Imperial Year 280, March 3rd, 0900 Hours
Prydwen Fleet ship, Jungle Cluster.
The hydraulic systems hissed as the metal ramp descended to the floor, the door from the dock bay lifted and the ramp turned into steps. Amidst the smoke created due to the pressure and temperature differences a cloaked figure stepped out. Wrapped in a navy blue cloak with a golden chain holding it together. Black hair and a well-kept short beard with occasional streaks of grey taking a peek, Commander Richard exuded an aura of experience but not that of age. With one hand resting upon the pommel of his sabre and the other twirling his moustache. Behind him were two banners sporting the coat of arms of the Imperial Empire, a golden lion superimposing the Sun on a blue field, and top the lion was a golden crown. Richard had a smile no, a smirk that comes from knowing that the victory is all but his to take. As he reached towards the end of the steps and onto the floor. Two kneeling figures on the side raised their heads.
“The 2nd Battalion’s General Charles Von Wilhelm at your Command Sir.” came a voice from a red haired man wearing a blue beret. A scar ran along his left eye passing the bridge of his nose and ended at the tip of his right ear. It was not the only scar he had nor did it signify all the life threatening battles he fought, it looked imposing nevertheless. A silver cross decorated his chest. Even when Kneeling he projected an aura filled with pride.
Without missing a beat came another resounding boom “The 5th Battalion’s General Henry the 3rd at your Command Sir” unlike Charles, Henry was a bit fidgety. It might have been due to the fact he had just been promoted from Major to Colonel six days ago and then promoted from Colonel to General two days ago. Oh! He also lost his memories about a week ago.
“Rise” said the commander. The synchronised sound of soldiers changing their stance to salute the commander resembled that of a old timey cannon.
“2nd Commander Richard Don David at your service” he saluted back. Richard looked around the sea of soldiers standing and raised his closed fist and Proclaimed
“For the empire”
“For the Empire” the soldiers shouted back.
“FOR THE EMPIRE” Richard proclaimed once more with a bit more force as a sort of challenge
“FOR THE EMPIRE” The soldiers shouted with renewed vigour
“Until our breath turns to air!” Richard was loud
“UNTIL OUR BREATH TURNS TO AIR!” the soldiers were louder
“Until our blood runs cold”
“UNTIL OUR BLOOD RUNS COLD”
“Until our bones break and shatter”
“UNTIL OUR BONES BREAK AND SHATTER”
“Until our skins freeze and wither”
“UNTIL OUR SKINS FREEZE AND WITHER”
“We shall fight”
“WE SHALL FIGHT!”
”and we shall win”
“AND WE SHALL WIN!”
“For the empire”
“FOR THE EMPIRE!”
Finally with all the air in his lungs he could muster Richard drew his sabre, raised it high above his head and proclaimed loud enough for all heavens to hear
“FOR OUR EMPIRE!”
“FOR OUR EMPIRE!!” and the soldiers replied with all the strength they could afford.
And just like that shadows of the previous losses disappeared. The backs got straightened, the drooping eyes now looked forward, they saw the commanders back and all gloominess disappeared. The commander beckoned the generals to follow, the soldiers rested their rifles and made way for the trio.
In the War Room
The war room was quite Spartan; it consisted of a rectangular table with twelve chairs of which three were pulled out and two were being used and at the end of the table there was a hologram projector displaying a map of their surroundings. The sides of the room were fitted with plasma screens acting as proxy windows they displayed outside surroundings. Richard was seated at the end of the table. He looked at Henry and asked “What happened to Louis, wasn't he supposed to be 5th battalion’s general?” Silence ensued but before it could become awkward Henry spoke “General Louis got ambushed while protecting the supply route, for the past 48 hours his communicator has been on radio silence and the scouter class ships did find any presence of living beings in the area, General Louis is presumed to be dead Sir”.
“I see” the atmosphere turned a bit heavier “well then start the briefing Charles” ordered Richard. In front of the hologram stood Charles ``At ten light hours ahead in the jungle cluster lies the enemy fleet ship” the hologram zoomed in to reveal a huge ship with the word ‘GOLIATH’ painted on its side “It is said to hold 10,000 fighter class ships comprising mainly of FA-Zw1 known as Zweihänders and FAe-Ta2 known as Targes, an another 10,000 drones of which 1000 are equipped with Faster Than Light drives-” Charles paused for a breath“-and gauss cannons”. Henry stood and said with visible desperation “But our fighter class ships and attack drone do not have enough shielding to withstand a Gauss barrage if they follow hit and run tactics in the rear we are done for!” “Calm down kid” said Richard his tone was angry however his face adorned a mischievous smile. “What is the situation here?” he asked “Sir of the 4000 fighter class ships known as Rapiers, 2500 are now being equipped for battle and another 200 fighter ships can function after repair, 3000 pilots and 1000 specialists are combat ready, the fleet uses 500 of the staff and 1500 soldiers are in Stasis'' Answered Henry.
“What about drones?”
“The Galavant fleet doesn’t have drones with combat facilities Sir.”
“What?” The disbelief was audible on the Commander's voice. The light above him dimmed for a moment, the commander let out a breath “explain” he said.
“The Galavant was supposed to be disguised as a salvage ship to cross the Red belt of Sirius and then attack enemy reinforcements” beads of sweat glistened like pearls across Henry’s face “Since we couldn’t afford cloaking devices for combat drones we ditched them”
“Even if you disguise yourself as a salvage ship the resonance scanners will be able to trace any kind of Electro-magnetic shielding”
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“The Rapiers don’t have Electro-magnetic shielding or any kind of military grade shielding for that matter. It is however equipped with a force field langets Sir”
“A Sparrow huh” Charles face-palmed as he growled “we got a fleet full of freaking useless Sparrows we might as well has have a white flag that says we surrender”
“They can’t be dismissed even if Rapiers are based on the old model, what they have lost in defence they make up for in speed, each fighter has a rail gun equipped with shield piercing rounds. The force langlets can still slow projectiles and prevent them from making non-repairable damage.”
“Tell me what you know about the Sparrows?”
“Sparrows are 2nd generation fighter class ships offsetting defence for speed, 5th generation speed type fighter class ships known as Rapiers manufactured by Ryjan corporation is based on a prototype model of Sparrow which was manufactured by their ancestors” Charles cut him and barked “ The battle of red marsh idiot, Don’t tell me you don’t know of it ”. The rabbit caught in a trap look on Henry’s face only earned more ire from the General. “They promote anyone into a General these days huh.” Before thing could turn worse Richard interrupted “That’s enough Charles” Richard now looked Henry in the eye and continued “Henry I do not know about your legacy or your feats of foolhardiness disguised as bravery that made you a General of the Imperial Army nor do I care but remember this General -” his calloused fingers grasped Henry’s shoulder “-and remember it well the power vested in you by the authority of the Emperor saddles you with the responsibility to command, dictate and execute the lives of six thousand of the soldiers of the Emp- nay the citizens of the Empire for its continued prosperity-” Richard released his hold “So you damn! Well make sure that you do not commit the mistakes of the pasts. If not there will be dire consequences”
Before Henry could reply a knock interrupted him. The door slid open revealing a rather pale soldier unlike other he donned a black outfit he saluted the Commander and said “Major Cheri requests Commander Richard to the communications hub.”
“What for?” asked Richard, Cheri looked at the two other generals and replied “I am afraid that information is classified.”
“Very well” said Richard with no intention of masking his displeasure in his voice “General Charles and General Henry we will have this meeting adjourned the day after tomorrow. Use the time to rest and conduct a thorough check on your forces” he then saluted “For the Empire”
“For the Empire” came a unified response from Henry and Charles. The Commander then left with Cheri. The generals now alone departed to their respective quarters.
Henry’s room was brand new; it made sense considering it was only allotted to him a day ago. There was nothing in it that showed any sign that the room belonged to him except maybe the photo of him with two other cadets in their graduation uniform dated seven years ago. He held it in his hands and looked. On his left was a red haired girl with short trimmed her which was visible due to the fact she forgot her beret below that face it was signed Marion future commander of the empire and on his right with a beret that covered most of his messy black hair and a look that said I don’t want to take part in this was signed as just Elio. A memory, no a thought flashed across his mind he got a glimpse of Marion’s face distorting when she realises he got made General before her made him smile. It almost matched the naive one he had in the photo. Henry cursed his luck; it was not that he couldn’t remember his past but rather he couldn’t remember what he could remember. Henry put the photo down, nostalgia can wait he thought to himself he had work to do things to learn and importantly things to hide. After verifying his biometrics he gained access to the fleet’s database. He took out his hologram device.
“On” he said, nothing happened “TURN ON” he repeated nothing happened again “Turn on you piece of -” and after thirty minutes of shouting at the projector he threw the projector on the ground. The tip from the top face of the pyramid hit the ground and compressed a bit and then returned to its original shape producing a ‘klik’ sound.
The pyramid displayed in 3d- letters “Projector activated” that rotated above the top of the projector. After ten minutes of silently introspecting his life choices he connected the projector to the database.
“AI narrate battle of red marsh abridged version” said Henry the hologram shifted and now displayed an image of a man with a curly moustache and dark hair below it was the text Colonel Jean Louvre. In a robotic voice it narrated
“In the imperial year 256,The main belt between Jupiter and Mars acted as a hiding spot for various pirate fleets who later joined together to form the Pirate syndicate Known as The Monumental. Unlike other pirate fleets The Monumental syndicate were more organised in their raids and were said to use military formations as such Merchants from both New Democratic federation of Earth and Imperial colonies suffered, Colonel Jean Louvre of the New Democratic federation of Earth took upon himself the task of eradicating them. Jean commanded Larissaeus, a fleet ship containing 9000 Sparrows. He successfully baited the syndicate, The syndicate numbering 4 fleet ships Eiffel, Big ben, Buckingham and the sphinx each commanded 10,000 fighter class ships mostly consisting of Attack type Ravens .They rushed to attack the fleet ship, Although the syndicate standardised a code it was far from fair and the first looter had many advantages once they realised their opponent was a new fleet ship without ballistic missiles they were blinded by the opportunity to get their hands on the new fleet ship, The Crescent formation turned into a trident and when it reached the ship it resembled an Arrow formation. Jean himself piloting a sparrow, he abandoned the fleet ship and escaped with all other ships. As soon as the first pirate ship touched Larissaeus the ship blew apart taking down a whole pirate fleet ship. Abandoning the ship was a ploy to draw the focus of the pirates while the sparrows silently manoeuvred to their rear. Caught in an ambush the pirates suffered huge losses; they lost almost half of their forces while the sparrows miraculously had no casualties yet. While the pirates hastened to turn the sparrow quickly scattered and formed and launched a pincer attack with just 1000 loses the sparrows had brought down 35,000 pirate ships. Now outnumbering the pirates Jean offered the captain of the remaining fleet ship known as Paris the Butcher freedom from execution should he accept the conditions of the treaty. Surrounded on all sides and having only 3000 functional ships, Paris pulled off a gambit. He flew his fleet ship Eiffel, concentrating everything on propulsion even using Ballistic missiles for additional boost, onto the main belt. The shape of Eiffel and the large thrust it gained enabled it to pierce through the asteroids and reach the other side although they took considerable damage Eiffel was still salvageable and most of its crew remained intact however the sparrows that gave chase got completely crushed by the resulting debris of the asteroid the lack of defence mechanism which gave the sparrows it’s speed now turned into a curse the destroyed parts of the ricocheted and damaged other ships nearby of the 8000 sparrows only 100 sparrows returned from the ordeal. The pirate fleet was soon re-established by Paris who would later become a mercenary and then ultimately become a founding member of the Nefud alliance. Jean was criticised for his actions and was soon exiled. It is said that the asteroids in the main belt are now coated with patches of red due to the blood of the soldiers who died there hence the name Battle of the red marsh. The production of Sparrows was discontinued shortly after”.
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Imperial War Council approves deal with Ryjan Corporation worth 10BN Credits; the deal secures new generation of FS, FA, FAE and PC ships
By Maurice Steelwater for the Defence Empire
Imperial year 251, July 24th
Her Majesty’s Imperial war council has approved a 10BN Credit deal (9.2 BN Imperial Credits) for new generation FS, FA, PC and two new fleet ships. These ships would be delivered in two years’ time. With this addition of new Aegis and Speed type fighter ships our imperial army will be unparalleled.
To new readers unfamiliar with military classification here is a quick run through. The spaceships are broadly classified into four types: Fighter class, Messenger Class, Patrol class informally called Scouters and Cruiser Class. And then there are types which are the specialisations of said class; the common types are Speed, Aegis and General. Attack Type is exclusive to Fighter class ships and Covert type is exclusive to Patrol class.
The military classification goes Class, Type hyphenated by name and model number is present (I.E FS-Sp1 means Fighter class Speed type Sparrow model 1). The name and model number are classified information so only the class and type are released to the public.
Now you, an unsuspecting reader influenced by false propaganda, might ask why spend so much when at a fraction of the cost we can retro fit our existing spaceships and achieve similar combat capabilities of the next generation spaceship. The truth of the matter is retro fitting can only be done if weapons and ships are of the same class. A Carrier Class ship can’t meet energy requirements needed for a continuous Rail Gun barrage. A Fighter Class ship uses hyper-capacitors allow me to rephrase it only Fighter class ships can handle hyper-capacitors, A Patrol class with an engine using hyper-capacitor is nothing but a ticking time-bomb interestingly that was the same tactic which won us the Siege of Velur. Fighter class components are made from different materials which are again processed differently than others and once more using the same parts for all would be a massive waste of money. Thus it is necessary for our army to always have the latest weapons and soldiers.
An official spokesman of the war council has said the acquisition of these ships are well within the budget limitations set by the treasury. –Follow Steelwater in chirper @Do_not_steel_water
Comments
Iam_yu : Actual news 2% reporter’s personal thoughts and useless stuff the other 98%
not_mi: I agree Iam_yu, the Headline has more news than the article.
Do_not_Steelwater: Iam_yu and not_mi, I only explain things so that everyone gains a deeper level of understanding on the said matter. I do this to prevent people from falling to the trap of misinformation and definitely not to pad the word count.