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Forum Index » » Fan Fiction » » Jupiter Fleet - Yes, its actually an update

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Author	Jupiter Fleet - Yes, its actually an update
The_Pizza_Guy Cadet Joined: July 29, 2003 Posts: 3	Posted: 2003-10-04 22:52 Wow man, if you need any help with anything at all, just lemme know how. This is intense. Reminds me of that old cartoon Exo Squad kinda but with cool darkspace stuff. Cant wait to see the plot twists to come either. What happens with the pirates, but thats me just gettin ahead of myself. Kudos man, and hurry up. Im losin sleep waiting for the next installment _________________
Tbone Grand Admiral Joined: July 21, 2001 Posts: 1756 From: Vancouver	Posted: 2003-10-05 03:51 OK, I'm almost finished the next chapter. When you read it, you'll figure out why it took so long (that, plus school). _________________
Axianda The Royal Fleet Admiral Terra Squadron Joined: November 20, 2001 Posts: 4273 From: Axianda	Posted: 2003-10-05 08:44 YEAH exo squad that was th name of that cartoon. /me gets kazaa out of the closet. That was SWEEEEET WOOHOO kazaa is full of em =) time for me to get another HD [ This Message was edited by: Axianda XO on 2003-10-05 08:48 ] _________________ - Axi
Tbone Grand Admiral Joined: July 21, 2001 Posts: 1756 From: Vancouver	Posted: 2003-10-05 18:54 Think any of you will hav time to read this? Chapter 8: The Big Push: As soon as the Ross fleet arrived in Sol they made haste to the Jovian system for their own briefing. They took a very wide, curving trajectory while staying near the very fringes of the Sol system. The few scouts in the fleet stayed well ahead of the lead ships and it was a good thing they did. Several patrols were spotted but the scouts’ superior scanners were able to keep the fleet out of range with time to spare. Several frigates under cover of ECM covered the rear of the fleet. They made it without incident but no one expected their presence to go unnoticed for long. The K’luth could sneak ships into observational range of Jupiter quite easily when under cloak. No one wanted the fleet to be attacked while in transit, however, so the precautions were taken and strictly adhered to. The plan was (as always) simple on the drawing board. The Ross 148 fleet was to attack Pluto and its moon, Charon, as it lacked the point defense capabilities of the Jupiter Fleet or the pirate ships. The Jupiter Fleet and the pirates would split up into two groups and attack Neptune and Uranus. After that, it was mostly up to the commanders. Devine and Stewart would command the attack on Uranus while Davies led the rest on Neptune. The leader of the Ross fleet was Fleet Admiral David Morhaime. He was a recently promoted one, so he was lacking the Support/Command Station, the massively armed and armored behemoth that usually went along with the prestigious rank. He was a brilliant tactician though. Anyone who had fought off the K’luth in the Ross 148 cluster for weeks on end had to be. Morhaime would attack Pluto first. The appearance of the powerful Ross fleet at such a small planet would undoubtedly pull ships away from Uranus and Neptune, not that many it was believed, but it would be that many less facing the weakened Jupiter Fleet. The attack was set to go in an hour. * * * * Meanwhile things were stirring in Ross 148. K’luth ships, from Wolf 359, had regrouped and were preparing an assault on Ross 4, the jewel of the Ross 148 system. After encountering no resistance at the gate, they had jumped to a pre-planned position to avoid being detected. Under cloak, the fleet formed its ships and aligned to Ross 4, preparing to hit the predictable as always Interdictor field. * * * * The sensor bases on Ross 4, however, had already detected the massive wake of the ships jumping away from the Wolf 359 gate. Though they had lost them soon after that, they had no need to know the direction the fleet was to come from. “Stand-by interdictor control,” came the call from command and control. “Prepare to shut down the field.” “We are standing by, control. Field is ready to shut down.” “Shut it down.” The interdictor generator stopped its constant humming and its bright glow became dark. But it wasn’t going to stay like that for long. The controller handed the interdictor over to the computer, who held the only reactions fast enough to pull off the bold plan, and then tied the computer directly into the sensors, where the executing program lay. The K’luth fleet jumped a minute later and came barreling toward Ross 4 at full speed. When they reached the specified distance from the planet, the computer leapt into action and activated the interdictor, stopping the K’luth approximately half-way between where they expected to stop (the edge of the field) and where they wanted to end up (in orbit of Ross 4). In other words, smack dab in the middle of the minefield created by the UGTO. Several ships detonated mines as soon as they exited their jumps due to their proximity, crippling them instantly. The rest of the fleet, though, was never one to be daunted by a few mines. But, of course, there were a lot more then a few mines out there. Soon enough, the entirety of the fleet found that it couldn’t move without detonating a mine. They tried to advance closer and closer the planet, but just found more and mines. By the time they were halfway to orbit, over a third of their ships were disabled or destroyed, including over half of their transport ships. Quickly seeing they was no chance of ever reaching orbit the ships turned tail and ran as fast as they could. The missile bases on the surface targeted the biggest ships they could as they ran, destroying several before they were able to reach full speed. But the K’luth were not out of the woods yet. They had only hit half the field on the way in, they still had to go straight through the outer half before escaping interdictor range. Fully another third of the original fleet was crippled. Finally the surviving ships made it out of the field’s range and made an emergency jump straight away from the planet. Out of the fleet of 300, 75 made it out operational with another 25 in tractor tow. * * * * Around 20 minutes before the attack on the three planets was due to commence, the fleet received a transmission from Ross 148 stating Ross 4 had repelled a substantial attack by the K’luth. Minelayers were rebuilding the areas of the field the K’luth ships opened and it was expected to by at full density again in 3 hours. The losses the K’luth sustained guaranteed another attack couldn’t be expected for some time. Devine was wearing a small smile as the news filtered through the bridge speakers. “I won’t say I told you so, admiral.” The whole bridge crew allowed themselves a small chuckle, including Stewart. Light humor was hard to come by in such dark times and any opportunity to lighten the mood was seized. “Time until jump?” Stewart asked. “15 minutes, admiral. 5 minutes for the Ross 148 fleet. All fleets are in designated formations and aligned.” Stewart could access all that information in his personal console of course, but it was good for the crew to know hear what was coming, even though they could also access the information from their consoles. But the tension was, understandably, extreme and any kind of small talk elevated it. The seconds ticked by until a white flash lit up the front viewscreen. “The Ross fleet is away,” sensors reported. “Here we go,” muttered the helmsman. * * * * The fleet from Ross took a direct path straight to Pluto, not bothering to hide themselves from anybody scanners. It took a minute to reach Pluto from Jupiter as it was on the other side of the system at the moment, so there was plenty of time to be detected and be reported. The fleet exited their jump just out of range of the missile defense on the two rocks, hoping that just maybe the K’luth would be persuaded to engage the smaller fleet outside the perimeter. They weren’t, unfortunately, and the fleet was forced to move in, leaving several pickets of cruisers and frigates slightly behind to engage the inevitable reinforcements to arrive. And arrive they did. Almost a third of each fleet from Uranus and Neptune jumped into Pluto’s space very shortly after the Ross fleet began its advance. Morhaime took one look at the two fleets he was facing and made a snap decision. “All ships, abort, repeat, abort attack on Pluto and turn to engage new contacts. Do not approach Pluto under any circumstances.” His ships responded immediately and banked away from their path to Pluto while any ships within range fired at the two arrived fleets. Morhaime turned to his communications officer. “Send to Jupiter Fleet: ‘Under attack by massive reinforcements of Uranus and Neptune. Cannot, repeat, cannot proceed with attack on Pluto without significant casualties. Will engage new fleet and hold them as long as possible,’ end transmission.” Morhaime knew, as powerful as his ships were, the numbers were leaned highly away from them in this battle, especially after their casualties in taking back the Ross system. Sooner or later they would be forced to retreat, and then the ships that reinforced Neptune and Uranus would be free to return to their bases and possibly defeat the invading Jupiter Fleet. Morhaime sent his fleet into passive formations, concentrating more on avoiding fire and staying alive than destroying the enemy. His fleet wouldn’t last forever and he had no plans on committing suicide, he just needed to keep the enemy occupied for as long as he could. * * * * Meanwhile, at Uranus, things were business as usual. “Incoming missiles!” Pulse waves shot out from the pirate ships, intercepting almost a third of the missiles inbound while pulse beams handled another third. Unfortunately the number of missiles being fired was many times greater then those at Mars, and the rest (minus a few taken down by conventional lasers) were able to penetrate and hit several ships head on. Heavy damage to the forward quarter was being reported by two cruisers. Devine rotated them back from the head of the formation, letting other relatively fresh ships take their place. “Status of the K’luth?” Stewart asked. “Hard to say, sir,” sensors reported. “I don’t think they are advancing but they are popping in and out, cloaking and decloaking. I can’t get an accurate count or bearing for long enough.” “Get on it. I need a count as soon as possible.” Communications spoke up, “Admiral, message from Fleet Admiral Morhaime.” Stewart motioned for it to be put on his console and for it to be sent to Devine’s computer. Stewart read it and sent a reply back, then turned to Devine. “Over 400 ships attacking the Ross fleet along with the planet’s defense ships… God, they won’t last long at all,” Stewart said breathlessly. He turned to Devine and asked, “Have you been able to get any count on the number of ships we are facing?” Devine continued to stare blindly at the screen as he answered, “Extrapolating from the intermittent contacts, I estimate we are facing approximately 400 ships, possibly less.” “Fighters are launching from carries, sir,” tactical reported. The Panther fighters once again streaked out their hanger bays and dived into the fray. A squadron ducked behind a moon to avoid ship-based return fire after a strafing run on a dreadnought. But 5 beams of laser energy met them there, fired up from the surface and vaporized the small fighters. Another wing behind them saw this just in time, and broke off, heading straight away from the moon. Stewart had seen it as well. “Damn it! How could those lasers target those fighters? They were designed for MIRVs and cruise missiles, not objects as fast moving as fighters.” The officer at tactical spoke up, “Well, sir, since there disruptors are on par with our 1000 level lasers in terms of damage but have the accuracy of our 500 level lasers, I think they made some improvements in accuracy.” Stewart glared at his officer, who quickly returned his eyes to his console. “There is no way for our fighters to survive in this environment without using the planets for cover. We have to call them back.” Stewart was about to issue the order when Devine spoke. “Maybe not, admiral. I might have an idea.” Devine cocked his head to one side as the numbers swam around in his head. Two seconds later, “Yes, admiral, I do have an idea. Pull all fighters back to the head of the fleet and bring in our bombers.” “Our bombers? What good will they do? The defense is much too densely packed on the moons for anything to get through.” “I ask for you to trust me once again, sir.” “Very well, Mr. Devine,” Stewart gave the orders and watched as the small blips on the tactical screen came closer to large cluster denoting the UGTO fleet. Several more dots appeared behind the main body of the fleet as the bombers jumped into the fray. “Fighters are in holding formations and awaiting orders,” tactical reported. “Admiral, this plan, like many others, carries a great risk attached,” Devine said. “But if it works, we should be able to finish the fight here in half the time it would take us normally and it could quite possibly allow us to send reinforcements to aid Fleet Admiral Morhaime. We won’t be able to take the pounding of these missiles forever, even with our pirate friends, so we have to work fast…” * * * * The UGTO bomber cruisers joined the fleet, still under the bombardment, a minute later. The fleet formed around the bombers with fighters lining the outer ring. 2 minutes later, the fleet ignited their proton drives and sped straight into the heart of the Uranus defense. As they neared the outer moons, K’luth ships began to drop their cloak and attack the outer ships of the ring. The attackers were dealt with as best as possible, but there was no room for any ship to maneuver, they had to protect the bomber squads. Halfway there, the UGTO ships broke off into 4 groups, heading for Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon, the largest of Uranus’ moons and the most dangerous. Not expecting that, the K’luth were slightly perplexed, but readjusted their attacks and chased down the rear ships of the UGTO formations with their destroyers. The ships headed for Oberon reached their target area first and sent their plan into action. About a third of the ships slowed and bank hard 180 degrees to engage the ships chasing the main body while the remaining engaged any ships in range of the moon’s surface, leaving the bombers with only the fighters to protect them. 50 fighters were arranged around the bombers, but they soon began to drop behind the bombers. Reaching their designated distances, the fighters released their Phoenix missiles at a stationary dreadnought off to the side of the moon at their maximum range, even at their tremendous speed, the missiles would still take 20 seconds to reach their target. The bombers continued head on, seemingly oblivious to the titanic battle around them, totally focused on their mission. * * * * “Missiles are inbound,” a K’luth reported. “Will they pass in range of planetary laser fire?” The one in charge asked. “Easily, sir. They are targeted on this dreadnought,” the K’luth pointed to his screen. “Give the computer its targets and switch laser fire to automatic. Engage the missiles at maximum range.” “Yes, sir.” * * * * Only following their orders, the K’luth on Oberon never knew they had sealed their fate. The 10 bomber cruisers each released two Proton Cruise Missiles just before the fighters launched their missiles, 5 cruisers targeting the power generators, the other 5 targeting K’luth command buildings. The cruise missiles’ signatures were almost identical to the Phoenix missiles, and the distance separating the two when launched would allow them to strike at almost the same moment, the cruise missiles trailing slightly behind. The Phoenix missiles passed just above the surface and even at their high speed, the planetary lasers acquired their targets and destroyed all of the Phoenixes. Unfortunately, the cruise missiles traveling just behind them swung down into the surface while the lasers were recharging and struck dead into their targets. The missiles buried themselves into the target structures and nearly disintegrated them. A shockwave over 10 kilometers burst out from the center and craters 3 kilometers wide and hundreds of meters deep were blown into the surface. None of the generators remained, and no command buildings were standing. With the surface laid to waste, the small group regrouped and quickly headed out to the rendezvous point just outside the lunar system. With the command buildings destroyed, there was no way to warn the other key moons of the tactics and the ships in orbit and engaging the UGTO were much too busy to notice. Titania and Umbriel both met the same fate as Oberon. Ariel had some warning, but only after the missiles were launched and only 2 command structures remained. With the generators destroyed though, the bombers took the extra time to launch MIRV’s at them and destroy them. It cost them several ships in both the bomber squad and defense ships, but orders were orders. * * * * “All command and power buildings on the moons have been confirmed destroyed, sir,” the tactical officer reported. “Thank you,” Stewart replied. “How much will that affect planetary fire Devine?” “I estimate it will reduce it by at least 50%, admiral. With the pirates point defense weapons, we should receive maybe 10% of the remaining percentage as direct fire.” Stewart smiled. “That’s much better. Set course for the rendezvous and prepare for the assault.” The UGTO ships headed away from the now devastated moons and gathered their forces under Devine’s direction. The bombers returned to Jupiter and the fighters docked to refuel and rearm their missiles and cannons. * * * * At Neptune, Davies had things under control, especially after the K’luth were forced to send away even more ships when the defense bases were destroyed at Uranus. The forces guarding Neptune had sent a moderate sized force out to engage Davies’ fleet when they were still outside of missile range. This fleet did some damage, destroying 2 dozen ships including two dreadnoughts, before they were destroyed and repelled. But, not expecting Uranus defense to take such a huge hit, between the ships that were destroyed by Davies and those that were sent out to reinforce Uranus, the Neptune fleet was left very shorthanded. And with the pirate ships handling most of the missile fire, it looked very good for the humans. At Pluto, however, things were not going well at all. Shortly after the ships from Uranus and Neptune jumped in behind the Ross fleet and they engaged, the fleet from Pluto surrounded the Ross fleet. Losses in ships were beginning to increase, with 34 ships destroyed already. Out of 150, that was high. Morhaime knew they couldn’t stay much longer. Even with passive formations, the sheer number of K’luth made maneuvering away from enemy ships near impossible. Ships banked away from a destroyer only to face 3 cruisers. “Scan for interdictor fields,” Morhaime said. The sensors officer ran his hand over his controls for a few seconds, and then reported, “Only field present is on Pluto, and we are out of range.” “How many of our ships have been destroyed?” “46 have been destroyed, 10 have been crippled and are adrift. No life signs on any.” “Send message to the fleet: Retreat.” Morhaime’s Battle Dreadnought, the Miniya Keiji, angled toward Jupiter and launched into Tachyon Space, with the remnants of his fleet closely behind him. If they could they would assist at Neptune or Uranus after rearming. But without them attacking Pluto, the fleets at those planets would soon face stacked odds. * * * * Jupiter Fleet was once again advancing as a cohesive whole toward Uranus. Even with the 4 moons down, they couldn’t simply attack in a fury. The only way to barely receive missile fire was to stick together and take it slow. A shudder was sent through the Beowulf as an IT Missile was able to penetrate and hit their port side. “Are the K’luth still flickering in and out?” Stewart asked. “Yes, sir. But the signals I am getting are coming from specific areas. It looks like the K’luth have broken into smaller groups to guard their remaining moons, probably from further bombing attacks.” “No problem there. I doubt we’ll ever get away with that stunt again,” Stewart remarked. He turned to Communications. “Send a message to the Ross fleet and ask them how they are holding out.” “Right away, sir,” the officer said. Just as he turned back to his console, an insistent sound emitted from it. “We are receiving a call from the Fleet Admiral Morhaime’s dreadnought, admiral.” “Let hear it.” Morhaime’s voice came through the bridge speakers. “This is the Miniya Keiji, we have sustained casualties and damage to almost a third of our fleet and we are currently preparing to make our jump to Jupiter to regroup. We will assist if it is at all possible.” “That’s the end of the transmission, sir,” the comm. officer said. “Very well. Transmit message received.” Stewart had to put the Ross fleet out of his mind. If they could help, they would. If they couldn’t, he would have to make due with what they had, which is what he planned on in the first place. About the same time, Davies also sent a message saying that they had broken through the missile perimeter and had taken 5 moons of 11. Several platoons had been sent down to the surface of each moon to secure the missile bases after they had beaten back the guarding ships and had totally secured 3 of the moons and secured most of the bases on the others without inflicting that much damage on the facilities. They had to place demolition charges inside several of the buildings to take down doors or destroy defense systems, but the defense systems were still functioning in many of the bases. Davies also reported that the front elements of the ship that attacked Morhaime’s fleet had returned, but had jumped behind the now captured UGTO moons and were cut off from joining the rest of their ships right away and were being held back by the soldiers manning the defense bases. The missile fire from Uranus’s moons was, as Devine predicted, considerably less than before. The size of the destroyed moons allowed many more defense bases to be strewn across the surface and cover a much larger area. With them out of action, the smaller moons were left to keep up the fire, something they couldn’t do effectively. As long as the fleet stuck together, few missiles would hit the larger ships and the smaller ships could outmaneuver the missiles that were aimed at them. The fleet’s first target was Puck, one of the larger moons left untouched; it was only 154 kilometers in diameter and didn’t warrant the same “attention” that the 1000 kilometer plus moons received. Missile fire increased as the fleet approached closer to Uranus. Several Larvae Assault class were launched by hidden dreadnoughts, but the K’luth were not known for their effective anti-capital fighters, and the fighters were destroyed before they did much damage. As the fleet got even closer, Psi missiles were then fired from the invisible cruisers and dreadnoughts. These missiles, though with shorter range and less punch then an IT, Psi missiles were much more maneuverable and almost invisible to sensors making them untargetable by ship lasers. The pirates fired of some Pulse Waves and destroyed some of the missiles, but they missed several due to the inaccurate timing of the pulses. “Range to Puck?” Stewart asked. “20000 kilometers,” navigation responded. “What’s your best guess to where the K’luth have laid their lines?” Stewart asked of the sensors officer. “Judging by the sensor reading, I’d say we approximately 10000 kilometers from their picket ships, sir.” “Order fleet to go to flank speed and enter battle formation. Transfer power to weapons and stand-by to engage,” Stewart ordered. All across the fleet, captains gave out their orders to their crews and continued forward, unerring in their objective.” “Sir, the K’luth from Pluto have exited warp space.” “Mr. Devine, where are they?” Stewart turned to the savant. “They are on the other side of Uranus, admiral. They are most likely going to reinforce the rest of the fleet, not attack us. We are also seconds away from their forward ships--” Stewart never listened to the rest of the sentence. Out of the edge of his eye he saw 3 dreadnoughts catch a lead Battle Cruiser on its port and starboard sides, where its armor was the weakest. The armor’s integrity failed within seconds and the powerful beams lanced through the hull and destroyed the cruiser’s main reactor in a devastating explosion, blowing the cruiser into a million pieces. Stewart opened a channel to the fleet and called out, “Engage, engage! Pick your targets and fire at will!” The UGTO dreadnoughts pushed their engines to the edge and dived headfirst into the fray with cruisers and destroyers all around. All over the K’luth ships were decloaking to fire their own weapons, several destroyers appearing right in the middle of the UGTO fleet. Devine was caught off guard by this and several cruisers and a dreadnought took severely damaging hits before he could assign ships to hit them back. Laser energy criss-crossed through space, connecting ships with their deadly light and slicing through hull and armor alike apart. The Beowulf loosed 4 torpedoes at a K’luth cruiser in their port quarter, nailing it with 3 and collapsing a section of its hull. The cruiser broke to starboard sparks firing off into space. “Siphon dreadnought approaching,” called out sensors. “Target lasers and fire!” 4 CL2000’s, the most powerful laser the humans had, exited their emitters just as the siphon entered its own weapons range. It fired 4 disruptors and 8 AM torpedoes directly at the Beowulf’s bow. The helm officer banked hard to port just as the dreadnought fired disruptors and the managed to dodge 3 of the torpedoes and putting the rest into the port armor. The CL lasers maintained their target despite the hard turn and punched through the hull of the dreadnought, creating a hole a hundred meters deep and almost 25 meters deep in the nose of the K’luth ship. “Port armor is compromised,” Raymond said. “Forward armor at 50%.” “Jesus…” Stewart almost moaned. “One volley…?” No one replied, and no one wanted to. Barely 5 minutes into the fighting, and already they had a completely open armor ring. “Keep our starboard side oriented to the majority of the K’luth ships and target any ship approaching from port with top priority.” The Beowulf broke off from its position and swung around to the perimeter of the fleet with its weak side facing in. Stewart would have preferred to stay at the front, but this was not the time to be heroically foolish. Stewart could command and Devine could control just as easily from further back in the formations. Not that they would say so, though. The number of K’luth began to dwindle as they were forced further and further back toward Puck. Several K’luth cruisers laid down some mines as they fell back, and a few overzealous frigates fell victim to the concentrated blast of anti-matter. The mines forced the large UGTO ships to slow down while destroyers and frigates, moving more cautiously now, moved in to clear them. The K’luth took advantage of this stop to swing around and attack again, concentrating on the ships lining the perimeters formations. Devine of course saw this coming and had pushed fresher, more powerful ships out to the line. The K’luth cruisers came in at full speed from the sides, knowing that their attack wouldn’t last long, so they sacrificed energy for speed. Using mostly AM torpedoes, the K’luth launched on a few volleys on the perimeter ships before breaking off. Several volleys landed before the return fire of the UGTO forced them back. Damage was done to several dreadnoughts, and one cruiser was crippled. Two repair ships released their supply drones and began to repair the cruiser’s engines while towing it away from the battle under tractor. A minute later the minefield had been cleared and the fleet moved forward once more. Fighters from Puck’s surface rose up and began to swarm the lead UGTO ships. Firing fast moving Psi cannon bolts, most of these shots landed, degrading the armor on a number of ships before interceptors from Battle Dreadnoughts, held back because of the mines, were able to engage them and force them away from the fight. The front ships reached Puck and broke off into groups of two or three ships. Destroyers and cruisers from behind them did the same as they reached the moon. The dozens of groups ran through K’luth formations, cutting disastrously close to dreadnoughts, almost taunting them to keep up. The K’luth did the best they could to destroy the small craft with their own, but the K’luth frigates did not have the same agility of their UGTO counterparts and were outraced in the maze of metal. The dreadnoughts of Jupiter Fleet reached Puck soon after that. They began to fire almost indiscriminately into the large cluster of K’luth dreadnoughts, barely missing their own ships. Caught between the harassment of the destroyers and frigates and the bombardment of the dreadnoughts’ cannons and torpedoes, the K’luth attempted to jump out of the area toward one of their friendly moons, but were stopped after less then a second. The UGTO Interdictor cruiser had sneaked in with the UGTO dreadnoughts, almost all systems running cold and the interdictor device off. At Devine’s order, the cruiser activated its interdictor device, stopping all jump activity in a radius well past Puck. Over half of the remaining K’luth ships had attempted to jump, and were stopped dead before they even went 10 kilometers. Caught with their exposed backs to the UGTO, the K’luth ships were subsequently slaughtered one by one. Only 2 of those that jumped were able to recover in time to effectively maneuver again, and they were dealt with quite quickly. The other K’luth ships that didn’t jump were those that saw their ships be stopped and destroyed and they were well on their way away from the UGTO. “Deploy drop pods.” Specks of light broke away from several dreadnoughts and burned down to Puck’s surface while others headed out to the destroyed moons. A few heading for Puck were blasted out of the sky by defensive lasers, but the rest soon got under the firing arc of the lasers and headed straight for the airlocks of the target structures. Attaching and pressurizing, the boarding marines dived through the entrances guns blazing. Outnumbered and outgunned, the meager security forces defending the buildings were swept aside by the specially trained marines. Puck was captured and secured in less then 10 minutes. In the Beowulf, Stewart was sitting on the edge of his chair. He patched through to the ground commander and asked, “When can those defense bases be up?” “My boys are going through and testing the systems now, sir. Assuming the best, they will be ready for the gunners you sent along in a few minutes.” Stewart closed the channel and opened it to the commander of the troops on the 4 biggest moons. “Did the explosions damage any of the ammunition stores?” Stewart asked. “No, sir,” the marine replied. “The storage rooms were some kilometers under the surface and were untouched. I sent a few men down on each moon and, besides a few loose rocks, nothing is out of place.” “Thank you, commander. Carry on,” Stewart said as he shut off the link. After Puck fell, Miranda, Belinda, and the small outer moons quickly followed suit. Their own defending fleets were minimal since Miranda’s and Belinda’s fleets were also Puck’s fleet since all were quite close together. The outer moons had almost no defense fleet as there size and resources made them almost insignificant. The K’luth fleet around Rosalind, only 20000 kilometers away from Puck, and the main body of the UGTO fleet, had been lying in wait under cloak and heavy ECM. Thinking that the ECM would provide even greater coverage from scanners, the K’luth fleet had spread themselves out over a few thousand kilometers to hit several targets at once. Unfortunately, the ECM provided much less cover then they thought. ECM, unlike cloak, scrambled sensors over a certain radius emanating from a central point. The cloak simply bended energy around the ship, making it invisible, although higher energy beams could penetrate it to a small degree. In any event, it was a simple matter (for Devine) to pinpoint this moving interference and turn the predator into prey. He supplied the targeted UGTO ships with coordinates and ordered them to fire at his command. As the K’luth entered the area, Devine sent the command to open fire into what was just a few seconds earlier, open space. The concentrated sweeping motion into the targeted areas destroyed almost all of the larger ships. The only saving grace of spreading themselves out so thin was that the explosions didn’t damage as many K’luth ships then if they had gone as a group. A brief but intense firefight occurred, but the K’luth ships were quickly surrounded and inflicted only minor damage overall. At the moment, 5 of the 8 remaining K’luth moons were on the same side of Uranus as Jupiter Fleet and all tightly knit in terms of outer space; all of the 5 moons were only a few thousand kilometers apart, the greatest being slightly over 7000 kilometers. In lunar terms, they are quite close neighbours. But they were all very small moons and only one was over 100 kilometers. Several were under 50. After the supply ships were finished, the supply ships headed back into the cover of the now-UGTO moons as their drones efficiency became almost non-existent if they were forced to work on a moving ship. The speed of their drones was barely a fraction of that that could be obtained by a dreadnought so there was no way for any form of supplies to get through to any ship. “Sir,” sensors said, “the K’luth fleet appears to be massing.” “Put it on the main screen,” Stewart ordered. The viewscreen shimmered from the real time view to the tactical overlay. While sensors could not pick out individual K’luth ships as they were still cloaked, Devine had extrapolated the area where the ships were gathering. A pulsing red rectangle showed the approximate area covered. “What are they doing…?” Stewart said quietly, more to himself than anybody else. Before anybody could answer the question, the communications station chirped. “Incoming transmission from Neptune, sir.” “Put it through,” Stewart said. He stood up and stared at the forward screen as the transmission was put on speakers. “Vice Admiral Davies here, sir. We were moving on the final moons at Neptune when something rather strange happened.” “What do you mean?” Stewart asked. “I mean that every single reading we had on any K’luth ship just vanished. We picked up no jump disturbances either, so unless they left under their normal drives they have vanished from this universe.” What is going on here? Stewart thought. “Have you secured Neptune?” Stewart asked. “Almost, sir,” Davies said. “A few K’luth have barricaded themselves in several installations. Nothing we can’t handle given enough time.” “Keep your eyes open. This situation is becoming stranger by the second.” “Yes, sir.” Stewart motioned for the channel to be closed, while his mind went a mile a minute. The K’luth just gave up Neptune. Why? The K’luth at Uranus appeared to be moving toward a well entrenched enemy position of equal strength and, with Devine at their side; the UGTO would be able to come through it without that many losses. The only way the K’luth at Uranus could ever hope to beat the Jupiter Fleet would be with overwhelming numbers. Stewart stopped. He whirled to his comm. officer and ordered him to open a channel to Davies’ fleet. Stewart didn’t preamble, if he was right, they didn’t have enough time. “How many K’luth ships were you facing?” “Uh, just before they disappeared, sir?” Davies sounded a bit perplexed. “Yes, and be quick about it.” The channel was quiet for a few seconds while Davies consulted with his sensors officer. “We approximated some 300 ships remained before they left our scanners. Is there something wrong, sir?” “Yes, Vice Admiral, there is. Finish securing the Neptune system and hold your position. We are about to come under attack heavy attack at Uranus.” Stewart closed the channel before Davies could respond. The bridge crew had since looked up at Stewart, wondering what he knew that they didn’t. Stewart ignored the glances for now, and turned to communications. “Order the fleet back now. Get all ships back into the perimeter of the moons. Devine,” Stewart turned to the savant, “Set up a defensive perimeter and pull in our carriers from Jupiter. Get them here as fast as possible.” * * * * In the relatively safe haven of the Jovian system, the Ross fleet was undergoing repairs and rearming in the multiple space docks on the Galilean moons. “Sir, the reserve carriers are moving out.” Morhaime looked up just in time to see the brilliant flashes of multiple jump drives engaging. But something was wrong. The flashes were much too far apart to be part of any organized fleet action. It looked more like a desperate reinforcement. “Where are they heading?” Morhaime asked. “It appears they are heading straight for Uranus, sir, right for the moons the Jupiter Fleet has captured.” Now it was Morhaime’s turn to wonder what the hell was happening. The carriers that just pulled out were most of the only ship based defense that were in the lunar system, besides his fleet. What could possibly be happening that Stewart not only had to pull out the carriers, but not inform a Fleet Admiral? * * * * “The signals from the K’luth are getting closer, sir. Contact estimated in 4 minutes.” Under Devine’s control, the UGTO ships had set up an outer perimeter with static dreadnoughts and roving squadrons of cruisers and destroyers, with a mobile inner conglomeration of others. These inner ships could engage any ship that slipped past the line, reinforce areas under heavy attack, or replace damaged, crippled, or destroyed ships. It was not the best of defense strategies, but both Stewart and Devine believed that had little time to work on an intricate plan. The Beowulf was currently part of the inner group, its armor still hurting from the AM torpedoes. “2 minutes to contact,” sensors reported. This is the worst part, Stewart thought. The waiting. The doing nothing. In battle, time seemed to shorten, hours taking minutes. But the waiting was unbearable. Seconds seemed to stretch into infinity. Shortly after the 1 minute mark, another, more frantic report came. “Sir, a massive warp disturbance all around us! K’luth ships are decloaking and advancing on our position!” The K’luth ships that had abandoned Neptune to Davies were now launching on all out assault on Stewart, determined to lose only 1 system today. The timing of the K’luth was perfect. Almost every side of the perimeter was hit at the same time. Interdictor cruisers of the K’luth’s own design set up just out of weapons range of the UGTO, blocking them from retreating. The UGTO’s weapons were generally longer ranged then K’luth, but that did not offer them much of an advantage here. The K’luth ships were traveling at full speed, and there were simply too many of them to deter in the few volleys the torpedo ships got off. They couldn’t even use missiles as the K’luth decloaked much too close to fire them. Torpedoes from both sides burned their way through space, seeking their targets. Torpedoes soon gave way to laser and disruptor fire as the two fleets connected head-on. The large dreadnoughts of the K’luth were unable to push their way through the UGTO line, not without ramming the other ships, but the same did not apply to the nimble destroyers of the K’luth. They dodged torpedoes and cannons then broke past the outer dreadnoughts. Many of them were annihilated by close range laser fire by dreadnoughts, and others were cut down as they passed through the gaps by the inner ships. But soon enough destroyers, frigates, and even the occasional cruiser were inside the ring, hitting the outer wall from behind as the inner ships desperately tried to stop them. The K’luth dreadnoughts and cruisers, on the other hand, began to circle the UGTO ships, like something out of the old west. They slowly pelted away on the front armor of any target they could, ebbing away some more on each and every pass. The equalizer for the UGTO was their fighters. While the small craft were limited at best inside the ring, outside they were at a supreme advantage. Since most of the large craft were forced to remain outside the perimeter, the K’luth had almost no defense against the fighter craft. The few interceptors the K’luth did manage to launch were destroyed soon after. But the fighters could not destroy the whole fleet by itself. The Beowulf was holding its own despite the damage sustained earlier to its armor plating. Several cruiser captains had, on their own accord, formed a perimeter of their own around the flagship. While the K’luth did recognize that the posturing made the Beowulf important, they ignored it for now. If they could open a hole in to UGTO line, their dreadnoughts could get inside and wreak havoc. Ships began to fall. A torpedo cruiser crossed in front of a Mandible class dreadnought and took a full volley of torpedoes. Its hull collapsed and it spun off before it exploded. A destroyer’s armor failed and a disruptor punched right through the small ship, almost slicing it on half. A Battle Dreadnought’s top engine wing was destroyed, taking the large middle one with it, which took off the read third of the ship in a massive explosion. It was obvious the K’luth were prioritizing the UGTO ships instead of the private ships. Without military coordination, the privateers would fall apart, even with their firepower. It was amazing that the number of private ships that stayed were high as they were, considering a number of them were legitimate civilian ships. The battle had lasted all of 10 minutes when the first problem for the UGTO arose. Two dreadnoughts had been taking a beating and were faltering somewhat. They had obviously taken damage to their weapon systems and were putting out half the fire they should have been. A K’luth dreadnought had swung outside its companions and was circling around to finish off the most damaged of the beleaguered ships, opening the gap for itself and any others behind it. The nearest dreadnought to replace it was too far away, it would never be able to get there in time to stop it from being destroyed and opening the gap. Devine was faced with two choices, preserve the ship and open the gap prematurely, or leave the ship until the bitter end and hope that by some miracle a ship could get there. Devine was hesitating, and even though this hesitation was taking less then a second, he was conflicted. He wanted to save those lives on the dreadnought, but saving them could mean many others had to die. He moved the other dreadnought into position while debating with himself. After a second of though, he decided to let the dreadnought stay where it was. He didn’t do it with a clear conscience though. The replacement was still a few hundred kilometers away as the hull of the damaged dreadnought finally gave way under the massive torpedo barrage of the K’luth. The forward section of the dreadnought was blown apart and the rest of the ship was peppered with smaller explosions along its hull before a massive explosion in the rear of the ship sent it flying forward out into the K’luth ships. The tactical officer on the Beowulf looked up from his station and said, “The line has been broken, sir.” K’luth ships were making a beeline straight for the hole, cruisers were already breaking through. “Get all available ships to cover that gap!” Stewart said. “I want a constant stream of fire right through there. Concentrate all our fire. I don’t want anything to break through.” Enemy dreadnoughts were lining up to hit the gap. Cruisers remained on the outside, forcing Devine to not let the line collapse on any other side. The only ships that could defend the hole were those that were on the inside. The first dreadnought that tried to get through the breach was obliterated by the concentrated fire, as was the second one. But the second dreadnought’s hull stood up to the barrage, and partially shields the others behind it, allowing them to advance almost into the inner sanctum of the UGTO. It quickly became apparent to Stewart that the effort was futile. This was where their reclamation of Sol would end. A flash on the screen caused Stewart to look up. With so many ships at such close range, the sensors became almost useless for long range work, so there was no chance to detect any incoming additional ships. But the brilliant white ships that exited Tachyon space needed no introduction. “It’s the Ross fleet!” The helm officer cried out. Even at the distance they were at, it was easy to see the battle damage the fleet sustained. Workings of the inner hulls were exposed on several ships, and several were even leaking fuel, creating a flaming white trail where ever they went. The Ross fleet, damaged as it was, still sped into the fight with almost reckless abandon. They barely slowed down to target the K’luth interdictors as they passed them. As luck would have it, the gap in the UGTO line was facing away from Uranus and the remaining K’luth moons. The K’luth dreadnoughts gathered there were like fish in a barrel. Hit from behind, where their firepower and armor was minimal, the dreadnoughts were destroyed one by one. The proximity of the explosions to each other destroyed any smaller ships unlucky enough to be caught beside the targeted ships and damaged everything else. Those K’luth that could, turned to engage the Ross fleet, but the hope was futile. The Ross fleet split into two groups and attacked from two sides, catching the K’luth in a deadly crossfire. Joined by the fire from the front of the Jupiter Fleet, the K’luth were cut down. The cruisers that were circling the besieged UGTO had since broken off to engage the new threat, allowing those ships on the other side of the perimeter to break the line and encircle the K’luth. Weapons fire was poured at the K’luth from all sides until nothing remained except dust and debris. The two friendly fleets hung facing each other, silently thanking each other before a call came to the Beowulf from the Miniya Keiji. Both admirals were all smiles as they spoke. “I couldn’t be more thankful, Fleet Admiral,” Stewart breathed. “All in a day’s work, admiral. Just be sure to return the favor won’t you?” Realizing they still had work to do, the two fleets both combined and returned to capturing the Uranus moons. Without enemy ships, the remaining moons fell within an hour. _________________ Fleet Admiral Tbone Commander of the NSS Red Lobster [ This Message was edited by: Tbone [NSS Pandora's Box] on 2003-10-05 18:54 ] [ This Message was edited by: Tbone [NSS Pandora's Box] on 2003-12-18 18:35 ] _________________
Max Kepler Fleet Admiral Templar Knights Joined: March 08, 2002 Posts: 589 From: ICS Victory	Posted: 2003-10-05 21:26 Am I the only one wondering how Jimmy Stewart got resurrected and became an Admiral? ...just kiddin Nice work, T-Bone =) _________________
Malduc{-GTN-} Cadet Joined: January 19, 2003 Posts: 544 From: New Jersey	Posted: 2003-10-06 01:13 Wow, that was long, but still EXCELLENT! Kept me on the edge of my seat. Keep it up my friend, great writing as always. Malduc _________________ The Bond of Brotherhood Shall Never Be Undone.....Nor Shall The Legacy of the Fleet Once Known as *GTN* One Creed, One Bond, One FLEET. Honor Is All
Axianda The Royal Fleet Admiral Terra Squadron Joined: November 20, 2001 Posts: 4273 From: Axianda	Posted: 2003-10-07 10:44 WOOHOO!!!!! SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET keep it up _________________ - Axi
The_Pizza_Guy Cadet Joined: July 29, 2003 Posts: 3	Posted: 2003-10-19 23:08 Damn! i havent had a chance to read it, but damn i cant wait! If they made fan fiction a members only thing i would be forced to sign back up for thsi great work. Ill be back soon! _________________
Jamesbond Grand Admiral Galactic Navy Joined: February 05, 2003 Posts: 146 From: Venice Florida	Posted: 2003-10-29 20:20 Come on T-Bone MORE MORE MORE this is an excellent story and you should keep it going!!! If ya keep it up ill start giving ya credits so keep going _________________ Grand Admiral of the GTN Fleet. One Creed, One Bond, One FLEET GTN: HONOR IS ALL!
Tbone Grand Admiral Joined: July 21, 2001 Posts: 1756 From: Vancouver	Posted: 2003-11-15 04:11 Chapter 9: How the Other Halves Lives: For the most part, the private ships that joined with the UGTO fleet were legitimate. There were only about 4 dozen actual pirate ships in the whole group of over several hundred vessels. And any known indiscretions these ships had been known to have committed were quickly forgotten by the ranking UGTO officers. Not only did the pirates have the most heavily armed of the civilian ship, many had actual combat experience; either with UGTO border patrols or former naval personnel. Farshid Safi, commander of the Civilian Merchant Fleet ship Tabarzin, was not a pirate. He created and ran a small business consisting of the trading of dozens of legitimate items from his and five other ships. He never stole, never cheated, never short-cutted, and paid his taxes. He had made himself quite a handsome profit in the legal world. Of those 5 ships, 4 remained. His brother commanded the Kooseh and, only minutes into the battle at Mars, took a critical hit to its engines. His brother had always been one for going out in glory and so directed his ship straight into the side of a K’luth cruiser. While Safi appreciated the heroicness of the gesture, he felt it was wasted. He hated the K’luth, of course, but he hated the UGTO even more. Over 200 years had passed since the glorious victory of the faithful over the western oppressors, and over 200 years since the Global Corporate Council had ruined that dream. His great-great-grandfather was of the most prominent leaders of that new world and was assassinated for trying to unite the world under a single flag by the murderous GCC. The few cells that survived the GCC reclamation of Earth did realize that dream however. Banding together, they formed a super-cell under the guise of several business under the new rule, gaining profits and power for when the time was right to strike. They planned and expanded, never losing patience. When the war started with the ICC and K’luth, they slowly started to build up their weapon stores, careful to never buy too much at one time or keep it in a single place. Safi’s creation and licensing of the trade business just before the war was truly a gift from God. Until then, their operations were limited to Earth, Luna, and Venus and then Mars when it became habitable. When Safi pushed them into space, they managed to establish a small “trading” base in the asteroid belt as well as recruit on the ridge systems. Out of a population well into the billions, it was hardly surprising how many people could be led to believe in a certain cause. The salvage they recovered during the war was invaluable. Torpedo launchers, particle cannons, and heavy lasers were quietly collected and stored in various outposts. The fleet salvage tugs that came always found enough left to satisy their superiors. Nothing was ever missed. But the K’luth… the K’luth ruined the chance they had been building up to for so many generations. The terrorists were just over a month away from moving on all the major corporate entities and government officials and removing them from this plane of existence. Sleeper agents were in position and ready to move. But when the K’luth broke through the UGTO lines, the political and corporate leaders important enough were whisked away to some mysterious location they could not locate, despite their vigorous attempts. Safi was not even sure the K’luth could locate the leaders of the humans. Their plan lay in ruins and their weapons left gathering dust. Safi almost shook with rage on his bridge as he recalled the history. At the K’luth, at the GCC, or at the UGTO, he didn’t know who to direct his anger at. Don’t dwell on the past, he reminded himself. He had to concentrate on the present and what the future would bring. As the K’luth drew ever closer to Sol, trade became sparse and pirating much more common. Trying to maintain their legitimacy, Safi had never installed weapons on their trading ships. They never ran into problems because they avoided all of the known predator areas. But as the UGTO drew tighter and tighter to their planets, pirates came out of the woodwork. Safi was forced to arm his ships with some of the weapons they had salvaged after his ship was ambushed by two heavily armed pirates. The jump drive was disabled in the first few seconds of fighting, and the pirates were seconds away from boarding Safi’s ship before they got it back online and made an emergency jump. And now he had an opportunity. He could destroy the UGTO with one strike, and finally realize his ancestors’ dreams. * * * * The Expeditionary Tribal Council of the K’luth empire had called an emergency meeting. Held in a specially shielded chamber that blocked out all ambient psionic emissions, the council was alone with their thoughts. Admiral Lak’Nar Leenan’Era, commander of the K’luth Fleet (Sol), stood rigid before the council. Their thoughts swam through his head. Anger. Embarrassment. Humiliation. Failure. All those and more he felt emanating from the elder K’luth, those who survived and won countless battles with the K'luth's enemies. Do you have an explanation for your failure? One elder asked. Lak’Nar continued to stare straight ahead. My commanders— Are dead, admiral, another finished. We cannot ask them. We are asking you. Leenan’Era eyes twitched under the stare and thoughts of the elders. Honored elders, have you heard of a program that trained gifted humans in the art of war? The slight confusion that was pushed into his mind confirmed that they had not. Leenan’Era continued, Some time ago, the human military began a specific selection of members of their race. Their goal was to create a method of communication and control that was on the same level as our own. By the time we invaded Sol, it appeared this program had at least partially succeeded. One of these individuals, known to the humans as battle savants, was controlling the fleet at Mars and was able to inflict serious casualties on our attacking force. If it wasn’t for our greatly superior numbers in that battle, our invasion would most likely have been cut short. The training facility was based on Mars, and we have been trying to break the files ever since landing. However, the details are heavily encrypted so our code breakers have not been able to uncover them yet. However, there is one thing for certain. These tactics being employed by the fleet centered in the Jovian system are much more sophisticated and complex then anything we have ever seen. I believe that the humans in that fleet have come across one of these battle savants, and have integrated him into their command structure. Leenan’Era fell silent—as silent as his mind could be—and let the elders digest what he had told them. He could have gone on for some time and explained many more of things they have uncovered in the less shielded files, but he didn’t need to. Those thoughts rose up as he recanted his little speech and became easily available to the elders, with a little effort on their part. With a bit more effort, wouldn’t have even needed to give the short speech, as those thoughts could be simply taken from his mind. But, while there were no secrets among the K’luth, many were comforted by actual telling and listening; it built a base of trust. A question formed in Leenan’Era’s mind. But how could they have come across one of these ‘savants?’ No fleet we faced before Mars, nor after, displayed the effectiveness of the Jupiter fleet. We had been attacking Jupiter for some time as well, without facing any adverse problems time could not have solved. How could they have come across this human? Ships escaped from the battle at Mars, Leenan’Era sent back, and we are not able to determine the ship the savant was based on. The most likely explanation was that the ship he was carried on escaped as the battle drew to a close. The oldest, and most honored, K’luth leaned forward and narrowed his eye slits. You have told us the problem, admiral. Now tell us what you intend to do about it. I think, elder, Leenan’Era said, it would be best if I showed you. * * * * From your actions, admiral, I can only assume we are being shown to a military facility conducting top-secret research and experiments. However, there is no facility on the planet you are taking us, and from the thoughts I read from you, you know nothing of it either. All things will be explained in time, honored elder. Please be patient, Leenan’Era asked. The elders grew quiet, obviously unconvinced. The whole situation was completely unfamiliar to them. Leenan’Era’s mind revealed nothing, and yet he sounded totally convinced of what he was saying. But, somehow, he was holding something back With all known systems secured with the exception of Sol, Leenan’Era had taken a select few of the elders back to the Sirius system and through to Groombridge 34 to the planet of Yoth, one of the remotest planets in the galaxy. The trip had taken a mere fraction of the time it would usually take to travel through that many systems, as there was no danger to any ship outside Sol. Yoth was a barren, inhospitable world. Ice covered almost every square meter of the world, with only a few small patches on its equator. It had no indigenous life, spare a microbe or two, to speak of. In short, it was perfect. The landing shuttle slowed as it approached the surface, heading for no discernable landmark. There was no space port, no runway, or no landing pad, just ice in every direction. The craft settled softly down on a flat expanse of ice, puffs of exhaust ejecting from vents. The K’luth, being an insectasoid species, had little tolerance for extreme cold. The passengers piled into a ground vehicle stored in the hold and it rolled off down the ramp into the hostile environment. Normally, the vehicle would have been equipped with anti-gravs, but on Yoth mass was the key for travel on the surface. The high winds that whipped around the planet could reach up to 200km/h and could easily overcome even the most powerful anti-gravity devices. The huge vehicles were the only things that held enough traction on the surface to stay upright. The car bounced over the landscape, heading toward a distant hill. The hill gradually grew in the front window, becoming more like a small mountain. The vehicle sped toward one side of the slope and, just as the K’luth on board were about to say something, a crack appeared in the ice. There was only black at first, but as they got closer, outlines began to appear and objects began to stand out. It was not, however, until the ground car passed through the gigantic doors that the passengers were able to see what they just entered. It was a lift; big enough to carry 20 of the vehicles the K’luth were riding. Machines lined the sides of the chamber, presumably for maintenance. But, there were no K’luth in sight, not even a single mechanic or operator. The driver stopped in the center of the lift platform and it began to descend. Despite the enormity of the platform, it moved down below the ice quickly. The walls around the lift were unmistakingly plain, only lights every few meters provided a faint illumination. But, soon a brighter light could be seen permeating through the small crack between the lift and the wall. It grew brighter and brighter, until finally the lift broke out of the shaft and into a massive chamber, hollowed out of the ice. The elders looked at the windows in amazement. Below them, enough structures were built on the bottom of the cave to form a small city. Light coming from windows sparkled off the walls, creating a dazzling display of colors. In the center of the city—there was no other way to describe it—stood out a single tower, designed obviously to impose. The lift touched down shortly after it entered the chamber, and the admiral with the elders stepped out of the ground car. The elders were still glancing around themselves, refusing to believe. The very thought of a secret among the K’luth society, even a military secret, was completely alien and subtly offensive. The K’luth prided themselves on their shared minds, the fact that everything had to be in the open. It was simply second nature to them to know everything. The first to speak was the eldest, although he did not speak much. “How?” was all he said. Leenan’Era leaned in close to the elder, an expression he picked up from humans. He sent his thought quietly, barely a whisper in terms of psionics, I’ll show you. The K’luth walked through the city. But there was still no one to be seen. There was only the random sighting of a small robot skittering along the ground or the walls. There were no people, K’luth, human, or other. What is this place? The same elder asked. No workers, no guards, nothing but drones and buildings. “This way was all of Leenan’Era’ reply. The small group soon realized their destination, the tower seen from lift. Even larger from the ground, it seemed to reach to the very top of the ice chamber, threatening to punch through the dome. The door leading inside the tower quickly opened as they approached, and closed just as quickly when all were through to the inside with a thump that echoed throughout the darkened chamber the K’luth found themselves in. The elders were uncomfortable, Leenan’Era saw. But soon that would pass, soon they would understand. The elders were still looking around the chamber when they heard it, inside their minds. *GREETINGS.* The normally unshakable battle-hardened K’luth looked up, startled. The thought had not come from a single direction, it had come from everywhere. *YOU ARE TROUBLED, HONOURED ELDERS,* the voice continued. No one had responded yet, nor really knew how to know. What were they supposed to talk to, the walls? A short, staccato sound reverberated through the elders’ minds. It was laughter. *NO, NOT THE WALLS. TO ME.* The eldest K’luth, his mind’s voice once strong and undaunted, seemed frail when compared to the booming resonance of…whatever was talking to them. And, he asked, who might you be? *I AM THE FUTURE. YOUR FUTURE. I AM EVERYTHING THAT WE NEED TO BE.* A beating began inside the elder’s head. It grew larger and louder, more powerful. The elder clutched at his head with all four of his hands, as if they could block out the noise, and screamed out loud. The elder found himself, with all the other elders, looking up at Leenan’Era from the floor. Leenan’Era stood there, looking down at them, smiling. _________________ Fleet Admiral Tbone Commander of the NSS Red Lobster [ This Message was edited by: Tbone [NSS Pandora's Box] on 2003-11-15 04:14 ] _________________
Axianda The Royal Fleet Admiral Terra Squadron Joined: November 20, 2001 Posts: 4273 From: Axianda	Posted: 2003-11-15 05:09 whooooooo that pretty misterious.... I LIKE IT keep it up _________________ - Axi
Azure.co.uk Cadet Joined: December 01, 2002 Posts: 355	Posted: 2003-11-25 10:08 Wheres the next chapter! _________________
Tbone Grand Admiral Joined: July 21, 2001 Posts: 1756 From: Vancouver	Posted: 2003-11-26 11:34 In my head, the only thing on paper at the moment is the answers to my exam questions. _________________
DragonWarrior Cadet Joined: July 05, 2003 Posts: 90	Posted: 2003-11-26 15:40 Nice! I havent read it all yet, but i hope u have this saved somewhere! Its Great!!!!!!!!!! PS: U PSS: Have PSSS: Brought PSSSS: Hnor to GTN! _________________ The difference between a fighter and a warrior lies in the mind and the spirit. The fighter, regardless if the fear death or not, embraces it. Also, they hold no wisdom, regardless of knowledge. The warrior is wise and neither fears nor embraces death.
Purpura Cadet Joined: March 16, 2003 Posts: 27 From: Living on top of a tiki hut bar enjoying the sun and the ocean	Posted: 2003-11-29 01:34 again gr8 work p.s. exam =ouch sux 2 be u _________________

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