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Forum Index » » Fan Fiction » » Stars like Blood Diamonds, now with chapter three.

Author	Stars like Blood Diamonds, now with chapter three.
Aragorn Cadet Joined: January 08, 2004 Posts: 168 From: Vancouver, Canada	Posted: 2004-07-20 16:25 . [small][ This Message was edited by: Aragorn on 2004-07-22 20:10 ][/small] [ This Message was edited by: Aragorn on 2004-07-28 16:41 ] _________________
[Free]Dop-erwt Cadet Joined: March 04, 2004 Posts: 130 From: eindhoven, the netherlands	Posted: 2004-07-20 17:41 nice, btw zeritu is fleet admiral _________________ ignorance is bliss disfunction is a function former fleets: -uepg- =IT= -IL-
BackSlash Marshal Galactic Navy Joined: March 23, 2003 Posts: 11183 From: Bristol, England	Posted: 2004-07-20 18:04 nice I enjoyed reading that _________________
Aragorn Cadet Joined: January 08, 2004 Posts: 168 From: Vancouver, Canada	Posted: 2004-07-22 18:39 [ This Message was edited by: Aragorn on 2004-07-28 16:40 ] _________________
Starfist Chief Marshal Galactic Navy Joined: March 22, 2003 Posts: 574	Posted: 2004-07-22 23:44 good read, whens the next chapter coming out _________________
Aragorn Cadet Joined: January 08, 2004 Posts: 168 From: Vancouver, Canada	Posted: 2004-07-27 01:59 aiming for one a week, sorta basing it on the MV but the MV is moving faster that I can write..... so I guess I can get creative about it =) _________________
Meko Grand Admiral Joined: March 03, 2004 Posts: 1956 From: Vancouver	Posted: 2004-07-27 03:03 AJUWA! _________________
Aragorn Cadet Joined: January 08, 2004 Posts: 168 From: Vancouver, Canada	Posted: 2004-07-28 16:40 Chapter One : The Dark Times “WHAT WAS THAT! “ The Vice Admiral growled and looked up at his navigator and tactical officer from the floor where he had been thrown for an answer. “ICC Dread jumped onto our near starboard bow sir, and two more assault cruisers fore and port. Outer hull is at 12% and we are venting atmosphere and plasma. Anti-matter solution in the port engine is unstable and is off line, she continued, our armour is vaporized and repair drones down to 10%. They were in point laser range.” She looked up with a mix of carefully controlled anger and fear at her commanding officer. The Vice Admiral gripped the nav console gingerly and raised himself up again, he could hear the hum of the repair drones working frantically to patch the critically crippled vessel. That was a good sign. He steadied himself on a consol as the ship shuddered and groaned, that was not such a good sign. He smiled reassuringly at his nav officer. “Well, we are still here aren’t we.” “Yes sir,” She shot back, relieved just to be alive her professional demeanor burned away by the acid of her emotions and she let her anger vent the same way her ship now was. It was her ship too she thought, more than his, and it was her life. “I took the liberty” her voice like a whip “ of jumping our us out from between the three Assault Dreadnaughts that jumped us and the other three cruisers you were attacking in our supply ship…….. Sir.” She glared but her body language started to deflate. She new this was even more of a loosing battle. Taking on an ICC fleet in a supply ship was one thing, taking on an Admiral could be far more risky. “My supply ship, Commander Kira” The Vice Admiral reminded her still smiling but without a great deal of happiness behind the weary eyes “And my home…….” He moved back aside his command chair and looked at the communications team frantically trying to sort through the signals from decks, ship stations, other ships and of course…. Earth. It seems that the Interstellar Confederation wants to come home, he thought looked at his personal Comm consol above his chair and flicked a channel on. “… is commissar Breshniev Polnisov of the Trans Kazak Trade district, what the hell is happening up there? Your fleet which we all pay taxes for is supposed to protect us. Do you know who I am! I will have your heads, I will have all of you court marshaled! Executed! We are being bombed, our cities are ……static…. there are thousands dieing and ICC troops have …static……, oh my God , oh my…“…static…. The Admiral changed the channel; ….UEPG Stargazer, we are retreating from battle for repairs, all systems down…… And again …. tighten up formation, Hood and Akagi, there are two incoming bomber cruisers heading for Earth and ICC transports right behind them, position yourself for intercept…… And again ….of the North American Trade District. We report ICC commandos down and Bio contamination is disabling or killing most units above ground and is leaking to the civilian shelters below ground, .… casualties are extremely high among civilians. Edmonton, Vancouver, Denver, Atlanta and Panama City took direct hits. The populations are not expected to survive long enough for the antidote to reach them in time. We request permission to broadcast our surrender, please respond central Terran command….. And again “This is the MCN Carrier Dreadnaught Hood requesting assistance, we are under attack by three ICC Dreadnaughts off of Luna. Our situation is critical. We are loosing hull integrity. Request immediate repair drone supply. Can anyone……. Static… His science and surveillance lead officer looked up from their station and reported. “We have an energy signature of an exploding UGTO ship sir…….. “ Zev, his communications officer chimed in: “Escape pod beacons are being pick up just off Luna, It’s the Hood. “ “Two ICC stations have just entered orbit around Earth. Feralwulf and Pinball are counter attacking and Fleet Admiral Zeritu is requesting all remaining ICC ships regroup outside of Sol. “ The Vice Admiral, stunned by the flood of information coming through the different channels, did not react but just stared blankly at the monitors around him. This had been their last stand in Sol. Too many ICC ships had managed to jump in and most of the UGTO fleet had been in the outer systems unable to help in time. Others had simply switched sides. It was a very dark day. It was a day of killing. We are picking up a general broadcast on an open frequency, sir. The Admiral looked down from his own comm console above is chair, switching it off. “And ….” “The planet Earth is now declared under ICC control and the system of Sol is now claimed by the Interstellar Cultural Confederacy.” The Interstellar Cultural Confederacy. Even their name was a falsehood. Once a source of hope for humanity struggling under the callous and corrupt bureaucracy of the unchallenged UGTO the ICC had proven itself to as, if not more bloodthirsty and no less, if not more corrupt. Given the chance for peace and limited autonomy, they had refused and now were now attacking Earth; showing themselves no less greedy or corrupt and no more merciful than the original council of the UGTO had been years a been years ago. Nothing to do with a confederacy of cultures, they were just another name to mask another power grab. Some things, it seemed, never changed. As a youth, in his idealism, he had even considered joining the ICC. Catching a freighter from Earth to the outlaying systems and then joining up with the ICC fleet at Exthara when it was not much more than a rebel force. The ICC massicar at New Pakistan, 30 years ago that killed his uncle and wiped out most of his Mothers family changed all that and he had quietly let himself be recruited by a small private fleet hired by the UGTO to defend their space. Mariks Colonial Navy There was no good and evil, the Vice Admiral thought, only sides and on both, never had the value of an individual human life seemed to be worth so little. Entire planets and their populations were frequently held hostage and even bombed away. Cities, were no longer made of permanent structures but of modular pre fabricated military design, to be easily replaced after being incinerated in an invasion. Most lasting habitation took place far underground on all planets. The concept of personal property disappeared along with the weaponization of space long ago. It had become just too easy to “zap” your enemies home city, country or planet. There was no point in owning a “home” when entire planets could be wiped clean within days…. Everything now belonged to the governments, the contracted out clans and their militaries except of course for the very rich, or the very powerful which of course were one and the same… as always. And that is how he had gotten to be here. After the death of his Uncle and mothers family at New Pakistan during the last ICC incursions, his own family had lost their placement in the resources redistribution system. His uncle had been after all, very well placed in the New Pakistan Defence force and it had been the young Vice Admiral to be’s destiny to leave Earth to join him at New Pakistan. The massicar changed that and to keep his families Resource Residtribution Quotient high enough for medical care and food, he joined the most useful position he could for the government, the Star Navy. He realized that the real power was to be in command of a fleet. To be able to stave off attacks on planets before they happened and more than that. In the absence of good, the one thing that mattered, the one thing that people would follow was power. Everyone wanted to be on the winning side just because everyone wanted to survive for the hope that tomorrow somehow, something might be better. That the wars might stop and families might again have homes. He saw that to unite humanity again, he would have to become the leader of a respected if not very powerful fleet… and he would have to kill people, ship, planets. He would have to become much of what he hated. “Comm, UGTO fleet channel. Broadcast that we are jumping to meet Fleet Admiral Zeritu at his co-ordinates. Tell all surviving MCN vessels to meet us there. We have a counter attack to plan. “ “Kira” He walked over to his Nav Tactician as she plugged herself into the jump consol, Nav’s were after all cyborg almost from birth. She had probably come from a even lower family on the resource redistribution system and been assigned as a cyborg after being assessed with good cerebral balancing and so, raised the productivity quotient for her entire family above subsistence. Nav and Combat Cyborgs after all were valued commodities with implants to allow interface with computers which in turn allowed them to govern space vessels during times of high information input such as battles or faster than light jumps. They paid a price for this ability in never being quite trusted by non cyborgs. Kira seemed to be an exception to this stereo type; at least to the Vice Admiral. It was probably that she kept so much of her human side so close to the surface; always ready to break through in moments of emotion as it had done a minutes ago. “You know what to do” She didn’t look at him but kept her eyes down at her display as the antimatter generators powered up and the ship caught the tachyon field with an almost imperceptible shift in momentum. As the Vice Admiral turned away from her consol he noticed one of her sub display screens change abruptly to duplicate Nav computer showing their position; Admiral Zeritu’s station and all the matter, gravimetric and other radiation anomalies along the way. The ship icon was zooming a course through them as deftly as a swallow he once saw simulated. He returned to and sat back down in his command chair where he brushed his admirals uniform from the debris it had collected when he was thrown across the bridge by the torpedo impacts. He looked at the back of Kira’s head, her hand now interfaced with the command console. He thought about the Nav screen and what was displaying just before it has abruptly switched as he neared her console; It had shown live feed of Luna from military Nav satellite with a red diamond for ICC through it’s centre. Kira’s family, although they had long gave her up, was on Luna. Chapter 2: Lessons Learned They had reached the rendezvous point with Fleet Admiral Zeritu’s Support Station and were keeping position along side while the remains of the rag tag UGTO fleet, regrouped. The Flag Stations, Dreadnaughts and Battle Cruisers for Admirals Pinball, Feralwulf, PoisonLizard, Twitch and his own MCN fleet Captains Slothe and Hornblower clustered around the Fleet Admirals Ship in various states of repair. Admirals, Captains and the like, were never referred to by their family name, only code names they chose in order to protect their identities and those of their families in cases like this; when home planets were taken. Various other war and support privateers clustered in the close distance. The Vice Admiral was walking down the corridor from the sick bay where he had visited the casualties were being tended to and was heading to the lifts to the shuttle bay. He was due at the debriefing with the Fleet Admiral and was deep in thought when a familiar voice jarred him out of his mental preparations for what would be a grim council. “Vice Admiral…….. Vice Admiral, sir, a moment please.” He swung around to see Kira glide to a swift and precise spot three feet in front of him. Her movements so precise, so planned yet graceful that he was constantly reminded of a gymnast or a ballet dancer without a stage. She was already at attention by the time he had focused his eyes on her. “Permission to speak, sir.” “I take it you mean off the record, Commander. “ He replied. He had a very good idea what was on her mind. Cyborgs “felt” their ships it was said. When they interfaced the blurry line between human and machine was unfocused that much more and it was anyone’s guess as to which definition was more accurate. The Vice Admiral himself was one of the few professional officers, because of his uncles connections in the New Pakistan Defense Force, that never been forced to convert to cyborgization to raise up through the ranks. I useful irony since borgs never made it past the rank of Commander in the UGTO. Using the bank of his uncle’s memory and the myth within the hierarchy of the UGTO Naval command, he had withdrawn from it many of times to get where he was. Twisting and turning past those in his way, he begged, guilted and even sometimes performed his way to the rank of Vice Admiral. He was after all by no means, short of skill but then, when did skill ever get anyone to the top anymore. Most of the appointments in the military, as in every other field, came through slight of hand appointments; favors in exchange for ……… the price was always high. “Sir, you can’t keep jumping this ship into the middle of a battle like it was a Torpedo Cruiser, we were lucky to get out of that last ambush, sir….” “No, Kira, you were just on top of it again. Luck is for those little old biddies who Net Bingo every night for food credits. “ He gave her a patronizing stare. He wasn’t going to make this easy for her. She had to learn that something’s had to be done and sometimes, sacrifices had to be made, even themselves. Leading a fleet did not make you exempt from the dirty work, on the contrary, in the UGTO with all of it’s fleets contracted out to a mixture of privateers and professionals, the Admirals frequently had to lead the charge and hope the others would follow. That and with the high turn over of ship commanders, more than a few Noobs as new captains were called had been known to, “permanently hesitate” before jumping into the middle of a Kl’uth or ICC battle fleet. Admirals led by example, and frequently died by it to. More to the point, he thought, she couldn’t keep personalizing her ship, no matter what she thought she felt. A machine was a machine interface or no. “You know, Kira, you are welcome to leave the Galadriel,” as his current supply ship was known, “you are more than capable of commanding your own battle cruiser.” He bluffed She didn’t flinch, but with a deadpan stare that revealed less than a nanobyte of information about what she was feeling, she said. “Sir, in the last attack we lost our CPU and the back up was scrambled by the EMP cannon hits…. “ His eyes widened ever so slightly at this bombshell. Without a CPU the ship should have simply shut down, gone black, or worse, lost antimatter containment. CPU’s were after all late 20th century based slang for something that over the centuries had become much more. They should actually have been called, DCPU’s. Since the wildly disastrous technology explosion of the early 21th century where the desire to achieve new technology outstripped the ability to control how it was used, certain technologies had been strictly controlled, even banned. Some of these technologies like the self repairing auto paint released by the Nanotech Corp. had done severe damage to the environment and nearly wiped out mankind. Another, deemed to risky control after the first automated cargo loaders uprising at the La Guardia Air and Star Port was pure Artificial Intelligence. DCPU’s were in fact the closest thing. DeCentralized Positronic Units, they were in fact, electronic brains, lobotomized for human safety, devoid of any will of there own but capable of calculations and projections that humans could not even fathom. The borgs, as the Cyborgs were abbreviated, gave them that will, that direction, the focus they needed to be turned from a glorified toaster oven into a Trans-system, combat ready starship. The Vice Admiral gained his composure, “Oh, then Kira, how is it that I am talking to you right now, we should be very, very dead. The ICC do not give time outs to brain dead combat ships.” “Supply ship.” she corrected Now it was his turn to deadpan her “……….. Riiight, ……… supply ship …….. Sorry” “I over rode the safety interface protocol and did the jump myself.” The Vice Admiral was floored by this revelation. Not wanting to stammer, some seconds past before he could muster a visible controlled, almost cold, You what? “Over rode the safety interface protocol. I jumped the Galadriel myself.” She almost took a step back from the look on his face. What she had done was by the code of the UGTO Council of Artifical and Cyborg interactions, strictly forbidden. She had, essentially, assumed direct control of the Positronic matrix herself, giving it a core, a center and its own conscious will through her. She had merged, not just through her physical interface with the ship, but mentally. The consequences of this had never been explored before although there was some rumors among the fleet in the mess halls that cyborgs who tried this were oftern deemed a risk to society and decommissioned, executed. Whatever the right term was. This was usually a sign that they were loosing touch with their own identity as sometimes happened after frequent interfacing, especially with faulty hardware like the Pluto Fleet fiasco. They would loose their concept of ship and self and would try to become the ship they controlled. In some cases of certifiable insanity, the merge they attempted was physical. In all cases it was gruesome or de-habilitating. “We didn’t have a choice, sir.” In her voice, he fancied he almost heard a trace of desperate rationalization. He just looked at her while as million things raced through his own small, fragile human mind. He couldn’t lose her, she was too gifted…. There was more to it, but he didn’t want to think about that. He didn’t really want to think at all right now. His own family had been, no, he corrected himself, was still on Earth and he had a battle plan to decide on, he didn’t need a debate on the morality of what constituted a conscious or the strict UGTO rules governing borg DCPU interactions. Not right now, nothing more right now. “Kira,” he said very quietly, “I need you to go to Dr. El Aqbari in the sick bay and I need you to tell him what you just told me. I want him, not the ships computer, him to run his own cerebral examination of you and take if from there. “ She opened her mouth, “Kira, nothing will happen to you if you do this, you have my word. It is for your own safety.” “Admiral, I’ve done….” “Kira, I don’t want to know, and you don’t want to tell me, do you?” “Understand? We will talk later. The Doctor.” She looked at him with a truly glum expression counter pointed by the fire in her eyes. “And Kira,” he said as the lift door opened. “No more interfaces till I get back to the ship.” He paused “Good work by the way.” He offered. Her expression changed back to pure unadulterated neutral which was the same as happy, or at least content as far as the Vice Admiral could tell for her. “By the way,” he added as he pressed the door open button, keeping the doors from closing before he would hear this one last answer. “When exactly did the CPU come back on line.” “Five minutes, 37 seconds ago.” she said and her hand with the built in interface darted to the lift command panel and back again almost faster than he could see. As the doors closed, he almost thought he saw her wink. “I am to old for this.” The lift went down. Chapter 3: War Cries “Aragorn, you of all people should be supporting me! It’s Earth for God sake, our home! I say we go back and we go back now and we take it from them and then we take back the rest of Sol! “ The Vice Admiral remained quiet with his palms pressed together and to his lips, seating low in his chair and did not return the glare of Admiral Tzunamii. Fleet Admiral Twitch turned to Tzunamii. Tzu, for the last time Earth is undefendable against such a large ICC presence. So is Mars, Venus and Luna. We need to retake a system, a planet with moons so we can defend our ship yards and it has to be done fast, before they can mobilize. Earth stands by itself, alone and Luna is too far away to provide it any cover. You know that; your letting your emotions get ahead of you. Earth will still be there, the population believes in us. The ICC cannot hold Earth.” Beneath them the dusty rim of Nemesis crept towards it’s morning side. The still impressive UGTO fleet hanging in orbit caught the crescent of the sun and flared into brilliance one by one. Dreadnaughts, Stations, Battlecruisers, Torpedo Cruisers, Destroyers, Supply ships, Scouts and Transports each became in their own right, small stars in the captured light of Alpha Centari’s sisters. Tenders we completing repairs and shuttling combat troops from various planets to the awaiting warships in preparation for the coming counter attack; the plan for which was threatening to splint the UGTO high command wide open. Tzunamii looked as though he might launch himself across the table at the other Fleet Commanders. “I ……”! “I”…. interrupted another in a seductively strong voice from behind them. The tap, tap, tap of heels on deck gave away the entrance of 2nd R.Admiral WildandSexy Catwoman….. Or just Catwoman as modesty allowed. Not that modesty had much of a place mind you. All heads turned. The only admiral, it was said, to command a Dreadnaught in heels she was known to be as vicious as she was charming. Her svelte and powerful figure was crossing the floor reminding the Vice Admiral of a virtu he saw once of Leopard stalking it’s prey. Her all black command suit only helped that impression. Even with it’s functional pockets and military design she somehow seemed to give it all the right curves. “I would follow you anywhere Tzu, you know that don’t you?” she finished as she reached the Tzu’s chair and casually lifted one leg over his lap and sat down straddling him face to face. “Of course you do darling,” she arched her back in true Catwoman form, half turning back to the table of other Admirals with one arm supporting her weight on the table and the other wrapped behind Tzu’s now rather red neck. She smiled and winked at the UGTO command, “Hi fellas” she said as she gave them her most winning smile. “Sorry I’m late. I had to finish off a few ICC ships that tried to jump our party here in alpha. They didn’t last long.” She sighed, “It’s so hard to find a good fight these days. You know, something to dig your teeth into.” She swung back around, now facing away from Tzu but very much on his lap. “but, with all this death and destruction, really makes a girl appreciate what she’s got” she said and backed a little further into Tzu. Tzu’s eyes bulged. It looked like he was trying to mouth something but no sound was audible. Poor Tzu, Aragorn smirked to himself, one way or another he is going to blow a fuse. “Get a room guys.” Aragorn piped up. “I’ve already got one!” Cat shot back with a smirk and winked at Aragorn dropping a key on the table. It read 0G. “So can we wrap this up cause Tzu and I,” she turned back to face his now somewhat vacantly happy but still red, almost magenta face, “we have real business to attend to.” “Like I was saying then,” finished Zeritu, looking somewhat disconcerted that two of his finest were getting the Admirals, shall we say, unfocused, “ we go in tomorrow. Tzunamii, you and….” he paused as if to focus himself again ” …Cat. You lead a diversionary attack on Earth. Pinball and Feral, You go after the Uranus system, take it if you can but the real objective is Jupiter and it’s moons. Once captured, Aragorn, you and your MCN will be in charge of getting a temporary ship building facility up and running and we are going to need it up fast. In the mean time Aragorn, your fleet will be charged with supplying the bombers. Grand Admiral Ruff is leading them himself. “ A murmur went through the fleet. The Grand Admiral hadn’t been seen in some time. “If anyone has anything further to add….” Zeritu looked around Pinball leaned over to Aragorn, “Man, I bet no one will be getting any sleep on floor G tonight.” Aragorn looked back at Pinball who had never actually been on a station before. “Floor G?” “Ya, you know, Tzu and Catwoman.” he winked and nodded over to them, “They are in room number 0G. It said so on her key.” “If there is no further comments…” continued Zeritu “…then I declare this meeting adjourned. Get some rest tonight people. Your going to need it.” “Pin….“ Aragorn laid a hand on his shoulder and looked him right in the eye. “0G is the room type, not the room number….. Zero Gravity…..” Now it was Pin’s turn for his eyes to bulge. “Dismissed,” finished Zeritu. _________________ [ This Message was edited by: Aragorn on 2004-07-28 16:43 ] _________________
Meko Grand Admiral Joined: March 03, 2004 Posts: 1956 From: Vancouver	Posted: 2004-07-28 20:05 haha nice aragorm AJUWA! _________________

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