United Earth Confederacy
Deep in hyperspace...
Aboard the Nidhogg , Alexander Marshall, captain of the Riders of Midgard , one of the most successful UE fleets on the renegade front, was sat at the captains seat on the command bridge, watching intently as trans-spacial energy readings in the Pariah system - five days ago - were translated into a monochrome visual battlefield on the main screen. He remained baffled as to why the system was so undefended. When the readings had been taken from the Farseer the nickname given to Hurons long-range sensors, it had read that only four ships were in the system: two Helians, a scoutship and a cargo transporter, and none of them in any apparent formation or organisation. Logic suggested that they were independant merchants, and had little to no ties with the renegades. But that meant that the renegade base on New Alcatraz was all but undefended, and Marshall was still concerned about that.
When the news had arrived, of course, Marshall had been the first to suggest a heavy raid on the system by the Riders of Midgard. There was, of course, the probability of the lack of defences being a feint: it was strategically possible to leave the system undefended, and when long-range sensors on New Alcatraz detected the movement of a fleet in their direction, to return their fleet to position from a single hyperjump away, arriving before the attackers. This had indeed been pointed out, of course, but Marshall had quickly seen through it. It was impossible. There were no systems beyond Pariah: the only star system one hyperlink away was Troub, and both sensors and scouts had returned news that there was no renegade battlefleet hiding away there. As Troub was the only hyperlink out of Pariah, there was no way to manoeuvre the tactic. Besides, Marshall had noted, the renegades had never displayed that level of strategy in all the years of fighting them.
Of course, it wasnt just that. The energy maelstrom that long-range sensors on Iothe had detected in the Riomor system had been reported to the UE, of course, the message arriving at the Nidhogg several hours ago. Sensors on Iothe werent as advanced as the Farseer was, but they suggested in excess of two hundred vessels in the system, and a chaos of energy disturbances. They also reported, astonishingly, that Riomor now lay empty - Freeport was gone. Everything put together, there could be no doubting that the renegades were falling to some outside threat.
The reasoning behind raiding New Alcatraz was simple. Pariah was somewhat removed from Yelts and Riomor - it was a four day journey in a fast-jumper to Yelts, eight days to move a fleet, and through Hatuli. Not that Hatuli presented anything of a threat to any renegade ships that wanted to pass through, of course. However, whoever was attacking the renegades in Riomor and presumedly Yelts may not even know of the existence of Pariah, leaving the renegades the opportunity to survive when the best chance of eliminating them had been presented ever since they formed. In addition, Voinian intelligence had always seemed surprisingly accurate for a xenophobic nation, and thus the colonisation of a new system, far away from the frontier, and a complete military secret, could be invaluable - the Voinians would not even be able to factor it in.
Eventually, Marshalls argument had won over, although he had started with very little support. It was thus that he was here now, at the bridge of his UE destroyer, leading a UE squadron of fourteen other destroyers and thirty three supporting fighters - the Riders of Midgard , save for the five carriers when which twenty five of the fighters had came (all of the fighters had been upgraded with hyperdrives, the funding coming from independant bounties on particular renegades.) The Nidhogg was at the vanguard of the triangular formation, and would be the first to enter into the Pariah system, in... Marshall closed the battlefield window, and checked the time of re-entry into realspace. Fourteen minutes.
Zack, Kim, Marshall called out to the chief weapons and tactical officers, respectively. Warm up the blazors, and prepare for an immediate scanner sweep upon re-entry. Blazors being the pet name for blaze weaponry in the military, of course. Were going in.
Pariah, 0245 ECT
The fabric that made up the space-time continuum bent sharply in over fifty specific places across the system, matching similar bends in hyperspace so that the two points converged, sending out ripples in both dimensions, a soundless screech in the infinite depths of space. Light bent around the new occupants of realspace, revealing fourty eight spacecraft in red and grey: fifteen destroyers and thirty three fighters, registering as the Riders of Midgard , a United Earth Federation secondary frontier fleet, based at Huron. To the renegades, it might as well have been ten thousand alien invaders out of the planet Zog, for all the good it would do them - the Pariah system was devoid of any trace of activity, not even merchants.
Even though they had been expecting it, the UE taskforce was to the man disappointed that they apparently met no resistance at all, not even an independant criminal to detain. Breaking their triangle rank, fighters streaked off towards the areas in the system where the fabric of realspace was soft, allowing transference into hyperspace, while the destroyers, led by the Nidhogg , moved swiftly into the high orbit of New Alcatraz. They were met by a hail of needle missiles launched from silos down on the planet, and in brutally efficient response, the destroyers launched a number of hunter missiles, solid bullets that entered the upper atmosphere of New Alcatraz at high velocity, leaving sharp white trails behind them as they descended down onto missile silos, their fusion warheads detonating. Rockets exploded from their launchers, their more devastating payload ravaging the planets silos.
Short work was made of the majority of missile defences on the planet, and then in perfect co-ordination, the destroyers fired out spherical pods down onto the planet, and then moved out to replace the fighters, which raced each other into the lower atmosphere of the planet. Within a matter of minutes, the squadon of fighters in the Riders of Midgard was strafing through the stratosphere, targetting and eliminating key targets on the surface. Blazing bullets exploded in a plume of plasma which engulfed various ground facilities, while the pods the destroyers had launched, occupying their cargo space, completed their rapid descent by firing retro-thrusters, making contolled while rather messy landings in specific places. The pods opened, and hundreds of ground mechanoids burst out, chainguns already thrashing at the renegades ground defences.
The raid specifically targetted the defences and industry on New Alcatraz, and while the renegade defenders seriously outnumbered the UE mechanoids, the UE forces, with their heavy chainguns and shoulder-mounted rocket launchers, dealt considerable damage to the planets ecostructure while the fighters made short work of the defences.
After half an hour of intense ground fighting, all but the most minor of fixed defences on New Alcatraz were eliminated, along with half of its industry and ship production. The UE ground forces were beginning to be overwhelmed, but quickly returning to a last stand position around their respective landing pods, open like flowers in bloom (but with a full-blown ship-class blaze turret on the pod backing up the mechs.) They were quickly swarmed.
Meanwhile, the United Earth fighters pulled back into high orbit, where the renegades had no means of damaging them, and after waiting several more minutes for an extensive scanner sweep of the planet of New Alcatraz to be drawn (logging all the damages caused for report), the Riders of Midgard folded realspace around them and were swept into hyperspace, for Huron, while the remnants of the UE ground robots made their stand.
Hyperspace, headed for Troub
Status report? Marshall requested coolly of his strategic officer. Kim Whight quickly complied, bringing up all relevant fleet data on the three screens.
No fleet losses. Some minor damages to the Nidhogg and four other destroyers, repairs will be completed within the hour, Kim reported, her voice clear of emotion.
And the fighters? Marshall asked. No fleet losses was good, but hed seen some of the fighters in pretty battered shape after the strato-strafing.
Six of them are in need of immediate servicing, theyre wrecks. Nineteen more are critically damaged but will be able to repair themselves by the time we reach Huron. Marshall nodded. Not too bad, overall. He had worried that one or two would not be able to make it back to Huron... that wasnt exactly a lost fighter, as it was usually possible to organise a crash landing on Troub and send some ships to repair it on the line, but it was difficult. He wanted the Riders of Midgard to be ready for another attack as soon as possible, and this time, not a raid. From how decisive the raid on New Alcatraz had been, Captain Alexander Marshall had decided that he was going to have to convince his superiors on Huron to send him off on a greater mission soon - he idly wondered what sort of bounties and prestige his squadron would get from clearing every corner of Hatuli from the renegades, or making a daring attack on Yelts. Anything was possible. And of course, once the renegades were dealt with, and his name mentioned to the United Earth admirals, a promotion to the Voinian front was not just possible, but quite likely.
High orbit over Paaren
The empty shell of Paaren station floated in the orbit of Paaren, the second capital of the United Earth Confederacy, undying evidence of how humanity was becoming increasingly able to fund even vital military operations in such an age. Fighting on two fronts fifty light years apart, and hardly with the most stable of governments, the UE had originally intended to build Paaren station as a joint defence, research and dry-dock facility for the planet of Paaren, should Earth fall to the Voinians. It had been a grand operation, albeit a desperate one. Paaren station was originally planned to be a fortress matching and surpassing the Voinian outposts in Avann and Vorik, an impenetrable barrier that would keep invaders at bay and protect the people of Paaren.
The project had been cancelled. Specifically, it had been cancelled half a dozen years ago, and the funding had been used to construct more shipyards on Earth and a missile defence network for Outpost Alpha. Now, with the Voinian border quiet and the renegades mysteriously crippled by unidentified attackers, UE funding was free for such fancies as Paaren station.
It was such that a convoy of freighters, guarded by fifteen fighters operating out of Paaren (guarded even in Valos, one of the safest UE systems), surrounded the station, tiny automated space construction vehicles lumbering between their freighters and the incompleted station, working on the internal structure. A shuttlecraft zipped out from Paaren, carrying within its hull a fully functional shield generator capable of sustaining the station - not the final one, of course. Docking with station, two UE pilots exitted the shuttlecraft into the zero grav. environment of deep space. Two more followed, and they quickly went about setting up the shield generator. An energy field blinked into existence around the station.
There was much to do. The station would need to have its corridors, chambers, ventilation shafts, etc. all completed, as currently many ended abruptly in a surreal fashion to any astronauts navigating the myriad corridors of the open-to-space Paaren station. After that, more permanent reactors and shield generators would need to be moved into position - a small interim generator had only been powered up so that the station would not be further damaged by stardust - and then an artificial grav. field module would need to be installed. After that, the progress could continue along more basic lines - furnishing the entire inside of the formidable station, and arming it.
An estimated time of completion had been sent to the UE government, suggesting that the entire station would be operational and manned within five weeks. This included fully automated dry-dock shipyards, capable of churning out not only fighters, but also destroyers (it would be the first human station large enough to construct a destroyer) non-stop, as well as a research facility that would become the centre of the UEs R&D; team. Defences were also being built on the surface of Paaren, ready to be installed: this included fourty eight ship-class blaze turrets, and sixteen hunter missile launchers mounted on four separate swivelling platforms, as well as sufficient defence turrets to lace the entire inside of the station so that at least two of the turreted ceiling-mounted chainguns would be able to hit any target, anywhere on the station.
Paaren station wasnt the only pioneering project across UE space, however. Light years away, in Talii, a world and nation famous ship designer, Anna Balashova, was busy working on the designs for her latest and greatest masterpiece. Designed not under highly stressful and rushed conditions, her new plan - the UE cruiser - was more crafted and moulded than thrown together to provide a quick and effective solution.
Priat
For the record, Rei Mishima was not bad at his job, as such. At the age of twenty six, he had been awarded a civilian award for extreme bravery and prowess, after getting on the wrong side of a Turncoat in the Hatuli system, and coming out of the fight (in which he piloted a scoutship) with an about equal outcome: both ships disabled. The Turncoat, apparently, had belonged to an infamous pirate in the area, and by Mishima disabling the craft, UE officers were able to detain the pirate and convict him. He wasnt bad at his job, exactly, but he was something of a maverick. It was said that he didnt turn and run from the Turncoat for the sole reason that turning and running; was so conformist (to put it in his words.) He was perhaps the most reckless scoutship merchant alive at that time, but also being one of the best pilots, he had found his way into the UEs official space exploration program, much to his early joy and later dismay.
However, Rei Mishima wasnt cursed to spend months exploring deep space with hyperdrives inactive, or spending years travelling at cruise speed to systems with no hyperlinks, or logging data on the Oort Cloud or its equivalent in systems other than Sol. Mishima had struck lucky with just about the best exploration mission there was: not out towards Voinian space (which was practically suicide), or in the direction of the renegades (not much better), but to what was referred to as the 2D galactic north (the north on a two-dimensional galactic map, that is.) Rumour said that the north was a land of opportunity. Rumour said that such an exploration mission was like striking gold.
The reason some might doubt Mishimas capability as an explorer was such that, his mission was to cut to the galactic west after two or three hyperlinks north of Saalia, and explore any weakpoints to the the Voinian frontier. That wasnt quite what he was doing. On a whim, Mishima had entered the system logged on UE computers as DSN-1304 (which he would soon discover was called Smott by the nearest alien species to that system) and decided to go a different direction, one no-one had ever bothered going before because there had been no point.
And that was how Rei Mishima, a man who represented the UE about as much as the village idiot represents a village, became the first human recorded by the UE to meet with the Miranu. As his scoutship entered realspace in a whirlpool of spacial flux, barrel rolling off to the side dramatically, prepared to escape any danger, Mishima was confronted by ships of a kind he had never seen before in his life, ships that were not human.
Uhh... hello? This is...umm... Mishima paused, wondering if the message he sent to the nearest alien vessel would even be understood. Too late to stop now. This is Rei Mishima of the United Earth Confederacys deep space exploration program. Ah... who is this? Do you read?
There was a brief pause as the alien ship - not, actually, a Miranu Star League vessel but rather an independant merchant - attempted to translate the language, and found the language already in computer logs under mythology: Earth people. The Miranu had, of course, visited Earth some time previously, though the merchant captain was quite surprised to learn that the story about that was actually true. I am Chiun Kadaza, a Miranu. It is interesting to meet a new species, but I am afraid that I cannot be of much help to you, as I am not a registered Miranu Star League vessel. If you wish to contact our government, feel free to hail the station. Your message will be re-directed to the appropriate department.
The advice was not necessary, as the appropriate department had already hailed him. Nervous, Mishima accepted the hail...
Earth
The operation to upgrade blaze weaponry with fusion reactors had proven to be not quite as effective as originally hoped. After some debate between the UE congress and the military, in which the military held precedence, the concept was altered slightly. UE vessels were to be refitted with fusion reactors, which would be enhanced and altered for shipboard operations, which would improve power to shields by 35% and drive power by 27.5%, while blaze weaponry would be altered along similar but slightly different lines. Rather than using fusion reactors to charge the blaze bullets, they would be modified with a tiny fusion-based warhead, based on the Voinian rocket. Effectively, blaze weaponry was becoming fusion bolt weaponry, although it was expected that for most purposes, the name would remain as the existing blaze bullets would not have to be altered. The fusion bolts would use exactly the same cannons to fire, and present no change in range, reload, et cetera, but would be about 60% more powerful. In addition, the fusion firepower was expected to provide quite a punch to blaze weaponry, increasing its impact significantly, to the extent that fighters and other light craft would be particularly handicapped against massed fusion bolts.
Even while the fusion reactor was being perfected and prepared to be refitted on all UE vessels, it was realised that the reactor had some considerable potential for improvement, and that after the current fusion reactors were installed into craft, it may be worthwhile to attempt to perfect the design. The particular advantage of this would be an increase in both shielding and engine power at the same time, and in addition it was suggested that a more powerful fusion reactor may be able to power a pulse laser many times more powerful than anything the UE had used in the past.
OOC Update
UE Fleet:
170 UE Carriers
470 UE Destroyers
275 UE Fighters
Total of 915 vessels
UE Production:
6 carriers, 16 destroyers, 10 fighters per day
Fleet Distribution:
Bakka: 14 carriers, 41 destroyers, 22 fighters
Yandros: 14 carriers, 41 destroyers, 22 fighters
Verril: 14 carriers, 41 destroyers, 22 fighters
DSN-1810: 14 carriers, 41 destroyers, 22 fighters
Saalia: 14 carriers, 41 destroyers, 22 fighters
Aludra: 14 carriers, 41 destroyers, 22 fighters
Molos: 14 carriers, 41 destroyers, 22 fighters
Sol: 14 carriers, 41 destroyers, 22 fighters
Valos: 14 carriers, 41 destroyers, 22 fighters
Huron: 14 carriers, 41 destroyers, 22 fighters
Thoso: 14 carriers, 41 destroyers, 22 fighters
Ariane: 4 carriers, 5 destroyers, 8 fighters
Tulir: 4 carriers, 4 destroyers, 8 fighters
Mestor: 4 carriers, 5 destroyers, 9 fighters
Talii: 4 carriers, 4 destroyers, 8 fighters
Research & Development
Paaren Station (4 days)
UE Cruiser (5 days)
Fusion Bolts (5 days)
Fusion Reactor Installation (3 days)
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-Esponer
Am I posting in Just Chat or B&B;? If so, I'm probably joking.
