Antaran Vengeance Fleet Designs:
AMAZONIS PLANITIA V3 class BC AM2 16 XO Racks 80 Hull TL 8
[2] S0x10Aix12H(BbS)QRcx7!1MgXr(III)(II)(III)(II)DzDz(III)DzDzZiQLh?0(II) [6]
80 RCP 20 MCP Trg:1 Bmp +1 Tem -1 Cost = 1712/ 256.8
HTK 58 S0x10 Aix12 Dzx4 Rcx7 Mgx1
65x CM, 35x CM LT1
Nine units of this class are currently in service. This class is intended to be the backbone of the Antaran Vengeance Fleet.
SYRIA PLANUM V2 class CA AM 12 XO Racks 60 Hull TL 8
[2] S0x10Aix9Hs(BbS)Wax8Mg(II)(II)(II)QDz(II)Dz(II)ZiDzLhQ?0(II)Mg [6]
60 RCP 40 MCP Trg:1 Bmp +1 Cost = 1383/ 207.5
HTK 51 S0x10 Aix9 Dzx3 Wax8 Mgx2
300x SM, 4x EDM (Mg)
Three units of this class are in service.
OLYMPUS MONS class CL 9 XO Racks 45 Hull TL 7
[3] S0S0AiZHs(BbL)x9(II)(I)(II)(I)(II)MgDzLh?0Q(I)Mg [6]
45 RCP 5 MCP Trg:1 Bmp +1 Cost = 671.5/ 100.7
HTK 29 S0x2 Aix1 Dzx1 Mgx2
36x fG, 108x fR
Only one example of this class is currently in service. Originally, this class was intended to provide a warp point assault capability for the Antaran Navy, to be used in conjunction with the Unified Races Navy during the planned attacks on ASR territory.
THARSIS MONTES class CVE 6 XO Racks 30 Hull TL 8
[2] S0AiAiHsVx6(BbL)Vx6(I)Q(I)(I)(I)(I)(I)DLhQ(I)Mg [7]
30 RCP 20 MCP 12 FCP Trg:1 Cost = 536/ 80.4
HTK 29 S0x1 Aix2 Dx1 Vx12 Mgx1
24x fG, 72x fR
Fie units in this class are currently in service.
BS1D class BS1 5 XO Racks 25 Hull TL 8
[1] S0x8Aix5HsXrDzZi(DCS)QsFc
25 RCP Trg:1 Cost = 474/ 23.7
HTK 19 S0x8 Aix5 Dzx1 Fcx1
Five are currently in service, stationed at the warp point to ASR territory.
BS1M class BS1 5 XO Racks 25 Hull TL 8
[1] S0x10Aix5HsDzXrDzZi(MCS)QsFc
25 RCP Trg:1 Cost = 586/ 29.3
HTK 23 S0x10 Aix5 Dzx2 Fcx1
Only one is in service, stationed at the warp point to ASR territory.
BS2(P) class BS2 10 XO Racks 50 Hull TL 7
[1] S0x7AiAiZHs(BbL)x12DzMgDzLh?0QMg
50 RCP Trg:1 Bmp +1 Cost = 701/ 35
HTK 30 S0x7 Aix2 Dzx2 Mgx2
3x EDM (Mg), 48x fG, 144x fR
This base design was intended to give the warp point defenses at the ASR warp point a trans-warp point capability. To date only one has been constructed.
BS3R V3 class BS3 17 XO Racks 85 Hull TL 8
[1] S0x15Aix14Hs(BbS)QRcRcM2RcMgRcx3DzRcRcMgDzDzXrFc!1ZiLhQ?0Fc
85 RCP 15 MCP Trg:3 Bmp +1 Tem -1 Cost = 1418/ 70.9
HTK 54 S0x15 Aix14 Dzx3 Fcx2 Rcx8 Mgx2
140x CM, 50x CM LT1, 4x EDM (Mg)
Nine units of this class have been constructed. All are stationed over Antara Prime.
Month 140, Day 8, Antaran Home System
The attack began with a wave of ASR gunboats eighty strong. The twelve Antaran fighters that were patrolling the warp point immediately engaged the gunboats in a vicious fight, but they were grievously outnumbered. The battle was brief and deadly for both sides. After the skirmish seventy gunboats were left and all twelve of the fighters were gone.
Before more Antaran fighters could be launched the ASR gunboats turned and transited out. The Antaran defense commander issued orders for all of his fighters to be launched and for all bases and ships to go to full alert. Five minutes after the ASR gunboats had entered the system the warp point erupted with 2,000 simultaneous transits. The Antaran defense commander watched his displays in shock as explosions rippled across the warp point as the small units that had transited into the system annihilated each other in a virtual orgy of destruction.
After a few seconds the interpenetrations petered out and the surviving attackers began moving away from the warp point. The attacking units had formed up into two main groups as they moved out, and once again the area was marked by explosions as the attackers moved through the thick minefield around the warp point. Forty-eight Antaran fighters smoothly accelerated into pursuit of the attacking objects while the Defense Commander cursed. Whatever this new technology was none of their erstwhile allies had told them of it or its capabilities. This was bound to be bad, he knew. If his oaths and curses worked the Xanti and the Axons would be reduced to smoking corpses, and the Terrans wouldn?t be any better. The thought that none of their ?allies? had trusted them for very good reasons never occurred to the Defense Commander. In his mind the aliens existed solely to provide the Antaran race with those things that they might need or want, and nothing more.
Over six hundred of the tiny attackers were destroyed by the minefields around the warp point and interpenetration, and the fighters destroyed more, but then, two light seconds from the warp point, the attacking units spat over four thousand missiles forth, all aimed at the bases and ships the Antarans had so painstakingly built to cover the warp point. The astounding wave of missiles swept across the bases and one by one they were pounded apart. The Defense Commander, along with his staff, died when the command base was destroyed.
For two weeks the warp point was quiet. Antaran fighters still patrolled the warp point, albeit in reduced numbers. Unlike the defense bases and the combat fleet, the fighter?s carriers had been stationed far away from the warp point and had thus survived the SBM pod onslaught. Unfortunately the bases that controlled the DSB-L?s surrounding the warp point were destroyed along with the rest of the bases. That meant that the buoy field, which had been activated before the SBM pod attack, was steadily deteriorating.
The ASR could have waited until the buoy field deteriorated completely, but they apparently didn?t have that much patience. Fifteen days after the initial attack ASR gunboats began transiting into Antaran space again. As before the gunboats tore into the waiting fighters, with pretty much the same results. Once the CSP was destroyed the gunboats turned on the remaining buoys. By the time the Antaran fighters had all been launched from their carriers the gunboats had destroyed most of the buoys and ASR battlecruisers were transiting into the system. The newly arrived battlecruisers easily absorbed fire from the few remaining DSB?s and then, once their systems had stabilized, launched a large wave of AFHAWK?s at the incoming Antaran fighters. The few remaining Antaran fighters were wiped out by the AFHAWK barrage.
With the fighters gone and the remaining Antaran carriers in full retreat, the ASR BC?s turned their fire on the massive minefield surrounding the warp point and in a matter of minutes the field was breached. In the meantime ASR carriers began transiting in and launching their own fighters. These fighters, while not the newest type now being produced in ASR shipyards, were more than fast enough to chase down the Antaran carriers. By the time the fighters had run down the Antaran carriers the entire ASR fleet had transited into the system and was ready to set out for the inner system.
Three and a half days later the ASR fleet approached the Antaran home planet. The Antarans had so far refused to communicate with the oncoming fleet, and by the time the ASR ships had closed to fifteen light seconds from the planet they could see that the Antarans only had minimal defenses in place. The ASR commander transmitted yet another demand for the Antarans to surrender, which yet again was met with silence. The ASR commander transmitted a final warning to the Antarans aboard the bases and the orbital shipyard to abandon their posts, and promised that they would be picked up.
Minutes crawled by after the warning with no reaction. Instruments trained in the orbital shipyards could tell that work was going forward feverishly on the ships in the bays, and finally Admiral Silvestri was forced to admit that the Antarans weren?t going to heed his warnings. Having no other choice he gave the command and the special warfare units accompanying the fleet began launching pods. Shortly thereafter a wave of five hundred pods set out towards the Antaran defense bases in orbit over the planet. The pods launched well short of the point at which the defenses could have engaged them. The Antarans manning the defenses and the shipyards never had a chance. The avalanche of missiles broke over the orbital defenses and soon thereafter nothing was left. The ASR Fleet, preceded by a wave of fighters and gunboats, moved into orbit over Antara.
With their defenses broken the Antaran leadership finally broke its silence. The monitor on board Silvestri?s flagship lit with the ornately shrouded figure of an Antaran standing in an ornamented room in front of a number of other Antarans. ?I am Emperor Oltos. Why have you done this? Why have you broken the peace? We?ve done nothing to you since the war ended!?
Silvestri?s lip curled. ?Do you really want me to list the crimes of your people? The Gorandans rescued you, they helped you, and how did you repay them? With treachery! Do you really want me to go into the history of your wretched race? Your unprovoked and genocidal attacks on my race before the warp points fell?? Silvestri paused and took a deep breath. ?I am willing to go over history with you and list the reasons we had for doing what we?ve done, but none of this will change what is going to happen. We are going to start landing troops, and your only choice is whether or not you are going to make a futile attempt to resist our landings. You can choose life or death, it matters little to me.?
Oltos stared at the human for a minute, then looked over his shoulder at the Antarans arranged behind him. He seemed more concerned with the Antarans behind him than he did about the warships orbiting over his head. ?We did what we did because we didn?t trust the Gorandans and the ASR, but then you wouldn?t understand that, would you? You are on the inside looking out, and I?m sure everything looks fine from where you are.? Oltos broke off, visibly struggling to contain himself, and during the momentary silence the Antarans behind him took a single step forward. In spite of the fact that his face was obscured, Oltos was obviously shaken by the pack behind him and he gathered his wits quickly. ?Very well, it seems I must bow to the inevitability of your unjust actions. We will surrender to your troops, but we have several conditions. In exchange for surrendering our world without a fight we demand that you compensate us, and transport those of us who wish it to one of our colony worlds. Some here wish to remain and would work for you if you allow it, in whatever capacity you choose. We recognize reality, you see, however unjust it is.?
Admiral Silvestri sat back in his couch, stunned at the offer. ?You would give up your people without a fight? Just like that, in exchange for money??
?It is what you asked, is it not? Are you so surprised that we would take your offer? Do you want a fight so badly? You scorn us; accuse us of wanting only money, but perhaps you should open your mind to the possibility that we too care about our people, in addition to ourselves. I seek a way to ease this transition. I do this secure in the knowledge that my people will persevere. We emerged unchanged, as ourselves, after our conquest and occupation at the hands of your old Empire. We will do so again from this current distasteful experience.?
Admiral Silvestri?s eyes hardened. ?If it means avoiding bloodshed, then I will agree to your requests. My second will discuss the terms with you, and our troops will begin landing shortly.? Silvestri waved the screen off and left the bridge in a foul mood. His orders gave him no latitude in this situation. If the Antarans offered to surrender he was to give them whatever they wanted, within reason. He maintained his stony visage until he reached his office, and once the door had closed behind him he sat down with a sigh. He knew what the Antarans were doing. The Antaran leadership was looking out for itself first, and they were also setting the scene for their eventual return to power. By surrendering they ensured that the Antaran government, with its millions of mid and lower level bureaucrats, remained intact. They thought that the ASR would do what the Terran Empire did all of those years before, move in, replace the upper leadership and the outward appearance of the government, and then leave them to get on with what they had wanted to do all along. As time went on the power brokers and the upper level bureaucrats would come scuttling out of whatever hole they had hidden in, to take up the reigns of power again. It galled him, rewarding these petty despots. Finally, though, he chuckled. The Antarans really didn?t appreciate what the ASR intended to do here. The ASR could focus the resources of a hundred planets on this one system if they chose to, and the Gorandans were determined to rehabilitate the Antarans no matter how long it took. If what was going on in the Ayoun worlds was any guide, the Gorandans were fully capable of stripping Antaran society down to the ground and rebuilding it in a shape and form that they found more agreeable.
Shortly thereafter waves of assault troops fresh from fighting the Eaters in the Gaz system began landing on Antara.
************************************************************************
2nd Empire of Man, Pax Sector
Relevant Warp Chain:
Sapporo-----Kitakyushu-----CS-194
System Descriptions:
Sapporo: A binary system with three habitable planets, two T and one ST. The Sapporo system population is thirty seven million, on Sapporo-B-I and B-II. The Sapporo system possesses no defenses and has no regular naval presence. In addition to the warp point to the Kitakyushu System, the Sapporo system possesses nine other warp points.
Kitakyushu: As noted elsewhere, the Kitakyushu binary system contains no less than four habitable planets, however, the cyborg incursion has destroyed the colonies and apparently stripped them of everything remotely useable, including the colonists. Kitakyushu has three additional warp points aside from the Sapporo and CS-194 links, all of which lead to unexplored systems.
CS-194: CS-194, which stands for Claimed System 194, represents the extreme fringe of the Terran Empire. The 8th Survey Group probed the system after the warp point connection was discovered, but it has not been surveyed. The single star system contains two habitable planets and was slated for a colonial suitability survey at some point in the future, although that is unlikely to take place given the recent events.
Month 140, Kitakyushu System
The cyborg raiders appeared in the system four months ago. In spite of the fact that the system contained no less than four habitable planets, there were no Imperial Navy ships stationed nearby because all four were fairly new colonies that hadn?t even grown to the point where they could support new colonization. This lack of defenses made the populations easy prey for the cyborgs.
The first sign of trouble was when the outer colony around the system?s primary star detected an unexpected drive field in-bound on a direct course from the system?s number four warp point. This warp point led to an uninhabited and unexplored system on the very periphery of Terran space, and wasn?t scheduled for survey for at least six months to a year. Almost simultaneously, ground stations on the colonies circling the secondary star detected a second drive field in-bound towards them, also on a course directly from the number four warp point.
The initial contacts proved to be large warships, which were soon followed by large fleets of transports that landed on all four colonies. The real horror began after the transports landed, because this wasn?t a normal invasion. The transports weren?t really transports, they were mobile processing and manufacturing systems, and they were soon busy processing the colonists into more cyborgs and other useful systems to augment the invading army.
Admiral Hideoshi and his 3rd Fleet, which was already en route to the Pax Sector to assist in the invasion of Axon territory, were diverted to handle this new emergency. The 3rd Fleet arrived just in time to prevent a small cyborg force from attacking the colonies in the Sapporo system. After defeating the cyborg probe, the 3rd Fleet went on into the Kitakyushu system, where they found complete devastation. All four colonies were completely gone. Not only were the colonists gone, so were their factories, homes, and everything else that could be stripped for useful materials. The cyborgs had taken everything.
Admiral Hideoshi detached a small group of ships to search for survivors and then ordered his fleet to set out for the number four warp point. The fast battlecruisers of the 3rd Fleet arrived at the warp point on day 5, and after a quick probe of the warp point they transited into the CS-194 system without further delay. At that point the trail went cold. No drive fields were within detection range of the warp point, and the system wasn?t surveyed so Admiral Hideoshi had no idea where the enemy had gone or where to search. The ships of the Eighth Survey Squadron were immediately dispatched to begin a warp point survey of the system. Each of the light cruisers were escorted by several carriers to provide some protection, and as a precaution Admiral Hideoshi sent a group of carriers and battlecruisers into the inner system to search for any sign that the cyborgs had been in the system. The CS-194 system was a single-star system with two habitable planets, neither of which had been surveyed.
The probe ships reached the inner system ten days later and reported that they had found no signs of life or civilization. The six battlecruisers and six carriers of the detachment spent the next five days poking around the inner system, and, towards the end of that time, they made an interesting discovery. Several of the airless moons of the inner system worlds were marked by large scale mining efforts. A quick preliminary investigation of the suspected mining sites showed that they were crude and brute-force intensive, a style that was very reminiscent of the way the Kitakyushu colonies were stripped.
Having no other choice Admiral Hideoshi was forced to wait while the 8th Survey Group searched for warp points.
Imperial Forces in the CS-194 System:
8th Survey Group: 4xCA
3rd Imperial Fleet: 27xBC, 7xCA, 17xCVS, 6xDD, 6xFG, 3xEX
Imperial Forces in the Kitakyushu System:
Detachment, 3rd Fleet: 16xBC, 10xCA, 10xCVS
Imperial Forces in Sapporo (Adjacent to Kitakyushu)
Detachment, 1st Fleet: 8xBC, 10xCA, 17xCVS, 3xCL, 3xFG
Detachment, 7th Fleet: 9xML, 3xCA, 3xCVS, 3xCL, 3xCVE, 6xDD
Note: The Empire is having a difficult time supplying its forces in this remote location, which partially accounts for the fact that the Navy?s response is spread over three systems. The Pax Fleet Base is feverishly working to field new supply ships to support the 1st and 3rd Fleets as all of the 7th Fleet?s supply ships have been devoted to supporting the 7th Fleet?s invasion of Axon territory. The shipyards of the Pax base are overloaded, though, having been tasked with supplying new ships for the effort in Axon territory, building up a supply force, and constructing a fleet of mobile construction units that will be assigned to build up defenses in the Kitakyushu system to protect against any future cyborg incursion.
**************************************************************************
Month 140, Andalonian System, Axon Territories
Admiral Stern, the new commander of the Imperial 7th Fleet, wasn?t one to sit around and wait for things to happen, which was one of the reasons he was appointed to replace Admiral Umgowa in the first place. When the magnitude of the disaster in the Breen and Andalon systems became clear he moved decisively to provide relief and emergency medical aide to the beleaguered populations. Fortunately, the Terrans shared a language with the Andalonians and the Breen, so work could begin immediately on getting the two races back on their feet.
While medical aide teams began landing on the devastated worlds, Imperial troops began landing on the two Axon planets in the Andalon system and on the Axon colonies in the dead-end system adjacent to the Breen system. The Axons on the three planets resisted bitterly, but they were cut off from the rest of the Axon controlled territories and were outnumbered, so their fall was inevitable.
The 9th Survey Group finished its survey of the Auxerre system and confirmed that it was a dead-end system, after which it transferred into the Andalon system and began a survey there by the end of the month. Admiral Stern spent most of the month dealing with Andalonian and Breen officials, and, after he made it clear to them that a united front against the Axons was imperative, they agreed to form a coalition government. The new government?s first act was to turn over all information they had on the Axons. Admiral Stern was delighted when his intelligence people were able to decipher an Axon astrogation database that was turned over with the other material. The database showed that the Andalon system had four additional warp points aside from the one that led to the Breen system. Two of them led to uninhabited and uninteresting systems that the Andalons claimed the Axons never went to. One of the two remaining systems was uninhabited as well, but the Andalons believed that the Axons had colonies beyond that system as Axon convoys would pass through the Andalon system periodically. The forth system, though, was a real prize. That system, named Khalkfontein, had an Axon colony and, if the Andalons were right, was adjacent to the Axon home world.
With this information in hand Admiral Stern immediately sent out orders for his fleet to move into Khalkfontein. They would arrive early next month. The Outworld Coalition, as the new government has become known, is totally focused on recovery efforts on Andalon and Breen at the current time and that is not likely to change in the near future. Admiral Stern has officially requested that the new government begin recruiting occupation forces to take over administration of Axon worlds in the next several months.
************************************************************************
Month 140, Week 1, Axon Prime
The ASR forces in the Axon home system spent this month consolidating their hold on the heavily populated system. The CO of the ASR forces, Gwynxa, spent most of this month in a state of intense frustration. Every set back suffered by the ground invasion forces, every delay in securing the system, just made things worse. He was tempted to deal with the Axons harshly, and more than once he had been ready to order a city or two nuked, but he always managed to restrain himself, if barely. He knew that they looked up to him as a legend, but even so they would not stand for anyone ordering a nuclear bombardment of civilian targets, even a legend. In the end he was forced to watch and wait as the ground forces did the best they could against an enemy that seemed to be the very embodiment of stubbornness.
On another front Gwynxa had recently become aware of the fact that as his fame and stature had grown, so had resistance within the naval bureaucracy. At first it had been imperceptible, easily dismissed as the imperfections that existed in any bureaucracy. Of late, though, the resistance had become more and more open. Its latest manifestation was particularly frustrating. For months he had been promised survey assets, but so far they hadn?t shown up and he had been unable to get any real answer as to when they could be expected. Without survey units his fleet was stalled in this system and he was unable to advance, which he strongly suspected was the whole point of the exercise.
After some consideration, he sent out three messages. The first was to the central naval HQ in the Capital system, yet again requesting survey ships. The second was to his ground force commander, ordering her to search out and seize any and all sites suspected to contain navigational information. The final message was to the commander of the fleet currently in the Xanti Home System, ordering him to request that the Xanti give up all information concerning the warp connections throughout the entire territory that had belonged to the Xanti and the Axons.
*****************************************************************************
Month 140, Week 3
The Imperial Chosen Fleet destroyed all Axon forces guarding the Elftan system last month, and survey assets had moved in to begin searching for new warp points. The leader of the Chosen Fleets was eager to continue his advance, but early this month, before the survey units in Elftan had sorted themselves out, the robotic survey units in the Delgor system discovered two additional warp points. Like the Elftan system, Delgor was adjacent to their original entry point in the Malkhor system. Ever decisive, the CO of the combined Chosen Fleets immediately shifted his forces to the Delgor system and probed the warp points. One led to an unremarkable system but the other led to a system with two habitable planets, one of which possessed a significant population. The warp point appeared to be only lightly picketed, so the commander ordered his fleets into the system to seize the rich new prize. They would arrive in the inner system early next month.
16 hours later, in the Xanti home system?
The new Xanti government wasted no time when the report from the picket ships in the Alkumar system arrived. The Provisional Council immediately sent a message to the ASR Fleet informing them that the enemy had entered Alkumar and they intended to move their fleet into that system to defend it. They knew that the ASR Fleet had orders to defend the Xanti capital and to advance no further into Xanti territory, but they were hoping that by dispatching their fleet they could draw the ASR into acting in concert with Xanti forces rather than separately. Although some of the newly appointed Admirals opposed attempting to force the ASR?s hand, in truth the Council had little choice. The Alkumar system was the oldest Xanti colony and had almost 2.4 billion inhabitants, and was only two jumps from the home world. They couldn?t just let the enemy take it without even attempting a defense.
The CO of the ASR fleet was trapped. He had been ordered to remain in the Xanti home system until further reinforcements arrived, but he had also been ordered to aide the Xanti and to support their fleet. His biggest problem was that his fleet had been dispatched to Xanti space before the latest rounds of refits began. This meant that he didn?t have any of the new cloaking designs at all, and his ships were still equipped with older munitions.
After several meetings and an emergency message to Front Administrator Gwynxa, a compromise was worked out. In exchange for full warp line data from the Xanti all of their former possessions, and a delay in moving forward until next month, the ASR agreed to a joint offensive.
Although the Provisional Council was initially against any delay, they ultimately agreed. By waiting until next month they would be able to add the last of the units that had been assisting the ASR in Cholet to their order of battle, which they all agreed was a good idea. The vote was unanimous to give the ASR the warp line data they wanted as well. They had all known that it was just a matter of time in any case.
***************
Month 140, Week 1, Imperial Chosen Territory
A second vast fleet had been assembled far from the first so that the inexorable expansion of the Chosen Empire could continue. The fleet consisted of the following units:
Robotic: 30xML, 6xSD, 12xBB, 52xCV, 3xBC, 6xCA, 6xCL, 2xCVS, 12xDD, 156xF0, 1428xF1, 264xApin
Chosen: 3xSD, 2xCV, 2xCA, 1xCVL, 6xCL, 3xCVS, 9xDD, 4xCVE, 204xF1, 12xApin
The last units of the fleet had arrived late last month, and, after a short period of rest and reorganization, they were ready to start. The combined fleet entered the system and set out for the inner system. The system they entered had been discovered over five years ago by the Isolationist faction, and until now it had been ignored. That time was over.
The Kooligar were an aquatic species that had, through painstaking long-term effort, achieved a high technology society that had conquered their entire system. The Kooligar Terminate had placed colonies on the moons of the outer-system gas giants and on many of the asteroids that orbited in the binary system?s two asteroid belts. Terminate detection systems picked up the invasion fleet while it was still ninety-six light minutes out, and the Defense Fleet was scrambled immediately. The Terminate Fleet, twelve ML?s and ten CV?s, met the invaders forty-eight light minutes away from the Kooligar home world.
The Chosen refused to negotiate, and instead opened fire as soon as they reached missile range of the lead Kooligar ships. The Kooligar gave a good account of themselves, in spite of the numerical disparity, and managed to destroy two robotic monitors and three superdreadnoughts, along with two hundred fifty two robotic fighters before being overwhelmed and destroyed.
The Chosen fleet continued on to the Kooligar home world and, again without attempting to talk, began landing robotic troops. The battle was over, and although they didn?t know it yet, the Kooligar had joined the Empire of the Chosen.
*************************
Month 140, Week 3, Axon Territory, Solcho System
The Prophet?s Voice was unhappy at having to ?rough it? on a frontier planet, but even he had to admit that it was better than staying in the home system and risking capture by the infidels. During the trip out to their new base he had given the situation more than a little thought. Although he would never admit it to his generals and admirals, he knew that there was no way they could have stopped invasions from no less than three major enemies. The ASR and the Terrans were bad enough, but this new race, the Chosen, was worse.
The military were in favor of setting up their new line of defense in the Pandomn system, which was the system where the frontier warp chain their new base was located in connected to the main loop which formed the backbone of the Axon territories. Their strategy made a certain amount of sense. The Pandomn system was fairly heavily populated, and as long as they could keep the system?s warp points open they would continue to receive resource shipments from the rest of the Axon territories they still controlled. After more than a little consideration the Voice had decided to over rule the military and order then to pull back to the Cambrai system, the true beginning of the warp chain they were hiding in.
By withdrawing they would reduce the number of warp points they would have to defend to one, but they would be giving up a considerable amount of resources. The true benefit, though, was that they would be clearing the way for the ASR and the Terrans to engage the Chosen. While their enemies were fighting each other the Axons would have a chance to rebuild.
There was one other matter, though, and this had taken him much time to decide. Indeed, he had even consulted with the Prophet, in spite of the fact that he usually didn?t bother the Prophet with mundane matters. In the end, though, the thought of the Terran?s arrogance had made up his mind. Their invasion of Axon territory was intolerable and the Voice was determined to make them pay. Of course, all of the invaders would be made to pay eventually, but he had at hand the means to make the Terrans pay, and pay dearly for their arrogance.
Orders went out from Solcho, and the three remaining Legions of corvette-carriers moved back into Cambrai, escorted by a small fleet of destroyers and other ships that were all that remained of the Slave Legions raised by the Axons to fight the ASR. The two remaining Exploration Groups moved down-chain towards Solcho. By the end of the month they were in position for the mission of retribution ordered by the Prophet?s Voice. They would be joined early next month by the first two new Legions to be launched by the newly expanded shipyards in Solcho. They would be painfully green, but the Prophet?s Voice was confident that god?s warriors would be able to carry out their orders, green or not. After all, he mused, how difficult was it to target a city?
Kurt
