Spacewolf

[Isolder74]

I now have a web site dedicated to this story at Spacewolf Central and the Fleet Command Page is complete! go there to see pictures and stats of the Earth Defense Force's fleet units. And for a special treat try to find the Secret Hanger!!!

[Frank LLoyd Wright]

finder's seeker's hunnt hunt hunt
your in for a treat at this web page link hunt
enjoy the pics enjoy the sights
watch real careful it is not a hummdinger
find the secret hanger

[Isolder74]

finder's seeker's hunnt hunt hunt
your in for a treat at this web page link hunt
enjoy the pics enjoy the sights
watch real careful it is not a hummdinger
find the secret hanger

so you are a poet too now?

[Frank LLoyd Wright]

finder's seeker's hunnt hunt hunt
your in for a treat at this web page link hunt
enjoy the pics enjoy the sights
watch real careful it is not a hummdinger
find the secret hanger

so you are a poet too now?

i try i really do
thanks for the complement

[Isolder74]

finder's seeker's hunnt hunt hunt
your in for a treat at this web page link hunt
enjoy the pics enjoy the sights
watch real careful it is not a hummdinger
find the secret hanger

so you are a poet too now?

i try i really do
thanks for the complement

so do you think i should post the chapter 2 as it is so far to test the waters

[Col. Crackpot]

so you are a poet too now?

i try i really do
thanks for the complement

so do you think i should post the chapter 2 as it is so far to test the waters

ummm yea you should! sheesh! between you and stravo you could drivve a man to drink from the waiting and waiting....lol

[Isolder74]

ummm yea you should! sheesh! between you and stravo you could drivve a man to drink from the waiting and waiting....lol

Yes I am rather good at the cliffhanger scene endings. Rest assured I am working on the story. If I post what is done right now some of the details are not quite finished. meanwhile you can got to my new web site to look at some of my art work. coming soon to the web site is a image of a Orthropataran worker(un colored right now) I think it will go up after i post the first part of chapter 2 in this thread. The finished work will be placed in Spacewolf(cleaned up) when the entire chapter is complete. I will warn you what is writen so far will have you on the edge of your seat.

[Isolder74]

Chapter Two
The Swarm Returns


"This emergency cabinet meeting of The Republic Of Planet Earth is called to order. Even though we have just helped the Vegans yesterday in a very decisive victory in orbit of their planet, there are matters that need to be discussed. This station is now armed with the best weapons available but, if the Orthropatarians attack us, at this time, we will still be faced with annihilation because the station is not strong enough to withstand their swarms. Marshal Rodin and Captain Zimmerman of the Vegan Defense Council are here to report their findings up to this point. Unfortunately Commander Abrams is recovering from wounds he received in the battle as he barely escaped from Alpha Base when it went down. Also the crew of the Spacewolf fighter is here to give the battle from their point of view. --Marshal Rodin--"
The Marshall placed a disk into the table and a holo-display of the Vegan Defense System appeared. Red areas flashed on and off indicating areas damaged in the attack including all three shuttle basses and showing a large hole in the outer satellite network near Gamma base.
"Gentlemen, I have headed the Vegan Defense Council for almost forty years. And in all that time I have never seen anything like these beings. I can see why you would name them after the Terran locust. They do have capabilities that make them deadly but their threat is their seemingly endless numbers. Though we can't yet confirm the numbers, during the 5 min battle we destroyed over two million Orthropatarian units. Unfortunately, we lost all of our orbital shuttle platforms in the engagement as well as 2800 assault shuttles, which was almost the entire legal treaty force. Also, our outer satellite net is now at under 50% Strength. Capt. Zim, please."
Zim stepped up to the table and inserted a disk into the reader slot and the holo-projector came to life. In the center of the room appeared a recreation of the Orthropatarian's main fighter unit sighted during the battle. It resembled a river-smoothed flat rock. It was tear-dropped shaped with a long conical nose mounted on the tip of the tear-drop shape. Just behind the nose cone a spherical window showed where the cockpit of the vehicle was located.
"I am the Vegan Head of Orbital Strategic Operations, and the Attack Shuttle Wing Commander. I have the good fortune of being one of the shuttle pilots to survive the attack. This is in no way connected to my own ability or prowess; hundreds of men died to save my life. As you can see from this image, the 'Orthropatarians' as you call them have ships that are heavily armed for being just 25 meters long with an 18 meter wingspan. They have 27 laser cannons and four missile launchers. Their ships travel at speeds up to 40% of the speed of light which is just over 50% slower than our assault shuttles, and this may serve as a weakness. They also apparently have a type of hive mind as they perform better when attacking a single target as a group than they do engaging multiple targets. This is why that I feel that our defensive satellite network performed as well as it did. The lack of weapons on our orbital platforms cost us hundreds of valuable lives. --Stardust--"
"You know me as 'Stardust' but my name is registered as Simon Skyhawk, but you can call me Ace. I would like to say for the record that I think the Vegan satellite net is second to none. I was very impressed."
He pressed a button on the table and the image changed to a image of the giant command ship. It looked like a large metal encased potato with a pair of sickles placed next to one another forming a crescent-like object extending from the front of the thing. Inside this crescent, what appeared to be a small three-nosed attack ship was attached to the center of the crescent-like protrusion on the front. The image rotated slowly making seem even more menacing.
"In the battle, it seems to me that the enemy's entire command structure is based around a single ship. Nothing we did seemed to make much of a difference until we attacked the large 'command' ship. When that ship was destroyed the attack stopped completely. We are still unsure what the objects on the front are or what their purpose is. Any Questions."
"Mr James Woodbury, Republic Secretary-of-War."
"Marshal, are you sure that they have really retreated? It seems hard to believe that they would just run away after just one heavy unit was destroyed." Woodbury queried.
"Mr George Sagan, Republic Secretary-of-Education."
"Well sir, if they truly have some kind of a hive mind based on technology or even biology the destruction of the control unit could result in the breakup of the entire chain." Sagan Injected.
"As far I am aware they have not returned. If you value my opinion I don't think that they will for a while. I am sure that it will take some time for them to regroup after the loss of such an important a vessel and so many fighter craft." Responded Marshal Rodin.
"And all of our long range scans have failed to detect any more of them in the staging area we detected on the outer edge of our system." Added Zim.
President McCleary rose, and faced his cabinet and queried. "Are there any other questions gentlemen?"
"Yes, Ace, if my analysis of the flight recorders is correct then isn't it true that the destroyed 'command ship' used a self-destruct mechanism after taking crippling damage and most of said ship's crew escaped unharmed?" Inquired James Woodbury.
"As far as I could tell from the cockpit that was true. I am afraid that I was not able to review the tapes I just know what my sensor panels were reading and that definitely wasn't enough damage to destroy the gigantic starship. It's lucky they did self-destruct as we had used our last MOWL unit on board leaving us without missile defense. As for the crew, I did see several small craft escaping the ship as it exploded." Responded Ace.
"I think that I should begin negotiating with the Taurusan Ambassador to allow both the Vegans and the Taurusans to have a larger force of attack shuttles and to build armed orbital installations. Obviously, one of the things that saved the planet was the Vegan's secret force of attack shuttles. Now if we can just get past the treaty violation part and get them to see the desperation of the Vegan's position we might get some results. We may even be able to convince them to build fighter-class ships like the Spacewolf." Opined the Secretary-Of-State, Daniel Sutton.
"That can be discussed later, the point I was trying to make was that it is highly likely that most if not all of the crew of the 'command ship' was able to escape. This means that the leaders, hive mind or not, survived the battle. And we are not sure how many of these ships they have. This means that they could attack again in weeks and I doubt that the Vegans could survive another attack like the last one." Responded Jim Woodbury.
"Even though I think it is a waste of energy, I have ordered our entire defense system to be on full alert until further notice. And all of our remaining assault shuttles are running on six hour shifts so that we have a full force on patrol at all times." Responded Rodin, "I think we will be able to hold our own now that we know what to expect. After all this is the first time we have fought beings with starjump technology. All of our defense plans prior to this attack were for an possible attack from Taurus, I think it is about time that we finally put aside our petty personal squabbles"
"And we are at this time studying the hulks of the Orthropatarian ships in our labs on Vega." Added Zim.
<Buzzing on the President's panel>
"Yes, this had better be important"
"Uh, I have a priority call for Marshal Rodin from Vega. They said its extremely urgent."
"May I take it in the your office, Mr. President?"
"Go ahead, we'll hold the meeting until your done."
"What do you think the call is about, Mr. President?" Asked Ace.
"You got me. But I think it might be a good idea to have the deck crews warm up the Spacewolf." Responded the President, "Docking bay 321, have the deck crews prep the Spacewolf immediately!" He said pressing a button on the desk in front of him.
The marshal enters the room with a worried look on his face. "We've got a problem, President McCleary, the Vegan Defense Ministry just called. They have detected small rocky satellites in orbit of the Vegan system. Zim, should we despatch some of our fighters to investigate?"
"That would be prudent. But they need to be cautious, we don't know if these objects are armed. Ace, do you think the Spacewolf would be useful in this situation. If these aliens think that Vega is Earth, it might be useful to keep up the deception. They may be expecting the ship to show up." asked Zim.
"Sounds like a good idea to me." Ace responded, than turning to Nova and Supernova he said. "Alright guys, lets get out of these monkey suits and into our flight gear. Mr President could we be excused, I'd like to check into those satellites." Responded Ace.
"Permission granted, Ace, give us a full report when you get back." The President responded.
"So they now have spy satellites. Now do you see my point, Gentlemen. These aliens seem to be full of surprises." Jim Woodbury interjected hotly, "I think we need to accelerate our ship building programs; I don't feel that fighters and shuttles will be enough for our defense."
"In light of these new developments I move that we suspend the meeting until Ace gets back and can give us his report."
"I second the motion"
"Done, this meeting is adjourned until 15:00."


The Planet Vega gleamed in the sunlight as did the mountains of debris surrounding it. In the midst of the debris hordes of freighters and construction craft weaved in and out of the rubble frantically trying to repair the damage caused by the battle. Moving through the debris hundreds of attack shuttles flew in four ship formations. As if they had been stung by a bee they all turned toward the outer orbits of the system. As they activated their landing lights a myriad of small balls of rock seemed to appear out of nowhere. To the sides of these extended delicate solar panels that looked like dragonfly wings. They drifted through space in random spacing.
"Flight Leader to command center."
"This is the command center, proceed."
"I'm surprised the sensors even picked these things up. They barely even show up on my scanners and I'm almost on top of 'em. How did you detect 'em?"
"We didn't, Corpsman Thompson crashed into one of them. Pull in closer and see if you can get some good pictures of one of them. Don't get too close though, they might be armed."
"Roger, moving in now, data feed activated. Are you getting this?"
"We"re getting the feed, recording now."
"They seem to be made of material similar to stony meteorites or asteroids. If not for the solar panels they would be indistinguishable from space debris. How did they get here?"
"They must have been dropped during the battle. We have detected none of the energy signatures from their Starjump devises. And no Hyperrifts except Earth Stargate Traffic, either. Move in closer, the readings aren't detailed enough."
"Copy that control, any word from the Marshall?"
"He says sit tight, and be cautious Earth is sending a scouting party also."
"Do you want these things eliminated?"
"Not at this time, just keep a eye--"
"Wait, something is happening! The center of the closest object is opening!"
"Pull out now, Lieutenant!"


In orbit of the greenish-brown planet of Orthropataria several dozen massive asteroid ships hovered menacingly. . The Battle Moon that they used to fit out the massive ships could be seen off in the distance. Like all of their spacecraft, the Battle Moon was carved out of the planet's second moon. It had a gigantic iris-like door on one side near the center. The moon bristled with gun emplacements and large turrets could be seen all over the moon. Behind it millions of fightercraft of various sizes drifted in an artificial ring surrounding the planet.
One of the many command ship's lights suddenly came to life. Many small craft appeared right next to the ship and docked with it. Followed shortly by thousands of small fighter craft. The fighters descended towards the planet while the command ship continued to hang in orbit. On the inside, a buzz of activity begin as the ship activated. Near the aft of the ship a large domed window lite up as the main command center came to life. Inside the giant room the Emperor Sage and his attendants discussed the recent engagement. As they talked dozens of screens came to life all around them showing both the Vegan Attack shuttles and the Spacewolf fightercraft.
"We have never been defeated! This is inexcusable! I want the head of the creature who dared attack my Hive Ship!" The Emperor Sage Fumed, his large compound eyes glistening with rage.
"My Lord, they damaged the repeater, our fighter's built in safeties sent them home before their connection to the hive could collapse. The lesser Sages lost with the hive ship will be replaced. We will strike back, we just need a good plan. I have already sent observation satellites to the system. In the chaos of the retreat they shouldn't be detected. They should give us the information we need to destroy these creatures"
The Emperor Sage's Chief Underling responded, bowing with all four of his hands pressed together in front of his chest. His multi-colored wings glistened as he did so, but they paled in comparison to the opulent wings of the Emperor Sage. The rainbow-colored wings seamed to overshadow all others as they sparkled brilliantly. The wings of the Emperor Sage, as with all his other attendants, crowned his back like a proud display of Peacock feathers. As he moved on his throne the sections of the wings changed color from brilliant reds to glistening greens then shifting to fiery yellows. As with all Orthropatarians, the Emperor Sage's face resemble that of a giant blowfly but his carapace glistened emerald green and sparkled like it was imbedded with jewels while all of the others had a drab brownish color. His compound eyes had a fiery reddish color and looked like a large group of rubies. In the center of the large hexagonal room his throne stood on a large elevated platform from which he could see everything that transpired in the room as well as see out of the gigantic dome covering the room. Below thousands of lesser sages were running from consol to consol jumping into chairs and small pits next to them. There was no apparent sense of order in their movements as they scurried about.
"Activate the satellites," ordered the Emperor Sage, "We must know what those abominations are up to."
All around him thousands of consoles came to life as one by each data feed started to come in immediately showing in almost every one the buzz of activity on Vega. In about half of the screens the bright landing lights of Vegan Attack Shuttlecraft panned back and forth across the screen obscuring the visuals. On one screen the satellite was obviously spinning erratically as if it had been hit by something. The Vegan ship's delta wings glimmered as did the missiles on the wings and wingtips. They had dropped their landing gear in order to use their landing lights. The Emperor Sage studied the screens carefully with a look of shock as he realized that the satellites had already been detected.
"You indicated that they should not be able to be detected!" He fumed, "We must exterminate these creatures before they further sully the galaxy with their presence. Do not act until you find that thing that attacked my hive ship. I want it's pilot's head on a spike! Is that understood?"
"Yes, M'Lord, we are searching for it now. It is suspicious that we have not seen it yet. This planet may not be their true homeworld. I will endeavor to begin further analysis of their starjump signatures. Even though all ships that entered our system came from here, that does not mean this is their homeworld. Their defenses are strong M'Lord which lends credence to this being a species homeworld. There is also heavy traffic to a planetary system only a few light-years away from this world." The Commander Sage responded, bowing.
"Really, Send a scouting party to determine if it is a viable candidate for these Human's homeworld. From the looks of the images from the satellites this other world will have repaired the damage we inflicted is 6 hours. There must be someplace we can more easily exterminate first. The planet is much too fortified! It doesn't make sense, there must be someone else nearby that they are at some type of war with. This could be to our advantage. If there is any place with similar defenses nearby then it would safe to assume they would not help one another." The Emperor Sage mused. "Find them and perhaps we can incite their war to a new fury."

[Isolder74]

Enjoy everyone!

[Isolder74]

Spacewolf Central

Added some information about the Orthropatarans to my web site.

[Glare]

Chapter Two
The Swarm Returns


"This emergency cabinet meeting of The Republic Of Planet Earth is called to order. Even though we have just helped the Vegans yesterday in a very decisive victory in orbit of their planet, there are matters that need to be discussed. This station is now armed with the best weapons available but, if the Orthropatarians attack us, at this time, we will still be faced with annihilation because the station is not strong enough to withstand their swarms. Marshal Rodin and Captain Zimmerman of the Vegan Defense Council are here to report their findings up to this point.

Hey I'm not a vegan... I'm a carnivore dammit!!! My ancestors did not claw their way up the food chain to become another prey species

Never thought I'd be a Captain in someones fanfic and that by accident Good going so far.

[Isolder74]

Chapter Two
The Swarm Returns


"This emergency cabinet meeting of The Republic Of Planet Earth is called to order. Even though we have just helped the Vegans yesterday in a very decisive victory in orbit of their planet, there are matters that need to be discussed. This station is now armed with the best weapons available but, if the Orthropatarians attack us, at this time, we will still be faced with annihilation because the station is not strong enough to withstand their swarms. Marshal Rodin and Captain Zimmerman of the Vegan Defense Council are here to report their findings up to this point.

Hey I'm not a vegan... I'm a carnivore dammit!!! My ancestors did not claw their way up the food chain to become another prey species

Its Veg-an, not V-EE-gan. as in someone from the Star System of Vega(Greek) not a Complete Vegetarian. I know they are spelled the same!

Never thought I'd be a Captain in someones fanfic and that by accident Good going so far.

Funny how small the world is. Did I get the spelling right too? It would be real wierd if your first name is Thomas too!

[Glare]

I know the difference between the 2, just pulling your leg mate. As to the spelling, it's spot on but my first names Mark, not Thomas - sorry.But hey 1 outta 2 isn't bad, especially when it's a shot in the dark. Looking forward to the next chapter (tomorrow right?)

[Isolder74]

I know the difference between the 2, just pulling your leg mate. As to the spelling, it's spot on but my first names Mark, not Thomas - sorry.But hey 1 outta 2 isn't bad, especially when it's a shot in the dark. Looking forward to the next chapter (tomorrow right?)

Chapter 2 is not quite finished yet but I am working on it. BTW have you been to my web site yet?

PS I Know just making sure no one gets the wrong idea.

[Frank LLoyd Wright]

Don't wait too long to post a teser or there may be a mob in cyberspace
of static wielding bits and bites.

[Isolder74]

Don't wait too long to post a teser or there may be a mob in cyberspace
of static wielding bits and bites.

Huh?

[Luke Starkiller]

Don't wait too long to post a teser or there may be a mob in cyberspace
of static wielding bits and bites.

Oh what a horrible pun.

[Isolder74]

Added The Republic of Planet Earth Page to my web site Spacewolf Central only basic information is up right now.

[Eaglewood]

I enjoyed the story, Isolder. There's too few original stories floating out there. Finding one that is well written is a gem.

I looked over your website, Isolder, and I would like to provide 2 things to feedback on.

First, 4.5 trillion people Humans in 175 years? That's somewhat unrealistic.

If there's 100 colonies for Earth, then it might be realistic, but it's unlikely Humans will have a total population of 4.5 trillion in 175 years from now, both in real life, and most fan-fic's. Unless we transform ourselves into a hive-like mentality, build arcologies everywhere, and families have 10 kids per family.

There's the problem of food and resource consumption for a populace that large. Cities on Earth would have to have towers 2 or 3 miles tall to house even 100 billion people on the planet.

Besides you stated that the "Bugs" have about 30 billion. That doesn't jive, since most insects can outpopulate humans. Perhaps you should change 30 billion "Bugs" to 30 Trillion "Bugs". It'd make much more sense for an insectoid species.

Have you seen ants swarm over an area? Or giant 30 foot ant-hills capable of millions of ants right here on Earth? Having 100 times as many Humans than Insectoids or "Bugs" would make the Humans the insects, not the Orthonoids. Humans would be swarming all over the Orthonoids, not the other way around.


Basically, my suggestion would be this: 200 billion Humans, and 30 trillion Orthonoids. This would support the "Endless Swarm" depicted in the story, and the threat level would be more believable with an overwhelming proportion of "Bugs" to Humans. It isn't believable the other way around.
Since when does Humans out-reproduce or out-populate insect species on Earth, such as locusts or ants?

Again, these are just feedback, not slamming you or anything. Keep up the originality!

[Isolder74]

I enjoyed the story, Isolder. There's too few original stories floating out there. Finding one that is well written is a gem.

I looked over your website, Isolder, and I would like to provide 2 things to feedback on.

First, 4.5 trillion people Humans in 175 years? That's somewhat unrealistic.

If there's 100 colonies for Earth, then it might be realistic, but it's unlikely Humans will have a total population of 4.5 trillion in 175 years from now, both in real life, and most fan-fic's. Unless we transform ourselves into a hive-like mentality, build arcologies everywhere, and families have 10 kids per family.

There's the problem of food and resource consumption for a populace that large. Cities on Earth would have to have towers 2 or 3 miles tall to house even 100 billion people on the planet.

Besides you stated that the "Bugs" have about 30 billion. That doesn't jive, since most insects can outpopulate humans. Perhaps you should change 30 billion "Bugs" to 30 Trillion "Bugs". It'd make much more sense for an insectoid species.

Have you seen ants swarm over an area? Or giant 30 foot ant-hills capable of millions of ants right here on Earth? Having 100 times as many Humans than Insectoids or "Bugs" would make the Humans the insects, not the Orthonoids. Humans would be swarming all over the Orthonoids, not the other way around.


Basically, my suggestion would be this: 200 billion Humans, and 30 trillion Orthonoids. This would support the "Endless Swarm" depicted in the story, and the threat level would be more believable with an overwhelming proportion of "Bugs" to Humans. It isn't believable the other way around.
Since when does Humans out-reproduce or out-populate insect species on Earth, such as locusts or ants?

Again, these are just feedback, not slamming you or anything. Keep up the originality!

you are not taking into account the fact that once their population reaches a certain limit the Queens stop producing. Also the Orthro's can replace their current 2,000,000 losses in less then a week and that includes the Sages that went down with the Command Ship. they can replace losses so fast that they mean nothing to them

BTW thank you for pointing out my order of magnitude error on the Humans. There are at least 40 colonies includinf at least 4 major ones that are considered seperate states.

[Eaglewood]

you are not taking into account the fact that once their population reaches a certain limit the Queens stop producing. Also the Orthro's can replace their current 2,000,000 losses in less then a week and that includes the Sages that went down with the Command Ship. they can replace losses so fast that they mean nothing to them

BTW thank you for pointing out my order of magnitude error on the Humans. There are at least 40 colonies includinf at least 4 major ones that are considered seperate states.

4.5 Trillion humans on just 40 planets / colonies? Unrealistic in 175 years. More than likely possible if it was in SW era, with Coruscant and all that tech.

Say, Earth has 30 billion on it, mega-crowded.

Then Mars has maybe 15 billion.

The 4 major colony states could have 10 billion each.

That brings the total up to 115 billion.

The other 35'ish colonies could have anywhere between 10 million (mining planets) to 5 billion (other Terra type worlds). The total for that could be anywhere from 20 billion to upwards of 80 billion. 200 billion sounds reasonable.



As for the "Bugs" are there a limited amount of Queens? or do they need to build more "Sages" to control more drones and workers? Even with 200 billion humans versus 30 billion "Bugs" it still sounds funny, ya know? I'm just being honest with my feedback.



Nitpicks aside, I can't wait for the rest of Chapter 2. Bring it on!

[Isolder74]

Goto my website and you will see that i have rechecked my calcuations and changed the population figure to what it should be.

[Isolder74]

done two more pages and have added major updates to my website. I Have several tests and essayes to do so it willl be some time B4 I will have a chance to post the rough draft of the docking bay scene.

[Isolder74]

Chapter Two
The Swarm Returns


“This emergency cabinet meeting of The Republic Of Planet Earth is called to order. Even though we have just helped the Vegans yesterday in a very decisive victory in orbit of their planet, there are matters that need to be discussed. This station is now armed with the best weapons available but, if the Orthropatarians attack us, at this time, we will still be faced with annihilation because the station is not strong enough to withstand their swarms. Marshal Rodin and Captain Zimmerman of the Vegan Defense Council are here to report their findings up to this point. Unfortunately Commander Abrams is recovering from wounds he received in the battle as he barely escaped from Alpha Base when it went down. Also the crew of the Spacewolf fighter is here to give the battle from their point of view. —Marshal Rodin—“

Marshal Rodin stood up with a look of fatigue. His deep brown eyes had bags under them. The silvery-white hair crowning his head made him look even more tired. Even so, he stilled looked dignified in his crisp-white unifom. His silvery-gray skin shined in the lights.

The Marshall placed a disk into the table and a holo-display of the Vegan Defense System appeared. Red areas flashed on and off indicating areas damaged in the attack including all three shuttle basses and showing a large hole in the outer satellite network near Gamma base.

”Gentlemen, I have headed the Vegan Defense Council for almost forty years. And in all that time I have never seen anything like these beings. I can see why you would name them after the Terran locust. They do have capabilities that make them deadly but their threat is their seemingly endless numbers. Though we can’t yet confirm the numbers, during the 5 min battle we destroyed over two million Orthropataran units. Unfortunately, we lost all of our orbital shuttle platforms in the engagement as well as 2800 assault shuttles, which was almost the entire legal treaty force. Also, our outer satellite net is now at under 50% Strength. Capt. Zim, please.”

Captain Zimmerman's blue eyes sparkled as he stood up. He had obviously faired the night better perhaps it was his youth. Wearing a bright navy blue uniform he looked smart and dignified though he was not wearing a tie like Marshal Rodin was, though his black crew cut hair still made him look very official. He too had silvey-grey skin that sparkeled in the lights. His pronounced nose stood out among his features and made his head look like a weathercock. Standing taller than the average human his stature of 2.06 meters made him a head taller then Marshal Rodin.
Zim stepped up to the table and inserted a disk into the reader slot and the holo-projector came to life. In the center of the room appeared a recreation of the Orthropataran’s main fighter unit sighted during the battle. It resembled a river-smoothed flat rock. It was tear-dropped shaped with a long conical nose mounted on the tip of the tear-drop shape. Just behind the nose cone a spherical window showed where the cockpit of the vehicle was located.

“I am the Vegan Head of Orbital Strategic Operations, and the Attack Shuttle Wing Commander. I have the good fortune of being one of the shuttle pilots to survive the attack. This is in no way connected to my own ability or prowess; hundreds of men died to save my life. As you can see from this image, the “Orthropatarians” as you call them have ships that are heavily armed for being just 25 meters long with an 18 meter wingspan. They have 27 laser cannons and four missile launchers. Their ships travel at speeds up to 40% of the speed of light which is just over 50% slower than our assault shuttles, and this may serve as a weakness. They also apparently have a type of hive mind as they perform better when attacking a single target as a group than they do engaging multiple targets. This is why that I feel that our defensive satellite network performed as well as it did. The lack of weapons on our orbital platforms cost us hundreds of valuable lives. --Stardust--”

“You know me as ‘Stardust’ but my name is registered as Simon Skyhawk, but you can call me Ace. I would like to say for the record that I think the Vegan satellite net is second to none. I was very impressed.”
He pressed a button on the table and the image changed to a image of the giant command ship. It looked like a large metal encased potato with a pair of sickles placed next to one another forming a crescent-like object extending from the front of the thing. Inside this crescent, what appeared to be a small three-nosed attack ship was attached to the center of the crescent-like protrusion on the front. The image rotated slowly making it seem even more menacing. “In the battle, it seems to me that the enemy’s entire command structure is based around a single ship. Nothing we did seemed to make much of a difference until we attacked this large ‘command’ ship. When that ship was destroyed the attack stopped completely. We are still unsure what the objects on the front are or what their purpose is. Any Questions.”

“Mr James Woodbury, Republic Secretary-of-War.”

“Marshal, are you sure that they have really retreated? It seems hard to believe that they would just run away after just one heavy unit was destroyed.” Woodbury queried.

“Mr George Sagan, Republic Secretary-of-Education.”

“Well sir, if they truly have some kind of a hive mind based on technology or even biology the destruction of the control unit could result in the breakup of the entire chain.” Sagan Injected.

“As far I am aware they have not returned. If you value my opinion I don’t think that they will for a while. I am sure that it will take some time for them to regroup after the loss of such an important a vessel and so many fighter craft.” Responded Marshal Rodin.

“And all of our long range scans have failed to detect any more of them in the staging area we detected on the outer edge of our system.” Added Zim.

President McCleary rose, and faced his cabinet and queried. “Are there any other questions gentlemen?”

“Yes, Ace, if my analysis of the flight recorders is correct then isn’t it true that the destroyed ‘command ship’ used a self-destruct mechanism after taking crippling damage and most of said ship’s crew escaped unharmed?” Inquired James Woodbury.

“As far as I could tell from the cockpit that was true. I am afraid that I was not able to review the tapes I just know what my sensor panels were reading and that definitely wasn’t enough damage to destroy the gigantic starship. It’s lucky they did self-destruct as we had used our last MOWL unit on board leaving us without missile defense. As for the crew, I did see several small craft escaping the ship as it exploded.” Responded Ace.

“I think that I should begin negotiating with the Taurusan Ambassador to allow both the Vegans and the Taurusans to have a larger force of attack shuttles and to build armed orbital installations. Obviously, one of the things that saved the planet was the Vegan’s secret force of attack shuttles. Now if we can just get past the treaty violation part and get them to see the desperation of the Vegan’s position we might get some results. We may even be able to convince them to build fighter-class ships like the Spacewolf.” Opined the Secretary-Of-State, Daniel Sutton.

“That can be discussed later, the point I was trying to make was that it is highly likely that most if not all of the crew of the ‘command ship’ was able to escape. This means that the leaders, hive mind or not, survived the battle. And we are not sure how many of these ships they have. This means that they could attack again in weeks and I doubt that the Vegans could survive another attack like the last one.” Responded Jim Woodbury.

“Even though I think it is a waste of energy, I have ordered our entire defense system to be on full alert until further notice. And all of our remaining assault shuttles are running on six hour shifts so that we have a full force on patrol at all times.” Responded Rodin, “I think we will be able to hold our own now that we know what to expect. After all this is the first time we have fought beings with starjump technology. All of our defense plans prior to this attack were for an possible attack from Taurus, I think it is about time that we finally put aside our petty personal squabbles”
“And we are at this time studying the hulks of the Orthropataran ships in our labs on Vega.” Added Zim.
<Buzzing on the President’s panel>

“Yes, this had better be important”

“Uh, I have a priority call for Marshal Rodin from Vega. They said its extremely urgent.”

“May I take it in the your office, Mr. President?”

“Go ahead, we’ll hold the meeting until your done.”

“What do you think the call is about, Mr. President?” Asked Ace.

“That is a good question. I think it might be a good idea to have the deck crews warm up the Spacewolf.” Responded the President, “Docking bay 321, have the deck crews prep the Spacewolf immediately!” He said pressing a button on the desk in front of him.
The marshal enters the room with a worried look on his face. “We’ve got a problem, President McCleary, the Vegan Defense Ministry just called. They have detected small rocky satellites in orbit of the Vegan system. Zim, should we despatch some of our fighters to investigate?”

“That would be prudent. But they need to be cautious, we don’t know if these objects are armed. Ace, do you think the Spacewolf would be useful in this situation. If these aliens think that Vega is Earth, it might be useful to keep up the deception. They may be expecting the ship to show up.” asked Zim.

“Sounds like a good idea to me.” Ace responded, than turning to Nova and Supernova he said. “Alright guys, lets get out of these monkey suits and into our flight gear. Mr President could we be excused, I’d like to check into those satellites.” Responded Ace.

“Permission granted, Ace, give us a full report when you get back.” The President responded.

“So they now have spy satellites. Now do you see my point, Gentlemen. These aliens seem to be full of surprises.”Jim Woodbury interjected hotly, “I think we need to accelerate our ship building programs; I don’t feel that fighters and shuttles will be enough for our defense.”

“In light of these new developments I move that we suspend the meeting until Ace gets back and can give us his report.”

“I second the motion”

“Done, this meeting is adjourned until 15:00.”


_

The Planet Vega gleamed in the sunlight as did the mountains of debris surrounding it. In the midst of the debris hordes of freighters and construction craft weaved in and out of the rubble frantically trying to repair the damage caused by the battle. Moving through the debris hundreds of attack shuttles flew in four ship formations. As if they had been stung by a bee they all turned toward the outer orbits of the system. As they activated their landing lights a myriad of small balls of rock seemed to appear out of nowhere. To the sides of these extended delicate solar panels that looked like dragonfly wings. They drifted through space in a random spacing.

“Flight Leader to command center.”

“This is the command center, proceed.”

“I’m surprised the sensors even picked these things up. They barely even show up on my scanners and I’m almost on top of ‘em. How did you detect ‘em?”

‘We didn’t, Corpsman Thompson crashed into one of them. Pull in closer and see if you can get some good pictures of one of them. Don’t get too close though, they might be armed.”

“Roger, moving in now, data feed activated. Are you getting this?”

“We’re getting the feed, recording now.”

“They seem to be made of material similar to stony meteorites or asteroids. If not for the solar panels they would be indistinguishable from space debris. How did they get here?”

“They must have been dropped during the battle. We have detected none of the energy signatures from their Starjump devises. And no Hyperrifts except Earth Stargate Traffic, either. Move in closer, the readings aren’t detailed enough.”

“Copy that control, any word from the Marshall?”

“He says sit tight, and be cautious Earth is sending a scouting party also.”

“Do you want these things eliminated?”

“Not at this time, just keep a eye --”

“Wait, something is happening! The center of the closest object is opening!”

“Pull out now, Lieutenant!”

_


In orbit of the greenish-brown planet of Orthropataria several dozen massive asteroid ships hovered menacingly. . The Battle Moon that they used to fit out the massive ships could be seen off in the distance. The Battle Moon, similer to all of their spacecraft, was carved out of the planet’s second moon. It had a gigantic iris-like door on one side near the center. The moon bristled with gun emplacements and large turrets could be seen all over the moon. Behind it millions of fightercraft of various sizes drifted in an artificial ring surrounding the planet.

One of the many command ship’s lights suddenly came to life. Many small craft appeared right next to the ship and docked with it. Followed shortly by thousands of small fighter craft. The fighters descended towards the planet while the command ship continued to hang in orbit. On the inside, a buzz of activity begin as the ship activated. Near the aft of the ship a large domed window lite up as the main command center came online. Inside the giant room the Emperor Sage and his attendants discussed the recent engagement. As they talked dozens of screens flashed on all around them showing both the Vegan Attack shuttles and the Spacewolf fightercraft.

“We have never been defeated! This is inexcusable! I want the head of the creature who dared attack my Hive Ship!” The Emperor Sage Fumed, his large compound eyes glistening with rage.

“My Lord, they damaged the repeater, our fighter’s built in safeties sent them home before their connection to the hive could collapse. The lesser Sages lost with the hive ship will be replaced. We will strike back, we just need a good plan. I have already sent observation satellites to the system. In the chaos of the retreat they shouldn’t be detected. They should give us the information we need to destroy these creatures”
The Emperor Sage’s Chief Underling responded, bowing with all four of his hands pressed together in front of his chest. His multi-colored wings glistened as he did so, but they paled in comparison to the opulent wings of the Emperor Sage. The rainbow-colored wings seamed to overshadow all others as they sparkled brilliantly. The wings of the Emperor Sage, as with all his other attendants, crowned his back like a proud display of Peacock feathers. As he moved on his throne the sections of the wings changed color from brilliant reds to glistening greens then shifting to fiery yellows. As with all Orthropatarians the Emperor Sages’s face resemble that of a giant blowfly but his carapace glistened emerald green and sparkled like it was imbedded with jewels while all of the others had a drab brownish color. His compound eyes had a fiery reddish color and looked like a large group of rubies. In the center of the large hexagonal room his throne stood on a large elevated platform from which he could see everything that transpired in the room as well as see out of the gigantic dome that covered the room. Below thousands of lesser sages were running from consol to consol jumping into chairs and small pits next to them. There was no apparent sense of order in their movements as they scurried about.

“Activate the satellites,” ordered the Emperor Sage, “we must know what those abominations are up to.”

All around him thousands of consoles came to life as one by one each data feed started to come in immediately showing in almost every one the buzz of activity on Vega. In about half of the screens the bright landing lights of Vegan Attack Shuttlecraft panned back and forth across the screen obscuring the visuals. On one screen the satellite was obviously spinning erratically as if it had been hit by something. The Vegan ship’s delta wings glimmered as did the missiles on the wings and wingtips. They had dropped their landing gear in order to use their landing lights. The Emperor Sage studied the screens carefully with a look of shock as he realized that the satellites had already been detected.

“You indicated that they should not be able to be detected!” He fumed, “We must exterminate these creatures before they further sully the galaxy with their presence. Do not act until you find that thing that attacked my hive ship. I want it’s pilot’s head on a spike! Is that understood?”

“Yes, M’Lord, we are searching for it now. It is suspicious that we have not seen it yet. This planet may not be their true homeworld. I will endeavor to begin further analysis of their starjump signatures. Even though all ships that entered our system came from here, that does not mean this is their homeworld. Their defenses are strong M’Lord which lends credence to this being a species homeworld. There is also heavy traffic to a planetary system only a few light-years away from this world.” The Advisor Sage responded, bowing.

“Really, Send a scouting party to determine if it is a viable candidate for these Human’s homeworld. From the looks of the images from the satellites this other world will have repaired the damage we inflicted in six hours. There must be someplace we can more easily exterminate first. The planet is much too fortified! It doesn’t make sense, there must be someone else nearby that they are at some type of war with. This could be to our advantage. If there is any place with similar defenses nearby then it would safe to assume they would not help one another.” The Emperor Sage mused. “Find them and perhaps we can incite their war to a new fury.”


_


In the John Marshall Docking bay section #3-21 deck crews were swarming over the prototype Spacewolf fightercraft. The ship was sitting on the deck near the back of the cavernous hanger. To the side of the deck one could see up and down into the multiple levels of the large docking center. Off in the distance the main doors of the massive docking center were open to space. These armored doors had just recently been added to the bay. A force field shimmered in the opening as dozens of light to heavy shuttlecraft to large freighters and passenger liners were constantly moving in and out. On the wall behind the Spacewolf fighter a large elevator opened. Three men wearing flight suits and carrying helmets under their arms, stepped off the elevator and walked toward’s the fighter.

“You think they could’ve put the thing in a less busy docking bay, Ace” Grumbled Jonathan. As they pushed their way through the large crowd waiting to board the elevators.

“There is a business convention here this week you know. Not only that all of the major planetary powers are sending delegates to discuss the recent turn of events.” Ace reminded, “You really can’t expect them to not use an entire deck of this hanger just for us? Even if it wasn’t a busy weekend we wouldn’t have this deck all to ourselves. I runs over a Kilometer long.”

“You know, Johnboy, these people are probably thinking that having to wait for a elevator that was reserved for only three people is getting in their way.”

“I don’t know about that, I enjoyed the opportunity to bump into three old college chums who happen to be big heros now.” A strangely familiar voice piped up behind them.

They turn around to see a richly dressed man in an opulent double-breasted Sharkskin suit. The man was wearing a pin on his lapel that had a shield with a sword behind it. It had a diamond studded Greek Sigma on the front of the shield and the gold of the pin sparkled. It had in small letters inscribed on the bottom of the shield ‘Centaurus Forever.’

“You three were voted most likely to succeed at our Graduation party. And here you are the last bastion of Earth’s safety.” He said winking.

“James Boudoir, is that really you?” Ace spurted out spinning around dropping his helmet, his brownish-blond hair swirling as he did so. “So have you finally clawed you way to the top of your dad’s shipping company?” He added chuckling.

“Well, I’d hope you’d remember an old Frat buddy from your college days at Centaurus Institute of Technology.” James said chuckling. “But I’m here as one of the delegates for The Bernard’s Star Co-op. I think this was ‘cause they knew that I was coming here anyway for the business convention. The funny thing is it seems most of the others had the same idea and sent people to the summit who had already secured flights to Earth. Then they convinced other people to go to the business convention. It seems every house and guild has sent at least one delegate. Needless to say my city's starport was insane today.”

"How many delegates did they think they'd need? Vega only sent three. The Krajick's may not even 'lower' themselves to send anyone at all. And the Taurusans might be mad enough not to send anyone either. Me, I've been trying all day to think of a way to weasel out of going to the meeting. Nothing I hate more than sit in a stuffy meeting listening to a bunch of politicians argue." Ace grumbled.

"You know, Ace, you don't have to go to the conference its just for stuffy dignitaries like me. But I do see your point if the Taurusans do send a representative most of the first half hour will be them raising Cain over the Vegan's secret arsenal. The irony is according to my sources, the Taurusans have more skeletons in their closet then the Vegans ever did." James said sighing. "My company has been looking into the Taurusan Royal Freighter Industry and we don't like what we see. Some of the things they are pulling if they ever
came out would be sure to start a war. Then again the Vegans seem to be the ones who would not rekindle their blood feud."

"How would you know stuff that the weapons inspectors don't know about?"
George queried.

"Hiding things from inspectors isn't all that hard, ask Saddam Hussein about that." Jonathan added chuckling.

"Frankly, I would like to know where you got your information. We Vegans could use some dirt on the Taurusans right about now." Injected a voice behind them. They look around to see Captain Zimmerman standing nearby. "I thought you were anxious to get out of the meeting? If you keep talking like you are you will still be here when it starts." Zim added laughing.

"What are you doing down here, Zim?" Ace queried. "You can't leave 'cause your one of the Vegan delegates."

"I was told to be down here to meet the Taurusan Delegation. We just received word that their transport has just left the stargate. They should be landing any minute. "

As Zim was speaking, a section of the docking bay 20 meters down the deck from where the Spacewolf was sitting the floor lite up with bright yellow lights. The lights covered a large section of the floor and the rectangular lights pulsated towards center of the area. On the far end of the docking center a medium sized transport ship entered the open doors but it was obviously flying erratically.

"That is definitely not normal"

"I'd better take off or they will give away my hotel room, I'll see you at the meeting, Ace." James said rushing off.
All of the sudden yellow lights begin to flash all over the docking center. Alert sirens suddenly blared, as the ship in the distance was obviously not slaved to the traffic control center.

"Is that ship trying to land on manual?" Ace exclaimed in dismay. He rushed over to the wall next to the elevator. Pressing a spot on the wall, a panel lite up showing a keypad into which he typed a five digit code. From the panel came the sounds of frenzied traffic control operators.

"Transport #470 arriving, you are ordered to turn your flight control systems over to station guidance."

"Emergency docking tractors, begin activation. Transport, you are ordered to shut down your engines immediately!"

"'hic' I can land thing in my shleep, I don't need no stinking tractors. 'hic' You hace no right to take my ship away from me. 'hic' I hace been flying spaceshlips since before you were a twinkle in your mother's ey--" The transmission is cut off.

"Thank you he was getting on my nerves. Notify the deck crews, that a drunken fool is landing on manual. Activate safety forcefields! There is no time to the drop the blast doors, that joker is going way to fast!"

"Whistle up the dock chief. Inform him that we have someone for his brig. All ships, clear the central breezeway. Notify the tug captains to stop that ship!"

"Can not lock on tractors, ship is using heavy combat jamming! Scanning ship for contraband."

"Zim, can you identify that ship." Ace said, turning to look at the transport with his hands over his eyes squinting.

"Zim, reaches to his belt and takes his holo-binoculars from off his belt. Looking threw them he exclaimed "Looks like a Taurusan transport. It appears to be silver plated, it must be the Taurusan Royal Delegation. Figures, wait something looks funny. I can't quite make it out but it looks like it has doors of some kind all over it."

From the wall panel, the voice of the pilot of the ship said lisping badly. "Dropping landing gear, 'hic' now which one is the right switch. Oh, here it ish...."

"What the hell, those doors are opening. It looks like the ship is armed! I just hope that the drunken fool doesn't fire the things by mistake!" Zim exclaimed.

"The fact that he is drunk makes that a distint possibility." Ace said, grimly.

The warning lights in the docking center changed from yellow to red as the transport carense through the central breezeway. It smashes into several other ships as it does so. All over the bay ships are clearing the lane to try and avoid it crashing into them as well. Several dozen spotlights shown on the ship from the tugs trying to stop it. For past minute they have been trying to lock on their tractors but have failed to do so. The blue-white beams lanced past as the ship speed by. Suddenly, the silver ship learched forward. As it did so two of the smaller tugs locked their tractors on to the ship. They looked like toys compared to the massive medium transport. The small shuttle-sized tugs tried valiently to slow the ship down but were no match for the larger ship's engines. It dragged them behind it, trailing the small rectangular tugs like a fishing trawler would nets. The blue-white beams shimmered off of the polished-silver hull of the Taurusan ship. Other tugs moved in to help their beleigered brothers. It was easier for them gain lock ons now that they could draw on these brave tug captain's data. So now several dozen of the tug's tractor beams lance out stopping the ship with a learch. It shows no sign of slowing its engines as the tugs strain to get it under control. From the top, bottom, and both sides of the docking bay near the ship large tractor beams attach to the ship.

"It's lucky for those tugs he is only going half trottle." Zim commented smuggly.

Just at that moment, a blue-white energy field enveloped the ship. A look of shock and dismay filled the faces of Ace and Zim as they looked each other with dismay.

"Zim, am I seeing things or did he just activate his lightspeed engines."

"No, unfortunately, you didn't. That is definently a Anti-Inertial Field. Could this get any worse! To top it off it looks like it is heading right for MY ship! He'd better not scratch the paint, that Vegan Joyrider is brand new."

Everyone's eyes in the group suddenly shifted to Zim's cherry-red luxury transport. It had elegant shooth lines and white racing stripes down its sides. The cockpit dome rose from the center of the front half of the ship. It was parked only a few meters down the deck from the Spacewolf. A small loading ramp and hatch extended from the port side of the ship. This side of the ship was facing towards the Spacewolf fighter.

"Well if he hits your ship you can buy another one. If he hits my ship, we all will be in trouble 'cause its the only operational starfighter we have. Come on you two," Waving his hand towards his two companions. "We had better move our ship." he said rushing towards the Spacewolf's loading ramp.

The transport then accellerates suddenly slamming into Zim's ship crushing it against the wall destroying the ship completely. Its engines finally powered down. Dock Fire Engines now swarmed the deck as they sprayed fire retardent onto both ships. The tugs joined the effort with their own fire suppression systems. Zim looked on with a distraught look as his ship disappeared in the white froth.

"They had better have good insurance!" He fummed. "Someone is buying me a new ship. If not, they will be hearing from my attourny! This isn't going to set well with my insurance. I have already lost one ship yesterday when Alpha Base went down. Now this one, well at least my starship dealer will be happy."

[Isolder74]

of course the docking bay scene is not quite finished yet