The Corp is Born

The Core is Born

Forward

The Decadence is Shattered





In the early hours of the last days of the harvest season here on Capricorp’s little plantation planet, known as Capricorp III (No one said these guy were geniuses). A group of old farmers, too effected by age to be of any use in the fields, but too knowledgeable just to be dumped in a local retirement home, sat and talked among themselves about old times.

They were remembering the days of their well spent youth, travelling what were then still wild lands. About how their planet was bought out by the Capricorp corporation for the rich soils the blessed its surface. Not to mention the rich Tranium deposits that were later discovered on the bottom of the planets oceans. The old men were arguing the facts of whether or not there fathers had screwed their offspring to life of near slavery, everyone whom worked on this planet was an employee on Capricorp. As usual, the old men would change to better subjects once the argument got too heated.

Lately it was the plans concerning the upcoming harvest festival that would be held at the spaceport the next day. The festival always started when the hauler convoy showed up to take their unneeded load. These festivals always lasted a month because the products came from all over the planet. This planet was a miraculous wonder in the galaxy. It was a terran style planet, but unlike terra, this planet’s axis was stable. It had an elliptical orbit that set the seasons to where the winter only lasted a month, and did not even get cold enough to kill off the vegetation. The water on this planet was also perfect for plants due to its natural mineral content, but animals that did not evolve here, would die if their water supply was not filtered for these minerals.

Just last year this planet was accepted into the Earth Federation as a full member. This meant they were now considered a core world and would receive the full protection of the Federal fleet and its marines. Little did they know was that the Earth Federation had had some setbacks in their fleet due to low recruitment numbers and lack of re-enlistment. Now they had large cruiser and even a couple of battleships that were put into mothballs because they simply could not man them. Now they were reorganizing their fleet to concentrate less on fleet tactics and more on single ship on ship skirmishes.

This whole problem started ten years back when a particular planet in the Sol System rebelled against the Federation. None of the colonies either in Sol, or outside it, sided with this colony. But some did privately. The Federal Fleet moved in and essentially smashed the colony known as Pluto. The original intent was to just blockade it, but when Pluto convinced a section of the fleet to defect to the plutonian side, everything went downhill fast.

Admiral Anderson, in charge of the blockade, ordered the defectors destroyed. He unknowingly divided a galaxy. This single decision would decide the fates of several generations and commit them to fight war after bloody war. In the end Pluto was smashed to bits and it people scattered on the solar wind to the corners of the galaxy.

This gave the fleet an evil image, even though they were actually a fair and just organization. The outer worlds still clung to it, and their young men, whom new nothing of the terrible war on Pluto, joined willingly. They signed up for adventure, as well as the bragging right to tell people that they are the defenders of the galaxy. The core worlds did know of the war and the young men and women rarely joined because it was viewed in the light of what had been done. They did not directly see the effects the fleet had in the outer sectors were the pirating was becoming a major issue.

If the old men had known this they might not have been so surprised to see what they saw next. A large fireball was coming into the atmosphere, heading directly toward the spaceport. This how all the ships made their entrance, they had to depolarize their hulls and enter the atmosphere under gravity’s pull. As soon as they cleared whatever stratosphere the planet had, they would reactivate their gravity drives and slow down dissipating the friction on their hull and releasing the electromagnetic fields that interfered with planet side sensors. The old men did not know this but the ship hadn’t slowed down when it was supposed to. As a matter of fact the ship signature was far too large to be a hauler.

The Planetary Defense organization, scrambled to alert status, but they didn’t have the time to respond. The ship finally hit the brakes, the smoke cleared and the fields dropped. The old man stared gaping at the marauding ship in front of them. They stared with surprise as they finally realized they were staring down a pirate cruiser. Bristling with an array of city killing beam weapons, the last thing the old men saw was the burst of light as the city surrounding the space port disappeared in an atomic explosion.

The pirates had done their homework on this complacent world. They knew that It was best to take out the ten spaceports that were spread across the planet before the harvest festival, then they would capture the haulers as they came through the hyper gates and use them to haul the worlds precious resources. Then they would nuke the entire planet from orbit making it barren, and making it so that no one would survive, except in a few super bunkers scattered across the planet that served as command and control centers for the planets space defense network. The pirates would leave these alone because there inhabitants would not directly interfere with their mission, not to mention that it wasn’t worth the trouble.

What the pirates had not realized, though, is that this was a core world and would have the special subspace frequency for reaching the nearest fleet command. The pirate’s mission would take at least a week to execute worldwide, but fleet command would have ships there in a matter of hours.

These fleet ships were bristling with photographic and video surveillance equipment for engagement tracking. These pirates breathed new life into the core worlds. The pirate’s ignorance in this one instance was their complete undoing. Even though the fleets recruiting rates were still down, they now had a mission. A mission would mean they would get a better budget. Which will help them shift their focus from large capital ships, that are then supported by many smaller destroyer and frigate style ships, to a more versatile, carrier style ship that can act as a group or sustain themselves in ship to ship, or even support planetary invasions.

At the moment the fleet is using a small number of large Capital ships with about twenty destroyers, and fifty frigates each. Most of the smaller ships are being manned by skeleton crews and are in disrepair due to the shortage of capable personnel. Most capital ships are finding themselves having to constantly send repair crews onboard these smaller craft to quickly bring them back into the fight.

About two hours later, the Federal Fleet vessel Morgan, a class two carrier with two squads of fighters. These fighters were able to fly down and assist the planets defenders in pushing the pirate’s ground attack back. The pirates found themselves surrounded, and their capital ship had unsuccessfully attempted to flee using the same tactics that they had used to surprise the ground forces. Unlike the planet side sensors, the Morgan’s sensors were able to penetrate the magnetic interference.

The Morgan and its experienced crew moved in and disabled the gravity drives of the vessel and then moved in to capture the vessel. The pirate’s captain then self destructed the ships jump drives obliterating the ship in a miraculous light show. No one on board the ship saw this, but the forces on the ground saw this, as well as the remaining pirates surrendered.

The next morning, after the video and pictures were viewed and edited into a single video/slideshow, the commanding Admiral of the 4th Armada, and his marine counterpart, were briefed on the surprisingly brash attack on a core world. They then ordered then a new version of the Video release to the media to be issued at their press conference a few hours later.



This was surprisingly not well met among the core worlds. What I mean is that they didn’t believe it. The senators all accused the fleet of fabricating the whole thing. The senate ordered the fleet to stand down from its high alert status. Admiral Callahan simply stated that it was up to the President to direct them to stand down. When the speaker of the house, accompanied by the leads of the parties of the house, pleaded with the President to order the fleet to stand down, the President said “I can’t do that, the standard operating procedures in this case state that once a Core planet is attacked, the fleet must stand at a ready stance at all times, send out constant patrols on the offended systems, as well as its shared systems. It also says that a gate seizure and closure is in order but I managed to talk them out of that for the time being. I have also talked with the leader of the Pirates about this attack. He refuses to acknowledge the attack, but I can tell that he is not telling the truth. So my only action is to follow the advice of Admiral Callahan and let the man do his job.”

“I can’t allow this Mr. President” Said the speaker, who was flustered with anger and frustration. He had always been able to get the President to do as he wanted and now the man was refusing him.

“Sure you can, because it is not your job to tell the fleet what they can or cannot do anything. What you control is their funding, which I would increase in light of these new events, and with the upcoming election. I have it on good authority that the pirates are going to move on us soon. And unless you wish to declare war on the Confederate forces, or the Pirates as we know them, I am unable to do anymore.” The president sat there calm, collected. He turned to look out the window of his office on Earth, as the speaker continued.

“I will NOT!” said the speaker, veins popping out of his forehead. He was furious that this puppet was not reacting to his strings. “The Earth Federation does not recognize that loose band of tribes as a government. They are pirates and criminals, and it is the executive branches responsibility to bring them to justice. You do realize that don’t you!” The speaker yelled the last part, veins bulging with each word.

“Mr. Speaker, I can only bring them to justice when they are in my jurisdiction. By law my hands are tied. They live outside the established borders of the Federation.” The President said this calmly as he stood up and walked to his secretary.

She had just entered the room for a brief moment, and handed a brief report to him. He thanked her and she left. The President read it holding up a single finger telling the Speaker to hold on while he read the report. The veins on Speaker’s head looked like they were ready to explode. Now the puppet was tugging back.

The President Smiled and said “Well, recognize them as a government or not, they just sent us a declaration of war.” No sooner than the words had hit the air, Admiral Callahan barged into the office, to which the President said “I hope there is a good reason for this Admiral.”

“My apologies Mr. President, but the Caviar sector is being attack by a Pirate fleet claiming to be members of the Confederate Fleet.”

“Okay, deal with it…” The Admiral cut the President off.

“Sir, I don’t think you understand.” The Admiral produced a paper from the breast pocket of his uniform. “The Pirates are all under a single banner, as you can see from the pictures taken here,” the Admiral pointed at several pictures when he said this. “They are using the old American Confederate flag as their master designation, and are putting a smaller clan flag below it. I think I need to respond with force, sir.”

The President aged several years by the end of this statement. He thanked the Admiral and asked him to wait outside for his response. He then turned to the Speaker and said “Well, now we have a situation. This new report also tells of a massive fleet of escape vessels that are now heading for the Caspian sector. I want you to convene the congress in an emergency session so that I can tell everyone, all at once, what I plan and what I need from you, and the people you all represent. “

The speaker was pale at this point, he still was not sure, but he also had never seen any emotion on the Presidents face. Now it showed a deep brow of concern that persuaded the Speaker. “When shall it be held, Mr. President?”

“Tonight, as soon as possible, I don’t care if it is three in the morning.” The Speaker nodded and left, with his companions following closely. The Speaker couldn’t shake the feeling that he was now the puppet, and that his puppet was now the master.



The President, with a somber appearance, stepped behind the podium. He was now standing in front of hundreds of representatives from ever planet in the federation. Only a few hundred had any actual votes, because most were not full members in the Federation. Most of the representatives were in fact from what were considered third worlds, or relatively new colonies. Not yet developed enough to bear the burden of the higher taxes a core world has to pay, and is also unable to get much of the benefits that these core worlds get. Though they enjoy a better freedom of choosing their colonies standards.

“Today, our territories have been savagely attacked. The assailants responsible call themselves the Confederacy. We know them better as the Pirates. We, in our decadence, and self proclaimed superiority, have refused to recognize this danger. We even denied that these men had the gull to attack us in our own space. But as the strike on Capricorp III, and the invasion of the Caviar sector. We seem to have been sorely mistaken. This ‘Confederate’ fleet as it were is now savagely destroying some off our territorial planets. I am here to request of you two things. One, to recognize the Confederacy as a rouge government, not just a band of pirates, and two, to declare war on the Confederate government.” The whole assembly began to burst out with a multitude of hushed whispers. The President, after the uproar had settled, continued on explaining what he would do if these two action where taken. He also explained what he would need from the people during this time of crisis.



During all off this debate, the fleet was now moving in on the Confederates next suspected target. A planet named Barin, rich in Arnium, a powerful fuel for gravity drives. This was a planet that produced ten percent of all gravity drive fuel in colonized space. The 3rd Armada had jurisdiction in this sector, and was guarding the key resources and other strategic positions. They sent their 3rd fleet here. The core of the fleet was in orbit around the planets of Barin, while the carriers patrolled between the various safe jump points, and some of the more risky ones. They hyper-gates had been booby trapped to prevent any incursion through the gate system. The gates in the systems the confederates controlled were removed from the network. The only thing is, is that if they had crafty engineer, he could figure a hack and break through.

They didn’t try this. They attack through several points at once and began to spread out, attacking the undefended assets at will. Several of the fleet’s carriers were jumped during this initial phase, and were heavily damaged. Then the main fleet arrived, two battle ships and a dozen carriers appeared in a safe jump sector being patrolled by one of the two, first class carriers in the fleet. This one was known as the Consvek.

The carrier hid among a group of iron asteroids, whose natural magnetic polarity shielded them from detection, but made the hull shielding useless. It also made their missile guidance useless. There only choice was to use their fighters to attack the fleet. They ordered the fighters to strike quickly at one of the battleships, they disabled it, but lost a great number of their fighters. Of the forty fighters sent out, though, only five returned. The carrier managed to leave the area and return to the main fleet. Unfortunately it was heavily damaged before it could escape. When it attempted to jump off, the carrier’s jump drive malfunctioned and it was lost.

Now only the Automan was left. It had only two squads of fighters, but those squads were the best in the fleet, outside of Special Forces of course. The Confederate fleet moved in to hit the capital planet of the system. The battle was fierce; nearly all of the support vessels on both sides were lost. Thought the confederates lost all of their carriers to the Automan’s fighters, which excelled at defending their own carriers, and the fleet only lost one.

By the time the confederates understood what just happened, it was too late. The Casion moved in for the kill, crippling the flag ship and the kicking the hell out of it sister ship before it escaped. The fleet admiral ordered the Automan to pursue the last Battleship, but lost it as it entered the asteroid belt. They dispatched the Paladins, their second fighter squad, to seek it out. But the ship had changed course and left the belt and slipped out of the system before they could intercept it.

Later that day, a surviving outpost on the edge of Caviar space, detected the ship jumping back to pirate space. The 3rd Armada then spent the next week, seeking out any remainder of the Confederate fleet. Other than a few rouge frigates, there were none.



Back on Earth, the President was receiving the latest reports telling him that the 3rd Armada was declaring that they had cleared the sector. He sat back in his chair breathing a sigh of relief. In an hour he was to go in front of the congress one more time to ask them to declare war on the newly recognized Confederate State. The congress was dragging their feet on the matter for one reason or another. He suspected that some crooked corporation had something to do with it. He ordered the IPCIA (Made of the old American CIA, and had similar role) to make some quiet inquiries into the dealing of heads of the parties as well as the Speaker.

He did not like the looks of the report he received. Evidently, a small corporation by the name of Dynasty Corporation was meeting regularly with all of these people, and he had the Inter Planetary Central Intelligence Agency (IPCIA), make more of a ruckus to scare them off. He could only hope that it would have an effect before he went in front of those bastards again.

He was glad though that the immediate crisis was over and that he could talk more about counter strike than about defense. The people would feel better about that, or so he hoped, than being on the defensive. Falling back and waiting for the Confederates to come to them.

Admiral Callahan and Admiral Bishop entered his office. After a few formalities, the President made clear his impatience, and the men got down to business. “Mr. President, we know you are about to go in front of the congress and ask them to declare war on the Confederates. We have something that we need your approval on before we can carry out. The sooner it is approved the quicker these ships can go into production.” started Admiral Bishop. He was gruff but was a man of great experience. He was the only man left in the navy that had severed directly under Admiral Anderson. He was on Emergency leave due to the death of his wife when the Plutonian war broke out and had just got back when part of the fleet broke off.

The admiral handed the president an electronic tablet that had information on a set of new ship that would make up the new streamlined fleet. The first was a frigate/destroyer combonation that offered the impact of the destroyer class vessel, but with only the need of a frigate crew. It also still had the anti-fighter and anti-frigate capabilities of the frigate. And it only needed a crew of a little over one hundred people. Not the one thousand or better that you needed for the current frigate and destroyer class vessels used now.

“The designers are calling those the stinger class, because of its capability to take out larger ships if they can mass in number. About twenty or so for a carrier.” injected Admiral Callahan.

The next ship was a new Carrier system. The introduction of the report said that it would not use a three class system. Just one of these could fill all of the roles that a carrier would need to and then some. It could carry four fight squads. It also had an elaborate stealth system, as well as standard missile and torpedo launcher. But what caught the Presidents eye was the new, still experimental, hyper torpedo. The document on this one said that it could take out a planet’s atmosphere, or even shut down the fusion reaction in a star. The Designation for this new Carrier was Excalibur, and its class designation was Missile Carrier.

“What kind of weapon can destroy something on that kind of scale? Some sort of nuke?” asked the President.

The Admiral smiled as he answered “No not a nuke, it’s actually been years in the making. It uses Hyperspace Jump Engines to open windows into Hyperspace. Used in its normal mode to will essentially suck up the planet’s atmosphere. But in it more destructive secondary mode, It can violently disrupt the magnetic fields of stars or planets that are nearby.” The President stared at the admiral for a few seconds to decide whether or not to have him seek psychiatric help, then continued to read.

The last ship was a behemoth. It featured fighter, corvette, and even frigate manufacturing capabilities. It bristled with two battle ships worth of weapons, and had a power plant that could support it. It did not have the terrible weapon of stellar destruction that the carrier design had, but the main weapon of this beast was two massive, planet bombarding turrets. It also carried within its hull, three fully operational hangers. The main hanger was at the end of the smaller fighter and corvette production lines. The second and Third were on either side of it and housed five squads of fighter each. The Frigate’s production was simply a small (relative to the rest of the ship) dry dock that had a series of armored doors that swung open into space. These Factories only needed raw resources to produce their craft. They had complete foundries and part production lines. And since ships of this size didn’t hyper jump on their own, the production was safe to the ship’s hyper drive. The design’s only designation was Mothership. It was one mother of a ship.

“What the hell, how many of these ‘Motherships’ do you want to build?” asked the President, exasperated by the prospect that these bastards would want like a hundred of these things.

“Only five, Mr. President, and the first has already been built. It past its testing phase and is ready to be fielded, and the rest are awaiting your approval for production. It’s simple; we will have one Mothership at the head of the armada, then a carrier at the head of the fleet, as well as at the head of a battle group. The rest is up to the Stingers. We drop our current manpower needs by 50%, and increase our capability. This will require us to recycle all of our current ships though.” Admiral Bishop finished with a huge sigh and sat back in his chair.

The President stood up and paced for a moment. There was a knock at the door and the secretary stepped in. “The Speaker want a word with you.” She said it flatly but her body language said that she was pissed and that he Speaker had probably said some nasty things. No surprise there, The Speaker was not very polite with those he thought of as inferior.

“Tell him I said to…” The president was interrupted when the Speaker enter the room and approached the President.

“Now you listen here, you sun of a bitch, I will not wait at the side while consider some full hearty plan to attack these confederates. I demand that you explain why I’m being investigated by the IPFBI!” He was very angry and the veins his head were bigger than the President had ever seen them.

“The answer is simple; you are being investigated for corruption. If you have any further questions on the matter, you can go and talk to Mr. Wiley at the IPFBI headquarters down the street.” As the Speaker tried to argue the body guards assigned to protect the President, escorted the Speaker (rather roughly) out of the room.

The president went and spoke to congress. He went on to present the new ship plans to the congress, and how it would affect cost of manpower throughout the navy. He then explained how such a fleet could counter the Confederate threat on their border. The congress was surprised when he did not ask them to declare war on the Confederates.

The truth is, the President changed his plans. He changed his plans. He would build the 3rd Armada up this way, and then send them into the fight. It took congress a week to enact this new plan. The 3rd Armada was temporarily replaced by the 1st Armada, which was responsible for protecting the Central worlds. Six months later the 3rd Armada returned. This time they were here as an attack force. The 1st would continue with their current mission of protecting the Andromeda sector from Confederate incursions, and would most likely be the last to receive these upgraded ships.

The President checked his watch and sighed. “Well Gentlemen, looks like I have to go. By the way, who is the wing commander on the Automan?”

Admiral Bishop checked his paperwork and responded with a snap to his words “Major Jacob Shilasky, Mr. President.” The President looked thoughtful for a moment then stepped out of his office.