The End

This concludes the 'The War' thread. It is continued on in a new story arch here http://yetanothershadow.blogspot.com/

Special thanks to Schwarz and Janson for participating. All posts writen by Carnifex were writen by me. All other posts are the work and property of their respective authors. Good luck out there Lt.

#19 by Janson

-Hours later, Nuremburg System-

A small flight of six Liberty fighters enter the system from the Sigma hole, and begin to patrol.

Cravic speaks first, ”We need to check these coordinates in the MOX cloud, we have reports of Rhinelanders using a small base to get this fuel. Uploading coordinates now.”
The small group heads off. Nearing the cloud, Cravic and Janson speed ahead and enter the cloud, while the other three race to catch up. Unknown to the group, they are being watched.
”Uh, Krait-1, what are they doing?”
”I honestly dont know Krait-4, lets follow them in, but keep at distance.”

This exchange was unheard by the three traitors, who were to busy trying to find their targets.
”Cobra-2 here, any idea where they got Lead?”
”No idea, but I have a bad feeling that they know what were doing here... we'd better head out fast.”
But it was too late for them. As soon as Cravic and Janson entered the cloud, they hid behind some debis, and had been following the traitorous group and now opened fire. It wast't long before they were destroyed, minus the LPI agent.
”Well i guess that's that Janson. Seemed too easy though.” says Cravic.
"I agree” replies the LPI agent, ”but then, this group may have thought we would be easy to kill ourselves.” Just after he says this, they are suddenly surrounded by 15 civillian class Cobra, Krait, and Mamba fighters.
”Then again, maybe that wasnt so easy.” Says Janson. ”If you ask me now would be a good time to surrender or run.”
A new voice enters the comms. ”You will do nothering of the sort. Tell us why you are here, killing yourselves.”
Cravic takes over the conversation saying, ”Well I think avoiding assassination about covers it, why?”
”No” the new voice replies, ”Let Janson answer.”
Janson gawks for a moment, ”Uh... yea what the Admiral said.”
”Good”, the voice replies, ”You may head off then.” All the fighters leave as quickly as they appeared.
”Well, I need to get back and report your 'death'.” The LPI agent disappears into the cloud.
”I need to head back myself, Janson”, says Cravic, ”Good luck.” Cravic has almost left into the mist before he stops. ”And Janson.”
”Yes, Sir?”
”Do you know who that was?”
”Not a clue, Sir.” Cravic then continues on his way, wondering about that unknown voice, leaving Janson alone, hoping Cravic would never know who that voice belonged to. Janson then opens his comm, ”I would like to join you.”
A few minutes pass by before a Junker comes up to his ship.
”Very well, then”, says the unknown voice, ”Follow me. It's good to see you again, brother.”

#18 by Janson

-Janson's Cabin, Aboard the Sequoia, Kepler System-

Janson is tinkering with a few electronic parts as the door opens and Admiral Cravic walks in.
"Sir!" Janson says, quickly standing and saluting.
"At ease, Lieutenant." Cravic pulls out a bug scanning device and sweeps the room. "This is unofficial, and must be quick."
Janson, far from being at ease, lowers his arm. "Whats wrong, Admiral?"
Cravic, finally finished scanning sets his device back in his pocket. "Well , I have reports that you'll soon be avoiding another assassination attempt, although your not the only one."
"What?" Janson says, bewildered. "Who from Rhineland even knows I'm alive let alone here?"
"Actually, Janson, as far as we are aware it will come from the LPI" Cravic states. "Fortunately for you, we have a loyal LPI agent with the group."
Janson gawks for a moment before recovering. "Well. When will it happen? What's the plan?"
"Well, we believe the attempt will occur on the patrol we will be sending you on, although you havn't gotten those orders yet. You will be near Rhineland. The LPI agent has told us that no one in the group is really aware of who is leading them, and I will pretend to take that place, and once we get into some dense cloud or other, we will destroy the group, leaving the LPI agent to report your 'death'." Cravic starts to leave.
Janson thinks over this a moment. "Sounds good, except that we dont know if they will follow me during this patrol."
Looking over his shoulder Cravic answers, "They will. I will be ordering them to accompany you." The door closes.

#17 by Janson

-Ames Research Station-

The Sequoia is outside Ames Research Station, and a battle is brewing. Janson is sitting in his cockpit, anticipating the battle, nervously doing his preflight checks, and awaiting the order to launch. Finally, Admiral Cravic sends the order out, "All fighters and bomber, launch, and good luck."

Every ship slowly float up and orderly launches from the Sequoia. Janson follows out right behind Cravic. Cravic enters Janson's comm, "Follow me as my wing for this battle. You should do just fine." "Yessir." The fighters lead the formation, flying as a cover for the bombers. Kusari fighters and bombers launch from their cruiser as well, and also keep their fighters and interceptors ahead of the bombers. Both formations, Liberty and Kusari, meet in the middle, somewhere over Ames, and noise fills the comm.
"Liberty-5 hit!"
"Hey, I got one!"
"Ah! Liberty Bomber-32 here, can someone get this-*explosion*"
"Hey Liberty-32 what do you need? Liberty-32?"
Cravic, followed closesly by Janson dived below the formation, and came around behind. "Alright, Janson, lets take out a few of these bombers."
"Sounds like fun, sir."
The pair managed to shoot a few down before they were intercepted by Kusari craft. As they made their escape, Janson gets seperated from Cravic, and a Kusari Interceptor follows him, getting a hit behind his cockpit and ejecting him out, where he waits out the battle. Cravic managed to get around his pursuer and shot him down, and the battle was over, but the victor is still to be decided.

#16 by Carnifex

Admiral Cravic looked over the combat reports in dissmay. Kusari were gaining in strength day by day and he was begining to think that Rhienland had never intended to be neutral in the war, the peace talks were just to divert suspision away from them while they prepared themselves. To add to that the fuel shortages had started to hit again. Rhienland was restricting the movement of all HFuel across it's borders.

The fact that it hadn't been cut off entirely was actualy quite a surprise to Cravic. It seemed that Universal had made a deal with Rhienland and Kusari to protect it's interests and they were still trading with them. The most obvious conclusion was that they were bribing them. From government supported financial wreck to a booming corporation with an apendige in every proverbial pie within reach in very short order. The Navy even owed them money for services related to supplying bases.

If Kusari gets a foothold inside Colorado then it will look bad for us, thought Cravic. We have one chance to push them back by assulting Ames and I don't intend to let it slip from my grasp.

#15 by Janson

"... I guess we'll set you up on patrol here for now, as we will need as many soldiers as we can get. Until we reach the next system though you have free roam of the ship. We'll set you up in a patrol as soon as possible."

"Yessir."

Janson heads to his assigned quarters, and nervously fiddles around with his old logs, writes another log, fiddles some more, and finally tries to sleep. Failing this he simply heads back up to the bridge to watch the Seqoia's progress.

#14 by Janson

-Aboard the Sequoia-

"...but that means fighting you're own people. If I did have you transfered would you fight just like any of my other men?"

He sat there and thought it over this for a bit. Janson couldn't help but find logical arguments for each side, although he wouldn't mind fighting Rhinelanders.

"Well, sir, it's really up to where I'm needed. In some ways I would prefer the Kusari front, to avoid fightin home, yet I wouldn't show them any mercy, after all they betrayed me first, and I know much of Rhineland space as well, yet i may also be better able to serve on the Kusari front because good pilots are needed tehre as well."

"A valid argument."

Cravic is still a bit unsure to where Janson stands on the issue and asks, "So, What do you plan on doing by server Liberty and what do you plan on doing after the war?"

"Well. Why I'm here is because Rhineland should have joined Liberty in the first place, but didn't, so I'll fight on the right side. After the war? Depends. If we manage to put Rhineland in its place I may move back there. In the case that doesn't happen though, my home's in Liberty."

Now sure that Janson is really all for Liberty, Cravic says, ""Alright then I think well assign you at..."

(\\Although for this RP i think id like to be in the action with the Admiral, idc either way)

#13 by Carnifex

Now onboard the Sequoia Cravic was on the bridge handeling the orders of the patrol wings that were scounting for Kusari forces. The Sequoia hung heavily in space just a few hundred meters from the Colorado Jump Gate which was positioned abeam of the battleship.
"Sir," said one of the officers, "The Huron is requesting to depart for Texas and the Bering front."
"Give them my compliments and send them on their way," replied the Admiral.
Someone entered from the door to the bridge and Cravic turned around to see who it was.
"Acting Lieutenant Janson reporting Sir," said the soldier as he snapped to attention and saluted.
Cravic saluted in kind and then walked over to Janson and inspected him. "So you're the Rhienland defector. At ease. I saw the specs on your ship, she's a good craft, we're going to need every pilot we can get if we're going to hold back Kusari here," Cravic glanced at the jump gate to colorado out the windows that framed a large section of wall on the bridge. "Of course I can have you transfered to the Bering front if you would prefer a safer set of patrols but that means fighting you're own people. If I did have you transfered would you fight just like any of my other men?"

#12 by Janson

-Log Start-

Ah, I'm late. Why is it that, despite having the fastest ship Rhineland technology and money could buy, I'm still late. Anyhow it's time I joined in to this fight. I'm heading out to the Kepler system in fifteen minutes. This time I'll take my "Wraith" Interceptor, because, by the sounds of thing, firepower and shields will be just as good as speed and maneuverability.

Well I have to head out. I should be reporting to Admiral Cravic soon.

-Log End-

-In The Kepler System-

"Battleship Sequoia this is Liberty-13 requesting permission to dock, and to speak with the Admiral."

#11 by Carnifex

Cravic watched as the navy Armoured Transport Huron approached slowly, manuvering over the wreck of his Liberator and drawing him into the loading bay. The bay began to pressurise and slowly Cravic began to hear th growl of the engines charging for cruise rise with the air pressure. He opened his cockpit covering and it gave a distinct hiss as the to environments became one, getting out of his seat he jumped down onto the deck and viewed his ship propperly for the first time. The whole fighter was leaning rather noticably to one side as it sat on the deck, much of it's structural frame having failed. The power plant had shut itself down to prevent an overload when the damage had mounted from the Outcast surprise attack. The final straw had been a cruise disruptor that had impacted right into the fusilage and pierced the weakened hull plates, the subsequent EMP destroying the control electronics. The entire left wing was also missing.
"It's a miracle that you still had atmosphere Sir," commented an engineer who had just entered the bay.
"I've been through worse." Cravic felt the deck plating begin to vibrate as the engines accelerated the transport into cruise. "Where are we headed lieutenant?"
"Back to the Sequoia Sir, everyone is pulling back so that we at least have the cover of the battleship. Where are you going Sir?!" called the engineer but Cravic was already at the exit to the loading bay.

#10 by Carnifex

The Huron arrived back at the Battleship Rio Grande after a short pit stop at Manhatten and once again workers swarmed over the ship unloading cargo and tending repairs. Admiral Cravic walked briskly from the transport across the landing bay toward his Liberator fighter as it was being lowered onto the deck from the fighter deck, an aid that had been waiting for him ran after him and handed him a data-pad.
"Intel from our contact in Shikoku Sir," said the aid as he tried to keep up while avoiding people all through the busy docking bay, "It seems that Kusari are building for an attack, our contact can't say what the first wave will consist of but it's coming."
Cravic quickened his pace, trying not to hop along on his stiff leg as he grew tence. "Thank you lieutenant," said Cravic handing the pad back. He reached his fighter just as the fuel had finnished being loaded. Jumping in and begining the startup sequence he contacted the bridge of the Rio Grande on the com.
"Captain Benson, this is Admiral Cravic, there may be another attack attempted on Ames by Kusari. Pull as many of your fighters off patrol as you can spare and have them convirge on Ames asap. Authorisation Delta C 7462."

#9 by Carnifex

Cravic sat in a chair in a small grey room and scrolled discontentedly through some files on a holographic screen displayed above the desk in front of him. An aid entered the room, saluted, dropped a data pad on the desk and then left. Out the porthole could be seen the characteristic bright streeks of a trade lane's propulsive field as it pushed the ship along. After a minute the ship exited the tradelane and the bright, snow covered plains of planet California Minor could be seen far below. The grumble of the engines grew in intensity and the ship accelerated foward away from the planet. Admiral Cravic turned off the holographic display and left the office with an air of relief.

As Cravic entered the bridge of the Armored Transport Huron he looked out the large view port to see a masive ice nebula approaching the ship's bow quickly.
"Are we there yet?" asked Cravic sarcasticly, saluting.
The officers turned and saluted. One of them, the captain of the vessel, turned back to the view port. "Nearly Admiral, not long now," he said.
This is a job for a rear admiral or someone else, Cravic thought to himself, I can't believe they pulled me off the front for few crates.
Now well inside the ice nebula the Huron was aproaching Research Station Willard, the masive asteroid slowly looming out of the fog.

The Huron's bulk sat framed by the interior of the station's landing bay as two crates were removed from the cargo hold and then moved to a secure laboratory, followed the entire way by Cravic and company. Once in the lab the crates were scanned and unlocked. Inside were millions and millions of tiny polymer beads which were vacumed out. Underneath the beads were four big, black boxes which were then also removed and opened. Each box contained a large alien artifact of varying size and shape, however what they all had in common was that they were all active. Luminecent lines glowed along their edges and in patterns on their sides. Dim glows could be seen where their bases met the bottom of each box.
"Looks like the Corsair Reformers have been true to their word," commented Cravic as a handful of scientists started leaning over the artifacts while writing on data pads and hovering instruments over them, "Now make sure my trip down here was worth while," he said to the scientists. The remaining few men in the room were mostly security guards who were careful not to show too much interest in the foreign technology.

#8 By Carnifex

Hazy black clouds loomed nearby on all sides of a tranquil jump hole as lights danced along the zone where its intense gravitational distortions intersected normal space. They glowed brightly for a moment and then out of the jump hole popped six fighters, radio chatter bursting to life on all the com-lines.

“CLEAR!” yelled the pilot of a Justice multi-role, the ship that was taking point.
“Status!” called out Admiral Cravic from his Liberator.
“Everyone made it through and is accounted for Sir,” said the wing’s second in command, “Hall lost his port wing when the Hackers jumped us near Leiden.”
Turning around and checking out the rear of his cockpit Cravic could indeed see the remains of Hall’s port wing and was even able to make out the power transmission lines, that used to feed energy to his weapons, dangling out of the charred stump. All the other fighters looked quite damaged; patches could be seen on their hulls where nano-bots had repaired weapon impacts, Cravic’s own Annihilator gun on the top of one of his wings had been knocked loose when he had collided with a Kusari Navel Forces fighter and the nano-bots hadn’t been able to reconnect the lifeless weapon.
“All call signs, move out. We’ve been here too long as is.” Six cruise engines charged and kicked forward in unison.

Not far from the Galileo jump hole was the Battleship Sequoia waiting for the raiding party to return. As they closed in the Sequoia hailed them, “Incoming fighter squadron, please transmit ID confirmation codes.”
“Squad Beta 6 transmitting...”
“Welcome home Admiral, there have been some developments since you left, we’ll give you the info once your onboard.”

“What’s this mysterious news Ryan?” said Cravic as he walked briskly down a corridor, slight limp barely noticeable.
“The Cut Throats have taken over Scania base Sir, by all reports it was fairly bloodless but beyond that we know very little other than that they are digging in and not likely to give it up soon. Also the reports of CTP raiders and smugglers crossing the system have doubled since the takeover, we think they are expanding their influence.”
Cravic stopped and turned to his subordinate with a thoughtful expression. “They picked a fine place to settle down. What could be better than the middle of a warzone?!” Cravic turned and continued walking.
“Also,” continued Ryan, “The higher-ups wanted to speak with you while you were on the raid.” Cravic cringed, “They weren’t happy to hear that you were still leading raids yourself.”
“I’ll deal with them later.”

#7, by Carnifex

Admiral Cravic's office on the Sequoia was quiet which was disturbed only by the noises of those passing by outside. He leant back into his chair with his leg, no longer in the treatment splint, resting on top of his desk. In his hand he held his computer pad and tapped at the screen, his face growing stern.
Although the attack on the Chugoku Gate Construction Site had been expected Liberty had had no knowledge of when it would come and were unable to send support ships in advance. Luckily Bretonia had formed a good inteligence network within Kusari and had had time to slip some re-enforcements through the border worlds. So although the remote DSE base was safe for now it was only a fanciful option for a foot-hold inside Kusari space. There was no way supply lines could be formed through the heart of Kusari, going through Alaska would be too costly and Nuremburg made the trip a very long one, all for a small and poorly defended base all be it behind enemy lines.
"If it comes to it," he thought to himself, "We will have to scuttle the base and the gate and remove as much usefull technology as possible."
Just then a red light flashed on above the door and an acompanying klaxon pierced the quiet. Another Navel Forces attack had been launched against the Sequoia. The Admiral Lifted his leg off the desk slowly and set it down on the ground with care. There wasn't much pain but it was still stiff and stuborn. Raising himself out of his chair he made his way to the bridge. "It's about time we took the fight to the enemy, one way or the other," he grumbled to himself.

#6, by Schwarz

"Understood sir. I'll also talk to the president and request troops at this base to provide further support. With luck we could establish a forward outpost at this base without much difficulty. I think all we would need is to transport a few marines over here, though the transfer from ship to base could take some time with the docking facilities as damaged as they are."

"I'll be around if you need anything else. Just make sure to heal up before you hop back in another ship. Maybe next time you won't get careless when things are going as well as they were."

#5, by Carnifex

Admiral Cravic started at a noise from behind him. He was bearly standing as it was so he turned excrutiatingly slowly to look at whoever wanted his attention, the pain quite obvious on his face. As he completed the turn he leant heavily against the bed to take the weight off his left leg, which was swathed in bandages and wrapped up in a brace to keep it still while the treatments took effect.
"You really shouldn't be standing so soon sir," pleaded one of the doctors.
"Shut up and give me that thing," barked the admiral as he snatched a crutch from the hands of the doctor and leant it against the bed next to him. Looking to his visitor he said, "Ryan! Good, I'm glad you're here, I have a job for you," he winced as he squirmed trying to find a comfortable possition.
"What are your orders sir?" replied Ryan.
"Contact the Battleship Sequoia and instruct them to enact their orders for begining patrols here in Kepler. Make it clear that they are not to come within 15K of Ames however any fighter traffic will be accepted by the Zoners and repair facillities here are available. Also, contact the Ageria and DSE reps and tell them that deliveries of machinery and food supplies can begin and that they will be given escort which will be coordinated from the Sequoia. Understood?"
"Yes sir."
"Good. And lastly I'll need a new fighter, I'm sure the Sequoia can handle that." Cravic took a deep breath, "You did really well in that fight before, well done, but it's not going to be the last one. Liberty is going to need your skills again soon, if we are to make a push into Kusari then we will need to have soldiers stationed here for reserves and rotation rosters and I doubt Kusari will just let us have them."

#4, by Schwarz

Ryan's Avenger made its way to one of the two remaining docking ports aboard Ames.

"I hear our admiral made it out of that fireball and he's doing okay here. Mind if I come in and see him?"

"Sure Liberty Green-6. Proceed to the docking bay. We'll show you the way to your admiral."

"Thanks Ames. I'm coming aboard."

After landing in the bay, Ryan followed a couple Zoners through the corridor to the interior of the base.

#3, by Carnifex

Cravic woke up, as one always does after nearly being blown up, with a headach and in what seemed to him to be the most brightly lit room ever. He could faintly hear voices but couldn't make out what they were saying and he could feel his leg swathed in bandages. Eventualy a man came over to where he was lying, apparently a doctor.
"How do you feel?" he asked.
"That's a stupid question," said Cravic with irritation, "Where am I? What happend to my pilots?"
"You're on Ames, we picked you up when the battle finnished and all the Kusari and Rheinland fighter had been destroyed. Think of it as our thanks for saving our station."
Cravic breathed a sigh of relief. Already thinking of the next step in securing Ames he asked, "I need to speak with whoever runs things around here."
"Are you sure you're up to it? That's quite a wound you have there, it'll never be what it once was"
Cravic put alot of effort into the cold hard stare he now gave the doctor, "Kusari is coming back, and they may come back stronger and in greater numbers. We have to draw the line here, for you and for liberty. Now who can I talk to about a Navy contingient here?!"

#2, by Carnifex

Weaponfire tore about from ship to ship in the cold vacume outside Ames Research Station. Liberty Navy ships, along with mercenaries they had hired, fought alongside Zoner pilots in an effort to repell an attempt by Kusari Naval Forces to take the station by force. There had been two waves of attackers, comprised of Kusari heavy fighters with the notable inclusion of a number of Rheinland fighters in support. Liberty had been ready and when the first reports of millitary deployment had come in a wing of specialist heavy fighters had been sent to defend Ames, specialy fitted with heavy ordinance. The second wave of Kusari fighters was now nearly neutralised, all that remained was the Rheinland contingent and one Kusari Multi-Role.

Admiral Cravic of the Liberty Navy was experiencing an adrenalin rush, familiar to him as the type one always gets from combat. Torps were flying left, right and centre and Cravic knew that even just a stray one could do significant damage to his Justice fighter. He dodged around the station, a few marks vissible on the outer hull, debris made the actual damage hard to guess at but some were deffinately venting atmosphere. Cravic pulled into a long corkscrewing backflip as the Kusari fighter he was targeting shot passed him. He pulled out with his target to his left, he glanced and saw it shoot accross in front of him as a torpedo crashed into the side of his ship creating a blinding light and a sound of bending and melting metal that in the quiet of space was spine chilling.

The torpedo had made contact just next to where Cravic was sitting. The explosion began to crumple the frame of his fighter inward and his auto-eject system locked off his life support umbilicals and fired his cockpit-pod away from the rest of the fighter. For a brief moment he could hear the sound of venting gas and Cravic looked down to see the gel-foam that had been sealed into the wall of the fighter spew from the wound, expanding and hardening as it went, forming a patch before all the air vented. This however was not what concirned the Admiral most.

His left leg was immediately next to the breach and had been filled with shrapnel by the explosion and now most of it around the knee was barely recognisible. Blood poored out from seemingly everywhere and much of the flesh had been shredded. Even as he began to realise the extent of the injury he went into shock and passed out, the fire of the battle still visible all around him.

#1, Background, by Carnifex

There are a number of governments that exist within a small section of space, occupying several solar systems each. Recently some of these 'Houses' went to war. House Kusari viewed House Liberty as a threat and was first to declare war. House Bretonia, Liberty's ally, entered the war to support Liberty. We join the story as the first battle of this war draws to a close.