From the Begining New Chapter Added (9/12/06)

[Starhawk]

2413.6 The beginning of the End
The 1st fleet and it’s ground force the 1st Icara Mobile Army Regiment had entered Mavin Parvis unopposed as the two cruisers of the Warspite squadron had destroyed the Phong warships that had garrisoned the star system.
Two weeks later they had entered orbit of Mavin Parsis III and the ground forces swept through the enemy milita inflicting hundreds of casualties while sustaining none of their own, not a single ship of the fleet was damaged and the heavy cruiser Rosevelt took up station to protect it from any potential raiders that remained. A state security brigade was also in the process of forming it’s headquarters on world to ensure the public stayed in line.

It had been only three days since MP three had fallen and the 1st fleet was now entering attack range of the much more heavily fortified MP two, the heavy cruiser Lenin and two cruisers followed closely by the troopship Batton.
“Captain Yu this is Flag, watch yourselves in there I don’t want you taking too much damage to guard that troopship, if you determine that the situation is to risky to you and the ships under your charge I want you to scorch those planetary defense platforms understood?” The voice of Admiral Babcock came over the com piece in Lin’s ear from his flagship yet she felt as if she could almost see the worry in his face.
“Don’t worry sir, we’ll get this job done and come home to celebrate afterwards.” She tried to sound more confident then she felt but her voice sounded strained even to her own ears. She cut the com to the flagship as her small four ship flotilla came closer to MP two.
“Captain energy spikes on the surface, planetary cannons coming Online, best estimate is one eight cannons I repeat one eight.” Tactical officer Hernandez was just out of basic but his sense of professionalism even in the face of overwhelming firepower made Lin proud he was on her bridge.
“Thank you tactical, Com relay to Republic to stay one-zero-eight kilometers to our starboard, have Hornet pull fifty two klicks off our port side and keep them between Batton and those cannons.”
“Aye ma’am message relayed.”
“Helm, take us straight for that planet, let’s offer them a big enough target that they can’t refuse us.” Captain Yu clenched her hands into fists around the arms of her shock frame chair in anxiety as she watched her ships close ever closer to the red sphere that represented the enemy planet’s maximum effective fire envelope.
“Approaching EFE in two point three niner minutes skipper, our EFE is coming up in four minutes.” Hernandez hid a shudder as he realized that would put their ships under fire from eighteen planetary cannons for no less then a minute before they could return fire.
Yu just grimaced and nodded to herself as she calculated the number of shells that could be lobbed at her in that amount of time, the Phong’s latest cannons showed they could fire three shells a minute and there were nine of the newer cannons on that planet which meant she would have to deal with…40.5 shells from the newer cannons before she even got inter her own firing range, and by then she’d also have to deal with thirty or forty shells from the older cannons . She shuddered in her command chair, if every single shot fired hit her then this would be her ship’s Last mission.

“Enemy EFE in five, four, three, two, one, we have incoming shells.” Hernandez’ calm professional voice showed only the slightest hint of fear as 9 of the most advanced cannons in the Phong arsenal opened up on them.
Lenin‘s shields caught every shell and Yu noted with some bit of dry humor that it wasn’t at all like it was portrayed in the old Holo’s or the old 2d movies of ancient Earth, when a shield grid caught the incoming fire there was no shaking or sparking or explosions out of random positions on the starship, the energy field simply absorbed the fire and the crew onboard didn’t feel a thing-it was when you did feel something that you were in trouble.
“Helm time to drop?”
“Five minutes ma’am”
“Incoming!” Hernandez sounded startled this time and when Yu jerked around to look at her tactical repeaters she saw why, eighty cannon shells headed straight at her.
The shields flashed and flared and took more hits but then….an enormous ear splitting cracking sound rocked the heavy cruiser down to her keel as shell after shell slammed into her.
“Engines one, three, five, gone, cannons one through four gone, crew quarters section two gone, life support backup systems are on-line main Life support destroyed, heavy casualties reported on all decks.” Hernandez chanted out the “essential” damage reports but the systems he wasn’t mentioning were almost ominous in Yu’s ears.
“Damn it incoming!”
“Saints protect us.” a voice in the background said as the next salvo slammed into the heavy cruiser’s battered hull tearing sections of her apart like a darter round hitting a wounded cow in the stomach.
More sections of hull plating tore away under the strain and Lenin limped and twisted as more shells just barely missed her.
The Last shell tore into the bridge section, opening it to space and tearing the com officer apart as she was pulled through a breach in the hull that was too small for her body, the marine sentry on the bridge had his leg sheered off by a splinter of battle-composite hull plating, his skin-suit’s automed unit instantly began treating the screaming man. Hernandez’ left shoulder was torn clear of it’s socket and his shattered arm hung limply at his side as he tried to use his right alone. His vac-suit’s med unit was already administering non-interference painkillers into his bloodstream to keep him functioning.
The sound of other wounded bridge officers screaming made Yu feel sick as she knew there was nothing she could do about it, her bridge was still mostly operational and she had to continue the operation.
“Damage report Hernandez?” Yu heard the voice of Commander Sharp and thanked God her exec hadn’t been killed or wounded.
“Uh, sir.”
“Damage report now mister!”
“Astrogation is down, we have one engine left, two cannons are still operational but the first cannon’s crew is dead, sensors are gone, tracking sensors gone, supply bays are gone, back up life support is damaged but operational, heavy casualties reported sir, power room one is open to space, non of the work crew made it out.” Hernandez suddenly sat straighter in his chair and Lin braced herself for death as she assumed the next words out of his mouth would be incoming.
“Skipper! Redoubtable is moving between us and the planetary defenses!, Hornet is acquiring target lock on planet, firing!” Hernandez’ professionalism was suddenly shattered as he turned around with a brilliant smile on his face.
The flagship took several serious hits but she shrugged them off and continued to protect the badly damaged Lenin while the cruiser Hornet turned five out of six of the weapons platforms into so much shards of wreckage and the glass that was created by her beams.
“Ma’am [i]Batton is moving into drop station.” Captain Yu Lin Pe smiled and relaxed, with the army on the ground her job was pretty much over, now it was up to Colonel Drago.

Troop Bay of HMS Batton
A large column of gray armored figures stood silent as statues in the cavernous troop bay of the Batton, a single figure stood out as it stepped to the front of the column, a red pauldron with the golden eagle of an Imperial Colonel.
Colonel Wilheilm Drago triggered his command net frequency so that all his troops could hear him, he then cleared his throat, removed his helmet and bent on one knee. The entire column of troopers followed his example and rested on bent knee, bowing their heads.
“Today we faithful Icarans kneel before you Oh Lord, we ask that you give us the strength to carry out the task at hand and to grant us victory over our enemies. We ask for you protection and grace as well in the tribulations that are about to befall these brave men and women, may they all return home or die with honor for the glory of Icara.” the Colonel’s strong baritone voice boomed in the flight bay in a grave manner.
“Lord we also ask that you grant us accuracy in our fire, and swiftness in kills so that we can rid this world of those godless heathens.” a slight chuckle went up from the gathered troopers. “Amen”

Within seconds the thousands of troopers were loaded into their dropships, their tanks and APCs already locked into place in the dropship’ holds. The bay doors slid silently open, the planetscape of their target loomed before them, it was an ugly world, green and brown was the color of the atmosphere and the soil was gray and slimy looking, many of the troopers wondered why they had not just glassed the ugly world and moved on.
Drago stood locked in his shock frame, his command squad locked into place around him, he thought humorlessly that the only benefit to this ugly ****ball on the *** end of the galaxy was that it had abundant radioactive materials that could provide the empire with a valuable rad base for centuries to come, but it sure was an ugly *** planet.
Then it came, the thump and hissing noise of the dropship detaching from it’s docking arm and racing towards the planet at speeds that would have killed anyone in a ship that had no inertial compensators, and even with them the personnel of a dropship felt five gees going down.

As the 400 dropships breached the atmosphere the planetary defense forces of the Phong world opened fire with AA guns and SAMs unfortunately for the defenders the Icaran ECM generators were too good and their shields were too strong, the few shots that hid a dropship were absorbed and did no damage.
The first wave of dropships landed less then two minutes after their initial deployment and quickly began unleashing the armored troopers and tanks within their holds.

Colonel Drago and his command unit were among the first wave of troops and as the bay doors slammed open in the troop compartment of his dropship, the shock frames immediately unhooked.
“Alright MOVE!” His voice boomed over the com net as the command squad filed out of the dropship at a run, as he exited the dropship Drago already heard the familiar thumping of the Icaran tanks main cannons, he also heard the whine of AP beams and the screech of the meson bLasters.
The Icaran Army’s assault rifle was an interesting weapon, it was actually two weapons in one, an AP beam and Meson bLaster combination in an under, upper configuration, the AP barrel being beneath the Meson bLaster. The AP beam was more power consuming yet it was also more powerful when taking out a single target, as well as being more accurate then the BLaster. The bLaster on the other hand was a devastating anti-personnel weapon and carried with it “splash damage” which could burn or even kill unarmored targets that were standing near the impact site, the Meson bLaster was also far less power hungry then the AP rifle and so it was the primary fire mode of the Icaran army.

“Sir, Able company reports they’ve got the bastards on the run in their quadrant, no fatalities to their own forces thus far, Charlie company is reporting that they are encountering heavy resistance and require immediate aid.” Major Davis’ frowned as the com trooper, SGT Taggar continued to relay the information she was receiving from the other companies. This world was much more heavily defended then they had expected and all along the front they were encountering heavy fire.
“Alright tell Delta Company to support Charlie, Baker company is coming with us Major we need to take that dome ASAP, so that their perimeter forces have nowhere to fall back to.”
“Yes sir, alright pass it on Taggar.” Davis said crisply as he rallied the other squads of Baker and Gamma companies as well as their 20 tanks and APCs, the LZ had been cleared with surprising swiftness and Phong militia lay dead all around.

Baker and Gamma both closed in on the domed city that made the capital of this particular world, so far neither company had been assailed by the defending Phong and the tension was so thick Drago felt like he could cut it with a force blade. They had been passing through a “forest” path, the “trees” were little more then huge piles of what looked like seaweed, yet slimier and instead of oxygen producing they produced lethal amounts of Carbon Dioxide.
“Incoming baker two watch your flanks!” the voice of some unseen CO snapped as the bang of Phong gauss rifles sent the entire Icaran force ducking for cover trying to find the shooters, a scream was cut off as a second shot tore through a dying trooper, then the firing started in the area where the command squad was. A rocket bore down on one of the tanks and exploded, doing no serious harm to the tank but sending two troopers flying a meter into the ar, their bodies were torn apart in mid air as the unseen gunners lit them up.
“Damn it watch those slime piles, use AP rifles now!” Major Davis said coldly into the command com as he aimed his own rifle and squeezed the firing stud, a purple beam shot from the bottom barrel of his assault rifle with a whine as it cut clean through the middle of a “slime pile” with a single sweep. A phong body dropped from the pile of slime, it’s torso and lower body separated by several centimeters.
AP beams swept through the slime with precision lethality yet the counter fire dropped a trooper right in front of colonel Drago, the man’s torso erupted in a geyser of blood as an armor piercing round tore into him.
Drago leveled his own rifle on the shooter and let fly a burst of mesons turning the slime pile and it’s occupant into burnt sludge, he leveled his rifle a second time and killed another Phong outright burning a hole clean through it.

“They’re CHARGING ON THE FLANKS!” someone shouted as a screaming mass of Phogn militia charged out of the “forest” down upon the ranks of Icaran troopers. Slug throwers wounded or killed a dozen Icarans before they were able to react but by then the Phong were already in their midst using force bayonets to stab at Icaran soldiers..
Drago depressed a stud on his rifle and his own force bayonet snapped into place under the barrels of his rifle and just in time as a Phong warrior wearing their blueish green armor charged him, the Colonel just barely dodged the alien’s thrust and brought his right foot up with an amazing kick to the Phong’s kneecap, a cracking sound let him know he had broken the Phong’s leg, with a quick thrust of his bayonet into the alien’ neck he severed it’s head then whirled around with driving his armored elbow into the faceplate of another Phong trooper with such force that it shattered, exposing the Phong too the toxic atmosphere, Drago moved on leaving the creature to suffocate.
All along the line Icarans and Phong fought hand to hand, force blade to force blade and the screams of the wounded and dying on both sides filled the air.
Major Davis led fifth platoon baker company on a charge that sent the few surviving Phong running, unfortunately for the Phong they ran straight into Gamma company’s armored column and were turned into paste by the treads of the massive armored vehicles, or were cut down by Gamma’s continuous volleys of meson fire.

The battle for Parsis II Lasted another month and Icaran Army dead numbered only 10 surprisingly, with over eight hundred wounded. Unfortunately in space the losses were far heavier, Lenin lost nine hundred of her three thousand crewman and had another seven hundred wounded. The flagship had lost nearly two hundred of her crew and had another three hundred and fifty wounded.

Two of three Icaran heavy cruisers in the 1st fleet were put out of action until repairs could be undertaken by the captured shipyard facilities of Mavin Parsis II, there was already a State Security brigade establishing it’s self on planet and the Phong forced labor camps were efficient enough to repair the two ships in a matter of months, but until then their invasion of Mavin Parsis had hit a roadblock.

Some day the Phong of these worlds would join Icara as full citizens but until then the forced labor camps (which provided adequate food and medical attention) would have to suffice to keep the populace as functioning members of the Icaran Empire.

[Starhawk]

Uh oh sudden lack of commentary BUM BUM!

Well in all seriousness for those of you who have been reading this, Does it look like my wrighting style is better as the story developes?

[Starhawk]

2414.1
“Today on Icara Imperial News, the 3rd fleet has engaged a task force from the Phong Federation in the Fornax star system, it is this Network’s greatest pleasure to report that the 3rd fleet had an astounding victory over our enemies yet again.” The beautiful young reporter Janet Cranston was one of the most popular state reporters, and the IIN only one of two state permitted news networks so at about this time a night just over half the Icaran twenty billion people were watching.
“Admiral William Ross’ fame continues to grow as he leads the third fleet in multiple victorious engagements against several Phong battle fleets, leading the Fornax system.
Meanwhile in the Mavin Parsis system Admiral Babcock has led the first fleet in a victorious invasion of three of the planets within the system, he reports that our conquest of the Phong is only a matter of time and with the State security brigades taking up position our people will soon be enjoying the resources these conquests can bring in.” Janet stopped talking and looked over to her co-anchor “And now to you Ed”

“Thank you Janet, Riots have broken out in the Pollux system, the former Rebel Alliance citizens of an organization known as the “Citizen Rights Coalition” is leading the rioters against local police forces claiming that their kind is being mistreated by the Imperial government. Admiral Lady Selene Poule of the 2nd fleet is said to be mobilizing her fleet and the 1st Brandenburg regiment for their departure to quell these riots as soon as possible……if the rebels happen to be watching this report it is my recommendation that you surrender peacefully, or you will surely die.” Ed Hanston grimaced.

“In other news, the Icaran Tigers beat the Brandenburg Hornets 20 to 15 in the system wide crossfire tournament…..

[Renegade 13]

Yay! I was starting to get worried, no story for a few days!

[Starhawk]

Yeah wanted to give myself a day or two then re-read it like you folks suggested because I want my story to be a fun read So how am I doing on improving my wrighting style any progress you think?

[Rasorow]

No complaints, but I am not the best critic and barely surviving my own writing class right now....

Rasorow

[Starhawk]

I'm hoping to take some writing classes in the future

2416.6-2417.7
Two repair ships arrived to assist the 1st fleet back into a mobile state after the severe damage suffered during the Phong ambush at the warp point. Admiral Tyson Babcock established his flag aboard HMS Divinity after his first flagship was destroyed, he was still undergoing therapy for his injuries when he gave the order for the 1st fleet to launch an assault against the closest world in the Mestra system with the intent of capturing a forward base for his fleet.
Fortunately for the battered first fleet the invasion went off without a hitch and the self defense forces of Mestra VI didn’t inflict even a single loss to the Icaran Invasion forces. The forward base was set up rapidly after that and a State Security brigade was sent to keep the peace.

Cortina System:
“Admiral Ross, a Captain Yu to see you?” The marine sentry at Ross door chimed over the com panel and Ross jerked his head up in surprise as he tabbed the com panel.
“Captain Yu? Uh let the Captain in please.” Ross tried to keep his voice relaxed but he felt a tension rush up his spine, if it was Yu Chin then he would likely have an argument pending as the man was still resentful that Ross was given command of the third fleet after his father had been killed at the 3rd battle of Fornax. If it was his sister Yu Lin then God only knew what Ross could expect.

The door opened with it’s typical metal squeak and Ross heard two female voices coming from outside as the door paused before opening fully, his marine sentry of this watch was a woman, so the second voice must be the Captain. Ross tensed even further as the door opened all the way and a slim, relatively short woman wearing a captain’s uniform walked in. She removed her cap and Ross nearly tripped over himself as he went to stand, Yu Lin Pe was stunning, her jet black hair fell into a tight pony tail just between her shoulder blades, her almond eyes were alight with intelligence and she carried herself with a self assurance and grace that made her exotic beauty even more pronounced. She was one of the few Icarans that had Asiatic decent in modern times after the Asian portion of the Empire was abandoned to ancient China millennia before during the first great wars, she was even more rare because of the fact that her family line could be traced back all the way to the founding of Icara colony 200 years ago and had a heritage that even many nobles were jealous of.
“Captain Yu Lin Pe reporting for duty sir.” Her voice snapped Ross back into the real world, he noticed that she had been standing in salute for several seconds and that he had kept her waiting longer then was polite to return the salute.
“Welcome to the fleet Captain Yu.” Ross said stiffly as he returned her salute, somewhat embarrassed that he had been taken so aback.
“Thank you Admiral, Lenin was transferred to your fleet by order of Admiral Lord Tyson Babcock, commander first fleet stationed aboard His Majesty’s Heavy Cruiser Redoubtable.” Her tone was still formal but something in her eyes made Ross feel slightly more comfortable, but he still felt sick because he knew her ship had not received the messenger drone informing her of the Mestra incident.

“Lin, I’m sorry to inform you but Admiral Babcock was severely injured, the first fleet was ambushed at Mestra warp point and they lost Redoubtable and Rossevelt during the opening engagement. Several other cruisers were also badly damaged, heavy casualties are reported.” Ross’ felt his heart sink as Yu’s expression changed to one of tortured anguish.
“Oh God, William do you know how Tyson is doing?” her voice was heartbreaking to Ross and he barely noticed that she used his first name for the first time in years.

“He’s alright Lin, he’s undergoing therapy but the Last reports said that he’s recovering quickly.” Ross indicated a seat for Yu across from his desk and almost smiled when he saw the relief on her face.
“Thank God for that, he’s a good officer, and a friend.” She managed to smile uncomfortably as she seated herself and placed her cap on Ross’ desk.
“He’s also a tough old bird who wouldn’t go down without a fight.” Ross said with a smile, when Yu laughed gently he allowed himself to relax further.
“How have you been William?” Her smile faded slightly as memories flickered behind her eyes.
“I’ve been good, it’s been odd though, I still can’t get used to the fact I’m commanding a fleet.” Ross smiled sheepishly at Yu.
“Well you always did like being out on your own, exploring the unknown, that’s why they gave you Saber after all.” She smiled back, the same smile Ross remembered from the academy, that smile he thought, could light up a room and always managed to make him feel better somehow.
“Yeah well we all know how well that turned out, I was the first one to run into a Phong exploratory ship, and the first one to destroy it and we all know how that ended.” Ross said glumly and leaned back in his chair.
“It’s not your fault William, those damned Phong’s are the ones who started this war.” Lin smiled reassuringly. “We have a lot to catch up on William, let’s not make this whole meeting a depressing one okay?” her smile disappeared and a mock stern look replaced it.
“Alright I surrender, we do have a lot to catch up on, how are you Lin?” Ross waved his hands in a gesture of submission and Yu laughed again. They both relaxed at Last and spoke for hours before Captain Yu was called back aboard her ship for the training exercises she had scheduled the day before.

Top Secret Research Facility, Deep within Icaran space:
“High Admiral Hallice may I present Chief Scientist Doctor Donald Procter.” The younger scientist waved his hand in the direction of an elderly looking man who was bent over a computer screen, apparently looking at something important.
“Doctor Donald Procter.” Hallice held out his hand and was a little surprised when the older chap just put his hand up gesturing for silence.
“There it is.” The man spoke to no one in particular before standing up and looking at the Admiral as if he noticed him for the first time. “Aaah, Admiral Hallice, welcome to my facility, how are you?” Doctor Procter took Hallice hand and shook firmly.
“I’m fine doctor but I am pressed for time so please show me what your folks considered so important you needed me to come today?” Hallice was impatient, he didn’t like scientists much but especially when they made him wait, after calling him with “urgent” news.

“Aah of course, well Admiral, as I’m sure your aware Praetor Leonidas authorized the beginning of project “Star Warrior” three years ago, well I am pleased to say we’ve made some progress in that field about a month ago, we wanted to be sure of our findings before we notified the military but now that we have confirmed our findings, well here you are.” Procter rambled excitedly as he guided Hallice to a door.

“Well sir I am pleased to report that we’ve completed the I-Laser program as well as Talisman.” The old scientist smiled broadly, Hallice pretended patience as he waited for the weird old man to get to the point.

“Aaah anyway Admiral the I-Laser or “Imperial Laser” is actually a Fusion beam, we called it a laser because it uses a laser focusing beam, but I’m sure your not interested in that, it is a thirteenth generation weapon done in the energy stream research field, even more powerful then the Anti-proton beams you military types wanted to put into production years ago.”
“Doctor please get to the point.”
“Well sir we are ready to make refits to the existing General class cruisers in project “Midwinter’, heavy cruisers with Midwinter weaponry will have one hundred percent accuracy and more firepower then some of the other star nation’s battleship sized craft.” The scientist rambled for hours about the joys of his project’s completion until finally Hallice got the gist of it.
The “Star Warrior” project was a complete overhaul of military technologies to increase the fighting abilities of the Icaran Royal Navy, it consisted of multiple programs to reach that goal and finally after years of research most of these projects were completed.

The new Lord Nelson class dreadnoughts would take another six months to put into production because that is about how long it would take the scientists to get a working model of the “Solar Sail” which was really just a modified grav sail used to implement solar energies instead of warp space energy to propel a ship much faster.

The development of the Quantum reactors was complete, the Q-Reactor would enable not only infinite fuel for a ship using it but it’s development also had the odd side effect of enabling matter sequencing technologies to be implementable, this exotic new technology enabled a ship to turn waste products into consumables, though Hallice knew it would take some time for crews to be comfortable with eating and drinking products that used to be their waste no matter how many times scientists told them that the matters was completely broken down into it’s atomic basics before being turned into food or drink.

Project Talisman had also finally been completed, this device was a hyper advanced targeting sensor which would enable one hundred percent accuracy for the warship it was plugged into.

AI was also perfected and with these new computers aboard starships crews could be reduced to the point that more systems could be added to the warships of the Royal Navy, though no true navy man was willing to give total control of their ship over to an AI no matter how many scientists claimed that the Ais could handle every function of a starship without the need for a crew.



2417.8
Midwinter class heavy cruiser refits begin throughout the Royal Navy.

[Starhawk]

A dagger falls
Captain Yu Lin and her ship had been ordered to separate from the fleet and return for routine repairs at Parsis II’s shipyards, the most immediate concern was the GFGs which had been acting up on them during simulated jumps.
The massive heavy cruiser slid silently into the shipyard slip that had been left open for her at Parsis II, some of her damage scars still stood out on her hull plating, the yard master informed captain Yu that a complete repair would take over two weeks and that the rest of the fleet would have to continue on without her.

Captain Yu sat in her day cabin, quietly reading the reports from the yard hands and sipped a cup of coffee absently as she noted the large numbers of Phong listed on detail to her ship, she would have to order her marines and engineers to inspect any repairs those yellow creeps did on her ship. The com began to buzz and jerked her away from her train of thoughts.
“This is Yu what is it?”
“Captain, Bridge, Governor Fallon wishes to talk to you, ma’am.” The com officer’s report made Yu sit straighter, what would a governor want with her?
“Put it through, thank you.”
“Aye ma’am.”

Governor Fallon’s square jawed face appeared on screen, his grim look and squinted eyes made the hair on the back of Yu’s neck rise.
“How can I help you governor?” She used the same tone she would have used in battle, and her face was almost as expressionless.
“Captain Yu, I would like you and some of your marines to come to the surface this afternoon, I have to discuss something with the Navy, and you are the closest person here that represents any ranking naval officer.” Governor Micha’s voice was tense but the expression on his face was more concerning then anything else.
“Governor what’s wrong?”
“Just come here as soon as possible Captain.” The governor frowned again and cut the channel.

Yu sat stunned for a moment before she tabbed a control on her personal com screen.
“Marine Barracks, Sgt Kemper here.” A young voice replied crisply.
“Sgt Kemper, Captain Yu here, my compliments to Major Hernandez and tell him I need to see him in a quarter of an hour in my briefing room.”
“Aye Ma’am.” Yu could almost feel the marine brace to attention as she cut the channel.

Tabbing another key Yu began to scroll over the readiness loadout of her boat bay, one of her three marine dropships had been destroyed in the Last battle when the boatbay took a direct hit another had been damaged, that left her with a single dropship and four cutters at her disposal. The marine compliment of a heavy cruiser was normally two hundred but with the recent engagements she was down to ninety two combat effective marines with another thirty seven in medical.
She continued to read on the resources she had available to her, but the nagging concern of why the governor would want her and Royal Marines on planet when he had a full brigade of State Security troops haunted her, 500 state security troopers should have most definitely been enough to deal with any local issues.

Fifteen minutes later on the dot Major Hernandez stepped into the briefing room, Sgt Kemper at his side, both marines braced to attention and saluted, Yu returned the salute politely and waved the two men to their chairs.
“Major Hernandez as you may be aware Governor Micha has requested that I go to the surface with a compliment of marines and has been vague on what his reasons for this request are, I have attempted to contact him twice since I sent for you and his office only replies that he is “in conference”.” The marine officer nodded and his Sgt shrugged, “The specific request that I bring marines with me is what has me concerned Major, now perhaps there is nothing to worry about but I’ve never met a Frontier Nobleman that wants his personal space crowded by a Naval officer and a compliment of Marines unless he thinks that his own SS forces are inadequate.” Yu’s matter of fact tone spoke volumes as did her specific use of the term Frontier Noble.
The Icaran Empire was ever expanding these days and it was cleanly divided into “The Frontier” and the “Core Worlds” the Core Worlds held the bulk of he Icaran populace as well as the major military bases and academies within Icaran space, the peace was kept by Local Militia’s, and the Royal Military and most of the nobles enjoyed the military security provided them by their location in the galaxy.
The frontier however was a far less secure place the bulk of the military presence there was mobile with a handful of military shipyards and supply bases scattered throughout, only worlds with such bases had Royal Army presence, the other worlds relied on the State Security Brigades or SSB to the population at large, better known as SS by the military. These units were non mobile, heavy security forces equipped with small artillery weapons, darter rifles and hand guns and class 2 body armor, many of the units that occupied recently conquered worlds also had a number of armored, assault cars in their service, though some nobles paid out of their own pockets to better equip their SS brigades.
Frontier Nobles were very low ranking in the overall standings in the House of Lords and they were also far more independent minded, most of them hated having any military presence in their territory unless it was there to save their noble asses.

Twenty minutes passed as Major Hernandez and Captain Yu discussed the best deployment plans for the marines that were combat ready, she would take 12 marines with her on a cutter, the rest would remain aboard the dropship and the other cutters where they would await her specific order to deploy should the need arise.
After the briefing Yu proceeded to the boatbay with 12 marines that Hernandez had hand picked for her bodyguard the entire unit wore heavy body armor and fully automatic darter rifles, one of them even carried a grenade launcher.

The cutter darted from the bay of Lenin and burned through the atmosphere at 4 gees before breaking just 50 clicks off the surface before coming to a complete hover over the central landing pad in the city.
“Ma’am the launch facility looks empty.” the pilot sounded nervous as he continued to run scans of the landing pad.

“Try contacting air control Pilot” Yu turned to the marines “Alright marines, assume a hot LZ lock and load.” Yu pulled her sidearm holster’s lock open and slid the holster where she could more easily grab the darter pistol she carried.
“Ma’am no contact from Air control, but my scans are showing burn and bLast marks on the pLastacrete around the control tower, wait ma’am receiving a signal, patching it through now.”

“I repeat this is Governor Micha to navy cutter do NOT land in the main pad or you’ll be…” the governor’s voice was suddenly cut off as a missile impacted on the left wing tearing a hole clean through it and sending the cutter spinning out of control. A second missile impact tore off the right wing sending the cutter careening out of control.
“BRACE!” Yu heard the pilot shout and as she saw a building coming up in front of her she barely managed to unhook her straps and throw herself through the hatch leading to the crew compartment, the impact was bone shattering the sound of crunching metal and screaming sound of the sole remaining engine pushing the wrecked cutter further into the building was ear splitting…

After things had finally stopped moving, Lin managed to force herself to her feet “Is anyone there.” the cabin was pitch black and at first she couldn’t hear any noise, then she heard movement and several voices chimed in
“Aye ma’am, we’re here….I’ve got two marines dead though, have you checked on the pilots?” Sgt Kemper turned on his suit light and the shattered remnants of the troop hold revealed a grizzly sight, two armored suits were sprayed with blood and gore, the faceplate of one was torn open by the splintered remnants of a battlesteel beam the other body was just mangled beyond recognition.
“The pilots are dead.” Yu heard a voice behind her and turned to see private McNiel.
“Damn, let’s get the hell out of here before whoever shot us down takes a pot shot at us.” Another marine cut in and was waved back by Kemper.
“He’s right, let’s go.” Yu shook her head at the bodies and stepped over to the shattered remains of the door.
Two marines stepped up and helped her tear the wrecked doors open
A bullet ricocheted off of Yu’s armor and sent her wheeling back through sheer force of impact one of the two marines also took a bullet square in the chest plate and fell to the deck grabbing the rippled piece of armor.
“Sniper! Get back.” Kemper shouted as more bullets tore into through the opened door, Yu rolled out of the way of a stream of bullets and forced herself to her feet the marine that had been hit got to his feet as well.
“Morette, get up here.” Kemper snapped as a large marine stepped forward, he was carrying an M-52 grenade auto-cannon and a bandolier of grenades strung around his chest.

The heavy weapons marine walked forward and leveled his auto-cannon calmly as bullets bounced around him and three rounds even hit him dead on. Seconds later the cannon burped out six shots directly into the building where the snipers had been firing from tearing it apart in a series of explosions.
“Everybody out!” Kemper bellowed as the marines poured past Captain Yu and out into the landing pad, only then did it become apparent just what had happened, at least two dozen SS troopers lay dead on the pad, several civilian workers also lay dead, some butchered terribly.
Yu winced as she saw some of the butchered bodies, a crack bang drew her attention to another building, the sound of several darter auto-rifles split the silent sky in a torrent of darts some of which began bouncing off the marine armor. A marine went down with a scream as blood sprayed from a hole in her armored throat, the scream quickly turned into a gurgling cry before the marine stopped twitching.
“Return fire!” Yu shouted as she lined up her auto-pistol on a figure wearing gray and yellow armor and squeezed the trigger, a small explosion erupted from the figure and it fell back dead, the marine lines erupted in a return fire dropping three more of the attackers before the rest ducked back into cover behind a building.

The sound of darter fire erupted from behind the marines suddenly and another marine went down in a spray of gore and blood as a dart pierced his helmet, the poor marine didn’t even have time to scream as his headless corpse fell limply to the ground. Yu whirled her pistol around and saw a massed formation of armored figures running at her and her marines, she squeezed the trigger twice dropping two more targets before ducking behind the wrecked dropship.

“Follow me marines, Keep Yu between us damn it if she gets hurt your asses are mine!” Kemper shouted as he and three other marines came up in front of Yu and began herding her towards a wrecked building at the closest part of the landing pad.
More darts sang through the air but miraculously none of the marines were killed, though one took an explosive dart in the leg that pierced his armor and tore a gaping hole in his calf.

The marines barely made it into the door before dozens more darts began tearing away at the pLastacrete building. A dart just barely missed Kemper’s face and exploded in a wall painting behind him.
“What’s going on here?” Yu asked no one in particular as she leveled her darter at an armored figure outside, sending a dart screeching into the enemy’s head.
“Ma’am, getting a com signal from Micha.” Corporal Bradley said calmly as the sounds of pLastacrete blowing apart filled the room.
“Captain Yu, he says that there was a Phong resistance cell hiding in the outskirts of the city, by time he mobilized his SS troopers to respond the resistance had already launched their assault on the landing pad and government building. SS brigades are still trying to secure government building and the brigade guarding the landing pad took heavy losses before pulling out.” The Corporal said something into his com and looked over to Yu.
“Corporal ask him if he can get us any reinforcements before we end up like those SS outside.” The Captain said bitterly as she watched another marine take a hit in the shoulder and writhe on the ground before his suit’s medical pack administered painkillers.
“He says he’s already got a brigade inbound but they won’t arrive for another hour because of the street fighting Captain”

“Alright then, I want three marines upstairs and firing out of those windows NOW, Captain please stay back.” Kemper’s voice echoed in the building as another series of rounds tore into the wall.
“Stand easy Kemper I’m not going anywhere.” Yu ducked under the window to reload her darter as another round exploded overhead.
The marines continued firing out the windows while the marines that ran up stairs joined in the fight and poured rounds into the rushing hordes of gray armored figures dropping several of them.

The marines fought of wave after wave of attackers, and two more marines fell to snipers as an hour passed, then two hours and still no reinforcements had come. The Icaran troops were beginning to run low on ammunition and the newest wave of enemies was getting closer to the building where the marines were taking cover in.
Phong resistance troops hammered down the door and rushed into the building with bayonets and force knives, marines and Phong fought hand to hand and blade to blade, Yu slammed her bayonet into the throat of a Phong warrior and threw a kick into the ribs of another Phong warrior and the resounding crack of bones shattering filled the room as the injured warrior dropped.
The whine of darters came from outside the building but the embattled Icarans were too busy fighting for their lives to notice, the marines that had been upstairs raced down and opened fire into the mass of Phong cutting down several of the enemy warriors. The three troopers on the staircase continue to shoot down Phong as their fellow marines continued to beat the enemy back with bayonet and rifle butt.
A marine dropped at Yu’s feet, his faceplate punctured by a Phong bayonet, blood pooled rapidly on the floor making it slick, the Phong that had killed the unfortunate marine leaped over his victim towards Yu but Kemper’s bayonet slammed into it’s side draining the noxious yellow blood from the alien as it hit the floor twitching.

Almost as fast as it had began the attack was over, a wave of black shirted figures charged into the melee and sprayed the Phong warriors with non-explosive darts knocking them down long enough for Marines to bayonet them.
When it was all over an SS trooper wearing the standard black flak armor of his branch walked forward to Captain Yu and braced to attention.
“Ma’am I’m Lieutenant Sharpes 5th State Security brigade Governor Micha has ordered my men to escort you to the government building, as soon as possible.”
“What about my wounded lieutenant?” Yu asked dangerously as the young officer looked around, 3 marines were found dead outside, another four lay dead inside the building and two were badly wounded.
“Captain We can bring them with us but we have to move now! There are more of these “resistance“ troops on the way” The Lieutenant’s tone was pleading and Yu could barely contain the contempt she felt for the man, he was an officer in one of His Majesty’s services yet he was acting like a frightened child, not even waiting for the wounded to be loaded onto stretchers before he started for the door.

“Lieutenant do you mind telling me what the hell happened on this planet, and why you SSBs couldn’t keep the peace by yourselves?” She almost spat the sentence at the young officer who stopped dead in his tracks and looked at her, stunned.
“Captain, there was nothing State Security could do about it, we did not know their numbers or targets, we assigned security where it was most necessary.” The young man turned his back on the captain and began walking down the street again, watching the buildings carefully.
“So Lieutenant instead of dispatching mobile patrols Governor Micha ordered the SS to stay in two! Locations, and dispatched only a single brigade to guard your main landing platform?” Yu felt the rage building in her, the tactical folly was born out of cowardice, government house had four of the five brigades guarding it, while the landing port had one brigade protecting it, and that brigade was ordered to withdraw after barely a half an hour of combat against the resistance cells, and of course they pulled back to government house.

Hours passed before the Icarans reached Government house on foot and Yu had been forced to call down the entire marine compliment of Lenin to pull the marines and SS platoon out of a serious ambush, in the end the marines and SS were able to reestablish control over the city but of the twelve marines that had landed with Yu only four survived, and of the SS platoon that had been sent to escort them, half had died including their Lieutenant.

Yu immediately sent a dispatch to Admiralty requesting a board of inquiry be formed against Governor Micha for his failure to adequately deal with the uprising that had inflicted heavy losses on the civilian workforce and Icaran State Security forces….losses which would not have been so high if Micha had just ordered his men into mobile patrols instead of having them guard his house so tightly while the rest of the city was embattled.


2414.5
The Last world of Mavin Parsis fell before the vast column of Icaran ground troops, not a single Icaran had died in the invasion, yet the Phong had suffered many thousands of dead, their survivors were forced into the labor camps, the youth were placed in Icaran re-education facilities under the watchful eyes of Imperial teachers and state security troopers.
The heavy cruiser Lenin floated silently in formation with the rest of the parade that was being held for media benefit, her battle scars covered with fresh paint and plating, her half strength crew hidden from the camera drones orbiting the fleet. The public would get their triumph over the conquest of an entire star system by the Icaran Empire, but the military would move on to the next target, their “celebration“ party had been a glass of old champaign for the flag officers in the Admiral’s briefing room aboard Redoubtable.
Yu still had bad dreams about what had happened back on MP two but she was comforted by the fact that the admiralty had dispatched a JAG officer to investigate governor Micha's shortcomings.
The 1st fleet was already headed for Fornax at speed and would arrive at their first target in about eight months, all there was now, was the long wait before the fleet entered the maelstrom once more.

Fornax System
Admiral Ross won yet another victory over a Phong fleet headed to reinforce the Mavin Parsis defenses, the Icaran 3rd fleet killed 10 enemy light cruisers while losing only HMS Farrogot and three hundred of her four hundred man crew.
Ross sent a dispatch to the Admiralty with his after action report requesting that the officers and crew who had died aboard the unlucky destroyer be posthumously awarded the Icaran steel cross for valor and bravery in the face of the enemy.

[Starhawk]

BTW the "Dagger falls" story was not actually based on anything that happened in game I just ran with a few months of nothing happening

Just for those of you who were wondering why a Heavy Cruiser would be carrying troop units they don't.

[Starhawk]

2415.3
The 1st fleet began it’s invasion of Fornax like a thunderstrike, Fornax V was swept through like locusts through a cornfield and already a military base was being established on world for the continued advance of the Icaran war machine.
Meanwhile Ross’ famed 3rd fleet scored yet another victory over a Phong squadron sent to reinforce Fornax V, not a single Phong ship escaped alive and the 3rd fleet suffered minimal damage.
Both Icaran news networks played the victories up to the hilt, proclaiming Admirals Ross and Babcock “Heroes of the Empire” and people all over the Empire cheered their military victories and letters from grateful citizens poured into the naval mail delivery bureau to the famous captains and Admirals of the battle.
The “Long March To victory” had begun 15 years ago and from the very start Icara had proven herself a conqueror and an unrelenting foe, the war with the Phong had Lasted almost twelve years now and the people rejoiced that the stalemate had finally been broken by the Icaran Royal Navy and Army, yet throughout the empire all knew that the march was far from over and that in the end it may end up becoming more a crusade then a march.