Let's Play: Star Wars Empire at War
Posted: 2009-04-09 04:39pm
Deep Space, Taldot Sector, 6 ABY
The system was worthless, its K class star possessing a pair of unremarkable gas giants and a modest collection of airless rocks. In the millenia since it was first charted there had been the occasional mining operation and pirate base, but none had remained for long. Herkese was too close to the core for pirates to avoid Republic patrols, but too far for bulk metal extraction of to be worthwhile. The lumbering grey shape that seemed to spring into existence at the edge of the system was the largest interstellar visitor the system had seen in centuries.
At first glance the INS Fervent was an intimidating sight, at least for any pirates that might be lurking in this desolate volume of space. A Victory-II class destroyer of the Imperial Navy, her dagger-shaped bulk stretched for nearly a kilometre and was studded with scores of heavy gun turrets. Closer inspection revealed deep scars in the armoured hull and damage that put at least a third of her weapons out of action. As it began to accelerate, the ship left a faint sparkling trail.
“Port engine still leaking sir, we've locked down what we can, but we'll be down 25 percent thrust until we can make drydock. Honestly sir, that engine has never worked right, the concussion missiles just knocked out our patch jobs that made it seem usable.”
'If we ever do' thought Captain Glider morosely. The damned rebels had captured or destroyed a good third of the fleet's yards. They'd lost more to the foolish governors who'd had the gall to declare independence in the wake of the disaster at Endor. The few that remained were jammed full of shot-up cruisers and destroyers, and the Fervent wasn't at the top of anyone's priority list.
“Very well commander. Concentrate on shields and sensors. We'll need them if we run into a rebel flotilla. Dismissed.” The Captain paced back to the bridge pit, stopping over the long-range sensor station. “Do you have a fix on the source of the interference yet?”
The Fervent was here because of massive subspace interference, the initial pulse having badly damage the trunk hypernode on Balamak. The fleet base there was one of the few strongholds yet to be attacked by the rebels, and its hyper relays were a key link in the Empire's command and control network. It was probably some kind of freak astronomical event, but the brass were having nightmares about a rebel super-weapon that could breach the Coruscant defences, so here they were.
“Yes sir, it's coming from a planet... point eight AU out, diameter about fifteen hundred km... Captain, it isn't in the database. That planet isn't supposed to be here.”
“You're certain?” Captain Glider stared at the nearest console, which was now repeating the same data. The survey teams couldn't have missed this, either the database was corrupted, or... could the planet have been cloaked somehow? Some kind of illusion? Imperial science could drag entire moons through hyperspace, but moving a planet this should be impossible. The longer he stared at the cloudy orange disc on the screen, the more unsettled he became. Even ignoring its inexplicable presence, there was something wrong about it, though he could not say what. Unfortunately General Brashin would not be satisfied with a long-distance scan.
“No signs of spacecraft or defence platforms? Planetary shields or surface weapons?”
“Negative, nothing apparent sir, but the inteference could be masking them.”
“Very well. Helm, plot a micro-jump to place us in high orbit, a quarter light second out. Flight Ops, prepare to launch scout TIEs. Gunnery, stand ready to engage.”
“Laid in sir, hyperdrive ready.”
“All operable batteries ready, sir.”
“Execute.”
A rumbling groan built up in the bowels of the ship as the FTL systems roused themselves again. Space twisted around the hull as the Fervent flashed briefly into tachyons, reappearing almost instantaneously above the unknown planet. Within seconds, every officer on the bridge was clutching at their head in agony. Captain Glider's eyes swam as he stared at the globe now filling the bridge windows. Some mental power was crushing the life out of his crew and there was precious little he could do to stop it.
“Targets? Where's it coming from?”
The young lieutenant at the sensor station was yowling incoherently. The Captain reached down and smacked him sharply on the head. “Lieutenant Tessun! Snap out of it!”
“Yes... sir... sir, nothing distinct, strange readings though... aaaah, the planet, there's something...”
A fresh wave of crushing pain coursed over the ship, and Captain Glider had to grab a support to remain standing. A sickly pink light was streaming in through the windows, the entire planet's clouds afire with something like sheet lightning.
“Helm! Jump us out of here, now!”
The helm officer struggled valiantly to set the navicomputer, blinking to clear the tears from her eyes as the waves of agony continued to build. Then she pounded the console in frustration.
“No good sir. The whole system is messed up.”
Captain Glider began to order a sub-light retreat but before he could utter another word the bridge was engulfed in blinding light. The titanic energies that had been building on the cursed world below finally broke free of their constraints, screaming outwards across space at superluminal speeds. The Fervent's shields could do nothing against this bizarre aberration of physics, and within microseconds the ship and all aboard her were reduced to a cloud of expanding plasma.
SDN City (formerly Imperial City), Sector Zero, 12 ABY
Emperor Wong stared out of the giant windows, looking down on the scarred cityscape that stretched to the horizon. Even here, at the heart of the new Empire the signs of the calamity were still present in abundance. Much of the rest of the planet was still a dangerous no-man's land of empty buildings and warring gangs. Despite their best efforts, a multitude of foul cults lingered in the countless dark crevices below the metropolis. Whole regions had been destroyed by warlords who had managed to get a warship or two operational. It had been a long, desperate struggle to establish some semblance of order, and Wong would die before he let that slip away.
No one knew the source of the catastrophe, but years of intelligence gathering had produced a pretty good picture of its effects. Almost 80% of the galaxy's sentient beings had been killed on that first day, nearly simultaneously across the whole of known space. Of those that remained, a majority had been driven insane, and those lucky enough to escape madness were left struggling with near-total amnesia. Technology had been affected too, many electronic systems had been completely fried and most of the remaining computer banks damaged or scrambled. Estimates of the death toll varied, but on the planets they had intel from over 99% of the population had died in the attack itself or the following riots, famines and civil wars. Many worlds had lost all semblance of technological civilisation, and most of the rest were dominated by warlords possessing the few remaining starships, tanks and combat droids.
The Emperor turned away from the window, facing his deputies and advisors arrayed around the giant circular table. Conversations stopped as the council waited for his address.
“This last year has seen plenty of disagreement in our ranks, between those of you who believe we should expand our influence across space, and those of you who would concentrate on rebuilding what we already control. With this latest intelligence, it is clear that we no longer have the luxury of choice. These cults are organised on an unprecedented scale. Their influence is already interstellar and every month more worlds fall under their influence. If we do not fight these fanatics, they will roll over us and condemn the whole galaxy to a dark age that could last millennia. Worse, they could even be the allies of whatever force inflicted the Decimation on us in the first place.”
Wong paused. The faces of the council showed a wide range of expressions, shock, elation, grim resignation. None attempted to challenge his words.
“Effective immediately, the Rationalist Empire is on a war footing. All our production capacity must be focused on expanding our space and ground forces. Recruiting must be stepped up ten fold. Our fleets will fan out, seizing every usable resource and fortifying worlds in the path of the cultist onslaught. Now, I will hear your suggestions as to our strategy.”
----
The Empire Needs You! Sign-ups open for capital ship captains, fighter squadron leaders, tank platoon commanders, planetary governors, even stormtrooper grunts...
The system was worthless, its K class star possessing a pair of unremarkable gas giants and a modest collection of airless rocks. In the millenia since it was first charted there had been the occasional mining operation and pirate base, but none had remained for long. Herkese was too close to the core for pirates to avoid Republic patrols, but too far for bulk metal extraction of to be worthwhile. The lumbering grey shape that seemed to spring into existence at the edge of the system was the largest interstellar visitor the system had seen in centuries.
At first glance the INS Fervent was an intimidating sight, at least for any pirates that might be lurking in this desolate volume of space. A Victory-II class destroyer of the Imperial Navy, her dagger-shaped bulk stretched for nearly a kilometre and was studded with scores of heavy gun turrets. Closer inspection revealed deep scars in the armoured hull and damage that put at least a third of her weapons out of action. As it began to accelerate, the ship left a faint sparkling trail.
“Port engine still leaking sir, we've locked down what we can, but we'll be down 25 percent thrust until we can make drydock. Honestly sir, that engine has never worked right, the concussion missiles just knocked out our patch jobs that made it seem usable.”
'If we ever do' thought Captain Glider morosely. The damned rebels had captured or destroyed a good third of the fleet's yards. They'd lost more to the foolish governors who'd had the gall to declare independence in the wake of the disaster at Endor. The few that remained were jammed full of shot-up cruisers and destroyers, and the Fervent wasn't at the top of anyone's priority list.
“Very well commander. Concentrate on shields and sensors. We'll need them if we run into a rebel flotilla. Dismissed.” The Captain paced back to the bridge pit, stopping over the long-range sensor station. “Do you have a fix on the source of the interference yet?”
The Fervent was here because of massive subspace interference, the initial pulse having badly damage the trunk hypernode on Balamak. The fleet base there was one of the few strongholds yet to be attacked by the rebels, and its hyper relays were a key link in the Empire's command and control network. It was probably some kind of freak astronomical event, but the brass were having nightmares about a rebel super-weapon that could breach the Coruscant defences, so here they were.
“Yes sir, it's coming from a planet... point eight AU out, diameter about fifteen hundred km... Captain, it isn't in the database. That planet isn't supposed to be here.”
“You're certain?” Captain Glider stared at the nearest console, which was now repeating the same data. The survey teams couldn't have missed this, either the database was corrupted, or... could the planet have been cloaked somehow? Some kind of illusion? Imperial science could drag entire moons through hyperspace, but moving a planet this should be impossible. The longer he stared at the cloudy orange disc on the screen, the more unsettled he became. Even ignoring its inexplicable presence, there was something wrong about it, though he could not say what. Unfortunately General Brashin would not be satisfied with a long-distance scan.
“No signs of spacecraft or defence platforms? Planetary shields or surface weapons?”
“Negative, nothing apparent sir, but the inteference could be masking them.”
“Very well. Helm, plot a micro-jump to place us in high orbit, a quarter light second out. Flight Ops, prepare to launch scout TIEs. Gunnery, stand ready to engage.”
“Laid in sir, hyperdrive ready.”
“All operable batteries ready, sir.”
“Execute.”
A rumbling groan built up in the bowels of the ship as the FTL systems roused themselves again. Space twisted around the hull as the Fervent flashed briefly into tachyons, reappearing almost instantaneously above the unknown planet. Within seconds, every officer on the bridge was clutching at their head in agony. Captain Glider's eyes swam as he stared at the globe now filling the bridge windows. Some mental power was crushing the life out of his crew and there was precious little he could do to stop it.
“Targets? Where's it coming from?”
The young lieutenant at the sensor station was yowling incoherently. The Captain reached down and smacked him sharply on the head. “Lieutenant Tessun! Snap out of it!”
“Yes... sir... sir, nothing distinct, strange readings though... aaaah, the planet, there's something...”
A fresh wave of crushing pain coursed over the ship, and Captain Glider had to grab a support to remain standing. A sickly pink light was streaming in through the windows, the entire planet's clouds afire with something like sheet lightning.
“Helm! Jump us out of here, now!”
The helm officer struggled valiantly to set the navicomputer, blinking to clear the tears from her eyes as the waves of agony continued to build. Then she pounded the console in frustration.
“No good sir. The whole system is messed up.”
Captain Glider began to order a sub-light retreat but before he could utter another word the bridge was engulfed in blinding light. The titanic energies that had been building on the cursed world below finally broke free of their constraints, screaming outwards across space at superluminal speeds. The Fervent's shields could do nothing against this bizarre aberration of physics, and within microseconds the ship and all aboard her were reduced to a cloud of expanding plasma.
SDN City (formerly Imperial City), Sector Zero, 12 ABY
Emperor Wong stared out of the giant windows, looking down on the scarred cityscape that stretched to the horizon. Even here, at the heart of the new Empire the signs of the calamity were still present in abundance. Much of the rest of the planet was still a dangerous no-man's land of empty buildings and warring gangs. Despite their best efforts, a multitude of foul cults lingered in the countless dark crevices below the metropolis. Whole regions had been destroyed by warlords who had managed to get a warship or two operational. It had been a long, desperate struggle to establish some semblance of order, and Wong would die before he let that slip away.
No one knew the source of the catastrophe, but years of intelligence gathering had produced a pretty good picture of its effects. Almost 80% of the galaxy's sentient beings had been killed on that first day, nearly simultaneously across the whole of known space. Of those that remained, a majority had been driven insane, and those lucky enough to escape madness were left struggling with near-total amnesia. Technology had been affected too, many electronic systems had been completely fried and most of the remaining computer banks damaged or scrambled. Estimates of the death toll varied, but on the planets they had intel from over 99% of the population had died in the attack itself or the following riots, famines and civil wars. Many worlds had lost all semblance of technological civilisation, and most of the rest were dominated by warlords possessing the few remaining starships, tanks and combat droids.
The Emperor turned away from the window, facing his deputies and advisors arrayed around the giant circular table. Conversations stopped as the council waited for his address.
“This last year has seen plenty of disagreement in our ranks, between those of you who believe we should expand our influence across space, and those of you who would concentrate on rebuilding what we already control. With this latest intelligence, it is clear that we no longer have the luxury of choice. These cults are organised on an unprecedented scale. Their influence is already interstellar and every month more worlds fall under their influence. If we do not fight these fanatics, they will roll over us and condemn the whole galaxy to a dark age that could last millennia. Worse, they could even be the allies of whatever force inflicted the Decimation on us in the first place.”
Wong paused. The faces of the council showed a wide range of expressions, shock, elation, grim resignation. None attempted to challenge his words.
“Effective immediately, the Rationalist Empire is on a war footing. All our production capacity must be focused on expanding our space and ground forces. Recruiting must be stepped up ten fold. Our fleets will fan out, seizing every usable resource and fortifying worlds in the path of the cultist onslaught. Now, I will hear your suggestions as to our strategy.”
----
The Empire Needs You! Sign-ups open for capital ship captains, fighter squadron leaders, tank platoon commanders, planetary governors, even stormtrooper grunts...
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