NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: In this case GFFA refers to the "Galaxy Far Far Away" not the organization "Galactic Federation of Free Alliances" or whatever it may actually be. Thus this is an expansion into an astronomical body not a politcal one.

IC:

The sharp crack of chemical gunfire filled Private Alec King's ears. He took a quick look around at his fellow recruits before sighting down the barrel of his weapon. He lined up the ironsights, exhaled and squeezed the trigger.

The snap of recoil pushed into his shoulder, he compensated and fired off four more rounds.

"Excellent work Private. All five in the ten ring." His drill instructor told him, "Keep it up and you may make a soldier of yourself yet." The sergeant looked over at Private Miller, and brought his field glasses to his eyes.

"What the hell do you call shit poor shooting like that maggot! You're a disgrace to the Army. Fifty laps around the armory then do that again!" The sergeant ran off after Miller, and Private Kind turned back to his rifle. The wind had picked up, he re-adjusted then shot again.

****

"We can't ignore the situation. Lord only knows when Palpatine or his sycophants will come out our way. With modern FTL the only problem with intergalactic travel is fuel consumption. And its not like they don't have tankers!"

"Calm down Elliot, we all know the situation. That's why we're here." Surface Marshall Jonathan Knowles tried to calm his counterpart form the Navy, Fleet Admiral Elliot Par. "There's still a good five million light-years between us and them. That's five weeks of travel for anything other than courier ships and plenty of warning time."

Elliot was going to respond when President Clara Wesbridge interupted, "I didn't bring my top advisors here to have a shouting match." The president rubbed her muzzle, she could smell the tension. "Janet what did the rest of the Joint Chiefs have to say?"

Space Grand Marshall Janet Anders, a Bowman's Wolf like the president, was quick to respond, "They all agree that we should have a larger military presence in the GFFA. We already have the colony on Shilo it wouldn't be hard to re-enforce the planet and increase fleet strength."

"I'm not so sure the Senate would support such a move." Spoke Chancellor Kanzaki, current head of the Senate. "Most senators have taken a move towards isolationalism and want us to turtle up with our worlds here in the Large Megalnic Cloud."

The president nodded in understanding, "Don't worry about it. No one's forcing you to bring up support for this all by yourself."

Chancellor Kanzaki looked startled at the President's insight, but quickly composed himself as she patted her nose and winked at him. "How about the Parliment Charles?"

"We'd would vote for in favor." Prime-Minister Charles Jutland said. "You've always had a lot of support there."

"When could you vote on it?" Clara asked.

"Both the Senate and Parliment are in session tommorow, we could vote then." Kanzaki said as he checked his callender on his PDA.

"Do it. I'd rather increase our holdings in the GFFA but I can't do it without the support of the Senate." The president paused, "Janet could you address this issue to the senate tommorow please?"

"Of course Ma'am."

"Good then its settled. Till tommorow folks."

Space Grand Marshall Janet Anders stepped up to the podium. "Ladies and Gentlemen of the Senate I have come here today to speak of the grave danger posed by the primary powers of the GFFA, often called the "Star Wars" galaxy due the uncommonly large amount of armed conflict that has occured throughout its history.

"We simply cannot sit on our hands assuming that the vast gulf between our galaxies will stop the hostile and expansionistic powers residing there. Our drives can cross that gulf in five weeks, the fastest of their's can do it in half that time.

"The time has come to acknowledge the threat posed by organizations such as the ...."

***

"Do you think you convinced them Janet?" Clara asked her friend.

Janet paused to lap up some coffee from the drinking bowl she held in her hands, "I got a mostly good response. But nothing certain, in a space that large with so many people it's hard to get a feeling for the crowd from its smell. It's even harder with so many senators using scent killers on themselves."

"I know what you mean, I miss the days when I first became president and everyone was so busy being wowed by the fact that I was the first Bowman's Wolf to become president that they forgot how good our sense of smell was." Clara chuckled, "I got quite a few good deals done before the shock wore off and everyone remembered." She took the time to lap up some of her own coffee.

The two wolves sat together in silence for a few moments, "How much longer till Chancellor Kanzaki and Prime-Minister Jutland arrive?" Janet asked.

There was a knock on the door, "I'd say not too long at all." Clara got up, straightened her skirt around her tail and answered the door. "Shouji, Charles please come in."

The president waited for Kanzaki and Jutland to sit before asking them, "So, how'd it go?"

Jutland spoke first, "As I predicted the parliment voted to support the move. There were a few detractors from the Conservative party but they're not as powerfull in the Parliment as they are in the Senate."

Clara nodded, "And how about the Senate Kanzaki?"

Kanzaki smiled and Clara smelt the relief coming from him, "It passed, by two votes. I guess the Marshall's speach conviced a few of the more reasonable people after all."

Janet said a few words of thanks and was glad that the only person in the room who could tell she was embarassed was her friend the president.

Clara looked at Janet, "The first step is to build up a larger military presence. We have enough people out there for the required industries to be set up so the only thing left is you guys."

Janet nodded, "I'll talk to Elliot and Jonathan right away. We should have the necessary arangements made within the week." Janet turned to Kanzaki and Jutland, "If you'll excuse me gentlemen I must be going. I'll see you about the details later Madam President." With that, Janet turned and left the office.

***

Private King opened his orders with excitement, "All right, I scored the 402nd Mobile." One of his buddies shouted out.

Alec took out the piece of paper and read it, Private First Class Alec Vernon King, you are hereby assigned to the 708th Expeditionary Division. You will report to the transport CNS Juno where you will be transported to Shilo

Alec swore, "Fuck! I got Shilo. I don't care if it's techically a colony world, its still just a border planet that's overcrowded."

His barracks roared with laughter, his buddy Harry Loyd, the one who had gotten the 402nd, slapped him on the back. "Hey King, somebody has to get the shit assignments. I'm just glad it's not me!" He slapped Alec on the back again and went back to packing his duffel.

Alec sighed, then started doing the same.

Alec King turned the anti-grav off his locker and put it down in the designated area for bunk 6. He walked over, climbed the ladder, flipped off his shoes and laid down. He didn't have to report for another three hours, no need to hurry.

He set his bunk alarm to wake him in two hours and closed the curtain. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

***

"Get out of your bunk Private!"

Alec leapt out of his bunk and stood at attentipn on reflex. Did he oversleep? "Yes sir. Am I late for my briefing sir?" He asked.

"Not yet, but you will be unless you hurry. Be at room 104-Z9A in ten minutes. Here's your new orders." The man who had woken him said, he then turned on his heel and left after putting a data card on Alec's bunk.

Alec reached for a new uniform and saw the clock, he had only been asleep for fifteen minutes. He finished taking off his sleep clothes and started pulling on his uniform. He checked his orders, not only was his briefing not for nearly another 3 hours but it was in room 371-V4D.

He finished putting on his uniform and put the data card in his PDA. His new orders overwrote his old ones, so he rushed off to the room.

He arrived two minutes early. "You're late King." The man who had woken him said.

Alec started to say that he was in fact early when the same man who had woken him cut him off, "You're the last one here, that makes you late. Be here earlier next time."

Alec just nodded and said, "Yes sir." He then took the last available seat next to a Bowman's Wolf with reddish-brown fur. He took a quick look around, thirty people in all, seventeen humans thirteen wolves. More than Alec would have expected.

He took a moment to nod to the person next to him, "Private Alec King."

The wolf nodded back, "Private Chris Kirkland."

The man stepped up to the front of the class, "I am Master Sergeant Kendrick, you're all here because you scored the best on rifle accuracy and precision of your boot groups. My job is to take that skill and turn it into something more."

A hand shot up, "Do you mean sniper training sir?"

Kendrick laughed, "No I do not mean sniper training. I'm turning you into something better, sharpshooters."

The private that asked the question snorted, "Don't laugh boy, snipers pick a spot wait for a target then move. Sharpshooters are far more mobile and versatile.

"As a sharpshooter you'll be part of a squad. You're like a sniper in that if you see a target you'll kill him. But you also go out and kick ass with everyone else. Snipers can't shoot the enemies in their cover, as sharpshooters you'll learn how to go in and kill everyone in a room with one round each. The finesse kill, not a clumsy one like with a grenade or shotgun."

Kendrick looked around the room, "Good with that out of the way let me introduce you to your weapon." He took out a rifle, "I know you've all heard this before in boot but shut up and hear it again. This here is the R-710 Battle Rifle. It has a greater range and accuracy than the R-715 Automatic Rifle the rest of the infantry gets."

Kendrick removed the clip, "The standard clip holds 108 rounds, extended mags hold three times as much. It has five power settings I like to call hole in chest, big hole in chest, hole in armour, big whole in armor and salsa. It's pretty basic, the first setting is just enough to take down an un-armored human, the second will defeat light armor or make a much bigger hole in the un-armored guy, the third will defeat moderate armor like most enemies wear and cause as much damage to the person as the first setting does to unprotected flesh, the fourth will defeat the armor and make a big hole in the guy the fifth will blow through heavy armor, cover and turn most enemies into chucky salsa."

Kendrick took out a rectangle about 2.5 centimeters tall and 4 centimeters long and wide, "This is the power cell. It is inserted before the magazine but after the trigger grip. It is an energy cell that holds 200 megajoules, that's enough for over 30,000 first level rounds, over 8000 second level rounds, over 3000 third level rounds, over 800 fourth level rounds or exactly 4 fifth level rounds. As you can see it won't need much replacing unless you have a lot of power armor to kill."

Alec took in the lecture with a good attitude, maybe being shipped out to Shilo wouldn't be so bad afterall.

Alec swung into the room, saw five targets, and fired five times. Four of the targets dropped but the fifth shot and Alec fell to the ground as his armor immobilised.

"You're dead King, you'll have to be better than that in the field. Still, you're the best of the group so far, which isn't saying much." Sergeant Kendrick said over the suit comm.

"Yes sir." Alec said back. He was making progress, he wasn't able to take one out when training began two weeks ago.

"Now do it again." The sergeant commed, Alec stood up and went back to the starting area with his squad.

"Good job Alec." Chris Kirkland said.

"Thanks Chris. This time I have a new idea..."

****

The fleet dropped out of hyperspace over Shilo. The large bullet shaped ships slid themselves into orbit around the boxier transport and tanker ships.

Vice Admiral Gregor Mandel stood in the CIC of his flag ship the CNS Indestructable, one of the three Dauntless-class Star Battleships that formed the heavy hitters of the fleet.

He looked at the holo-display, the battleships Courageous and Independance were flanking Admiral Mandel's ship. The twelve Ravager-class Star Battlecruisers were arrayed in front of the fleet with the forty-eight Dawn Runner-class Cruisers as support. The one-hundred ninety-two Grizzly-class Star Destroyers and seven-hundred sixty-eight Magnificent-class Star Frigates were dispersed through the fleet in screening positions.

"All ships report succesful orbital insertion sir." The comm tech reported.

Mandel nodded, "That's good. Time to fill up, contact the local fuel station, we need to top off our bunkers."

The tech nodded, and got to work. Mandel turned to Captain Gaff, "I'm going to my quarters, take care of the ship."

Gaff nodded, "Yes sir. Enjoy your rest."

Mandel turned and walked out of the CIC, it was a short trip to his quarters, he had paperwork to do. It would be a long day.

OOC: Time wise this is occuring during the battle at Kuat taking place in "The War Begins (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=482718)"

IC:

Alec took his first steps onto Shilo. It was dusty, very, very dusty. His base was in the middle of a desert, located around the local shield projector/generator complex. Alec got on his stomach and put his ear to the ground, he could hear a the rumble of the massive reactor powering the shield even through the three kilometers of rock that seperated him and that contained source of stellar output.

He stood and took a look around the base, it was composed of low buildings, nothing over two stories with most of the base being located deep underground. In the center was the largest building, looking like a large flower made of metalic grid was the shield projector. Several more could be seen on the horizon forming the primary projector array for this section.

Alec checked his briefing, there were sixteen primary projectors, of which any two could keep the shield section up at full power.

He started walking towards the building labeled as the barracks with the rest of his squad. Chris Kirkland, a fellow sqaud mate and a member of his fireteam, caught up to him, "I don't like this place, the dust irritates my nose."

"Yeah, good thing everything's underground." Alec replied. They reached the door and entered. Alec reported to the desk, "Corporal Alec King reporting as ordered."

The Sergeant behind the desk nodded, "You're in barracks 25-A. It's a kilometer underground so it's a a two minute elevator ride."

Alec nodded and took his locker over the elevator, he heard Chris report in. As expected he got the same barracks as Alec, as his entire platoon would. He waited for Chris to catch up then started down to level 25.

"Think it will be hot down there?" Chris asked.

"No, the active cooling system will keep it a twenty-two degrees. Good for short sleaves."

Chris nodded, "Good, I won't get my summer coat for another six months, It'd be awfull if it was thirty or more degrees."

Alec grunted his acknowledgement, the two waited the rest of the trip down in silence. The doors opened and a wave of heat washed over him, a tech turned to look at him, "Sorry about the heat corporal, the active cooling system is down. We should have it back up within a few weeks."

Alec groaned and Chris let out something akin to a low whine. It was going to be a long deployment.

The tanker SS Fill'er Up detached its fuel line from the massive Courageous. It's captain was glad of the pay, he had ten thousand cubic meters of tank volume and he had filled up the battleships twice each. He did a quick mental calculation.

Let's see, sixty-thousand meters cubed times a million trillion kilograms per cubic meter, gives me six to the exponed twenty-one kilograms. I get a centicred for every hundred million metric tons so that gives me ten billion centicreds which means a hundred million credits. The captain smiled, he loved military contracts.

****

"We're full to the brim sir. Every ship has all their bunkers full to extended duration levels. We have enough fuel for several years of full deployment."

Admiral Mandel smirked, "Or one trip back to the LMC eh."

His aide laughed, "Yes sir. The local fuel haulers and refineries were sure happy for the money. We spent well over a hundred billion credits on fuel."

The admiral nodded, "Everything is more expensive out here. We would have spent a millionth of that back home." He rubbed his chin, "But of course back home we have entire systems devoted to solar energy collecting and fuel refining. Here there's just Shilo and its star."

"We could have tried local fuel sir."

"Oh I know Dillan, I know. But our reactors run best with our fuel, even if they can techinally run on anything we throw into the chamber." Mandel moved to his desk and sat in the large leather seat, "I'd rather spend the money then risk a drop in reactor efficiency. In a pitched battle we need every erg we can get." Mandel leaned back, "Is there anything else?"

"Yes sir, Commodore Franklin from the Hood is requesting permission to take his cruiser detachment to the local asteroid field for live gunnery practice."

"He has it, give the gunners a good work out." He paused, "But tell to go easy on the fuel, nothing over a hundred megatons."

Dillan nodded, "Also the Xerxes is reporting..."

Admiral Mandel listened with patience. Two hours later the work was done and his steward brought him a mug of coffee. "Thanks Robert."

The robot bowed and left Mandel alone. Mandel took a long drink, then leaned back and closed his eyes.

Admiral Mandel read his orders carefully, they had arrived a few minutes ago over the tachband commnet. He would have prefered a real time conversation with Fleet Admiral Par but the time delay between galaxies was twenty minutes, even with tachband and no body wants to wait forty minutes for a response.

Mandel re-read the orders, You are to begin scouting local systems for major fuel stations and refineries. If said station is under control of a possibly hostile power you are to mark it for destruction. Do no carry out an attack unless you receive orders to do so. Defend yourselves if attacked but do not go on the offensive.

The orders gave him a lot of leeway, and he never had any intention of attacking a local power.

He moved to his computer and began cutting orders of his own, he would send out a few dozen Star Frigates. They had some of the best sensor suites and the best acceleration of any ship in the fleet. They would make ideal scouts.

OOC: Some technical bits about my presence in the SW galaxy. I'd like to have a reference so I can point to it to show that I do indeed hace this presence.

Confederate Population Centers:

Shilo
Planetary Radius: 2.103x10^7 meters
Planetary Mass: 7.0x10^25 kilograms
Acceleration due to Gravity: 10.56 m/s^2 = 1.08 G
Star Spectral Type: F5
Star SpectriOutput: 1.109x10^27 Watts
Orbital Radius: 2.101x10^8 kilometers

Shilo is poor in heavy metals, being formed mainly of silicates. Thus most industry is located in the extrememly populous asteroid belt.