important not to do or say anything which shows you do not belong here.”

The guard continued with “Which brings us to the topic of the forger. No one knows who he is, where he came from or even what he really wants. So we just call him ‘The Forger’. “

“I said he was eccentric. He is much more than that; he is absolutely paranoid. But he is a genius. It is virtually impossible to distinguish his work from the real thing.”

”All the crime lords use him to forge things. However, every few months, he would become paranoid that he was being ratted on to the police, so he would just disappear for 6 months or a year. This was bad business for us, because the work of other forgers was much inferior, which meant the cops, soon discovered and destroyed our businesses. With the arrests, expenses skyrocketed and it became unprofitable to do business.”

“So, the crime lords met to see if something could be done to limit his paranoia. A fund was created with all the crime families contributing equally. The sole purpose of the fund was to track down all the members of a family who ratted on the ‘The Forger’. Since the families have been contributing to it every year, there is enough money now to track down and kill any aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, aunt or uncle of any member of the family ten times over.

“Did it work?”, asked Eston.

“Yes, it does reassure him. On occasion, he will leave abruptly, but the frequency and duration is much less than it used to be. Now, it may be for only a week or so.”

“Which is why I urge you to say as little as possible. The less said, the less likely he is to become paranoid.”

“But we should leave now. If we are late, it can set off his paranoia.”

The information had overwhelmed Eston. He needed time to digest it. Even though he wanted to ask dozens of questions, he quietly rose with Loy Al tew deBone.

The double and triple storied buildings no longer appeared charming to Eston. He now felt they were crowding in on him with hidden menace.

[Ruatha]

Hmm, The Loy character is developing, he is more complicated than I thought.
Also, I won't buy any fizzy beverages tonight, I don't want to become addicted.

[mlmbd]

tbontob, nice, very nice! I will be looking foward to the remainder!!

mlmbd