StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Soldier of the Imperium
Leighton White

(Disclamer-Warren Zevon wrote and sung Rolland the Headless Thompson Gunner)

ALL SOLDIERS PREPARE FOR COMBAT
ALL SOLDIERS PREPARE FOR COMBAT
ALL SOLDIERS PREPARE FOR COMBAT

Jackie ran down the Hallway until she reached the Armouring locker, along with dozens of other Marines. Those five chilling words were played over and over again across the Intercom. It was her forth drop, and the second one on this planet. Her squad, the Novan Nashers were prepping
for battle. She was in a mix of fear and excitement and was ready to do what was required of
her.

Like everyone else, she had to strip down to her undies to get the body suit on. A young man with a familiar voice let out two words quickly as he ran by Jackie’s changing alcove “Nice Ass”

Jacky got a bit mad, “Steve, consider yourself lucky that I...”

“You two, Cut that Shit out or I will personally take the butt of a rifle to both of your heads!”Lieutenant Zor yelled out, letting everyone know that there has been an argument “Now get those suits on and be Quiet about it!”

“Yes sir” She muttered while sticking her B.N.C. pants on. As she put on the rest of her battlegear, she grumbled a few things about the LT and Steve. Zor was ok, for an LT that is, If you managed to get through one mission without dying while doing a decent amount of damage,
you earned his respect. Before that, he is LT Zorian and after that, he’s Zor.

When she finished, she ran in her full battle suit to the armoury, grabbed a ZX-23 with grenade launcher, seven clips, a glidepack, grappler, a sword, a few hand grenades, a few needles and a pair of Demos. Her only thought was wether it would be enough to do the job and get her back up with a beating heart. At that moment, it was a pounding Jackhammer. She was the third on the Nasher’s E Room, Bill and Zor beat her. She knew that he was fast, Bill was the quickest person to get anything done in the entire squad, but you would never had guessed it by looking at his build, he was always “a tad overweight”. It was easier to believe that Zor had beaten her. Zor knew that there was a drop that day and when it was also. Jackie took a seat on the bench next to Bill. Zor stood up with his back to her, his hands holding themselves. The rest of the squad arived, Vaarok, Tailor, Steve, Arioch, Jax, Luke, Wong, Sam, Bio, Angus and Ted.

Within seconds after everyone got to the E Room, Zor sharply turned around with the inhuman turning speed reserved for Ballet Dancers, acrobats and Lieutenants. “TEN HUT!!” With those two short words, every soldier in the room stood up as erect as Humanly possible. Truth be told,
they would have done it with just the turn. A holographic globe appeared beside Zor and he began to pace back and forth. “Alright, Now those men up there at ComCon say that there is a Rumie armour Depot somewhere in this city” He pointed at a small speck on the Southern
Continent somewhere around the 50th parallel of Latitude “It’s been supplying weapons to a Rumie Guerilla force that has worked it’s way well into the city. Now our job is to do three things, one, Destroy the Ammo Depot, two, weed out any Rumies that we come across and Three, if possible capture one of them live for the Psi Ops. The Cowboys and Blood Drags will
provide a General killing attack to confuse those four armed sons of bitches, and we will look
like we’re on a General Killing attack.. DO YOU GET ME!?”

“WE GET YOU, SIR!”

Zor did something he Rarely did, cracked a grin “Ok men, Let’s give ‘em Hell!” With that, the whole squad ran into the open dropship hatch. There were two other Squads inside, the BDs and the Cowboys. Jackie strapped herself in, right between Zor and Tailor. The hatch closed. BANG!
An explosion went off in the distance, setting Jackie’s nerves on end. Seven seconds later BANG! another one, closer. Her nerves were jumping again even higher, then another BANG! Really close, her face went into shock for a second. BANG! loud, and accompanied by a sharp
jolt.

Buzzing filled her helmet “This is your friendly pilot speaking, we just separated from the Dublin and are now on an Express trip to hell. Please refrain from Breakfast blasting while aboard. Hope you enjoy your drop, and I really do hope we do this again, Over! Bsszzt!” Jackie and a few other of the Nashers found enough dark humour in herself to let out the faintest of giggles. Zor closed his eyes and began tapping his foot. Jackie was the first to take notice as he began to sing, but the rest were quick to follow.

“Roland was a Warrior, From the land of the midnight Sun,
Witha Thompson gun for Hire, Fighting to be Done.
The Deal was made in Den-mark, ona dark and Stormy day,
So he set out for Biafra to join the bloody fray.

Through Sixdy six and seven, They fought the Congo War,
Fingers on there Triggers, Knee Deep in Gore.
For days and Nights they battled the Batu to there knees,
They killed to ern there livin’, and to help out the Kongoesse.”

As he sang, The whole squad listened, LT Zor found singing relaxing and he was pretty damn
good.

“Roland the Thompson Gunner”

Jacky then decided to sing along “Roland the Thompson Gunner”

“His comrades fought beside ‘im, Van Owen and the Rest, But of all the Thompson Gunners, Roland was the best.So the CIA Desid...” Zor and Jacky were cut short by a Loud CLANK! and the Flash of Natural
light as the Hatch opened.

“Folks, This is your Friendly Pilot, you’ve arrived , now go outside and raise some hell for me.”

Zor responded “Get out of this Tub People!”with that, All three squads ran out to see the badly damaged city scape. The multi Kilometre tall sky scrapers had been pounded with rockets from the Drop podders during the first attack. Most of the Population had retreated outside the city. The Sewage system was busted. A handful of Nerve gas grenades had been tossed around. Those Drop podders were great when it came to crushing large numbers of well established enemies, buildings and causing general mayhem. Now it was time for the UC Marines to clean up the enemy forces that got into the nooks and crannies. The other two squads had already begun to Spider man and Squirrel there way across the city, shooting a few bullets in the air. Their mission was just to lay general chaos about.

“Arioch, Wong, Luke go north! Bill, Tailor, Jax will take the high ground and provide cover fireto anyone nearby. Bio, Ted, Angus and Sam will scout out! Me, Vaarok, Jacky and Steve will scower the low levels! If you see a Rumie, Shot it. If you can get it in the leg, do it. See a group
of them, Frag ‘em! Get in a tight scrape, use your adaptive to confuse ‘em, then shoot em! Set up Demo Charges at support beams with minute delays, that will get there notice or my name ain’t
Mike L. Zorian! Nashers Go!”

The Rest of the Squad followed Zor “NASHERS GO!” and they were off. Jackie, Steve, Vaarok and Steve then jumped off the ledge. Jacky could only say one word that she learned from her Highschool Mythology class.

“YEEHAW!”

Zor the looked at her with a Lieutenant’s grin “Damn Strait Private!” Zor pulled his ripcord, A pair of Synthetic wings came from his Glider pack and latched onto his arms. Half a second later, Jacky, Steve and Vaarok were gliding. It gave Jackie a good sharp jolt that unsettled her
stomach for a second, but it passed. She knew that it was better than the alternative. For a minute they glided down, then landed lightly. The wings were each a good 3 metres long. They retracted them, and set off on foot.

Down there it was pitch black, full of garbage with a knee deep pool of raw sewage. Their helmets protected them from foul odour and their IR systems made up for the lack of light. Not that it didn’t give you a bit of the Jumps. They slowly trudged through the crap. Moving in quick
bursts from cover to cover and they were always looking for something to shoot. They split up. and while they were no further than 300 metres from each other at all times, navigating the mess was no picnic. For seventeen minutes, Jackie and the gang saw nothing moving but Waste
Raiders and Night Flyers. Then Jackie heard grunting, a lot of grunting. She then peered her rifle muzzle ever so slowly from behind a building. Using her scope hook up she counted them and
then she heeded the words of her Drill Sargent, “Exhale, and Squeeze”. With that, a storm of Hyper velocity bullets filled the air for a second and then cut off. She hit her Radio “Jackie to
Zor”

“Yes Jackie?”

“Got five dead Rumies here. I think we should go North by North East. Lock onto my position and bring Vaarok and Steve with ya!”

“Jacky, soon I will have to obey your orders, Zor Out!”

Jacky knowing she had trouble coming, decided to load her Grenade launcher. She took out a Frag shell but just as she was about to put it in, it slid out from between her fingers. The words
‘Stupid me’ played through her head over and over again. As she knelt down to pick up the Grenade, THWACK! A bullet flew but a few centimetres over her head. A Rumar soldier had taken up a catwalk as a snipers point a few hundred metres away. Every hair on her head went on
end and she jumped into the Shit, and blasting away at the Rumaur while crawling around. While she did not hit that Son of a Bitch, she did prevent him from shooting at her. For the Next minute it was her blazing away at the Rumaur with her gun and the Rumaur trying to get a clean shot.
Then her clip went empty, and a rush of fear and stress went threw her. The Rumaur took notice and brought his rifle to bear, but just as he was about to pull the trigger, BAM! A flashbang grenade fired from her grenade launcher went off next to him. He fell down, stunned and
wiggling. She walked towards him, taped his hands together and turned on her radio. “Zor I got a Pris..”

“GRA’TAST!” a shrill, inhuman voice said, cutting her off. Jacky put her hands up in the air. She turned around and saw a pair of Rumaur soldiers pointing a pair of assault rifles at her. One of them walked towards her, then suddenly, they were torn to bits by automatic fire.

Her radio turned on “Private Steven Robertson to your rescue!”

“And Vaarok too!” Those two boys came out from behind an downed air car.

Jackie let out a relieved smile “Ok, you two, stop playing knight in power armour and get this stupid thing out of here.”

Vaarok smiled “Ok, Jackie” as he went to the taped Rumaur, Jabbed it with a trank and picked it
up.

“Zor, as I was saying, I have captured one of their soldiers.”

“Good Job, Jackie!” Zor replied over the Radio with much enthusiasm “One of these days, youwill get your own squad for this, and I just blew up about thirty crates of ammo and guns!Nasher’s fall back!” Jackie locked onto the Dropship’s co ordinates, pulled out her grappler
pistol, fired it up at a catwalk and retracted it. She was pulled right up to the catwalk, were she fired it again, Bukyfibre cables were always useful in these sentries. In seven minutes, she had
ascended 300 metres, and Steve and Vaarok were close behind. She began to Spiderman. She fired her cable at a beam or something, then flung herself on the cable a good 40 to 120 metres, After a few minutes she was at the dropship with the rest of the guys from the three other squads, save for Steve and Vaarok. A few seconds latter Vaarok landed right next to the Dropship and Steve did a second after Vaarok. Vaarok tossed the bound Rumaur to Zor, who picked him up and put him in the ship.

Jackie walked over and grabbed the two guys by the shoulder “When we get back, I am buying you two, beers!”

Vaarok smiled at Jackie “That is the best idea I’ve heard all day!”

Steve also Smiled “You’re the be...” A big THWACK! was heard. Steve collapsed, and Jacky Turned around and saw a Rumaur solder with a rifle pointed her. It seamed like it was the end. The Rumaur exploded into a yellow mess as Zor blasted it with his rifle. She looked at the
wound, a nasty blast into the Flesh. Blood was seeping out of the hole, he was alive, but knocked out. She strapped some tape onto the wound, and pulled him in.

On the way up, it was dreary, Zor did not sing and everyone just stood there. Vaarok was saying things like “Hold in there buddy” and “You will live to see another drop”. When they got back to the Dublin, Medical crews rushed him to sickbay, Vaarok at his side as they cut him out of his armour. Jacky just waited outside sickbay door, fiddling with her fingers and hoping for the best, waiting for the news. Vaarok was fearing the worst and Zor was banging his head against the door thinking. An hour latter, a Nurse came out with a grim look on her face.

“I am sorry” she said with an ashamed tone of voice. “We did all we could, it just was not enough.” With that, Vaarok broke to tears. He had been friends with Steve since day one of the
academy.

Jackie walked into the sickbay, and towards the lifeless body that was Steve. “You’re right Steve,” She muttered while tears gathered in her eyes “I do have a nice ass.” She then kissed him lightly on his forehead, and walked away.

Initialy I thought it was a Soldiers of the Sovereignity ripoff when Shroom showed it to me.

As for the title - I suggest you change the word "Imperium", since when I saw the headline I first thought it was a 40K fanfic.

History

During the last pair of decades of the First Century, all of the second century and the first half of the third century AT (after Tranquility, current year being 35 AT) the Terran race finally expanded off Terra to all the other planets in sol system. Even sent off a few Slower than Light colony ships towards Alpha Centari, Tau Ceti, Wolf 359 and any star system with confirmed planets within 20 light-years of Sol system on ships capable of .2 c. While the colonists slepted in there Cryogenic pods, Life in sol system went on relatively well, until 276 AT.

In 276 AT, a Southern African Coalition warship fired on a United American warship in orbit of Saturn, the result was a fleet wide mobilization of all spacefleets and the dawn of the Sol System war. It lasted until 279 and at the end 5.72 billion people were killed (With an estimated 67 Million to die from radiation, biological weapons, landmines and other such things after the war). All major nations on terra were whipped out as well as many of the smaller ones. The offworld colonies in sol system divided into world governments (Republic of Eruopa, Democratic Titan, ext.). Famine, crime, violence and other problems were common on post war earth. Those who were rich enough to afford it had crewed antimatter drive modules attached to old in system ships (witch were in no short supply) and fired towards other stars carrying loads of passengers who had to pay threw there nose for tickets. Despite the fact that at least 1 of 7 of these craft exploded due to containment failure, 37 million people left sol system for greener pastures in 30 years. By 340, over 650 million had left sol system.

In 303 AT, 35 nations (4 of witch were among the 10 most powerful at the time) allied into a coalition to bring military and economic stability to a damaged world, United Democratic Imperium (UDI). Starting in 332, this alliance began pressuring nations into the UDI. Nations that did not submit to Imperial authority were attacked and declared Imperial Territory. By 392, all of Terra had either been conquered or joined the UDI. This was the first time that terra had been unified under one government, and the UDI was renamed the Terran Imperium. The Imperium began to build up a powerful star navy and began to expand off of earth. They gave out the same “join us or be conquered” message and there fleet informed it. Any world that joined became a member, and was given the ability to administrate its affairs to some degree and was given the ability to vote on the imperial council, if they did not join, they were made into colonies. A colony is ruled by a council of 29 administrators appointed by the state given a constitution and only municipal governments were democratic. Fleets of STL starships were sent out towards the extra solar colonies and beyond. 376 AT had brought the entire solar system brought under imperial rule. They could not expand their borders beyond Sol system. The flow of Humans out of sol system stopped after the Imperium gained complete control of everything in sol system besides a few hundred thousand people living on nomadic ships in the Kiepler belt.

Meanwhile the refugees that left sol after the Sol System war began to settle on the extra solar colonies, They brought tails of the damage and of the growing Imperium. In the end, over 825 million people left Sol system. Planets who’s population were less than a million increased to 40 million in just three decades. The cities grew and new ones were made.

In 431, the Europan Scientist Homer Mikasoto proved the existence of Hyperspace, in 447, he shocked the Imperium with the development of an invention that had until that point been restricted to startrek and other sci fi things, the Graviton Coil. While the prototype graviton coil weighed 2 tons and could only exert 0.000001 Gs of gravity, it was an important development. Mikasoto also said that a concentrated graviton pulse could allow Hyperspace tunneling as a form of FTL travel. The Imperium offered the Zephram Cochrane prize; anyone who could make Hyperdrive practical would be given 3 billion imperial credits. In 463, The first Atom was sent threw Hyperdrive and fell out .3 AU away from the acceleator. In 554, a 450 Meter tested ship named the Millenium Falcon under the command of it’s inventor Karen Arioch was launched, performing a Hyperdrive jump, making a 13 AU jump in 4 minutes. She was awarded the 3 billion Credits and the Imperial navy ordered the Construction of Hyperdrive capable ships. A scout ship named the Enterprise (in honor of Startrek) was dispatched to explore space and what those extra solar colonies had been up to. She was launched on 555 and arrived at Tau Ceti Colony in 556. This caused the Tau Cetians to develop there own fleet of warships, as well as the other systems when the Enterprise visited them. The Terran Imperium began building a fleet of Hyperspace capable warships. In 558, the First Imperial interstellar Fleet was ready, and launched towards Tau Ceti with orders to bring them under imperial rule. When they got there, they faced a fleet of warships and numerous minefields, planetary Missile launchers and defense platforms. The Population of Tau Ceti was at the time 1.2 billion, and they had many old ships to refit, as well as a sizable Sublight shipbuilding base. The Imperial warfleet was outnumbered three to one, but had the advantage of superior technology. For 5 years, the Imperial expansionary force held a stalemate, holding Tau Ceti 7 as a fleet base. Then the second Imperial Interstellar Fleet arrived, witch allowed them to crush the Cetian armada, and once the Imperial Flagship “Guardian of Freedom” was in high orbit of Tau Ceti 2, the Cetian Parliament was a bit more diplomatic with the Imperium and exepted as an Imperial Member world.

The Imperium began expanding across the colonies, Epsilon Indi, Ross 154, 82 Eridani and other colonies further out were hit by the imperial star navy. While early Hyperdrive travel was slow, taking up to 8 months to make the trip between Terra and Tau Ceti II (Foundation), it did allow the Imperium to move between stars faster than anything that the colonists had. By 600 AT, three systems (Sol not counted) were under Imperial army. While it may seem as a slow growth, one must consider the number of rebels that came up who resisted the Rule of the Terran Imperium. They put up a tough fight against the Imperium, despite using mostly STL ships and Gunpowder based handweapons made from junk. They hid in oort clouds and in cities, were always moving and had a large number of Spies, Secret intelligence transfer systems and Hackers. Once they even managed to take over the Cruiser “Oliver Cromwell” in 589. They were a pain in the side of both the Imperial army and Star navy, and the imperial navy had a shoot on sight policy on any identified Rebel ship. The Imperial navy still had by far the advantage in numbers, training and Technology though.

In 691, the Imperium had conquered all the Human colonies, and Hyperdrive technology had expanded to the point were Terran ships could travel at 73 times the speed of light. The Imperial warfleet set upon the goals of destroying rebels and conquering worlds for Colonization. The terran imperial Sphere expanded, and the Imperium conquered primitive species. The Rebels continued to exist, but they had to become more and more creative, well informed and quicker. The Imperium Did not encounter any race of threat, the Squidies, L'con, Drosh, Night Troopers and Nor’tos were all below Tech level 8 and did not pose any real opposition. For 54 years, the Imperium just rolled over 19 worlds.

In 745, the Imperium made first contact with the Drejet Republic, this was the first time the Imperium was faced with a superior race, the Drejet held 42 star systems under there rule and possessed superior technology. The Imperium began trading with the Drejet Republic and the Terran Imperium.

In 763, a Squadron of seven imperial cruisers of the 5th fleet 41 LY from Sol was destroyed. A scout craft (the Mongomery Scott) was sent out to investigate with a destroyer for escort, the Destroyer was destroyed, the Mongomery Scott was a bit better off, it returned to Vega IV (Nova Terra) being held together by a combination of Cargo Containers, Crewed arch welding and Emergency tape. She brought sensor schematics of many different classes of ships, All alien and all armed to the teeth.

Wow, this history reads almost exactly like mine, with solar colonies, lost colony ships, and a war that devastates earth.

Interesting stuff.

Front and Center Recruits! Time for your breifing on Imperial UC (Urban Combat) Equipment!

History of UC forces

Starting around 130 AT, Cities began to take on modern aperance, Skyscrapers became the Norm, not the anomaly. Cities were built Upwards. The result was that combat by infantry was far less likely to take place on the Ground, and more likely to be done in the Buildings. This required a new type of soldier, one that was able to move from building to building quicky, and be able to skip between buildings. Six hundred years latter, the role of UC soldiers has stayed the same.

Suit-The Delta Seven UC suit is a UC's soldier's best freind. It is a weapon, a vehicle, eyes and ears and armor rolled up into a nice little 80 KG pacage. It comes in three layers.

The first layer is a skintight body suit that covers everything save for the head. This has thousands of pressure sensitive pads on it and weighs a mere 120 Grams.

The Second layer composes most of the weight at 50 KGs, it covers everything save for the head. It is composed of millions of interwoven microscopic cables that can collaps on themselfs. They are controlled by a Centrol AI and are resposive to the imput fed into them by. These enhance the strenght of the soldier considerably, Allowing a soldier to pick up 300 KGs of stuff. Its Put on Pants first, then chest covering, then arm covering. Its also disigned to be next to invisable to IR sensors.

The Third layer is a bunch of stratigicly placed Nano Composit plates for armor. They are Durrable enugh to resist fire from Cemicly Propelled Bullets and srapnel, The helmet carries a series of Sensors, a Head Lamp similer to that of a twentith century Miner, this connects to a HUD. The Helmet provides full NBC protection.

Also, there is a network of Fiber optics and cameras that cause the soldier to blend into his suroundings by projecting a series of images. This is called Adaptive Camoflauge, and (Presuming the soldier keeps movement to a minimum) can turn the soldier invisable.

ZX-23 Assault Rifle-This 75.3 Cm long weapon is the standerd armament to all UC marines. It weighs 3.2 KGs Unloaded, and 3.65 KGs Loaded. Its ammo is 3.2 by 12.5mm caseless Diamond tipped ammo with a mussle velosity of 4,300 meters per second. It has a scope that derectly jacks in to the Suit's HUD, Enhancing targeting. It has three settings, 3 round burst, Spray and Pray and Single shot. The clips carry 100 rounds of ammo due to the small bullet size, and are Verticly mounted. Effective range on Single shot, 950 meters and 675 on Three round burst. It is based on Magnetic Acceleration, and as sucth has no mussleflash and Produces little sound when fired.

X-377 Grenade Launcher-This underslung weapon is a 35mm breach loading grenade launcher. It fires four types of grenades, Frag/White Pettie grenades, EMP grenades, Flashbangs and Nerve Gas. Range 425 meters.

More to come

S-22 Grapler gun-The S-22 is a Weapon, a lenghtend arm and a Vehicle to a UC marine rolled up into a nice pacage, its 45cm long and weighs 1.5 KGs. It launches a small projecile propelled by an ellectric jet engine with a muzzle velosity of 150 meters per second. It is connected to the gun by a buckyfibre cable 85 meters long that can retract at a rate of 150 meters a second on it's own, and at 30 M/S with a trooper on it. It's used to pull a trooper up a building, to Spiderman and to rip the gun out of a Enemy soldier's hands.

Crap about the Imperium

The Terran Imperium is not a Perfect place to live, but it aint a Massive Dystopia either. Its a world with it's good fetures and it's bad ones, wicth makes for a most intresting world to live in.

First of all, there are still Murders, Rape, theifs and pycopaths out there. How ever, they have been tonned down. Everyone in the Imperium has a implant somewere in there body called a tag. These serve as a tracking method for people who commit crimes, as well as a way of capturing people.

Second of all, It's a sex craised universe. They have an attatude towards sex that would make all modern fundies go into an insane fit. Condoms are provided free by the government, and many STDs have cures. Erodic statues are commenplace next to Libraries and Univercities, and Sex education is Manditory on all schools, even privet ones.

Third, 97% of the Imperium's Population is Atheist, Prodastitisim is down to 200 members and Judaism has become the Predominant Judio Christian Religion (the most commen religion is Buddism). Mainstream Attatude towards Religion is basicly "Let it exist, just keep those Idiotic Fundies from power".

Fourth-The Idea that people should not Play god is considerd Idiotic first Century AT Religious Regresive thinking at it's worst. Humans are totaly willing to geneticly enhance there children, and people that have things sucth as Gills, Extra arms, Feline like ears (this one being quite mundane) and even Vampires exist (offshot of some Bizzare cult). Offshots speices of Humanity include Aquaticans (Similer to Mer People), Arborials (monkey People) and Antros (also a cult offshoot). They also use advanced Surgical Prossedures to create intresting things, sucth as Anime people, people who donate there bodies to become Living breathing artwork and other sucth things.

Fifth-The Pop Culture of Today has become Mythology. People are taught Star Wars in Highschool as modern students are taught Shakespere. They actuly built fuctional (But ajusted to actuly work using there technology) Milenium Falcons, TCS Tigerclaws, Enterprises and even a full scale Star Destroyer. After all, the 3 billion doller Hyperdrive award was called the Zephram Chocrane award.

Sixth-They don't speek English in the Imperium (Unless you study it in collage or something), They Speek imperial, wicth is a Mixture of English, american Slang, Russian, German and a bit of Japanese.

Been doing some addision to SotI, will post soon.